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The purpose of this study was to investigate how and when exploitative leadership hinders hospitality employees’ service innovative behavior. Based on the conservation of resource theory, the authors examined the mediating role of relational energy and the moderating impact of sensitivity to interpersonal mistreatment on this relationship.

Two-wave data collection from 54 hotel leaders and 266 subordinates in China resulted in 266 supervisor–subordinate matched data sets. Structural equation modeling analyses were used for data analysis.

Exploitative leadership is negatively related to hospitality employees’ service innovative behavior via diminished employee relational energy. Furthermore, employees with high sensitivity to interpersonal mistreatment experience intensified negative impact of exploitative leadership on relational energy and subsequent service innovation behavior.

Hotel management must recognize and mitigate the effects of exploitative leadership to foster an environment conducive to service innovation. In addition, hotel managers should be attuned to the employees’ relational energy, recognizing its essential role in driving innovative behavior.

This research contributes insights into how exploitative leadership style impedes employee service innovation behavior. It further illuminates the role of relational energy as a critical mediator in this relationship.

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the effect of developmental human resource (HR) practices on employee workplace procrastination and investigated the mediation effect of boredom at work and the moderation effects of exploitative leadership and self-leadership.

Data were collected from 443 employees across companies in China. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis and indirect effect testing via bootstrapping in SPSS and Mplus.

This study found that developmental HR practices were negatively related to employee workplace procrastination and that boredom at work mediated the relationship between developmental HR practices and employee workplace procrastination. Moreover, exploitative leadership strengthened the negative relationship between developmental HR practices and boredom at work, whereas self-leadership weakened the positive relationship between boredom at work and employee workplace procrastination. The indirect relationship between developmental HR practices and employee workplace procrastination through boredom at work was moderated by exploitative leadership and self-leadership.

This study extended the literature on the antecedents of employee workplace procrastination. Moreover, by investigating the mediation effect of boredom at work, this study extended the underlying mechanism by which developmental HR practices affect subsequent employee outcomes. Finally, by testing the moderation effect of exploitative leadership and self-leadership, respectively, this study offered insights into the boundary conditions resultant from developmental HR practices.

Based on the approach/inhibition theory of power, this study explores the relationship between sense of power and exploitative leadership. We particularly examine the role of self-interest as a mediator and the role of ambition at work as a moderator.

The data were collected from 189 supervisors and 702 employees. We analyzed the data using path analysis to test the research model.

The results show the following: (1) sense of power positively affects exploitative leadership; (2) the effects of sense of power on exploitative leadership are mediated by self-interest; (3) the effects of self-interest on exploitative leadership are moderated by ambition at work.

The current study identifies self-interest as a key mediator that links sense of power to exploitative leadership and demonstrates that ambition at work moderates the process of self-interest to exploitative leadership.

Drawing on appraisal theory of emotion, this study aims to establish and test a moderated mediation model underlying the process of exploitative leadership by investigating the mediating role of job anxiety and the moderating role of psychological entitlement.

We collected two-wave questionnaire data from 355 supervisors with matched responses from 1,065 subordinates in Hubei province of China. Hierarchical multiple regression and PROCESS macro were applied to test our hypotheses.

The results indicated that supervisor perceived overqualification prompted supervisor job anxiety, which then led to raised exploitative leadership. Additionally, we found that supervisor psychological entitlement intensified the direct effect of supervisor perceived overqualification on supervisor job anxiety as well as the indirect effect of supervisor perceived overqualification on exploitative leadership through supervisor job anxiety.

Although researchers have documented a growing number of consequences of exploitative leadership, less focus has been placed on its antecedents. The study extends our understanding of why, how and when supervisors engage in exploitative behaviors.

Exploitative leadership as a form of destructive leadership may hinder employees' knowledge sharing. However, how and when exploitative leadership impacts employees' knowledge sharing is under explored. Drawing on fairness heuristic theory, this study aims to construct a moderated mediation model to investigate the impacting mechanisms of exploitative leadership on employees' knowledge sharing by introducing organization-based self-esteem as a mediator and perceived organizational procedural justice as a moderator.

To test the research model, data were collected from 148 full-time employees at two-time points and analyzed using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Exploitative leadership has a direct negative impact on knowledge sharing. Through the mediation of organization-based self-esteem, exploitative leadership has an indirect impact on knowledge sharing. Organizational procedural justice can weaken the indirect negative relationship between exploitative leadership and knowledge sharing via organization-based self-esteem.

This study is the first to introduce fairness heuristic theory to explain the relationship between exploitative leadership and knowledge sharing. Findings about the mediating role of organizational self-esteem and the moderating role of organizational procedural justice in the relationship between exploitative leadership and knowledge sharing can uncover the black box of how exploitative leadership affects knowledge sharing.

Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to explore the influencing mechanism of exploitative leadership on knowledge hiding. Specifically, this study focuses on the mediating role of psychological distress and the moderating role of hostile attribution bias in affecting the mediation.

Data were collected from 324 employees of a high-technology company in China by a three-wave questionnaire survey. Hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping approach were employed to test hypotheses.

This study found that exploitative leadership was positively related to knowledge hiding and that psychological distress mediated this relationship. Moreover, the results revealed that the positive relationship between exploitative leadership and psychological distress and the indirect effect of exploitative leadership on knowledge hiding via psychological distress were stronger when hostile attribution was high rather than low.

The findings of this study offer guidance for managers to better undermine the negative effects of exploitative leadership.

First, this study extends the literature on exploitative leadership by verifying the positive effect of exploitative leadership on knowledge hiding. Second, this study enriches one’s understanding of the “black box” underlying the link between exploitative leadership and its consequences by demonstrating the mediating role of psychological distress. Third, by verifying the moderating role of hostile attribution bias, this study provides insights into the boundary conditions of the impact of exploitative leadership.

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between exploitative leadership and employee innovative behavior and explore the mediating role of relational attachment and the moderating role of high-performance work systems (HPWSs).

This research collected data from 374 employees and their direct supervisors in 75 teams and tested a cross-level moderated mediation model using multilevel path analysis.

The results suggest that (1) exploitative leadership has a negative impact on employee innovative behavior; (2) relational attachment mediates the relationship between exploitative leadership and employee innovative behavior; (3) HPWS positively moderates the relationship between exploitative leadership and relational attachment and (4) HPWS moderates the mediating mechanism from exploitative leadership to employee innovative behavior.

The empirical findings suggest that organizations should make efforts to prevent exploitative leadership. Moreover, managers should pay attention to the important role of relational attachment in promoting employee innovative behavior and realize the role of HPWSs in facilitating the negative effects of exploitative leadership.

This research identifies relational attachment as a key mediator that links exploitative leadership to innovative behavior and reveals the role of HPWSs in strengthening the negative effects of exploitative leadership on employee innovative behavior.

Project managers are under a never-ending pressure to demonstrate the expected value of projects to the project sponsors; however, in most cases, project managers fail to realize this strategic value due to the loopholes left in project governance throughout various stages of the project life cycle. Furthermore, another root cause of project failure might be linked to an exceedingly self-interested project leader who is exploitative of his/her team. This is a recurring yet still unexplored aspect of destructive leadership that requires attention from the scientific community as well as practitioners. Hence, the present study explored the relationship between project governance and information and communication technology (ICT) project success, as well as the moderating effects of exploitative leadership on this relationship.

With this aim, 357 responses were collected from project professionals in the emerging ICT industry in Pakistan, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with partial least squares (PLS).

The findings provide new evidence that project governance significantly improves project success opportunities in the ICT industry; however, this relationship is negatively moderated by exploitative leadership.

The study findings extend the project leadership literature by uncovering the influence of the dark side of project leadership (i.e. exploitative leadership), in addition to revalidating the impact of project governance on project success through a multi-dimensional context.

Integrating appraisal theories of discrete emotions with the emotion regulation literature, this study aims to explore the relationships between exploitative leadership and certain types of counterproductive workplace behavior (CWB). Besides, this study seeks to examine the mediating roles of discrete emotions (i.e. anger and fear) and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal within the proposed relationships.

Based on time-lagged survey data from 440 Chinese employees, this study conducted hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping approach to test the hypotheses.

The results revealed that exploitative leadership was positively related to approach-oriented CWB and avoidance-oriented CWB. In addition, this study found that anger mediated the relationship between exploitative leadership and approach-oriented CWB, whereas fear mediated the relationship between exploitative leadership and avoidance-oriented CWB. Further, cognitive reappraisal buffered the positive effects of exploitative leadership on anger and fear and the indirect effects of exploitative leadership on approach-oriented CWB (via anger) and avoidance-oriented CWB (via fear).

Managers should reduce leaders' exploitation and enhance employees' skills on emotional management and cognitive reappraisal.

First, by verifying the effects of exploitative leadership on both approach-oriented and avoidance-oriented CWB, this study adds to the literature on exploitive leadership and provides a more complete understating of the relationship between exploitative leadership and workplace deviance. Second, this study enriches the understanding of the process through which exploitative leadership affects employees by demonstrating the novel mediating roles of discrete emotions (i.e. anger and fear) through the lens of appraisal theories of discrete emotions. Third, by verifying the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal, this study provides insights into the boundary conditions of the influences of exploitive leadership.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the present research paper examines the moderating role of leaders' Machiavellianism in the relationships between the desire for promotion, workplace anxiety and exploitative leadership.

The authors collected matched time-lagged data from part-time MBA students and their subordinates. The subordinate questionnaires were paired and coded by the researchers and then directly distributed and instructed to be filled out, which would not be known to the MBA students. The final sample size came to 370 leader-subordinate dyads. The data were analyzed using SPSS 24 and Mplus 7.0.

Leaders' desire for promotion is positively related to exploitative leadership via workplace anxiety. Furthermore, this mediating effect is significant when Machiavellianism is high, but not when Machiavellianism is low.

For business ethics scholars and practitioners, this study points out that leaders with a desire for promotion can produce workplace anxiety, lead to subordinates' perception of exploitative leadership and how this process varies by key personality trait—Machiavellianism.