Abstract
Leniency, the act of lessening or removing a negative consequence for misconduct, is a means of addressing workplace misconduct. Although existing research has highlighted that the lenient reaction generally brings benefits, scholars have recently challenged this positive view of leniency by noting its negative outcomes. Drawing upon the attribution theory, we propose that the effects of leader leniency depend on subordinates’ relational attributions of such lenient behavior. We conducted an experiment (Study 1, N = 229) and a multi-source and multi-wave survey (Study 2, N = 268). Study 1 used ANOVA analysis and Study 2 used path analysis and bias-corrected bootstrap method to test the model. Results showed that when the subordinate relational attribution is low, leader leniency will trigger subordinate gratitude and increase organizational citizenship behavior. Conversely, when the subordinate relational attribution is high, leader leniency will induce subordinate psychological entitlement, fueling workplace deviance. Our research provides new insight into understanding the losses and gains of leader leniency and identifies the role of relational attribution in the effects of leader leniency. Finally, we discuss our theoretical contributions and practical implications.
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The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Funding
This work was supported by National Social Science Foundation of China [22BGL126], the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [23JNLH07], National Natural Science Foundation of China [72,272,053], General Foundation Program of the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science [17YJA630101].
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Zhu, Y., Mei, W., Nong, M. et al. Blatant benevolence or hidden scheming? The effects of leader leniency on employee discretionary outcomes. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06073-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06073-7