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The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of leader humility on team reflexivity. This study also investigates the mediating role of relation-oriented shared leadership and the moderating role of leader trust.

This study collected data from the information technology (IT) service provider of a large telecommunications company in South Korea. A total of 311 employees (individual response rate of 31.2%) in 59 teams (team response rate of 83.01%) were included in the final analysis. Several hierarchical regression analyses and PROCESS macro were used.

The results indicate that leaders’ humble behaviour is positively associated with team reflexivity and facilitates relation-oriented shared leadership among team members, particularly when they have a higher level of affect-based trust in leaders.

This study may help researchers and practitioners better understand the conditions influencing the impact of leader humility on team members’ behaviour.

The main value of this study is to add to the knowledge on team reflexivity by identifying leader humility as a critical factor affecting team reflexivity. Furthermore, this study provides a deeper understanding of why leader humility influences team reflexivity.

This study aims to empirically examine the relationship between the leader characteristic of humility and the informal learning of team members. It also evaluates the role of leader authenticity in mediating that relationship.

Data were collected on 518 salespeople reporting to 66 managers in a time-lagged study of a financial services firm. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test a multi-hierarchical mediation model.

Leader humility has a significant positive direct and indirect effect on individual informal learning in team contexts, and leader authenticity partially mediates this relationship.

This study advances research on how leaders can help transform learning from a risky endeavor to a daily practice. It shows the impact of the leadership characteristic of humility and explains how humble behaviors provide a model for individual learning in team contexts. It also reveals that leader authenticity is a key mechanism through which leader humility comes to influence employees’ informal learning within work teams.

This study provides empirical support for the importance of leader humility in engendering the trust required for employees to engage in everyday workplace learning. It integrates social information processing theory with social learning theory to show that humble leaders provide critical information about the value, cost and methods of individual informal learning in team contexts. Leader humility increases employees’ beliefs that they can and do learn from working in teams because employees perceive the humble leader’s behaviors as representing the leader’s true intentions.

Empirical studies on humility in the area of organizational studies are still scarce, as are studies of humility in leadership. This research aims to contribute to the literature by studying how the humility of leaders predicts the team's creativity through the mediating effect of psychological security and psychological capital.

The sample includes 73 teams and their leaders, from 40 firms operating in different industries. Leaders (n = 73) described their own humility and team creativity. Team members (n = 341) described the leader’s humility, and the team’s psychological safety and psychological capital.

Structural equation modelling (LISREL; maximum likelihood estimation) was used to test the hypothesized model. The findings are represented in Figure 1 (control variables not shown), and the results suggest that the leader’s humility predicts team creativity through team’s psychological safety (PsySafe) and psychological capital (PsyCap).

Main limitations are the small sample size, and the fact that it is a convenience sample, which may limit the generalization of results. One may add the need to conduct longitudinal studies, as well as have a comparison among different regions or countries. These issues are addressed in the study.

This paper contributes to the still limited literature relating humility and leadership. For organizations, if they want to be effective in innovating, they need to understand the influence of the mechanisms that the employees are exposed to and how they influence their creativity. Knowing the positive role of humble leadership in creativity development and employee motivation is particularly interesting for leaders working in the context of creativity, as it is a way of facilitating creativity of employees.

The presence and practice of individual and organizational humility has the power to enable organizational growth and change. Humility drives behaviors associated with learning and the ability to embrace the value of existing mental models while valuing the insights offered by new perspectives and approaches. This paradox-savvy practice, observed in humble individuals and organizations, allows them to appropriately value what is working about the existing system while simultaneously embracing the need for change. Our research finds humble behaviors emerging within psychologically safe environments that foster an attitude of inquiry, kinship, extraordinary collaboration, and professional excellence. Humble behaviors, at every organizational level, appear to enhance both individual and group capabilities that drive long term strategic advantage. Five capabilities were identified in our research: diverse networks, shared values, flexibility and adaptability, judgment and decision-making, and organizational learning. We bring these concepts to life by synthesizing established and emerging research, as well as diving deeply into an empirical case study that leverages humble practices in order to effectively drive organizational change. We argue that humility can impact organizing at all levels (individuals, leaders, followers, teams, executives, and organizations) and in so doing create the conditions in which sustainable organizational change can flourish.

An exploratory instrumental case study design was used to study interactions between leaders and employees at a large faith-based nonprofit healthcare organization. The study used a four-part intervention to infuse humility into leaders’ language, verbal expressions, and non-verbal behaviors, as well as the physical settings in which the interactions occurred. The study made a unique contribution to the field of leadership education in several ways. The researcher worked closely with two leader-practitioners to develop customized leader humility programs using the intervention tool. Following each leader-employee interaction, leaders had a chance initially to reflect on the experience through a journaling exercise and subsequently to discuss the experience in a one-on-one interview with the researcher. This article shares the key findings from the study along with each leader’s unique development experience, as well as a recommendation for people who are charged with developing leaders in academic or organizational settings.

The study aims to define the term “generation” by proposing an integrated design based on age-period-cohort effects and by proposing an Indian generational cohort framework categorizing Indian generational cohorts into four categories, namely, Baby Boomers, GenX, GenY, and GenZ. The study further aimed to capture the existing generational differences between GenY and GenZ cohorts in the Indian teams on team climate, transactive memory system, and team leader humility.

For the first two objectives a literature review methodology along with the author's proposition was adopted. An integrated design was proposed by reviewing the relevant sociological literature to define generations. Thereafter, an Indian cohort framework was proposed categorizing them into four groups Baby Boomers, GenX, GenY, and GenZ. Following that, for the last objective, i.e. to identify the differences between cohorts, empirical data were collected by a structured questionnaire that was disseminated to GenY and GenZ Indian working professionals. A total of 229 responses were used for observing the differences or similarities between GenY and GenZ cohorts on the study variables by employing an independent samples t-test.

The study proposed an integrated design (age, period, and cohort effect). Following that, an Indian generational cohort's framework has been outlined categorizing Indian cohorts based on their birth years, age groups, developmental stages, formative years, major Indian historical events, and various characteristics possessed by them. Moreover, the empirical findings support the existing generational disparities and depict that GenZ holds a higher inclination towards transactive memory systems and team climate whereas GenY holds more inclination toward leader humility.

The study put forth its contribution to research scholars by categorizing Indian generational cohorts in a rationalized manner based on an integrated design (age-period-cohort) effect. The study would further assist concerned authorities and managers in formulating HR policies to deal with the underlying generational differences highlighted by the study.

As there lies a paucity of generational frameworks in the Indian context, this study is the first attempt in this direction which categorizes Indian generational cohorts based on a unique integrated design including age-period-cohort effects. In addition, the study also investigated these cohorts in Indian organizations to observe the existing variations.

Prior studies have mainly advanced the understanding of a linear relationship between leadership humility and employee work outcomes, mediated and/or moderated by various individual, team and organizational variables. This study attempts to advance prior knowledge by investigating a potential curvilinear relationship between leadership humility and frontline service employee (FSE) performance and the role of FSE's psychological capital (PsyCap) in attenuating this curvilinear relationship.

Survey data were drawn from a survey sample of 273 FSEs working in the hospitality industry of the United States of America. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results uncover the existence of a tipping point in the relationship between leader humility and FSE performance; that is, humble behaviors expressed by leaders positively influence FSE performance up to the tipping point beyond which FSE performance starts to diminish. However, this curvilinear effect is attenuated when FSE's PsyCap is high but not when it is low.

The findings provide service managers with insights into the importance of balancing their humble behaviors to yield optimal FSE performance. Furthermore, the paper points to the need for FSE's PsyCap cultivation within service firms so that FSEs are less dependent on their supervisors and can deliver highly satisfactory results.

This research is one of the very first to investigate the curvilinear relationship between leader humility and FSE performance and the moderating role of PsyCap in attenuating the curvilinear effect.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of leader humility in firm innovativeness. The study highlights the importance of promoting altruism within organizations as a mechanism that may explain why leader humility fosters innovation.

The study was conducted in a sample frame of 11,594 Spanish companies. In total, 568 valid questionnaires were obtained and 284 different companies participated in the study. Structural equations were used to validate the proposed hypotheses.

All the hypotheses proposed in the conceptual model were confirmed. Results provide empirical evidence of the positive relationship between leader humility and firm innovativeness, as well as the mediating role played by altruism. In other words, leader humility promotes altruism and, in turn, firm innovativeness.

The sample of companies is heterogeneous in terms of firm turnover, size, export ratio and age. The study is focused on firm innovativeness and only studies altruism as a mediating variable in the relationship between leader humility and firm innovativeness.

The present study provides some guidelines which may help companies to improve their competitiveness, enhancing workplace conditions.

There are few empirical studies that analyze the effect of humble leaders or leader humility on innovation. The main value of the present research is to further the current knowledge of this relationship by disentangling the mediating effect of altruism within organizations.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between leader humility, civility climate and employee voice and uncover the moderating effect of competitive climate on the relationship between leader humility, civility climate and employee voice.

Three hundred seventy-nine respondents from various sectors in Indonesia participated in this study. All hypotheses were examined using hierarchical multiple regression analysis using the Hayes' macro PROCESS.

Leader humility positively and significantly impacts civility climate and employee voice. Competitive climate was confirmed as a moderator in the relationship between leader humility and civility climate and employee voice. The effect of team humility and civility climate on employee voice was strongest in a highly competitive climate.

By encouraging the adoption of leader humility, organizations can develop a civility climate and promote employee voice in the workplace. Leader humility is congruent with leadership practices in Asian countries, which are more strongly influenced by the virtues of certain religions. Leaders should demonstrate humble behaviors to generate a civility climate and employee voice. Authoritarian leadership and the high power distance inherent in Asian countries pose a challenge to the prioritization of humble behavior.

This study adds to the extant literature by revealing that leader humility fosters a civility climate and civility climate has positive consequences on employee voice; it is the first study to examine these relationships. Drawing on the social exchange theory, new insights explain the psychological mechanism underlying the relationship between leader humility, civility climate and employee voice while proposing a competitive climate as the boundary condition.

First, this paper aims to explore how CEO humility and relationship conflict in entrepreneurial teams affect the firm-level performance of new ventures. Second, it investigates the moderating effect of CEO political skills on the indirect association between CEO humility and entrepreneurial performance through relationship conflict in entrepreneurial teams.

A questionnaire survey was administered to CEOs and their entrepreneurial team members in 171 start-ups in Shanghai, China. The data obtained from the survey were subjected to multiple regression analysis using the SPSS PROCESS macro and confirmatory factor analysis using Mplus.

The findings are as follows. First, CEO humility can reduce relationship conflict in entrepreneurial teams. Second, CEO political skills moderate the link between CEO humility and relationship conflict in entrepreneurial teams. The weaker the CEO political skills, the stronger the effect of CEO humility on relationship conflict, and the stronger the CEO political skills, the weaker the effect of CEO humility on relationship conflict. Third, relationship conflict in entrepreneurial teams is negatively related to entrepreneurial performance. Finally, CEO political skills moderate the mediating effect of entrepreneurial team relationship conflict on the CEO humility – entrepreneurial performance link.

The findings of this study offer guidance for entrepreneurs seeking to improve firm performance. The findings suggest that entrepreneurs should adopt a humble leadership style that cultivates their strengths and minimizes their weaknesses. To improve the centripetal force and cohesion of the entrepreneurial team, they should focus on the team, affirm the contribution of subordinates and accept subordinates’ advice.

The study reveals that CEO humility has a positive effect on entrepreneurial performance, which enriches research on the effectiveness of humble leadership at the firm level. From the perspective of team relationship conflict, the study also explores the mechanism underlying the effect of CEO humility on entrepreneurial performance, opening the “black box” of CEO humility and entrepreneurial effectiveness. In addition, the study reveals the boundary conditions of the influence of CEO humility, enriching the theoretical literature on humble leadership, political skills and resource conservation.