Seminar (Dept. of Organization and Human Resources)

Title: The Effects of Leader Microbreaks on Transformational Leadership Behavior and Follower Job Satisfaction: LMX as a Cross-Level Moderator

Speaker: Sooyeol Kim (National University of Singapore)

Time: 15:00 (Wednesday), September 13, 2023

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language：English

ABSTRACT:

Integrating affective events theory and the “emotion as social information” model, the study tests the crossover effects of leaders’ microbreaks to explain how microbreaks influence not only the actors themselves but also their followers. An experience sampling method was used to collect three daily surveys from 118 leader–member dyads (236 employees) for five workdays (n = 511 observations). Multilevel path analysis showed that on days when leaders took more microbreaks in the morning working hour, they had higher levels of state positive affect in the afternoon, which in turn was linked to greater transformational leadership behavior (as reported by followers) as well as better followers’ job satisfaction in the afternoon. Overall, the findings suggest that leaders’ microbreaks can be positive affective events for both leader and follower. Importantly, leader– member exchange (LMX) moderates (strengthens) the indirect effects of leader microbreaks on the two dependent variables via the leader’s increased positive affect. The indirect effects of leader microbreaks on transformational leadership behavior and follower job satisfaction via the leader’s positive affect appear to be much stronger for employees in a high LMX condition than for employees in a low LMX condition. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Sooyeol Kim is an assistant professor (tenure-track) in the Department of Management and Organization at National University of Singapore. He received his Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with Human Resources Management. He also received his BA from Michigan State University with Psychology his MA from George Mason University with Industrial and Organizational Psychology. His research interests include occupational stress and well-being, recovery process, and workplace discrimination and diversity issues. His research has been published in internationally-referred journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and Journal of Applied Social Psychology.