以权谋私:领导者自私行为的研究现状与未来展望

Seeking Private Gain through Power:A Review and Research Agenda of Leader Self-serving Behavior

领导者自私行为指领导者通过职权获取个人利益并损害组织或下属利益的行为,对组织、领导者和下属都具有消极作用,正逐渐引起学界关注。基于近二十年在中外核心期刊所发表的三十多篇文献,本文初步界定了领导者自私行为的内涵,整理其实验操作方式和测量量表,系统梳理其后果、前因及各自的影响机制、边界条件的相关成果,从而挖掘并提出一些研究方向和具体的研究问题:一是进一步厘清领导者自私行为的内涵和结构,开发适合中国企业情境的量表;二是着重探索领导者自私行为对领导者和团队的作用效果和机制,拓宽对下属作用的理论视角;三是完善并深化权力分别与领导者特征、组织环境交互影响其自私行为的促进—抑制效应及其机制;四是加强领导者自私行为的跨文化和本土研究,如揭示工作场所儒家传统价值观对该行为的影响及其机制。本文期望能够引起国内学术界的研究兴趣,深入拓展领导者自私行为的理论空间,丰富实证成果;补充破坏式领导的相关研究,多视角认识领导者行为、理解领导力;也期冀出现更多本土化的高质量研究成果,帮助中国实践界识别、预防与控制领导者自私行为,减少组织潜在的经济与社会损失。

Leader self-serving behavior(LSSB)refers to any action by a leader who uses his or her position power for personal interests at the expense of the organization’s and/or subordinates’interests.LSSB has received increasing academic attention due to its negative impacts on organizations,subordinates and leader themselves.Based on more than thirty articles published on the domestic and foreign core journals in the past two decades,our paper compares extant conceptualizations of LSSB and proposes a more integrative and accurate definition,compiles its experimental manipulation methods and measurement scales,systematically explores its antecedents,consequences,and the mediating mechanisms and also functioning contexts.After that,the paper identifies research gaps and puts forward future directions and some specific research questions.Firstly,researchers may further clarify LSSB’s definition,find out its dimensions,and therefore develop a measurement scale for indigenous management research and practice.Secondly,researchers may investigate the roles that LSSB plays in the effectiveness of leadership,individual subordinates,and teams and deeply reveal their corresponding mechanisms.Thirdly,the academics may complete and deepen exploration of approach-inhibition effect and intermediate mechanism in which particular leader’s traits and organizational contexts respectively interact with power to influence the LSSB.Fourthly,we may strengthen conducting cross-cultural and indigenous study in Chinese context,for example revealing the roles of Confucian traditional values at workplace either in LSSB or in the process of LSSB influencing other entities.Finally,this paper calls for more attention from domestic scholars to broaden the theoretical scope of LSSB and enrich empirical outcomes on it,which will contribute to the development of destructive leadership theory and provide multiple perspectives to understand leader behaviors and leadership effectiveness.In addition,we hope to motivate more high-quality research oriented towards organizational practice in order to help Chinese firms to identify,prevent and control LSSB,and reduce potentially huge economic and social costs.