Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis

The importance of humble leadership has garnered attention from both researchers and practitioners. Unfortunately, despite the accumulation of recent findings on the effects of leader humility, a quantitative review remains scant. In addressing this void, this study is among the first to conduct a m...

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Main Authors: Yifei Luo, Zeyu Zhang, Qishu Chen, Kairui Zhang, Yijiang Wang, Jianfeng Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-12-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.980322/full
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author Yifei Luo
Zeyu Zhang
Qishu Chen
Kairui Zhang
Yijiang Wang
Jianfeng Peng
author_facet Yifei Luo
Zeyu Zhang
Qishu Chen
Kairui Zhang
Yijiang Wang
Jianfeng Peng
author_sort Yifei Luo
collection DOAJ
description The importance of humble leadership has garnered attention from both researchers and practitioners. Unfortunately, despite the accumulation of recent findings on the effects of leader humility, a quantitative review remains scant. In addressing this void, this study is among the first to conduct a meta-analytic review of humble leadership and its outcomes. Eighty-four correlations (N = 16,534) from 53 independent studies are synthesized. The authors found that: (a) humble leadership is positively related to affective commitment (ρ = 0.56), affective trust (ρ = 0.62), creativity (ρ = 0.39), engagement (ρ = 0.40), leader–member exchange (LMX) (ρ = 0.58), job satisfaction (ρ = 0.51), organizational identification (ρ = 0.48), psychological empowerment (ρ = 0.33), self-efficacy (ρ = 0.24), task performance (ρ = 0.33), and voice (ρ = 0.34); and that (b) humble leadership contributes a significant incremental variance beyond transformational, servant, and ethical leadership in several crucial criterion variables, providing solid evidence for the construct's uniqueness. However, humble leadership does not explain incremental variance in some criterion variables, indicating that future studies should control for the influence of some positive leadership (e.g., transformational and servant leadership). Age, gender, study design, country, and year partially moderate the correlations of interest. We discuss our findings with caution and propose future research directions.
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spelling doaj.art-c6e54ac02256407997867716abd601362022-12-22T03:04:07ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-12-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.980322980322Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysisYifei LuoZeyu ZhangQishu ChenKairui ZhangYijiang WangJianfeng PengThe importance of humble leadership has garnered attention from both researchers and practitioners. Unfortunately, despite the accumulation of recent findings on the effects of leader humility, a quantitative review remains scant. In addressing this void, this study is among the first to conduct a meta-analytic review of humble leadership and its outcomes. Eighty-four correlations (N = 16,534) from 53 independent studies are synthesized. The authors found that: (a) humble leadership is positively related to affective commitment (ρ = 0.56), affective trust (ρ = 0.62), creativity (ρ = 0.39), engagement (ρ = 0.40), leader–member exchange (LMX) (ρ = 0.58), job satisfaction (ρ = 0.51), organizational identification (ρ = 0.48), psychological empowerment (ρ = 0.33), self-efficacy (ρ = 0.24), task performance (ρ = 0.33), and voice (ρ = 0.34); and that (b) humble leadership contributes a significant incremental variance beyond transformational, servant, and ethical leadership in several crucial criterion variables, providing solid evidence for the construct's uniqueness. However, humble leadership does not explain incremental variance in some criterion variables, indicating that future studies should control for the influence of some positive leadership (e.g., transformational and servant leadership). Age, gender, study design, country, and year partially moderate the correlations of interest. We discuss our findings with caution and propose future research directions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.980322/fullhumble leadershipmeta-analysisoutcomestransformational leadershipservant leadership
spellingShingle Yifei Luo
Zeyu Zhang
Qishu Chen
Kairui Zhang
Yijiang Wang
Jianfeng Peng
Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis
Frontiers in Psychology
humble leadership
meta-analysis
outcomes
transformational leadership
servant leadership
title Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis
title_full Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis
title_fullStr Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis
title_short Humble leadership and its outcomes: A meta-analysis
title_sort humble leadership and its outcomes a meta analysis
topic humble leadership
meta-analysis
outcomes
transformational leadership
servant leadership
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.980322/full
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AT zeyuzhang humbleleadershipanditsoutcomesametaanalysis
AT qishuchen humbleleadershipanditsoutcomesametaanalysis
AT kairuizhang humbleleadershipanditsoutcomesametaanalysis
AT yijiangwang humbleleadershipanditsoutcomesametaanalysis
AT jianfengpeng humbleleadershipanditsoutcomesametaanalysis