High Power Distance Orientation Research Articles

The effects of leader–subordinate power distance orientation congruence on employees' taking charge behaviors in China: a moderated mediation model

PurposeBased on the social exchange theory, this study explores the mechanism of leader–subordinate power distance orientation (PDO) congruence with employees' taking charge behavior (TCB) and also verifies the moderated mediation effect of employees' promotion regulatory focus (PROM-F) on leader–subordinate PDO congruence and on employees' TCB through trust in the leader (which is the mediator).Design/methodology/approachBased on 296 questionnaires from 46 teams of Chinese enterprises, the authors use cross-level polynomial regressions and response surface techniques to analyze the effect of leader–subordinate PDO congruence on employees' TCB and use the block variable technique to test the mediating effect of trust in the leader.Findings(1) When leader–subordinates' PDO is congruent, the leader–subordinate low-low PDO matching pattern leads to more employees' TCB than the leader–subordinate high-high PDO matching pattern. (2) When leader–subordinate PDO is incongruent, the leader–subordinate low–high PDO matching pattern will lead to more TCB than the high-low PDO pattern.Practical implications(1) Encourage and promote the development of diverse cultures in enterprises. (2) Respect the power and status of employees and encourage a low-PDO leadership style. (3) Increase credibility by developing and establishing a good corporate leader image.Originality/value(1) The unique background of this survey offers important cross-cultural information on the effects of leader–subordinate PDO congruence. (2) The results of this research enrich the theoretical understanding of the factors that influence TCB. (3) Reveal the internal mechanisms of CPD congruence with TCB and demonstrate an indirect effect of trust in leader. (4) The discussion of the moderating role of employee's PROM-F will also deepen the understanding of the exchange relationship between leaders and subordinates.

The effect of leader and follower extraversion on leader-member exchange: An interpersonal perspective incorporating power distance orientation

ABSTRACT Organizational research commonly proposes that leader and/or follower extraversion will be positively related to leader-member exchange (LMX). The assumption is that being social translates into high-quality relationships. We move beyond this intrapersonal hypothesis and offer an interpersonal hypothesis. Following similarity-attraction theory, we suggest that leader-follower extraversion similarity positively relates to LMX. We also suggest that this relationship depends on follower perspectives regarding appropriate relationship power dynamics. Polynomial regression and moderated polynomial regression analysis using 374 leader-follower dyads found that the relationship between leader-follower extraversion similarity and LMX is significant for followers high in power distance orientation (PDO), but not for followers low in PDO. We also found that low PDO enhances the effect of follower extraversion on LMX, and that for high PDO followers, LMX was highest when leader-follower similarity occurred at extreme levels along the extraversion-introversion continuum compared to similarity at moderate levels (i.e., ambiverts).

Examining fit perceptions and workplace bullying relationship: The moderating role of power distance orientation

The present study examines the relationship between fit perceptions (person-job fit – PJ fit and person-supervisor fit – PS fit) and workplace bullying with power distance orientation (PDO) as a moderator. Drawing from data collected amongst a sample of full-time Indian managerial employees (N = 835), results revealed that PJ fit and PS fit negatively related to workplace bullying. PDO qualified fit perceptions-bullying relationships such that the negative relationships between fit perceptions and bullying were weaker for employees with high PDO. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Leader Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior and Employee Unethical Conduct: Social Learning of Moral Disengagement as a Behavioral Principle

Unethical behavior in organizations has attracted much attention among researchers, yet we know little about when and why unethical behavior conducted by leaders that is intended to benefit the organization—or leader unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB)—might translate into employee unethical behavior. Drawing on a social-learning-of-principle perspective, which proposes that people can learn the principles that govern observed behaviors, we propose that employees, especially those with a high power distance orientation, can abstract and learn a moral disengagement behavioral principle by observing leader UPB. This learned moral disengagement behavioral principle then enables them to engage in unethical behaviors that may be intended to benefit or harm their organizations. In two multiwave field studies with data collected from real estate agents, we found overall support for our theoretical model but the moderating effect of power distance orientation. We discuss some key theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

An Examination of Workplace Bullying in the Public Sector: A Multilevel Moderated Mediation Model

Workplace bullying is a negative psychosocial factor discouraging public servants to stay engaged and committed to the organization. This study contributes new insights into the understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of workplace bullying in the public sector. Drawing from three theoretical perspectives such as Social Learning, Social Information Processing, and Affective Events, we tested the multi-level relationships between ethical leadership, workplace bullying, and affective commitment of public servants under the moderating effects of power distance orientation and displaced aggression. Using data collected from 289 public servants nested in 59 teams in a province of a Southeast Asian country, there was empirical support for the importance of ethical leadership in decreasing workplace bullying and increasing affective commitment. Employees with high-power distance orientation who work with ethical leaders are more likely to accept workplace bullying behaviors. In situations where workplace bullying is high, employees who express a moderate level of displaced aggression will report a lower level of affective commitment. These findings highlight the importance of a consideration of contextual contexts and emotional reactions in understanding workplace bullying and its outcomes.

Effects of supervisor bottom-line mentality on subordinate unethical pro-organizational behavior

PurposeThis study aims to examine how supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) influences subordinate unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), considering the mediating role of subordinate moral disengagement and the moderating role of their power-distance orientation.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical model was tested using two-wave data collected from employees of five firms in southern China.FindingsSubordinate moral disengagement was found to mediate the positive relationship between supervisor BLM and subordinate UPB. Furthermore, for subordinates with high power-distance orientation, the positive relationship between supervisor BLM and subordinate moral disengagement and the indirect positive relationship between supervisor BLM and subordinate UPB were both strengthened.Practical implicationsFirst, organizations should train their employees to pursue goals ethically based on established standards and policies for acceptable behavior and to punish UPB. Second, organizations should strengthen employees' ethics and reduce their likelihood of moral disengagement. Finally, organizations should create an environment that allows subordinates to question their supervisors’ BLM.Originality/valueFirst, the results demonstrate that supervisor BLM is an antecedent of subordinate UPB. Second, the study sheds important new light on how employees respond to supervisor BLM through cognitive processes. Third, it examines the moderating role of subordinate power-distance orientation between supervisor BLM, moral disengagement and UPB.

Handling inter-organisational conflict based on bargaining power

PurposeThis paper aims to reveal the effects of an organisation’s bargaining power on its negotiating behaviours (including integrating, obliging, compromising, dominating and avoiding) in the context of inter-organisational conflict in construction projects and investigate how organisational power distance orientation moderates the relationship between the organisation’s bargaining power and its negotiating behaviours.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a questionnaire survey among practitioners in the Chinese construction industry with the final sample consisting of 219 responses. A structural equation model was used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results reveal that an organisation’s bargaining power is positively associated with dominating and integrating behaviours but negatively associated with obliging and avoiding behaviours. Additionally, bargaining power is found to be negatively associated with compromising behaviour when the organisation has a high power distance orientation. Finally, a higher degree of power distance orientation strengthens the positive effect bargaining power has on dominating behaviour.Practical implicationsThe findings can help practitioners to predict the negotiating behaviours of a counterpart according to its bargaining power and the power distance in its organisational culture. This can then enable practitioners to adjust their strategies accordingly and steer the negotiations towards a win–win outcome.Originality/valueThis study applies the approach-inhibition theory of power to inter-organisational negotiations and empirically tests the relationship between an organisation’s bargaining power and its negotiating behaviours in the context of construction projects. Additionally, this study reveals that organisational power distance orientation moderates this relationship.

Organizational Control Policy, Information Security Deviance, and Moderating Effect of Power Distance Orientation

Researchers generally believe that organizational control can deter employees' information security deviant behaviors. However, these relationships are not always observed. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory, this study extends the content domain of information security research by examining the moderating effect of power distance orientation, a kind of cultural value, on these relationships. In the results, first, the severity of penalty and the certainty of detection decreases employees' computer abuse. Second, employee power distance orientation moderates the relationships of the severity of penalty with employee computer abuse, such that the negative relationships are stronger for employees with higher power distance orientation. The findings suggest the deterrent function of cultural values employees hold in organizational behavior.

Differential promotive voice–prohibitive voice relationships with employee performance: Power distance orientation as a moderator

Increased attention has been paid to research on the outcomes of voice. However, the existing findings on the relationship between voice and employee performance are inconclusive. To address the insufficient understanding of the voice–employee performance relationship, this study proposed a model that specifies the relationships between two types of voice (i.e., promotive and prohibitive) and employee performance along with the moderating role of power distance orientation. The results of the analysis of a sample in China that comprised 80 leaders and 431 employees showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between promotive voice and employee performance and a positive linear relationship between prohibitive voice and employee performance. Power distance orientation was found to significantly moderate the nonlinear and linear relationships. Specifically, the inverted U-shaped relationship was more pronounced, while the positive linear relationship was weaker among employees with high power distance orientation. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed, along with the limitations of this study and future research directions.

Leaders' Behaviors Matter: The Role of Delegation in Promoting Employees' Feedback-Seeking Behavior.

Feedback helps employees to evaluate and improve their performance, but there have been relatively few empirical investigations into how leaders can encourage employees to seek feedback. To fill this gap we examined the relationship among delegation, psychological empowerment, and feedback-seeking behavior. We hypothesized that delegation promotes feedback-seeking behavior by psychologically empowering subordinates. In addition, power distance moderates the relationship between delegation and feedback-seeking behavior. Analysis of data from a sample of 248 full-time employees of a hotel group in northern China indicated that delegation predicts subordinates’ feedback seeking for individuals with moderate and high power distance orientation, but not for those with low power distance orientation. The mediation hypothesis was also supported.

The Joint Moderating Effects of Activated Negative Moods and Group Voice Climate on the Relationship between Power Distance Orientation and Employee Voice Behavior

Employees inherently have concerns about the consequences of speaking up, and this is particularly notable for employees with high power distance orientation (PDO). Drawing on ideas from the dual-pathway model of mood and social information processing theory, we propose that activated negative mood and group voice climate can synergistically facilitate high-PDO employees' voice behaviors. Using a sample from 305 real-estate sales agents in 66 work groups in Taiwan, we examined the joint moderating effects of activated negative mood and group voice climate on employees' two forms of voice behavior. Our results show that PDO had a negative relationship with promotive voice but did not have a significant relationship with prohibitive voice. Nevertheless, our results show that in the situation where both activated negative mood and group voice climate were high, PDO no longer had a negative relationship with promotive voice, and even had a positive relationship with prohibitive voice. The findings of this study provide theoretical insights for the voice literature and offer practical suggestions for facilitating opinion expression in organisations.

Unspoken yet Understood: An Introduction and Initial Framework of Subordinates’MoqiWith Supervisors

Across two studies and five samples, we introduce the Chinese construct of moqi (a tacit understanding of another person’s expectations and intentions) as a key, but heretofore overlooked, aspect of supervisor–subordinate relationships. In Study 1, using qualitative and quantitative methods, we develop a subordinate-focused moqi scale and establish its discriminant and criterion-related validity. In Study 2, using three-wave data from three sources (subordinates, coworkers, and supervisors), we test an integrative, information-based model explicating (1) subordinates’ actions that are useful in acquiring the necessary information to develop moqi with their supervisor; (2) boundary conditions affecting subordinates’ sensitivity to information and, hence, their development of moqi with the supervisor; and (3) the informational process underlying subordinate moqi’s positive relationship with work effectiveness. Findings suggest that subordinates’ implicit and explicit feedback seeking positively predicted their subsequent perceptions of moqi with a supervisor and, moreover, that the relationship between implicit feedback seeking and subordinate moqi is enhanced by higher subordinate power distance orientation and face consciousness. Results also indicate that subordinate moqi influences task performance and reward recommendations for subordinates via the mediation of increased goal clarity, and the indirect effects is more pronounced for subordinates with higher power distance orientation. We offer an important discussion of moqi’s cultural nuances and make several suggestions for a robust future research agenda.

Authoritarian leadership and employee silence in China

AbstractWe examine the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence behaviour with 324 employees in 16 state-owned manufacturing enterprises in China. We draw from theories of motivation and person–environment fit to explain the mediating roles of psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem, and the moderating effects of power distance orientation. Regression analyses show that authoritarian leadership has a positive relationship with employee silence behaviour. Mediation analyses show that both psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem partially mediate the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence. Moderation analysis revealed that the direct relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee silence behaviour is stronger for employees with high (as opposed to low) power distance orientation. Additionally, moderated-mediation analyses show that the mediating effects of both psychological safety and organization-based self-esteem are stronger for employees with low (as opposed to high) power distance orientation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

How does ethical leadership influence employees' whistleblowing intention? Evidence from China

We investigated the relationship between ethical leadership and employees' whistleblowing intention, along with the mediating role of moral identity and the moderating role of power distance orientation. We conducted a 2-wave survey with 172 participant managers in China. Results indicated that ethical leadership was positively related to employees' whistleblowing intention and this relationship was mediated by moral identity. Moreover, employee power distance orientation positively moderated the relationship between ethical leadership and moral identity, such that the relationship was stronger for high power distance orientation employees than for those with a low power distance orientation. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

The effects of ethical pressure and power distance orientation on unethical pro‐organizational behavior: the case of earnings management

A multiphase study tested a proposed mediated moderation model for the joint effects of ethical pressure and power distance orientation on accountants’ ethical judgments of earnings management. Results based on a sample of 354 accountants from China indicated that the relationship between ethical pressure and ethical judgments of earnings management is contingent on the accountants’ power distance orientation. That is, the relationship between ethical pressure and ethical judgments of earnings management was stronger for accountants with a high power distance orientation. The results also demonstrated that ethical beliefs in support of the company serve as a mediator for the interaction effect of ethical pressure and power distance orientation on the outcome. These results are discussed in terms of viewing earnings management as a form of unethical pro‐organizational behavior which can be effectively investigated within the framework of the person‐situation interactionist model.

Leader UPB and Employee Unethical Conduct: A Moral Disengagement Perspective

Unethical behavior in organizations has attracted increasing attention among researchers, yet we know little about when and why unethical behavior conducted by leader that is intended to benefit organization (UPB) would translate into employee unethical behavior. Drawing upon moral disengagement and social learning theoretical perspectives, we proposed that leader UPB reflects leader moral disengagement practices which are modeled by employees, especially among those with high power distance orientations; employee moral disengagement, in turn, frees employee to engage in unethical behavior. We found support for our theoretical model across two studies. With an experimental design in Study 1, we found that leader UPB led employee to be more morally disengaged than leader unethical pro-self behavior, and employee moral disengagement mediated the positive effect of leader UPB on employee unethical behavior. With a two-wave field survey study conducted among a sample of real estate agents, Study 2 revealed that leader UPB was positively related to employee moral disengagement, and this positive relationship was stronger among high power distance orientation employees. Importantly, Study 2 revealed that employee moral disengagement mediated the interactive effect of leader UPB and employee power distance orientation on employee unethical behavior. We discussed theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Service employee burnout and engagement: the moderating role of power distance orientation

Studies show that service employees are among the most disengaged in the workforce. To better understand service employees’ job engagement, this study broadens the scope of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to include power distance orientation (PDO). The inclusion of PDO enriches the JD-R model by providing a key piece of information that has been missing in prior JD-R models: employees’ perceptions of the source of job demands (i.e., supervisors) or employees’ views of power and hierarchy within the organization. Study 1 uses a survey-based field study to show that employees with a high (compared to low) PDO feel more burnout due to supervisors when they are closely monitored by their supervisors. Study 1 further supports the finding that employees with high (compared to low) PDO feel less disengagement despite burnout due to supervisors. Study 2, using a lab experiment, and Study 3, relying on a survey-based field study, unveil why these effects were observed. Stress and job satisfaction emerge as mediators that explain the findings from Study 1. Implications of the role of PDO are discussed to improve the current understanding of how job engagement can improve customer service performance.

Dispositional and situational differences in motives to engage in citizenship behavior

This study analyzes how prosocial values, organizational concern, and impression management motives to engage in OCB relate to dispositional and situational factors beyond major personality constructs. The sample consists of 192 employees in 15 service organizations in Chile. The results show that organizational concern and prosocial values, as good soldier motives, increase when individuals are more affectively committed to their organizations and decrease when they have a more external perceived locus of control and a higher power distance orientation in their relationship with their managers. Impression management, as a good actor motive, increases when individuals have a more external perceived locus of control and a higher power distance orientation in their relationship with their managers. These findings suggest that dispositional differences, together with the attachment that employees feel toward the organization, affect employees’' motives to engage in OCB. This study also provides directions for future research and managerial implications.

Leadership Behavior as a Health-Promoting Resource for Workers in Low-Skilled Jobs and the Moderating Role of Power Distance Orientation

In this study, the authors analyze leadership behaviors as potential health-promoting resources for low-skilled workers in a highly culturally diverse work setting. The authors hypothesize that subordinates' and supervisors' individual power distance orientations will moderate the effect of subordinates' perceptions of leadership behavior and the subsequent effects on their well-being. Multilevel modeling is used to analyze a sample of data from 474 low-skilled employees (50% immigrants) and 35 direct supervisors from three German companies. Supporting the hypotheses, social support, task-related communication, and positive feedback, as expressions of esteem, are found to positively impact subordinates' well-being, but individual consideration shows no significant effects. Furthermore, results confirm that supervisors' power distance orientation moderates employees' perceptions about supervisors' positive feedback and the subsequent well-being effects. The moderating effect fails to hold for employees' power distance orientation. Results indicate that supervisors can most effectively promote the health of low-skilled workers by showing esteem through positive feedback, but if the supervisor has high individual power distance orientation, the effect is attenuated.

Charismatic Leadership, Citizenship Behaviors, and Power Distance Orientation

This article examines the connection between leadership and citizenship behaviors in a comparative study of Brazilian and U.S. employees. The influence of country and power distance orientation on the relationship between perceived charismatic leadership and follower organizational citizenship behaviors is analyzed statistically, while controlling for demographic factors. Given the ambivalent frameworks and findings in the literature, we also proposed and tested a quadratic effect of power distance orientation on citizenship behaviors, and analyzed the adequacy of the model to explain two dimensions of citizenship: altruism and generalized compliance. We found that charismatic leadership was positively associated with citizenship behaviors in the U.S. group, but not in the Brazilian group. Although the groups differed regarding power distance orientations, that cultural factor did not significantly moderate the relationship between charismatic leadership and citizenship behaviors, only country of origin did. However, we confirmed that both very high and low power distance orientation were associated with citizenship behaviors across the samples. While the tested hypotheses were confirmed when altruism was the criteria, the same was not observed regarding generalized compliance. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory, research, and practice.