LAUSR

Humility has been found to produce a host of positive behavioral outcomes among employees, but there is also evidence that the impact of leader humility is constrained by team-level factors. Integrating social learning theory and social exchange theory, this research investigated how and when leader humility facilities versus inhibits subordinate service creativity by developing a moderated dual path model. Employing path analysis with 348 samples of valid data in service industry, the study revealed that leader humility positively affects role modeling, LMX, and subordinate’s service creativity. Notably, team relationship conflict negatively moderates the relationship between LH and role modeling, while positively moderates the relationship between LH and LMX. This study not only supports the integrated perspective of social learning and social exchange in understanding leader humility, but also helps to deepen managers’ cognition of the application value of humble behavior in improving employees’ service creativity.