TY  - EJOU
AU  - Zhang, Xueqin 
AU  - Wang, Zerui 
AU  - Xu, Fei 

TI  - How exploitative leadership undermines employees’ proactive behaviors: Evidence for the roles of self-control depletion and distributive justice
T2  - Journal of Psychology in Africa

PY  - 2025
VL  - 35
IS  - 5
SN  - 1815-5626

AB  - This research sought to examine whether employees’ views of distributive justice within the organization moderate the influence of exploitative leadership on the depletion of their self-control resources, and whether self-control depletion serves as a mechanism linking exploitative leadership to employees’ taking charge behavior. Data were obtained from 299 employees in China (51.8% male; average age = 27.67 years, SD = 3.83) using a two-wave survey design with a two-week interval. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that distributive justice did not significantly buffer the impact of exploitative leadership on self-control depletion. Furthermore, exploitative leadership was found to undermine employees’ taking charge behavior indirectly by increasing their self-control depletion. These findings extend ego depletion theory by clarifying how exploitative leadership drains employees’ self-control resources and thereby hampers proactive behavior. Practically, the results highlight the need for organizations to limit exploitative leadership practices and support employees in conserving their self-control resources to encourage proactive workplace behaviors.
KW  - exploitative leadership; self-control depletion; taking charge behavior; perceived organizational distributive justice

DO  - 10.32604/jpa.2025.066587