An investigation into the effect of path-goal clarifying behavior on employee role performance in crisis situation
In today's business environment,organisations are vulnerable to various crisis events,such as emergencies,financial crises and technological disruptions,with devastating consequences.These crises are characterised by volatility,uncertainty,complexity and ambiguity,resulting in unexpected disruptions to organisational norms and work processes.As a result,employees often lack clear work direction and experience role ambiguity.These circumstances not only reduce employees'job satisfaction,organisational commitment and work performance but also undermine the resilience and effectiveness of teams in crisis.Consequently,leaders need to reconstruct employees'cognitive schemas and provide clarity about team goals and responsibilities.However,existing research debates the most effective behaviour for leaders to use to clarify roles in crisis.Some studies suggest that leaders should use a team vision to provide direction and consensus while opposing views argue that instead of clarifying vague visions,leaders should provide explicit instructions and correct mistakes to improve clarification of work direction.This controversy probably arises from the fact that many studies treat crisis events as a holistic context,overlooking the differences in team responses to crises.In reality,different work teams may have different crisis responses even when faced with the same crisis event.As key actors in crises,team leaders need to adopt behaviours that are consistent with their respective team's crisis response to effectively clarify team direction and enhance role performance.This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism by which path-goal clarifying behaviours affect role performance.By integrating path-goal theory and the transformational-transactional leadership framework,we examine the influence of two competing path-goal clarifying behaviours,namely vision-articulating behaviours and actively corrective-avoidant behaviours.We also examine the mediating role of team goal clarity in the relationship between these behaviours and employee role performance.In addition,we examine the boundary effects of team anxiety and team complacency.To achieve the objectives of our study,we selected a restaurant chain located in northern China as our research subject.We conducted offline questionnaire surveys to investigate the impact of path-goal clarifying behaviours on crisis outcomes.By using structural equation modelling(SEM)to analyse two-level paired data between supervisors and subordinates,comprising 141 teams and 873 employees,we were able to comprehensively examine the relationships under investigation.Our study revealed several notable findings.First,vision-articulating behaviour,as a critical path-goal clarifying behaviour,enhances employees'role performance through team goal clarity.However,the effect of actively corrective avoidant behaviour on role performance is not significant along this pathway.Second,team emotions moderate the influence of path-goal clarifying behaviours on team goal clarity.When team anxiety is high,vision-articulating behaviour has a stronger effect on role performance through team goal clarity.Conversely,when team complacency is high,actively corrective avoidant behaviour has a stronger impact on role performance through team goal clarity.It is worth noting that team complacency does not support the moderating effect between visionary-articulating behaviour and team goal clarity,and team anxiety does not support the moderating effect between actively corrective avoidant behaviour and team goal clarity.This suggests that the team context of team emotions is not sufficient to trigger the'dark side'of path-goal clarifying behaviours within the team.Finally,team emotions moderate the mediating role of team goal clarity between path-goal clarifying behaviours and employees'role performance.This study examines the mechanism by which leaders'path-goal clarifying behaviours affect employees'role performance during crises,addresses House's view that path-goal clarifying behaviours are demonstrated through different leadership styles,and clarifies the existing controversy over which path-goal clarifying behaviours are more effective during crises.Our findings suggest that crisis leadership cannot be approached with a one-size-fits-all mentality.When panic emotions are prevalent in the team,leaders should allay employees'concerns by providing a positive vision of the future,thereby fostering employees'sense of work direction.Conversely,if complacency arises within the team in the face of a crisis,leaders should be alert to subordinates'tendency to make mistakes and proactively identify deficiencies.In summary,leaders should maintain an open and inclusive mindset that embraces diverse path-goal clarifying behaviours and be adaptable to different leadership styles.
万方数据
维普
