The double - edged sword effect of supervisor - subordinate relationship practices on job performance: A multilevel analysis
Abstract: Supervisor - subordinate relationship practice is a concept unique to organizations in the Chinese context. An informal, personal relationship characterized by emotional attachment and obligation and termed relationship generates inequality in a supervisor’s resource distribution decisions. Such unfair managerial practices that are built on supervisor - subordinate relation- ship are defined as supervisor - subordinate relationship practices. Supervisor - subordinate relationship practices may motivate subordinates who have close personal relationships with their supervisors and benefit from relationship practices to generate posi- tive emotions and subsequently engage in repeated，positive work attitudes and behaviors. In contrast，because relationship prac- tices marginalize subordinates who do not have strong relationship with their supervisors，they may undermine subordinates’per- ceived procedural justice as well as work performance.
Prior research has suggested that subordinates who have strong relationship and gain great benefits in terms of supervisory HR decisions tend to reciprocate these benefits and strengthen the personal relationships with their supervisors by hard working. However，much of the research on relationship practices has empirically demonstrated that relationship practices are negatively associated with subordinates’in - role performance，extra - role performance，trust in management，perceptions of procedural justice，and creativity. Whereas there is lack of research which both study on the positive and negative effects of supervisor - subordinate relationship practices on employee performance.
For that reason，there is still a need for examining the effects of individual level and team level relationship practices on sub- ordinates’behaviors. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of relationship practices on subordinates’attitudes and behaviors within a multilevel framework using a dual tuning approach. We try to align the positive and negative effects of relation- ship practices within a multilevel framework and presumed that individual level relationship practices may benefit subordinates who have good personal relationships with their supervisors，yet team level relationship practices may be detrimental to subordi- nates’work attitudes.
This study contributes to the scholarly literature by integrating and extending the research on the positive effect of individual level relationship practices and the negative effect of team level relationship practices on subordinates’attitudes and behaviors. Specifically，first，this study provides an in - depth view of the implications of relationship practices at the individual level by ex- amining the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the positive relationship between individual level relationship practices and subordinate performance. Second，we examine the mediating role of procedural justice perception on the negative effect of team level relationship practices on subordinate in - role performance and organizational citizenship behavior，and these findings enrich our understanding of the effect of team relationship practices on subordinates.
A total 510 employees in 48 work teams from 12 Chinese organizations participated in this study. Of these，there are 8 man- ufacturing companies，2 service companies,1 finance company，and 1 mobile telecommunication enterprise. The usable sample includes 464 questionnaires from 48 work teams. Given the multilevel nature of the dataset and our theoretical hypotheseswe used hierarchical linear modeling to test our hypotheses. We specified two levels ( i. ethe individual - level and the team - level) in our random coefficient modeling analyses. The individual level consists of individual - level relationship practices，perceptions of procedural justice，job satisfaction, in -role performance，and organizational citizenship behavior，and the team level in- cludes team - level relationship practices.
We extend the supervisor - subordinate relationship research by systematically examining the positive and negative effects of- relationship practices within a multilevel framework. The results from the empirical research supported our hypothesized effects of individual-level and team - level relationship practices on perceptions of procedural justice，job satisfaction，in-role performance，and OCB. Further，the findings suggest that individual level relationship practices have a positive effect on subordinates’in - role performance and OCB，and this positive relationship is partly mediated by job satisfaction. While in the multilevel modelgroup level relationship practices have a negatively impact on subordinates’in - role performance and organizational citizen- ship behavior，and procedural justice perception completely mediates the relationship between the group level relationship practices and subordinates’in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior. This empirical evidence contributes to the supervisor - subordinate relationship research by providing researchers with a better understanding of the effect of relationship practices at both the individual level and the team level on a variety of individual outcomes.
The goal of this study was to provide a more nuanced understanding of the effect ofrelationship practices on individual outcomes.Specifically,individual-levelrelationshippracticespositivelyimpactindividualoutcomes,whereas team-levelrelation- ship practices negative influence individual outcomes. Our results suggest that supervisors may benefit through weakening the neg- ative aspect of relationship practices and amplifying subordinates’positive perceptions of individual - level relationship practices.
We found that individual level relationship practices are positively associated with in - role performance and OCB and that job satisfaction mediates the relationships between individual level relationship practices and both in - role performance and OCB. Specificallu, the perceptions of individual level relationship practices enable subordinates to access and use a wide variety of resources that may not be available to their counterparts，such that they are likely to satisfied with their jobs. Also，to maintain and strengthen their good relationships and the continuation of exchanges with supervisors，they tend to work hard and utilize these valued resources to effectively complete their tasks.
The team - level investigation showed that team level relationship practices negatively impact in - role performance and OCB and that the relationships between team level relationship practices and both in - role performance and OCB are mediated by pro- cedural justice. Specifically，team level relationship practices may reduce subordinates’perceived procedural justice through generating inequalities,because employees’perceived procedural justices are positively related to supervisors’justice rule ad- herence. Under such circumstance，subordinates may reduce the likelihood of exchanging with their supervisors through reducing their investment in the work and helping behaviors.
Based on a dual tuning approach，we examined the positive and negative effects of relationship practices on subordinates’job satisfaction，perceptions of procedural justice，in - role performanceand OCB. We found that individual level relationship practices are positively associated with subordinate in - role performance, and OCB and this positive association is mediated by subordinate job satisfaction and that team level relationship practices negatively impact subordinates’in - role performance and OCB through subordinates’perceptions of procedural justice.
Keywords: relationship practices; procedural justice perception; job satisfaction; organizational citizenship behavior; in - role performance
