Leaders' negative emotions and leadership styles influencing subordinates' well-being

Emotions are an important aspect of organizational life. However emotional issues, particularly negative emotions, have traditionally been largely neglected in organizational life. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles, and leaders' negative emotions perceived by the subordinates. The aim is also to investigate the influence of leadership styles on the subordinates' overall psychological health and well-being. The result challenges some of the earlier findings, suggesting that there is a need for a better understanding of how contextual factors might intervene in the relation between leaders' negative emotions, leadership styles, and subordinates' well-being.     

The empowerment expectation–perception gap: An examination of three alternative models

Previous empowerment research has focused on subordinate perceptions of empowering leadership and its outcomes. Met‐expectations theory suggests that subordinate expectations of leader behaviours are essential in forming their a posteriori evaluations. To address the lack of investigation of individual expectations in the empowerment literature, in this study, we explore how subordinates' empowerment expectations and perceptions combine to influence their job satisfaction and psychological empowerment based on three alternative, theoretically derived met‐expectation models, namely, the disconfirmation model, the ideal‐point model, and the experiences‐only model. The results of a 2‐stage study of 114 respondents indicate that employees are more satisfied with their work when perceived empowerment exceeds expectations. However, both empowerment perceptions and expectations positively contribute to higher psychological empowerment. We then discuss implications and directions for future research.     

Managerial coaching and subordinates' workplace well‐being: A moderated mediation study

Taking a self‐categorisation perspective, we predict that managerial coaching affects subordinates' workplace well‐being through perceived insider status and that Chinese traditionality moderates this indirect effect. To test these hypotheses, we designed a three‐stage research method to collect data from 276 subordinates in a large state‐owned enterprise located in Shanghai, China. Results indicated that (a) managerial coaching was positively related to subordinates' workplace well‐being; (b) perceived insider status mediated the linkage between managerial coaching and subordinates' workplace well‐being; and (c) Chinese traditionality moderated the indirect relationship between managerial coaching and subordinates' workplace well‐being via perceived insider status, such that the indirect effect was stronger for subordinates with low rather than high Chinese traditionality. This study sheds new light on the intervening process (i.e., perceived insider status) that explains how managerial coaching influences subordinates' workplace well‐being. The findings also extend the current literature by adding a substantive moderator (i.e., Chinese traditionality) to explain when and why subordinates increase their well‐being when faced with managerial coaching.     

Leader–member exchange and strain: a study of job demands and role status

High‐quality supervisor–subordinate relationships, measured as leader–member exchange (LMX), can either reduce or intensify subordinates' job strain. We examined LMX effects on job demands and strain in junior and senior role nursing dyads in a sample of five UK hospitals. LMX reduced job demands and strain for junior subordinates, but for senior subordinates both low‐ and high‐quality LMX lead to greater strain, indicating a curvilinear relationship between LMX and strain. We found no buffering effect of LMX between job demands and strain. The article discusses the role of supervisors in controlling potential job stressors for employees and implications for stress management in large, complex workplaces.     

Audits,Reputation, and Repeated Interaction in a Capital Budgeting Setting

This experimental study investigates the use of audits as a control instrument in capital budgeting processes and factors that contribute to audit efficiency (or inefficiency) in a repeated relationship. We disentangle reputational aspects of superiors and subordinates from an increased social content in repeated relationships. In settings where subjects face new counterparts every round, we find that reputational aspects strongly affect the superiors' and subordinates' behavior. This leads to a decrease in slack and an increase in the superior payoff. However, in a repeated relationship with an increased level of social content, these benefits are no longer present. In fact, the subordinates' ability to retaliate against their superior for prior punishments in the repeated setting by reporting more slack in later rounds has negative effects on the use of audits and decreases audit efficiency. These findings imply that, in repeated relationships, social factors play an important role and might impair the disciplining effects of audits.     

Credit Where Credit is Due: A Field Survey of the Interactive Effects of Credit Expectations and Leaders’ Credit Allocation on Employee Turnover

Today's human resource management community has a strong interest in the issue of how HR practice is implemented by managers and leaders in the workplace. In this article, we investigate how one specific practice, leaders’ public recognition of a job well done (i.e., credit allocation), impacts employee turnover. Based on expectancy violations, psychological contracts, and turnover research, we predicted that subordinates would be more likely to leave an organization if their leader took credit for their work, but only if the credit taking violated subordinates’ expectations. In a field survey of organizational employees, we found that the effects of credit taking on turnover were negated when subordinates’ expectations and leaders’ credit allocation behavior were aligned. However, when leaders’ credit behavior came as a surprise, participants responded negatively when expectations were not met and positively when expectations were exceeded. We discuss the implications of these results for both theory and practice. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Experienced affects in leader–subordinate relationships

This study explores the affects that leaders and subordinates experience during interaction. Two hundred and seventy leaders and five hundred and forty two subordinates recruited from the private and public sectors participated in the study. The data reveals that leader–subordinate relationships are strongly coloured by positive and negative moods, emotions and emotion-laden judgments, with four basic affective factors for both leaders and subordinates: recognition, frustration, violation and uncertainty. These factors correlate strongly with subordinates’ job satisfaction and the quality that they experienced in interaction with their immediate superiors. Correlations between these factors and subordinates’ life satisfaction were weak, suggesting that the affects are specific to the leader–subordinate relationship. Leaders’ affective experiences during interaction with subordinates seem to be less important. Correlations between the quality experienced by leaders in relationships with their subordinates, their job- and life satisfaction and their reported affects were weak or almost non-existent. The results underline the importance of focusing on both parties involved in leader–subordinate relationships, and suggest the need for a social interactionistic perspective in order to understand the leadership process. Experienced affects constitute prominent and complex facets of leader–subordinate relationships and should be studied in greater detail than has hitherto.     

Chinese paternalistic leadership and non-Chinese subordinates' psychological health

Past research on Chinese leadership, a style which is different from that practiced in the West, has demonstrated that paternalistic leadership within Chinese society is significantly related to employees' psychological health. This research contributes to the literature by providing results from the interaction between Chinese and non-Chinese society and examining the moderating role played by the cultural value of uncertainty avoidance (UA). Based on the bottom-up model of the subjective well-being theory, this study aims to disclose the relationship between Chinese leadership behavior and its effects on the psychological health of non-Chinese subordinates from cross-cultural and multi-national backgrounds. Results from the study sample of 160 non-Chinese subordinates from 31 overseas branches of the selected, large, Chinese multinational enterprise (MNE), showed that the moral and authoritarian styles of the Chinese paternalistic leadership contributed negatively to psychological health in the workplace, a different pattern of results from studies completed with Chinese subordinates in previous research. In addition, it also showed that UA partly moderated this unique leader-follower relationship. Specifically, when non-Chinese followers had a higher UA value orientation, the negative effects of their superior's moral style on their psychological health was weakened.     

Influencing upward: subordinates’ responses to leaders’ (un)awareness of their empowerment expectations

This study investigated when subordinates engage in upward influence behaviors to voice their opinions on empowerment practices to their leaders. Data were collected from 114 pairs of leader–subordinate dyads at a manufacturing firm. Based on cross-level polynomial regression and response surface analyses, the present study found that the less the leaders were aware of subordinates’ empowerment expectations, the more the subordinates engaged in upward influence behaviors, namely rational persuasion and inspirational appeals. Moreover, high leader–subordinate task interdependence and subordinate self-efficacy as moderators amplified the (in)congruent relationships. The results contribute to empowerment literature by providing valuable insight into the bottom-up influence in the empowerment process.     

The role of reward omission in empowering leadership and employee outcomes: A moderated mediation model

In this study, we examined the relationships between empowering leadership employee outcomes (creativity and job performance) and the mediating (voice behaviour and taking charge) and moderating (reward omission) variables in these relationships. Our theoretical model was tested using the data collected from 197 full‐time employees and 32 supervisors. Analyses of the multisource data indicated that empowering leadership is linked to subordinates' job performance and creativity through subordinates' taking charge and voice behaviour as intermediate variables. However, the indirect relationship exists only when leaders display high levels of reward omission. Our research addressed a specific gap in understanding the boundary conditions for empowering leadership to be effective. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications of our findings as well as future research directions.     

Build Coalitions to Fit: Autonomy Expectations,Competence Mobilization,and Job Crafting

Job crafting offers several beneficial organizational outcomes, yet little is known about what makes employees engage in it. In particular, the role of leaders in influencing their subordinates to engage in job crafting has been insufficiently studied. Drawing on role theory, we suggest that the congruence of leader‐subordinate autonomy expectations nurtures subordinates’ experiences of having their competences adequately utilized in their jobs. This experience, which involves the competence mobilization of their work roles, subsequently fosters subordinates’ engagement in job‐crafting behavior. A two‐stage field study of 145 leader‐subordinate dyads using cross‐level polynomial regression and response surface analysis supported the (in)congruence hypotheses. The results also demonstrated that subordinates’ perceived competence mobilization mediates the relationship between autonomy expectation (in)congruence and job crafting. In addition, leader coalition as a moderator strengthens the effect of perceived competence mobilization as a psychological condition for job crafting. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

What motivates employees? A comparison of US and Chinese responses

Differences in culture, history, economy, and political and management systems may lead to differences in employee job attribute preferences across countries. To the extent that this is true, managers and designers of motivation systems must understand the preferences of local employees. This study provides information on the job attribute preferences of Chinese employees at a major international hotel in Shanghai. Employee preference data were compared to published results from other nations. The pattern of preferences in China was unique compared to Russia, Taiwan and the United States. Chinese employees felt that good wages were most important, followed by good working conditions and personal loyalty from the boss and organization. Interesting work was relatively unimportant, especially to older employees, and 'being in on things' was not at all important. Supervisors at the hotel also provided information on the preferences which they believed characterized their subordinates. Unlike US managers who often badly misperceive the preferences of their US subordinates, Chinese supervisors accurately reported their subordinates' preferences. Expatriates in the hotel were much less accurate in ranking local subordinate preferences. Implications for motivating and managing Chinese employees are discussed.     

“Handle with care”: The mediating role of schedule i‐deals in the relationship between supervisors' own caregiving responsibilities and employee outcomes

Drawing on theories of perspective‐taking and i‐deals, this study explores the impact of supervisors' own caregiving responsibilities for elders and parental status on subordinates' schedule i‐deals. Moreover, we investigate the extent to which schedule i‐deals mediate the relationship between supervisors' caregiving responsibilities and two employee outcomes: satisfaction with work–family balance and turnover intentions. Using a sample of 520 dyads involving 137 supervisors and 520 employees, the results of multilevel analysis show that supervisors' caregiving responsibilities for elders is positively related to schedule i‐deals, but their parental status is not. The findings also show that schedule i‐deals mediate the effect of supervisors' caregiving responsibilities for elders on subordinates' satisfaction with work–family balance and turnover intentions. This research contributes to the i‐deals' literature by focusing on the role of managers' own caregiving responsibilities in facilitating the provision of schedule i‐deals to their subordinates and by exploring the consequences of schedule i‐deals to gain an understanding of the mutually beneficial nature of such deals. From a practical point of view, supervisors and HR departments might utilise schedule i‐deals to drive desirable employee outcomes, in particular their caregiving responsibilities, and to engender a family‐supportive organisational culture.     

The Effects of Leadership Style,Organizational Outcome,and Gender on Attributional Bias Toward Leaders

The current study examined the effects of leadership style (charismatic or autocratic) on followers' internal and external attributions for their organization's success or failure. In addition, role incongruence between the leadership style and gender was examined within the context of attributional error. Confirming the hypotheses, the results showed a three‐way interaction between leadership style, gender and organizational outcome. Supporting the role incongruity theory, when there was role incongruence between the leadership style and gender (i.e., the female autocratic leader), the attributions for failure were more unfavorable toward the leader. The effect of leadership style on internal attributions for failure was mediated by likeability of the leader. Overall, the current study was the first experimental investigation of the effects of leadership style, organizational outcomes, and gender on attributional biases within a single design.     

When Should Leaders Share Information with Their Subordinates?

We show that when leaders share some of their information with subordinates, decision making is subject to a motivational bias; leaders make the decisions their subordinates want to see. As this bias increases with the quality of the shared information, an improvement of an organization's information might even decrease its efficiency. As a consequence, information sharing is not always optimal. We show however that self-confidence can help the leader to overcome his motivational bias, thus making information sharing more attractive. Conversely, we find that information sharing can help to curb the autocratic tendencies of a self-confident leadership. We conclude that a policy of information sharing and the appointment of a self-confident leadership are most effective when they go hand in hand.     

Expatriate or local bosses? HCN subordinates' preferences in leadership behaviour

This article explores host-country national subordinates’ preferences in leadership behaviour comparing expatriate bosses and local bosses. From a sample of 240 middle managers in Hong Kong with experience with both local Chinese bosses and expatriate bosses from a broad spectrum of Western and Asian countries, it was found that the subordinate managers assessed the leadership behaviour of their expatriate bosses to be significantly closer to that of their perceived ideal boss. American leadership behaviour was the most preferred and Japanese leader style was the least preferred, with British leadership style comprising a middle group. Implications of these findings for international business firms and future academic research are discussed.     

How do leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate shape employee exhaustion and engagement? Toward a cascading-effects model

Although researchers and practitioners increasingly focus on health promotion in organizations, research has been mainly fragmented and fails to integrate different organizational levels in terms of their effects on employee health. Drawing on organizational climate and social identity research, we present a cascading model of organizational health climate and demonstrate how and when leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate are linked to employee well-being. We tested our model in two multisource studies (N_{Study 1} = 65 leaders and 291 employees; N_{Study 2} = 401 leader–employee dyads). Results showed that leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate were positively related to their health mindsets (i.e., their health awareness). These in turn were positively associated with their health-promoting leadership behavior, which ultimately went along with better employee well-being. Additionally, in Study 1, the relationship between perceived organizational health climate and leaders' health mindsets was moderated by their organizational identification. High leader identification strengthened the relationship between perceived organizational health climate and leaders' health mindsets. These findings have important implications for theory and practice as they show how the dynamics of an organizational health climate can unfold in organizations and how it is related to employee well-being via the novel concept of health-promoting leadership.     

Leader-member exchange,employee performance,and work outcomes: an empirical study in the Chinese context

In this study, we employed the multidimensional view of LMX (LMX-MDM) to develop a model that captured different antecedents and outcomes of task and contextual performance. We tested this model with a sample drawn from subjects from the People's Republic of China. The results indicated that the affect dimension of LMX-MDM was positively associated with task performance and contextual performance. The contribution dimension of LMX-MDM was positively related to the job dedication dimension of contextual performance. Supervisory ratings of the task performance and the interpersonal facilitation dimension of contextual performance predicted the promotability of subordinates, and task performance influenced subordinates' intention to quit. Limitations and future research are discussed.     

Subordinates' perception of managers' transformational leadership style and satisfaction: a comparison of electronic manufacturing companies in Mainland China and Taiwan

Rapid economic growth has made leadership studies a significant subject in Asia. The present research compared subordinates' different perceptions of managers' transformational leadership style in Mainland China and Taiwan. Quantitative methodology was used in collecting 250 random samples from Shanghai and Taipei. Subordinates in Taiwan perceived that more managers had a transformational leadership style and also employees had higher satisfaction with managers' leadership style than those in Mainland China. The results of the present research would provide suggestions and directions for industrial managers seeking to display appropriate management behavior for an effective business environment.     

Inclusive leadership: Realizing positive outcomes through belongingness and being valued for uniqueness

We introduce a theoretically-grounded conceptualization of inclusive leadership and present a framework for understanding factors that contribute to and follow from inclusive leadership within work groups. We conceptualize inclusive leadership as a set of positive leader behaviors that facilitate group members perceiving belongingness in the work group while maintaining their uniqueness within the group as they fully contribute to group processes and outcomes. We propose that leader pro-diversity beliefs, humility, and cognitive complexity increase the propensity of inclusive leader behaviors. We identify five categories of inclusive leadership behaviors that facilitate group members' perceptions of inclusion, which in turn lead to member work group identification, psychological empowerment, and behavioral outcomes (creativity, job performance, and reduced turnover) in the pursuit of group goals. This framework provides theoretical grounding for the construct of inclusive leadership while advancing our understanding of how leaders can increase diverse work group effectiveness.