The Impact of Humble Leadership on Workplace Wellbeing: The Role of Pride as a Mediator and Proactive Personality as a Moderator

Abstract

The positive effects of humble leadership on employees have been examined through numerous 
studies. Conversely, its influence on the well-being of newcomers has been explored 
infrequently. Based on positive emotions theory, i.e., broaden and build theory and affective 
event theory, the current paper anticipated mediation moderated mechanism to discover the 
impact of humble leaders on the well-being of newcomers. It identified the pride of the 
newcomer as mediation and the newcomer’s proactive personality as moderation. Data was 
collected in two waves through a self-administered questionnaire from 316 newcomers working 
in the educational sector. The theorized model was checked via confirmatory factor analysis. 
Humble leadership was positively related to newcomers’ well-being, and the pride of 
newcomers mediated this association. Moreover, the proactive personality of the newcomer 
moderated the relationship between humble leadership and the newcomer’s pride. Although it 
is advantaged from two-wave data, a significant limitation of this research is its cross-sectional 
data nature, making it hard to draw cause-effect relationships. Moreover, data collected from 
newcomers’ self-reports may raise standard method variance. This study attempts to inspect 
the humble leadership role in advancing the pride and well-being of newcomers.