Employee Perspectives of Leader Value Orientations, Affect, Trust, and Work Intentions

Abstract

This empirical study on employee perspectives of latent leader value orientations (LVOs), employee psychological job states, and work intentions deployed an online survey to 944 employees within global organizations. Empirical analysis using structural equation modeling confirmed that employee job state positive affect fully mediated relations between LVOs and employee work intentions more so than employee job state negative affect and cognitive-based and affective-based trust in leader. LVO1 (low self-concern and high other-orientation) triggered positive employee psychological job states of greater magnitude than LVO2 (high self-concern and high other-orientation). This finding offers new insight relating to the influence of high leader other-orientation on employee psychological experiences of work considering LVO2 had been reported as ideal. LVO3 (high self-concern and low other-orientation) had the strongest differential associations with employee psychological job states implying that leaders who are perceived by employees to be driven by high self-concern, even in the presence of low other-orientation, evoke strong negative employee psychological responses. Implications for theory and practical strategies to develop leader other-orientation in organizations are presented.