The double-edged sword effect of workaholic leadership on teachers' innovative behavior from cognitive appraisal theory of stress perspective

Although research on workaholic leaders is accumulating, there is no consensus in the literature regarding its effectiveness and our understanding of how it affects employee innovative behavior remains limited. Therefore, based on cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we investigate how and when workaholic leaders either facilitate or hinder teachers' innovative behavior. A multi-wave survey with 566 leader-teacher dyads from primary and junior schools in China found that workaholic leaders initially raise awareness of performance stress among teachers. Overall, workaholic leaders have a dual impact on teachers' innovation: they promote it through challenging appraisal of performance stress but inhibit it through hindrance appraisal. Role breadth self-efficacy significantly moderates this influence mechanism. For teachers with high role breadth self-efficacy, workaholic leaders positively affect their innovative behavior mainly through challenging appraisal of performance stress; for those with low role breadth self-efficacy, workaholic leaders negatively impact their innovative behavior primarily through hindrance appraisal of stress. In conclusion, this study provides an initial exploration into the ambivalent effects of workaholic leadership on employee innovative behavior and offers practical insights for harnessing the positive effects while mitigating the negative effects associated with such leadership behaviors.