Bad time to be humble! When and why leaders should not be humble

PurposeAlthough leader humility is generally considered a positive leadership behavior, this study aims to examine when the positive influences of leader humility are likely weakened.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a two-wave survey. Ordinary least squares regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsAlthough leader humility is positively related to perceived leader support, this relationship is weakened when the environment is uncertain, resulting in comparatively lower follower performance.Practical implicationsLeaders should be aware that environmental constraints may weaken the desired outcomes of humility and therefore adapt leadership to situational needs.Originality/valueContrasting to predominant research on leader humility, this study examines a critical boundary condition by which its positive influences are compromised. In light of the disruption caused by the ongoing COVID-19, this study suggests that what usually are considered positive characteristics of leader humility are likely perceived as little leader support when the environment is uncertain. Findings of this study echo contingency leadership theories, which suggest that effective leadership should be context-dependent.

Employee loyalty during slowdown of Covid-19: Do satisfaction and trust matter?

Purpose This research aims to test employee loyalty in the hotel industry, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study examines the relationship between leader support in building job satisfaction, trust and employee loyalty. Also, this research aims to test and explain the role of satisfaction and trust as mediator variables. Design/methodology/approach This research used a quantitative design by distributing questionnaires to 206 employees of the 97 hotels in Bali, Indonesia, particularly during pandemic Covid-19. The research data were then analyzed by using WarpPLS software. Findings The results revealed that leader support did not have a significant effect on loyalty. Satisfaction and trust act as double mediators in leaders’ support and loyalty relationships. Research limitations/implications Employees need leaders’ support to remain loyal to their organization in a slowdown situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its various challenges. Originality/value Research on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on various sectors has been comprehensive. However, the research that invests in employee loyalty in the hospitality industry is still rare. This study analyzes the loyalty of hotel employees, particularly when the tourism sector is experiencing a slowdown. This study also examines the role of trust and satisfaction as mediating relationships between leaders’ support and loyalty, which have not been widely analyzed in previous studies.

Counterbalancing the Development Territorial Disparities in the Implementation of the Community-Led Local Development EU Approach in Romania

LEADER is a rural development method based on a participative approach, which was tailored in 1991 as a complement to the traditional common agricultural policy (CAP) measures. One of its most important objectives is to reduce the differences between rural and urban areas by building on local knowledge and potential. The aim of the present paper is to identify what are the most important characteristics of the LAGs that can counterbalance the existing economic disparities in the rural regions. The research was conducted in the northwest development region of Romania (2014–2020 programming period), using the principal component analysis and the hierarchical cluster analysis. Two types of data were collected: indicators of performance, such as the number of projects contracted and jobs created, were used to assess the success of the method, while the territorial and LAG characteristics were used to explain these results. The findings confirm the presence of an unequal distribution of LEADER support in favor of the most urbanized and developed areas. However, the results also show that the experience and economic and administrative capacity of LAGs could help counterbalance the influence of the territorial features previously mentioned, and therefore to reduce the gap between them and the more developed groups.

Impact of Ethical Leadership on Employee Engagement: Role of Self-Efficacy and Organizational Commitment

The aim of this study was to examine the roles of self-efficacy and organizational commitment in the sequential mediation of the relationship between ethical leadership and employee engagement. Data were collected through self-reported questionnaires of employees from private and public sector organizations of Pakistan. We opted for a three-wave time-lagged design, and we used the PROCESS macro by Hayes on a sample of 211 employees (35% male, 65% female) via the 2000 re-sample bias-corrected bootstrap method. The results show a significant relationship between ethical leadership and employee engagement with mediating effects of self-efficacy and organizational commitment. Self-efficacy and organizational commitment fully mediated the relationship. The results provide insight into the understanding of employee behavior, particularly in the presence of moral leadership. Drawing on the conservation of resource theory, we examined how ethical leader support enables employees to invest their resources into positive outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Leading the Challenge: Leader Support Modifies the Effect of Role Ambiguity on Engagement and Extra-Role Behaviors in Public Employees

The assumption of new challenges and services to provide, and the evolution of new technologies in public administration, give employees an important perception of ambiguity when carrying out their work. Role ambiguity has been conceptualized as one of the main impeding demands at work with negative consequences. The objective of the present study is to analyze the moderating effect of the support by the department head in the negative influence of the role ambiguity on the engagement and the extra-role performance behaviors of the employees. The hypothesis is proposed that the support of the department head will mean the transformation of role ambiguity into a challenging job demand with positive results. A total of 315 public employees with administrative staff have participated in this study. Results confirmed that the support of the leader moderates the effects of role ambiguity. The inclusion of this variable as a moderator transforms the influence of role ambiguity on the employees’ engagement into a positive one and reduces their negative effect on extra-role performance behaviors. These results reinforce the role of leader support as a protective element against job demands in public administrations. Theoretical and practical implications and future lines of research are discussed at the end of the work.

Chinese University Faculty’s Occupational Well-Being: Applying and Extending the Job Demands–Resources Model

This study aimed to explore predictors of Chinese university faculty’s occupational well-being in the reshaped work environment. To achieve this aim, the job demands-resources model was utilized to test the relationships of job demands (work–family conflict) and job resources (leader support) to occupational well-being among 375 university faculty (145 males and 230 females) at a comprehensive research university in China. We further intended to extend the theory by incorporating personal demands (the perfectionism personality) within the research model. Results indicated work–family conflict was indirectly related to job satisfaction via the mediator of emotional exhaustion. Leader support was indirectly related to job satisfaction via the mediators of emotional exhaustion and work engagement. The two perfectionism dimensions (concerns and strivings) functioned differently in the model. The concerns dimension positively predicted exhaustion but was nonsignificant for engagement. By contrast, the strivings dimension positively predicted engagement but was nonsignificant for exhaustion.

Validation of an Attributional and Distributive Justice Mediational Model on the Effects of Surface Acting on Emotional Exhaustion: An Experimental Study

Previous research has shown that surface acting—displaying an emotion that is dissonant with inner feelings—negatively impacts employees’ well-being. However, most studies have neglected the meaning that employees develop around emotional demands requiring surface acting. This study examined how employees’ responsibility attributions of client behavior demanding surface acting influence employees’ emotional exhaustion, and the mediational role of distributive justice in this relationship. Relying on Fairness Theory, it was expected that employees’ responsibility attributions of client behavior demanding emotion regulation would be related to their perceptions of distributive injustice during the service encounter, which in turn would mediate the effects of responsibility attribution on emotional exhaustion. In addition, drawing on the conservation of resources model, we contended that leader support would moderate the impact of distributive injustice on emotional exhaustion. Two scenario-based experiments were conducted. Study 1 (N = 187) manipulated the attribution of responsibility for emotional demands. The findings showed that distributive injustice and emotional exhaustion were higher when responsibility for the surface acting demands was attributed to the client. A bootstrapping mediational analysis confirmed employees’ attributions have an indirect effect on emotional exhaustion through distributive justice. Study 2 (N = 227) manipulated responsibility attribution and leader support. The leader support moderation effect was confirmed.

Working in the Eye of the Pandemic: Local COVID-19 Infections and Daily Employee Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed many aspects of our society and work life. This study assesses how daily variations in employees' work engagement are affected by daily variations in infection rates in employees' communities. Applying the conceptual framework of event system theory, we argue that surging COVID-19 cases have an impact on employee engagement, depending on the individual sensemaking processes of the pandemic. We assume that employee age and received leader support are key context factors for these sensemaking processes and that particularly older employees and employees who receive little leader consideration react with lower work engagement levels toward rising local COVID-19 infections in their proximity. We find support for most of our proposed relationships in an 8-day diary study of German employees, which we integrate with official COVID-19 case statistics on the county level. We discuss the implications of these results for the literature on extreme events and individual workplace behavior. Furthermore, these findings have important implications for companies and executives who are confronted with local COVID-19 outbreaks or other extreme societal events.

Sharing Labs

Asking teachers to lead professional development (PD) for their peers is a complex request. Leading PD requires purposeful skill development for facilitators and thoughtful approaches to adult learning. This chapter proposes four practices for implementing teacher-driven, teacher-led PD: 1) soliciting staff input and involvement, 2) dedicating time to common planning, 3) creating a teacher-leader support structure, and 4) developing a culture of co-thinking with common shared language. These practices grew out of an urban public school's experience with implementing small-group, mixed-grade, mixed-subject PD. This teacher-led PD, called the sharing lab, empowered teacher-leaders and staff to feel valued as professionals, learn from each other using structured conversations, and apply their learning to their practice. Recommendations for future sharing labs include expanding focus to community and culture dilemmas, incorporating student voice, and aligning the sharing labs to other PD so they fit within a consistent arc of learning.

Conditions

No team works in a vacuum. Some conditions may encourage collaboration, while others can act as constraints or inhibitors. This chapter examines “conditions,” the context or environment in which a team operates. Some conditions exhibit strong situational strength that greatly influence expected behaviors; others offer only hints or nudges about collaboration. Tangible elements such as organizational policies and practices (e.g., that guide compensation and promotion decisions), resources (e.g., are enough people assigned to the team, does the team have the information it needs), and less tangible elements such as senior leader support and organizational culture are all relevant for promoting teamwork. This chapter highlights six organizational practices and three senior leadership behaviors that can influence many teams, as well as four local team-specific conditions (i.e., resource availability, time availability, authority levels, and mission). The implications of working in a broader cultural context is also considered, as behavioral norms vary around the world.