仁慈领导与员工创新行为:内部人身份感知的中介作用和领导-部属交换关系差异化的调节作用

Benevolent leadership and subordinate innovative behavior: The mediating role of perceived insider status and the moderating role of leader-member exchange differentiation

探究仁慈领导与员工创新行为的关系,以及在该关系中内部人身份感知的中介作用和领导-部属交换关系差异化的调节作用。以68名主管和215名员工为对象,通过对两阶段主管-员工配对调查所获取的数据进行分析,结果表明:(1)仁慈领导可以借助内部人身份感知的中介作用,对员工创新行为产生积极的影响;(2)领导-部属交换关系差异化能调节仁慈领导和内部人身份感知的关系,即当关系差异化水平越高,仁慈领导与内部人身份感知之间的正向关系越强;(3)领导-部属交换关系差异化能调节内部人身份感知在仁慈领导与员工创新行为关系间的中介作用,表现为被调节的中介作用模式,即领导-部属交换关系差异化水平越高,仁慈领导与员工创新行为之间通过内部人身份感知的间接关系越强。

For a long time, some scholars held that benevolent leadership contributes to employee innovative behavior because it provides subordinates with psychological safety, more resources and supports. However, some other scholars argued that benevolent leadership could increase subordinates＇ role obligation, loyalty and obedience to supervisor, which would restrain subordinates＇ creativity or innovative behavior. Thus, some scholars appealed that researchers should explore the relationship between benevolent leadership and innovative behavior, especially make out how, why, and when benevolent leadership facilitate innovative behavior in the future. We collected the data from 68 supervisors and 215 subordinates at two different time points. In the first survey, the subordinates were asked to provide information about benevolent leadership and their demography. Three months later, these subordinates were asked to answer some questions about leader-member exchange （LMX）, perceived insider status, and their supervisor rated their innovative behavior. Hierarchical linear modeling technique was employed to test the hypothesis about the moderating role of LMX differentiation in the relationship between benevolent leadership and perceived insider status, while bootstrap analysis procedures were used to examine the moderated-mediation relationship among the variables in the study. Analyses of multilevel, multisource and lagged data from 68 supervisors and 215 subordinates showed that （1） perceived insider status can mediate the relationship between benevolent leadership and innovative behavior; （2） LMX differentiation moderates the relationship between benevolent leadership and perceived insider status, i.e., the relationship will be stronger when LMX differentiation is high; （3） and the indirect relationships of benevolent leadership with innovative behavior via perceived insider status, i.e., the positive indirect relationship will also be strengthened when LMX differentiation is high. These findings extend our understanding of the relationship between benevolent leadership and innovative behavior, and specify how, why and when we can increase the positive influence of benevolent leadership on innovative behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.