Responsible leadership and front-line employees’ career commitment: the roles of status striving and perceptions of developmental HRM practices

Abstract

Adopting a responsible leadership (RL) lens and drawing on social learning and contextual approach, we investigate the link between first-line managers’ RL and front-line employee career commitment, the mediating role of status striving, and the contingent role of developmental human resource management (DHRM) practices. To investigate these relationships, we utilized both experimental and field-based research designs with samples of employees for service organizations. In Study 1, utilizing an experimental design, we found support for the direct effects of RL on career commitment via status striving. In Study 2, using a multi-wave research design, we replicated and extended the Study 1 findings and found that status striving mediated the RL-career commitment relationship. We also found that perceptions of DHRM practices moderated the indirect relationship between RL and career commitment via status striving. Our study findings highlight the value of studying leadership dynamics in the context of front-line employee career commitment, and that career research can benefit from taking a broader stakeholder view of leadership.