54 / 274
仁慈領導一定能讓部屬產生組織公民行為嗎？領導者操弄意圖知覺與部屬信任的中介式調節作用
54
extends the link between benevolent leadership and positive outcomes as well as discussing
the psychology behind it (e.g., Chen et al., 2014).
There are several contributions to our work. First, according to the attribution theory of
leadership process, this empirical study demonstrates that benevolent leadership does not
always results in positive outcome if a subordinate perceives strong manipulative intention
from his or her leader. On the other hand, perceiving little manipulative intention implies that
an employee engages more OCB to reciprocate genuineconcern and care from the supervisor.
Second, we also conducted a simple mediated test and the result revealed that trust in
leader and in organization completely mediated the relationship between benevolent
leadership and OCB, which implies that trust is indeed an important mediator of leadership
processes (e.g., Chen et al., 2014).
Third, up to now, only few research works have examined the psychological mechanism
between benevolent leadership and employee outcomes, let alone the mediated moderation
effect of the mechanism. To fill this research gap, our research identified that a high level of
benevolent leadership and low level of perception of manipulation could lead to high levels
of employee trust and OCB.
In practical terms, a benevolent leader should demonstrate authentic benevolence and
avoid manipulating employees. Once subordinates perceive too much manipulative behavior
from their leader, they will reduce trust as well as OCB. The leaders should perform their
benevolence appropriately and distribute resources with fairness and objectivity. Too much
concern and too many resources offered to a specific employee may cause him or her to
doubt the motivation of the leader, whereas other employees also lose trust in both the leader
and the organization. Leaders need to find the equilibrium between both excessive and
deficient care and concern.