Leader Humility, and Subordinates' Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Withdrawal Behavior: Exploring the Mediating Mechanisms of Subordinates' Psychological Capital

Advancing our understanding of humble leadership in healthcare: a scoping review

PURPOSE

This study aims to advance the understanding of humble leadership (HL) in health care.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

This study presents a scoping review to explore and synthesize the existing knowledge in the literature. The search process encompassed three main online databases, PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. Due to the novelty of the topic of HL in health care and the lack of research in this area, all articles published until the end of February 2023 were considered in this study.

FINDINGS

A total of 18 studies were included. The results showed that in the period of 2019-2023 more attention was paid to HL in health care than in previous years. The research design used in these articles included quantitative (n = 13) and qualitative (n = 5) methods and the statistical population included nurses, hospital employees and health-care department managers. Based on the results obtained, the definition of HL can be divided into two general approaches, including self-evaluation and the way one treats others. In addition, humble leaders in the health-care sector should exhibit certain behavioral characteristics and finally, the results indicated that HL has several positive consequences; however, little attention has been paid to the factors influencing HL in health care.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

This research will help practitioners gain a deeper understanding of the various applications of HL in health care.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

To the best of the authors' knowledge, no comprehensive research review has yet been conducted on the application of HL in health care.

Do psychological capital and transformational leadership make differences in organizational citizenship behavior?

This research is proposed to determine factors affecting organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), tested on counselors, totaling 156 respondents. This study applied three waves in data collection with an interval of 30 days and a multigroup analysis to validate OCB. The analysis technique used is the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method using the IBM SPSS AMOS v26. The results showed that transformational leadership and psychological capital could, directly and indirectly, influence OCB and substantially affect work engagement as the mediator. Furthermore, male counselors with OCB were more dominantly influenced by work engagement, whereas female counselors were by transformational leadership. The results of this study can be used as a basis for policy recommendations by organizational management, especially organizations in the public service. This research has strengthened the empirical foundation on voluntary extra-role behavior and initiatives that can improve organizational effectiveness. This behavior can be manifested by strengthening psychological capital, transformational leadership, and work engagement.

Development of thriving at work and organizational citizenship behavior through Islamic work ethics and humble leadership

This study examined the mediation and moderation models of the relationship between Islamic work ethics (IWE), thriving at work, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and leader humility. A total of 418 employees from two different sample groups (Islamic banks and educational institutions) in Indonesia were included. A multiple regression hierarchy with PROCESS was used to test the hypotheses. We found a positive influence of IWE and leader humility on thriving and OCB and thriving at work on OCB. Thriving was found to mediate the relationship between IWE and OCB, and the leader humility moderates these relationships. Thriving at work and OCB are dramatically under-represented in Islamic work ethics research, and this study attempts to fill this void. Furthermore, this study reveals the interactive role of leader humility and IWE in enhancing OCB preference and the mediating role of thriving at work in the IWE − OCB relationship.

Internal fights over resources: The effect of power struggles on team innovation

Power hierarchy is a recently growing topic among scholars. Although the previous literature has emphasized the importance of understanding power hierarchy in teams and demonstrated the negative consequences of power struggles among team members in team performance, it neglected to explore how power struggles impact other team functioning and outcomes. Drawing on social information processing theory and the team learning behavior model discussed, this study proposes that power struggles send aggressive social information to team members, and such social information negatively influences team learning. Social information emitted by power struggles undermines psychological safety and creates hostility and interpersonal tensions, which reduce team members' providing new ideas and information sharing. In addition, this study proposes a positive relationship between team learning and team innovation since team learning provides two key conditions (i.e., active knowledge integration and appropriate team climate) for successful team innovation. Lastly, this study suggests the mediating role of team learning between power struggles and team innovation. Using a sample of 99 teams from two organizations in Korea, this study tested the proposed model. In sum, this study found that (1) power struggles are negatively related to team learning, (2) team learning is positively related to team innovation, and (3) team learning mediates the relationship between power struggles and team learning.

Leader Humility, Sense of Power, and Interpersonal Deviance Relationship Model in the Bureaucratic Culture

PURPOSE

Drawing on the approach-inhibition theory of power and the containment theory of control-we propose a relationship model of leader humility, sense of power, and interpersonal deviance, by placing bureaucratic culture as a boundary condition.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

Using a moderated mediation model, this study applies hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses to data obtained from online questionnaire responses of 428 employees from various sectors in Indonesia.

FINDINGS

The results reveal a positive relationship between leader humility and employees perceptions of the sense of power, as well as between the sense of power to interpersonal deviance. In addition, we confirmed the mediating role of the sense of power on the relationship between leader humility and interpersonal deviant. Bureaucratic culture has been confirmed to moderate the relationship between a sense of power and interpersonal deviance.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Companies can provide leadership training to leaders to convey to them when and where to demonstrate humility. Furthermore, the effectiveness of leaders' humility can be increased and their sense of power and interpersonal deviance reduced if the company adopts a low-level bureaucratic culture.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

The current study contributes to the extant literature by revealing the moderating effects of bureaucratic culture on the relationship between the sense of power and interpersonal deviance, clarifying how, and when employees' sense of power stimulates interpersonal deviance in the Asian context.

How can a leader's humility enhance civility climate and employee voice in a competitive environment?

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Practical implications

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.

Originality/value

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.

Humility and Competence: Which Attribute Affects Social Relationships at Work?

Between likability and competence, people value likable colleagues (regardless of their competence level) more than competent colleagues. If humility replaces competence, the preference might be different since humility is not always associated with positive outcomes. Humility and competence form four archetypes: humble star, humble fool, competent jerk, and incompetent jerk. This study examined the personal and professional preferences for these archetypes in the workplace and how the preference is moderated by colleagues’ seniority. There were 475 working adults aged between 21 and 77 (M = 40.34, SD = 11.32) recruited to complete an online survey. While humble fools were more likable than competent jerks in personal interactions, competent jerks received more cooperation than humble fools in professional interactions. Seniority did not affect these findings. Our findings shed light on whether, and when, humility should be highly valued in organizational settings. Promoting humility in the workplace setting might require more caution.

Co-worker support, voluntary turnover intention and knowledge withholding among IT specialists: the mediating role of affective organizational commitment

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of co-worker support on horizontal knowledge withholding and voluntary turnover intention among IT specialists. The study also explores the mediating role of affective organizational commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

The data are drawn from 118 IT specialists from a Polish software company. The model is tested through partial least squares path modeling.

Findings

The results revealed that the negative effect of co-worker support on voluntary turnover intention is fully mediated by organizational affective commitment. Contrary to expectations, co-worker support is not significantly negatively related to horizontal knowledge withholding.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-sectional data, self-reports and small sample size are limitations of this study. The respondents were a relatively homogenous group of employees, so the generalizability of results to other employees and industries is limited.

Practical implications

To increase affective organizational commitment and reduce voluntary turnover intention among IT specialists, managers should create the conditions to enhance co-worker support.

Originality/value

This research clarifies the role of affective organizational commitment, which has proven to be a bridge linking co-worker support and voluntary turnover intention. Moreover, this research investigates the previously unexplored effect of co-worker support on horizontal knowledge withholding.

The Effects of Leaders' Prosocial Orientation on Employees' Organizational Citizenship Behavior - The Roles of Affective Commitment and Workplace Ostracism

PURPOSE

According to leadership trait theory, leaders' personality traits are stable factors in organizational situations and exert significant effects on employees' organizational behaviors. However, studies related to this topic are very limited. In this study, from the leadership trait perspective and based on social identity theory and social exchange theory, the influencing mechanisms of leaders' prosocial tendencies on affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors are investigated. Specifically, leadership prosocial tendency, affective commitment and workplace ostracism are selected as the independent variable, mediating variable and moderating variable, respectively.

METHODS

The data collection is conducted in two stages in which the leader-employee pairing method is adopted. Ultimately, 347 valid questionnaires are collected from 73 teams. Later, the hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap methods are used to test the study's hypotheses.

RESULTS

Leadership prosocial tendencies have significant positive effects on affective commitment (β = 0.282, p < 0.001), affiliation-oriented (β = 0.648, p < 0.001) and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.521, p < 0.001). There is a significant positive effect of affective commitment on affiliation-oriented (β = 0.103, p < 0.05) and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.122, p < 0.05). At the same time, the influence of leadership prosocial tendencies on affiliation-oriented (β = 0.619, p < 0.001) and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.487, p < 0.001) remains significant. In other words, affective commitment partially mediates the relationships between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affiliation-oriented, challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Workplace ostracism plays a negative moderating role between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affective commitment (β = -0.098, p < 0.05). Furthermore, workplace ostracism can also mediate the mediating role of affective commitment with 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals [-0.146, -0.017] and [-0.114, -0.003].

CONCLUSION

The results show that leaders' prosocial tendencies have significant positive effects on both affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Affective commitment partially mediates the relationships between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Workplace ostracism significantly negatively moderates the relationship between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affective commitment. Moreover, the study verifies that the mediating effect of workplace ostracism on affective commitment has a significant moderating effect.

Leader Humility and Knowledge Sharing Intention: A Serial Mediation Model

Purpose

This paper examines the influence of leader humility on knowledge sharing intention. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET), we test the direct and indirect mechanisms to explain the influence leader humility has on knowledge sharing intention.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A two-wave, time-lagged field study was conducted. We surveyed 252 professional employees from Australia.

Findings

Results show a significant direct, positive association between leader humility and knowledge sharing intention. While leader humility had a direct, positive association with affective trust in supervisor and work engagement, it did not directly impact on organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward the individual (OCB-I). There were three SET-related, serial mediators in the relationship between leader humility and knowledge sharing intention. These were affective trust, work engagement, and OCB-I.

Research Limitations/Implications

Future studies should collect multi-source data such as peers' or supervisors' ratings of the focal respondents' work engagement, OCB-I, and knowledge sharing behaviors to augment single-source data. Future studies could adopt an affect theory of social exchange to further explore the relationships tested in this study.

Originality/Value

This study contributes to the affect SET and knowledge management literature on how leadership behaviors impact the intention to share knowledge. Our study highlights the preference of the willingness to share knowledge with their co-workers is mediated by affective trust in their immediate supervisors, work engagement, and OCB-I that are equally important as treating their subordinates with humility.

Heroes or Villains? The Dark Side of Charismatic Leadership and Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior

Although prior research has emphasized the disproportional contributions to organizations of charismatic leadership, an emerging line of research has started to examine the potentially negative consequences. In this paper, a theoretical framework was proposed for a study of unethical pro-organization behavior through psychological safety based on social information processing theory, which reveals the detrimental effect that charismatic leadership can have on workplace behavior. To explore this negative possibility, a time-lagged research design was applied for the hypotheses to be verified using 214 pieces of data collected from a service company in China. According to the results, unethical pro-organizational behavior was indirectly influenced by charismatic leadership through psychological safety. Moreover, when employees experienced high performance pressure, charismatic leadership was positively associated with unethical pro-organizational behavior through psychological safety. The implications of these findings were analyzed from the perspectives of charismatic leadership theory and organizational ethical activities to alter the unethical pro-organizational behavior.