Front. Bus. Res. China 2010, 4(1): 148–169
DOI 10.1007/s11782-010-0007-1
Lin Wang ( )
Lingnan College, Sun Yat-n University, Guangzhou 510275, China E-mail:********************
Xiaoping Chu
Lingnan College, Sun Yat-n University, Guangzhou 510275, China E-mail:****************.edu
穿字开头的成语
Jing Ni
Lingnan College, Sun Yat-n University, Guangzhou 510275, China E-mail:****************
Leader-member Exchange and Organizational Citizenship Behavior 149 1 Introduction
Leader-member exchange (LMX) has become the focus of leadership rearch over the past 30 years, since firstly propod by Grean, Danreau and Minami (1972). Before the establishment of the LMX theory, it had been agreed that superiors treat each of their subordinates equally (Northhou, 2000). However, the LMX theory argues that supervisors develop differentiated relationships with their subordinates (Grean and Cashman, 1975; Grean, 1976). Although much rearch on the relationship between LMX and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been
done, study that examines the mechanisms underpinning the relationship is still lacking. Accordingly, the mechanism behind the relationship still remains unclear. In addition, as many rearchers have pointed out, owing to the cultural difference between China and western countries, the leadership and management mode in Chine firms is also different from that of in western firms (Hofstede, 1980; Redding, 1990; Cheng, 1995; Westwood, 1997). Considering the lack of relevant study in the Chine context, this article aims to explore how and why Chine LMX affects the OCB of subordinates.
In the domain of organizational rearch, most of the studies on the relationship between LMX and OCB are bad on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), which argue that leaders shall give more trust and support to their subordinates to ensure high quality LMX (Liden, Sparrowe and Wayne, 1997). In an attempt to fulfill the reciprocity obligations, subordinates will demonstrate more OCB (Gerstner and Day, 1997). Rearchers both at home and abroad have shown that the cognition and mood of subordinates are important mediator of leader behaviors (e.g., Chen, Jia, Li, Song and Zhang, 2006; Chen and Aryee, 2007). Neglecting the important mediators has made the effect mechanism of Chine leader behavior remain unclear (Chou, Cheng, Farh, Jen and Huang, 2006). Therefore, starting with the cognition and mood of the subordinates can provide a good appro
ach to the question “how to lead efficiently” (Wu and Cheng, 2003). As a result, in order to better understand the internal effect mechanism of LMX in the Chine text, the current study regards the effect of LMX on OCB as a process of lf-categorization (Turner et al., 1987), namely, high-quality LMX will promote members’ OCB through enhancing their lf-concepts. Perceived insider status refers to “the extent to which an individual employee perceives himlf or herlf as an insider within a particular organization” (Stamper and Masterson, 2002), which nicely reflects the cognitive dimension of lf-concept (Chen and Aryee, 2007). Thus, the current study takes the employees’ perceived insider status as a mediating variable.
实用除湿机Lin Wang, Xiaoping Chu, Jing Ni 150上斜俯卧撑
In addition, the cultural value orientation of employees shall not be neglected when analyzing the effect mechanism of LMX in the Chine context. That is becau people with different cultural values usually hold different viewpoints towards the same thing (Huntington, 1997). As obrved by many rearchers, along with the progress of the Chine society, people’s submission to authority has already been weakened to a certain extent (Cheng et al., 2003). Accordingly, employee’s attitude towards deference to authority may be an important moderating variable in the relationship between employee’s efficiency and organizational behavior (Farh, Hackett and Liang, 2007). In the
meantime, relevant rearch has already revealed that the effect of LMX may be different owing to different situational factors, especially different authority value orientation of individuals (Hui, Lee and Rousau, 2004). Therefore, though not be confirmed by empirical study, it is reasonable to deduce that employees’ authority value orientation will moderate the relationship between LMX and perceived insider status. Chine traditionality refers to an individual’s endorment of hierarchical role relationships as defined by the five cardinal relationships (called wu-lun) in Confucianism (i.e., emperor-subject, father-son, husband-wife, older brother-younger brother, and friend-friend), reflecting the cultural dimension of employees’ submission to authority (Farh, Earle and Lin, 1997). Thus, this paper takes the employees’ Chine traditionality as the moderating variable.
Drawing on the sample of supervisor-subordinate dyads from indigenous family business in China, the current study aims to probe into the mediating role of perceived insider status and the moderating role of Chine traditionality in the relationship of LMX and OCB. Against the backdrop of China’s transitional culture and economy, such an attempt from a brand-new perspective (i.e., the perspective of lf-categorization), we believe, will be of great theoretical and practical importance to Chine family business.
1.1 LMX and OCB
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From the beginning of the 1980s, the very proposal of the concept OCB has drawn wide attention. OCB is important in that it can help the organization operate efficiently and further win its competitive advantage (Farh et al., 1997). Per Organ (1988), OCB refers to “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system, and that in the aggregate promotes the effective functioning of the organization”. However, whether the OCB theory developed in the western context applicable to Chine firms? Farh, Zhong and Organ (2004) conducted rearch on this problem in the Chine context and found a 10-dimension structure of OCB, consisting of five
时间的声音>蓝牙鼠标怎么充电Leader-member Exchange and Organizational Citizenship Behavior 151 dimensions similar to that of the western context (i.e., taking initiative, helping coworkers, voice, group activity participation, promoting company image) and five dimensions different from that of the western context (i.e., lf-training, social welfare participation, protecting and saving company resources, keeping workplace clean and interpersonal harmony). Following their line, this article will measure OCB bad on the ten dimensions.
Originated in the Vertical Dyad Linkage (VDL) (Grean and Cashman, 1975; Grean, 1976), the core of LMX is to refute the opinion of “leader treats all the employees with a relatively consistent style” (a
verage leadership style, ALS); thereby LMX transfers the rearch center from simplex leaders to mutual relationship between leaders and members. According to the LMX theory, leaders develop differentiated relationships with subordinates ranging from low to high quality and adopt different management modes depending on the quality of exchange relationships. According to the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), in high-quality LMX relationship, more trust exists between leaders and followers, and leaders appeal to the higher-order social needs of followers by getting them to place collective interests over short-term personal gratification (Graen and Uhl-Bien, 1995). In the meantime, in order to feedback the trust and support from the leader, employees will make more effort that beyond explicit role requirements to fulfill the reciprocity obligations. Becau OCB reprents a reciprocal exchange that is not only unspecified and weakly time-bound, but also promotes the group welfare of enterpri. Therefore, it becomes the first choice for the members in high-quality LMX to be a “good citizen”. Much empirical rearch has indicated that LMX has a positive correlation with OCB, regardless of different organizations and cultures. For example, Liden and Graen (1980) proved that members in high-quality LMX relationship will receive more support, job discretionary and trust from the leader, and will exhibit higher OCB. Similarly, Hui, Law and Hackett (2004) also suggested that the LMX is significantly positively related to OCB. However, extant rearch has paid little attention to the special features of Chine family business. As has be
en pointed out, employees in Chine family business are more likely to be en as loyal to their supervisor rather than to the organization (Cheng, 1995). We therefore deduce that LMX shall have a significant positive prediction for OCB in Chine family business. Accordingly, we hypothesize:
H1LMX is positively related to OCB.
1.2 LMX and Perceived Insider Status
黑豆酒In the field of organizational management, with the growing interest in the concept of organizational identity (Hsu and Cheng, 2003; Ravasi and Rekom,
Lin Wang, Xiaoping Chu, Jing Ni 152
2003), perceived insider status of the employees has drawn more attention from rearchers and practitioners alike (Masterson and Stamper, 2003). Perceived insider status refers to “the extent to which an individual employee perceives him or herlf as an insider within a particular organization” (Stamper and Masterson, 2002). Masterson and Stamper (2003) pointed out that although three are many dimensions referring to employee cognition of employee-organization relationship, perceived insider status focus on employees’ belonging with the organization. In subquent rearch, some
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rearchers also emphasize that perceived insider status is an important dimension of employees’ lf-concept (Chen et al., 2007). Meanwhile, leaders in Chine family business tend to divide the employees into in-group member or out-group member (Yang, 1995), then further group the employees with characteristics of in-group member as insiders, or otherwi outsiders (Cheng, 1995). Thus, employees’ perceived insider status in Chine family business is more likely to indicate their perception of himlf or herlf as an insider.
Previous rearch has indicated that LMX can enhance employees’ perceived insider status (Chen et al., 2007). According to the LMX theory, leader will establish different relationships with employees and the quality of the relationships reflects employees’ different identities as in-group members or out-group members (Graen and Uhl-Blen., 1995). Accordingly, leader will provide different inducement for different types of employees, such as more training, promotion, trust and delegation for the in-group members. In this way, the quality of the relationship between employees and leaders affect the perceived insider status of employees significantly (Stamper and Masterson, 2002). For this aspect, Chen and Aryee (2007) confirmed that high-quality LMX can strengthen the perceived insider status of employees. They also proved that delegation which is the key characteristic of high-quality LMX has a significantly positive correlation with perceived insider status of the employees.
In all, in high-quality LMX, employee will gain more inducements such as trust, support and delegation becau of their identity of insiders, which also offer them the signals that they have obtained “personal space” in the organization and been accepted by the organization. However, Hofstede’s cross-culture rearch claimed that there is higher power distance in China than in western nations (Hofstede, 1980). Owing to such cultural difference, political difference, economic difference and the difference of legal norms, it will still need further verification whether LMX rooted in the western culture can affect perceived insider status of employees in Chine family business. Accordingly, we hypothesize:
H2LMX is positively related to perceived insider status.
