Authoritarian, Benevolent, and Moral Components of Paternalistic Leadership and Employee Performance: Psychological Safety As A Mediator

We adopted conservation of resources theory to examine how the authoritarian leadership component of paternalistic leadership interacts with two other dimensions: benevolent leadership and moral leadership, to jointly influence employee performance through psychological safety. We conducted a survey with 417 supervisor–subordinate dyads employed in a variety of industries in Guangdong Province, China. Results showed that paternalistic leadership mediated the negative relationship between the authoritarian leadership component and employees' task performance, organizational citizenship behavior toward individuals, and organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization. Further, the indirect effect of the authoritarian leadership component through employees' perceived psychological safety on their task performance and organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization was moderated by the benevolent leadership component. The findings in this study further understanding of how paternalistic leadership affects employee performance.