Recent reviews portray humble leadership as a near-universal asset, yet a close inspection of 217 journal articles (274 studies) suggests the construct rests on shaky ground. Prevailing definitions conflate self-insight, appreciation of others, and teachability, variables rooted in other literatures, creating tautologies and valence-based halo. Measurement issues compound the problem: 84% of studies rely on surveys, so ratings of “humble leadership” are conflated by various mechanisms (e.g., evaluative judgments, performance-cue effects, omitted variables) and should not be used as independent variables. We argue that progress on this topic depends on shifting attention from traits and evaluations toward the behaviors that humility denotes: voluntary, public, status-minimizing acts through which leaders redirect credit away from themselves. With this definition, we integrate signaling theory with an idiosyncrasy-credit perspective, arguing that self-effacement behaviors function as costly signals: they translate into humility perceptions only when paired with accrued credit that is placed at risk. It follows, for instance, that signaling humility in the absence of established credit is likely to backfire. We develop testable propositions, a conceptual model linking accrued credit to signal credibility, and an incentive-compatible laboratory paradigm that enables identification of the causal effects of instrumented humility signaling. We conclude with recommendations for behavioral coding, archival text analysis, and experimentally grounded field designs that can replace halo-laden survey inferences with more credible evidence on when humility signaling helps, when it harms, and when it goes unnoticed.

Leaders are widely positioned as cornerstones of neurodiversity inclusion within research and practice. Despite this, the management discipline remains plighted by lack of cohesive understanding regarding leadership in the context of neurodiversity-an issue only exacerbated by the fragmented nature of extant interdisciplinary research. Given the pressing need for empirical synthesis and clearer conceptualization, we present the first interdisciplinary integrative systematic review examining the experience and enactment of leadership within neurotypical leader-neurodivergent follower dyads. By reviewing 43 articles, across 13 disciplines, we identify 3 key themes: reciprocal communication, consequences of communication and multi-level contextual influences on reciprocal leader-follower communication practices. Next, to integrate these themes into a cohesive conceptual framework, we draw on two existing theoretical perspectives-the double-empathy problem and relational leadership theory. Together, these lenses enable us to present novel relational insights into how the enactment of leadership is experienced and constructed within these dyads, identifying two leadership pathways that explain how the double-empathy problem may be either alleviated or exacerbated. Finally, we present an evidence-informed future research agenda covering theoretical and methodological recommendations that will be instrumental in advancing this emerging research field and enhancing inclusive practices of leaders in organizations.

How can a complicated, ambivalent relationship with a boss be both draining and generative? This paper challenges the view that leader–member exchange (LMX) ambivalence is solely harmful. Using the Challenge–Hindrance Stressor Framework, we examine how conflicting feelings toward a leader can be experienced as both constraining and motivating. We focus on epistemic motivation—the tendency to seek deeper understanding—as a key factor that shapes how followers process such ambiguity. Across three studies, LMX ambivalence was linked to two distinct outcomes: emotional exhaustion and voice. These associations operated through different ruminative pathways: affective rumination, characterized by intrusive negative thoughts, and problem-solving pondering, involving reflective sense-making. Followers higher in epistemic motivation were less inclined toward affective rumination and more inclined toward problem-solving pondering, thereby strengthening the link between ambivalence and constructive voice while softening its association with exhaustion. Our findings highlight the hybrid nature of LMX ambivalence and suggest that it does not uniformly undermine followers but can also be associated with adaptive engagement. By unpacking the interplay of ambivalence, rumination, and epistemic motivation, this research provides a more balanced account of the complexities of leader–follower relationships.

We integrate insights from attachment theory and relational leadership to develop a novel interpersonal explanation of why, how and when followers' attachment anxiety and avoidance impact performance. Drawing on the attachment system dynamics model, we posit that attachment avoidance will be negatively related to LMX quality, whereas attachment anxiety will be positively related to LMX ambivalence. Furthermore, we predict that followers' anxious (and avoidant) attachment styles will interact with leader neuroticism leading to a hyperactivation (deactivation) of the attachment system, manifesting in greater LMX ambivalence (and lower LMX quality). Across three studies, we found consistent evidence for a positive relationship between follower attachment anxiety and LMX ambivalence, as well as an indirect effect between attachment anxiety and job performance. Leader neuroticism was especially likely to induce LMX ambivalence and, in turn, undermine job performance in anxiously attached followers. Attachment avoidance, although unaffected by leader neuroticism, was negatively related to LMX quality across all three studies and demonstrated an indirect effect on job performance in Study 3. Overall, our findings shed light on the unique explanatory power of relational mechanisms, beyond previously examined intrapersonal mechanisms, for understanding the attachment style–performance relationship as well as the role that leader characteristics play in triggering the attachment system in anxious followers.

We integrate insights from attachment theory and relational leadership to develop a novel interpersonal explanation of why, how and when followers' attachment anxiety and avoidance impact performance. Drawing on the attachment system dynamics model, we posit that attachment avoidance will be negatively related to LMX quality, whereas attachment anxiety will be positively related to LMX ambivalence. Furthermore, we predict that followers' anxious (and avoidant) attachment styles will interact with leader neuroticism leading to a hyperactivation (deactivation) of the attachment system, manifesting in greater LMX ambivalence (and lower LMX quality). Across three studies, we found consistent evidence for a positive relationship between follower attachment anxiety and LMX ambivalence, as well as an indirect effect between attachment anxiety and job performance. Leader neuroticism was especially likely to induce LMX ambivalence and, in turn, undermine job performance in anxiously attached followers. Attachment avoidance, although unaffected by leader neuroticism, was negatively related to LMX quality across all three studies and demonstrated an indirect effect on job performance in Study 3. Overall, our findings shed light on the unique explanatory power of relational mechanisms, beyond previously examined intrapersonal mechanisms, for understanding the attachment style–performance relationship as well as the role that leader characteristics play in triggering the attachment system in anxious followers.

Although the effects of openness to experience (OTE) on individual creativity are well‐established, research on how such effects unfold in a team context is scarce. Drawing on theories of group norms and uncertainty reduction, we argue that team mean OTE leads to a climate of team psychological safety which, in turn, facilitates team creativity. We test our hypothesis over three independent studies, the first comprising 35 business student project teams, the second based on 28 professional teams from the automotive industry, both conducted in the United Kingdom, and the third comprising 24 healthcare teams in Portugal. As predicted, across all three studies, team mean OTE was positively associated with team creativity via the affective emergent state of team psychological safety. Furthermore, the mediating role of team psychological safety remained significant even when accounting for team OTE variance, alternative motivational and cognitive emergent states, namely team promotion focus (studies 1 and 2) and team exploration climate (study 3), as well as empowering leadership (study 3). Finally, in study 3, we examined the differential impact of the two major facets of OTE, intellect, and openness, and found that intellect, but not openness, was responsible for driving the indirect effects. Further analysis did not support alternative perspectives concerning team OTE variance or the interaction between mean and variance. Our findings not only contribute to theoretical understanding regarding the relationship between team personality composition, specifically OTE, and team creativity but also provide much‐needed insight into how such effects unfold. We delineate several practical implications for team design and development.

The past few decades have brought a rapid emergence of research related to paradoxical leadership behavior (PLB), yet extant research remains scattered, inconsistent and somewhat contradictory. This meta-analysis examines the association between PLB and follower/team outcomes, specifically exploring PLBs incremental validity over other established leadership styles, namely transactional, transformational and servant leadership, as well three competing mechanisms through which PLB elicits positive effects. Our findings demonstrate that PLB is consistently positively associated with follower in-role performance, organizational citizenship behavior, creativity, voice and innovation. However, while PLB showed consistent incremental effects over transactional leadership, its incremental validity in relation to transformational and servant leadership is less clear, with the exception of predicting innovation. Finally, we found evidence that PLB is related to follower behaviors via socio-cognitive (psychological safety), role-based (role clarity), and relational (LMX) mechanisms, with these effects varying as a function of the outcome. Based on our findings, we derive several important implications for PLB theory and key implications for future research.

Despite the awareness that employees spend at least half of their awake time at work, knowledge about how the physical office work environment (POWE) shapes employee wellbeing remains fragmented, inconsistent and scattered across disciplines. We provide a narrative review of the empirical literature to summarise the current state of the science and lay the groundwork for advancing a more holistic and nuanced theoretical understanding of the mediating mechanisms underlying the POWE-wellbeing relationship. To do so, we propose an updated taxonomy of POWE features, incorporating a new dimension - exposure to nature, and use this extended taxonomy to examine the evidence base on the relationship between POWE features and five dimensions of wellbeing: affective, physical, social, cognitive and professional. Based on our findings, we extend a meta-theoretical model which identifies three distinct theoretically-driven mediating pathways - relatedness, energy and functional discomfort - through which POWE features differentially influence wellbeing dimensions. In doing so, we integrate the organizational behaviour theory of Job Demands-Resources and the environmental psychology framework of POWE functions to argue that POWE functions can be both demands and resources-generating, and can, therefore, have simultaneous positive and negative consequences for employee wellbeing. We conclude with a critical examination of theoretical, methodological and practical implications for future research.

ObjectiveTo explore the relationships between leader support, staff influence over decisions, work pressure and patient satisfaction.DesignA cross-sectional study of large National Health Service (NHS) datasets in England in 2010.Setting and participants158 NHS acute hospital trusts in England (n=63 156) from all staff groups.Primary and secondary outcome measuresSurvey data measuring leader support, staff influence over decision making, staff work pressure and objective outcome data measuring patient satisfaction.ResultsMultilevel serial mediation analysis showed a significantly positive association between leader support and staff influence over decisions (B=0.74, SE=0.07, p<0.01). Furthermore, staff influence over decisions showed a negative association with staff work pressure (B=−0.84, SE=0.41, p<0.05) which in turn was negatively linked to patient satisfaction (B=−17.50, SE=4.34, p<0.01). Serial mediation showed a positive indirect effect of leader support on patient satisfaction via staff influence over decisions and work pressure (B=10.96, SE=5.55, p<0.05).Conclusions and implicationsOur results provide evidence that leader support influences patient satisfaction through shaping staff experience, particularly staff influence over decisions and work pressure. Patients’ care is dependent on the health, well-being, and effectiveness of the NHS workforce. That, in turn, is determined by the extent to which leaders are supportive in ensuring that work environments are managed in a way which protects the well-being of staff.

Research suggests that when leaders, as servant leaders, focus on their followers’ needs, this can have a positive effect on organizational functioning. Yet results are inconsistent in establishing the strength of the relationships, limiting understanding of the theoretical impact and practical reach of the servant leadership (SL) construct. Using a quantitative meta‐analysis based on 130 independent studies, the current research provides evidence that SL has incremental predictive validity over transformational, authentic, and ethical leadership. Further, the link between SL and a range of individual‐ and team‐level behavioural outcomes can be partially explained by trust in the leader, procedural justice, and leader–member exchange. The paper also explores moderators to better establish SL's criterion‐related validity and to clarify the magnitude of effects across boundary conditions, such as research design, national culture, and industry.Practitioner points Servant leadership has predictive validity over other leadership approaches, and therefore, organizations would benefit by developing their current leaders into SLs. Organizations should aim to select SLs into influential positions: Training programmes and selection profiles and processes would need to be aligned and developed to capture attitudes and behaviours associated with SL inside and outside the organization. Servant leaderships should seek to create a culture that positively promotes the development of trust, fairness, and high‐quality leader–follower relationships, as these conditions collectively enable the effects of SL to be transmitted onto desirable follower outcomes.

Research suggests that when leaders, as servant leaders, focus on their followers’ needs, this can have a positive effect on organizational functioning. Yet results are inconsistent in establishing the strength of the relationships, limiting understanding of the theoretical impact and practical reach of the servant leadership (SL) construct. Using a quantitative meta-analysis based on 130 independent studies, the current research provides evidence that SL has incremental predictive validity over transformational, authentic, and ethical leadership. Further, the link between SL and a range of individual- and team-level behavioural outcomes can be partially explained by trust in the leader, procedural justice, and leader–member exchange. The paper also explores moderators to better establish SL's criterion-related validity and to clarify the magnitude of effects across boundary conditions, such as research design, national culture, and industry.

Although the effects of openness to experience on individual creativity are well established, research on how this effect might unfold in a team context is scarce. Building on the team climate perspective on team creativity, we argue that mean openness to experience in teams leads to a climate of psychological safety which, in turn, facilitates creativity, and that this mediation effect becomes stronger as the project creative requirements of the team increase. Based on a moderated-mediation model, five hypotheses were tested across two independent studies, the first comprising 35 business student teams working on a ten-week project, and the second comprising 28 professional teams from the automotive industry. As predicted, team mean openness to experience was positively associated with team creativity via psychological safety, and this relationship was strengthened under conditions of higher project creative requirements. Our findings not only contribute to theoretical understanding regarding the relationship between team personality composition and team creativity, but also provide much-needed insight into how, and under what conditions, team mean openness to experience leads to higher team creativity, thus enabling us to delineate several practical implications.

Purpose Team coaching (TC) is a popular new addition to the team learning and development toolkit. However, the conceptualization of TC and the distinction between TC, team training, team development and team building interventions remains unclear. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors address this significant gap by abductively exploring how TC is conceptualised in practice (n=410). The authors survey practitioners engaged in delivering TC to ask how they would define TC and distinguish it from other team interventions. Findings A thematic analysis of the data reveals eight themes, which can be used to define TC and illustrate areas of overlap and distinctiveness with other team interventions. Research limitations/implications The absence of a clearly defined construct is hindering the development of a rigorous theory of TC. The contribution of the paper is, therefore, a clear and comprehensive definition of TC, which can be used by researchers and practitioners alike when working within the domain of TC. Originality/value The paper provides the first systematic exploration of a definition of TC in relation to alternative team interventions. By utilising an abductive approach in the research, the authors are able to capitalise on practitioner experience in this practice-led field.

This study examines, at the organizational level, the congruency between job demands and resources and their effects on staff turnover within the English health care sector. Polynomial regression analyses conducted on 164 acute hospitals trusts found support for the predictions that organizations with congruent levels of resources and demands would have relatively low staff turnover whereas those with incongruent levels would have relatively high staff turnover. Overall, the study indicates that individual job design should be considered within a broader organizational design perspective.

Research suggests that when leaders, as servant leaders, focus on their followers’ needs, this can have a positive effect on organizational functioning. Yet results are inconsistent in establishing the strength of the relationships, and this limits understanding about the theoretical impact and practical reach of the servant leadership (SL) construct. Using a quantitative meta-analysis, this study provides evidence that SL has incremental predictive validity over other key leadership theories, and that the link between SL and positive work behavior can be partially explained by trust in the leader, psychological empowerment and leader-member exchange (LMX). It considers boundary conditions that may influence SL effects. It explores moderators in order to better establish SL’s criterion-related validity and to clarify the magnitude of effects across boundary conditions, such as research design, national culture, and industry. It provides findings on SL’s main effects on a wide range of individual- and team-level behavioral outcomes.

This study examines the relationship between a specific type of team climate for perceived organizational support, team perceived organizational support for teamwork training (team POS-TT), and its effects on the productivity and innovation of acute health care teams. Drawing on organizational support theory, we examine how this relationship emerges via the mediating mechanism of shared objectives. Using survey data from 88 teams based in 13 health care organizations across the United Kingdom, we found support for the indirect effects of team POS-TT via shared objectives, but not for the direct effect of team POS-TT, thus indicating a mediated relationship with team productivity and innovation. As predicted, through the satisfaction of important esteem and affiliation needs of team members, team POS-TT compelled teams to engage in the process of generating shared objectives, which, in turn, positively predicted team productivity and innovation. These findings contribute to the scant literature on perceived organizational support (POS) as a form of team climate, and respond to recent calls to consider different types of POS by focusing on perceived support for teamwork training, an area which has particular relevance in the context of health care. Furthermore, the study serves to extend understanding regarding exactly how team POS-TT affects team outcomes via the specific process of shared objectives. We conclude with a discussion of these contributions to the literature and delineate several practical implications for leaders and managers in health care organizations.

This study examines, at the organizational level, the congruency between job demands and resources and their effects on staff turnover within the English health care sector. Polynomial regression analyses conducted on 164 acute hospitals trusts found support for the predictions that organizations with congruent levels of resources and demands would have relatively low staff turnover whereas those with incongruent levels would have relatively high staff turnover. Overall, the study indicates that individual job design should be considered within a broader organizational design perspective.Practitioner points We examined the organizational‐level relationships between job demands, job resources, and staff turnover within the English health care sector. Organizations comprised of many highly demanding jobs should offer higher levels of resources to help retain staff. However, some organizations may still see relatively high levels of staff turnover even after offering higher levels of resources. Conversely, some may see low levels of staff turnover, yet poor motivation and performance. Therefore, influencing levels of demands rather than simply offering more resources is important in these contexts.