Expressed Humility in Organizations: Implications for Performance, Teams, and Leadership

We draw on eight different lab and field samples to delineate the effects of expressed humility on several important organizational outcomes, including performance, satisfaction, learning goal orientation, engagement, and turnover. We first review several literatures to define the construct of expre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization science (Providence, R.I.) R.I.), 2013-09, Vol.24 (5), p.1517-1538
Main Authors: Owens, Bradley P., Johnson, Michael D., Mitchell, Terence R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Associations, institutions, etc
Behavior
Cognitive models
Conscientiousness
construct validation
Employees
general mental ability
Human resource management
Human resources
Humility
Job satisfaction
Leadership
Learner engagement
Learning
learning goal orientation
Management
Methods
Modeling
Modesty
Morality
narcissism
Organizational behaviour
Organizational learning
Predictive modeling
Self efficacy
self-awareness
Social interaction
Studies
task performance
Teamwork
Theology
theory elaboration
turnover
U.S.A
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Summary:We draw on eight different lab and field samples to delineate the effects of expressed humility on several important organizational outcomes, including performance, satisfaction, learning goal orientation, engagement, and turnover. We first review several literatures to define the construct of expressed humility, discuss its implications in social interactions, and distinguish expressed humility from related constructs. Using five different samples, Study 1 develops and validates an observer-report measure of expressed humility. Study 2 examines the strength of expressed humility predictions of individual performance and contextual performance (i.e., quality of team member contribution) relative to conscientiousness, global self-efficacy, and general mental ability. This study also reveals that with regard to individual performance, expressed humility may compensate for lower general mental ability. Study 3 reports insights from a large field sample that examines the relationship between leader-expressed humility and employee retention as mediated by job satisfaction and employee engagement as mediated by team learning orientation. We conclude with recommendations for future research.
ISSN:1047-7039
1526-5455
DOI:10.1287/orsc.1120.0795