Dancing with the Star: a study on the influence of star employees on colleagues’ craftsmanship spirit

Achieving high-quality development holds significant importance in the contemporary era, making it imperative to nurture and promote the craftsman spirit to its fullest extent. Enterprises are increasingly focusing on enhancing their human capital to establish core competitiveness. In this pursuit, they recognize the pivotal role of exemplary employees, often referred to as “star employees”, and envision creating a career platform resembling a metaphorical “dance with the stars” within the organizational context. Cognitive appraisal theory of emotion suggests how the contribution and task visibility of star employee as external stimulus positively influence colleagues’ emotions, attitudes and behaviors. Through an analysis of 263 leader-employee paired samples, the current study empirically confirms that the exceptional contribution and task visibility of star employees significantly impact the craftsman spirit and professional pride of their colleagues. Furthermore, this study also proves that perceived external prestige and perceived internal respect not only positively strengthened the influence of contribution and task visibility of star employees on professional pride of colleagues, but also positively moderated the mediating role of colleagues’ professional pride between contribution and task visibility of star employees and craftsman spirit of colleagues. Through these findings, the study unveils the specific psychological mechanisms and motivational conditions underlying how star employees’ contribution and task visibility influence their colleagues’ craftsman spirit, providing valuable insights for enterprises seeking to further stimulate the craftsman spirit of employees.