The Role of Humble Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Human Resource Management

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between humble leadership and employee deviance in uncertain organizational environments, with a focus on the moderating role of employee mindfulness and the mediating role of basic psychological needs, as framed by self‐determination theory (SDT). Following a time‐lagged approach, data were collected from public sector hospitals through a survey strategy. Subsequently, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses. Results show how humble leadership can unintentionally increase employee deviant behavior in uncertain environments. However, employee mindfulness mitigates this effect and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) significantly reduces deviant behavior. The findings underscore the importance of internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in healthcare settings. Hospitals should focus on meeting the psychological needs of employees and provide mindfulness‐based training to foster resilience and reduce deviance. Leaders should also recognize the contextual limitations of humility as a leadership style during crises. This study challenges the paradigm that predicts positive outcomes of leader humility, demonstrating its potential in increasing employee deviance.