Abstract
Despite established links between leader humility and employee proactive behavior, the affective transmission mechanisms and boundary conditions remain theoretically underdeveloped. Guided by Affective Events Theory, this study examines how and when leader humility influences employee proactive behavior through sequential mediation in Chinese organizations. In Study 1, a scenario-based experiment with 105 participants, demonstrates that leader humility enhances employee proactive behavior by fostering positive mood and affective commitment. In Study 2, which collected multi-source survey data from 51 supervisors and 290 subordinates, confirms this chain mediation and further reveals that role breadth self-efficacy amplifies both the effect of affective commitment on proactive behavior and the overall indirect effect of leader humility. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, along with the directions for future research. © 2025 Chen, Zhao, Jin and Lan.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1592148 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Volume | 16 |
| Online published | 10 Sept 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2025 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This study has been supported by High-level Professionals Research Initiation Project of Huaqiao University (21SKBS004).
Research Keywords
- leader humility
- positive mood
- affective commitment
- role breadth self-efficacy
- proactive behavior
Publisher's Copyright Statement
- This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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