The Effect of Leader Perfectionism on Employee Deviance: An Interpersonal Relationship Perspective

Abstract

Purpose

Despite growing evidence of significant role of leader perfectionism in the workplace, few theoretical accounts have delved into intricate dynamics of interpersonal relationships impacted by leader perfectionism, nor have they explored the extent to which these interactions might stimulate employee unethical behavior. From an interpersonal relationship perspective, based on interpersonal complementarity theory, this study proposes a link between leader perfectionism and employee deviant behavior while assessing the mediating impact of supervisor-subordinate relationship conflict, and the moderating influence of employee narcissism.

Methods

This study employed three-wave surveys, with 335 employees (female 55.8%, 26–35 years old 67.4%, bachelor’s degree 61.5%, worked 3–10 years 67.4%, worked with their current leader 1–5 years 66.3%) across 11 enterprises in Chinato reduce the risk of common method bias. On this basis, MPLUS 7.4 was used to test the confirmatory factor analysis of data, and SPSS 24.0 was used to test the hypotheses.

Results

(1) Leader perfectionism has a positive effect on supervisor-subordinate relationship conflict. (2) Leader perfectionism has a significantly positive effect on employee deviant behavior via supervisor-subordinate relationship conflict. (3) Employee narcissism positively moderates the relationship between leader perfectionism and supervisor-subordinate relationship conflict, and further positively moderates the indirect effect of leader perfectionism on employee deviant behavior via supervisor-subordinate relationship conflict.

Conclusion

This study reveals the mechanism of how employee through deviant behavior as a opposition to leader perfectionism from an interpersonal relationship perspective, which provides theoretical and practical implications for reducing the negative impact of leader perfectionism and employee deviant behavior.

Keywords:

• leader perfectionism
• employee narcissism
• supervisor-subordinate relationship conflict
• employee deviant behavior
• an interpersonal relationship perspective

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethical Statements

Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Yangtze University. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. In order to ensure the validity and representativeness of the data, our study randomly selected anonymous employees to participate in the survey and used oral consent informed. Oral informed consent was approved by the ethics committee, and obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Youth Project (19YJC630165), The National Natural Science Foundation Youth Project (72201194), The Philosophy and Social Science Project of Education Department of Hubei Province (23Y095) and “The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”,Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (202311009).