To improve one's own self: how and when perceived leader competence promotes employees' self improvement feedback-seeking behavior

Introduction: The extant literature has stressed the importance of employees' feedback-seeking behavior. In this paper, we focus on the self-improvement aspect of this behavior and its activator, drawing on the self-improvement motives perspective to construct a theoretical model in which perceived leader competence predicts employees' self-improvement feedback-seeking via the mediating role of employee hope. Methods: A three-wave study was conducted with 660 employees from a Chinese company to test our hypotheses. Results: Results showed that employee hope partially mediated the relationship between perceived leader competence and self-improvement feedback-seeking, with the indirect effect being marginally significant at average levels of LMX and significantly positive at high levels of LMX. Additionally, LMX moderated both the relationship between perceived leader competence and employee hope and the relationship between employee hope and self-improvement feedback-seeking, such that these relationships were stronger when LMX was high. Discussion: Theoretical and practical implications of these findings, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.