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Leader–follower congruence in humility and follower voice: the mediating role of affective attachment

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Abstract

Humility is regarded as a valuable virtue in modern organizations. Building on the person–supervisor fit theory and the similarity-attraction approach, this study investigated the effect of leader–follower congruence in humility on follower voice through follower affective attachment. We examined our hypotheses using dyadic data from questionnaire surveys of 553 leader–follower pairings in Chinese companies. The results indicate that leader–follower congruence in humility enhances follower affective attachment, which eventually promotes follower voice. In addition, followers in congruent leader−follower dyads with high humility perceived higher levels of affective attachment than those in congruent leader−follower dyads with low humility. We discussed the theoretical implications for literature on humility, voice, and person–supervisor fit.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 71802193).

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  1. School of Management, Shandong University, 27 Shanda South Rd, Jinan, 250100, China

    Kang-Hwa Shaw

  2. School of business administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, 182# Nanhu Avenue, East Lake High-tech development zone, Wuhan, 430073, China

    Jianghua Mao

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  1. Kang-Hwa Shaw
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Correspondence to Jianghua Mao.

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Shaw, KH., Mao, J. Leader–follower congruence in humility and follower voice: the mediating role of affective attachment. Curr Psychol 42, 486–495 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01475-3

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