Abstract
New generation employees have become the main force of the organization, and their proactive behavior directly affects the organization’s future development. How to effectively stimulate the proactive behavior of new generation employees has become a hot topic in the field of organizational management. Based on the integrated perspective of social exchange and self-enhancement, we constructed a multistep mediation model to explore the influence mechanism of distributed leadership on the proactive behavior of new generation employees. We designed a three-stage research method of supervisor-employee pairing to collect data from 26 supervisors and 304 new generation employees in a new energy vehicle company in East China. Results indicated that (a) distributed leadership is positively related to proactive behavior of new generation employees; (b) idiosyncratic deals and meaningfulness of work mediated the linkage between distributed leadership and new generation employees’ proactive behavior; (c) idiosyncratic deals and meaningfulness of work play a multistep mediation role between distributed leadership and new generation employees’ proactive behavior. These findings have theoretical implications for the proactive behavior literature and managerial implications for practitioners.
Highlights
New generation employees born in the “post 1980s” and “post 1990s” have gradually become the backbone and protagonist of a company, and their proactive behavior directly affects the company’s future development (Fang et al, 2019)
The empirical results showed that distributed leadership was positively related to new generation employees’ proactive behavior, which was mediated by idiosyncratic deals, meaningfulness of work, and their multistep mediation
This study provides new insight into the relationship between distributed leadership and the proactive behavior of new generation employees and helps us better understand the impact of distributed leadership on proactive behavior
Summary
New generation employees born in the “post 1980s” and “post 1990s” have gradually become the backbone and protagonist of a company, and their proactive behavior directly affects the company’s future development (Fang et al, 2019). In this vein, organizations enhance the requirement of employees’ proactive behavior. With the economic development of society and changes in work methods, the traditional authoritative style of leadership can no longer adapt to the psychological characteristics of new generation employees, who use new work concepts, techniques, and social rules (Fang et al, 2019). How to effectively managing new generation employees and fully inspiring their proactive behavior has become a new challenge for the organization managers.
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