How does humble leadership influence employee improvisation? A motivational perspective

Abstract In the era of variability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, organizations must improvise to deal with emergencies. Drawing on the proactive motivation model, we explored the connection between humble leadership and employees’ improvisation, and its mechanism and boundary conditions. The participants were sourced from various enterprises located in Shanghai, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Hainan, and other regions. Through a scenario-based simulation experiment ( N = 91) and a questionnaire survey ( N = 217), we derived five key findings. First, humble leadership positively affects employee improvisation. Employees’ positive emotions mediated the relationship, while both positive employee emotions and leader–member exchanges play a chain-mediating role. Moreover, power distance orientation negatively moderates the promotion effect. Finally, the indirect effect of humble leadership on improvisation via positive employee emotion is stronger for employees with low power distance orientations. Our study primarily focuses on individual-level improvisation, which enriches the knowledge of the connection between leadership style and improvised behaviors while also expanding upon the proactive motivation model framework. Additionally, practical insights are provided for promoting improvisation.