This study developed and tested a multilevel, moderated mediation model of whether, how, and when authentic leadership can affect employee work engagement in a hotel context, building on social exchange theory. A two-wave data collection process gathered 440 valid responses of hotel frontline employees from five-star hotels in China. The result supported a positive influence of authentic leadership on work engagement and the mediating role of leader–member exchange (LMX). Hotel employees’ perceived power distance orientation moderated the indirect relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement through LMX. In contrast to previous studies supporting the negative effect of power distance on employee behavior, the present findings suggest that power distance strengthens the relationship between authentic leadership and hotel employees’ work engagement. This study contributes to authentic leadership literature and provides insights into how interactions between personal and contextual factors affect authentic leadership’s influence on work engagement in hospitality organizations.
AnderssonL. M.BatemanT. S. (1997). Cynicism in the workplace: Some causes and effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 18(5), 449–469.
2.
AvolioB. J.GardnerW. L. (2005). Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(3), 315–338.
3.
AvolioB. J.WalumbwaF. O.WeberT. J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 421–449.
BernerthJ. B.ArmenakisA. A.FieldH. S.GilesW. F.WalkerH. J. (2007). Leader-member social exchange: Development and validation of a scale. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(8), 979–1003.
6.
BlauP. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. John Wiley.
7.
BoteroI. C.DyneL. V. (2009). Employee voice behavior: Interactive effects of LMX and power distance in the United States and Colombia. Management Communication Quarterly, 23(1), 84–104.
8.
BrislinR. W. (1986). The wording and translation of research instrument. In LonnerW. J.BerryJ. W. (Eds.), Field methods in cross-cultural research (pp. 137–164). SAGE.
9.
BurchT. C.GuaranaC. L. (2015). The comparative influences of transformational leadership and leader-member exchange on follower engagement. Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(3), 6–25.
10.
CarterD.BaghurstT. (2014). The influence of servant leadership on restaurant employee engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(3), 453–464.
11.
ChenX. P.EberlyM. B.ChiangT. J.FarhJ. L.ChengB. S. (2014). Affective trust in Chinese leaders: Linking paternalistic leadership to employee performance. Journal of Management, 40(3), 796–819.
12.
CropanzanoR.DasboroughM. T.WeissH. M. (2017). Affective events and the development of leader-member exchange. Academy of Management Review, 42(2), 233–258.
13.
DorfmanP. W.HowellJ. P. (1988). Dimensions of national culture and effective leadership patterns: Hofstede revisited. Advances in International Comparative Management, 3(1), 127–150.
14.
DulebohnJ. H.BommerW. H.LidenR. C.BrouerR. L.FerrisG. R. (2012). A meta-analysis of antecedents and consequences of leader-member exchange: Integrating the past with an eye toward the future. Journal of Management, 38(6), 1715–1759.
15.
EdmondsonA. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.
16.
FarhJ.HackettR. D.LiangJ. (2007). Individual-level cultural values as moderators of perceived organizational support-employee outcomes relationships in China: Comparing the effects of power distance and traditionality. Academy of Management Journal, 50(3), 715–729.
17.
FockH.HuiM. K.AuK.BondM. H. (2013). Moderation effects of power distance on the relationship between types of empowerment and employee satisfaction. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 44(2), 281–298.
18.
FreemanR. E.WicksA. C.ParmarB. (2004). Stakeholder theory and “the corporate objective revisited.”Organization Science, 15(3), 364–369.
19.
GraenG. B.Uhl-BienM. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multilevel multidomain perspective. The Leadership Quarterly, 6(2), 219–247.
HayesA. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling. http://www.afhayes.com/public/process2012.pdf
HofmannD. A.MorgesonF. P.GerrasS. J. (2003). Climate as a moderator of the relationship between leader-member exchange and content specific citizenship: Safety climate as an exemplar. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 170–178.
24.
HofstedeG. (1980). Culture’s consequences: International differences in work-related values. SAGE.
HouseR. J.HangesP. J.JavidanM.DorfmanP. W.GuptaV. (Eds.). (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. SAGE.
28.
JiangH.MenR. L. (2017). Creating an engaged workforce: The impact of authentic leadership, transparent organizational communication, and work-life enrichment. Communication Research, 44(2), 225–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215613137
29.
JooB. K.LimD. H.KimS. (2016). Enhancing work engagement: The roles of psychological capital, authentic leadership, and work empowerment. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 37(8), 1117–1134.
30.
KahnW. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.
31.
KernisM. H. (2003). Toward a conceptualization of optimal self-esteem. Psychological Inquiry, 14(1), 1–26.
32.
KimT.-Y.AryeeS.LoiR.KimS.-P. (2013). Person-organization fit and employee outcomes: Test of a social exchange model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(19), 3710–3737.
33.
KirkmanB. L.ChenG.FarhJ. L.ChenZ. X.LoweK. B. (2009). Individual power distance orientation and follower reactions to transformational leaders: A cross-level, cross-cultural examination. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 744–764.
34.
LeiterM. P.BakkerA. B. (2010). Work engagement: Introduction. In BakkerA. B.LeiterM. P. (Eds.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 1–9). Psychology Press.
35.
LemoineG. J.HartnellC. A.LeroyH. (2019). Taking stock of moral approaches to leadership: An integrative review of ethical, authentic, and servant leadership. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 148–187.
36.
LinW.MaJ.ZhangQ.LiJ. C.JiangF. (2018). How is benevolent leadership linked to employee creativity? The mediating role of leader–member exchange and the moderating role of power distance orientation. Journal of Business Ethics, 152(4), 1099–1115.
37.
LinW.WangL.ChenS. (2013). Abusive supervision and employee well-being: The moderating effect of power distance orientation. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 62(2), 308–329.
38.
LingQ.LiuF.WuX. (2017). Servant versus authentic leadership: Assessing effectiveness in China’s hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 58(1), 53–68.
39.
LiuS.-M.LiaoJ.-Q. (2013). Transformational leadership and speaking up: Power distance and structural distance as moderators. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 41(10), 1747–1756.
40.
LiuS.-M.LiaoJ.-Q.WeiH. (2015). Authentic leadership and whistleblowing: Mediating roles of psychological safety and personal identification. Journal of Business Ethics, 131, 107–119.
41.
LuthansF.AvolioB. J. (2003). Authentic leadership: A positive developmental approach. In CameronK. S.DuttonJ. E.QuinnR. E. (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 241–261). Barrett-Koehler.
42.
MaE.HsiaoA.GaoJ.VadaS. (2020). Inspiring good soldiers cross-culturally through the lens of the theory of planned behavior—Which works best, norms or behavioral control?Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 45, 99–112.
43.
MaE.QuH. (2011). Social exchanges as motivators of hotel employees’ organizational citizenship behavior: The proposition and application of a new three-dimensional framework. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(3), 680–688.
44.
MaE.QuH.WilsonM.EastmanK. (2013). Modeling OCB for hotels: Don’t forget the customers. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(3), 308–317.
45.
MarshH. W.HocevarD. (1985). Application of confirmatory factor analysis to the study of self-concept: First- and higher order factor models and their invariance across groups. Psychological Bulletin, 97(3), 562–582.
46.
MullerD.JuddC. M.YzerbytV. Y. (2005). When moderation is mediated and mediation is moderated. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(6), 852–863.
47.
OhJ.ChoD.LimD. H. (2018). Authentic leadership and work engagement: The mediating effect of practicing core values. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 39(2), 276–290.
48.
OliverR. L. (1997). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
49.
PadillaA.HoganR.KaiserR. B. (2007). The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(3), 176–194.
50.
PodsakoffN. P. (2017). A tutorial on the causes, consequences, and remedies of common method biases. MIS Quarterly, 35(1), 293–334.
51.
PodsakoffP. M.MacKenzieS. B.LeeJ. Y.PodsakoffN. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.
52.
RichardsenA. M.BurkeR. J.MartinussenM. (2006). Work and health outcomes among police officers: The mediating role of police cynicism and engagement. International Journal of Stress Management, 13(4), 555–574.
53.
RostJ. C. (1991). Leadership for the twenty-first century. Greenwood.
54.
SchaufeliW. B.BakkerA. B.SalanovaM. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701–716.
55.
SchaufeliW. B.SalanovaM.González-RomáV.BakkerA. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3(1), 71–92.
56.
SchuckertM.KimT. T.PaekS.LeeG. (2018). Motivate to innovate: How authentic and transformational leaders influence employees’ psychological capital and service innovation behavior. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(2), 776–796.
57.
ShoreL. M.WayneS. J. (1993). Commitment and employee behavior: Comparison of affective commitment and continuance commitment with perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(5), 774–780.
TorrenteP.SalanovaM.LlorensS.SchaufeliW. B. (2012). Teams make it work: How team work engagement mediates between social resources and performance in teams. Psicothema, 24(1), 106–112.
60.
WalumbwaF. O.AvolioB. J.GardnerW. L.WernsingT. S.PetersonS. J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management, 34(1), 89–126.
61.
WalumbwaF. O.MayerD. M.WangP.WangH.WorkmanK.ChristensenA. L. (2011). Linking ethical leadership to employee performance: The roles of leader–member exchange, self-efficacy, and organizational identification. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115(2), 204–213.
62.
WangH.LawK. S.HackettR. D.WangD.ChenZ. X. (2005). Leader-member exchange as a mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 48(3), 420–432.
63.
WangH.SuiY.LuthansF.WangD.WuY. (2014). Impact of authentic leadership on performance: Role of followers’ positive psychological capital and relational processes. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(1), 5–21.
64.
WangW.MaoJ.WuW.LiuJ. (2012). Abusive supervision and workplace deviance: The mediating role of interactional justice and the moderating role of power distance. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(1), 43–60.
65.
WilliamsL. J.BrownB. K. (1994). Method variance in organizational behavior and human resources research: Effects on correlations, path coefficients, and hypothesis testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 57(2), 185–209.
66.
YalabikZ. Y.PopaitoonP.ChowneJ. A.RaytonB. A. (2013). Work engagement as a mediator between employee attitudes and outcomes. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(14), 2799–2823.
67.
YiH.HaoP.YangB.LiuW. (2017). How leaders’ transparent behavior influences employee creativity: The mediating roles of psychological safety and ability to focus attention. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(3), 335–344.
68.
ZhangQ. (2007). Immediacy, humor, power distance, and classroom communication apprehension in Chinese college classrooms. Communication Quarterly, 53(1), 109–124.
