Influence of self-serving leadership on employees’ helping behavior

Keywords:
self-serving leadership, employees’ helping behavior, moral disengagement, prosocial motivation, leadership styles, moral behavior
Abstract

We explored the effect of self-serving leadership on employees’ helping behavior, focusing on the mediating role of moral disengagement and the moderating role of prosocial motivation. We recruited employees and direct supervisors of six companies in China, and analyzed data from 295 participants using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression. Self-serving leadership had a significant negative impact on employees’ helping behavior, and moral disengagement mediated the relationship between self-serving leadership and employees’ helping behavior. Further, prosocial motivation moderated this relationship, that is, the stronger (vs. weaker) was the prosocial motivation of employees, the weaker (vs. stronger) was the effect of self-serving leadership on employees’ helping behavior.

Author Biographies
  1. YuanYuan Gao, Guizhou University
    School of Public Administration
  2. DanYang Huang, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics
    School of Public Administration
  3. JinXin Jiang, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics
    School of Public Administration
  4. WuLin Wang, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics
    School of Public Administration
References
Published
2021-10-01
Section
Articles
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