The Perceived Impact of Leaders’ Humility on Team Effectiveness: an Empirical Study

Abstract

We assess the perceived impact of leaders humility (both self and other-reported) on team effectiveness, and how this relationship is mediated by balanced processing of information. Ninetysix leaders (plus 307 subordinates, 96 supervisors, and 656 peers of those leaders) participate in the study. The findings suggest that humility in leaders (as reported by others/peers) is indirectly (i.e., through balanced processing) related to leaders' perceived impact on team effectiveness. The study also corroborates literature pointing out the benefits of using other-reports (rather than self-reports) to measure humility, and suggests including humility into the authentic leadership research agenda.Keywords: balanced processing, leader humility, leader' perceived impact on team effectiveness. * We are very grateful to both reviewers for their helpful comments and recommendations.

Humility: Our Current Understanding of the Construct and its Role in Organizations

“…At least two empirical studies have suggested that humble leaders in organizations also experience positive outcomes, namely through enjoying greater perceptions of leader effectiveness and transformational qualities by their followers. First, Rego et al (2016) found that humble leaders were perceived as positively impacting their work team's effectiveness. Leader humility was assessed through a 360-degree instrument that included self-and other-reports of items taken from Dennis and Bocarnea (2005) and Park et al (2004) and of items generated by the authors.…”

“…This relationship seems likely, given the humble leader's preferences for inclusive, collaborative and flexible decision-making processes. Similarly, additional attention to the humble leader's openness to others' ideas (including contrary ideas and criticisms) (Rego et al 2016) and his/her capacity to consider exploitation and exploration strategies simultaneously (Ou et al 2015) could extend the implications of humility to the broader strategy literature examining CEOs' and other top executive members' individual preferences in decisionmaking.…”

Effects of Leader Humility on the Performance of Virtual Groups

“…Using a hidden profile task provided the ability to capture actual information flow within a group rather than the intent to engage in behaviors thought to facilitate information flow. Use of a hidden profile task also provided an objective measure of performance, rather than perceived effectiveness, which has been the outcome variable used in several previous empirical studies examining the effect of leader humility on group performance (Owens & Hekman, ; Rego et al, ; Rego & Simpson, ).…”

“…Humility comprises four factors: (a) self‐awareness, (b) a willingness to learn/teachability, (c) an appreciation of others/high‐other‐focus, and (d) low self‐focus (Beauchesne, ; Ou et al, ; Owens, ; Owens, Rowatt, & Wilkins, ; Ruberton, Kruse, & Lyubomirsky, ; Tangney, ) and has become a popular topic of late, with leader humility being linked to a number of positive outcomes (Merryman, ; Prime & Salib, ). Perhaps of most interest to those focused on humility in an organizational context is that humble leaders have been shown to positively influence group performance and effectiveness (Collins, ; Ou, Waldman, & Peterson, ; Owens & Hekman, ; Rego & Simpson, ). But while humble leaders appear to produce positive results in the groups and teams they lead, it is not clear what factors determine when humble leaders are effective or how they influence work processes and outcomes (Owens & Hekman, ).…”

“…Similarly, in teams from footwear, retail, clothing, accounting services, city council, and health care organizations, leader humility was found to improve perceived effectiveness by inducing collective humility, which led to increased psychological capital (Rego et al, ). Finally, humble leaders have been found to have a positive effect on perceived team effectiveness across a number of industries because those leaders were seen as taking a balanced approach to information processing (Rego & Simpson, ).…”