Can leader humility enhance employee wellbeing? The mediating role of employee humility

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between leader humility and employee well-being. Based on social information processing (SIP) theory and previous literature concerning leader humility, this paper identifies employee humility as the mediator and suggests that perceived leader effectiveness moderates these relationships. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a survey involving 228 employees to test the hypothesized moderated-mediation model. Findings Leader humility is positively related to employee well-being. Employee humility mediates leader humility and employee well-being, except for emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the effect of leader humility on employee humility and the indirect effect of leader humility on employee job satisfaction and work engagement are stronger under high perceptions of leader effectiveness. Originality/value Based on the framework of SIP theory, this paper contributes to the literature on humble leadership and employee well-being by treating employee humility as the mechanism and perceived leader effectiveness as the moderator. Few previous studies have investigated the influence of leader humility on employee well-being.

Multi-Level Effects of Humble Leadership on Employees’ Work Well-Being: The Roles of Psychological Safety and Error Management Climate

“…Our results are not only consistent with the cross-level theoretical model of Walumbwa et al (2010) proposed that "leadershipteam climates/individual perceptions-employee outcomes, " but also extend the application of social information processing theory in humble leadership and WWB research field. These findings also respond to a call for more research exploring the mediating mechanisms between humble leadership and WWB (Zhong et al, 2020).…”

“…Exploring the influence of humble leadership on employee affect is important for gaining a more holistic theoretical understanding of the impact of humble leadership on employees (Wang L. et al, 2018). Meanwhile, our study also responds to the call for more research to explore the mediating mechanisms between humble leadership and WWB (Zhong et al, 2020). Thus, the second objective of our study is to uncover the underlying process through which humble leadership can affect WWB, based on social information processing (SIP) theory (Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978).…”

“…Previous research has found that WWB is influenced by individual differences and context factors, such as positive emotions ( Siu et al, 2015 ), work-related stress ( Siu et al, 2005 ), high-performance work systems ( Zhang et al, 2013 ), and organizational justice ( Moliner et al, 2008 ). Throughout the research on the predictors of WWB, leadership has been identified as a key influential factor ( Choi et al, 2017 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ). Studies have explored the influence of ethical leadership ( Chughtai et al, 2015 ), transformational leadership ( Liu et al, 2009 ), and authentic leadership ( Rahimnia and Sharifirad, 2015 ) on WWB.…”

“…Humble leadership as a bottom-up leadership style, may provide more emotional and psychological resources with employees, through appreciating followers’ strengths and contributions, and building high quality relationship with them ( Zhang and Liu, 2019 ), which increase the likelihood for employees to gain WWB. Because prior most studies on humble leadership and WWB were based on a single level ( Zhong et al, 2020 ), it may hinder the accumulation of knowledge about the cross-level influence of team humble leadership on WWB and is not conducive to our systematic understanding the impact of group-level phenomenon (i.e., humble leadership) on WWB. Additionally, if we only suppose humble leadership at the individual level, it may indicate that all employees are independent individuals.…”

“…Although a link exists between humble leadership and WWB ( Nielsen and Marrone, 2018 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ), little is known on the multi-level mechanisms of this relationship, which yields an incomplete picture of how humble leadership influences WWB. Exploring the influence of humble leadership on employee affect is important for gaining a more holistic theoretical understanding of the impact of humble leadership on employees ( Wang L. et al, 2018 ).…”