Effect of paradoxical leadership on employee innovation behavior in a Confucian context

Supervisors often exhibit paradoxical leadership behaviors in certain Confucian organizations that may seem contradictory but are interconnected, and employees demonstrate paradoxical innovation behaviors that encompass both proactive and reactive elements. By employing self-determination theory, the present study constructs a comprehensive model to investigate the impact of paradoxical leadership on employee paradoxical innovation behavior from both differentiation and integration perspectives. We conducted a three-wave survey among Chinese employees, collecting 371 valid questionnaires and analyzing the data using multiple regression analysis. The results show that: (i) Paradoxical leadership is positively related to employee proactive innovation behavior and autonomous work motivation plays a mediating role; (ii) Paradoxical leadership is also positively related to employee-reactive innovation behavior, and controlled work motivation plays a mediating role; and (iii) Paradoxical leadership facilitates employees in balancing the relationship between autonomous and controlled motivation, thereby exhibiting paradoxical innovation behaviors that are both proactive and reactive.