Abstract:

Currently， as the business environment faced by various organizations becomes increasingly unpredictable， members of the organization often have to bear various challenges encountered during the organization's development. When they feel overwhelmed or unable to cope， what should leaders do？ Based on this， the concept of leader’s buffering behavior is put forward， which is defined as the process in which leaders can better achieve their goals by weakening the intensity of external challenges and/or improving the ability of organization members to respond to challenges in the external environment. Furthermore， we utilize the concept of space-time ratio proposed by Chen Guoquan in his “Time-Space Theory” based on general and fundamental domains to express the relationship and intensity of the interaction between organization and situation. Space-time ratio refers to the ratio of space intensity to time length. The question addressed in this paper is： in a high space-time ratio context， where space intensity is high and time length is short， how can leader buffer critical or excessive challenges in this context into moderate ones？ To answer this question， a leader’s buffering mechanism based on space-time ratio is proposed. This mechanism refers to a series of strategies， measures， or methods adopted by leaders in a high space-time ratio context to reduce the intensity of external challenges and/or enhance the members’ ability to respond. These buffering measures aim to help organizational members better cope with sudden environmental changes， pressure， or conflicts， ensuring the smooth and orderly operation of the organization and providing time and space support for its members in responding to challenges. Furthermore， the leader’s buffering mechanism proposed in this paper mainly includes two paths： emotional buffering and task buffering. These two buffering paths based on the theories and methods of time and space in the field of leadership and management is systematically elaborated on. Based on the space-time ratio-based leader’s buffering mechanism proposed in this study， through the case study of ExxonMobil Huizhou ethylene project， one of the significant foreign investment projects during the China-US trade war， we specifically elaborate on the practical application of the proposed leader’s buffering mechanism. The findings are as follows： First， in Proposition 1a and Proposition 1b， we propose that leaders can establish emotional connection through learning and innovation from the perspective of time， so as to buffer employees’ emotions. The case study shows that leaders pay attention to employees’ emotional reaction when facing the project with great challenges， and establish the emotional connection between project and organization members through learning and innovation. Specifically， in the case， the leader will take employees to recall the more difficult project experiences they have overcome in the past and put forward new slogans to deal with challenges to boost morale， which will help the leader lead the members of the organization to reduce the emotional negative impact when they are at high space-time ratio context. Secondly， in Proposition 2a and Proposition 2b， we propose that leaders can buffer employees’ emotions from a space perspective by establishing emotional transmission channels between macro-level and micro-level， and paying attention to employees’ emotional needs in terms of soft power and hard power. The case study shows that leaders consciously take measures in space levels and dimensions to buffer their emotions， and multi-level and multi-dimensional emotional buffering measures make their organization members have positive emotions in the process of fighting. Thirdly， in Proposition 3a and Proposition 3b， we propose that leaders can buffer employees’ tasks from the perspective of time， by learning existing excellent experience and improving existing knowledge and work behavior through innovation. The case study found that leaders’ buffering measures for tasks started from the perspective of time， and by establishing a learning and innovation system， employees’ work efficiency was maximized in a limited time. Fourthly， in Proposition 4a and Proposition 4b， we propose that leaders can buffer employees’ tasks by establishing the task relationship between macro-level and micro-level， and by mobilizing resources of soft power and hard power. The case study found that the leaders’ buffering measures for tasks also started from a space perspective， which was embodied in the case that the leaders invested abundant resources to support the employees involved in project and established detailed standardized process arrangements among all levels. Finally， the theoretical and practical significance of this article is discussed， along with the prospects for future research.

Key words: Leader’s Buffering Behavior, Time-Space Theory, Space-Time Ratio, Leader’s Buffering Mechanism