Linking Paternalistic Leadership to Employee Inauthentic Behavior: The Role of Psychological Strain Process

Abstract

This study examined the effect of paternalistic leadership on follower fake behavior and compared the effect of authoritarian leadership with that of benevolent leadership and moral leadership on the facades of conformity. The study suggested that leader authoritarianism resulted in high levels of employee facades of conformity, whereas both leader benevolence and leader morality produced low levels of employee facades of conformity. This study used 253 participants from a large Taiwanese company. The findings of the study showed a positive effect of authoritarian leadership on facades of conformity, whereas there was a negative relationship between benevolent leadership and facades of conformity and a negative relationship between moral leadership and facades of conformity. Psychological strain mediated the relationship between the three types of paternalistic leadership and facades of conformity. Implications and directions for future study are discussed.