Why Do Employees Perform Better Under Paradoxical Leaders? The Mediating Role of Group Harmony

Abstract

Interest in the influence of paradoxical leadership in organizations is increasing. We explore whether such a leadership style can truly benefit organizations by examining the effects of paradoxical leadership on a wide spectrum of types of employee performance (i.e., team performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive workplace behavior) through group harmony. Using a sample of 195 bank employees and their 39 managers, we find support for our hypothesized multilevel model. Specifically, the analyses show that paradoxical leadership has a significant, positive impact on group harmony. Group harmony mediates the positive effect of paradoxical leadership on team performance and employees’ organizational citizenship behavior, as well as the negative effect of paradoxical leadership on employees’ counterproductive work behavior. We discuss how these findings contribute to the theory and practice of paradoxical leadership.