Drawing from the cultural self-representation model, we propose a multilevel model to examine when and why empowering leadership elicits followers' taking charge behaviors in China. Data from 310 full-time employees in 81 work groups provide support for the mediating role of role breadth self-efficacy in transforming team-directed empowering leadership into individual taking charge behaviors. In addition, this mediation relationship is found to be attenuated by high differentiated empowering leadership and low individual power distance orientation. Finally, we find support for a three-way moderated mediation-which the moderating effect of differentiated empowering leadership is found to be significant only among followers who have low power distance orientation. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

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PurposeThis study considered organizational politics as a source of stress and examined its spillover effects on the family domain. By integrating the work–home resource theory and transactional theory of stress, the authors developed a moderated mediation model that examined the moderating role of family support in the relationship between employee's perceptions of organizational politics and their family satisfaction through work-to-family conflict.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examined the moderated mediation model using a sample of 223 full-time employees in Bangladesh. Data were collected using a three-wave survey research design.FindingsThe results indicate that organizational politics is negatively related to family satisfaction; work-to-family conflict medicates this relationship. Besides, family support attenuates the mediating effect of work-to-family conflict on the relationship between organizational politics and family satisfaction.Practical implicationsManagers should reduce the extent of organizational politics to avoid its impact on the nonwork domain. Moreover, social support from family members might play a crucial role in reducing the negative consequence of organizational politics in the family domain. By taking human resource practices such as training, increased communication, family-friendly policies, organizations may improve the ability of workers to cope with the negative consequences of organizational politics.Originality/valueThe current study uncovered the spillover effect of organizational politics on the nonwork domain. This research contributed to the burgeoning stream of organizational politics and work–family interface literature by investigating the influence of organizational politics in undermining family satisfaction and exploring the mediating mechanism linking organizational politics and family satisfaction as well as the boundary conditions of family social support.

In today’s business world, the environment is changing rapidly. Employers need to rely upon their employees in order to produce long-term competitive advantage and sustainable performance. However, little research has investigated whether sustainable human resource management could prompt change-oriented behaviors in employees. By integrating the job demands–resources (JD-R) model and the proactive motivation model with the existing literature on sustainable human resource management, we explored the relationship between high-commitment work systems (HCWS) and the employees’ taking charge behaviors. Data from 352 employees of 96 organizations provided support for the positive effect of HCWS on the employees’ taking charge behaviors. The results of this study showed that HCWS affect the employees’ taking charge behaviors through their work engagement only when they felt a high level of impact. Based on these results, we not only provide several theoretical contributions to the literature on HCWS and taking charge, but also provide some practical suggestions for how to nurture change-oriented employees using sustainable human resource management within the organizations.

Based on the self-verification theory, this research proposed a multi-level model for exploring whether, how, and when differentiated leadership had curvilinear effects on relationship conflict within a team and further on team members’ counterproductive work behaviors toward individuals (CWBI). Drawing on a sample of 297 team members nested in 78 teams, we found that differentiated empowering leadership had no direct curvilinear effects on relationship conflict. However, the results showed that the team competence variance could moderate the curvilinear relationship between differentiated empowering leadership and relationship conflict. Specifically, only in teams with high competence variance among members, differentiated empowering leadership had a U-shaped effect on relationship conflict. Moreover, differentiated empowering leadership interacted with team competence variance had a downstream effect on team members’ CWBI through relationship conflict. We ended up by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.