Social Exchange Relationships Research Articles

Building Work Engagement in Organizations: A Longitudinal Study Combining Social Exchange and Social Identity Theories

Starting from the insights of social identity theory and social exchange theory, the present study aimed to understand how social support and organizational identification relate to work engagement. Moreover, it sought to verify if social support and organizational identification interact with each other to explain work engagement three months later. A longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of 150 employees, in which organizational identification, social support, and work engagement were measured through a questionnaire. The results show that when employees can count on their supervisors' and colleagues' support, they will be more engaged in their work. In addition, when an employee strongly identifies with their organization, the employee's evaluation of the social support received from colleagues and supervisors becomes less critical in determining their work engagement. These results confirm our hypotheses and extend the findings of previous research on withdrawal behaviors. From a practical point of view, it seems important for organizations to invest in increasing identification, as well as in building a high-quality social exchange relationship, especially when levels of organizational identification are low or decreasing.

Social Exchange Relationships with Peer Leaders and Ethical Leadership: A Study among Male Military Team Leaders

AbstractThe present research explores the role of lateral exchange relationships among peer leaders (i.e., leader–leader exchange relationships; PLLX) as drivers of ethical leadership. Across two studies involving male subordinates and leaders pertaining to 150 teams (Study 1) and 158 leader–follower dyads (Study 2) in the Republic of Korea Army, PLLX was found to mediate a positive relation between peer leaders' ethical leadership and focal team leaders' ethical leadership, while controlling for upper leaders' ethical behaviours. Moreover, this relation was moderated by focal leaders' organizational tenure but in opposite directions in the two studies: the relation between peer leaders' ethical leadership and focal leaders' ethical leadership through PLLX was stronger in Study 1 (vs. weaker in Study 2) when tenure was high.

What you say matters: Moving beyond gossiping extent to explore the positive effects of gossip truthfulness and gossip interestingness

AbstractWhereas substantial research portrays gossip as a detrimental behavior, other work observes that gossip performs essential social functions, such as distributing valuable information. Collectively, the literature indicates that gossip has the potential to harm and benefit the relationship between the gossip sender and receiver. Our study brings consensus to this conversation by drawing a distinction between how much gossiping occurs—gossiping extent—and characteristics of that gossip—gossip truthfulness and gossip interestingness. Drawing on social exchange theory and cognitive‐motivational‐relational theory, we build a within‐person theoretical model that proposes gossip truthfulness will strengthen the receiver's perception of the social exchange relationship, whereas gossip interestingness will increase the receiver's state happiness. Ultimately, these proximal reactions will increase the receiver's helping behavior toward the sender. We tested our model with a 15‐day experience sampling study (Study 1) and an experiment (Study 2). Results showed that gossip truthfulness had a positive effect on the receiver's perception of the social exchange relationship, leading the receiver to provide more helping behavior to the sender. Gossip interestingness had a positive effect on the receiver's state happiness, leading to increased helping behavior toward the sender. Gossip interestingness also had a serial indirect effect on helping behavior, via increased state happiness that increased receiver social exchange perceptions. In contrast, gossiping extent had a negative indirect effect on helping behavior via decreased receiver happiness, as well as a negative serial indirect effect via decreased receiver happiness and social exchange perceptions. Our model provides employees with insights into how gossip impacts the sender–receiver relationship.

Span of Control and Ethical Leadership in Highly Professionalized Public Organizations

Span of control may be a critical structural condition for ethical leadership. According to social learning theory, emulation and vicarious learning processes are mechanisms through which ethical leaders enhance ethical commitment among employees. However, if the span of control (number of employees per manager) is too wide, ethical leadership can be difficult to practice due to a more distant relationship between manager and employees. Using a mixed method design with survey data and interviews, we analyze the relationship between span of control and ethical leadership among doctors in Danish hospitals. Survey results from the study show no statistical association between span of control and clinical directors’ self-reported ethical leadership. Interviews with employees and managers support this finding by showing how ethical guidance unfolds through social exchange relationships where employees can act as moral professionals. This suggests that span of control is not a critical structural condition for intending and perceiving a high level of ethical leadership. Span of control is indirectly relevant through the perceived distance between manager and employees. The findings thus enhance our understanding of how ethical leadership takes place in complex, professionalized public organizations. This might inspire managers to lower the organizational power distance and promote professionalism.

Knowledge Transfer in Doctoral Education During the Pandemic Time: An Exploratory Study of the PhD Students’ Experiences

The research aims to explore how PhD students interacted with professors and peers and transferred knowledge during pandemic time. We firstly aim to provide an overview of communication media used by students, as well as to classify them for different kinds, social presence, and media richness. Furthermore, our research also aims to explore how doctoral students took their courses by interacting with professors and with peers, in terms of learning (KT) and social exchange relations (LMX, TMX, POS), through online learning platforms and communication media. We conducted exploratory research on 25 PhD students from 5 Italian PhD Programs in ‘economic and statistical sciences’ area. Data was collected through (a) the focus group interview with PhD students for collecting their opinions and experiences on the usage of media for communicating with professors and peers and (b) an online questionnaire aimed to measure their experiences or perceptions on technology usage and social relations. Results shown that PhD students used e-learning platform for communicating with peers and professors, so developing good social relations -even at a distance- which have encouraged knowledge transfer among them.

Theorising the impact of macroturbulence on work and HRM: COVID‐19 and the abrupt shift to enforced homeworking

This paper is among the first to fuse Social Exchange Theory (SET) with Boundary Theory (BT) to expand the knowledge of HR scholars and practitioners on the repercussions of macroturbulence for the management and experience of work. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 102 academics from UK universities to examine the nexus between COVID‐19 and changes to work at meso and micro levels. The findings extend SET and BT by elucidating how complex internal and external social exchange relationships interact more intensely and provoke tensions with a wider array of work‐life boundaries during a profound global crisis. Based on these findings, we advance a new analytical framework which provides a deeper and more integrated theorisation of the interrelationship between macroturbulence and changing work‐life boundaries. Moreover, we identify implications for practice, which have widespread and ongoing significance given that different types of macro‐level change will continue to disrupt working lives.

A Dual-Specificity Model of Leader-Associated Relational Identification

In the leader-follower role context, a follower’s leader-associated relational identification exists at two levels of specificity. One is the particularized level often represented by leader identification. The other is the generalized level reflecting one’s identification with the self-authority role-relationships in general. Past research almost exclusively focused on the particularized level, with little research facilitating an understanding of this broader concept that includes both levels. Using a dual-specificity leader-associated relational identification model, operationalized as the interplay of leader identification and the individual value of traditionality, we examine how different types of leader-associated relational identifications predict supervisory social and economic exchange relationships, which in turn affect organizational citizenship behavior benefiting the supervisor (OCBS). Data were collected at three time points from 664 working adults across the United States. Polynomial regression and response surface analyses showed that followers of four different types of relational identification enacted supervisory social and economic exchange in distinct patterns that were consistent with their respective relational identification. Supervisory social and economic exchange mediated the effects of dual-specificity relational identification on OCBS in opposing directions.

The Reciprocity of Shared and Empowering Leadership

Leadership has mostly been considered as an unidirectional process centered on leaders influencing their followers. However, recent theoretical developments indicate that followers may also have an impact on their formal leader. In this pre-registered study, we investigate the interplay between shared leadership and formal team leadership (i.e., empowering leadership). We predict that leaders interpret their team’s shared leadership as an investment to reach for common goals. Accordingly, their team’s effort should improve the social exchange relationship with their team, reflected in higher trust which in turn should increase empowering leadership behavior of the leader. Further, we assume that this indirect relation is first-stage moderated by leader self-efficacy. We tested our assumptions in a longitudinal study with 721 team members and their leaders nested in 169 teams. Results from Bayesian cross-lagged panel modeling support our assumed mediation effect, while also pointing to a reverse effect of empowering leadership on shared leadership. The moderation effect was not supported. This study provides insights about the dynamic and reciprocal interplay between shared and formal leadership. Our findings underline that formal leaders do not perceive shared leadership as a threat, but rather value the team effort reflected in higher trust and decision latitude.

When is Authoritarian Treatment Less Harmful to Employee Trust? From A Social Contextual Leadership

Authoritarian leadership (AL) can harm the social exchange relationship between leaders and followers. However, it matters a lot how followers interpret a leader’s treatment. Drawing on implicit leadership theory and the contextual leadership perspective, we examined three discrete social contexts in which coworkers experienced authoritarianism, manager authoritarian behavior, and a supportive organizational climate, affecting employees’ expectations toward leader authoritarianism to influence their reactions toward AL. Using a dataset of 311 employees in 99 teams in Study 1, results showed that when coworkers experienced high authoritarianism from their supervisor, and when managers demonstrate high authoritarian behavior, an authoritarian supervisor is less detrimental to employees’ affective trust, which is less harmful to their task and organization performance. In Study 2, using a sample of 3,058 employees from 19 companies, we demonstrated how a supportive organizational climate affects employees’ reactions to AL. Using multilevel path modeling, we found that an authoritarian supervisor is more harmful to employees’ affective trust and their organizational performance when there is a high-level supportive climate. Our study contributes to the leadership literature by showing how the discrete work context affects employees’ leadership expectations and reactions to leader treatment.

Exchange Relationships and Helping Behavior: An Empirical Analysis of Data from CGSS2015

PurposeHelping others is a classic virtue and a positive behavior advocated by organizations and society at large in accordance with social norms. Based on social information processing theory, this study examines the mechanisms by which social exchange relationships influence individual helping behavior.Patients and methodsChinese General Social Survey data from 2015 (CGSS 2015) is applied, and regression analysis and bootstrapping methods are adopted.ResultsThe findings indicate that leader-member exchange and team-member exchange are positively and significantly related to employees’ helping behavior. Affective commitment and job satisfaction play mediating roles between both leader-member exchange and team-member exchange and helping behavior.ConclusionLeader-member exchange and team-member exchange have different effects on helping behavior. Compared with team-member exchange, the effect of leader-member exchange on helping behavior is stronger via affective commitment and job satisfaction. These results serve as a starting point for boosting the proactive behaviors of employees, thereby establishing a harmonious organizational climate.

Social Exchange Approach and Happiness at Work: Exploring the Mediating Effect of Organizational Commitment

This article aims to determine the direct and indirect effects of social exchange relationships Leader Member Exchange and Team Member Exchange (LMX and TMX) on organizational commitment and happiness at work. Based on the literature review and relying on the Social Exchange Theory perspective, the authors constructed the hypothetical structure, including the four variables under study. The sample comprised 177 employees from Mexican firms, and the proposed hypotheses were under examination through a path analysis. Results show that LMX, TMX, and happiness at work have a direct effect on organizational commitment. We also found an organizational commitment to be a partial relationship mediator between LMX and happiness at work.

Inspirational Leadership Among Teachers: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study in the School Setting of Nepal

Inspirational Leadership (IL) is pivotal in the spaces of educational leadership to inspire and motivate teachers to achieve organisational goals. Concerning it, this study intends to explore the existence of inspirational leadership among teachers of Bagmati Province. For this purpose, this study employed explanatory sequential mixed method design, a cross-sectional survey in Quan strands and narrative inquiry in Qual strands. The data in the Quan and Qual strands were gathered via survey questionnaires from 502 respondents and in-depth interviews from four participants, respectively. The collected Quan data were carried out to assess the levels of inspirational leadership and their dimensions (Intellectual stimulation, envisioning, managing impression, moulding follower’s expectations) as high levels due to the presence of supportive relationships, appreciative and innovative culture, critical thinking, and emotional attachment among school teachers. However, meaning-making as one of the dimensions of inspirational leadership is recognised as a very high level of supportive relationships, appreciative and innovative culture, critical thinking, and emotional attachment among school teachers. Furthermore, the social exchange relations also inspired teachers to perform their job. So the high level of inspirational leadership assists teachers in achieving high job productivity in their school.

The role of cynicism in follower championing behavior: the moderating effect of empowering leadership

PurposeThis study investigates how, in the context of organizational change initiatives, the adoption of empowering leadership can foster positive social exchange relationships between leaders and subordinates, in turn, neutralizing cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) and allowing follower championing behavior (FCB) to emerge.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed data from 908 faculty members from 11 top-rated public universities in Indonesia. The data used in this research are multisource, so the data processing steps are rwg and ICC tests, data quality testing, and hypothesis testing.FindingsThe authors found that CAOC among these members had a negative effect on their FCB, but this negative effect was buffered by the presence of empowering leadership.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' research captures perceptions at one point in time. Future research could adopt a longitudinal approach to simulate empowering leadership stimuli and investigate the impacts of FCB.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to Indonesian business management, which exhibits a culture of high power distance. The findings suggest that managers should improve managers' interpersonal communication with subordinates and consider managers' feelings toward change in the organization so that managers' subordinates will provide feedback in the form of decreasing cynicism and will exhibit FCB.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the understanding of why CAOC may not be expressed explicitly in Asian countries due to Asian collectivist and high power-distance values that discourage subordinates from voicing their disagreement with change initiatives.

Retention and turnover of staff undertaking degree studies: insights and evidence from South Africa

PurposeSocial exchange theory predicts that perceptions of employee/employer exchange relationships may change as employees add educational qualifications. Literature also suggests that more innovative individuals, who are particularly important to organisations, may be more likely to change jobs. The purpose of this study is to test how the innovativeness of an individual differs in its contribution to retention when subjected to different mediating and moderating influences indicated in the literature, for a cohort of employees that are undertaking degree studies while working.Design/methodology/approachTo test theory that suggests certain implications for employee turnover, the part-time studies unit of a large South African university offering degree studies by evening classes was sampled, yielding 323 useable responses, with a response rate of about 30%. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test a theoretical model predicting certain mediating and moderating influences on the relationship between individual innovativeness and turnover intentions.FindingsIndividuals with higher innovativeness self-report higher turnover intentions, which seem to be reduced by the mediating effects of perceived supervisor support and job satisfaction. Perceptions of distributive justice and core self-evaluations, which may be associated with an individual's evaluation of the social exchange relationship, are found to directly enable retention.Originality/valueA model of moderation and mediation relationships between employee innovativeness and turnover intentions is derived from the literature and tested, offering novel insights into how to retain valuable staff in this context.

Authentic Leadership, Trust, and Social Exchange Relationships under the Influence of Leader Behavior

During the pandemic, government policies such as social distancing and telework have impacted trust and working or social exchange relationships in the workplace. The behavior of leaders is critical for good leadership, employees’ trust, and social exchange relationships. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the associations among authentic leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships under the influence of leader behavior. A regression-based approach was used to test the moderating and mediating effects. The results show that authentic leadership positively impacts trust and social exchange relationships, whereas trust directly affects social exchange relationships. During COVID-19, leader behaviors with ability, ethics, and positive relationships have had a positive impact on the association between authentic leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships. Additionally, trust positively mediates authentic leadership and social exchange relationships. The findings of this paper suggest that authentic leadership promotes trust and high-quality social exchange relationships. Moreover, based on leader behaviors during COVID-19, the ability to manage change effectively, boost employees’ work motivation, provide support, and take appropriate action is essential for authentic leadership to increase trust and foster a positive working relationship based on social exchange. Finally, regarding social exchange theory, high-quality leader behaviors and the leader–follower relationships drive positive associations among variables. These results will help organizational management teams to find methods to improve their organizational working relationships. The implication is that the abilities, ethics, and supportive and positive relationship behaviors of leaders are essential for effective management to improve leadership, trust, and social exchange relationships. Leaders should have the ability to manage work and people, even with teleworkers. Therefore, leader behaviors are important to maintain organizational sustainability. Further discussion on theoretical and practical implications is provided in the section.

Benevolent leadership and organizational citizenship behaviors in a higher education context: a moderated mediation model

PurposeDrawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this paper investigates the moderated mediation model linking benevolent leadership to organizational citizenship behaviors towards the organization (OCBO) and towards individuals (OCBI) in the context of higher education. The mediating roles of leader-member exchange and affective commitment as well as the moderating roles of the two attachment styles—attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance—are also examined.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a sample of 333 university lecturers and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results demonstrate that leader-member exchange and affective commitment are mediating resources that help benevolent leaders motivate university lecturers to engage in two types of OCBs. Moreover, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance act as the respective enhancer and inhibitor for the indirect effects of benevolent leadership on both OCBs through leader-member exchange. In contrast, the relationships between benevolent leadership and two types of OCBs through the mediating role of affective commitment are not contingent on the attachment styles of lecturers.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that university leaders who aim at promoting OCBs among lecturers should deploy benevolent leadership style to facilitate a positive social exchange relationship as well as foster their affective commitment. Such leadership style is especially effective in influencing lecturers who possess attachment anxiety personality traits.Originality/valueThis pioneer research develops and empirically tests a COR theory-grounded moderated mediation model pertaining to benevolent leadership and lecturers' OCBs. The findings contribute to the educational management literature by demonstrating that benevolent leadership, a crucial organizational resource, significantly motivates lecturers' voluntary and extra-role behaviors in a dynamic and contingent manner. Leader-member exchange and affective commitment are important mediating resources in the process of transforming benevolent leadership into beneficial behaviors. Further, the effectiveness of benevolent leadership largely depends on lecturers' personality traits of attachment anxiety and avoidance. These novel mediating and moderating findings demonstrate the sequential and interaction effects of various organizational and individual resources on lecturers' OCBs; thus, adding value to the COR theory's core principles, including resource caravans and resource investment behaviors.

미용 서비스의 e-CRM 속성과 사회적 교환관계, 네트워크 응집성 및 성과 간의 관계 연구

This study attempted to investigate beauty service providers’ e-CRM attributes and unveil their influence on social exchange relationships and performances with network coherence as a mediating factor. For this, an online (mobile) questionnaire survey was performed against those who experienced beauty e-CRM from July 26 to August 10, 2022, and a total of 811 copies were collected through beauty community boards and social media platforms. The collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis (exploratory factor analysis), confirmatory factor analysis and goodness-of-fit, and path analysis was conducted for hypothesis testing. The above results found the followings: First, ‘e-service’, ‘e-communication’, ‘e-marketing’ and ‘e-system’ revealed a statistically significant effect on information interactions. Specifically, ‘e-communication’, ‘e-marketing’ and ‘e-system’ had a significant influence on mutual trust while ‘e-service’, ‘e-communication’ and ‘e-marketing’ showed a significant effect on mutual expectations. Second, ‘information interactions’, ‘mutual trust’ and ‘mutual expectations’ revealed a statistically significant influence on network coherence. Third, network coherence showed a statistically significant effect on intent of continuous use. Therefore, it is anticipated that it would be possible to assess the role of beauty e-CRM in customer relationship performances through analysis of structural relationships among measurement variables.

Employee referrals as counterproductive work behavior? Employees’ motives for poor referrals and the role of the cultural context

Employee referral programs that encourage employees to refer individuals from their social network for positions in their organization are an increasingly important HR practice. Previous research has mostly conceptualized employee referrals as beneficial acts towards the organization and provided evidence on factors that influence the likelihood of making an employee referral, but has largely disregarded the referrals’ quality. Hence, previous findings on employee referrals might only apply to high quality referrals, but not to poor referrals, i.e. when employees knowingly refer candidates who are unmotivated or perform poorly. Building on social exchange theory, we therefore extend previous studies and focus on internal, prosocial, and external motives for employee referrals that can be conceptualized as counterproductive work behavior. We find a disturbingly high number of participants indicating that they would knowingly engage in a poor employee referral. In detail, we demonstrate that while affective organizational commitment is negatively related to the likelihood of making a poor employee referral, strong ties with the referral candidate and the presence of a monetary bonus are positively related. Furthermore, we investigate the cultural context of social exchange relationships; we find that in-group collectivism moderates the relationship between tie strength and the likelihood of poor referrals. Our study offers important implications for HR management theory and practice.

Sociological Implications of Social Exchange in Regional Head Elections in Gorontalo Province

This study aims to dissect the Sociological Implications of Social Exchange Post-Election of Regional Head Candidates in Gorontalo Province. Methods of data collection using interviews, documentation and retrospective. This study produced several findings, including: First; Political elite social exchange relations are strategic situations that are mutually dependent, need each other, and are mutually beneficial as well as an effort to consolidate power to achieve electability/victory in the momentum of regional head elections. Second; The pattern of social exchange is based on a number of ownership potentials in the form of elite, figure and financial resources, which can determine the social forces that are considered by political parties to give party approval/recommendations to pairs of candidates for regional heads. Third, the social exchange strategy between party elites and political elites uses each other to achieve victory in the contestation of regional head elections. This study concludes that the sociological implications of social interactions take place in people's lives before and after the election of regional head candidates. There are divisions in society due to friction generated in the election of regional heads originating from social exchange relations, patterns of social exchange and social exchange strategies both individually and in groups of political elites and party elites.

Psychological contract fulfilment and work behaviour nexus: the interactive effects of employee job autonomy and trust

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the interactive effects of employee job autonomy and trust on the relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and work behaviour in international non-governmental organisations.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 279 employees of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) with over 10 years of working experience in the INGO industry in Ghana. A questionnaire comprising 27 items pertaining to the study constructs was administered. The reliability of the instrument was verified through item analyses. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to establish the instrument’s construct validity. The study hypotheses were tested and competing models were compared using multiple hierarchical regression.FindingsAll scales were found to have acceptable reliability estimates. A confirmatory factor analysis established that the manifest variables met the required model fit thresholds and that the latter were empirically distinct. This established the scales' construct validity. The results of the multiple hierarchical regression procedures indicated that a significant number of the study hypotheses could be accepted as statistically significant. A number of moderators were also significant. Specifically, psychological contract fulfilment (PCF) was found to have a positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The results also showed a positive relationship between job autonomy and in-role employee performance (IRP) and OCB. There was a positive relationship between both the IRP and OCB. Interestingly, employee job autonomy moderated the positive relationship between PCF and OCB.Originality/valueThis research is among the first of its kind to examine the variables of PCF, work behaviour, employee job autonomy and trust towards the organisation among INGO employees in Ghana. Additionally, the study provides a novel lens to understand the underlying interaction mechanisms through which employee job autonomy moderates the positive relationship between PCF and in-role employee performance. To the best of our knowledge, this study will be the first to combine PCF, trust, employee job autonomy, in-role employee performance and organisational citizenship behaviour in one study. This study confirms and extends the work of Turnley et al. (2003) by including trust and employee job autonomy as key constructs in a social exchange relationship, drawing from the social exchange theory.