Navigating the double-edged sword
How and when laissez-faire leadership affects Employees' challenging behavior
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21282604 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shanting Zheng (Hefei University of Technology), Lingli Li (0000-0002-2333-6880, Hefei University of Technology) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 250 |
| Pages | 104549 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Acta Psychologica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-6918 • E-ISSN: 1873-6297 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104549 |
| PMID | 39486171 |
| OpenAlex | W4403973226 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 66 |
The majority of extant studies have found the detrimental role of laissez-faire leadership, but some researchers have revealed its potential benefits. The current research aims to investigate the double-edged nature of laissez-faire leadership. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, we identify both the dark and bright sides of laissez-faire leadership because the nature of laissez-faire leaders not providing support resources can be perceived by employees as offering limited guidance from the resource loss perspective and offering freedom resources from the resource gain perspective. We propose and test the effects of laissez-faire leadership on employees' constructive challenging behavior through the mediators of work-related flow and work disengagement, and we posit that this mediating relationship is conditional on the moderator of coworker-support climate. Three independent studies (i.e., two vignette experiments in Study 1 with 52 participants and Study 2 with 77 participants, and a time-lagged field study in Study 3 with 277 employees) were conducted to consistently indicate the double-edged nature of laissez-faire leadership. Specifically, on the one hand, laissez-faire leadership is positively associated with subordinates' increased work disengagement, which in turn reduces their constructive challenging behavior (Study 1 and Study 3). On the other hand, laissez-faire leadership is positively associated with subordinates' work-related flow, which in turn enhances their constructive challenging behavior (Study 2 and Study 3). In addition, the coworker-support climate was found to positively moderate the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates' constructive challenging behavior via work-related flow
Laissez-faire · Political science · SWORD · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Emotional Intelligence and Performance · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Workaholism, burnout, and well-being
Perspectives of Rwandan primary school principals and teachers on the role of school leadership in promoting teacher well-being
Must the Shit Hit the Fan Before Anyone Responds? Response‐Activating Texts as Catalysts for Organisational Responsiveness
Unexplored leader-member-exchange in laissez-faire leadership and its influence on subordinate effectiveness
With a Little Help From Myself
Does Seeing “Eye To Eye” Affect Work Engagement and Organizational Citizenship Behavior? A Role Theory Perspective on LMX Agreement
Method Variance and Marker Variables
Estimating Trait, Method, and Error Variance
Taking Charge at Work
The Convergent Validity of Two Burnout Instruments
The Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect in Management
Perceived fairness of employee drug testing as a predictor of employee attitudes and job performance.
The work-related flow inventory
Trends in Theory Building and Theory Testing
How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model
Exploratory Factor Analysis
Common method biases in behavioral research
Getting to the “COR”
Self-Reports in Organizational Research
Followers’ job crafting
Why and when innovation performance is available
Managerial leadership behaviors
Stealing Time on the Company’s Dime
Manufacturing Motivation in the Mundane
The Relative Trustworthiness of Inferential Tests of the Indirect Effect in Statistical Mediation Analysis
The destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior
Conservation of Resources in the Organizational Context
Domain knowledge and role clarity moderate the relationship between proactive personality and employee radical creativity
The Influence of Transformational Leadership and Leader Attitudes on Subordinate Attitudes and Implementation Success
Leading Through the Crisis
Is it Laissez-Faire Leadership or Delegation? A Deeper Examination of an Over-Simplified Leadership Phenomenon
Servant Leadership, Team Reflexivity, Coworker Support Climate, and Employee Creativity
Work‐related flow and energy at work and at home
A lifespan perspective for understanding career self-management and satisfaction
Bad is Stronger than Good
Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles
The Role of Resources and Flow at Work in Well-Being
| Citations per year | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |