How and when leader humility encourages follower leadership potential

Abstract

Leader humility has received increasing attention in research and practice in recent years; however, little is known regarding whether leader humility can foster followers’ leadership potential. Drawing on expectation states theory and using data collected from 216 supervisor-subordinate dyads, we investigate how and when leader humility can foster followers’ leadership potential. Results indicate that leader humility promotes followers’ leadership potential (i.e., followers’ motivation to lead and taking-charge behaviors) via the followers’ perception of their own workplace status. However, the aforementioned effects occur only among those followers who are high in individualistic orientation. Our research offers novel theoretical and practical insights into consequences of leader humility.