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The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the mechanism which can explain and predict subordinates’ deferential behaviour in China.

Data were collected using mail surveys. The study used two sources of data (supervisor and subordinate) obtained via two separate sets of surveys. In total, 600 questionnaires were distributed to subordinate–supervisor dyads employed in a variety of organizations, and 441 dyad-level questionnaires were collected.

The paper revealed that supervisors’ political mentoring (PM) moderated the strength of the mediated relationships between a supervisor’s trust in the subordinate and the subordinate’s deference to supervisor via supervisor–subordinate guanxi. Furthermore, the direct interaction effect of a supervisor’s trust and PM influenced the subordinate’s deference to supervisor only when the level of PM was low.

This study clarifies the mechanism by which supervisor’s specific behaviours affect subordinate’s deference to supervisor, and explores how supervisor–subordinate dyad creates a reciprocal relationship. The research indicates the unique effect of supervisor’s PM in Chinese organizations, and reinforces the importance of considering supervisor’s trust in the subordinate.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between employees’ deference to leaders’ authority and their upward ingratiatory behavior, which may be invigorated by two personal resources (dispositional greed and social cynicism) and two organizational resources (informational justice and forgiveness climate).

In this study survey data were collected among employees who work in the banking sector.

Strict adherence to leaders’ authority stimulates upward ingratiatory behavior, especially when employees (1) have a natural tendency to want more, (2) are cynical about people in power, (3) believe they have access to pertinent organizational information and (4) perceive their organization as forgiving of mistakes.

For human resource (HR) managers, this study points to the risk that employees’ willingness to comply blindly with the wishes of organizational leaders can escalate into excessive, inefficient levels of flattery. Several personal and organizational conditions make this risk particularly likely to materialize.

This study extends prior human resource management (HRM) research by revealing the conditional effects of an unexplored determinant of upward ingratiatory behavior, namely, an individual desire to obey organizational authorities unconditionally.

The purpose of this study is to examine how employees’ deference to leader authority may induce their unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) and whether this translation is more likely to materialize in the presence of two personal factors (dispositional greed and proactive personality) and two organizational factors (workplace status and job rotation).

The empirical assessment of the research hypotheses relies on quantitative survey data collected among 350 Canadian-based employees who work in the healthcare sector. The statistical analyses include hierarchical moderated regression.

The role of deference to leader authority in stimulating UPB is greater when employees (1) have a natural disposition to always want more, (2) enjoy initiative taking, (3) believe that they have a great deal of prestige in the organization and (4) operate in an organizational environment in which job rotation across different departments is encouraged.

The results inform managers about the risk that employees’ willingness to obey organizational authorities unconditionally might escalate into negative behaviors that can cause harm to both the organization and employees in the long run, as well as the personal and organizational circumstances in which this escalation is more likely to occur.

This study extends extant research by investigating the conditional effects of an unexplored determinant of UPB, namely, a personal desire to defer to organizational leaders.

Drawing on the dual-strategies theory of social rank and leader distance theory, this paper aims to investigate the influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) on employee knowledge-related behaviors by considering the mediating role of perceived leader prestige or dominance and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG).

This study collected survey data from 185 research and development employees in East China at three-time points. The authors conducted path analysis and bootstrapping-based analytic approach to test the hypotheses by Mplus7.0.

The results showed that supervisor BLM has a negative effect on employee knowledge sharing and a positive effect on knowledge hiding. Besides, perceived leader prestige or dominance mediated the relationship between supervisor BLM and employee knowledge hiding. Furthermore, SSG moderated the relationship between supervisor BLM and perceived leader prestige or dominance, as well as the indirect effects of supervisor BLM on knowledge hiding via perceived leader prestige or dominance.

There is limited research on investigating the influence of supervisor BLM in the field of knowledge management. The authors carried out this study to provide evidence of how and when supervisor BLM affects employee knowledge sharing and hiding.

This paper comparatively assesses the connections between individual demographic traits, occupational characteristics, and organizational factors and officers' attitudes toward important groups in China and Taiwan.

Survey data used in this study were collected from 722 police officers from mainland China and 531 officers from Taiwan. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted to assess the correlates of police attitudes toward peers, supervisors, and citizens.

The Chinese and Taiwanese officers do not differ in their trust in peers, but the Chinese officers hold significantly more positive views on the trustworthiness of supervisors and citizens compared to the Taiwanese officers. Supervisor justice and organizational identification are significant predictors of officers' attitudes toward all three groups in both countries.

A major limitation revolves around the inability to test and explain exactly why findings from the two groups vary in their ways. Future research should include specific social, political, and cultural predictors.

This study represents one of the few studies that compare police attitudes toward important groups of peers, supervisors, and citizens across nations/cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating and moderating roles of perceived supervisor legitimacy in the association between perceived supervisor motivating styles and subordinate functioning. Specifically, based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), two supervisory motivating styles were examined: the autonomy-supportive style, characterized by nurturing employees’ inner motivational resources, and the controlling style, in which supervisors pressure their employees to behave in specific manager-directed ways. Legitimacy was defined according to the Relational Model of Authority (RMA).

An online survey was administered to a sample of 252 employees. Moderation and mediation analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.

The autonomy-supportive motivating style, but not the controlling style, was linked to employee work-related outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, commitment, engagement, burnout, and depression) through perceived legitimacy. Legitimacy buffered the negative impact of the controlled orientation on burnout and depression.

Taken together, the results suggest that legitimacy as a resource may be enhanced by autonomy support and can also minimize the harmful consequences of controlling supervisory behaviors. The theoretical implications of integrating SDT with RMA and the practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in the context of Chinese organizations, especially the mediating role of psychological expectations and the moderating role of political skill.

The study sample comprised matched surveys from 252 supervisor-subordinate dyad in the People’s Republic of China. The subordinate managers completed measures of SSG, performance enhancement expectations, impression management expectations and political skill. The supervisors were asked to rate managers’ feedback-seeking behavior.

Result show that SSG was positively related to managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Performance enhancement expectations and impression management expectations partially mediated supervisor-subordinate guanxi’s influence on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Political skill positively moderated the relationships between SSG and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in such a way that the relationships were stronger for managers higher in political skill than lower.

The paper not only helps for deeper understanding of managers’ feedback-seeking behavior but also provides a new perspective for exploring effective governance of Chinese local managers.

This study provides preliminary evidence of the mediation effect of psychological expectations and the moderating effect of political skill in the relationship between SSG and managers’ feedback-seeking behavior. Additionally, the findings highlight the necessity of study on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior in the context of China to help advance the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the effect of SSG on managers’ feedback-seeking behavior.

The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi (SSG) and employee affective commitment. Integrating social exchange theory (SET) with conservation of resource (COR) theory, this paper explores the mixed effect of SSG on affective commitment as well as the moderating roles of an individual difference (subordinate work ethic) and a contextual variable (procedural fairness).

This research adopted a survey involving 249 subordinates to test the hypothesized model.

The results showed that the relationship between SSG and affective commitment was inverted U-shaped, and this relationship was moderated by work ethic and procedural fairness, respectively.

Despite those contributions listed above, there are still some limitations that future research should seek to address. First, the data of this research are cross-sectional, which might cause common method bias to responses. However, all the hypotheses are higher-order forms of the main effects (curvilinear and moderating effects), which are not affected by the cross-sectional nature of the study (Podskoff et al., 2003). Moreover, given these variables in the model are related to subordinates' internal psychological states or perceptions, data for the study should be collected from subordinates. Relatedly, the cross-sectional nature of the dataset may raise a question about the directionality of the relationships. However, the research model is based on strong theories (i.e. SET and COR theory). In addition, prior research has indicated that Guanxi has an influence on commitment, not vice versa (Cheung et al., 2009; Chen and O'Leary, 2018). However, given that only experimental design can conclusively prove the directionality of the relationship, the authors encourage to replicate the current study using such a design. In addition, the authors encourage future studies to collect longitudinal data and replicate the current study. Second, this study only tested how work ethic and procedural fairness moderated the relationship between SSG and affective commitment. The authors encourage future research to explore the moderating effect of other moderators, such as the integrity of supervisors. In particular, when the supervisor has a high level of integrity, the negative influence of higher SSG may be weakened. Third, this study did not explore the mechanism linking SSG with affective commitment. Future studies should explore the potential mechanisms. For example, subordinates' emotional exhaustion might be the potential mechanism between SSG and affective commitment.

The results imply that supervisors should treat SSG as a double-edged sword and maximize the positive influence of SSG. In addition, organizations should hire individuals with high work ethic or provide related training. At last, organizations should realize the importance of procedural fairness and set a sector that oversees making and executing well-designed roles.

Previous studies on SSG mainly focused on its positive effect on affective commitment, neglecting to explore its negative effect. This paper helped to illustrate the relationship between SSG and affective commitment comprehensively by indicating the relationship between SSG and affective commitment was inverted U-shaped and moderated by work ethic and procedural fairness, respectively.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the negative consequences of employee perceptions of supervisor self-interested behavior (SIB). Using social exchange theory, the authors argue that perceived supervisor SIB reduces affective commitment to the supervisor (ACS), which in turn fosters employees’ negative reciprocal behavior in the form of counterproductive work behavior – interpersonal (CWBI) and counterproductive work behavior – organizational (CWBO). In addition, the authors identify employee power distance orientation (PDO) as an important contingent factor that influences the indirect effects.

Using a final sample of 441 employees from 146 workgroups across 6 firms in China, the hypotheses are tested using multilevel path analysis to account for the nesting effects.

Perceived supervisor SIB is negatively related to ACS, which in turn is related to employee CWBI and CWBO. Furthermore, employee PDO moderates the indirect effects of perceived supervisor SIB on employee CWBI and CWBO through decreased ACS. Specifically, when employee PDO is low, the indirect effects on employee CWBI and CWBO are stronger.

This is one of the first studies to investigate the influence of employee perceptions of supervisor SIB on negative employee behavior in the workplace. Furthermore, it furthers our understanding of how negative exchange can stimulate negative reciprocal behavior, which is a relatively underexplored area. Another strength of this paper is the multi-time survey design and the adoption of multilevel path analysis.

Moral leadership, as an important element of paternalistic leadership, can be traced back to the cultural tradition of Confucianism. High morality has been expected to be demonstrated by leaders since ancient times in China. In modern Chinese organizations, moral leadership still plays an important role. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying mechanisms of moral leadership functions by examining the mediating and interaction effects.

Data of 370 dyads were collected in mainland China. SPSS 17.0 and Amos 6.0 were used to test the mediating and interaction effects.

Trust‐in‐supervisor and two dimensions of psychological empowerment, including meaning and self‐determination, were found to mediate the relationship between moral leadership and work performance. The results supported the interaction effect of moral and benevolent leadership and rejected the interaction effect of moral and authoritarian leadership on trust‐in‐supervisor.

By probing the mediating and interaction effects, the paper advances our knowledge of the psychological mechanisms of moral leadership effectiveness in the Chinese context. A discussion of the implications for both researchers and practitioners is provided.