Leadership Research Summary:
- Loyalty has always been a hot topic in the field of organizational behavior, which is of great significance to the operation and management of organizations. Extant studies have found that leadership can have a great impact on loyalty. Differential leadership is a common and unique leadership style in Chinese organizations, but the research between differential leadership and loyalty is still lacking. Based on social exchange theory and social learning theory.
- This study discusses the relationship between differential leadership and loyalty. By using hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap method. The results show that differential leadership has a positive effect on employees’ organizational loyalty and supervisory loyalty, and the degree of “loyalty to organizations” is generally lower than “loyalty to supervisors”; under differential leadership style, the supervisory loyalty from insiders is much higher than that from outsiders, but the influence and difference of the two groups (insider and outsider) do not have a significant effect on organizational loyalty. The supervisor developmental feedback mediates the relationship between differential leadership and organizational & supervisory loyalty; power distance positively moderates the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and organizational & supervisory loyalty, and the higher the perceived power distance of employees, the stronger the indirect effect of developmental feedback from supervisors. This study not only enriches the theory of differential leadership but also provides empirical support for understanding the differences in cognitive behavior between insiders and outsiders.
- Using narrative analysis, these accounts were analyzed to identify and interpret the metaphors emerging from descriptions of leadership experiences. The analysis shows that these leaders used metaphors determined by a dynamic interplay of personal, situational, and cultural factors. Somewhat surprisingly, the metaphors used to present leadership are not always based on a local cultural context, with some explicitly including references to European plants, which could be considered exotic. However, they are not metaphors that fit neatly into the taxonomies recognized in the literature. This study makes an important contribution to the literature on leadership, especially leadership in education. It is one of the few studies focusing on the stories of women from a non-Western background. The pool of case studies presented here is limited, but these metaphors represent thinking tools enabling a scholarly and imaginative understanding of women’s leadership in education.
Leadership Research Implications and Findings:
- First, differential leadership, as a common and unique leadership style in Chinese organizations, has not been paid much attention by academia. This study confirms the relationship between differential leadership and employee loyalty. The positive influence of differential leadership on employee loyalty could be explained from the two aspects of “reciprocal” (bao) theory and social learning theory.
- On the one hand, the “reciprocal” (bao) culture has a profound historical origin in the Chinese traditional culture, and “return a favor with a favor” has always been the mainstream value respected by the Chinese nation, so when the insiders receive the partiality from differential leadership (e.g., insiders will get rewards and quick promotions when they do well in their positions, insiders will receive encouragement and guidance when they make mistakes.), they make good psychological contracts and show great loyalty to their supervisors; on the other hand, the partiality from differential leadership is much like a booster for employee’s career development and life goals and is equally important for outsiders.
- So, if the outsider wants to receive the same treatment, they must become an insider from an outsider, according to the alternative reinforcement mechanism of the social learning theory, loyalty to supervisors is one of the best ways. In the three-way game between the leader and the insider and the outsider, the insiders will show greater loyalty to the supervisor because they are favored; while the outsiders will want to become an insider because they are not favored. This game process continuously strengthens the cohesion and radiation of the “influence,” and also enhances employee loyalty. This study selects the differential leadership with local cultural adaptability and characteristics as a breakthrough, which not only enriches the theory of local leadership but also is a useful supplement to the influencing factors of loyalty behavior.
- Second, the study on the influence of differential leadership and loyalty behavior from a perspective of insiders and outsiders broke the logical limitations of previous studies from a single perspective and conducted separate tests for the samples of insiders and outsiders as well as the overall test, which not only improved the accuracy of the test results but also provided a detailed data comparison for the differences of the results. In the first place, it was found that the regression coefficient of supervisory loyalty was significantly larger than that of organizational loyalty in the sample of insiders, that is to say, differential leadership has a more significant effect on the formation of “loyalty to supervisors,” but in the sample outsiders, the regression coefficient of leadership loyalty was smaller than that of organizational loyalty, which may be due to the fact that outsiders lack of psychological attachment to their direct supervisors compared with the insiders. They only maintain an instrumental relationship with their leaders that only involves the equal exchange of benefits and harms (no loss is the goal). The lower level of emotional exchange between employees and supervisors makes outsiders strongly believe that there is no significant difference in the concept and connotation of “organization” and “leadership,” and unconsciously regard the supervisor developmental feedback as care from the organization, instead of a sort of partiality from supervisors. Therefore, the regression coefficient of employee loyalty to the organization of outsider is slightly higher than that of loyalty to supervisors; next, It can be found that the regression coefficients of differential leadership on the formation of supervisory loyalty of insiders is much higher than that of outsiders, that is to say, employee loyalty to supervisory of insiders is significantly obvious than that of outsiders.
- This is consistent with the multifocal perspective and the object consistency model in organizational behavior research: the receiver’s response is directly dependent on the specific object that releases the signal. After differential leadership releases a signal of partiality, it stimulates insiders to show positive behaviors of loyalty to the supervisor. Although the signal also stimulates outsiders to become insiders by showing their loyalty to the supervisor, the degree of loyalty of outsiders is definitely not as high as that of insiders. This study examines differential leadership and loyalty behavior from a perspective of insider and outsider, which is not only supplement and extension of existing single perspective studies but also provides empirical support for understanding the differences in cognitive behavior between insiders and outsiders.
- Third, this study further reveals the process mechanism of the influence of differential leadership on employee loyalty, verifies the mediating role of supervisor developmental feedback, analyzes an important inducing factor of employee loyalty, and to some extent exposes the “black box” (an intermediate mechanism) of differential leadership influence on employee loyalty.
- Fourth, from the perspective of employee traits, this study examines the moderating role of power distance in the formation of employee loyalty and supplements the boundary conditions for employee loyalty behavior. As a country with a high power distance, people in China generally respect authority and are very sensitive to the behavior of authority figures. Employees who live in a high power culture are more likely to return a psychological favor after receiving developmental feedback from their supervisors and then behave in a loyal way to their supervisors and organizations.
- This suggests that the formation of employee loyalty not only depends on leadership style but also on employee traits to some extent, so the two factors cannot be generalized and confusing. This study selects power distance as a moderator when examining the mechanism of differential leadership on employee loyalty, and finds that outsiders feel a sense of supervisor unfairness and organization alienation, the result is that outsiders could not make the psychological contract with their supervisors. Therefore, outsiders have unclear thoughts of the organization and their immediate supervisor than insiders, and even generally regard the two as the same concept. So, the moderating effect of power distance on the formation of leadership loyalty of outsiders is not obvious, but the moderating effect in other samples is significant. This study examines the moderating effect from a perspective of insiders and outsiders, further clarifies the boundary conditions for differential leadership to be effective under different conditions, and provides a more detailed classification for the formation of loyalty behavior.
- Leaders should take emphasis on their own management style and provide a fair and reasonable channel for outsiders to become an insider. While giving support and feedback to the insider, leaders should also actively communicate with outsiders, create a harmonious organizational atmosphere, improve the relationship between superiors and subordinates, in order to attract more outsiders, maximize the effectiveness of leadership, and constantly improve the overall loyalty of the organization.
- Secondly, leaders can actively implement the strategy of supervisor developmental feedback, which is the intermediate path to stimulate and promote employee loyalty behavior. Leaders should give full play to their initiative and actively communicate this feedback to employees in an appropriate manner and with the right frequency. At the same time, they should enhance their learning on feedback and improve its way and quality so that Employees could feel the care and partiality of their supervisors, thus improving employee loyalty.
- Finally, perceived power distance of employees could moderate the effect of differential leadership on employees’ loyalty behavior. In the practical management process, leaders should implement differential management according to the level of perceived power distance of employees. Especially for those employees with a high-power distance, they are more likely to return psychological favor after receiving positive feedback from supervisors. Therefore, leaders should pay more attention to communicating with those high-power distance employees reasonably and effectively in order to maximize their employee loyalty.