Research On The Impact Of Humble Leadership On Employee Proactive Behavior And Its Machanism

Entering the 21^st century,as the globalization of the market and the rapid development of the science and technology,the organizational environment becomes increasingly complex and dynamic,which is difficult for any one leader at the top to figure everything out.Meanwhile,with the constant changing and updating of business philosophy and management mode,the job requirements of enterprises for employees have also undergone tremendous changes.For enterprises,the value of employees should not only include the labor force they have,but also the ideas and behaviors to promote organizational change and efficiency.Today's organizations rely on employees taking more initiative to take on the jobs beyond their duties and salaries.The traditional“top-down”leadership style overemphasizes the power and influence of the leader,to some extent which restricts the important role that the employees play in the leadership process.Researchers call for leaders to move beyond great man and hero myth views on leadership and implement“bottom-up”leadership style with humble attitude.Organizations therefore should deeply understand the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior,and utilize the positive influence of humility in leadership to activate employee proactivity.Based on the previous studies,this study develops the scale of humble leadership through the Chinese traditional culture and then constructs a research model of the effects of humble leadership on employee proactive behavior according to attachment theory and proactive motivation model.Based on the previous literature analysis,this study first defines the relevant core constructs.Specifically,the core constructs in this study include:humble leadership,employee proactive behavior,role breadth self-efficacy,affective commitment,positive affect and the perception of authenticity.Second,this study develops the scale of humble leadership by analyzing and verifying the data obtained from the semi-structural interview and questionnaires.Subsequently,this study summarizes the theoretical basis of attachment theory and proactive motivation model,and then based on the scale developed,constructs the relevant hypotheses and model using the basic theories.This study discusses the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior and proposes a serial research hypotheses:?1?the main effect of humble leadership on employee proactive behavior;?2?the multiple mediation model which is used to explain why humble leadership affects employee proactive behavior,including the mediating effects of role breadth self-efficacy,affective commitment and positive affect;?3?the moderated mediation model which is used to discuss the moderating effect of the perception of authenticity on the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior via role breadth self-efficacy,affective commitment and positive affect.This study used multi-methods and cross-verification research design.In the development of the scale,this study first understood the structure of humble leadership through semi-structural interview of 14 managers,and obtained the measurement items through open-ended questionnaires of 286 employees.This study then,on the basis of the analysis results,conducted sampling from 491 employees from 6 different enterprises in Northern China,and 403 valid data were obtained.The measurement items were tested through exploratory factor analysis,confirmatory factor analysis and validity analysis.In the test of the research model,this study tested the hypotheses by cross-verifying methods of experimental study and survey study.In the experiment,this study controlled humble leadership by scenario simulation,and obtained the data by the measurement scales.Participants were randomly assigned to different leadership situations through intergroup design.This study obtained 103 employee data,and used the hierarchical regression analysis to test the main effect and the mediating effect hypotheses.In the survey,this study collected 290 supervisor-subordinate dyads,and used the hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping to test all the hypotheses.The results of the scale development show that the scale of humble leadership in Chinese culture context contains four dimensions:approachability,appreciation of others,correct self-awareness,and openness to feedback,and has a total of 14 items.The results of empirical research show the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior.The details are as follows:?1?humble leadership positively affects employee proactive behavior;?2?Humble leadership has a positive effect on role breadth self-efficacy,affective commitment and positive affect,and role breadth self-efficacy,affective commitment and positive affect mediates the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior respectively;?3?the perception of authenticity moderates the relationship between humble leadership and role breadth self-efficacy,affective commitment,and the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior via role breadth self-efficacy and affective commitment.However,the perception of authenticity can't moderate the relationship between humble leadership and positive affect,and the relationship between humble leadership and employee proactive behavior via positive affect.Based on the above analysis results and findings,this study provides suggestions for managers to motivate employees'active behaviors from three aspects,namely,how to transform leadership style,paying attention to proactive motivation mechanism and enhancing the effectiveness of leader behaviors.It is expected to provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for enterprises to enhance the influencing power of leaders and motivate employee proactive behavior.