IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eurman/v36y2018i1p105-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘It is not fair that you do not know we have problems’: Perceptual distance and the consequences of male leaders' conflict avoidance behaviours

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Inju
  • Li, Lily Ming

Abstract

This study investigates perceptual distance in terms of managers' conflict avoidance behaviour and its consequences for subordinates. We argue that perceptual distance, or the disagreement between a manager's perception and that of his or her subordinates of his or her conflict avoidance, is a genuine phenomenon. We examine the extent to which the perceptual distance regarding managers' avoidance behaviour influences a team's justice climate as well as the role of gender. The data collected from three multinational companies in China show that the perceptual distance of a male manager's avoidance behaviour exists and that it is associated with a negative justice climate within the team. These findings provide evidence of gender's effect on leadership and highlight the benefits of female leadership.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Inju & Li, Lily Ming, 2018. "‘It is not fair that you do not know we have problems’: Perceptual distance and the consequences of male leaders' conflict avoidance behaviours," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 105-116.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:36:y:2018:i:1:p:105-116
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2017.03.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263237317300580
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.emj.2017.03.013?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. Aquino, Karl & Douglas, Scott, 2003. "Identity threat and antisocial behavior in organizations: The moderating effects of individual differences, aggressive modeling, and hierarchical status," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 195-208, January.
    2. Joan Marques, 2013. "Understanding the Strength of Gentleness: Soft-Skilled Leadership on the Rise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 163-171, August.
    3. Brown, Michael E. & Mitchell, Marie S., 2010. "Ethical and Unethical Leadership: Exploring New Avenues for Future Research," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 583-616, October.
    4. Cremer, David De & Knippenberg, Daan van, 2003. "Cooperation with leaders in social dilemmas: On the effects of procedural fairness and outcome favorability in structural cooperation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 1-11, May.
    5. Roberson, Quinetta M., 2006. "Justice in teams: The activation and role of sensemaking in the emergence of justice climates," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 177-192, July.
    6. Wang, An-Chih & Chiang, Jack Ting-Ju & Tsai, Chou-Yu & Lin, Tzu-Ting & Cheng, Bor-Shiuan, 2013. "Gender makes the difference: The moderating role of leader gender on the relationship between leadership styles and subordinate performance," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 101-113.
    7. Liu, Shimin, 2013. "A few good women at the top: The China case," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 483-490.
    8. Claudia Peus & Jenny Wesche & Bernhard Streicher & Susanne Braun & Dieter Frey, 2012. "Authentic Leadership: An Empirical Test of Its Antecedents, Consequences, and Mediating Mechanisms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 331-348, May.
    9. Mayer, David M. & Kuenzi, Maribeth & Greenbaum, Rebecca & Bardes, Mary & Salvador, Rommel (Bombie), 2009. "How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-13, January.
    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. Xuanwei Cui, 2022. "A Case Study on How the Team Leaders in the Chinese University Lead Their Teams: From the Perspective of LMX," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 32(1), pages 533-547, June.
    2. Coo, Cristián & Richter, Anne & von Thiele Schwarz, Ulrica & Hasson, Henna & Roczniewska, Marta, 2021. "All by myself: How perceiving organizational constraints when others do not hampers work engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 580-591.

    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. Hannah, Sean T. & Jennings, Peter L. & Bluhm, Dustin & Peng, Ann Chunyan & Schaubroeck, John M., 2014. "Duty orientation: Theoretical development and preliminary construct testing," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 220-238.
    2. S. Hansen & Bradley Alge & Michael Brown & Christine Jackson & Benjamin Dunford, 2013. "Ethical Leadership: Assessing the Value of a Multifoci Social Exchange Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 435-449, July.
    3. Giles Hirst & Fred Walumbwa & Samuel Aryee & Ivan Butarbutar & Chin Jeffery Hui Chen, 2016. "A Multi-level Investigation of Authentic Leadership as an Antecedent of Helping Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 485-499, December.
    4. Shubo Liu & Qianlin ZHU & Feng Wei, 2019. "How Abusive Supervision Affects Employees’ Unethical Behaviors: A Moderated Mediation Examination of Turnover Intentions and Caring Climate," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-14, October.
    5. Yan Ling & Michelle Hammond & Li-Qun Wei, 2022. "Ethical leadership and ambidexterity in young firms: examining the CEO-TMT Interface," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 25-48, March.
    6. Ali Ünal & Danielle Warren & Chao Chen, 2012. "The Normative Foundations of Unethical Supervision in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(1), pages 5-19, April.
    7. Shenjiang Mo & Junqi Shi, 2017. "Linking Ethical Leadership to Employee Burnout, Workplace Deviance and Performance: Testing the Mediating Roles of Trust in Leader and Surface Acting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 293-303, August.
    8. Colina Frisch & Markus Huppenbauer, 2014. "New Insights into Ethical Leadership: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Executive Ethical Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 23-43, August.
    9. Nida Kamal & Hina Samdani & Amna Yameen, 2018. "Engaging Employees through Ethical Leadership," Global Social Sciences Review, Humanity Only, vol. 3(3), pages 300-316, September.
    10. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    11. Emmanuel Osafo & Amy Paros & Robert M. Yawson, 2021. "Valence–Instrumentality–Expectancy Model of Motivation as an Alternative Model for Examining Ethical Leadership Behaviors," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    12. Magdaline Enow Mbi Tarkang Mary & Ali Ozturen, 2019. "Sustainable Ethical Leadership and Employee Outcomes in the Hotel Industry in Cameroon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, April.
    13. Angela J. Xu & Raymond Loi & Hang-yue Ngo, 2016. "Ethical Leadership Behavior and Employee Justice Perceptions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Organization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 493-504, March.
    14. Toby Joplin & Rebecca L. Greenbaum & J. Craig Wallace & Bryan D. Edwards, 2021. "Employee Entitlement, Engagement, and Performance: The Moderating Effect of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 813-826, February.
    15. Walumbwa, Fred O. & Mayer, David M. & Wang, Peng & Wang, Hui & Workman, Kristina & Christensen, Amanda L., 2011. "Linking ethical leadership to employee performance: The roles of leader-member exchange, self-efficacy, and organizational identification," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 204-213, July.
    16. Walumbwa, Fred O. & Hartnell, Chad A. & Misati, Everlyne, 2017. "Does ethical leadership enhance group learning behavior? Examining the mediating influence of group ethical conduct, justice climate, and peer justice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 14-23.
    17. Zhen Wang & Lu Xing & Haoying Xu & Sean T. Hannah, 2021. "Not All Followers Socially Learn from Ethical Leaders: The Roles of Followers’ Moral Identity and Leader Identification in the Ethical Leadership Process," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 449-469, May.
    18. Conna Yang, 2014. "Does Ethical Leadership Lead to Happy Workers? A Study on the Impact of Ethical Leadership, Subjective Well-Being, and Life Happiness in the Chinese Culture," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 513-525, September.
    19. Dennis J. Marquardt & Wendy J. Casper & Maribeth Kuenzi, 2021. "Leader Goal Orientation and Ethical Leadership: A Socio-Cognitive Approach of the Impact of Leader Goal-Oriented Behavior on Employee Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 545-561, September.
    20. Jie Feng & Yucheng Zhang & Xinmei Liu & Long Zhang & Xiao Han, 2018. "Just the Right Amount of Ethics Inspires Creativity: A Cross-Level Investigation of Ethical Leadership, Intrinsic Motivation, and Employee Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 645-658, December.

    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:eee:eurman:v:36:y:2018:i:1:p:105-116. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/115/description#description .

    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.