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Safeguarding Well-Being Under Exploitative Leaders: The Buffering Effects of Follower Strategies on Perceived
1King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Summary
Exploitative leadership negatively impacts employee well-being by increasing interactional injustice. However, proactively managing your boss (MYB) can mitigate these harmful effects, protecting workplace well-being.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Psychology
- Occupational Health Psychology
- Leadership Studies
Background:
- Exploitative leadership (EL) poses a significant threat to employee workplace well-being (WWB).
- Understanding the mechanisms linking EL to WWB and identifying protective factors is crucial for organizational health.
- Existing research often overlooks follower agency in navigating detrimental leadership dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mediating role of interactional injustice (IIJ) in the relationship between exploitative leadership and employee workplace well-being.
- To examine the moderating effect of managing-your-boss (MYB) strategies on the EL-IIJ-WWB pathway.
- To advance understanding of destructive leadership by incorporating follower-centric protective mechanisms.
Main Methods:
- A two-wave time-lagged survey design was employed with 263 full-time U.S. employees.
- Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
- Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) were used for supplementary analysis.
Main Results:
- Exploitative leadership (EL) significantly increases interactional injustice (IIJ), which fully mediates the negative impact on workplace well-being (WWB).
- Managing-your-boss (MYB) strategies moderate the EL-IIJ relationship, weakening its negative effect on WWB.
- MYB strategies buffer the detrimental indirect effect of EL on WWB through IIJ.
Conclusions:
- Interactional injustice is a key mechanism through which exploitative leadership undermines employee well-being.
- Proactive follower strategies, such as managing-your-boss, can effectively mitigate the negative consequences of exploitative leadership.
- Findings highlight the importance of follower agency and proactive coping in preserving workplace well-being within challenging leadership contexts.
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