Qiang Qin, Xiaohong Wu, Qianru Song
School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China.
Xi'an Technology and Business College, Xi'an, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 18;14:1269906. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1269906. eCollection 2023.
Paradoxical leadership has emerged as an increasingly important research topic in the context of Chinese state-owned enterprises, which are currently facing contradictions between maintaining stability and implementing changes, short-term profits and long-term sustainable development, and public nature and marketization. Based on social cognitive theory and social exchange theory, this study employed a questionnaire survey to explore the influence of paradoxical leadership on employees' proactive work behavior and the mediating role of superior-subordinate guanxi and self-efficacy. The study involved 540 employees working in Chinese state-owned enterprises. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses to test the validity of the measurement model and regression to evaluate the direct effects. Subsequently, we used bootstrapping to confirm mediation and serial mediation effects. The study found that (1) Paradoxical leadership can effectively enhance employees' proactive work behavior; (2) The superior-subordinate guanxi plays a mediating role between paradoxical leadership and employees' proactive work behavior, that is, paradoxical leadership enhances employees' proactive work behavior by improving the superior-subordinate guanxi; (3) Self-efficacy plays a mediating role between paradoxical leadership and employees' proactive work behaviors, that is, paradoxical leadership promotes employees' proactive work behavior by enhancing their self-efficacy; (4) The superior-subordinate guanxi and self-efficacy play a chain mediating effect between paradoxical leadership and employees' proactive work behavior, forming a chain of "Paradoxical leadership-Superior-subordinate Guanxi-Self-efficacy-Employees' proactive work behaviors." This study enriches the theoretical research on paradoxical leadership and provides suggestions for state-owned enterprises to enhance employees' proactive work behavior.
矛盾型领导已成为中国国有企业背景下一个日益重要的研究课题，中国国有企业目前正面临着维持稳定与实施变革、短期利润与长期可持续发展以及公共性质与市场化之间的矛盾。基于社会认知理论和社会交换理论，本研究采用问卷调查法，探讨矛盾型领导对员工积极工作行为的影响以及上下级关系和自我效能感的中介作用。该研究涉及540名在中国国有企业工作的员工。我们进行了验证性因素分析以检验测量模型的有效性，并进行回归分析以评估直接效应。随后，我们使用Bootstrap法来确认中介效应和序列中介效应。研究发现：（1）矛盾型领导能够有效增强员工的积极工作行为；（2）上下级关系在矛盾型领导与员工积极工作行为之间起中介作用，即矛盾型领导通过改善上下级关系来增强员工的积极工作行为；（3）自我效能感在矛盾型领导与员工积极工作行为之间起中介作用，即矛盾型领导通过增强员工的自我效能感来促进其积极工作行为；（4）上下级关系和自我效能感在矛盾型领导与员工积极工作行为之间起链式中介效应，形成“矛盾型领导-上下级关系-自我效能感-员工积极工作行为”的链条。本研究丰富了矛盾型领导的理论研究，并为国有企业增强员工积极工作行为提供了建议。
