When a leader is seen as too humble

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how leader humility affects the engagement of employees in creative processes, using perceived organizational support (POS) as a mediator and leader competence as a moderator. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a two-wave sampling of 113 dyads of leaders and subordinates in China. Findings A curvilinear relationship was found between leader humility and employee engagement in creative processes. Further, POS partially mediates this relationship, and leader competence positively moderates the relationship between leader humility and POS. Practical implications First, organizations should select and train leaders who show humility as a character trait and foster a supportive organizational climate. Second, managers should study the benefits of moderate and harms of superfluous humility, especially in the Chinese cultural context. Third, competent leaders are more effective as humble leaders. Originality/value Few studies have concentrated on leader humility in the eastern cultural context. The results challenge traditional views of the impact of leader humility and shed light on its mechanism and the conditions under which it promotes employee engagement in creation. This study also clarifies the nonlinear influence of leader humility, building a fine-grained theoretical framework integrating the motivation-opportunities-abilities model and Chinese Zhong-Yong theory.