Journal of Applied Psychology 2024

Does competitive action intensity influence team performance via leader bottom-line mentality? A social information processing perspective.

Shuang Ren¹; Mary B. Mawritz^1,2; Rebecca L. Greenbaum^3,1,4; Mayowa T. Babalola⁵; Zhining Wang⁶

¹ Queen's University Belfast · ² Drexel University · ³ Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey · ⁴ Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights · ⁵ The University of Western Australia · ⁶ China University of Mining and Technology

Abstract

Leader bottom-line mentality (LBLM) exists when leaders solely focus on securing bottom-line outcomes to the exclusion of alternative considerations. Our research examines why leaders adopt LBLMs and the implications of this focused leadership strategy on team sales performance and pro-environmental behavior. Utilizing social information processing theory, we examine LBLM as a mediator and contend that competitive action intensity in the work environment provokes LBLM, which then signals to teams the importance of raising sales performance and reducing pro-environmental behavior. We also suggest that leader performance reward expectancy (i.e., perceptions that rewards are directly tied to high performance) serves as a first-stage moderator and team performance reward expectancy serves as a second-stage moderator, with higher (vs. lower) levels of each strengthening the indirect effects of competitive action intensity, through LBLM, onto team sales performance and pro-environmental behavior. Utilizing field data from a large pharmaceutical company (Study 1) as well as an experimental causal chain design (Studies 2a and 2b), we found support for our theoretical model. (PsycInfo Database Record

DOI

10.1037/apl0001166

Sources

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