While previous empirical research showed that informal leadership leads to a positive impact on both individuals and teams, recent studies have highlighted the importance of paying attention to its potential dark sides. To reveal the mechanism of these inconsistent findings, the current study based on the social cognitive theory explores how informal leader status influences individual turnover intention and the moderating role of formal leaders’ empowerment behavior. Through three experiments with a casual-chain design and one field survey, we found that informal leader status enhances individuals’ leadership self-efficacy, which not only boosts their perception of internal marketability but also strengthens their self-value in the external job market, thereby leading to a heightened inclination to turnover. Moreover, the empowerment behavior from the informal leader’s supervisors can significantly mitigate this negative impact. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and challenges created by informal leadership and underscore the importance of the synergy between formal and informal leaders in maintaining internal organizational balance. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.
