Transformational Leadership and Voice:When Does Felt Obligation to the Leader Matter?

Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees’ behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers’ felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers’ power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Nanomaterial-Assisted Signal Enhancement of Hybridization for DNA Biosensors: A Review

Detection of DNA sequences has received broad attention due to its potential applications in a variety of fields. As sensitivity of DNA biosensors is determined by signal variation of hybridization events, the signal enhancement is of great significance for improving the sensitivity in DNA detection, which still remains a great challenge. Nanomaterials, which possess some unique chemical and physical properties caused by nanoscale effects, provide a new opportunity for developing novel nanomaterial-based signal-enhancers for DNA biosensors. In this review, recent progress concerning this field, including some newly-developed signal enhancement approaches using quantum-dots, carbon nanotubes and their composites reported by our group and other researchers are comprehensively summarized. Reports on signal enhancement of DNA biosensors by non-nanomaterials, such as enzymes and polymer reagents, are also reviewed for comparison. Furthermore, the prospects for developing DNA biosensors using nanomaterials as signal-enhancers in future are also indicated

How leader emotional labor is associated with creativity: A self‐determination theory perspective

Emotional labor is an important but overlooked leadership function. In the present research, we draw from the self-determination theory perspective and take a leader-centric approach to examine how different leader emotional labor strategies affect leaders’ own creativity. Using data collected from 118 leaders and 352 team members at three time points, we found that leader surface acting harmed leader creativity by reducing fulfillment of leader autonomy, while leader deep acting boosted leader creativity by increasing fulfillment of leader autonomy. Neither did leader surface acting nor deep acting influence leader creativity through competence or relatedness fulfillment. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the present research

An exploration of social cognitive consequences of challenging and supportive voices

By drawing from cue consensus theory and status characteristic theory, we argue that the consensus between newcomers’ voices (i.e., challenging voice and supportive voice) and organizational cultures (i.e., individualistic organizational culture and collectivistic organizational culture) leads to distinct observers’ social cognition of status characteristics (i.e., warmth or competence). Through two studies (i.e., a three-wave field survey and an experiment), we found that an individualistic organizational culture moderated the relationship between challenging voice and perceived competence and that voice constructiveness mediated this moderated relationship. That is, newcomers’ challenging voice is more positively related to perceived competence when the level of individualistic organizational culture is higher. Additionally, a collectivistic organizational culture moderates the relationship between supportive voice and perceived warmth, and prosocial motivation mediates this moderated relationship. That is, newcomers’ supportive voice is more positively related to perceived warmth when the level of collectivistic organizational culture is higher. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed

Servant leadership and follower voice: A dual-centric energizing process

Using a dual-centric perspective, this research investigates why and when servant leadership encourages follower voice. Drawing from conservation of resources theory, we developed a dual-centric moderated mediation model theorizing mediating roles of followers’ feelings of energy (i.e., a recipient-centric perspective) and leaders’ relational energy (i.e., an actor-centric perspective), as well as moderating role of leader trait of self-regulation between servant leadership and follower voice. Field surveys collecting time-lagged supervisor- subordinate matched data were used to test our dual-centric model. We found that followers’ feelings of energy and leaders’ relational energy mediated the relationship between servant leadership and follower voice, and high leader trait of self-regulation strengthened the positive relationships between servant leadership and both followers’ feelings of energy and leaders’ relational energy, as well as indirect relationships between servant leadership and follower voice. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed

Do the Powerful Discount the Future Less? The Effects of Power on Temporal Discounting

Individuals have the tendency to discount rewards in the future, known as temporal discounting, and we find that sense of power (the felt capacity to influence the thinking and behavior of others) reduces such tendency. In Studies 1 and 2, we used both an experiment and a survey with organizational employees to demonstrate that power reduced temporal discounting. In Study 3, we replicated study 1 while exploring a unique cultural trait of Danbo, or indifference to fame and wealth, across two ethnic groups (Han and Tibetan groups) in China. While power reduces temporal discounting, the relationship between the two may be leveraged by individual differences of optimism, frustration, and Danbo. The results imply a more nuanced interpretation of how individual and situational factors can affect intertemporal choice