The distinctive effects of dual-level leadership behaviors on employees’ trust in leadership: An empirical study from China

Abstract

The loss of trust within and between organizations has become serious worldwide, especially in China. In this study, we seek to explain why as well as how leaders at two different levels (i.e., the top management and the supervisory levels) affect employees' trust in leadership at the two levels distinctively, especially in the context of China as an emerging economy. Adopting the perspective of multi-level social exchanges within organizations, we develop a dual-level model with perceived organizational support and leader-member exchange as two major mediating mechanisms for the distinctive effects of transformational leadership behaviors on employees' trust in leadership at both top management and supervisory levels, respectively. The empirical evidence based on a sample of 357 Chinese employees and their supervisors supports the proposed model. Both theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Leveraging the employee voice: a multi-level social learning perspective of ethical leadership

“…Riskaverse people will use this communication type with caution or never use it (Lin & Johnson, 2015). This risk-avoidance tendency might be more aggravated in the Chinese context of this study which values harmony and relationships (Bai, Han, & Harms, 2016;Bai, Harms, Han, & Cheng, 2015;Bai, Li, & Xi, 2012). Thus, even if encouraged by organizational systems, prohibitive voice is less likely to happen in the whole team.…”

The influence of transformational leadership on followers’ affective commitment

“…Comparatively, little is known on the relationship between transformational leadership and POS. Whereas several authors reported a positive relationship between these two constructs (Al-Hussami, 2009;Bai et al, 2012;Cho et al, 2011;Connell et al, 2003;Hyatt, 2007), most of these articles did not explicitly focus on this relationship. As a result, the rationale underlying this relationship has not been developed and the boundary conditions in which transformational leadership is more (or less) effective in predicting POS have not been examined.…”

Leadership research in Asia: Taking the road less traveled?

“…Using a multi-foci approach, Bai, Li, and Xi (2012) found that transformational leadership leads to better followers' performance at the top management and supervisory levels. The relationship at the top management level is mediated by perceived organizational support and trust in top management team, whereas the relationship at the supervisor level is mediated by leader-member exchange and trust in supervisor.…”

“…Also, empirical evidence in the Western context suggests that micro-level rather than macro-level social exchange is more likely to shape employees' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002). Yet, based on the sample from China, Bai et al (2012) found that, among other things, both macro-level and micro-level exchange (i.e., employees' trust in top management team and trust in supervisor) were related to OCB. This result suggests that in the Chinese context, employees may translate their trust in their immediate supervisors into behavioral reactions towards their organizations, perhaps due to collectivistic values (Chen, Tsui, & Farh, 2002).…”