Good Soldiers Instead of Good Change Agents: Examining the Dual Effects of Self-Sacrificial Leadership on Pro-Social Behavior and Change-Oriented Behavior in Teams

Abstract

Previous research has predominantly regarded self-sacrificing leaders as role models that can drive desirable outcomes. We challenge this notion and demonstrate the dual effects of self-sacrificial leadership on team prosocial and change-oriented behaviors. Drawing upon social learning theory, we develop a nuanced model that simultaneously examines self-sacrificial leadership's beneficial effects on team helping and its detrimental effects on team change-oriented behavior via unique mechanisms. Our analysis of two time-lagged, multisource data revealed that self-sacrificial leadership has an indirect positive effect on team helping via team other-focus and an indirect negative effect on team change-oriented behaviors (i.e., team creativity and team proactivity) via team dependence on the leader. Furthermore, team leader competence amplifies these indirect effects, such that the effects are stronger for more competent leaders. Taken together, our research challenges the prevailing assumption that self-sacrificial leadership is always beneficial and calls for further attention to be paid to the unintended impacts of role model leaders.

Servant leadership and employee prosocial rule-breaking: The underlying effects of psychological safety and compassion at work

“…Lee, Lyubovnikova [ 13 ] systematic review concludes that SL has the characteristics to satisfy subordinates based on emotional, ethical, spiritual, and relational grounds. According to Hoch, Bommer [ 40 ], the empirical power of SL is higher than other positive leadership styles, and it has emerged as one of the most important leadership styles for producing numerous positive outcomes including improving employees’ commitment [ 41 ], engagement [ 42 ], motivation and job performance [ 43 ], creativity and innovations [ 44 ], work-related wellbeing [ 45 ], innovative work behavior [ 46 ], citizenship behaviors [ 47 ], positive deviance [ 48 ], productive voice behavior [ 49 ] and pro-social behaviors [ 50 ].…”

Linking workplace loneliness to workplace territoriality: a self-protection perspective

“…Self-sacrificial leaders have a strong sense of responsibility to ensure that they fulfill their obligations to the team and ultimately achieve the team's goals. Because of self-sacrificial leaders' dutiful practice of focusing on follower Workplace loneliness needs and collective goals, employees generally perceive them to be other-focused rather than self-focused; they trust such leaders to have their best interests at heart and, thus, do not fear being exploited (De Cremer and van Knippenberg, 2005;Liu and Xu, 2022). Self-sacrificial leadership is conceptually distinct from transformational leadership and humble leadership.…”

Under the mask: The double-edged sword effect of leader self-sacrifice on employee work outcomes

“…Although the above studies have confirmed that employees can have a positive response to a leader’s self-sacrifice behavior—that is, they can demonstrate good work results—these studies also reveal that scholars know little about the negative impact it may cause ( Liu et al, 2022 ). The present study argues that scholars pay too much attention to the positive impact of leadership self-sacrifice behavior while ignoring its possible negative impact and its potential double-edged sword effect.…”

“…Over the last two decades, scholars have extensively focused on the subject of leader self-sacrifice. Numerous researches have shown that leaders’ self-sacrifice behavior arouses positive emotions in employees ( De Cremer et al, 2009 ; Vianello et al, 2010 ), which improves helping behavior ( Liu et al, 2022 ), work engagement ( Mostafa and Bottomley, 2020 ) and task performance ( Jiang et al, 2019 ). In short, there seems to be a common consensus among scholars that employees can be encouraged by leaders’ self-sacrifice behavior to produce better work results.…”