You Cause my Humility: The Dyadic Effect of Co-Worker Humility on Performance

Abstract

Humble leaders have subordinates with improved organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, creativity, and performance. In this line of research, humility is typically construed as a leader trait that affects subordinates. Little is known about the effect of humility among same-level co-workers. We address this gap by uncovering the effect of humility on performance within dyads of co-workers in teams. We hypothesize that humility perception is situational, affected by co-workers (not only by the supervisor), and dyadic. It rises or falls, depending on the identity of the co-worker one interacts with. Also, we propose that humility is related to performance at the dyadic level. Finally, we suggest that the relationship between humility and performance is mediated by psychological safety at the dyadic level. We studied humility with the Social Relations Model (SRM) both in unacquainted (Study 1), moderately-acquainted (Study 2), and well-acquainted work teams (Study 3) and found support for our hypotheses. Counterintuitively, humility is a product of the employees’ unique combination and not just an individual-difference construct. Moreover, this unique-dyadic combination also affects dyadic performance and mediated by psychological safety.