Ruling with a velvet glove: The catalyzing role of humble leadership in transforming employees’ empowerment role identity into proactivity

Abstract

Employees have always striven for a sense of empowerment while employers endeavor to forge a more proactive workforce that will strengthen organizations. However, the possible link between empowerment and proactivity, as well as the influence of other factors, has seldom been explored. This study fills this gap by examining how humble leadership can help employees with empowerment role identity to further strengthen their vitality and ultimately elicit proactive behavior. Using data collected from a sample of 326 employee-supervisor dyads in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in China, we argue that employees’ vitality mediates the positive correlation between their empowerment role identity and proactive behavior. In light of the Johnson-Neyman technique, this study further indicates that the relationship between empowerment role identity and employee vitality is significantly positive when humble leadership is rated above 5.195 on a 7-point Likert scale; however, this relationship turns negative when humble leadership drops below 1.429. Thus, humble leadership moderates the mediating role that vitality plays in helping employees with empowerment needs to achieve greater proactivity. These findings deepen our understanding of how subordinates with relatively high power demands and enthusiasm can be effectively motivated in the workplace.