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How Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi Influence Employee Innovative Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model.
Yu Gao1, Haiyan Liu1
1School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Psychology Research and Behavior Management
|December 22, 2021
Summary
Supervisor-subordinate guanxi positively impacts employee innovative behavior (IB) through job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Psychological safety moderates this relationship, highlighting the importance of leader-employee dynamics for fostering innovation.
Area of Science:
- Organizational Behavior
- Human Resource Management
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Employee innovative behavior (IB) is crucial for organizational success.
- Traditional focus on policies and incentives often overlooks leader-employee relationships.
- Social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory provide frameworks for understanding these dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- Examine the mediating roles of job satisfaction (JS) and organizational commitment (OC) in the relationship between supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) and employee IB.
- Investigate the moderating role of psychological safety (PS) in the serial mediation model of SSG, JS, OC, and IB.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study with 207 employees from Chinese scientific and technological enterprises.
- Data collected using validated scales for SSG, JS, OC, IB, and PS.
- Hypotheses tested using SPSS PROCESS macro for mediation and moderation analysis.
Main Results:
- Supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) showed a significant positive association with employee innovative behavior (IB).
- SSG influenced IB indirectly through job satisfaction (JS) and organizational commitment (OC) individually and sequentially (SSG→JS→OC→IB).
- Psychological safety (PS) moderated the joint mediating effects of SSG on IB.
Conclusions:
- Strengthening supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG), improving job satisfaction (JS), and enhancing organizational commitment (OC) are key to stimulating employee innovative behavior (IB).
- Lower psychological safety (PS) amplifies the joint mediation effects of SSG on IB.
- Leaders should manage SSG carefully, considering psychological safety levels to avoid unintended negative consequences.
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