How and when does leaders’ expressed humility influence employee upward voice? An examination of self-presentation mechanisms

Abstract

Drawing on self-presentational theory, this study identifies leader expressed humility as a self-presentational strategy and explores the interpersonal influence function of it by examining how and when leaders' expressed humility may generate authenticity impression and effectiveness impression from team members, which in turn elicit members' promotive voice and prohibitive voice. Further, this study hypothesizes leader humility differentiation within team as a weakening moderator of such indirect relationships. The proposed moderated mediation model is tested with multisource data collected from 48 team leaders and 237 team members from three firms in China. The statistical results support the positive associations between leader expressed humility and member impressions of the leader, respectively perceived leader authenticity and perceived leader effectiveness. Furthermore, leader humility differentiation strengthens not weakens, the positive effect of leaders' expressed humility on members' perceived authenticity of leaders, which in turn strengths the indirect effect of leaders' expressed humility on members' promotive voice and prohibitive voice, with perceived leader authenticity as the mediating mechanism. The mediating role of perceived leader effectiveness and the moderating role of leader humility differentiation on this mechanism are not support. On the basis of empirical findings, this study discusses theoretical contributions to humility literature and self-presentation theory, as well as practical implications for work teams.