Differential Behavioral Pathways Linking Personality to Leadership Emergence and Effectiveness in Groups

This study integrates leadership process models with process models of personality and behavioral personality science to examine the behavioral-perceptual pathways that explain interpersonal personality traits' divergent relation to group leadership evaluations. We applied data from an online group interaction study (N = 364) alternately assigning participants as leaders conducting brief tasks. We used four variable types to build the pathways in multiple mediator models: (a) Self-reported personality traits, (b) video recordings of expressed interpersonal behaviors coded by 6 trained raters, (c) interpersonal impressions, and (d) mutual evaluations of leadership emergence/effectiveness. We find interpersonal big five traits to differently relate to the two leadership outcomes via the behavioral-perceptual pathways: Extraversion was more important to leadership emergence due to impressions of assertiveness evoked by task-focused behavior being strongly valued. Agreeableness/emotional stability were more important to leadership effectiveness due to impressions of trustworthiness/calmness evoked by member-focused/calm behavior being stronger valued.

Living with tensions in the workplace: a grounded theory of paradoxical leadership in cultivating subordinates' paradox mindset

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of how paradoxical leadership cultivates subordinates' paradox mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the grounded theory approach. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and observations from eleven top managers and their six subordinates in five Chinese organizations. Managers and their subordinates were asked how they perceived and dealt with tensions in the workplace.

Findings

Paradoxical leadership promotes subordinates' paradox mindset by helping them learn to face, cope, and live with tensions. First, paradoxical leaders acted as role models for their subordinates and directly influenced followers' attitudes, motivation, and positive psychological states towards tensions. Moreover, when managers help their subordinates reduce stress and anxiety and build confidence, followers learn to cope with tensions. Consequently, subordinates' capacity to live with tensions is increased and they develop the paradox mindset.

Practical implications

The results imply that reducing subordinates' stress and anxiety and building their confidence can be integrated into work practices and training, which provide insights for managers to cultivate their subordinates' paradox mindset.

Originality/value

This paper investigates how paradoxical leadership impacts and cultivates subordinates' paradox mindset in a tension-setting work environment. The findings not only provide fresh insights into the detailed process of developing employees' paradox mindset but also deepen the understanding of the leader–follower relationship.

Someone Must be Mindful: Trait Mindfulness as a Boundary Condition for Paradoxical Leader Behaviors

Despite increased interest in the role of paradox in organizations, our understanding of paradoxical leader behavior (PLB) remains limited. We analyze PLB through the lens of cognitive dissonance theory and argue that trait mindfulness represents an important boundary condition shaping the effectiveness of PLB as a leadership style. This research sheds light on mindfulness and PLB, by investigating whether leader and follower trait mindfulness changes the impact of PLB on follower performance. Our analyses of multilevel, multisource, and multiphase data from 561 employees working in 54 teams show that PLB is positively related to follower performance when followers have high trait mindfulness. Furthermore, when followers and leaders are both low on trait mindfulness, PLB hurts follower performance. We thereby advance research on managing paradox, trait mindfulness, and the effectiveness of paradoxical leader behaviors for promoting follower performance.

A comprehensive examination of psychological capital research using bibliometric, TCCM and content analysis

Purpose

In today's dynamic business environment and crisis and pandemic like situations, psychological capital has become very significant for sustainable competitive advantage. Due to its importance in organizational context, researchers are investigating it from various perspectives, making it a burgeoning research area. Hence, this study aims to review the literature, provide identity in terms of various patterns and trends, and build the intellectual structure (academic structure) of psychological capital research by presenting a big picture. It further provides the theories, characteristics, context and methodologies (TCCM) analysis and potential avenues for possible future research to facilitate the growth of the field.

Design/methodology/approach

This study compiles, evaluates and synthesizes the extant literature of psychological capital, consisting of 954 journal articles collected from Web of Science (WOS) database, using bibliometric techniques, content analysis, and TCCM analysis.

Findings

The study identifies various patterns and trends of psychological capital research and unfolds four major themes, namely psychological capital theoretical concept development, psychological capital relationship building with organizational variables, psychological capital as an underlying mechanism for linkage between organizational variables and psychological capital interventions. It also identifies TCCM outcome and potential avenues for possible future research. The study reveals that psychological capital research area is progressing and has enormous potential to advance in the future.

Research limitations/implications

This study is pivotal to past–future orientation wherein past is being investigated for developing new pathways of psychological capital research. It has used research articles published in the WOS database, and future studies may further enhance the understanding of psychological research using other databases.

Practical implications

In addition to advance a comprehensive understanding of psychological capital research, this study will be a quick reference and notable and profound resource for researchers venturing into this marked research area. Further, it will facilitate to leaders and managers to look into various possible avenues to enhance psychological capital of their subordinates for greater organizational good.

Originality/value

To the best of authors' knowledge, this is first study to advance a comprehensive and systematic understanding of psychological capital by integrating bibliometric, TCCM and content analysis.

Paradoxical Leadership and Employee Task Performance: A Sense-Making Perspective

Paradoxical leadership has received increasing research attention in recent years. Yet, questions remain as to why and when paradoxical leadership is effective in promoting employee work outcomes. Drawing upon the sense-making perspective, we propose that paradoxical leadership enhances employee task performance by increasing employees' adaptability, and paradoxical leadership is more effective when employees have higher levels of Zhong Yong thinking and organizational identification. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a multi-source and multi-wave survey study among 235 employees and their supervisors in southern China. The results of the regression analyses fully support our hypotheses. In general, our findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms, as well as the boundary conditions, of the effect of paradoxical leadership. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Affect-driven impact of paradoxical leadership on employee organizational citizenship behaviour

Paradoxical leadership is an emerging leadership style which describes leadership behaviours that are ostensibly contradictory but in reality are interrelated and address workplace demands simultaneously and over time. The present study is based on affective events theory (AET), which states that occurrences or events at work result in prompt positive or negative affect in employees. The purpose of the study is to examine the mediating role of positive affect on the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). We also examine the moderating role of procedural fairness on the relationship between employee positive affect and OCB. Data collected in two phases in small- and medium-sized Chinese companies indicate that positive affect fully mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee OCB, and this relationship was found to be stronger when procedural fairness was higher rather than lower. We provide theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Paradoxical Leader Behaviors and Followers Overall Justice and Citizenship Behaviors: The Role of Renqing Perception and Trait Agreeableness

Purpose

Drawing on the uncertainty management theory, this study explores the relationships between paradoxical leader behaviors (PLB) and followers perceptions of overall justice and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), as well as the mediating role of two components of followers perceptions of renqing (affective interaction and discretionary consideration) and the moderating role of trait agreeableness.

Methods

This study employed two-wave surveys with the aim of reducing the potential risk of common method bias. Participants were 325 employees from seven enterprises located in Northern and Southwest China. A moderated-mediation path analysis based on Hayes’ Process Model was performed in AMOS to examine the hypotheses.

Results

Results from two-wave surveys of 325 Chinese employees indicated that PLB is positively related to followers perceptions of overall justice. Two components of followers perceptions of renqing significantly mediate the relationship between PLB and overall justice. Moreover, two components of perceptions of renqing and overall justice exert a serial mediation effect in the relationship of PLB and OCB. More importantly, followers trait agreeableness strengthens the effects of affective interaction on overall justice.

Conclusion

This study advances the current understandings of the influencing mechanisms between PLB and followers overall justice perceptions and OCB. It is suggested that leaders PLB will facilitate two components of followers perceptions of renqing first, then boost their perceptions of overall justice, which in turn leading to more OCB, especially for those followers who endorse more agreeableness.

Crazy, stupid, disobedience: The dark side of paradoxical leadership

In organizations, paradoxes are not only an expression of growing dynamism and complexity. Leaders can also generate them intentionally by means of double-bind rhetoric in order to exercise power. In double-bind situations, followers are trapped in a paradox: they have no possibility of doing what is right, but can always be made responsible by their leaders for wrong decisions. To create awareness of this dark side of paradoxical leadership, the article builds and elaborates a theoretical typology of double binds in organizations and discusses it in terms of the introduced concept of paratoxical leadership. The article further explains how paratoxical leadership leads to dysfunctional outcomes for the individual and the organization and discusses ways to successfully prevent and resolve instances of paratoxical leadership. In this way, the article shows how leadership power, or more precisely, the abuse of leadership power, in organizations can be explained from a paradox perspective.

Paradoxical leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour: the serial mediating effect of a paradoxical mindset and personal service orientation

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between paradoxical leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), including the serial mediating role of a paradoxical mindset and personal service orientation, by applying social cognitive theory and planned behaviour theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses proposed in this study were empirically tested using data from 411 supervisor–subordinate paired samples from six Chinese enterprises at two time points. The bootstrap method was applied using PROCESS macro v 3.3 for SPSS 24.0 software.

Findings

The results demonstrate the following relationships: paradoxical leadership positively affects OCB; paradoxical mindset significantly mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and OCB; personal service orientation significantly mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and OCB; and paradoxical mindset and personal service orientation play serial mediating roles in the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employees' OCB.

Practical implications

The results of this study show that managers' paradoxical leadership behaviours can effectively stimulate employees' OCB, which in turn influence employees' attitudes and behavioural intentions towards conflict.

Origin/value

This study enriches the antecedents of OCB and the consequences of paradoxical leadership. From an attitude and behaviour perspective, this study explores the internal transmission path of the impact of paradoxical leadership on employee behaviour and expands existing research on intermediary mechanisms.

Does Paradoxical Leadership Facilitate Leaders' Task Performance? A Perspective of Self-Regulation Theory

As an emerging Chinese indigenous leadership style, paradoxical leadership has received considerable attention from researchers. Many studies have demonstrated the positive impact of paradoxical leadership on employees, teams, and organizations; however, there is less information on how paradoxical leaders influence their own work outcomes. On the basis of self-regulation theory, in this study, we examined the impact of paradoxical leadership on leaders’ task performance. In addition, we investigated the mediating effects of job crafting and career resilience on this relationship. Through a survey of 120 leaders and 271 of their immediate followers, our empirical analysis found the following: (1) paradoxical leadership was positively related to leaders’ task performance, (2) job crafting mediated the relationship between paradoxical leadership and leaders’ task performance, and (3) career resilience positively moderated the relationship between paradoxical leadership and job crafting, and had an indirect effect on task performance through job crafting. Our model offers novel insights into the paradoxical leadership literature and implications for improving leaders’ job crafting and task performance.