IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v174y2021i3d10.1007_s10551-020-04622-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leader-Expressed Humility Predicting Team Psychological Safety: A Personality Dynamics Lens

Author

Listed:
  • Arménio Rego

    (Universidade Católica Portuguesa
    Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Business Research Unit (Portugal))

  • Ana I. Melo

    (Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão de Águeda (ESTGA-UA), Universidade de Aveiro
    Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES))

  • Dustin J. Bluhm

    (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

  • Miguel Pina Cunha

    (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

  • Dálcio Reis Júnior

    (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná
    Grupo de Pesquisa em Inovação e Competitividade/PPGCOOP)

Abstract

In an application of the personality dynamics framework, we advance understanding on the relationship between baseline leader humility and team psychological safety by exploring the roles of humility variability and attractor strength. Specifically, we examine how the (in)consistency (i.e., variability) of leader-expressed humility across team members operates as a boundary condition in the relationship between leader-expressed humility and team psychological safety. We also explore how the agreement between leader self-reported humility and leader-expressed humility (i.e., self-other agreement, SOA) operates as an attractor to predict such a consistency. We test the hypothesized model through a sample of 85 teams, rated by 354 team members. The findings suggest that consistency reinforces, while inconsistency weakens, the effect of leader-expressed humility on team psychological safety. The findings also reveal that SOA relates to the consistency of leader-expressed humility, depending on the level at which the (dis)agreement occurs. We conclude that to better understand the outcomes of humble leadership, it is necessary to take into account not only the baseline of humility expressed by the leader (as most studies do), but also his/her humility variability and the strength of the attractor.

Suggested Citation

  • Arménio Rego & Ana I. Melo & Dustin J. Bluhm & Miguel Pina Cunha & Dálcio Reis Júnior, 2021. "Leader-Expressed Humility Predicting Team Psychological Safety: A Personality Dynamics Lens," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 669-686, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:174:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04622-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04622-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04622-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-020-04622-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moore, Geoff, 2005. "Corporate Character: Modern Virtue Ethics and the Virtuous Corporation," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 659-685, October.
    2. Xiaoshuang Lin & Zhen Xiong Chen & Herman H. M. Tse & Wu Wei & Chao Ma, 2019. "Why and When Employees Like to Speak up More Under Humble Leaders? The Roles of Personal Sense of Power and Power Distance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(4), pages 937-950, September.
    3. Bradley P. Owens & Michael D. Johnson & Terence R. Mitchell, 2013. "Expressed Humility in Organizations: Implications for Performance, Teams, and Leadership," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 1517-1538, October.
    4. Lee, Hun Whee & Choi, Jin Nam & Kim, Seongsu, 2018. "Does gender diversity help teams constructively manage status conflict? An evolutionary perspective of status conflict, team psychological safety, and team creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 187-199.
    5. Gazi Islam, 2020. "Psychology and Business Ethics: A Multi-level Research Agenda," Post-Print hal-02877566, HAL.
    6. Barjinder Singh & Doan Winkel, 2012. "Racial Differences in Helping Behaviors: The Role of Respect, Safety, and Identification," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(4), pages 467-477, April.
    7. George G. Brenkert, 2019. "Mind the Gap! The Challenges and Limits of (Global) Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 917-930, April.
    8. Gazi Islam, 2020. "Psychology and Business Ethics: A Multi-level Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 1-13, August.
    9. Yidong Tu & Xinxin Lu & Jin Nam Choi & Wei Guo, 2019. "Ethical Leadership and Team-Level Creativity: Mediation of Psychological Safety Climate and Moderation of Supervisor Support for Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 551-565, October.
    10. Sheng-min Liu & Jian-qiao Liao & Hongguo Wei, 2015. "Authentic Leadership and Whistleblowing: Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Personal Identification," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 107-119, September.
    11. Gazi Islam, 2020. "Psychology and Business Ethics: A Multi-level Research Agenda," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-02877566, HAL.
    12. Arménio Rego & Miguel Pina e. Cunha & Ace Volkmann Simpson, 2018. "The Perceived Impact of Leaders’ Humility on Team Effectiveness: an Empirical Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 205-218, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Nelson Borges Amaral & Jinfeng Jiao, 2023. "Responses to Ethical Scenarios: The Impact of Trade-Off Salience on Competing Construal Level Effects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 745-762, March.
    2. Vasco Santos & Nuno Almeida, 2022. "Ethical Marketing Model for Luxury Hotel Chains: Development and Validation of a Performance Evaluation Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Mudassar Ali & Li Zhang & Zhenduo Zhang & Muhammad Zada & Abida Begum & Heesup Han & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Alejandro Vega-Muñoz, 2021. "Can Leaders’ Humility Enhance Project Management Effectiveness? Interactive Effect of Top Management Support," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-17, August.
    4. K. Bharanitharan & Zhen Xiong Chen & Somayeh Bahmannia & Kevin B. Lowe, 2019. "Is Leader Humility a Friend or Foe, or Both? An Attachment Theory Lens on Leader Humility and Its Contradictory Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 729-743, December.
    5. Kelly Raz & Alison R. Fragale & Liat Levontin, 2023. "Who Do I (Dis)Trust and Monitor for Ethical Misconduct? Status, Power, and the Structural Paradox," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(2), pages 443-464, January.
    6. Zhe Zhang & Juan Wang & Ming Jia, 2022. "Multilevel Examination of How and When Socially Responsible Human Resource Management Improves the Well-Being of Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 55-71, February.
    7. Anika Schumacher & Robert Mai, 2024. "Organizational Top Dog (vs. Underdog) Narratives Increase the Punishment of Corporate Moral Transgressions: When Dominance is a Liability and Prestige is an Asset," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 19-36, September.
    8. John G. Cullen, 2022. "Moral Recovery and Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 485-497, January.
    9. Kristin Lee Sotak & Andra Serban & Barry A. Friedman & Michael Palanski, 2024. "Perceptions of Ethicality: The Role of Attire Style, Attire Appropriateness, and Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 149-175, January.
    10. Yushan Wu & Rita Yi Man Li & Sher Akbar & Qinghua Fu & Sarminah Samad & Ubaldo Comite, 2022. "The Effectiveness of Humble Leadership to Mitigate Employee Burnout in the Healthcare Sector: A Structural Equation Model Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, October.
    11. Marcel Meyer, 2018. "The Evolution and Challenges of the Concept of Organizational Virtuousness in Positive Organizational Scholarship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 245-264, November.
    12. Wenjuan Cheng & Zhonghua Wang & Rui Fang & Sumaira Kayani & Michele Biasutti, 2023. "The Mechanism of Leader-Expressed Humility on a Physical Education Teacher’s Work Engagement—Exploring the Chain Mediation Effect of Teacher Efficacy and Felt Obligation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, June.
    13. Carnevale, Joel B. & Huang, Lei & Paterson, Ted, 2019. "LMX-differentiation strengthens the prosocial consequences of leader humility: An identification and social exchange perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 287-296.
    14. Juan Wang & Zhe Zhang & Ming Jia, 2020. "Echoes of Corporate Social Responsibility: How and When Does CSR Influence Employees’ Promotive and Prohibitive Voices?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 253-269, November.
    15. Arménio Rego & Miguel Pina e Cunha & Luca Giustiniano, 2022. "Are Relationally Transparent Leaders More Receptive to the Relational Transparency of Others? An Authentic Dialog Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 695-709, October.
    16. Mary M. Crossan & Alyson Byrne & Gerard H. Seijts & Mark Reno & Lucas Monzani & Jeffrey Gandz, 2017. "Toward a Framework of Leader Character in Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(7), pages 986-1018, November.
    17. Tuan, Luu Trong, 2020. "Coach humility and player creativity: The roles of knowledge sharing and group diversity," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 284-301.
    18. Nault, Kelly A. & Sezer, Ovul & Klein, Nadav, 2023. "It’s the journey, not just the destination: Conveying interpersonal warmth in written introductions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    19. Cao, Chunfang & Li, Xiaoyang & Xia, Changyuan, 2021. "The complicit role of local government authorities in corporate bribery: Evidence from a tax collection reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    20. Antonio Argandona, 2015. "Humility in Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 63-71, November.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:174:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04622-1. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.