A mechanistic study of the influence of quantum leadership on employees’ constructive deviance

Purpose This paper aims to understand how quantum leaders influence employee work behavior through effective tasks. Design/methodology/approach In this study, 516 questionnaires were collected using the interval data method to explore the triggering mechanisms and paths of emerging quantum leadership on constructive deviance. Findings The findings indicate that quantum leadership promotes constructive deviance through facilitating recovery experience (affective path), job crafting (task path) and the chained mediation path between the two. Additionally, the moderating effect of openness to experience strengthens the pathways between quantum leadership and recovery experience, and between quantum leadership and job crafting. Research limitations/implications This study focuses closely on the mechanism of leadership behavior on employees, neglecting the psychological state and behavior of the leader as a key resource element in the work environment. Quantum leadership emphasizes value-bound characteristics, so the role played by quantum leaders may vary in different cultures and values. Practical implications First, this study calls for the organizational management focusing on the advantages of quantum leadership thinking and its positive effects in practice. Second, the mediating mechanisms of recovery experience and job crafting provide insights into how quantum leadership can be used to enhance constructive deviance. Third, this study elucidates how individual responses to organizational environment and leadership style vary in management practices. Our study helps managers better understand how individual characteristics, such as openness to experience, influence managerial behavior. Social implications This study enriches the qualitative research on emerging “quantum” perspectives of leadership, expands the mechanism of employee constructive deviance and highlights the need for organizations to take measures that encourage constructive deviance by their employees, as this can lead to high-quality and long-term growth. Originality/value Based on conservation of resources theory, authors revealed the mechanisms by which quantum leadership influences employees’ constructive deviance, confirming the mediating role of recovery experience and job crafting as well as the moderating role of openness to employee experience. We explored the moderating mechanisms of the individual trait of openness to experience in the quantum leadership-to-job crafting and the recovery experience-to-job crafting.