How culture values shape leadership and employee well-being: insights from altruistic and egoistic perspectives

Objective: Employee happiness is employees' positive feelings about their work and quality of life. Previous research has mainly focused on employees' own characteristics and behaviors, while there has been relatively little research on how leadership values affect employee happiness. Methods: A survey was conducted among employees in service industry companies in Guangdong Province, yielding 448 valid responses. Using empirical analysis, the study examines how leaders' altruistic and egoistic values influence leadership effectiveness and, subsequently, employee happiness through emotional and cognitive mechanisms. Results: The findings show that leaders with altruistic values significantly improve leadership effectiveness, thereby improving employee happiness through a dual pathway: emotions cultivated by affective organizational commitment and cognitive appraisals as reflected in contact and satisfaction with management. These results highlight the key role of altruistic values in creating an organizational culture oriented toward employee happiness, underlining their importance in fostering trust, support, and collaboration within teams. In contrast, the study found that leaders with strong egoistic values had no significant positive impact on leadership, suggesting that overly self-centered values may undermine a leader's credibility and influence among employees. Implications: This study provides a novel perspective on improving employee happiness by highlighting the importance of cultivating and promoting altruistic values in leadership development programs. It emphasizes the need for organizations to prioritize value-driven leadership practices that balance organizational goals and employee happiness, ultimately promoting a supportive and collaborative work environment.