Do I feel elevated? Unraveling the emotional and value-based mechanisms behind humble leadership

Abstract

Introduction Humble leadership is increasingly recognized as a catalyst for organizational adaptability. Although prior research has examined several cognitive, relational, and affective mechanisms underlying humble leadership, less is known about whether humble leadership evokes specific self-transcendent moral emotions, such as elevation, that motivate followers to engage in risky but prosocial voice behavior. Departing from traditional exchange-based leadership perspectives, this study draws on Affective Events Theory to conceptualize humble leadership as a “moral event” that elicits elevation—a distinct, other-praising emotion triggered by witnessing moral excellence—and examines whether this emotional response motivates followers to engage in voice behavior, a risky and organization-oriented prosocial act. Furthermore, this study investigates whether follower altruistic value serves as a boundary condition that amplifies this process. Methods A two-wave, dyadic design was employed with 313 leader-follower pairs from Chinese organizations—a cultural context where Confucian values and high power distance render humble leadership both counter-normative and morally salient. A moderated mediation model was tested using structural equation modeling in Mplus 8.0, with Monte Carlo simulation (20,000 resamples) to assess indirect effects. Results Results demonstrate that humble leadership is positively related to follower voice behavior through the mediating role of elevation. Crucially, follower altruistic value strengthens this indirect effect, suggesting that the moral-emotional influence of humble leadership is more pronounced when it resonates with followers’ intrinsic values. Discussion These findings contribute to the leadership and organizational behavior literature by identifying elevation as a theoretically meaningful moral-emotional pathway underlying follower voice, highlighting how moral emotions serve as an important emotional pathway for social influence in hierarchical organizations, and offering a culturally grounded account of how the Chinese organizational context shapes the emotional impact of humble leadership.