RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT OF AUTHORITARIAN LEADERSHIP ON EMPLOYEES' PROACTIVE BEHAVIORS

  This study innovatively examines the issue from the perspective of employees perceived status, integrating Expectancy States Theory, Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, and Social Identity Theory to construct a two-stage moderated mediation model. Utilizing a multi-wave, anonymous, paired-survey design, the research collected 421 valid responses from employees across 25 enterprises in Ningbo and Hangzhou, China. Data analyses were conducted using SPSS 25 and Mplus to perform regression analyses and test mediation and moderation effects. The findings reveal that: (1) authoritarian leadership significantly suppresses employee proactive behaviour; (2) perceived status partially mediates the negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and employee proactive behaviour; (3) high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) attenuates the detrimental effect of authoritarian leadership on employees’ perceived status-that is, a strong LMX relationship effectively buffers the adverse impact of authoritarian leadership on perceived status; and (4) organizational identification strengthens the positive effect of perceived status on proactive behaviour-employees with higher levels of organizational identification are more likely to translate their favourable status perceptions into actual proactive behaviours.