Career Variety, Education, and CEO Humble Leadership: Exploring the Direct and Interaction Effects

Will knowledge make CEOs more or less humble? Based on upper echelon theory and humble leadership research, this paper develops and examines a model that explains how the breadth and depth of knowledge, including career variety, education level, and elite education, independently and jointly influence CEO humble leadership. Using multi-source, multi-wave data collected from 175 listed firms of China, we found that both the breadth and depth of knowledge can influence CEO humble leadership behaviors, but their influence are distinct. Specially, the breadth of knowledge coming from various fields (represented by career variety) enhanced CEO’s humble leadership behaviors, while the depth of knowledge in one area (represented by education level) was negatively related to CEO’s humble leadership. In addition, we found that CEO’s education level and elite education can both strengthen the positive relationship between career variety and CEO humble leadership. Directions for future research and managerial practices are discussed.