ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Organ. Psychol.
Sec. Performance and Development
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/forgp.2025.1417772
How does leader-subordinate construal fit affect task performance of subordinates? The role of emotional exhaustion and adaptive expertise
Provisionally accepted
- Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
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Abstract：Work efficiency can be enhanced through effective communication among organizational members. According to construal level theory and ego-depletion theory, leader-subordinate construal unfit can complicate communication, deplete subordinates' cognitive resources and lower productivity at work. The current article explores the relationship between leader-subordinate construal fit and subordinates' task performance, as well as the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of subordinates' adaptive expertise. A total of 313 Chinese employees were participated the experiment at two time points. The response surface analysis was used to analyze how the leader-subordinate construal level fit impact the task performance. Results revealed that leader-subordinate construal unfit led to emotional exhaustion of subordinates. When subordinate's construal level is high and the leader's is low, the subordinate experiences more emotional exhaustion compared with the reverse condition that subordinate's has low construal level and leader is high. The relationship between leader-subordinate construal fit and task performance is mediated by subordinates' emotional exhaustion. In addition, subordinates' adaptive expertise moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and task performance.With the rapid external condition transformation, internal organizational micro-level subsystems' communication is central to preserve efficiency. The changes confronting organizations and the adjustments to the organizational framework amplify the importance of organizational communication for overall functioning. The behavior of individuals in organizations is best understood from a communication point of view (Rogers and Agarwala-Rogers 1976). However, many subordinates are dissatisfied with the leadership's communication style or unclear task assignments. Given that communication necessitates the processing of cognitive resources from both sides, differences in psychological cognitive patterns and thinking representations may be the key reason for leader-subordinate understanding variance.If so, organizations must contemplate how to remodel the communication and working modes of their members to adapt to these changes and enhance work efficiency.
Keywords: leader-subordinate construal fit, Emotional exhaustion, adaptive expertise, task performance, Construal level theory
Received: 15 Apr 2024; Accepted: 19 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Chen, Chen and Zou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaoxi Chen, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
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