Follower Mindfulness and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Perceived Authentic Leadership and the Moderating Role of Leader Mindfulness

Jing Zhang; Lynda J Song; Dan Ni; Xiaoming Zheng

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00879

Follower Mindfulness and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Perceived Authentic Leadership and the Moderating Role of Leader Mindfulness

Front Psychol. 2020 May 20:11:879. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00879. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jing Zhang¹, Lynda J Song², Dan Ni³, Xiaoming Zheng³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Human Resources Management, Hebei University of Economics and Business, Shijiazhuang, China.
² Management Division, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.
³ Department of Leadership and Organization Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Drawing on implicit leadership theory and the mindfulness literature, we propose that perceived authentic leadership mediates the relationship between follower mindfulness and follower well-being. Leader mindfulness plays a moderating role in this process. We validated these hypotheses with the two-wave data from 56 leaders and 275 followers in two private enterprises located in China. We used Mplus 8.0 to test our hypotheses. Consistent with our hypotheses, the results showed that perceived authentic leadership mediated the positive relationship between follower mindfulness and follower well-being. Higher leader mindfulness enhanced the effect of follower mindfulness on perceived authentic leadership and also strengthened the indirect effect of follower mindfulness on follower well-being via perceived authentic leadership. The theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed in the light of these findings.

Keywords: follower mindfulness; implicit leadership theory; leader mindfulness; perceived authentic leadership; well-being.