The Influence Mechanism of Paradoxical Leadership on Employees’ Proactive Behavior: The Role of Team Internal Network Strength and Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi

Abstract

The so-called paradoxical leadership is a new type of leadership that uses contradictory and integrated thinking to balance and coordinate environmental changes, and it is complex in thinking and action by coping with organization conflicts. At present, the increasingly complex business environment not only poses new challenges to managers, but also puts forward new requirements for employees. On the one hand, employees can no longer adapt to the current workplace ecology simply by completing instructional tasks and routine work, and organizations need employees change from being passive” to proactive”. On the other hand, the dominant or injunctive leadership in organizations will restrict employees’ proactive behavior. Therefore, how to effectively motivate employees’ proactive behavior has become a paradox” problem. Different from traditional leadership, paradoxical leadership breaks through the limitations of the previous leadership behavior, which can give consideration to the both-and” two acts, and play an irreplaceable role in the effective solution of the organization dilemma. Past research indicates that paradoxical leadership has an effect on employees’ proactive behavior, but the underlying mechanism of paradoxical leadership on employees’ proactive behavior is still unclear. Based on the matched field data collected from 58 direct supervisors and 209 employees, this paper examines the specific mechanism of internal interaction between paradoxical leadership and employees’ proactive behavior from the perspective of social network relations, and further examines the influence of supervisor-subordinate Guanxi on the relationship between team internal network strength and employees’ proactive behavior. The results of the hierarchical linear model revealed that paradoxical leadership has a significant positive impact on the employees’ proactive behavior. The study of mediating effects shows that the impact of paradoxical leadership on employees’ proactive behavior is mainly through team internal network strength. Moreover, the relationship between team internal network strength and employees’ proactive behavior is influenced by supervisor-subordinate Guanxi, that is, the stronger the supervisor-subordinate Guanxi is, the less the influence of the internal network strength on employees’ proactive behavior is. The above conclusions have some significance for both theory and practice. In theory, first, they help enrich the theoretical research of paradoxical leadership in Chinese cultural context; second, they explain the impact results of paradoxical leadership from the perspective of social network relations, and also provide a new perspective for interpreting the formation mechanism of employees’ proactive behavior; finally, the results also expand the research thinking of supervisor-subordinate Guanxi in the field of leadership. In practice, the above conclusions not only strengthen the guiding significance of paradoxical leadership for practice, but also provide references for enterprises to effectively improve employees’ proactive behavior.