Jack Ting-Ju Chiang

How Do Leaders React When Treated Unfairly? Leader Narcissism and Self-Interested Behavior in Response to Unfair Treatment.

In this article we employ a trait activation framework to examine how unfairness perceptions influence narcissistic leaders’ self-interested behavior, and the downstream implications of these effects for employees’ pro-social and voice behaviors. Specifically, we propose that narcissistic leaders are particularly likely to engage in self-interested behavior when they perceive that their organizations treat them unfairly, and that this self-interested behavior in turn decreases followers’ pro-social behavior and voice. Data from a multisource, time-lagged survey of 211 team leaders and 1,205 subordinates provided support for the hypothesized model. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Feeling safe? A conservation of resources perspective examining the interactive effect of leader competence and leader self-serving behaviour on team performance

In this study, we explored the interplay of leader competence and leader self-serving behaviour on followers’ perceptions of psychological safety and its downstream implication on team performance. Using a time-lagged study of 166 leaders and 514 followers from six firms in central China, we found that leader self-serving behaviour was an important contingent factor for how subordinates perceive their leader. Specifically, when competent leaders were perceived as being non-self-serving, team psychological safety as well as team performance were enhanced. In contrast, such positive influences were non-existent when leaders were seen as self-serving. Practical implications and important insights to future research were also discussed.

Counterproductive Work Behavior as Retaliation to Supervisor Self-Interested Behavior

The present research investigates the negative consequences associated with employee behaviors as a result of supervisors engaging in self-interested behaviors. Specifically, adopting social exchan...

Humor as a Relationship Lubricant: The Implications of Leader Humor on Transformational Leadership Perceptions and Team Performance:

In this article, drawing on leader categorization theory, we examined the influencing processes of team leaders’ humor on their teams’ performance. Using a time-lagged study, including 244 leaders and 815 followers in a manufacturing firm in Northern China, we found that leaders’ humor is positively related to subordinates’ perceptions of transformational leadership, which in turn, has a positive effect on the team’s performance. In addition, we found that the relationship conflict between a team leader and his or her team members moderates the positive, indirect effect of leader humor on team performance through subordinates’ transformational leadership perceptions. When the relationship conflict between the leader and his or her team members is high, leader’s humor becomes more relevant to subordinates’ perceptions of leader’s transformational leadership, and therefore exerts a stronger positive influence on team performance. The model developed in this study furthered the current understandings on leader humor and its usefulness in practical settings.

Selfless Leader and Their Selfless Follower: The Trickle-Down Effect of Leader Perceived Fairness

Based on equity theory (Adam, 1965), we proposed a fairness trickle- down model to explain how leaders’ perceived fairness may impact their followers’ prosocial motivation. A time-lagged study from 82 group leaders and 906 subordinates in Mainland China supported our trickle-down model. First, our results indicate that leader perceived fairness had an indirect, positive effect on subordinate prosocial motivation through its negative impact on leader self-interested behavior. Second, both leader narcissism and follower narcissism were found to moderate the fairness trickle-down effect. When leader narcissism is high, the negative relationship between leader perceived fairness and leader self-interested behavior is stronger. Moreover, when follower narcissism is high, the negative relationship between leader self-interested behavior and follower prosocial motivation is strengthened. Finally, both leader narcissism and follower narcissism positively moderates the mediating effect of leader self-interested be...