How leaders' workplace interpersonal capitalization promotes subordinates' proactive behavior: a self-expansion perspective

Wen Cheng, Jiaxin Huang, Yaru Li and Lulu Zhao

Evidence-based HRM, 2026, 1-18

Abstract: PurposeWe examine how leaders' workplace interpersonal capitalization affects subordinates' proactive behavior, focusing on subordinates' self-expansion and attribution.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach, including an experimental study (n = 200 participants from China) and an online survey (n = 277 participants from the USA), was used. Proposed hypotheses were tested via ANOVA, path analysis, and bootstrapping methods.FindingsLeaders' workplace interpersonal capitalization positively affects subordinates' proactive behavior, mediated by subordinates' self-expansion. Subordinates' attribution of leaders' performance promotion motives moderates the relationship between leaders' workplace interpersonal capitalization and self-expansion and the mediating effect of self-expansion among US participants.Practical implicationsOrganizations can encourage leaders to share positive work events to boost subordinates' proactive behavior. Managers should encourage self-development and provide supportive leadership to strengthen collaboration.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to explore interpersonal capitalization within supervisor–subordinate dyads, introduce self-expansion as a novel mechanism, and identify subordinates' performance promotion attribution as a boundary condition.

Keywords: Leaders' workplace interpersonal capitalization; Proactive behavior; Self-expansion; Attribution of performance promotion motives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/ebhrm/article/doi/10.1108/ ... sonal-capitalization (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/ebhrm/article-pdf/doi/10.1 ... m-05-2025-0224en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ebhrmp:ebhrm-05-2025-0224

DOI: 10.1108/EBHRM-05-2025-0224

Access Statistics for this article

Evidence-based HRM is currently edited by Prof Thomas Lange

More articles in Evidence-based HRM from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().