Tyrannical leadership as a tough love boss: how leader career mentoring and tough-love labelling shape employee career optimism?
Jawad Khan et al.
Abstract
Purpose Drawing on leadership categorisation and labelling theories, this study explores how tough-love labelling mediates the relationship between tyrannical leadership and employee career optimism. In addition, we examine how leader career mentoring moderates the association between tyrannical leadership and tough-love labelling, and how this indirectly affects employees' career optimism. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from employees working in service-oriented organisations using a time-lagged survey approach. The relationships were tested using Mplus (v. 8.6). Findings Results show that tough-love labelling mediates the path between tyrannical leadership and employee career optimism, and leader career mentoring moderates the relationship between tyrannical leadership and tough-love labelling, which, in turn, increases employee career optimism. Originality/value This study advances the leadership and career literature by demonstrating how tough-love labelling functions as a mediating mechanism linking tyrannical leadership to career optimism, thereby offering a novel explanation for when and how such leadership behaviours may be associated with positive career-related perceptions. Additionally, it identifies leader career mentoring as a critical boundary condition, showing how career guidance shapes employees' interpretations of tyrannical leadership and encourages its categorisation as developmental rather than detrimental.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.