Purpose Authority leadership (AL) is one of the most distinctive dimensions of paternalistic leadership (PL), and it is recognized that PL is the most common leader behavior in the Chinese organizational context. Although considerable state‐of‐the‐art research work regarding the concept and dimensions of AL has been done, extensive empirical studies based on using the data from both individual and team levels to examine the effectiveness from the values viewpoint, e.g. Collectivism, attract little attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between AL and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). To address this issue, the role of collectivism to analyze the relationship between AL and OCB, at both individual and team levels in the Chinese organizational context, is explored. Design/methodology/approach This paper focuses on analyzing the role of collectivism in the relationship between AL and OCB. To this end, the authors draw on a sample set of 320 supervisor‐subordinate dyads from 32 branches of a beauty chain shop in the cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, China. After sending out questionnaires to 32 supervisors and 320 beauticians, 31 supervisors and 245 beauticians provided effective feedback. With the help of SPSS 17.0 statistical software, the data from the sample set are analyzed rather than self‐reported. Furthermore, the authors study the relationship between AL and OCB, the mediating effect, and the moderating role of collectivism, respectively. Findings The findings of this paper can be described from two levels. At the individual level, AL positively influences employee's OCB through the mediating effect of collectivism; and collectivism is capable of moderating the main effect. At the team level: AL positively influences Team OCB (TOCB) through the mediating effect of Team Collectivism (TC); and TC also moderates the main effect. Research limitations/implications Due to space limitations, the authors only consider the effect of collectivism; other dimensions of values which may have similar effect to the mechanism of the relationship between AL and OCB are not taken into account. Originality/value The paper shows that both AL and collectivism enhance OCB, and collectivism is the moderator of the relationship between AL and OCB. Since the moderating effect mechanism is different between individual and team levels, there should be more focus on AL and values. It is expected that the obtained results are significant in both theory and practice for the Chinese leadership research and application. Moreover, the paper presents some comments on the implication of this work and future research issues.
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