Does vigilant leadership energize or drain leaders? A resource‐based dual path model

Abstract Despite the emerging research on vigilant leadership, little attention has been paid to the influence of vigilant leadership behaviors on the leaders themselves. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, this study adopts an actor‐centric perspective to investigate the double‐edged sword effect of vigilant leadership behaviors on leader work engagement. For the resource gain pathway, we suggest that vigilant leadership behaviors can enhance leaders' perceived impact at work, which in turn increases their work engagement. For the resource loss pathway, we suggest that leaders who demonstrate vigilant leadership behaviors will experience greater ego depletion, leading to decreased work engagement. Furthermore, we argue that followers' proactive personality moderates these indirect effects: it reinforces the resource gain pathway and weakens the resource loss pathway. Results from an experience sampling study (Study 1, N = 176 leader‐follower dyads) and a scenario‐based experiment (Study 2, N = 142) consistently support our hypothesized model. Our findings have important implications for future research and practice of vigilant leadership.