Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Studying basic psychological needs in a unidimensional way supplements the general framework of need satisfaction research by exploring the uniqueness of each need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, or competence satisfaction). This article reviews the theoretical basis of the psychological mechanisms (the intrinsic motivation and the internalization of extrinsic motivation) and the research status quo of the need satisfaction successively from three unidimensional perspectives, i.e., the additive, synergistic and balanced perspectives. Notably, inspired by the three perspectives, the article provides insights for the “limited interchangeability” of each need satisfaction’s influence on individuals’ psychological functioning. Future studies may keep digging the need satisfactions from the three unidimensional perspectives, and explore the compensatory association among the three need satisfactions, the neurological basis of each need satisfaction, and the basic psychological need frustrations in a unidimensional way.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： The complexity of the market economy has brought about many challenges to organizational survival and development. As organizations often demand high performance from employees, experiencing workplace performance pressure has become a prevalent phenomenon. Performance pressure is a sense of urgency for employees to improve their performance levels demanded by the organization. Existing literature has differentiated performance pressure from other stressors. For example, workload stresses the requirement for employees to take on larger amounts of work, and time pressure emphasizes the time urgency of completing tasks. However, performance pressure is a unique and dynamic stressor. It is closely related to employee self-interests, as fulfilling performance demands often lead to the satisfaction of specific employee career needs (e.g., pay raise and promotion), and failing to fulfill performance demands often puts employees in unfavorable situations (e.g., pay cuts and demotion). As performance pressure is universal and paradoxical, this study adopts a “double-edged-sword” perspective on performance pressure and summarizes the positive, negative, and curvilinear influences of performance pressure and the theoretical explanatory mechanisms underlying these effects, such as cognitive appraisal theory of stress, conservation of resources theory, self-regulation theory, self-control theory, and the job demand-control model. For instance, based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress and self-regulation theory, performance pressure would be appraised as a challenge or a threat, which then exerts positive or negative influences on employees. In contrast, according to the conservation of resources theory, performance pressure may lead to employees’ loss of resources and subsequently bring a negative impact on employees. By summarizing relevant literature on performance pressure through searching the keyword of “performance pressure” in databases, such as CNKI and Web of Science, this study suggests that existing research on the double-edged-sword effect of performance pressure is insufficient, for example, researchers mainly focused on the negative effect of performance pressure, but pays little attention to its positive effect. To facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of performance pressure, future research can examine the double-edged-sword effect of performance pressure in organizational contexts based on the different theoretical lenses and boundary conditions in which performance pressure’s positive and negative influences are strengthened and weakened, respectively. Three directions are specified. First, regarding theoretical applications, future research can enrich existing theoretical perspectives on the influences of performance pressure, such as the trickle-down effect of high-level managers on frontline employees through middle-level managers, resulting in excessive performance pressure on frontline employees, yet higher recovery level for leaders due to pressure transfer, and integrate conservation of resources with self-regulation theories to investigate the effects of performance pressure on employee resource depletion and work withdrawal and whether performance pressure stimulates employees to enhance performance, such as encouraging employees to engage in reflection on their performance or workplace learning. Second, future research can enrich the boundary conditions for the influences of performance pressure by exploring contextual influences that strengthen and weaken performance pressure’s positive and negative effects, respectively. For instance, servant leadership may ameliorate the negative influences of performance pressure. Supervisor bottom-line mentality may strengthen such negative influences. Of course, organizational climate factors also can be used as boundary conditions. For example, instrumental climate may aggravate the relationship between performance pressure and negative outcomes, while error tolerance culture mitigates such a relationship. Last, regarding empirical analyses, future research should consider controlling for a few influences, such as negative affect, personality traits, health, and well-being, in order to establish the uniqueness of the focal influence mechanisms of performance pressure. The above research paradigm not only facilitates the theoretical development of performance pressure but also provides management practice with theoretical guidance by helping organizations build on their strengths and avoid weaknesses when dealing with performance pressure.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Time, is the basic element of personal life and work experience, everywhere. At present, most of the existing literature in the field of organizational behavior explores the relationship between variables from a static perspective, that is, mainly focuses on overall variable levels over a period of time. This is because these studies are based on a mainstream assumption, that is, the overall variable levels are relatively stable. While the role of time, such as the dynamic characteristics of variables over a period of time, has been largely neglected. This widely adopted static perspective that neglects the role of time keeps the existing theory of organizational behavior “static” to a certain extent. Over time, whether and how the overall variable levels change, and how and when the variables that change over time have an effect, the exploration of these issues provides a new perspective on existing research, which in turn expands traditional management theories. As more and more recent studies in recent years have taken the role of time into consideration in the discussion of theoretical models, researchers have gradually discovered that paying attention to the dynamic characteristics of variables from a dynamic perspective can increase explanatory effectiveness than exploring the impact of overall variable levels. Based on this approach, the construction methods of traditional management theories, the relationship between variables, and even the propositions derived from traditional theories have also changed. Taking the role of time into consideration, that is, focusing on the dynamic characteristics of variables and exploring their antecedents and outcomes from a dynamic perspective, existing research can better “provide an ontologically accurate description of the nature of a phenomenon” (George & Jones, 2000, p. 658). In line with this approach, in recent years, some scholars have begun to focus on the role of time and to explore the dynamic characteristics of variables. However, in general, this type of research is still quite rare and disorganized in different fields, and has not yet formed a structured system. Based on this, this review focused on the literature that has taken the role of time into consideration in recent years and explored the dynamic characteristics of variables over a period of time, in order to provide inspiration for future research. Specifically, this review selected two dimensions to sort out related research: the first of the dimensions being the type of dynamic characteristics of variables (i.e., trend vs. variability). The trend reflects the change trend of the variable over a period of time, including growth and decay. In research, the slope is often used as a measure. Variability reflects the degree of (in) stability a variable has over a period of time, which is often measured by standard deviation in research. The second of the dimensions being the role of dynamic characteristics of variables in the theoretical model (i.e., independent variable vs. dependent variable). That is, the researcher can use it as an independent variable to explore its outcomes, or use it as a dependent variable to explore its antecedents. Based on these two dimensions, this review divided the relevant research into four categories: (1) Trend is the independent variable; (2) Trend is the dependent variable; (3) Variability is the independent variable; (4) Variability is the dependent variable. Based on this categorization, this review systematically reviewed the related studies and the theories applied in them. Finally, based on the above analysis, suggestions for future research are provided by taking the role of time into consideration to expand the theory of organizational behavior more comprehensively and systematically, such as paying more attention to the variability of variables, investigating trends, interactions between fluctuations and overall average levels, focusing on time, duration and other important dynamic changes, from the perspective of characteristics, etc.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Reciprocity reflects the resource circulation between “giving” and “reciprocating”, which widely exists in the consumption field in various forms. Previous studies largely focus on reciprocity’s impact in scopes of anthropology, sociology, economics and organizational behavior. However, the relationship between reciprocity and consumer behavior has not been systematically reviewed. Therefore, the current research aims to build a consumers behavioral response model to reciprocal relationships. From perspectives of reciprocal exchange, equivalence principle and moral norm, the framework shows that reciprocal relationships can affect three dimensions of consumers’ response - subject, nature and level of behavior. Transitivity is reciprocity’s first feature. As a binary relationship, reciprocal relationships not only affect cooperators’ decision-making in existing relationships, but also predict the attitude and behavior of third parties outside the relationship. The double-edged sword is reciprocity’s second feature. As an equivalent exchange, the valence of reciprocity does not decide the positive and negative nature of consumers' responses. Positive reciprocity may lead to negative outcomes, and negative reciprocity may have positive effects. Asymmetry is reciprocity’s third feature. Even though the nature of consumers’ responses is congruent with reciprocity’s valence, reciprocal relationships may generate asymmetric responses in quantity and quality. The research further found that (un)conscious decision-making, result-/deontology-orientation, and social exchange respectively play the underlying mechanisms of transitivity, double-edged sword and asymmetry. These underlying mechanisms are based on theories of cultural learning, goal contagion, intertemporal decision-making, moral consistency/balance and equal exchange. Finally, the framework summarizes social and individual factors moderating the relationship between reciprocity and consumer behavior. Social factors include culture, communication context and other exchange forms, and individual factors include demographic variables, personality traits and cognitive state. The conceptual framework offers several limitations, which may help future researchers to extend this line of research. Future research should explore the antecedents related to reciprocity and the change of their weights from two systems of internal and external dynamics. The subject, nature and level of consumers’ response should be integrated by longitudinal study design and large-scale individual-level data analysis. Moreover, future research should continue to explore boundary conditions of reciprocal relationships affecting consumer behavior, and focus on the differences in the internal mechanism of reciprocal relationships triggered by different cooperators. Overall, by jumping out of the assumption that self-interest maximization is the only expectation of market members, the present research has three contributions. First, considering that reciprocity has multiple dimensions and forms, the framework comprehensively categorizes the antecedents of reciprocity that drive consumers’ behavior, shedding light upon the conceptual discrepancies and outlining future paths for discovery. Second, the framework summarizes and refines the consumers’ response in reciprocal relationships, which not only helps to systematically grasp the macroscopic law of consumer behavior in social exchange, but also promotes the sustainable evolution of consumption. Third, the framework further discusses the situations where reciprocity, together with social and individual factors, simultaneously affect individual behavior, which expands the traditional framework of interdependent decision-making.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Social status signaling is a fundamental motive that drives consumer behavior. Previous research on consumer psychology largely focuses on how social status can be signaled by the characteristics of products, but rarely explores how consumer decision process, another pivotal element of consumer decision-making, affects social status inference. Decision process is a vital part of consumer behavior. Similar to product characteristics, it is easy to observe and easy to control. The current research aims to build a social status inference model based on information about the maximizing decision process. We will systematically examine the following three questions. First, does maximizing, as a decision-making process, signal consumers’ social status? If so, how? We propose a moderated mediation model with perceived agency as the mediating mechanism and subjective decision experience and social mobility belief as boundary conditions. Building upon research on social status inference, our research will address the lack of focus on purchasing process in past research and broaden the scope of research on social status inference. Building upon research on maximizing, we will examine how maximizing influences social status inference by observers, which extends research on maximizing to an interpersonal level. Second, does the motivation to signal social status drive consumers to maximize? Individuals may adopt a maximizing decision strategy to signal social status. We will approach the question from a social status perspective and examine whether need for social status explains why consumers maximize during decision making. Third, how does consumers’ maximizing decision process influence their observers’ subsequent consumption behavior through social status inference? We will examine how perceived agency and social status inference serially mediate the effect of maximizing on consumers’ influence, reflected by observers’ advice seeking, reliance on consumers’ reviews, and purchase decisions. We will test the serial mediation model in two domains: reviews generated by consumers and advertisements generated by companies. The current research will study maximizing at an interpersonal level by examining how maximizing influences the attitude and behavior of observers. Furthermore, our research will help companies and marketers understand how decision process, described in user reviews, affect status inference and observers’ subsequent consumption. As a result, companies and marketers can nudge consumers to provide more descriptions about their decision process in the review, thereby helping with word-of-mouth marketing. Our research will also help companies and marketers understand how decision process related to product design and manufacturing, described in advertisements, affects status inference and consumers’ subsequent consumption. As a result, companies and marketers can design more effective advertisements by providing more information about the decision process. In conclusion, our research will provide a new perspective for research on social status inference, expand the scope of research on maximizing and shed new light on the underlying causes of maximizing.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： The Emotions as Social Information (EASI) model posits that emotional expressions exert interpersonal effects by triggering affective reactions and/or inferential processes in observers, depending on the observer’s information processing and the perceived appropriateness of the emotional expression. Since the EASI model was proposed, it has attracted extensive attention from researchers. Unfortunately, as a rising theory in recent ten years, the EASI model is still less studied in China. What are the unique theoretical contributions of the EASI model compared with other emotion theories? What progress has the EASI model made in recent ten years? What problems have been solved in various fields by using the EASI model? What other issues about the EASI model deserve further attention? To answer the above research questions, this paper discriminates the EASI model with other related theories, such as feelings-as-information theory, the dual-process model, the dual threshold model of anger, emotional contagion theory and affective event theory, to clarify the unique contributions of the EASI model in explaining emotion and related phenomena. Then, we searched and screened the empirical papers which clearly stated that they are based on the EASI model on Google Scholar, and found 63 papers in total. We review the application of the EASI model in the fields of leadership, team, customer service, negotiation and persuasion, and summarize the factors influencing the boundary conditions of the EASI model—the degree of information processing and perceived appropriateness based on the analysis of the 63 empirical papers using the EASI model. Overall, the inferential processes and affective reactions mechanism of the EASI model have been extensively verified in various fields. Among them, there are 33 studies in the field of leadership, 9 studies in the field of teamwork, 8 studies in the field of customer service, 8 studies in the field of negotiation, and 5 studies in the field of persuasion. There are mainly three factors influencing the degree of information processing: epistemic motivation (e.g., need for cognitive closure, personal need for structure, cognitive load), observer’s personality (e.g., implicit personality theory, conscientiousness, moral orientation, regulatory orientation, proactive personality) and employee’s efficiency. There are mainly four factors influencing perceived appropriateness: situational factors (e.g., emotional expression rules, culture, the relationship between the expressor and the observer), emotional expression content (e.g., intensity of the expression, authenticity of the expression, the target of the expression), expressor’s characteristics (e.g., leadership style, gender, race, power, status) and observer’s characteristics (e.g., agreeableness, regulatory orientation, power distance orientation, perceived leadership power). Based on the EASI model, we further integrate the existing research findings of the content structure, mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions of the social function of emotions into an integrated framework. Following our review, we identify avenues for future investigations. Future research should (1) strengthen the systematic verification of the EASI model, such as investigate both of the inferential processes and affective reactions as well as the observer’s information processing and perceived appropriateness at the same time, consider both of the reciprocal emotions and complementary emotions when investigate observer’s affective reactions; (2) enhance the integration of the EASI model with other theories (e.g., the dual threshold model of anger, emotion regulation theory, the adapted elaboration likelihood model); (3) extend the application context of the EASI model, specifically, future study can explore the mixed emotional expressions of one individual in multiple natural interaction situations, investigate the effect when the observer perceives different emotional expressions from different individuals at the same time, explore the possible effect when the observer perceives multiple emotional expressions changes of the same individual on related events at different time points, track the long-term social effect of emotional expressions, and explore the bystander effect of emotional expressions and the application of EASI in new organizational contexts; and (4) improve the measurement methods of inferential processes and affective reactions.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： In organizations, it is often difficult for leaders to obtain intimate interpersonal relationships due to factors such as power and status differences; thus, workplace loneliness becomes a common experience for leaders. In fact, leader workplace loneliness not only exerts influence on leaders themselves, but also has a unique social function that subsequently impacts his on her team and followers. However, by systematically reviewing and summarizing relevant literature, we found that the extant research has primarily focused on employees' workplace loneliness, leaving leader workplace loneliness unvisited. More importantly, prior studies have predominantly focused on the negative effects of loneliness yet provided limited insights on the positive side of workplace loneliness from a leader's perspective. To address the above issues and advance the study of workplace loneliness, this paper adopts a multi-level, multi-theory, and multi-method approach to unravel the beneficial and detrimental effects of leader workplace loneliness on various outcomes, as well as the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms across three studies. Specifically, based on self-regulation theory, Study1 aims to dissect how leaders adopt emotion regulation strategies to cope with their daily workplace loneliness. We further identify the critical role of emotional intelligence in the leaders' self-regulation processes. Because leaders have frequent interactions with their subordinates on a daily basis, such leader-subordinate interactions significantly affect the loneliness that leaders experience during the workday, which influences other attitudes and behaviors of leaders. Hence, Study 1 adopts the experience sampling method to investigate the short-term effects of leader daily workplace loneliness on key events (i.e., leader daily task-oriented focus and leader daily relationship-oriented focus) and key outcomes (i.e., leader daily task performance and leader daily contextual performance). Inspired by the emotions as social information model, Study 2 explores how leader workplace loneliness affects team climates (i.e., team individualism climate and team collectivism climate) and the effects of such team climates on team creativity. We also theorize team task complexity as one of the most important boundary conditions, which either facilitate or hinder the process of team creativity formation. Therefore, Study 2 takes a step forward to investigate how team task complexity plays a moderating role in the mediated leader workplace loneliness-team creativity relationship. We propose that the positive effect of leader workplace loneliness on team creativity through team individualism climate would be weaker when the team task complexity is higher vs. lower. In contrast, the negative effect of leader workplace loneliness with team creativity via team collectivism climate would be stronger when team task complexity is higher vs. lower. Study 3 sets out from a follower-centric perspective and explores how subordinates evaluate a lonely leader. Specifically, Study 3 utilizes the leadership distance theory to propose the inverted U-shaped relationship between leader accessibility as perceived by subordinates and subordinates rated leadership effectiveness. We then theorize the mediating role that leader accessibility plays between leader workplace loneliness and leadership effectiveness. In addition, Study 3 focuses on the individual differences among subordinates and further theorizes that subordinates' power distance orientation can influence the evaluation process of subordinates on their lonely leaders. In this paper, we argue that the indirect effect of leader workplace loneliness on leadership effectiveness would be weaker when subordinates' power distance orientation is higher vs. lower. In light of the above discussion, this paper not only advances the theoretical development of leader workplace loneliness, but also helps organizations cope with leader workplace loneliness with theory-based guidance and intervention. Last but not least, we admit that we still lack understanding of workplace loneliness, and thus encourage future research to conduct follow-up studies on the following topics, such as exploring the differences in the loneliness experiences of leaders at different positions, identifying the antecedents of loneliness in the context of the new economy era, and so on.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Early research on creativity viewed it as intellectual skills and thinking styles, or as a personal trait. In recent decades, however, researchers recognized that creativity can be influenced by social contexts, and therefore can vary within individuals. Among the social factors that significantly increase creativity, communication is a substantial one. Past research proposed that the generation of creative ideas is often a result of communication among different people. However, little research investigated how anticipated communication might affect creativity. This omission is striking because although communication helps to refine an idea, some important original ideas often come up before any communication actually takes place. In generating these original ideas, would differences in levels of creativity already manifest for creators who expect communication versus those who do not? Without any prior exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas, would mere anticipation of subsequent communication influence creativity? The current research examines the influence of anticipated communication on creativity and the moderating role of construal levels in this process. Experiment 1 adopted a structured imagination task to explore the main effect of anticipated communication on creativity. In this experiment, each participant performed an alien-drawing task. We hypothesized that the anticipation of communication, as opposed to no such anticipation, facilitates creative generation in drawing aliens. Experiment 2 used a new paradigm - an idea generation task - to measure creativity and examined the moderating role of construal levels required by the task. In this experiment, we devised two creative generation tasks that varied in their construal levels. Both tasks centered around the same topic—greetings. The high construal level task asked about why one should greet others whereas the low construal level one asked about how one can greet others. We hypothesized that for tasks with a high level of construal, anticipated communication facilitates creative generation, whereas for tasks with a low level of construal, the anticipated communication group no longer has the edge. The results of Experiment 1 showed the influence of anticipated communication on creativity. When people anticipated communication, compared with when they did not hold this anticipation, the aliens they drew were considered as more creative. Results of Study 2 suggested that when responding to why they greet others, people displayed more novelty and flexibility when they anticipated communication than not. However, when people responded to how they greet others, the effect of anticipated communication was no longer present. That is to say, construal levels play a moderating role between the anticipation of communication and creative generation, and the anticipation of communication only enhances creativity when the creative task requires high-level, abstract thinking. Taken together, the studies build upon past research on the relationship between communication and creativity as well as research on the relationship between construal levels and creativity. For abstract creative tasks, expectation about communication is sufficient to bring about an increase in creativity even before any informational exchange happens. Creativity can be promoted before any communication actually takes place, as long as communication is expected.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： It is a common strategy of advertising to show pleasant experience of users, but the effect may be opposite on game advertising. Most games are based on the principle of competition, which makes the result of the game a key factor. Success or failure would not only affect the motivation of game players, but also affect the observers. However, there are few researches on investigating how observing others' failure influences individuals' willingness to try a task, especially in the context of game. Would observing the failure (vs. success) of others in the ads of game improve observers' intention to download the game? If yes, what are the underlying psychological mechanism and boundary conditions? Based on social comparison theory and competition theory, the current research explored the influence of observing others' failure on observers' download intention of the games, and the serial mediation model of downward social comparison and competitive motivation, as well as the moderating role of difficulty and the observers' trait competitiveness were discussed. Experiment 1 explored the main effect of game results on observers’ download intention. In Experiment 1A, each participant was required to watch an ad of game. We hypothesized that after observing the failure (vs. success) of others in game advertising, individuals show higher download intention. Experiment 1B tried to replicate the main effect in a real-world context. Experiment 2 measured downward social comparison and competitive motivation through another game ad. We hypothesized that the results of the game influence observers’ download intention through the serial mediator effect of downward social comparison and competitive motivation. In Experiment 3, we devised two levels in a same game that varied in their difficulty. We hypothesized that for simple tasks, observing failure facilitates observers’ download intention, whereas for difficult tasks, this effect would be weakened. Experiment 4 explored the moderating role of observers’ trait competitiveness through the same ad of Experiment 1A. We hypothesized that for individuals with a high level of trait competitiveness, observing failure facilitates their download intention, whereas for individuals with a low level of trait competitiveness, observing failure no longer has the edge. The results of Experiment 1 provided evidence for the influence of game results on download intention. When observing failure (vs. success), individuals showed higher download intention, which supported hypothesis 1. Experiment 2 replicated the main effect through another game advertising video. Results of Experiment 2 proved the serial mediator effect of downward social comparison and trait competitiveness in the impact of observing others’ failure on download intention, which confirmed hypothesis 2. Results of Experiment 3 suggested that when individuals were faced with difficult tasks, the effect of observing others’ failure was no longer significant. In other words, task difficulty played a moderating role between observing failure and download intention, which confirmed hypothesis 3 and further verified the mediating effect. Results of Experiment 4 supported that the observer's trait competitiveness played a moderating role between observing failure and observers’ download intention. Although observing others’ failure in game advertising improved observers' download intention as a whole, this effect still varied from person to person. For individuals with high trait competitiveness, observing the failure of others would lead to higher download intention. For individuals with low trait competitiveness, this effect was no longer present. Hypothesis 4 was supported. Taken together, based on the game advertising situation, these studies confirmed the positive effect of observing others' failure on observers’ behavior intention, and expanded the research on the impact of displaying failed product experience on advertising in the field of consumer behavior. The findings of the current research also added an alternative perspective to the social learning literature.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Although the continuous spread of the pandemic and the rapid development of technology has brought challenges for top managers in China, the environmental uncertainty also offers an opportunity for them to practice and develop leadership skills. To answer what leadership behaviors will help top managers improve organizations’ adaptability and performance in a rapidly changing and complex environment, we developed a new leadership construct, namely, dialectical leadership behavior based on dialectical thinking rooted in the Chinese culture.Dialectical leadership behavior is characterized as a strategic leadership behavior including timely adapting organizational strategy and managerial practices to environmental changes, understanding and balancing between management contradictions, and holistically coordinating different departments and resources in organizations. According to upper echelon theory (Hambrick & Mason, 1984), CEOs’ leadership styles have a profound impact on the strategic choice and performance of the organization. We thus expect CEO dialectical leadership behavior to contribute to firm innovative capability and performance through strategic flexibility in a complex and uncertain business environment.To better understand dialectical leadership, we first developed and validated a scale. We found that dialectical leadership behavior was composed of six dimensions: timely adjusting, individualized mentoring, weighing contradictions, balancing kindness and strictness, promoting coordination, and holistically managing. We further distinguished dialectical leadership behavior from other related leadership constructs with theoretical and empirical efforts. Besides, as top managers of Chinese firms displayed a significantly higher dialectical leadership behavior than those of U.S. companies, the cultural uniqueness of dialectical leadership behavior was justified. Finally, we revealed that CEO dialectical leadership behavior in Chinese companies positively affected firm strategic flexibility and ultimately improved firm innovative capability and performance. We make several contributions. First, scholars constantly explore leadership constructs and practice based on the Western culture. However, the cultural difference between the East and the West matters when it comes to the effectiveness of leadership behaviors. Dialectical leadership behavior provides a new perspective for future exploration of indigenous leadership behaviors and influences by incorporating traditional wisdom of Eastern culture and the reality faced by Chinese enterprises. Second, by developing the measurement of dialectical leadership behavior, we contribute to the future investigation of dialectical leadership behavior and its correlations. Additionally, as we found that CEO dialectical leadership behavior is positively related to firm innovative capability and performance, which are critical for enterprises to survive and thrive during the crisis, we lend confidence in applying wisdom from the Chinese traditional culture to current management practice. Finally, by uncovering the role of firm strategic flexibility in mediating the influence of dialectical leadership behavior on firm innovative capability and performance, we extend understandings about the mechanism through which dialectical leadership behavior matters. We also provide the discussion on the limitation of the study and future research directions.
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