The Influence Of Benevolent Leadership On Employees’ Proactive Work Behavior From The Perspective Of Social Exchange Theory

In the context of “VUCA Era”,companies face an ever-changing external business environment.In order to effectively respond to opportunities and challenges and to innovate products and services,many companies are thinking about how to improve employees’ proactive work behavior so that they can complete their work tasks quickly and effectively,and thus improve the competitiveness of companies.There are many factors that influence employees’ proactive work behavior,and the role of leadership is recognized by both the managers and scholars.Due to the role and status of leaders in the organization,their leadership behavior is an important factor that affects employees’ psychological process and behavior.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the effect of specific leadership behaviors on employees’ proactive work behavior.Moreover,as many new generation individuals with a high focus on personality development enter the workplace,traditional top-down management thinks and leadership behaviors are criticized,and leaders are called to adopt employee-oriented leadership behaviors to cope with the environment.As a result,benevolent leadership,as a leadership behavior that cares for employees comprehensively,has received attention from both managers and scholars.Drawing on social exchange theory,this study aims to explore the effect of benevolent leadership on employees’ proactive work behavior in small,medium and micro private enterprises in China,as well as to explore the role of state gratitude and organizational resource support in this process.With the help of statistical software,such as SPSS 26.0 and MPLUS 8.3,the empirical analysis of 445 primary data of employees at two waves found that:(1)benevolent leadership is positively related to state gratitude;(2)state gratitude is positively related to employees’ proactive work behavior,and mediates the effect of benevolent leadership on employees’ proactive work behavior;(3)organizational resource support positively moderates the influence of state gratitude on proactive work behavior,such that the influence is positive only when organizational resource support is high;(4)organizational resource support positively moderates the indirect effect of benevolent leadership on employees’ proactive behavior via state gratitude,such that the indirect effect is positive only when organizational resource support is high.At the theoretical level,the findings extend and enrich the results of the research on the outcomes of benevolent leadership and the antecedents of employees’ proactive work behavior,and identify the role of state gratitude and organizational resource support in the process of benevolent leadership influencing employees’ proactive work behavior.Therefore,this study provides new perspectives for scholars to study the role of benevolent leadership and the antecedents of employees’ proactive work behavior in the future.At the practical level,the findings of the study provide insights for small,medium and micro private companies to promote employees’ proactive work behavior in management practices.First,leaders should show their appropriate benevolent leadership behaviors in management practices.Second,leaders should pay attention and establish the state gratitude of employees to leaders.Finally,organizations should provide adequate resource support for employees in their daily work.There are 4 figures,18 tables and 106 references in this thesis.