In the current hypercompetitive business context many organizational leaders have become involved in a single-minded pursuit of bottom-line objectives. They are concerned with performance metrics strongly associated with organizational profitability, rather than organizational long-term success through the upholding of values, such as corporate social responsibility and the interests of stakeholders (Greenbaum et al., 2012). Thus, it is not surprising that some well-known enterprises, such as Enron, Wells Fargo, HealthSouth, and General Motors in the USA, and Sanlu and Guanshengyuan in China, have been involved in high-profile corporate scandals, owing to their pursuit of economic interests to the detriment of commercial morality (Mesdaghinia et al., 2019).

Against this background, researchers have demonstrated that leader bottom-line mentality (BLM) has a negative impact on organizational functioning at different levels. For example, top managers’ BLM can contribute to a toxic and unethical atmosphere (Sims & Brinkman, 2002), leading to organizational drift and eventually to the breakdown of the enterprise (Mandis, 2013). At a lower level of management, supervisors’ BLM can be detrimental to their self-regulation, leading to abusive behavior (Mawritz et al., 2017), and also to employees having a BLM, resulting in their social undermining of coworkers (Greenbaum et al., 2012), unethical proleader and/or pro-organizational behavior (Mesdaghinia et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020), and customer-directed incivility (Babalola, Greenbaum, et al., 2020).

To extend these previous research findings we believe that the potential drawbacks of leader BLM for employees need further attention. First, researchers have mostly investigated the effect of leader BLM on employees’ unethical behavior (see, e.g., Greenbaum et al., 2012) and, with the exception of the study by Zhang et al. (2020), most research has been conducted in the Western context. Owing to cultural differences between Eastern and Western countries, more research is needed to gain an understanding of how Chinese employees react to leader BLM. Second, Babalola, Mawritz, et al. (2020) called for more research from the theoretical perspective to clearly explain when and how leader BLM results in detrimental consequences. Thus, our main purpose was to conduct a study in the Chinese context to provide a new perspective on how employees react to leader BLM.

Using the theory of conservation of resources (COR; Hobfoll, 1989) as a framework, we examined when and why Chinese employees’ perceptions of leader BLM lead to workplace silence. Because leaders with a BLM are likely to disregard the importance of process, cooperation, and ethical adherence while pursuing bottom-line demands, Chinese employees may choose to keep silent under this pressure rather than performing unethical behaviors, owing to the strong influence of Confucianism (Zhou & Liao, 2012). The core values of the Confucian culture are humanity, righteousness, harmony, courtesy, honesty, and moral/spiritual purity, which represent the core of 5,000 years of Chinese traditional culture and the value of maintaining balanced social benefits and harmonious development from the perspective of the whole society.

To better explain the relationship of leader BLM with employee silence and unethical behavior, we focused on employees’ feelings of emotional exhaustion (Maslach et al., 2001) as an immediate consequence of leader BLM. We also examined the possible mediating effect of the personal resource of employee conscientiousness (Haar et al., 2016), which may attenuate the effect of leader BLM on employees’ emotional exhaustion and, in turn, on employee silence.

Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

Leader Bottom-Line Mentality and Employee Silence

The importance of resources in preventing psychological stress outcomes for individuals is emphasized in COR theory (Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004; Hobfoll, 1989). Resources are “anything perceived by the individual to help attain his or her goals” (Halbesleben et al., 2014, p. 1338), and the core tenet of COR theory is that “people strive to retain, protect, and build resources and that what is threatening to them is the potential or actual loss of these valued resources” (Hobfoll, 1989, p. 516).

Leaders whose focus is only on achieving the bottom-line goal of making a profit (Wolfe, 1988) expect their employees to do the same (Mawritz et al., 2017). Leaders with BLM will then reward employees for their efforts in helping them achieve those results, and punish those who have not accomplished expected goals. Leader BLM may thus force employees to exert themselves to the utmost to obtain bottom-line success (Babalola, Mawritz, et al., 2020).

Owing to the strict hierarchy in the Chinese workplace, traditional Confucian culture has a deep impact on employees, and leaders have a strong influence on employees’ pay and promotion (Zhang et al., 2015). Thus, employees working in this performance-driven environment may become mentally preoccupied with satisfying their leaders and may be more likely to remain silent (Greenbaum et al., 2012; Mesdaghinia et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020). According to COR theory, employees who exert attentional resources and energy may keep silent to retain their limited resources (Hobfoll et al., 2018). In addition, employees cannot ensure that their advice will be accepted by leaders owing to the hierarchical Chinese workplace; therefore, their silence may also derive from fear of being punished for not doing the right thing (Zheng et al., 2008). Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: Leader bottom-line mentality will have a positive effect on employee silence in the Chinese workplace.

The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

A major tenet in our first hypothesis was that employees working for a leader with a BLM would choose silence to avoid resource depletion. To explicate this premise, we positioned employee emotional exhaustion (Maslach et al., 2001) as a proximal outcome of leader BLM, and proposed that it would act as a mediator transmitting the positive effect of leader BLM on employee silence.

Emotional exhaustion, as described in Maslach’s (1982) model of burnout, indicates a state of feeling emotionally overwhelmed and drained. Employees working for a leader with a BLM make every effort to improve their performance to satisfy their leader and to not be punished (Babalola, Mawritz, et al., 2020). In such circumstances employees may feel great pressure because they must constantly invest vast amounts of time and energy into performing their work. According to COR theory, this physical and psychological resource loss is likely to increase employees’ feelings of emotional exhaustion (Halbesleben et al., 2014). Thus, employees working for a leader with a BLM will experience serious emotional exhaustion.

The primacy of the resource loss corollary of COR theory indicates that individuals tend to reduce their resource consumption when faced with a resource shortage, to protect their remaining resources (Hobfoll, 2001). This notion is critical in the framework of this study because individuals speaking up is an effortful process requiring extra time and energy investment, which may deplete the resource base of those individuals (Bolino & Turnley, 2005). Employees in a state of emotional exhaustion may thus be reluctant to invest their valued resources in speaking up. Indeed, Xu et al. (2015) showed that emotional exhaustion has a positive effect on employee silence.

Therefore, Chinese employees’ feelings of emotional exhaustion are a proximal outcome of leader BLM, as these feelings are implicated in the framework of COR theory (Halbesleben et al., 2014). In addition, because Chinese (vs. Western) employees are deeply influenced by the values of Confucian culture (Lin, 2011), we proposed that emotional exhaustion would be a more immediate cause of employee silence. Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2: Employees’ emotional exhaustion will mediate the positive effect of leader bottom-line mentality on employee silence in the Chinese workplace.

The Moderating Role of Employee Conscientiousness

Highly conscientious individuals are hardworking, persistent, responsible, organized, and goal-oriented, all of which are important attributes for accomplishing work tasks. In contrast, individuals with low conscientiousness are careless, easily distracted, and disorganized, and are less goal-oriented (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Thus, we proposed that highly (vs. less) conscientious employees would experience less emotional exhaustion when working with leaders with a BLM. As these employees can make good use of available resources to satisfactorily fulfill their job requirements, they are more likely to meet the goals set by the leader with BLM and, thus, will be rewarded for their efforts and will experience less stress (Babalola, Mawritz, et al., 2020). In addition, as highly conscientious employees are themselves ambitious, demanding, and persistent, they are compatible with leaders with a BLM (Perry et al., 2010).

Conversely, employees with low conscientiousness are more likely to confront emotional exhaustion when faced with BLM leaders, because they cannot use their resources efficiently to accomplish their tasks (Barrick & Mount, 1991). As a consequence, when they are confronted with a leader who is demanding that they continually invest their energy and resources to meet bottom-line objectives, they may experience leader BLM as a demand on their valued resources (Greenbaum et al., 2012). Therefore, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3: Employee conscientiousness will moderate the positive relationship between leader bottom-line mentality and employees’ emotional exhaustion, such that the relationship will be stronger when conscientiousness is low (vs. high).

In addition, we proposed a moderated mediation effect, whereby employee conscientiousness moderates the indirect effect of leader BLM on employee silence via employee emotional exhaustion. We anticipated that when employee conscientiousness is low, leader BLM will be more likely to lead to employee silence owing to higher emotional exhaustion. Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4: The indirect effect of leader bottom-line mentality on employee silence via employee emotional exhaustion will be moderated by employee conscientiousness, and will be more salient when the level of conscientiousness is low (vs. high).

Method

Participants and Procedure

Before distributing the survey forms we first made clear to those taking part that their participation was voluntary, their responses would remain confidential, and the data would be used for research purposes only. Each participant submitted their completed survey form in a sealed envelope.

To verify the proposed framework we designed a three-wave survey. Each wave was spaced apart at 1-month intervals to minimize common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). At Time 1, we distributed the survey to 437 employees of four Chinese companies to collect data on their demographic characteristics, perceived leader BLM, and conscientiousness. We received 409 completed surveys. At Time 2, we distributed surveys to the original 437 respondents to assess their emotional exhaustion, and received 376 completed surveys. At Time 3, 437 respondents rated their silence behavior, and we received 325 valid responses (response rate = 74.37%).

Participants consisted of 173 women and 152 men. Age was reported in four categories: 21–30 years (88 participants, 27.1%), 31–40 years (79 participants, 24.3%), 41–50 years (117 participants, 36.0%), and over 51 years (41 participants, 12.6%). In terms of tenure, 75 (23.1%) of the participants had held their job for fewer than 3 years, 94 (28.9%) for 4–6 years, 96 (29.5%) for 7–9 years, and 60 (18.5%) for over 10 years. Level of education was coded in four bands: high school diploma or lower (52 participants, 16.0%), college (84 participants, 25.8%), bachelor’s degree (147 participants, 44.3%), and postgraduate qualification (42 participants, 12.9%).

Measures

We translated the three English language scales into Chinese by following a translation/back-translation procedure, with the assistance of three doctoral students majoring in English and another three majoring in human resource management. For the translation from Chinese back into English, the six students exchanged their translated Chinese versions among themselves. Finally, they exchanged their translated English versions among themselves for a comparison with the original English version. We also invited a master’s degree supervisor and a doctoral degree supervisor working in the field of management to review the survey items and ensure that the content was in line with academic norms. All measures were rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).

Leader Bottom-Line Mentality
We assessed leader BLM using Greenbaum et al.’s (2012) four-item measure. A sample item is “My supervisor treats the bottom line as more important than anything else.” Cronbach’s alpha was .91 in our study.

Employee Conscientiousness
We used the 12-item conscientiousness subscale of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) to measure employee conscientiousness. A sample item is “When I make a commitment, I can always be counted on to follow through.” Cronbach’s alpha was .93 in our study.

Emotional Exhaustion
We measured emotional exhaustion using Schaufeli and colleagues’ (1996) five-item scale. A sample item is “I feel emotionally drained from my work.” Cronbach’s alpha was .89 in our study.

Employee Silence
We measured employee silence with the 12-item Employee Silence Scale (Zheng et al., 2008). A sample item is “There is little chance that the supervisor will consider and act on my suggestion.” Cronbach’s alpha was .92 in our study.

Data Analysis

We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis in Mplus 7.4 to establish our measurement model. We then performed a path analysis to test all of the hypotheses simultaneously using a bootstrapping analysis (Edmondson, 2004; Heck & Thomas, 2015).

Results

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The confirmatory factor analysis results show that the four-factor model fit the data better than did the other three models, enhancing our confidence in the hypothesis testing approach (see Table 1).

Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Analysis

Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis results for the study variables are shown in Table 2.

Hypothesis Testing

Gender, age, level of education, and tenure were used as control variables when estimating the hypotheses. The path analysis results show that all hypotheses were supported (see Figure 1).

As shown in Figure 1, leader BLM had a significant positive effect on employee silence (γ = .11, p < .05). Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was supported.

The results of a bootstrapping analysis simulation approach (n = 5,000 resamples) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) indicate that the indirect relationship between leader BLM and employee silence via employee emotional exhaustion was positive and significant, indirect effect = .04, SE = 0.015, 95% CI [0.010, 0.070]. Thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported.

As shown in Figure 1, the interaction effect of employee conscientiousness on BLM and emotional exhaustion was significantly negative (γ = −.17, p < .05). We used a simple slope analysis to better illustrate the moderation effect. Leader BLM was more positively related to emotional exhaustion when employee conscientiousness was low (b = .60, t = 5.21, p < .001) as opposed to high (b = .15, t = 2.41, p < .05). Thus, Hypothesis 3 was supported.

In Hypothesis 4 we proposed that employee conscientiousness would moderate the indirect effect of leader BLM on employee silence via employee emotional exhaustion. The bootstrapping analysis results show that the conditional indirect effect of leader BLM on employee silence through employee emotional exhaustion was strong and significant when employee conscientiousness was low, effect size = .06, SE = 0.022, 95% CI [0.020, 0.105], but was weak and nonsignificant when employee conscientiousness was high, effect size = .02, SE = 0.018, 95% CI [−0.018, 0.053]. Further, there was a difference between the two conditional indirect effects, effect size = −.05, SE = 0.025, 95% CI [−0.094, 0.005], 90% CI [−0.086, −0.003]. Therefore, Hypothesis 4 was partially supported.

Discussion

In this study we drew on COR theory to explore how Chinese employees react to leader BLM, and our results show that they may react differently from employees working in a Western cultural context. Path analysis results show that employee emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between leader BLM and employee silence, and employee conscientiousness partially moderated this mediating effect. Our results suggest that Chinese employees tend to keep silent when working with leaders with BLM. Conscientiousness, however, partially alleviated this phenomenon.

Theoretical Implications

First, we have contributed to the BLM literature in our examination of when and why leader BLM may promote employee silence. In prior research on leader BLM it has been found that employees may engage in unethical behaviors, such as social undermining of coworkers, unethical proleader behavior, unethical pro-organizational behavior, and customer incivility, to satisfy their leaders’ profit requirements and fulfill their expected goals (Greenbaum et al., 2012; Mawritz et al., 2017; Mesdaghinia et al., 2019). However, these studies were mostly conducted in Western culture. We challenged this view in the context of China, by proposing that Chinese employees are more likely than are their Western counterparts to keep silent when facing the BLM of a leader, owing to the strong influence of Confucian values, an important aspect of which is a sense of morality and harmony. The empirical test results support our hypotheses, providing new understanding of the role of leader BLM.

Second, our results shed light on BLM by introducing the COR theory framework to reveal how leader BLM promotes employee silence. Although researchers had previously investigated the potential drawbacks of leader BLM from the perspectives of social cognitive theory (Greenbaum et al., 2012) and cognitive dissonance theory (Mesdaghinia et al., 2019), “current theory lacks various perspectives in terms of explaining when and how leader BLM leads to bad outcomes” (Mesdaghinia et al., 2019, p. 492). We used a COR perspective in this study to explain when and how leader BLM may induce employee silence via employee emotional exhaustion.

Third, we have contributed to the BLM literature by identifying the moderating role of employee conscientiousness, that is, employees with low conscientiousness are more likely to become exhausted when working with a leader with a BLM, which leads to their silence. This suggests that employees with high conscientiousness make better use of their resources to fulfill work tasks. Our findings verify a new perspective in the COR literature, showing that conscientiousness acts as a metaresource, not only helping employees to perform a job but also helping to alleviate the negative influence of other resource drains (Halbesleben et al., 2009).

Practical Implications

Our findings shed light on the drawbacks of leader BLM by illuminating its effect on employee silence. On one hand, policymakers in organizations should be cautious about formulating policies that may inadvertently raise leader BLM, and about the appointment of BLM leaders at all levels. On the other hand, organizations’ performance evaluation and reward system should be balanced between the profit index and ethical criteria (e.g., harmony, service) to avoid promoting leader BLM. Our results also indicate the key role that employee conscientiousness plays in attenuating the effect of leader BLM on silence via employee emotional exhaustion. Thus, recruitment staff in organizations should recruit employees with high conscientiousness, which will help them in buffering the negative effect of detrimental leader behavior, and in dealing with other resource-depleting aspects of their work.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

There are several limitations in this study. First, as we relied on single-source data, this raises the issue of common method variance. Future researchers could use a multisource or experimental design. Second, as employee emotional exhaustion served as only a partial mediator of the relationship between leader BLM and employee silence, we recommend that future researchers explore other potential mechanisms in this relationship (e.g., abusive supervision). Third, we highlighted only the moderating role of employee conscientiousness and did not consider other contextual factors. Therefore, future researchers could combine leader BLM with other contextual variables to improve understanding of the relationship between leader BLM and employee silence, and other work-related outcomes.

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This research was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71672083

71702059

71702076)

and a grant from the Ministry of Education Foundation Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (19YJA630070).

Xiayi Liu, Business School, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Gulou, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China. Email: [email protected]