Background <p>The study of the dark side of leadership is gaining growing interest, with negative leadership exerting a stronger influence on employees than positive leadership. Considering the importance of employees’ proactive behaviors for organizational innovation and long-term growth, investigating whether exploitative leadership—a representative form of negative leadership—impacts such behaviors is a meaningful research question.</p> Purpose <p>This study aims to explore the impact of exploitative leadership on subordinates’ taking charge behavior, as well as the mediating role of subordinates’ organizational identification and the moderating role of traditionality.</p> Methods <p>We conducted a two-phase survey using convenience sampling across various industries in China, collecting cross-sectional data from 348 employees. A structural equation model with latent variables was used to test all hypotheses.</p> Results <p>This study found that exploitative leadership negatively affects taking charge behavior, and organizational identification mediates the relationship between exploitative leadership and taking charge behavior. Furthermore, traditionality weakens the negative impact of exploitative leadership on organizational identification, as well as the indirect relationship between exploitative leadership and taking charge behavior through organizational identification. In other words, subordinates with high traditionality are more likely to adhere to authority, mitigating the adverse effects of exploitative leadership.</p> Conclusions and value <p>This study applies social identity theory to explore the negative impact of exploitative leadership on taking charge behavior, revealing the internal mechanisms and boundary conditions of this relationship, thus filling a gap in the literature on exploitative leadership. We also provide practical recommendations for organizations to mitigate the harmful effects of exploitative leadership and enhance the governance of leaders’ exploitative behaviors.</p>