Humble Leadership Affects Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Sequential Mediating Effect of Strengths Use and Job Crafting

First, Be a Good Citizen: Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Well-Being at Work and the Moderating Role of Leadership Styles

The study investigates the effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on well-being at work. The study further examines the moderating role of people and task-focused leadership styles between OCB on well-being at work. Individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) and organizational-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) will also be analyzed. A quantitative study was conducted and convenient sampling was adopted in selecting respondent workers (n = 200) in different Portuguese organizations. The results show that OCBs positively and significantly influence well-being at work. The strength of individual-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBI) on well-being at work is stronger than that of organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO). Contrary to expectations, the relationship between leadership styles and well-being was not statistically significant, offering possibilities for discussion regarding the central importance usually attributed to leadership in the organizational context. However, leadership styles have a moderating effect between OCB and well-being at work, except when the employee adopts OCBO and the leadership style is people-oriented. The present study is innovative because it positions OCB as an antecedent in the relationship with well-being at work and investigates the moderating role of leadership styles in the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and well-being.

How self-leadership promotes job crafting: Based on the perspective of self-determination theory

According to self-determination theory, the present study develops a moderated mediation model to investigate how and when self-leadership promotes employees' job crafting, emphasizing the mediating effect of autonomous motivation and the moderating effect of leader empowering behavior. We analyze and test the hypotheses based on 269 valid three-wave data from employees. The findings show that self-leadership has a significantly positive impact on job crafting, and a positive indirect effect on job crafting via autonomous motivation. Furthermore, leader empowering behavior not only enhances the positive impact of self-leadership on autonomous motivation, but also positively moderates the mediating effect of autonomous motivation in the relationship between self-leadership and job crafting. Practically, our study provides insights into how to promote job crafting. We also propose limitations and directions for future research.

Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis

The importance of humble leadership has garnered attention from both researchers and practitioners. Unfortunately, despite the accumulation of recent findings on the effects of leader humility, a quantitative review remains scant. In addressing this void, this study is among the first to conduct a meta-analytic review of humble leadership and its outcomes. Eighty-four correlations (N = 16,534) from 53 independent studies are synthesized. The authors found that: (a) humble leadership is positively related to affective commitment (ρ = 0.56), affective trust (ρ = 0.62), creativity (ρ = 0.39), engagement (ρ = 0.40), leader-member exchange (LMX) (ρ = 0.58), job satisfaction (ρ = 0.51), organizational identification (ρ = 0.48), psychological empowerment (ρ = 0.33), self-efficacy (ρ = 0.24), task performance (ρ = 0.33), and voice (ρ = 0.34); and that (b) humble leadership contributes a significant incremental variance beyond transformational, servant, and ethical leadership in several crucial criterion variables, providing solid evidence for the construct's uniqueness. However, humble leadership does not explain incremental variance in some criterion variables, indicating that future studies should control for the influence of some positive leadership (e.g., transformational and servant leadership). Age, gender, study design, country, and year partially moderate the correlations of interest. We discuss our findings with caution and propose future research directions.

Effect of humble leadership on proactive work behavior: The mediating role of psychological empowerment among nurses

AIM

This study was designed to determine the effect of humble leadership on nurses' proactive behaviors at work through psychological empowerment.

BACKGROUND

Nurse leaders' humility has a profound effect on enhancing nurses' proactive work behavior; yet, the mechanism underlying this pattern of effect remains unknown.

METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in all nine Universal Health Insurance hospitals in Port Said, Egypt. Using scales for assessing leader humility, sychological empowerment, and proactive behavior at work, 316 nurses were surveyed. Regression analyses and structural equation models were used to examine the study hypothetical model.

RESULTS

The results revealed that humble leadership, psychological empowerment, and proactive work behavior were significantly positively correlated. Psychological empowerment fully mediated the relationship between humble leadership and proactive work behavior.

CONCLUSION

This study emphasized the value of humble leadership in psychologically empowering nurses, which results in greater proactive work behavior.

IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Nurse managers should lead their nursing staff with humility, which could increase the level of nurses' psychological empowerment and proactive behaviors at work, which will be reflected positively on the staffs and the organization.

Authentic Leadership, Trust, and Social Exchange Relationships under the Influence of Leader Behavior

During the pandemic, government policies such as social distancing and telework have impacted trust and working or social exchange relationships in the workplace. The behavior of leaders is critical for good leadership, employees’ trust, and social exchange relationships. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the associations among authentic leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships under the influence of leader behavior. A regression-based approach was used to test the moderating and mediating effects. The results show that authentic leadership positively impacts trust and social exchange relationships, whereas trust directly affects social exchange relationships. During COVID-19, leader behaviors with ability, ethics, and positive relationships have had a positive impact on the association between authentic leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships. Additionally, trust positively mediates authentic leadership and social exchange relationships. The findings of this paper suggest that authentic leadership promotes trust and high-quality social exchange relationships. Moreover, based on leader behaviors during COVID-19, the ability to manage change effectively, boost employees’ work motivation, provide support, and take appropriate action is essential for authentic leadership to increase trust and foster a positive working relationship based on social exchange. Finally, regarding social exchange theory, high-quality leader behaviors and the leader–follower relationships drive positive associations among variables. These results will help organizational management teams to find methods to improve their organizational working relationships. The implication is that the abilities, ethics, and supportive and positive relationship behaviors of leaders are essential for effective management to improve leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships. Leaders should have the ability to manage work and people, even with teleworkers. Therefore, leader behaviors are important to maintain organizational sustainability. Further discussion on theoretical and practical implications is provided in the section.

Perceived Organizational Support and Career Satisfaction among Chinese Teachers: The Mediation Effects of Job Crafting and Work Engagement during COVID-19

Recently, scientific theories on career satisfaction (CS) have been promoted worldwide. Research on the subject has become more and more popular, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study adds to the existing literature by investigating the impact of organizational support on career satisfaction through the mediation role of job crafting and work engagement among Chinese teachers. A diverse sample of teachers (n = 3147) was drawn from various schools in Zhejiang province (P.R. China), from June to September 2021. SPSS 26 software with PROCESS macro and JASP was used to analyze the data. The findings demonstrate that perceived organizational support (POS), job crafting (JC), and work engagement (WE) have a significant and positive relation with teachers’ career satisfaction. POS was serially associated with JC (b = 0.34, p = 0.001), CS (b = 0.40, p = 0.001), and WE (b = 0.49, p0.001). The residual direct pathways for JC → CS (b = 0.55, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [0.51, 0.60]) and for WE → CS (b = 0.47, p = 0.001, 95% CI = [0.44, 0.50]) were significant. Sequentially, JC and WE mediated the relation between POS and CS. The multiple mediation model supported our general hypothesis that JC and WE mediate the relationship between POS and CS.

Strengths-Based Job Crafting and Employee Creativity: The Role of Job Self-Efficacy and Workplace Status

While argued to be fostering creativity, the effect of job crafting on creativity often turned out to be less effective than expected. The reason is that most existing studies focused on the top-down job design interventions. We proposed an elaborated theoretical model to explain the influence of strengths-based job crafting (SJC) on employee creativity (EC). Specifically, we examined the mediating effect of job self-efficacy (JSE) and the moderating effect of workplace status (WP) based on self-affirmation theory. A sample of 480 employees and their supervisors completed a battery of questionnaires. The results revealed that strengths-based job crafting was positively related to employee creativity, with job self-efficacy acting as a mediator for this relationship. Workplace status moderated both the direct and the indirect effects of job self-efficacy. For employees with a higher workplace status, strengths-based job crafting may generate more forces to promote employee creativity. The results suggest that strengths-based job crafting and workplace status can inspire employee creativity through a self-affirmation process.

Nurses' strengths use and turnover intention: The roles of job crafting and self-efficacy

AIMS

Based on conservation of resources theory, the study aimed to investigate how nurses' strengths use affects their turnover intention and its potential mechanisms and boundary conditions.

DESIGN

The study adopted a time-lagged research design.

METHODS

The study was conducted from October 2019 to January 2020, with a sample of 234 registered nurses in a tertiary hospital in Beijing, China. The study used bootstrapping to test the hypotheses.

RESULTS

Strengths use had a significant negative effect on turnover intention, and job crafting completely mediated the relationship between strengths use and turnover intention. Furthermore, self-efficacy positively moderated the direct relationship between strengths use and job crafting and the indirect relationship between strengths use and turnover intention via job crafting.

CONCLUSION

The study is the first to examine the relationships among nurses' strengths use and turnover intention, demonstrating that the activation and accumulation of work resources through job crafting can effectively reduce nurses' turnover intention. Additionally, by emphasizing the moderating effect of self-efficacy, the study contributes to finding a way for hospitals to enhance the effectiveness of nurses' strengths use in terms of increased job crafting and reduced turnover intention.

IMPACT

Nurse managers should help nurses identify their strengths to improve their strengths use, provide nurses with more freedom to craft their jobs and take actions to build nurses' self-efficacy and positive expectations about their jobs.

A state-of-the-art overview of job-crafting research: current trends and future research directions

Purpose

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Career Development International, a state-of-the-art overview of recent trends in job-crafting research was conducted. Since job crafting was introduced twenty years ago as a type of proactive work behavior that employees engage in to adjust their jobs to their needs, skills, and preferences, research has evolved tremendously.

Design/methodology/approach

To take stock of recent developments and to unravel the latest trends in the field, this overview encompasses job-crafting research published in the years 2016–2021. The overview portrays that recent contributions have matured the theoretical and empirical advancement of job-crafting research from three perspectives (i.e. individual, team and social).

Findings

When looking at the job-crafting literature through these three perspectives, a total of six trends were uncovered that show that job-crafting research has moved to a more in-depth theory-testing approach; broadened its scope; examined team-level job crafting and social relationships; and focused on the impact of job crafting on others in the work environment and their evaluations and reactions to it.

Originality/value

The overview of recent trends within the job-crafting literature ends with a set of recommendations for how future research on job crafting could progress and create scientific impact for the coming years.

How and when does follower’s strengths-based leadership contribute to follower work engagement? The roles of strengths use and core self-evaluation

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of follower’s strengths-based leadership (FSBL) with follower work engagement. Additionally, this study also examined the mediational effect of employee strengths use and the moderating effect of core self-evaluation (CSE) on the relationship between FSBL and follower work engagement. Data were garnered at two points in time with a time lag of 2 months. Moderated-mediation path analysis with a total of 238 employees working in a research and design institute in Beijing was deployed to examine our hypotheses. As hypothesized, FSBL was a statistically significant predictor of work engagement, and strengths use acted as a mediator in the FSBL-work engagement relationship. In addition, we also found that CSE significantly and negatively moderates the direct effect of FSBL on strengths use and the indirect effect of FSBL on work engagement through strengths use. This study advances the FSBL theory and research and provides a new insight into the driving force of work engagement.

Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and regulatory focus at work in relation to strengths use and deficit correction in the workplace

Extant research has shown that grandiose narcissism predicts a wide range of work-related outcomes. However, despite differentiating in the social-personality literature besides grandiose narcissism also its vulnerable form, there is little organizational research that would include both expressions of narcissism, in particular with regard to positive organizational behaviors, including strengths use and deficit correction in the workplace. In addition, the role of dark-side personality traits, such as narcissism, in predicting strengths use and deficit correction in the workplace, in particular in regard to motivational factors, seems understudied. Accordingly, this study adds to the literature on narcissism in the organizational context by investigating the direct effects of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism and motivational orientation in the form of regulatory focus at work on strengths use and deficit correction in the workplace. Based on a sample of 446 working adults from the Polish population, it was found that grandiose narcissism positively predicted both strengths use and deficit correction. In turn, vulnerable narcissism was unrelated to strengths use and deficit correction. Furthermore, drawing on the distal-proximal model of work-specific regulatory focus, it also tested whether regulatory focus at work has the incremental validity over grandiose and vulnerable narcissism in predicting strengths use and deficit correction. The hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both promotion and prevention focus were positively associated with strengths use and deficit correction, predicting them beyond grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. The theoretical and practical implications of this study in the context of narcissism in the workplace and positive organizational scholarship are discussed.

Can Leaders’ Humility Enhance Project Management Effectiveness? Interactive Effect of Top Management Support

This paper aims to explore the effect of humble leadership on project management effectiveness by integrating the mediating role of employee creativity. Top management support moderates the direct (humble leadership and project management effectiveness) and indirect relationships through employee creativity. Time-lagged data were obtained from 332 persons working in a matrix organization on sustainable information technology projects. The results show that humble leadership enhances project management effectiveness by mediating and moderating processes. This study provides a solution to an underlying research question that has gone unanswered in prior studies. What are the strategies proposed for humble leadership in fostering the effectiveness of project management?

The Paradox of Citizenship Cost: Examining a Longitudinal Indirect Effect of Altruistic Citizenship Behavior on Work-Family Conflict Through Coworker Support

The objective of this study was to address the paradox of citizenship cost by hypothesizing an indirect rather than a direct effect of altruistic citizenship behavior (ACB) on employee work–family conflict (WFC) through coworker support (CWS). Data were gathered in a three-wave longitudinal survey of employees from private commercial banks (N = 318). A multiple linear autoregressive longitudinal mediation model was analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that rather than directly, ACB affects indirectly employee WFC through CWS. This indirect effect is negative, which reflects that the costs of citizenship behavior are paradoxical. The present study contributes to the ongoing debate on the positive and negative outcomes of employee citizenship behavior by providing empirical evidence on the beneficial rather than harmful effect of performing such behavior. For organizational managers, promoting a culture of CWS by encouraging altruistic behaviors can be a most viable strategy to reduce WFC among their employees. The study discusses its limitations and provides future research directions.

Explaining Organizational Citizenship Behavior Among Chinese Nurses Combating COVID-19

Background

Little is known about the associated factors with organizational citizenship behavior among Chinese nurses combating COVID-19. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationships between autonomy, optimism, role conflict, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behavior based on moderated mediation models among Chinese nurses combating COVID-19.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was performed on a sample of 368 nurses supporting the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital, China. According to the Job Demands-Resources model, two moderated mediation models were tested, in which autonomy/optimism was associated with organizational citizenship behavior through work engagement, when role conflict served as a moderator.

Results

This current study found the mediating effect of work engagement and the moderating effect of role conflict on the relationship between autonomy/optimism and organizational citizenship behavior among nurses. Of note, nurses working in the COVID-19 epidemic viewed role conflict as challenge job demands rather than hindrance job demands.

Conclusion

Based on the findings, organizational citizenship behavior can be affected by work engagement and role conflict. Nursing management is suggested to put emphasis on work engagement and role conflict among nurses supporting the COVID-19 epidemic.

Authentic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour: the role of psychological capital

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect effects of authentic leadership on organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) with the presence of psychological capital as a mediating factor.

Design/methodology/approach

This quantitative research was conducted among 396 front-line employees in six public sector organizations in Sri Lanka. A survey method was employed to collect the data.

Findings

It was found that psychological capital partially mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and OCB. In other words, the relationship between authentic leadership and OCB is both direct and indirect, mediated though psychological capital.

Research limitations/implications

The authenticity of leaders' conduct, psychological capabilities and the outcomes of the performance, are rooted in and reinforced by the culture of the particular organization; hence, the findings should be interpreted cautiously.

Practical implications

The framework of the present study provides a guideline to the top management of the public sector in Sri Lanka to design leadership programs that can develop authentic leaders.

Originality/value

The direct and indirect relationships established between authentic leadership and psychological capital and OCB signifies the critical importance of authentic leadership in the development of psychological capital and OCB among employees.

The Impact of Social Factors on Job Crafting: A Meta-Analysis and Review

Despite the considerable focus on job characteristics and individual differences in job crafting research, the influence of social factors on job crafting has not been well-acknowledged. Based on social interaction and job crafting literature, this meta-analysis estimates the associations between social factors (i.e., organizational insiders and outsiders) and job crafting, and how these social factors contribute to employee outcomes through their job crafting. Based on a sample of 51 empirical studies that included 54 independent samples (N = 17,863), we found that social factors of positive leadership styles (e.g., empowering and transformational) and coworker support were positively related to employee job crafting. Moreover, leadership showed a stronger correlation with employee job crafting than coworker support and Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX). Further, our study showed that employee job crafting positively mediates the relationships between social factors and work outcomes (e.g., job performance and well-being). Our study contributes to job crafting literature by integrating social factors into the job crafting model and demonstrating that the social context of work (in particular organizational insiders) plays a crucial role in shaping employees’ job crafting behavior. We also emphasize the critical role that job crafting plays in transmitting valuable social resources into improved work outcomes. Building on our results, we provide future direction for job crafting research and discuss how our results can imply practice in terms of job crafting training.

Employee Strengths Use and Thriving at Work

Abstract. This study aimed to investigate the relationship of employee strengths use with thriving at work by proposing a moderated mediation model. Data were collected at two time points, spaced by a 2-week interval. A total of 260 medical staff completed strengths use, perceived humble leadership, self-efficacy, and thriving scales. The results of path analysis showed that strengths use is positively related to thriving, and self-efficacy mediates the relationship of strengths use with thriving. In addition, this study also found perceived humble leadership to positively moderate the direct relationship of strengths use with self-efficacy and the indirect relationship of strengths use with thriving via self-efficacy. This study contributes to a better understanding of how and when strengths use affects thriving.