Leaders who desire to leave the current organization are sometimes forced to stay. The leadership behaviors of these leaders are underexplored in the current literature. Building on proximal withdrawal states theory, this study examines two pathways through which leaders' reluctant staying mindset (i.e., desire but are unable to quit) relates to their subordinates' task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). One pathway proposes increased laissez-faire leadership behaviors due to leaders' lower intrinsic motivation; the second pathway proposes increased delegation behaviors due to leaders' higher extrinsic motivation. Using three-wave data collected from 100 leaders and 313 subordinates, we found that leaders' reluctant staying was indirectly and negatively associated with subordinates' task performance and OCB through leaders' lower perceptions of task significance and higher laissez-faire leadership behaviors. At the same time, leaders' reluctant staying increased their bottom-line mentality and delegation behaviors, but the indirect effects on subordinates' performance outcomes were not significant. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practices, and future research regarding how to manage leaders who stay reluctantly in the organization.

中文翻译：

---

当领导者被迫留下时：领导者不愿留下对下属绩效的间接影响

希望离开当前组织的领导者有时被迫留下来。当前文献中对这些领导者的领导行为的探讨还不够。基于近端退出状态理论，本研究探讨了领导者不愿留下的心态（即渴望但无法退出）与其下属的任务绩效和组织公民行为（OCB）相关的两种途径。一种途径建议由于领导者内在动机较低而增加自由放任的领导行为；第二条路径提出，由于领导者具有更高的外在动机，因此增加了授权行为。利用从 100 名领导者和 313 名下属收集的三波数据，我们发现，通过领导者对任务重要性的较低认知和较高的自由放任领导行为，领导者不愿留下来与下属的任务绩效和 OCB 间接负相关。同时，领导者的留恋增加了他们的底线心态和授权行为，但对下属绩效结果的间接影响并不显着。我们讨论了我们的研究结果对关于如何管理不情愿留在组织中的领导者的理论、实践和未来研究的影响。