The Bottom-Line Mentality of Leaders in Education and Training Institutions: Where to Go for Innovation?

Abstract

According to the social exchange theory, this study analyzed how a bottom-line mentality (BLM) among leaders affects teachers' innovative behavior and how this relationship is mediated by relative deprivation and psychological safety and moderated by person-organization values fit. Using two stages of data collection, 491 responses from teachers were obtained and analyzed. The results revealed that leader BLM significantly negatively affected teachers' innovative behavior, and relative deprivation and psychological safety both partially mediated this influence of leader BLM. Person-organization values fit negatively moderated the positive effect of leader BLM on teachers' relative deprivation and the negative effect of leader BLM on teachers' psychological safety. This study enriches the current literature about BLM and tests the influence of leader BLM on teacher's innovation in the Chinese education and training institutions, and provides insights into favorable educational management practices.

The Construct of Bottom-Line Mentality: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going

“…This research found that employees lower in moral identity were more likely to respond to their organizational cynicism (resulting from leader BLM) with even more cheating behaviors. Also, using social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), research has shown that leader BLM can spark employees to experience higher levels of relative deprivation (i.e., the belief that one has not been afforded basic fairness rights; Runciman, 1966) and lower levels of psychological safety (i.e., the belief that one can show vulnerabilities without repercussions; Edmondson, 1999), both of which then explain why leader BLM indirectly reduces employees' innovation (Wan, Liu, Long, Fan, & Wu, 2021). Furthermore, employees who share the values of the organization responded to leader BLM with weaker relative deprivation and mitigated negative effects on psychological safety.…”

“…Research has also used COR theory to suggest that leader BLM affects employee emotional exhaustion, which then increases silence at work (i.e., not expressing one's thoughts; Wan, Zhang, Liu, & Jiang, 2021), with employees’ lower conscientiousness serving as a first-stage moderator that strengthened the indirect effects of leader BLM. Additionally, Li and Cheng (2022) used COR theory to support a positive relationship between leader BLM and employee prevention-based psychological ownership (i.e., a territorial, protective stance regarding one's resources; Pierce, Kostova, & Dirks, 2001), which then resulted in employees hiding knowledge from coworkers.…”

Striving for the bottom line: the impact of supervisor bottom-line mentality on employees' work effort and helping behavior

“…, 2021; Quade et al. , 2020; Wan et al. , 2021), social cognitive theory (Farasat and Azam, 2022; Greenbaum et al.…”

“…Second, we introduced goal-setting theory as a new theoretical basis for understanding supervisor BLM. Studies on supervisor BLM have mainly drawn on social exchange theory (Babalola et al, 2021;Quade et al, 2020;Wan et al, 2021), social cognitive theory (Farasat and Azam, 2022;Greenbaum et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2020Zhang et al, , 2021, social information processing theory (Babalola et al, 2020(Babalola et al, , 2022, conservation of resources theory (Quade et al, in press;Farasat et al, 2021) and power and influence theory (Mesdaghinia et al, 2019). However, BLM research has largely neglected how supervisor BLM may motivate employees to achieve bottom-line objectives in terms of goal setting even though studies have indicated that supervisors have salient, elevated expectations regarding employees' work efforts (Mawritz et al, 2017) and set specific goals for employees.…”

Chinese University EFL Teachers' Perceived Support, Innovation, and Teaching Satisfaction in Online Teaching Environments: The Mediation of Teaching Efficacy

“…Innovation is defined as a new or improved product or process that is significantly different from previous iterations (OECD, 2018), and it is undoubtedly crucial for the survival, sustainability, and success of different organisations (Wan et al, 2021). In educational organisations, teacher innovation refers to the degree to which a teacher designs and implements new and unusual teaching activities, with innovative teaching techniques, and assigns unique homework to students (Fraser et al, 1986).…”