Zhang, J., Yuan, S., Xing, L. et al. (3 more authors) (2025) Leading while playing: How leader fun pursuit affects leadership perceptions and evaluations. Applied Psychology, 74 (1). e12583. ISSN 0269-994X
Abstract
Although pursuing fun seems contradictory to work, it may yield beneficial outcomes for not only employees but also leaders in the workplace. The present paper aims to bridge the gap between the workplace fun/play literature and leadership research by introducing the concept of leader fun pursuit and examining its influence on followers' evaluations. Moreover, drawing on the dual perspective model of social evaluation and expectancy violation theory, we examine the effects of leader fun pursuit on followers' perceptions of leader attributes and evaluations of leadership, and posit a gender-contingent boundary condition. We conducted three studies to develop a scale and examine our hypotheses. Study 1 (four samples, total N = 734) developed a four-item scale to measure leader fun pursuit and established its reliability and validity. Study 2 (N = 309) used a multi-wave design to examine the full model. Study 3 (N = 279) used a vignette-based experiment to strengthen the internal validity of our conceptual model. We found that leader fun pursuit generally enhances followers' evaluations of the leader, and this effect was especially pronounced for female leaders. Overall, we introduce a novel approach to effective leadership and examine the gender differences therein.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an author produced version of an article accepted for publication in Applied Psychology, made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | expectancy violation; leader agency; leader communion; leader fun pursuit; leadership evaluations |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Management Division (LUBS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 Nov 2024 17:28 |
Last Modified: | 12 Nov 2024 14:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/apps.12583 |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:219136 |