The Curvilinear Effect of Newcomer Ingratiation on Leader-Member Exchange: A Dual-Pathway Model of Supervisor Attributions

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Wang, Siting; Liden, Robert C.; Liu, Haiyang; Li, Yixuan; Wang, Hui
• 署名单位: Hong Kong Baptist University; University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Chicago; University of Illinois Chicago Hospital; University of Leeds; Nanyang Technological University; State University System of Florida; University of Florida; Peking University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0001292
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: ingratiation; LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE; newcomers; ATTRIBUTIONS; motives

摘要

Although ingratiation is a tactic widely adopted by subordinates to influence supervisors, findings on its effectiveness are mixed at best. Drawing upon advancements in attribution theory, we propose a dual-pathway model to explicate the supervisor attributional processes triggered by newcomer ingratiation. On the one hand, supervisors engage in surface-level correspondent inference, taking newcomer ingratiation at face value and associating more ingratiation with greater relationship-building motives, rendering a positive linear relationship between newcomer ingratiation and relationship-building motive attribution. On the other hand, as newcomer ingratiation becomes more blatant, it prompts supervisors to engage in deep-level ulterior inference to more closely scrutinize hidden motives, rendering an increasing curvilinear relationship (i.e., a positive effect that gradually emerges) between newcomer ingratiation and self-serving motive attribution. These two attributions, in turn, have opposite effects on leader-member exchange (LMX). Taken together, we proposed an overall curvilinear relationship between newcomer ingratiation and LMX. We tested our hypotheses with three field studies. Study 1 revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between newcomer ingratiation and LMX. Studies 2 and 3 further substantiated the mediation effects of the two attributions linking newcomer ingratiation to LMX. Additionally, Study 3 showed that via the sequential mediation of attributions and LMX, newcomer ingratiation had indirect effects on newcomer task performance and intention to quit.