The relation between humble leadership and employee proactive socialization: the roles of work meaningfulness and perceived overqualification

Existing literature has highlighted the importance of employee proactive behaviors to the organization. However, the effect of humble leadership on employee proactive socialization has not been noticed. Drawing on self-determination theory, we proposed and tested a theoretical model exploring whether, and how humble leadership impact employee proactive socialization via the mediation of work meaningfulness. Furthermore, based on conservation of resource theory view, we suggested perceived overqualification as a significant boundary condition for the effect of work meaningfulness. We tested our theoretical model using hierarchical regression analyses. Through an empirical study with a sample of 326 employees and a two-wave data, we demonstrated that humble leadership had a positive effect on employee proactive socialization, and work meaningfulness mediated the positive relation of humble leadership and employee proactive socialization. In addition, results showed that the effect of work meaningfulness on employee proactive socialization and the indirect effect of humble leadership on employee proactive socialization via work meaningfulness were stronger under high perceived overqualification. These results offer theoretical and practical implications for humble leadership and proactive socialization in the context of China.