Why Does Distributed Leadership Foster or Hamper Bootlegging Behavior of Employees: The Role of Exploratory-Exploitative Learning Tension and Paradox Mindset

Abstract

Bootlegging innovation, the act of developing an idea by an employee even when it was banned by the leader, is a novel and interesting construct that can bring both positive and negative outcomes to organizations. It is of interest to the organizations, leaders within those organizations, and the employers. Drawing upon paradox theory and organizational learning perspectives, we theorize and test a moderated mediation model to explore the relationship between distributed leadership and bootlegging behavior. We use a three-stage questionnaire method to collect data from 517 employees of information technology enterprises in China. Our results corroborate the following: (a) distributed leadership is positively related to the bootlegging behavior of employees; (b) exploratory-exploitative learning tension mediates the linkage between the distributed leadership and the bootlegging behavior of employees; (c) employee’s paradox mindset moderates the positive relationship between exploratory-exploitative learning tensions and the bootlegging behavior and also moderates the positive direct relationship between the distributed leadership and employee’s bootlegging behavior, so that the relationship is amplified when paradox mindset is strong. We discuss the implications for theory development and practice concerning how distributed leadership can influence personal bootlegging behavior.

Linking Leader’s Positive Humor and Employee Bootlegging: Empirical Evidence from China

“… 5 , 60 Noticeably missing from research attention has been leader’s positive humor, despite suggestions by researchers that scholars should focus greater effort on leadership approaches that can address to employee bootlegging. 16 Leader’s positive humor conveys leader’s care and kindness, making employees feel breaking the routine and boundaries of the organization is a “benign violation”, thereby helping employees to carry out bootlegging. So, there are major reasons to expect leader’s positive humor to have a positive impact on employee bootlegging.…”

“…[13][14][15] Noticeably missing from research attention has been leader's positive humor, despite suggestions by researchers that scholars should focus greater effort on leadership approaches that can address the elemental underpinnings of employee bootlegging. 16 Humor, as a means of social communication, 17 can animate atmosphere, trigger positive emotions, and then shorten the distance between each other. 18,19 Leader's positive humor conveys leader's care and kindness, making employees feel breaking the routine and boundaries of the organization is "benign violation", thereby helping employees to carry out bootlegging.…”

The Interactive Effects of Communication Network Structure and Organizational Size on Task Performance in Project-Based Organizations: The Mediating Role of Bootleg Innovation Behavior

“…For instance, the relationship between innovation climate, costs, and benefits and the willingness and behavior of organization members [24,65]. It is noteworthy that the success of bootleg innovation lies in the organization situation, not the bootlegging behavior itself [66]. Hence, a few studies have tried to explore the role of bootleg innovation from a collective perspective.…”