Humility breeds proactivity: the roles of task reflexivity and learning goal orientation

Purpose – This study aims to explore how and when humble leadership evokes subordinate task proactivity. Integrating social information processing theory with the reflexivity literature, the study propose that task reflexivity mediates the relationship between humble leadership and task proactivity. Subordinate learning goal orientation moderates this indirect effect. Design/methodology/approach – A scenario-based experiment and a two-wave field study were conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression techniques were applied to analyze the data. Findings – The research found that 1) task reflexivity mediated the relationship between humble leadership and task proactivity; 2) subordinate learning goal orientation strengthened this indirect effect. Practical implications – The results suggest that organizations should emphasize the role of humility in leader selection and training to actively and flexibly cope with workplace uncertainty and complexity. In addition, organizations should adopt a flexible staffing system (i.e. allocating subordinates with high learning goal orientation to humble leaders) to optimize the effect of leader humility on proactivity. Originality/value – This research provides insights into how humble leadership affects employee proactivity by fostering deep cognitive engagement. Employees with high learning goal orientation are more likely to perceive the developmental signals conveyed by humble leaders and thereby engage in targeted proactive behaviors by reflecting on past experiences and preparing for future actions.