Exhaustion has a significant impact on employees and organizations, and leader behavior may affect it.
We applied conservation of resources theory to test propositions regarding the joint effects of goalfocused
leadership (GFL) and personality on employee exhaustion. We proposed that the relationship
between GFL and exhaustion depends on employees’ standing on both conscientiousness and emotional
stability. Specifically, we expected that high-conscientiousness subordinates experience greater compatibility
with a goal-focused leader because of their predisposition to direct resources toward achievement
and goal setting, resulting in lower exhaustion under such a leader than among low-conscientiousness
employees. Furthermore, high emotional stability may compensate for GFL incompatibility among lowconscientiousness
employees by providing additional resources to manage GFL. In contrast, employees low
on both traits likely experience greater exhaustion under a goal-focused leader compared with other employees.
Results revealed a 3-way interaction in 2 independent samples and were generally supportive of our
predictions. GFL was associated with heightened exhaustion among individuals in the low-emotional-stability,
low-conscientiousness group but not among workers having any other trait combination.