Main and interactive effects of weekly transformational and laissez‐faire leadership on followers’ trust in the leader and leader effectiveness

How Transformational Leadership Affects the Off-work Recovery of Daily Personal Energy Resources via Work Engagement: Resource and Demand-based Pathways

This study focuses on the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship by investigating resource and demand pathways for daily off-work recovery and employee wellbeing (EWB). While previous research highlighted how transformational leadership energizes employees to engage at work, energy is a finite resource requiring daily restoration for EWB. Yet, how the leader's energizing effect relates to daily employees' recovery remains unknown. Following job demands-resource-recovery theory, we test two pathways that relate the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship to daily employee recovery: (a) Resource-based via resource-building, (b) demand-based via increased demands. Utilizing a 10-day, two daily measurement (N = 88) study, multilevel path analyses revealed: transformational leadership predicted via work engagement (b = .17, p < .05) role clarity (b = .56, p < .01), then positive (b = .39, p < .01), and negative work-nonwork spillover (b = -.38, p < .01). Positive work-nonwork spillover predicted recovery positively (b = .25, p < .01), negative work-nonwork spillover negatively (b = -.40, p < .01). Recovery predicted EWB for positive (b = .38, p < .01) and for negative (b = -.43, p < .01) affect. Work engagement predicted workload (b = .35, p < .01), further negative (b = .33, p < .01) and positive work-nonwork spillover (b = -.16, p < .01), hampering EWB. As one pathway effect might cancel the other, the main effect of transformational leadership on EWB was not significant in the integrative model (p > .05). Results highlight dark and bright sides of the transformational leadership-work engagement relationship regarding daily recovery.

The ripple effect of strain in times of change: how manager emotional exhaustion affects team psychological safety and readiness to change

Introduction

Managers assume a pivotal role during periods of organizational change, yet there exists a notable gap in our understanding of how their emotional exhaustion may impact their capacity to generate readiness to change within their teams. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory (COR), this study explores the crossover effect of managers' emotional exhaustion on team readiness to change. We expect this to occur through higher levels of laissez-faire leadership, which impacts the teams' psychological safety.

Methodology

Data was gathered within a Canadian governmental organization undergoing two significant changes-cultural change and digitalization-with a specific focus on leadership as a pivotal factor in preparing teams for change. Employing surveys from 372 team members and 62 managers affected by this change, we conducted path analysis to empirically test the proposed model across 74 teams and their respective managers.

Results

Managers' emotional exhaustion has a negative indirect effect on team readiness to change. The double mediation pathway implies a positive relationship on laissez-faire leadership, which hinders psychological safety. In turn, psychological safety hampers team readiness to change.

Conclusion

Managers must invest significant resources to fulfill their roles and responsibilities during strategic change. Those who feel exhausted during change may look for ways to protect some of their resources by reducing the time and energy they invest leading their team. This self-preserving resource strategy has detrimental consequences on teams' effectiveness during change due to an indirect crossover effect that affects the levels of psychological safety on the team.

The Influence of Authoritarian-Benevolent Leadership on Subordinates' Work Engagement: A Social Information Processing Perspective

Purpose

The dynamic and complex external environment calls for leaders to be both benevolent and authoritarian to cope with the mutually exclusive demands in the management process. But few research paid attention to the dark side of leaders' inconsistent behaviors on employees' work outcomes. Based on social information processing theory, this study investigated the impact of authoritarian-benevolent leadership on subordinates' work engagement and explored the mediating role of leader-member exchange ambivalence and the moderating role of trait mindfulness.

Methods

A two-wave time-lagged survey approach was employed and data from 309 employees from three Chinese companies were collected. R 4.2.1 and SPSS 26.0 were used to test our hypotheses.

Results

The findings demonstrated how subordinates were influenced in their work engagement by authoritarian-benevolent leadership and leader-member exchange ambivalence and emphasized the value of maintaining a high level of trait mindfulness. This study indicated that (1) authoritarian-benevolent leadership was negatively associated with work engagement, which was mediated by leader-member exchange ambivalence; (2) subordinates' trait mindfulness moderated the relationship between leader-member exchange ambivalence and work engagement; (3) the indirect effect of authoritarian-benevolent leadership on subordinates' work engagement through leader-member exchange ambivalence was moderated by subordinates' trait mindfulness.

Conclusion

This study reveals the dark side of authoritarian-benevolent leadership and deepens our understanding of the mechanism underlying the effect of authoritarian-benevolent leadership on subordinates' work engagement from a new theoretical perspective. Practical implications are provided for managers to effectively develop authoritarian-benevolent leadership skills and improve subordinates' work engagement.

The Influence of Leadership on Employees' Work-nonwork Interface and Wellbeing: A Scoping Review

Many current working conditions are characterized by increasing blurred boundaries between work and nonwork with spillover that impact employees' and recovery processes and wellbeing. Research, although emerging, considers these processes in the leadership-wellbeing relationship insufficiently. The main aim of this study, therefore, was to enhance our understanding of the role of leadership on employee's work-nonwork interface and wellbeing. To address these processes adequately, longitudinal research is most appropriate. To our best knowledge, no review exists that could inform longitudinal studies on the leadership-employee wellbeing relationship with a focus on spillover and recovery processes. Following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews, we apply a narrative synthesis of 21 identified studies to organize the research landscape. We make three main contributions: First, we adopt an integrated resource-demands based process perspective and expand the leadership-employee wellbeing relationship by including spillover and recovery. Second, we map the used theoretical approaches and analyzed research gaps. Third, we offer a list of the issues and potential remedies of applied methodologies to orient further research. Results show, that while work-nonwork research is predominantly approached from a negative conflict-based view, research focused more on positive than on negative leadership. We identify two broad categories of investigated mechanisms, namely bolstering/hampering mechanisms, and buffering/strengthening mechanisms. Findings also highlight the importance of personal energy resources and therefore call for more attention to affect-driven theories. The identified predominance of the IT and healthcare sectors and of working parents warrants more representative research. We offer recommendations to advance future research both theoretically and methodologically.

To be appreciated or to be despised: The role of leader selection and trust in leaders

To sustainably develop organisational goals, it is important to create conditions under which leaders are trusted and judged to be incorrupt. We proposed that and tested whether leader selection affects judgements of leader corruption. A correlational study with cross-national data and two experimental studies in China were conducted. Study 1 collected and analysed 20-year panel data on 93 countries/territories. To provide causal evidence for the results of Study 1 and account for this effect, Studies 2 and 3 manipulated leader selection and measured trust in leaders and perceptions of leader corruption. The three studies converged to show that election (vs. appointment) predicted decreased judgements of leader corruption. Furthermore, Studies 2 and 3 identified that trust in leaders is the underlying mechanism driving this leader selection effect. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of perceptions of leader corruption, the process of leader empowerment and the control of corruption.

The dark and bright side of laissez-faire leadership: Does subordinates’ goal orientation make a difference?

Laissez-faire leadership is universally considered to be the most ineffective leadership style. However, a few recent studies revealed that laissez-faire leadership may have modest or even significant positive influence on subordinates’ work outcomes. To explain the inconsistent findings of laissez-faire leadership studies, the current study draws on stress theory and achievement goal theory to examine the boundary conditions and mechanisms underlying the impact of laissez-faire leadership on subordinates, cognitive appraisal and subsequent performance. Results from an experience sampling study of 68 supervisor-subordinate dyads that completed daily surveys over 10 consecutive work days indicated that: (1) when subordinates’ learning goal orientation is high, the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and hindrance appraisal will be positive; the indirect relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates’ performance via subordinates’ hindrance appraisal will be negative; and (2) when subordinates’ performance-prove or performance-avoid goal orientation is high, the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and challenge appraisal will be positive; the indirect relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates’ performance via subordinates’ challenge appraisal will be positive. This study found the double-edged sword effect of laissez-faire leadership at within-person level, which helps integrate inconsistent views in previous studies and explore the impact of laissez-faire leadership from a more nuanced and balanced perspective.

Character and Trust in Crisis Leadership: Probing the Relationships Among Character, Identification-Based Trust, and Perceptions of Effectiveness in Political Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to explore the relationships among character, identification-based trust, and perceptions of leadership effectiveness in the context of crisis leadership. Focusing on the leadership of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we first explore whether Canadians of voting age believe character is important in political leadership during the pandemic. Second, we examine voter perceptions of the importance of the dimensions of character identified by Crossan et al. (2017) and to what extent voters perceive Trudeau demonstrates the behaviors associated with these dimensions. Third, we explore the role of identification-based trust in the relationship between character and perceptions of leadership effectiveness. Fourth, we study the relationships between character, trust, and effectiveness during dynamic conditions where the stakes for citizens with respect to health and social well-being are high. The results of our study connect character to trust and perceived effectiveness of a political leader during a crisis.

Good, Bad, and Ugly Leadership Patterns: Implications for Followers' Work-Related and Context-Free Outcomes

This research responds to calls for a more integrative approach to leadership theory by identifying subpopulations of followers who share a common set of perceptions with respect to their leader's behaviors. Six commonly researched styles were investigated: abusive supervision, transformational leadership (TFL), contingent reward (CR), passive and active management-by-exception (MBE-P and MBE-A, respectively), and laissez faire/avoidant (LF/A). Study hypotheses were tested with data from four independent samples of working adults, three from followers (N = 855) and a validation sample of leaders (N = 505). Using latent profile analysis, three pattern cohorts emerged across all four samples. One subpopulation of followers exhibited a constructive pattern with higher scores on TFL and CR relative to other styles. Two cohorts exhibited destructive patterns, one where the passive styles of MBE-A, MBE-P and LF/A were high relative to the other styles (passive) and one where the passive styles co-occurred with abusive supervision (passive-abusive). Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we confirmed differential associations with work-related (i.e., burnout, vigor, perceived organizational support and affective organizational commitment) and context-free (i.e., physical health and psychological well-being) outcomes. The passive-abusive pattern was devastating for physical health, yet passiveness without abuse was damaging for psychological well-being. Interestingly, we find a clear demarcation between passiveness as "benign neglect" and passiveness as an intentional and deliberate form of leadership aimed at disrupting or undermining followers-hence, the two faces of passiveness: "bad" and "ugly." We discuss the novel insights offered by a pattern (person)-oriented analytical strategy and the broader theoretical and practical implications for leadership research.

When Is Authoritarian Leadership Less Detrimental? The Role of Leader Capability

We developed and tested a moderated mediation model of the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employees' task performance as well as their affective organizational commitment. Analyses of multilevel, multisource, and three-wave data from 99 supervisors and 341 subordinates showed that leader effectiveness evaluations mediated the time-lagged relationship of authoritarian leadership with employees' task performance and affective organizational commitment. Moreover, when leader capability is high, it mitigates the negative relationship between AL and employees' outcomes. Furthermore, the leader capability moderates the indirect relationship of authoritarian leadership with employees' task performance and affective organizational commitment via leader effectiveness evaluation. This study contributes to leadership research and extends our understanding of how and under what circumstances AL is less detrimental to employees' workplace outcomes.

Distinct leadership styles and differential effectiveness across culture: An analysis of South African business leaders

Orientation: While some deem business leadership practices as universal, others judge them to be specific to a cultural context, arguing that certain leadership styles are specific to, for example, those from an African or a Western cultural background.Research purpose: The goal of the research was to assess whether the leadership styles of South African leaders differ based on cultural background and whether the effectiveness of these leadership styles is judged differently by subordinates.Motivation for the study: South Africa is sometimes presented as country divided across cultural lines. This research was motivated by the need to assess the extent of this divide and the impact thereof on perceived effectiveness.Research approach and method: A cross-sectional survey was collected from 1140 respondents across 19 organisations. Leadership styles and leader effectiveness was measured, and race was used as a proxy to cultural background. Mean scores on leadership styles and leadership effectiveness were calculated per race and mean score differences were tested.Main findings: The result of this study suggest that leaders in South Africa are perceived to behave similarly in terms of their leadership styles and the effectiveness thereof. Thus, those African and Western cultural backgrounds act similarly, and the outcomes (effectiveness) was comparable.Managerial implications and value add: The cultural divide within the context of leadership styles and effectiveness is small in South Africa, and the results supports the notion that organisations and leaders should set aside culturally based stereotypes when engaging in leadership issues.

Leadership Selection with the Fuzzy Topsis Method in the Hospitality Sector in Sultanahmet Region

The changing perception towards leadership reveals that different leadership types are felt to be needed to deal with different problems that modern organizations face. Even though there is lots of research which focuses on the effects of different leadership types on organizations’ performance, there is no research to be found which only focuses on employees’ perceptions. Therefore, this paper aimed to figure out the most important leadership characteristic for employees and their choice of leaders to work with. In order to reach these goals, a two-sectioned survey was given to eight hospitality employees in the Sultanahmet Region. Since the evaluations of the employees are subjective, the answers were analyzed with the Fuzzy TOPSIS method by transfiguring the verbal assessments of the participants into numbers to ease the decision-making process. With regard to the results, the most important leadership characteristics discovered were: being a guide to the followers, being capable of creating mission and vision, and encouraging the followers. According to employees’ leader choices, the results showed that the hospitality employees in the Sultanahmet region mostly want to work with Transformational Leaders. Considering the implementation and the results, this paper is important as a pioneering study, which will fill the gap in the literature about investigating employees’ leadership preferences and choices.

When Your Boss Is Under Pressure: On the Relationships Between Leadership Inconsistency, Leader and Follower Strain

It is widely acknowledged that leadership is crucial for follower health. Under stress, positive leader behaviors such as transformational leadership may decrease and the risk of negative behaviors such as abusive leadership may increase. Followers experience these discrepancies in leadership between routine and stressful periods as inconsistent. While positive and negative leadership is generally associated with follower strain, inconsistency may be stressful by itself, because it entails insecurity and unpredictability in the leader-follower relationship. We suggest that the level of perceived inconsistency and volatility in leaders' behavior across situations is an additional risk factor for follower health. Moreover, we expect perceived inconsistency to be stronger when leaders are strained. This survey study with N = 304 employees examines the relationships between leadership inconsistency and leader as well as follower strain from a followers' perspective. Participants rated their leaders' transformational and abusive leadership separately for routine and stressful conditions, their leaders' strain and their own strain. Employees who experienced stronger discrepancies in leadership between routine and stressful conditions, i.e., more inconsistency, experienced more strain. Moreover, from a followers' perspective, inconsistencies were stronger when leaders were strained. The findings provide evidence that leadership is less stable and consistent than generally assumed and that inconsistency is an additional risk factor. Leader strain may threaten the consistency of leadership and thereby negatively affect follower health.

Transformational and Transactional Leadership in the Polish Organizational Context: Validation of the Full and Short Forms of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X Short) is the most frequently used leadership measure in scholarship and organizational practice. However, so far it has not been validated in the Polish context. Therefore, the present study aimed to validate and shorten the MLQ (5X Short) in the Polish organizational setting. A total sample of 1,065 employees (572 women and 493 men) from different organizations took part in two sessions of an online study. Respondents were between 18 and 70 years old (M = 40.1; SD = 12.9) with an average job tenure of 17.00 years (SD = 12.1). In subsample 1 (n = 539), using exploratory factor analysis, a three-factor structure of the MLQ full form (MLQ-FF) was established, comprising transformational-supportive, inspirational goal-oriented, and passive-avoidant leadership. Based on qualitative (i.e., content analysis) and quantitative criteria (psychometric parameters), we constructed an 18-item MLQ short form (MLQ-SF). Both forms were supported by the confirmatory factor analysis in subsample 2 (n = 526). The MLQ-FF and MLQ-SF factors displayed acceptable to high levels of item-related parameters (e.g., intra-class, inter-item, and item-total correlations), as well as scale-related reliability (e.g., internal consistency, temporal stability). Both forms indicated high convergent and predictive validity examined by correlations with authentic leadership and employee's work outcomes (i.e., work satisfaction, work effectiveness, work engagement, and organizational commitment) (subsample 3; n = 691). Our study provided the full and the short form of the MLQ as reliable and valid instruments, potentially suitable to measure leadership styles in academic research and organizational practice.

The Role of Agile Women Leadership in Achieving Team Effectiveness through Interpersonal Trust for Business Agility

The need for organizations to adapt to constant change means the challenges of implementing an agile strategy. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to analyze the role of agile women leadership and team effectiveness by looking into the mediating effect of interpersonal trust based on a cross-sectional quantitative study with a sample of 269 employees from Poland and Turkey. Questionnaires were distributed to individuals in companies having women leaders or managers. The three questionnaires required the respondents to answer questions regarding the perception of agile leadership, trust and team effectiveness. By using SPSS, demographics, descriptive statistics and tests of normality were determined. Smart PLS version 3.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis, internal accuracy and validity estimates, hypothesis checking and mediation testing. Results of PLS-SEM indicated interpersonal trust has a full mediation role between agile women leadership in shaping team effectiveness. The population of this study are working for organizations of just two countries; hence, the generalizability of the findings to other settings is unknown. Our findings contribute to the literature on women agile leadership and team effectiveness by demonstrating how the growth in trust to managers contributes to the emergence of team effectiveness and the agile leadership trend over time. This study will therefore contribute to the understanding of organized teams’ effectiveness in the perspective of agile women leadership and trust of supervisors.

Linkages Between Transformational Leadership, Work Meaningfulness and Work Engagement: A Multilevel Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose

The issue of employee engagement has increasingly become a focus of concern in public management practice. Based on the theory of purposeful work behavior, integrative theory of employee engagement and Pratt and Ashforth’s typology of work meaningfulness, this study proposes and examines the mediating effects of two types of meaningfulness between transformational leadership and work engagement and the moderating effects of transformational leadership on the relationship between two types of meaningfulness and work engagement.

Patients and Methods

By adopting a multilevel cross-sectional design, this study examines assumed mediation and moderation effects. The data collection was conducted anonymously by means of an online survey. A total of 261 local police officers from 32 police stations were recruited in professional training programs as a sample.

Results

The analysis reveals that both meaningfulness in work and meaningfulness at work positively mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. Transformational leadership moderates the relationship between meaningfulness at work and work engagement rather than the relationship between meaningfulness in work and work engagement. There are no other significant effects of sex, age or length of service.

Conclusion

Work meaningfulness transmits and combines the effect of transformational leadership to impact work engagement. These findings not only confirm the critical role of work meaningfulness proposed by the theoretical frameworks of the theory of purposeful work behavior, integrative theory of employee engagement and Pratt and Ashforth’s typology of work meaningfulness, but also further extend and clarify the role of and difference in two substructures of work meaningfulness (ie, work meaningfulness in work and at work) in the context of the linkage between transformational leadership and work engagement.

The Science of Leadership: A Theoretical Model and Research Agenda

I review the empirical literature on leadership, focusing on papers published since 2010. To do so, I introduce a framework composed of two features: whether theories ( a) involve the study of leaders or leading (i.e., the person versus the process) and ( b) conceptualize leadership as a cause or a consequence (i.e., an independent versus dependent variable). This framework can enable future research to accumulate in a more programmatic fashion and help scholars determine where their own studies are located within the landscape of leadership research. I end the review by critically evaluating existing work, arguing that the most popular subcategory of leadership research—lumped conceptualizations of leading, in which scholars examine multiple leader behaviors within a single construct—has significant limitations and may need to be replaced by a greater focus on split conceptualizations of leading, wherein scholars isolate single leader behaviors.

The Effect of Daily Fluctuation of Abusive Supervision over Employees Positive and Negative Emotions, and Recovery Experience

Abusive supervision impacts employees' emotions negatively and creates feelings of shame and fear. But it remains unclear how daily employees' positive and negative emotions are affected and if they can recover. Applying the affective event theory and job demands-resources model we hypothesized that daily abusive supervision influences employees' positive and negative emotions fluctuation over the day, recovery after work, and employee emotions the next morning. Two daily surveys were answered by 52 Mexican employees for ten days providing 347 registers in the morning and 255 in the afternoon. Hierarchical linear modeling shows alteration of positive and negative emotions in the afternoon and next day, and a positive effect over recovery in relaxation, mastery and control restoring positive emotions. However, negative emotions cannot be recovered for the following day. Additionally, we found effects of predictive variables, as the days of the week go by, positive emotions in the afternoon and negative emotions in the morning decrease. Gender shows for men a more negative effect on positive emotions in the afternoon, next morning and on mastery-recovery. Marital status revealed effect over married individuals incrementing the four recovery dimensions, increasing positive emotions, and reducing negative emotions in the afternoon and next morning. Tenure has an effect over abusive supervision, the longer employees in the company, more likely they suffer abusive supervision. We show how employees restore positive emotions after daily recovery and that negative emotions cannot be recovered for the following day; revealing how abusive managers cause emotional damage to employees every day.

Transformational leadership and employee outcomes: the mediating role of psychological empowerment

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the mediating effect of psychological empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership and two employee outcomes: organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from 316 employees working in the textile industry to empirically test the proposed model.

Findings

The findings of this study indicate that psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and both employee outcomes of organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention.

Research limitations/implications

This study suggests that organizations aiming to minimize turnover intention among employees should develop a transformational leadership style at the managerial level to enhance psychological empowerment among employees, which, in turn, will also improve organizational citizenship behavior.

Originality/value

This study proposes and tests the indirect effect of transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intention via psychological empowerment.

Effect of transformational leadership on job performance: testing the mediating role of corporate social responsibility

Purpose

Encouraging employees to bolster their performance in today's turbulent business environment is an important priority for all types of organizations. Even though few studies reported the impact of transformational leadership (TL) on job performance (JP), the role of mediators namely corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this relationship is not given due attention. The purpose of this paper is to assess the mediating role of CSR in the relationship between TL and JP in the Indian context.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 306 full time employees working in the manufacturing industry in India were collected through an online survey. The manufacturing organizations were selected on the basis of their active participation in CSR activities and robustness of HR practices. Three structured questionnaires were used for eliciting data from the employees, and AMOS software was used for testing the validity of the hypothesized model. PROCESS macro was used for testing the mediating role of CSR.

Findings

TL impacted both JP and CSR. Additionally, CSR showed a positive relationship with JP of employees. The pivotal finding of the study is the partial mediation of CSR in the TL–JP relationship.

Originality/value

Based on neo-charismatic paradigm theory, TL theory, stakeholder theory and social identity theory, this paper enriches the literature by demonstrating the mediation mechanism driving TL and JP relationship.

Full range indeed? The forgotten dark side of leadership

Purpose

The full-range leadership theory, and the distinction between transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership behaviour has strongly influenced leadership theory and research in the last several decades. However, in spite of its impact on theory and practice, it has a few shortcomings, as, in its essence, it disregards several essential aspects of a leader’s behaviour, such as the dark side of leadership behaviour. Therefore, to capture various leader behaviours, we provide a more comprehensive leadership model named the “complete full range of leadership”.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on reviewing the relevant theoretical and empirical literature, we propose an extended theoretical model, which addresses the existing shortcomings of the full range leadership model.

Findings

First, we added a new active and more destructive facet of leadership style named active, destructive leadership style. Second, based on existing empirical findings, we restructured the transactional facet of full-range leadership by collapsing its components into two new distinct facets representing active constructive leadership style and passive destructive leadership style. Finally, drawing on Hersey and Blanchard’s model, we add a new passive and constructive facet named passive constructive leadership.

Originality/value

Our suggested “complete full range of leadership” contributes to leadership theory by addressing the gap between existing theory and empirical findings, making a clear distinction between lack of leadership and delegation and by comprising the dark side of leadership with its bright side into one comprehensive leadership model.

The link between transformational leadership and work-related performance: moderated-mediating roles of meaningfulness and job characteristics

Purpose

Based on the job characteristics theory (Oldham and Hackman, 2010), the authors highlighted the mediating role of job meaningfulness as a critical psychological state. Employees' positive perception of job meaningfulness could maximize organizational positive outcomes based on task orientation and trustful relationship-based satisfying behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relations among transformational leadership, job characteristics, job meaningfulness and task-related job performance. The conceptual model of this paper is developed based on the theoretical foundations for assessing mediating and moderating path relations among the exogenous and endogenous variables.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the research questions with literature review, the research framework was developed to show the moderated mediating mechanism of the link between transformational leadership and in-role performance. Data analyses for hypothesis testing were conducted by Hayes' PROCESS macro-based hierarchical regression.

Findings

Understanding how organizations can optimally design a job based on job characteristics and helping employees maintain psychological states having meaningfulness and responsibility for outcomes are critical. This paper calls attention to how job characteristics and an individual's meaningfulness of work embedded in a given job play a role in influencing job performance.

Originality/value

This study provides a snapshot for examining the job characteristic model on the link between leadership and job performance. By using process analysis (Hayes, 2013), this study examined the moderating role of job characteristics and mediating role of meaningfulness at work in the link of leadership–performance.

Authoritarian-Benevolent Leadership, Moral Disengagement, and Follower Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior: An Investigation of the Effects of Ambidextrous Leadership

Drawing on the social cognitive theory of moral disengagement, this study examined the influence of the authoritarian-benevolent style of ambidextrous leadership on follower unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), mediated via moral disengagement. We tested the hypotheses using a sample of 175 participants at two time points. The results indicated that authoritarian-benevolent leadership affects moral disengagement. In addition, followers in congruent dyads with low authoritarian-benevolent leadership perceived higher levels of moral disengagement than those in congruent dyads with high authoritarian-benevolent leadership. Furthermore, high authoritarian-benevolent leadership had an indirect effect on follower UPB via moral disengagement. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are suggested.

Ambidextrous leadership and innovation performance: a longitudinal study

Purpose

The ambidextrous leadership model specifically describes opening and closing leader behaviors in the innovation process. This paper aims to emphasize the relevance of the ambidextrous leadership model with respect to leadership in innovation processes.

Design/methodology/approach

In this longitudinal research design, 54 employees rated the ambidextrous leader behaviors and innovation performance concerning an innovation project over a period of six weeks. Traditional leadership styles (i.e. transformational, transactional, instrumental leadership, leader–member exchange) were assessed at a between-person level to identify their effects with respect to innovation performance.

Findings

Multilevel regression analysis results showed that instrumental leadership as well as opening and closing leader behaviors were positively related to innovation performance. By contrast, transformational and transactional leadership as well as leader–member exchange (LMX) did not show significant associations with innovation performance.

Originality/value

The findings support the relevance of specific leader behaviors to the innovation process and therefore underline the importance of the ambidextrous leadership model.

The dynamic relationship between laissez-faire leadership and day-level stress: A role theory perspective

Previous research on laissez-faire leadership and stress has focused on between-person differences by looking at general ratings of leader behaviours. Yet, researchers have demonstrated a high situational contingency of leadership behaviours that call for a more detailed analysis of within-person differences. We adopt a role theory perspective to explain why daily laissez-faire leadership is linked to daily stress of followers. Also drawing on role theory, we further explain fluctuations of supervisors’ laissez-faire leadership behaviour over time in relation to follower perceptions of day-specific stress. Finally, we also take followers’ level of neuroticism into perspective to describe when followers are particularly vulnerable to laissez-faire leadership. We conducted a diary study spanning over 5 days within 1 working week to test whether daily laissez-faire leadership and its variability were positively related to followers’ daily stress and whether these relations were moderated by follower neuroticism. A total of 201 participants completed the diary surveys ( M = 4.79 days × 201 participants = 963 data points) and provided information in an initial survey. Results gave support for most of our hypotheses and showed a positive relationship between daily laissez-faire leadership and daily stress as well as a positive relationship between laissez-faire leadership variability and daily stress. Neuroticism moderated the positive relationship between laissez-faire leadership variability and daily stress in the way that the relationship between laissez-faire leadership variability and daily stress was stronger for individuals with high neuroticism.

Narcissistic leadership and voice behavior: the role of job stress, traditionality, and trust in leaders

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the impact of narcissistic leadership on employee voice behavior from the perspective of job stress, trust in leaders and traditionality in China.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a survey on 437 employees to assess their narcissistic leadership in Time 1. In Time 2, they measured their job stress, trust in leaders and traditionality. In Time 3, they assessed the voice behavior of these employees.

Findings

Narcissistic leadership correlates positively with employees’ job stress, which mediates between narcissistic leadership and employee voice behavior. Trust in leaders negatively moderates the correlation between job stress and employee voice behavior, as well as moderates the mediation effect of job stress on the correlation between narcissistic leadership and employee voice behavior. In addition, traditionality positively moderates the correlation between job stress and employee voice behavior, as well as moderates the mediation effect of job stress on the correlation between narcissistic leadership and employee voice behavior.

Originality/value

This study establishes the impact of narcissistic leadership on employee behavior from the perspective of job stress, trust in leaders and traditionality.

Caring for Oneself or for Others? How Consistent and Inconsistent Profiles of Health-Oriented Leadership Are Related to Follower Strain and Health

Health-oriented leadership consists of three dimensions that contribute to employee health: staff care, i.e., health-specific follower-directed leadership, as well as both leaders' and followers' self care, i.e., health-specific self-leadership. This study explores profiles of follower self care, leader self care and staff care, and investigates the relationships with follower health in two samples. We identified four patterns of health-oriented leadership: A consistently positive profile (high care), a consistently negative profile (low care), and two profiles showing inconsistencies between follower self care, leader self care, and staff care (leader sacrifice and follower sacrifice). The high care profile reported the best health compared to both the low care profile and the inconsistent profiles. The follower sacrifice profile reported more strain than the leader sacrifice profile, while strain and health levels were the least favorable in the low care profile. Findings reveal that (in-)consistency between follower-directed leadership and self-leadership contributes to follower strain and health.