Online leader territorial behavior’s conceptualization, measurement, antecedents, and effects

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1042.2024.01610

Abstract

Abstract: The advancement of digital technologies has promoted online work. Online work has progressively emerged as a prevalent work pattern. Although physical separation from the organization grants employees a high degree of autonomy, it erodes leaders’ sense of control and engenders uncertainties. How leaders maintain control in virtuality and thus maintain managerial effectiveness has become a hot research topic recently. An act that leaders may engage to strengthen control in an online context is online territorial behavior. Little research has integrated “online work” with “territorial behavior,” which limits the understanding of online control and manifestations of online leader territorial behavior.
Research on online territorial behavior is in its infancy. This research highlights leaders’ manifestations of perceived possessiveness over their employees in an online context. This research proposes four studies to: (1) conceptualize and develop a measurement for online leader territorial behavior; (2) discuss the association between online work and online leader territorial behavior; (3) explore the impacts of online leader territorial behavior on employee and leader outcomes and the mechanisms underlying those impacts; and (4) highlight how digital human resource management weakens the negative impact and strengthens the positive impact of online leader territorial behavior. The four studies contribute to a clearer understanding of the conceptualization, measurement, antecedents, and consequences of online leader territorial behavior.
This research contributes to the existing literature in several ways. Studying leader territorial behavior in an online context expands its conceptualization and application. The online leader territorial behavior measurement to be developed can be used for drawing theoretical and empirical links with other variables. By extending leader territoriality expression from physical to virtual spaces, this research echoes recent studies on e-leadership.
This research provides a systematic framework for understanding online leader territorial behavior. This research compares offline and online leader territorial behaviors. This research delineates offline and online “marking” and “defending” and proposes four sets of online leader territorial behavior: hands-on marking, hands-on defending, delegated marking, and delegated defending. This conceptualization deepens the understanding of leader territoriality expression in an online context and encourages future research to explore online leader control manifestations and particular territorial behaviors in various contexts.
This research highlights that employee online work can give rise to online leader territorial behavior. Addressing leader cognitive and emotional changes when shifting from the offline to the online context, this research identifies leader uncertainty perceptions and fear of territory loss as mechanisms underlying the relationship between employee online work and online leader territorial behavior. This provides a nuanced perspective for exploring the origins of territorial behavior and broadens knowledge about leader behaviors in an online context.
This research proposes a double-edged-sword effect of online leader territorial behavior. Online leader territorial behavior enhances leader work-related motivation by satisfying leader need for control in virtuality. However, online leader territorial behavior leads to employee deviance by depriving employees of autonomy in virtuality. Attending to the effects of online leader territorial behavior on employees and leaders simultaneously should illuminate nuanced research directions for future online leader control research.
This research proposes digital human resource management as an influential moderator for the outcomes of online leader territorial behavior, highlighting the importance of digital management systems in online control and promoting an integration of leadership and human resource management research. Discussing the interactive effect of digital human resource management and online leader territorial behavior on employee and leader outcomes broadens the insights into how the positive impact of online leader territorial behavior can be leveraged and the negative impact of online leader territorial behavior can be mitigated. Organizations are advised to proactively adopt relevant digital management systems to improve the efficiency of online management and organizational functioning.

Key words: online leader territorial behavior, measurement development, digital human resource management, online control

MAO Jih-Yu, NING Xianhui, LONG Lirong, WANG Jie. Online leader territorial behavior’s conceptualization, measurement, antecedents, and effects[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2024, 32(10): 1610-1620.

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