Sometimes Sharks Appear in Lakes Too: Tridirectional Insights on Leader Humility and Its Influence on Employee Behavior

Abstract

Most research on leader humility to date has focused on positive outcomes, portraying humble behaviors as unequivocally beneficial to followers and leaders. However, scant research has examined the detrimental aspects of leader humility. This thesis challenges the consensus that leader humility is largely beneficial for followers and leaders. Using a relationship-cognition research lens, the overall objective of this thesis is to explore the seemingly contradictory (paradoxical), detrimental, and pseudo-beneficial outcomes of leader humility on followers and leaders in an organizational context. The thesis consists of three studies. Adopting a follower-centric approach, Study 1 examines the consequences of follower behavior when followers positively perceive leader humility. This study reveals that leader humility has seemingly contradictory effects on followers' voice behavior. Study 2 examines the consequences of follower behavior when followers positively perceive leader humility but attribute it negatively. The results of this field study reveal that leader humility is ineffective when followers attribute the humility to impression management. Adopting a leader-centric approach, Study 3 examines the consequences of leader behavior when leaders positively perceive their own humility. The results of this study demonstrate that leaders' humble behavior is positively associated with increases in unethical behavior. Thus, this thesis provides novel theoretical contributions and insight into the literature on leader humility. Practically, the thesis offers suggestions to organizations to encourage humility in leaders while simultaneously taking steps to mitigate any negative consequences of humble leader behavior.