Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disruptive event devastating to the workplace and the global community. Drawing on terror management theory, we develop and test a model that explains how COVID-19-triggered mortality salience influences employees' state anxiety and their responses at and outside work. We conducted an experience sampling method study using employees from an information technology firm in China when COVID-19 was surging there and two experiments using employees from a variety of industries in the United States when it became a new epicenter of the global outbreak. Results from 3 studies largely supported our theoretical hypotheses. Specifically, our research showed that mortality salience concerning COVID-19 was positively related to employees' state anxiety (general anxiety in Study 1 and Study 2 and death-specific anxiety in Study 3). Our studies also found that servant leadership is particularly crucial in guiding employees with state anxiety associated with COVID-19 mortality salience to be engaged in their jobs and to contribute more to the broader community. Our findings offer timely, valuable implications for theory and practice.

This study examined the extent to which the impact of green transformational leadership on employee green behavior through follower perceptions of value congruence. Path analyzing on data from 193 subordinate-leader dyads showed that followers’ value congruence with their leader mediated the effects of green transformational leadership on employee green behavior. Results also supported that green identity moderated the indirect effect of green transformational leadership on employee green behavior through value congruence, such that the indirect effect was more positive when green identity was high than when it was low. These findings provided valuable contribution to green transformational leadership, value congruence, and employee green behavior by exploring the relationship between them. Practical implications and directions for future research are also discussed.

PurposeThe authors examined the relationship between leader humility and employee organizational deviance. They also tested the mediating effects of personal sense of power and the moderating effects of organizational identification on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested their hypotheses using a sample of 186 employees from an information technology (IT) enterprise in China. They used hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses to test for direct and indirect relationships.FindingsSense of power mediated the effect of leader humility on organizational deviance and organizational identification moderated the effect of sense of power on organizational deviance. In addition, organizational identification mediated the indirect effect of leader humility on organizational deviance via sense of power. Thus, employees who demonstrate high organizational identification may not conduct organizational deviant behavior, even if they have a high sense of power.Practical implicationsOrganizations should explore and practice effective leader humility. Selection and training programs should be developed to choose humble leaders and teach them how to exhibit moderate humility.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature by revealing the negative effects of leader humility in Chinese culture. They find support for their hypotheses that employee sense of power mediates the relationship between leader humility and employee organizational deviance and that this relationship is weaker when employee organizational identification is higher. This clarifies how and why leader humility stimulates employee organizational deviance.

This study develops a theoretical model to investigate when and why empowering leadership promotes employees’ pro‐environmental behaviour (PEB). Synthesising psychological ownership theory and role identity theory, we propose that empowering leadership positively affects the employees’ PEB and that this relationship is mediated by psychological ownership. Furthermore, we examine the moderating roles of empowerment role identity and environmental self‐identity in this relationship. By employing 203 leader–follower dyads as a sample, we find that empowering leadership is positively related to employees’ PEB and that employees’ psychological ownership mediates this relationship. Besides, we find that empowerment role identity plays a moderating role in the relationship between empowering leadership and employees’ psychological ownership such that the relationship is positive and significant when empowerment role identity is high but not significant when it is low. Finally, we observe that environmental self‐identity moderates the relationship between employees’ psychological ownership and PEB such that the relationship is positive and significant when environmental self‐identity is high, but not significant when it is low. Practically, we offer new insight into how and when organisations can leverage the positive effect of empowering leadership in the pursuit of promoting employees’ PEB.

Drawing on the framework of human energy in organizations, this study proposed a moderated mediation model between narcissism and taking charge, as well as the role of energy at work and the employee’s hierarchy within organizations. A sample of 312 employees at one Chinese manufacturing company suggested that employees with narcissistic personality are more apt to exhibit taking charge at work via their energy at work. In addition, the results also indicated that employees’ hierarchical level within organization reinforced the indirect effect of energy at work between narcissism and taking charge. These findings have important implications for narcissism research and managerial practices.

We set out to understand how role-making works and what roles employees and leaders play in this process. Employees often make changes to their work roles, such as by negotiating their job responsibilities and seeking challenging tasks. In this study, we suggest that role-making behaviours influence and are influenced by the dyadic relationship between leaders and employees, otherwise known as leader–member exchange (LMX). We collected three waves of survey data from a sample of Chinese employees who were recent college graduates (n = 203). The results from cross-lagged panel analyses showed that 1) LMX and job-change negotiation were reciprocally related to each other and 2) initial LMX was associated with increased challenge-seeking behaviours, although these behaviours did not lead to greater LMX later on. In addition, we found evidence that when employees experienced a high level of emotional ambivalence (a conflicting, mixed, and complex emotional state), the direct and reciprocal relationships between LMX and role-making behaviours were weakened. Our findings advance the understanding of the development of leader–employee relationships in the workplace and have implications for strengthening employee perceptions of high-quality relationships with their leaders by making changes to their workplace roles.

PurposeThis study examined the dynamical and positive effects of leader consultation on employee proactivity from a motivational perspective.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected twice a day from 107 employees in a week by using an experience sampling method.FindingsOn a daily basis, leader consultation had a positive effect on employees’ state work engagement, which in turn promoted employees’ proactivity. Moreover, authoritarian leadership weakened the positive relationship between leader consultation and employees’ state work engagement.Originality/valueThe findings provided a new perspective regarding the potential dynamic motivational effect of leader consultation on employees and generated interesting implications for paradoxical leadership theory.

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