The Bright and Dark Sides of Paradoxical Leadership: Curvilinear Effects on Job Crafting and Personal Initiative via Grit, and the Moderating Role of Occupational Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This study investigates the nonlinear and conditional effects of paradoxical leadership on employees’ proactive behaviors, specifically job crafting and personal initiative, through the mechanisms of grit and occupational self-efficacy. Drawing on paradox theory and self-regulation perspectives, we propose that paradoxical leadership exhibits a curvilinear relationship with proactive outcomes, such that moderate levels foster optimal employee initiative, while excessively high or low levels may be counterproductive. Data were collected using a two-wave time-lagged design from 312 employees across banking, telecommunications, and higher education sectors in Pakistan. At Time 1, employees reported perceptions of paradoxical leadership and occupational self-efficacy; at Time 2 (four weeks later), the same respondents provided ratings of grit, job crafting, and personal initiative. This design mitigates concerns of common method bias and strengthens causal inferences. Structural equation modeling revealed a significant inverted U-shaped effect of paradoxical leadership on both job crafting and personal initiative. Moreover, grit mediated these curvilinear relationships, while occupational self-efficacy moderated the indirect effects, producing a conditional moderated mediation mechanism. These findings extend recent leadership literature e.g., Zhang et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2023; Guo et al., 2024 by demonstrating how paradoxical leadership, when optimally balanced, can channel employee grit and efficacy beliefs to foster proactive behaviors. Practically, the study highlights the need for organizations to train leaders in balancing control with empowerment to avoid extremes that suppress initiative. Theoretically, this work contributes to understanding the boundary conditions and mechanisms through which paradoxical leadership enhances workplace proactivity in emerging economy contexts.

Keywords: Paradoxical Leadership, Job Crafting, Personal Initiative, Grit, Occupational Self-Efficacy, Time-Lagged Survey