스타트업 CEO의 겸손리더십이 인지된 지속성장가능성에 미치는 영향: 발언행동의 매개효과와 직원 겸손함의 조절된 매개효과

초록

Startups operate in highly uncertain and rapidly changing environments, where CEOs’ leadership plays a critical role in organizational growth and sustainability. Previous studies have primarily focused on the direct effects of humble leadership on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. However, relatively little is known about the behavioral mechanisms through which humble leadership shapes employees’ perceptions of their organization’s future growth potential in the startup context, as well as the conditions under which these effects are strengthened. This study examined the effect of startup CEOs’ humble leadership on perceived sustainable growth, defined as employees’ perceptions of their organization’s ability to sustain future growth. Specifically, it investigated the mediating role of employee voice behavior and the moderating and moderated mediation effects of employee humility. Survey data were collected from 549 full-time employees working in startups in South Korea. The hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and moderated mediation analysis. The results showed that humble leadership positively affected employees’ perceived sustainable growth. Employee voice behavior partially mediated this relationship. Employee humility strengthened not only the positive relationship between humble leadership and voice behavior but also the indirect effect of humble leadership on perceived sustainable growth through voice behavior. This study extends humble leadership research to the startup context by explaining the behavioral mechanism through which humble leadership promotes employees’ perceived sustainable growth via employee voice behavior while identifying employee humility as an important boundary condition. Furthermore, it highlights employees’ perceived sustainable growth as an important organizational perception and provides practical implications for CEO leadership development, employee voice culture, and human resource management in startups.

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