Unspoken yet Understood: An Introduction and Initial Framework of Subordinates’MoqiWith Supervisors

Abstract

Across two studies and five samples, we introduce the Chinese construct of moqi (a tacit understanding of another person’s expectations and intentions) as a key, but heretofore overlooked, aspect of supervisor–subordinate relationships. In Study 1, using qualitative and quantitative methods, we develop a subordinate-focused moqi scale and establish its discriminant and criterion-related validity. In Study 2, using three-wave data from three sources (subordinates, coworkers, and supervisors), we test an integrative, information-based model explicating (1) subordinates’ actions that are useful in acquiring the necessary information to develop moqi with their supervisor; (2) boundary conditions affecting subordinates’ sensitivity to information and, hence, their development of moqi with the supervisor; and (3) the informational process underlying subordinate moqi’s positive relationship with work effectiveness. Findings suggest that subordinates’ implicit and explicit feedback seeking positively predicted their subsequent perceptions of moqi with a supervisor and, moreover, that the relationship between implicit feedback seeking and subordinate moqi is enhanced by higher subordinate power distance orientation and face consciousness. Results also indicate that subordinate moqi influences task performance and reward recommendations for subordinates via the mediation of increased goal clarity, and the indirect effects is more pronounced for subordinates with higher power distance orientation. We offer an important discussion of moqi’s cultural nuances and make several suggestions for a robust future research agenda.