How Referrers’ Power Affect Employees’ Reactions To Referral Practices

Abstract

In this paper we document the role of referrer’s power in employees’ reactions to referral practices. Evoking power dependence theory (Emerson, 1962) and integrating the ethics literature with the referral literature, we delineate a model that connects referrer’s power with perceived self- interested motives of the hiring manager accepting the referral. Specifically we predict that employees are more likely to see an acceptance of a referral coming from a high (as opposed to low) power referrer as a way for the hiring manager to gain more power in the referrer-hiring manager relationship, thereby attributing more self-interested motives to the hiring manager in such situations. Perceived self-interested motives of the hiring manager are then associated with harsher moral judgment of the hiring manager, which in turn lead to less support for the hiring decision. We find support for our model across two experimental studies and one field study. We discuss implications for literature on referral practices, e...