IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i10p5883-d814220.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Authentic Leadership, Trust, and Social Exchange Relationships under the Influence of Leader Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • James K. C. Chen

    (Department of Business Administration, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan)

  • Thitima Sriphon

    (Department of Business Administration, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan)

Abstract

During the pandemic, government policies such as social distancing and telework have impacted trust and working or social exchange relationships in the workplace. The behavior of leaders is critical for good leadership, employees’ trust, and social exchange relationships. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the associations among authentic leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships under the influence of leader behavior. A regression-based approach was used to test the moderating and mediating effects. The results show that authentic leadership positively impacts trust and social exchange relationships, whereas trust directly affects social exchange relationships. During COVID-19, leader behaviors with ability, ethics, and positive relationships have had a positive impact on the association between authentic leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships. Additionally, trust positively mediates authentic leadership and social exchange relationships. The findings of this paper suggest that authentic leadership promotes trust and high-quality social exchange relationships. Moreover, based on leader behaviors during COVID-19, the ability to manage change effectively, boost employees’ work motivation, provide support, and take appropriate action is essential for authentic leadership to increase trust and foster a positive working relationship based on social exchange. Finally, regarding social exchange theory, high-quality leader behaviors and the leader–follower relationships drive positive associations among variables. These results will help organizational management teams to find methods to improve their organizational working relationships. The implication is that the abilities, ethics, and supportive and positive relationship behaviors of leaders are essential for effective management to improve leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships. Leaders should have the ability to manage work and people, even with teleworkers. Therefore, leader behaviors are important to maintain organizational sustainability. Further discussion on theoretical and practical implications is provided in the section.

Suggested Citation

  • James K. C. Chen & Thitima Sriphon, 2022. "Authentic Leadership, Trust, and Social Exchange Relationships under the Influence of Leader Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-32, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:5883-:d:814220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5883/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5883/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pfeffer, Jeffrey, 2010. "Building Sustainable Organizations: The Human Factor," Research Papers 2017r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    2. E. S. Wong & Danny Then & Martin Skitmore, 2000. "Antecedents of trust in intra-organizational relationships within three Singapore public sector construction project management agencies," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(7), pages 797-806.
    3. Aneil K. Mishra & Karen E. Mishra, 2013. "The research on trust in leadership: The need for context," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 59-69, April.
    4. Purevdulam Altantsetseg & Alaleh Dadvari & Tsevegjav Munkhdelger & Gerelt-Od Lkhagvasuren & Massoud Moslehpour, 2020. "Sustainable Development of Entrepreneurial Orientation through Social Drivers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Sadaf Iqbal & Tahir Farid & Jianhong Ma & Amira Khattak & Mohammad Nurunnabi, 2018. "The Impact of Authentic Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behaviours and the Mediating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Banking Sector of Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-11, June.
    6. Johnson, Devon & Grayson, Kent, 2005. "Cognitive and affective trust in service relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 500-507, April.
    7. James K.C. Chen & Thitima Sriphon, 2022. "The Relationships among Authentic Leadership, Social Exchange Relationships, and Trust in Organizations during COVID-19 Pandemic," Advances in Decision Sciences, Asia University, Taiwan, vol. 26(1), pages 31-68, March.
    8. James K. C. Chen & Thitima Sriphon, 2021. "Perspective on COVID-19 Pandemic Factors Impacting Organizational Leadership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    9. Ellen Lau & Steve Rowlinson, 2009. "Interpersonal trust and inter-firm trust in construction projects," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 539-554.
    10. Reinhard Bachmann, 2011. "At the crossroads: Future directions in trust research," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 203-213, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shabir Hussain Malik & Weizhong Fu & Samma Faiz Rasool & Gowhar Ahmad Wani & Shah Zaman & Najaf Ali Wani, 2023. "Investigating the Impact of Communication Factors and Stakeholders Engagement on Renewable Energy Projects in Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Alexandra Zamfirache & Titus Suciu & Carmen Elena Anton & Ruxandra-Gabriela Albu & Ioana-Simona Ivasciuc, 2023. "The Interest Shown by Potential Young Entrepreneurs in Romania Regarding Feasible Funding Sources, in the Context of a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-29, March.
    3. Tea Korkeakunnas & Marina Heiden & Malin Lohela-Karlsson & Komalsingh Rambaree, 2023. "Managers’ Perceptions of Telework in Relation to Work Environment and Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James K. C. Chen & Thitima Sriphon, 2021. "Perspective on COVID-19 Pandemic Factors Impacting Organizational Leadership," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.
    2. James K.C. Chen & Thitima Sriphon, 2022. "The Relationships among Authentic Leadership, Social Exchange Relationships, and Trust in Organizations during COVID-19 Pandemic," Advances in Decision Sciences, Asia University, Taiwan, vol. 26(1), pages 31-68, March.
    3. Rai, Arpana & Kim, Minseo & Pereira, Vijay, 2024. "How supportive and challenging behaviors of leaders promote employees' thriving at work: An examination of underlying mechanisms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    4. Ghulam Abid & Francoise Contreras & Saira Ahmed & Tehmina Qazi, 2019. "Contextual Factors and Organizational Commitment: Examining the Mediating Role of Thriving at Work," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Wan Rahim Wan Yunan & Aminah Ahmad & Zoharah Omar, 2017. "The Experience of Workplace Spirituality: Do Age and Educational Attainment Matter?," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(7), pages 61-69, July.
    6. Kristina A. Diekmann & Sheli D. Sillito Walker & Adam D. Galinsky & Ann E. Tenbrunsel, 2013. "Double Victimization in the Workplace: Why Observers Condemn Passive Victims of Sexual Harassment," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 614-628, April.
    7. Bilal El TOUFAIL, 2018. "Consequences Of Organizational Stress On Workforce Productivity. Research On Strategies To Promote A Sustainable Workforce," Business Excellence and Management, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 8(2), pages 42-52, June.
    8. Fabien Martinez, 2014. "Corporate strategy and the environment: towards a four-dimensional compatibility model for fostering green management decisions," Post-Print hal-02887618, HAL.
    9. Lee, Liane W.Y. & Tang, Yiming & Yip, Leslie S.C. & Sharma, Piyush, 2018. "Managing customer relationships in the emerging markets – guanxi as a driver of Chinese customer loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 356-365.
    10. Sarstedt, Marko & Wilczynski, Petra & Melewar, T.C., 2013. "Measuring reputation in global markets—A comparison of reputation measures’ convergent and criterion validities," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 329-339.
    11. Osama Sohaib & Kyeong Kang & Mohammad Nurunnabi, 2018. "Gender-Based iTrust in E-Commerce: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Innovativeness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Zur, Andrew & Leckie, Civilai & Webster, Cynthia M., 2012. "Cognitive and affective trust between Australian exporters and their overseas buyers," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 73-79.
    13. Lionel Nicod & Sylvie Llosa, 2018. "How should customers be trained in their role as coproducers? The influence of training and its characteristics on the benefits of coproduction," Post-Print hal-03513344, HAL.
    14. Gordon Liu & Catherine Liston-Heyes & Wai-Wai Ko, 2010. "Employee Participation in Cause-Related Marketing Strategies: A Study of Management Perceptions from British Consumer Service Industries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 195-210, March.
    15. Edwards, Chase J. & Bendickson, Joshua S. & Baker, Brent L. & Solomon, Shelby J., 2020. "Entrepreneurship within the history of marketing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 259-267.
    16. Parakandi, Mohammed & Behery, Mohamed, 2016. "Sustainable human resources: Examining the status of organizational work–life balance practices in the United Arab Emirates," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1370-1379.
    17. Peter Ping Li, 2017. "The time for transition: Future trust research," Journal of Trust Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 1-14, January.
    18. Marcus Adam, 2018. "The Role of Human Resource Management (HRM) for the Implementation of Sustainable Product-Service Systems (PSS)—An Analysis of Fashion Retailers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-27, July.
    19. Jung Lee & Jae-Nam Lee & Bernard C. Y. Tan, 2015. "Antecedents of cognitive trust and affective distrust and their mediating roles in building customer loyalty," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 159-175, February.
    20. Davidoff, Thomas & Gerhard, Patrick & Post, Thomas, 2017. "Reverse mortgages: What homeowners (don’t) know and how it matters," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 151-171.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:5883-:d:814220. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.