Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China
Existing research highlights the positive effects of workplace gratitude on individuals, leaders, and organizations. Given the inherent power asymmetry between leaders and followers, leaders likely receive gratitude from employees, rendering expressions of gratitude toward leaders a common phenomenon in organizations. However, drawing on the literature of reciprocity imbalance in social exchange, we challenge this predominantly positive perspective by uncovering a potential dark side of gratitude expressions, suggesting that employees’ gratitude toward leaders can lead to exploitation. We propose that the effects of gratitude expressions are contingent on leaders’ Machiavellian traits. Specifically, when leaders exhibit high Machiavellian traits, employees’ gratitude expressions enhance leaders’ perceived legitimacy of exploitation, thereby increasing exploitative behavior. Conversely, this negative effect does not emerge when leaders possess low Machiavellian traits. Evidence from two field studies and an experiment supports our hypotheses. Our findings reveal the potential costs of employees’ gratitude expressions and highlight the role of perceived legitimacy of exploitation in leaders’ responses, offering meaningful theoretical and practical implications.
