Does organizational collectivist culture breed self-sacrificial leadership? Testing a moderated mediation model

Previous research on self-sacrificial leadership has focused primarily on its positive consequences for organizations. Research on the antecedents of self-sacrificial leadership has been scant. This study developed a theoretical model to examine whether organizational collectivist culture (OCC) promotes self-sacrificial leadership by encouraging greater perspective taking. Furthermore, the moderating role of sense of power was examined. A mixed method design was conducted to test the hypothesis, across a scenario-based experiment and a field survey. The results showed that: (1) OCC was positively associated with self-sacrificial leadership, and (2) perspective taking partially mediated this relationship; (3) sense of power negatively moderated the effect of OCC on perspective taking, such that the effect was stronger when the sense of power was weaker; and (4) the indirect effect of OCC on self-sacrificial leadership via perspective taking was moderated by sense of power. Corresponding implications and the limitations of this research were discussed.