Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Paradoxical Leadership On Followership

In this rapidly developing information age,it is difficult to adapt to the requirements of economic development in the new era by relying solely on leadership-centered management.Enterprises are paying more and more attention to the role of followers.As an indispensable member of an organization,an outstanding follower can influence the leader and even determine the success or failure of the enterprise.Since followership is leadership-oriented behavior,the influence of different leadership styles on followership is still the focus of current researches.However,current researches mainly focus on the influence of alternative leadership on followership,while ignoring the leadership that can effectively face the dynamic environment and respond to the conflicting demands of enterprise development.In this context,paradoxical leadership emerged.Paradoxical leadership emphasizes the use of "both/and" methods to achieve a balance between the needs of the organization and employees.Therefore,it has important significance to study the relationship mechanism between paradoxical leadership and employees’followership.The current researches on the internal mechanism of leadership style on followership mainly start from the view of behavior,traits and cognition,ignoring the internal motivation of why employees follow leaders.Therefore,this study investigates the psychological motivation behind the employees’ following paradoxical leadership based on the perspective of motivation.On the one hand,paradoxical leadership can provide support,meet the psychological needs of employees,enable employees to generate followership motivation and inspire followership.On the other hand,paradoxical leadership can play a role model,allow employees to produce leadership identity,show leaders expected behaviors and inspire followership.In addition,the different ways of thinking can affect employees’perceptions of the effectiveness of paradoxical leadership.Based on self-determination theory and social identification theory,this study introduces two mediating variables,psychological need satisfaction and leader identification,and examines the mediating effect on the relationship between paradoxical leadership and followership,and whether there is any difference in the mediating effect.At the same time,the moderating variable of Zhongyong thinking is introduced to investigate its moderating effect on the relationship between paradoxical leadership and psychological need satisfaction,between paradoxical leadership and leader identification,and mediating effect.This study collected 229 employees’ data by questionnaire at three time points,and tested the hypotheses by hierarchical regression and Bootstrap.Specifically,this study has obtained the following conclusions:First,psychological need satisfaction mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and followership.Second,leader identification mediates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and followership.Third,psychological need satisfaction and leader identification play a dual mediating role between paradoxical leadership and followership,and there is no significant difference in the mediating effect.Fourth,Zhongyong thinking plays a moderating role between paradoxical leadership and psychological needs satisfaction,and between paradoxical leadership and leader identification.Furthermore,Zhongyong thinking also moderates the mediating role of psychological need satisfaction and leader identification between paradoxical leadership and followership.