Subordinates’ responses to paternalistic leadership according to leader level

Abstract

We examined subordinates’ attitudes and behaviors in response to moral and authoritarian components of direct leaders’ and higher-level leaders’ paternalistic leadership style. We developed 8 hypotheses and tested them with data collected from staff at 15 general hospitals located in Mainland China. The final nested sample consisted of 2,365 general employees, 270 direct leaders, and 15 higher-level leaders. The results were as follows: (a) direct leaders’ moral leadership had a positive impact on employees’ affective trust in their direct leaders, and direct leaders’ authoritarian leadership had a negative impact on employees’ affective trust in their direct leaders, (b) both moral leadership and authoritarian leadership of direct leaders had positive impacts on employees’ personal initiative, and (c) higher-level leaders’ moral leadership had a positive moderating effect on only the relationship between direct leaders’ moral leadership and employees’ personal initiative. The findings shed light on the effect of multilevel paternalistic leadership on subordinates’ attitude and behavior, and will inspire managers to coordinate multilevel paternalistic leadership to achieve more positive outcomes.