Bad apples spoiling the metaphor? How and why self-serving leaders stir up counterproductive behaviors at work.

Self-serving leaders satisfy their self-interests at the cost of both employees and organizations, leading to declining organizational competitive advantage and performance. Drawing upon the affective events theory (AET), we constructed and examined a theoretical model of self-serving leadership influencing counterproductive work behavior (CWB), where traditionality plays a significant moderating role through the lens of anger as a mediator. Data were collected in three waves using a survey questionnaire distributed in three industries located in the Southwest district of China.

Authoritarian leadership and cyberloafing: A moderated mediation model of emotional exhaustion and power distance orientation.

Drawing upon the conservation of resource theory (COR), this study proposes a moderated mediation model of authoritarian leadership on subordinates' cyberloafing. Paired samples of 360 employees working in 103 teams from Chinese companies were collected at 2 points in time. The results show that authoritarian leadership positively affects subordinates' cyberloafing and this relationship is mediated by emotional exhaustion.

Humor at work that works: A multi-level examination of when and why leader humor promotes employee creativity.

Although the role of leadership in fostering employee creativity has been extensively studied, it is still unclear whether and how leader humor affects employee creativity. Drawing upon cultural representation theory (CRT), we examined creative self-efficacy as a mediator and traditionality as a situational factor in the relationship between leader humor and employee creativity by analyzing a sample of 306 employees and 88 leaders (paired data) collected through survey questionnaire from firms based in Hubei Province, China, covering the industries of automobile, IT, and medicine. Following the multi-level examination, leader humor was positively related to employee creativity, and creative self-efficacy was found to mediate the impact of leader humor on employee creativity.

Negative Influences of Differentiated Empowering Leadership on Team Members' Helping Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Envy and Contempt.

Purpose: Given the popularity of empowerment practices among scholars and practitioners, this research examines whether a manager's differentiated empowering leadership negatively affects team members' helping behaviors and, if so, how.

Methods: The authors conducted one multi-source and time-lagged survey (with 44 managers and 212 team members) and two scenario-based experiments (with 120 participants in Study 2 and 121 participants in Study 3) to test the research model.

Results: Team managers' differentiated empowering leadership decreases team members' helping behaviors.

Positive leadership and employee engagement: The roles of state positive affect and individualism-collectivism.

Drawing upon broaden-and-build theory, this study examined the influence of positive leadership on employee engagement through the mediating role of employees' state positive affect and the moderating effect of individualism-collectivism orientation in a Chinese cultural context. A sample of 215 valid questionnaires was obtained through a two-wave survey of 48 teams working in central China. Hypotheses were tested by a method of hierarchical linear modelling.

How does responsible leadership affect employees' voluntary workplace green behaviors? A multilevel dual process model of voluntary workplace green behaviors.

This study aims to explore how to encourage employees to engage in voluntary workplace green behavior. Drawing upon social identity and social information processing theories, we theorized and tested a multilevel model in which responsible leadership triggers employee voluntary workplace green behavior by fostering organizational identification and a green work climate. Additionally, we distinguished these two critical processes by introducing employees' green values as a moderator.