Is temporal leadership always beneficial? The role of job passion and synchrony preference

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between temporal leadership and employees' innovative behavior while considering the competitive mediators of harmonious and obsessive passions in work situations, along with the moderating role of synchrony preference. Design/methodology/approach Insights from the literature and affective events theory (AET) underpin the hypotheses on whether and how temporal leadership would affect employees' innovative behavior. A total of 365 responses were received, and 336 questionnaires were considered for the analysis. This paper examined the whole model through a path analysis using Mplus 7.4. Findings The results indicated the significant effect of temporal leadership on innovative behavior through harmonious passion which is moderated by synchrony preference, such that the positive effects are stronger when employee's synchrony preference is higher. Originality/value This paper contributes to the emerging literature on temporal management by examining the path of temporal leadership→ job passion→ innovative behavior to deepen knowledge of how temporal leadership may impact employees' innovative behavior. This paper also proposed a collaborative model related to temporal leadership and the synchronization of employees, providing a powerful explanation for the boundary conditions of temporal leadership.