Why Do Leaders Express Humility and How Does This Matter: A Rational Choice Perspective.

Jianchun Yang,Wei Zhang,Xiao Chen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01925

Abstract

The utility of leader humility expressing behavior has been examined by several studies across multiple levels. However, our knowledge about why leaders express humility continues to be sparse. Drawing on rational choice theory, this paper proposes a model examining whether followers’ capability triggers leader’s humility expressing behavior and how followers’ interpretations of it influence its effectiveness. Results from 278 leader-follower dyads from a time-lagged research design showed that followers’ capability as perceived by the leader is positively related to leader-expressed humility and, in turn, this behavior would conditionally enhance follower trust, that is, followers will trust the humble leader less when they attribute leader’s expressed humility more to serving impression management motives. Several theoretical and practical implications of this observation are discussed in this study.

Highlights

Since Owens and Hekman (2012) developed a theoretical model of humble leader behavior, leaders’ humility expressing behavior has been receiving growing attention from leadership scholars (Owens and Hekman, 2012)
Drawing from rational choice theory (Coleman and Fararo, 1992), we propose that leaders’ decisions in favor of expressing humility are the results of a rational calculation that they can benefit from such specific actions
Follower trust was significantly related to leader humility (r = 0.30, p < 0.01)

Summary

Introduction

Since Owens and Hekman (2012) developed a theoretical model of humble leader behavior, leaders’ humility expressing behavior has been receiving growing attention from leadership scholars (Owens and Hekman, 2012). Previous studies showed that personal traits such as narcissism and honesty-humility were related to expressed humility (Owens et al, 2013); other individual differences such as learning goal orientation, relational identity and leader incremental theory of the self are predictors of leaders’ humble behaviors (Owens et al, 2013; Wang L. et al, 2018) Another perspective emphasizes the importance of situational factors in affecting various leader behaviors, e.g., environmental strength (e.g., crisis) and organizational structure (Tuncdogan et al, 2017).

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