Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40867451›Full record

ArticleBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)2025

How Exploitative Leadership Emerges: The Activating Effect of Organizational Context on Individual Traits.

Junhui Zhang, Yilin Zhang, Wei Pan

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Junhui ZhangSchool of Management, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China.ORCID 0000-0003-3238-2704
Yilin ZhangSchool of Management, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China.ORCID 0000-0003-3282-762X
Wei PanSchool of Economics and Management, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China.

Funding

the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province of China LH2021G004The Project of Research Start-up Funds of Guangdong Ocean University 060302092307The Project of Research Start-up Funds of Guangdong Ocean University 060302092404
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although the detrimental effects of exploitative leadership have been widely revealed, scholarly understanding of its formation mechanisms remains insufficient. Addressing this gap, the present study draws upon trait activation theory to investigate the antecedents and formation mechanisms of exploitative leadership through the dual lenses of personality traits and organizational contexts. Through an empirical examination of questionnaire data from 422 leader-subordinate dyads in Chinese organizations, the results of this study reveal that: three leader personality traits-self-interest, other-oriented perfectionism, and high power distance orientation-significantly and positively predict exploitative leadership behaviors; three organizational contexts-task challenge, flexible status conferral, and leader-subordinate goal misalignment-likewise serve as positive predictors of exploitative leadership behaviors; through trait activation effects, flexible status conferral significantly strengthens the positive relationships between all three personality traits and exploitative leadership, while task challenge and goal misalignment specifically amplify the positive relationships of exploitative leadership with high power distance orientation and self-interested personality, respectively. The research findings are of great value for improving the theoretical framework of exploitative leadership and guiding management practice.

Indexed as

exploitative leadershipformation mechanismorganizational contextspersonality traitstrait activation

Identifiers

PMID40867451
PMCPMC12382963

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.