The Impact of Leader's Psychological Entitlement on Subordinate's Task Performance: Mediating Effect of Relational Energy and Moderating Effect of Core Self-Evaluation

This study aimed to investigate the impact of a leader's psychological entitlement, a trait known for its negative characteristics, on the task performance of subordinates. Accordingly, this study has three purposes. First, it is to find out the relationship between psychological entitlement and relational energy. Second, it is to identify the underlying mechanisms in the relationship between psychological entitlement and task performance. Specifically, I assumed that decreased relational energy due to psychological entitlement would negatively influence their task performance. Third, in this relationship, the moderating and moderated mediating effects of subordinate’s core self-evaluation are examined. The data was collected by forming leader-subordinate pairs, targeting officers and non-commissioned officers serving in the Army. The data was collected through both face-to-face and remote(online) surveys. Based on 177 pairs of data collected over three rounds, the hypothesis was verified through hierarchical regression analysis using SPSS 25.0 and SPSS Macro. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the psychological entitlement had a negative relationship with relational energy, whereas relational energy positive relationship with task performance. As a result of indirect effect test, it was found that psychological entitlement negatively affects task performance through relational energy. In the case of moderating effect, it was confirmed that the negative relationship between psychological entitlement and relational energy was strengthened as the core self-evaluation was high, and the indirect effect of psychological on task performance through relational energy also strengthened as the core self-evaluation was high. This study contributes to the extension of relevant research by examining the negative impact of leader‘s psychological entitlement on the relational energy and task performance of subordinates, empirically demonstrating the moderating effect of core self-evaluation. Additionally, it provides insights into the negative effects of psychological entitlement and organizational implications for preventing and minimizing these effects. Finally, the study discusses its limitations and suggests directions for future research.