IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobhdp/v152y2019icp47-63.html

The consequences of humility for leaders: A double-edged sword

Author

Listed:
  • Zapata, Cindy P.
  • Hayes-Jones, Laura C.

Abstract

Though previous research finds that followers, teams, and organizations benefit when leaders express humility, drawing on leader categorization theory reveals negative consequences for the leader. We posit that displays of humility signal certain prototypical leader characteristics, such that expressed humility increases communal, but reduces agentic characteristics; given that both are positively associated with leadership, displays of humility differentially impact important leader outcomes such as leader effectiveness and undermining (e.g., punishments, rewards). Across five studies, we generally find support for mutual suppression such that expressed humility impacts leader effectiveness and undermining by simultaneously decreasing perceptions of agentic while increasing perceptions of communal characteristics. Our work provides a more balanced perspective on the consequences of leader humility by demonstrating that, seemingly under ideal circumstances, humility can lead to both benefits and costs for the leader. Given the potential downsides to humility, our work has important, practical implications for leader development.

Suggested Citation

  • Zapata, Cindy P. & Hayes-Jones, Laura C., 2019. "The consequences of humility for leaders: A double-edged sword," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 47-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:152:y:2019:i:c:p:47-63
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.01.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597818300244
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.01.006?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Editors The, 2008. "From the Editors," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-1, July.
    2. Philippe Jacquart & John Antonakis, 2015. "When does charisma matter for top-level leaders? Effect of attributional ambiguity," Post-Print hal-02313174, HAL.
    3. Philippe Jacquart & John Antonakis, 2015. "When does charisma matter for top-level leaders? Effect of attributional ambiguity," Post-Print hal-02276710, HAL.
    4. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    5. Duffy, Michelle K. & Ganster, Daniel C. & Shaw, Jason D. & Johnson, Jonathan L. & Pagon, Milan, 2006. "The social context of undermining behavior at work," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 101(1), pages 105-126, September.
    6. Dean A. Shepherd & Andrew Zacharakis, 1999. "Conjoint analysis: A new methodological approach for researching the decision policies of venture capitalists," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(3), pages 197-217, July.
    7. Editors The, 2008. "From the Editors," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 2(2), pages 1-3, January.
    8. 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.
    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. Schaumberg, Rebecca L., 2024. "When expressing pride makes people seem less competent," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    2. Mackey, Jeremy D. & Parker Ellen, B. & McAllister, Charn P. & Alexander, Katherine C., 2021. "The dark side of leadership: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis of destructive leadership research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 705-718.

    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. Iván E. Villalón-Turrubiates & Rogelio López-Herrera & Jorge L. García-Alcaraz & José R. Díaz-Reza & Arturo Soto-Cabral & Iván González-Lazalde & Gerardo Grijalva-Avila & José L. Rodríguez-Álvarez, 2022. "A Non-Invasive Method to Evaluate Fuzzy Process Capability Indices via Coupled Applications of Artificial Neural Networks and the Placket–Burman DOE," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(16), pages 1-27, August.
    2. Johannes Brunzel & Daniel Ebsen, 2023. "The role of humility in Chief Executive Officers: a review," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1487-1532, May.
    3. Yang, Miles M. & Li, Tianchen & Wang, Yue, 2020. "What explains the degree of internationalization of early-stage entrepreneurial firms? A multilevel study on the joint effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, opportunity-motivated entrepreneurship,," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    4. John Antonakis & Giovanna d’Adda & Roberto A. Weber & Christian Zehnder, 2022. "“Just Words? Just Speeches?” On the Economic Value of Charismatic Leadership," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6355-6381, September.
    5. Anderson, Brian S, 2018. "Endogeneity and Entrepreneurship Research," OSF Preprints 75tn8, Center for Open Science.
    6. repec:osf:osfxxx:75tn8_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Rosalie L Tung & Günter K Stahl, 2018. "The tortuous evolution of the role of culture in IB research: What we know, what we don’t know, and where we are headed," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(9), pages 1167-1189, December.
    8. Laurent, Catherine E. & Berriet-Solliec, Marielle & Kirsch, Marc & Labarthe, Pierre & Trouve, Aurelie, 2010. "Multifunctionality Of Agriculture, Public Policies And Scientific Evidences: Some Critical Issues Of Contemporary Controversies," APSTRACT: Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce, AGRIMBA, vol. 4(01-2), pages 1-6.
    9. Hsu, Dan K. & Burmeister-Lamp, Katrin & Simmons, Sharon A. & Foo, Maw-Der & Hong, Michelle C. & Pipes, Jesse D., 2019. "“I know I can, but I don't fit”: Perceived fit, self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 311-326.
    10. Lude, Maximilian & Prügl, Reinhard, 2021. "Experimental studies in family business research," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1).
    11. Batistič, Saša & Černe, Matej & Kaše, Robert & Zupic, Ivan, 2016. "The role of organizational context in fostering employee proactive behavior: The interplay between HR system configurations and relational climates," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 579-588.
    12. Dan K. Hsu & Johan Wiklund & Richard D. Cotton, 2017. "Success, Failure, and Entrepreneurial Reentry: An Experimental Assessment of the Veracity of Self–Efficacy and Prospect Theory," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(1), pages 19-47, January.
    13. Krueger, Norris & Bogers, Marcel L.A.M. & Labaki, Rania & Basco, Rodrigo, 2021. "Advancing family business science through context theorizing: The case of the Arab world," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(1).
    14. Bo Shao & Pablo Cardona & Isabel Ng & Raymond N. C. Trau, 2017. "Are prosocially motivated employees more committed to their organization? The roles of supervisors’ prosocial motivation and perceived corporate social responsibility," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 951-974, December.
    15. Lord, Robert G. & Gatti, Paola & Chui, Susanna L.M., 2016. "Social-cognitive, relational, and identity-based approaches to leadership," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 119-134.
    16. Catherine Welch & Eriikka Paavilainen-Mäntymäki & Rebecca Piekkari & Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, 2022. "Reconciling theory and context: How the case study can set a new agenda for international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(1), pages 4-26, February.
    17. Sirola, Nina & Pitesa, Marko, 2018. "The macroeconomic environment and the psychology of work evaluation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 11-24.
    18. Weber, Ellen & Büttgen, Marion & Bartsch, Silke, 2022. "How to take employees on the digital transformation journey: An experimental study on complementary leadership behaviors in managing organizational change," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 225-238.
    19. Sturt W Manning & Brita Lorentzen & Lynn Welton & Stephen Batiuk & Timothy P Harrison, 2020. "Beyond megadrought and collapse in the Northern Levant: The chronology of Tell Tayinat and two historical inflection episodes, around 4.2ka BP, and following 3.2ka BP," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(10), pages 1-38, October.
    20. Milazzo, M.F. & Spina, F. & Primerano, P. & Bart, J.C.J., 2013. "Soy biodiesel pathways: Global prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 579-624.
    21. Ravi KANBUR & Lucas RONCONI, 2018. "Enforcement matters: The effective regulation of labour," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 157(3), pages 331-356, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jobhdp:v:152:y:2019:i:c:p:47-63. 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/locate/obhdp .

    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.