Influence of team member innovation on leadership sabotage: Insights from social dominance framework

This research utilized the framework of social dominance theory to investigate how team member innovation influences leadership sabotage behaviors, with a particular focus on the mediating role of perceived status risk and the moderating effect of leaders’ status concern. Employing a two-phase investigation involving 281 employees and their leaders from a retail chain, this study confirmed that perceived status risk mediated the relationship between team member innovation and leadership sabotage. In addition, leaders’ status concern significantly strengthened the impact of team member innovation on perceived status risk, especially when leaders placed a high value on their status within the organizational hierarchy. The findings enhance our understanding of the dynamic interplay between subordinate innovation and leader responses, emphasizing the critical role of status perception in workplace interactions. The study contributes to business management by delineating the psychological and organizational mechanisms through which innovative behaviors potentially trigger disruptive leadership actions.