More humility, less counterproductive work behaviors? The role of interpersonal justice and trust

Yue Wang,Yirong Guo,Wenhao Luo,Jing Zhang

doi:10.1186/s11782-019-0069-7

Abstract

Leader humility has emerged as an important topic in understanding the role of leadership in organizations in recent years. Though it was found to enhance subordinates’ work performance and positive work behaviors, we are unaware of the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions underlying leader humility and employees’ negative behaviors toward leaders. Drawing on social exchange theory and using a multistage sample including 273 employees and 55 supervisors in China, we demonstrated a negative indirect effect between leader humility and subordinates’ counterproductive work behaviors toward supervisors (CWB-S) via interpersonal justice and trust in supervisor. Furthermore, we find that leader political skill moderates the effect of leader humility on interpersonal justice and trust in supervisor. The indirect effect of leader humility on subordinates’ CWB-S through interpersonal justice is stronger when leader political skill is high, suggesting a moderated mediation model. Finally, we discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study, and highlight future directions for research on leader humility.

Highlights

In today’s business environment, which is characterized by increasing dynamics and uncertainty, it is becoming increasingly difficult for a leader to “figure it all out at the top” (Morris et al 2005; Senge 1990, p. 7)
The baseline model yields the best fit when compared with a four-factor model in which trust in supervisors and counterproductive workplace behaviors toward supervisors (CWB-S) were set to one latent variable (χ2 (135) = 304.67, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.90, RMSEA = 0.07, SRMRwithin = 0.08, SRMRbetween = 0.27); a three-factor model in which interpersonal justice, trust in supervisors, and CWB-S were set to one latent variable (χ2 (140) = 427.02, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.87, TLI = 0.84, RMSEA = 0.09, SRMRwithin = 0.09, SRMRbetween = 0.29); and a two-factor model in which all individual-level variables were set to one latent variable (χ2 (143) = 711.89, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.74, TLI = 0.69, RMSEA = 0.12, SRMRwithin = 0.11, SRMRbetween = 0.32) (Table 1)
The results show that the indirect effects of leader humility on CWB-S via interpersonal justice and via trust in supervisor are significant

Summary

Introduction

In today’s business environment, which is characterized by increasing dynamics and uncertainty, it is becoming increasingly difficult for a leader to “figure it all out at the top” (Morris et al 2005; Senge 1990, p. 7). Wang et al Frontiers of Business Research in China (2019) 13:20 that leader humility substantially shapes interpersonal interactions between leaders and followers, and affects perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral responses. Most current research on leader humility focuses on how it promotes followers’ positive behaviors toward their work and organizations, such as task performance (Diao et al 2019; Yu and Wang 2017), voice (Li et al 2019), helping behavior (Mao et al 2017), and creativity (Lei et al 2015). Whether and how leader humility affects followers’ negative behaviors toward their supervisors remains unclear. The present study intends to examine the influence of leader humility on followers’ counterproductive workplace behaviors toward supervisors (CWB-S), a type of negative behavior directed at a supervisor

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion