Upward Ingratiation Outside the Workplace and Supervisor's Human Resource Decisions: Moderating Effect of Zhongyong Thinking.

Hui Sun,Ling Sun,Kai Wang,Haibing Guo,Lu Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636756

Hui Sun, Ling Sun + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636756

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Abstract

Ingratiation is a common strategy for subordinates to deal with their supervisors in eastern and western societies. Based on the theory of impression management, this study focuses on the impact of upward ingratiation outside the workplace on supervisor’s human resource (HR) decisions in the Chinese context and the mechanism behind this impact. The data were collected from 252 supervisor-subordinate dyads in four manufacturing firms. The results demonstrate the following: first, supervisors hold a more favorable view of upward ingratiation outside the workplace; second, upward ingratiation outside the workplace has a positive effect on the supervisor’s chance of promotion and bonus allocation decisions, and leader-member exchange (LMX) plays a mediation role in this influence; third, Zhongyong thinking (ZYT) moderates the relationship between LMX and supervisor’s chance of promotion and bonus allocation decisions; and finally, ZYT moderates the indirect effect of ingratiation behavior outside the workplace on supervisor’s chance of promotion and bonus allocation decisions through LMX, and the mediated relationship is weakened when a supervisor has a higher level of ZYT. This is one of the first empirical studies, which examines the validity of subordinate’s upward ingratiation outside the workplace from the perspective of supervisor’s ZYT. This study plays an important role in highlighting the effect of ZYT on the ingratiation behavior.

Highlights

In the past few decades, one of the most important changes in the field of human resource (HR) management (HRM) has been the increasing responsibility of supervisors in making HR decisions (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007; Brewster et al, 2015)
The seven-factor model fits well [χ2(795) = 1,416.62, p ≤ 0.01, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.91, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.90, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.04, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.05], and it is better than the alternative models
Based on the theory of impression management, we examined the mechanisms through which upward ingratiation outside the workplace is related to the supervisors’ HR decisions, and the roles of leader-member exchange (LMX) and Zhongyong thinking (ZYT) in this influence

Summary

Introduction

In the past few decades, one of the most important changes in the field of human resource (HR) management (HRM) has been the increasing responsibility of supervisors in making HR decisions (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007; Brewster et al, 2015). Supervisor’s HR decisions have a substantial impact on the subordinates they manage (Clarke et al, 2019). Subordinates can take some initiative actions to influence the key HR decisions from which they perceive. A large number of literatures have accumulated, showing that subordinates’ particular behaviors (i.e., upward ingratiation behaviors) are associated with supervisor’s HR decisions (Terpstra-Tong and Ralston, 2002; Lee et al, 2017). Researchers found that the upward ingratiation leads to the higher compensation (Judge and Bretz, 1994), career advancement (Sibunruang et al, 2016), better job performance and promotion (Wu et al, 2013), and enhanced trust from their managers (Su, 2010). Some studies have investigated that the ingratiating behavior has no significant influence on salary (Aryee et al, 1996), performance, and promotion (Rao et al, 1995)

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