When and How Does Leader Humility Lead to Followers’ Passive and Proactive Behavior?

Leader humility increasingly appears in the literature as a positive leadership style that fosters positive outcomes in followers, yet recent studies suggest that there are potential negative outcomes on the behavior of followers. This study advances this stream of research by exploring how leader humility shapes individual prosocial behavior (i.e., cooperative silence and pro-group unethical behavior) using two-wave, time-lagged data. Drawing on the social identity theory of leadership, we theorize and find that leader humility relates to both the cooperative silence and pro-group unethical behavior of followers. Consistent with the social identity perspective, these effects were mediated by pride in group membership. Furthermore, in line with impression management theories, we find that the concern of individuals regarding reputation maintenance moderated the overall relationship, such that followers with a greater concern for their reputation were more likely to engage in pro-group unethical behavior or cooperative silence because of their pride in group membership. Keywords: Leader humility, pride in group membership, cooperative silence, pro-group unethical behavior, reputation maintenance concern.