Employees' Improvisational Behavior: Exploring the Role of Leader Grit and Humility. Issue 2 (15th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rego, Arménio; Vitória, Andreia; e Cunha, Miguel Pina; Owens, Bradley P.; Ventura, Ana; Leal, Susana; Valverde, Camilo; Lourenço-Gil, Rui
• Is Part Of: Human performance. Volume 35:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 113
• Page End: 138
• Publication Date: 2022-03-15
• Subjects: Performance -- Periodicals; Psychology, Industrial -- Periodicals; 158.7
• DOI: 10.1080/08959285.2022.2038171
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0895-9285

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In spite of a growing interest for improvisation in organizations, the microfoundations of improvisation have not been theorized yet. Exploring these microfoundations, we study how employees' psychological capital (PsyCap) acts as a critical cluster of resources to face improvisational challenges and how leaders who convey grit (operationalized as perseverance of effort: Grit-PE), counterbalanced with humility, create conditions to develop those resources. By building upon the conservation of resources and the dual-systems model of self-regulation theories, our empirical studies suggest that the interaction between two leader-conveyed resources (Grit-PE and humility) creates a contextual resource that helps employees develop PsyCap, thus making them more likely to improvise. The positive effect of high Grit-PE in leaders on employees' improvisation materializes mainly when leaders also are humble.