Paternalistic leadership, subordinate perceived leader–member exchange and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

AbstractChinese paternalistic leadership (PL) includes three dimensions: benevolence, morality and authoritarianism. Benevolent leadership positively affects organizational citizenship behaviors through leader–member exchange (LMX). Resource limitations of supervisors bring about LMX differentiations within groups. Little research has addressed the moderating effect of LMX differentiations on the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors. In a study on 307 team members and leaders in 47 teams in two hotels in China, we found that benevolence and moral leadership had a positive effect on organizational citizenship behaviors, whereas authoritarian leadership did not. Team LMX differentiations moderated the relationship between moral leadership, authoritarianism leadership and LMX.