Single-handed or Side by Side? The Impact of Leader Bottom-line Mentality on Employees' Followership Behavior

Abstract

Abstract: Leader bottom-line mentality (BLM) refers to one-dimensional thinking that revolves around securing bottom-line outcomes to the neglect of competing priorities. Based on self-determination theory, this paper explores the effect of leader BLM on employees' fol-lowership behavior and examines the mediating role of employees' basic psychological need thwarting and the moderating role of collec-tivism orientation. Through a scenario experiment (N=130) and a three-wave field study (N=302), we find that leader BLM can posi-tively affect employees' basic psychological needs thwarting, which in turn positively affects employees' negative followership behavior and negatively affects employees' positive followership behavior. And employees' collectivism orientation not only moderates the direct effect of leader BLM on employees' basic psychological needs thwarting, but also moderates the indirect effect of leader BLM on employ-ees' followership behavior through basic psychological need thwarting. That is, the higher the employees' collectivism orientation, the weaker the effect of leader BLM on followership behavior. This paper also further discusses theoretical implications, practical implica-tions, and future research directions.

Key words: leader bottom-line mentality, psychological need thwarting, followership behavior, collectivism orientation, self-determination theory

Zhang Yannan, Zhu Yanghao, Long Lirong, Qin Feng, Xu Yunpeng. Single-handed or Side by Side? The Impact of Leader Bottom-line Mentality on Employees' Followership Behavior[J]. Management Review, 2024, 36(5): 164-177.

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