Does Leader Internal Locus Of Control Harm Subordinate Proactive Initiative Behavior?

Since the concept of locus of control was proposed,scholars have studied and explored it from multiple perspectives.Past research in the organization management showed that employees’ internal locus of control had a positive impact on their job behavior and results.Related research also suggested that organizations should bring in more managers with high internal locus of control.Further,was the impact of internal locus of control necessarily positive?Were there potential dark insides?There was a significant lack of research exploring the possible negative effects of leaders’ internal locus of control.To address important gaps in the existing literature,this study adopted an interpersonal perspective to explore the potential negative impact of the leaders’ internal locus of control on subordinates’ behavior.Specifically,this study constructed a theoretical model to explore the mechanisms and boundary conditions of the negative influence of leaders’ internal locus of control on subordinates’ proactive behavior.Specifically,the following hypotheses were included:(1)leaders’ internal locus of control is negatively related to their subordinates’ ob self-efficacy.(2)Subordinates’ job self-efficacy is positively related to subordinates’ proactive behavior.(3)Subordinates’job self-efficacy plays a mediating role between leaders’ internal locus of control and subordinates’ proactive behavior.(4)Leader’s gender has a moderating effect on the relationship between leaders’ internal locus of control and subordinates’ job self-efficacy.Subordinates’ work self-efficacy such that the relationship is stronger when the leader is female(vs.male).(5)Leader gender further moderates the negative indirect effect of leader’ internal locus of control on subordinates’ proactive behaviors via subordinates’job self-efficacy.This indirect effect is stronger when the leader is female(vs.male).This study used a field study method to test the proposed theoretical model.Specifically,this study used a multi-source,multi-point questionnaire design to investigate 325 pairs of leader-subordinates from multiple enterprises.The statistical analysis results of the obtained data supported the hypothesis proposed in this study.Finally,the theoretical and practical significance of this research was discussed.