Trickle-down effect of benevolent leadership on unethical employee behavior: a cross-level moderated mediation model

The associations between benevolent leadership, affective commitment, work engagement and helping behavior of nurses: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Benevolent leadership is common in organizations, including hospitals, and is known to have positive effects on employees. Yet, nursing literature lacks sufficient research on its relationships with nurses' behavior.

METHODS

In March to April 2022, a cross-sectional study was carried out involving 320 nurses employed across various hospitals in Sichuan Province, China. Benevolent leadership, affective commitment, work engagement, and helping behavior were evaluated using the Benevolent Leadership Scale, Affective Commitment Scale, Work Engagement Scale, and Helping Behavior Questionnaire, respectively. The study employed structural equation model and the bootstrap method to investigate the proposed relationships.

RESULTS

The SEM analysis results indicated a positive association between benevolent leadership and several outcomes among nurses. Specifically, benevolent leadership was found to be positively associated with nurses' affective commitment (β = 0.58, p < .001), work engagement (β = 0.02, p < .001), and helping behavior (β = 0.17, p = .001). Additionally, there was a significant indirect effect between benevolent leadership and nurses' work engagement through affective commitment (β = 0.08, p = .007) as well as between benevolent leadership and helping behavior through affective commitment (β = 0.16, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study's findings emphasize the crucial role of benevolent leadership in fostering nurses' positive attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. Hospital administrators could promote the benevolent leadership of head nurses to enhance nurses' affective commitment, work engagement, and helping behaviors.

Does benevolent leadership consistently lead to employees' voluntary behaviors?

Purpose

Benevolent leadership is a leadership style in which leaders show consideration for their employees' work and life. Empirical studies have shown inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and employees' voluntary behaviors. Therefore, this study examined benevolent leadership's mediating (gratitude) and moderating (trust) mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

Overall, 792 questionnaires were collected from Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) and continuing education students at a public university in Taiwan. The research model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and the PROCESS module.

Findings

Benevolent leadership influenced three voluntary behaviors of employees directly and indirectly through enhanced gratitude. Emotional trust moderated the relationship between work care and employee gratitude such that the positive relationship was stronger for employees with higher emotional trust levels.

Practical implications

Benevolent leadership is an effective leadership style that cares about employees' work and lives, enhancing their gratitude and engagement in voluntary behaviors.

Originality/value

The mediating effect of gratitude and the moderating effect of trust provide a possible explanation for the inconsistent relationships between benevolent leadership and voluntary behaviors.

Dual crossover mechanisms of benevolent supervision on followers' contextual performance and emotional exhaustion alleviation

Purpose

Adopting conservation of resources (COR) theory as a guiding framework, this study proposes that benevolent supervision (BS) is a feasible leadership style for building a positive resource gain process in subordinates' extra-role actions and reducing their exhaustion, and leader-member exchange (LMX) and positive affect (PA) serve as indirect crossover mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

Surveys were conducted at three-time points with four-week intervals. A total of 304 subordinates and 55 supervisors at a Taiwanese university participated in the surveys, and a multilevel model was used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results showed that prior BS (time 1) was positively associated with subordinates' subsequent LMX and PA (time 2). LMX mediated the relationship between BS and subsequent supervisor-rated contextual performance (time 3), and PA mediated the relationship between BS and subordinate-rated emotional exhaustion (time 3). In addition, supervisors' learning orientation positively moderated the relationship between BS and contextual performance via LMX, whereas supervisors' performance orientation negatively moderated this relationship.

Practical implications

The results of the study encourage leaders to exhibit benevolence toward subordinates, increase subordinates' contextual performance and enhance personal feelings, thereby ultimately benefitting the organization.

Originality/value

This study reveals that BS is a source of resource investment in the process of subordinates' positive job (contextual performance) and personal (emotional exhaustion) resource gains through social exchange (LMX) and affective (PA) crossover mechanisms and that supervisors' goal inclinations impact this process.