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臺大管理論叢
第
27
卷第
3
期
51
Does Benevolent Leadership Always Lead to Organizational
Citizenship Behavior? The Mediated Moderation Effect of
Manipulative Intention and Trust
1. Purpose/Objective
Previous studies have indicated that benevolent leadership in Chinese organizations
results in positive outcomes. However, one issue that needs exploring is whether benevolent
leadership influences subordinates effectively if they regard it as pseudo-benevolent–using
manipulation, control, and popular support as leadership skills. If subordinates no longer feel
gratitude towards their leader, such leadership actually leads to a conflict between a leader
and his or her subordinates and undermines personnel harmony (Farh and Cheng, 2000; Farh
et al., 2008). What factors that cause this reaction remain unknown, as do its outcomes for
those subordinates. Based on this research gap, this study aims to explore what factors leave
subordinates unmoved by benevolent leadership and examine the outcome of such
subordinates’ behavior.
The attribute theory (Heider, 1958; Kelley, 1973; Weiner, 1986) refers to how
individuals explain their own or others’ behavior (Martinko et al., 2011; Martinko, Harvey, et
al., 2007). The basic assumption is that people want to understand the reasons of significant
life events, and how they attribute causes to the events will affect their responses (Heider,
1958). The consequences are attributed to ability, effort, nature of the task, and fortune. The
causal reasoning people employ to refer to other’s behavior also influences the subsequent
response; the so-called discounting principle has been demonstrated in a number of well-
known studies in social perception (Morris and Larrick, 1995).
Green and Mitchell (1979) applied the attribution theory to leadership theories
(Martinko, Harvey, et al., 2007; Martinko et al., 2011), which proposes that how leaders
interpret the subordinates’ behavior will affect their leadership and interaction with their
subordinates. However, Dasborough and Ashkanasy (2002) suggested that how followers
attribute leadership behavior and its motivation also results in emotional reactions and
behaviors. Moreover, several studies have examined how attribution styles influence the
leader-member exchange (Martinko, Moss, et al., 2007). Therefore, this study attempts to
Chia-Wu Lin
, Professor, Department of Business Administration, National Dong Hwa University
Wan-Hsien Hu
, Part-Time Research Assistant, Department of Business Administration, National Dong
Hwa University
Jian-Bin Shih
, Assistant Professor, Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Da-Yeh
University