Purpose: This research intends to investigate the mediating role of helping behavior in relationship between employee ingratiation and supervisor satisfaction across high and low levels of ingratiation behavior, and answers the questions: how, when and why ingratiation is effective.Design/methodology: Data were collected through questionnaire surveys in hotel industry, and structural equation modelling was applied to analyze these data by using hypotheticaldeductive approach.
Findings:The results indicate that helping behavior is an important mediator of the relationship between ingratiation and supervisor satisfaction. Moreover, ingratiation is also a strong moderator of the relationship between helping behavior and supervisor satisfaction.This research concludes that employee ingratiation positively predicts helping behaviors, and consequently the supervisor satisfaction.-1157-Intangible Capital -http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/ic.759
Research limitations/implications:This study is not experimental in nature, but a crosssectional design has been followed. Future research can focus on an experimental design by incorporating a time element, and the design and analysis should be nested since this study did not use multilevel analysis. Moreover, this study used only two forms of ingratiation for measuring employee ingratiation behavior. We suggest researchers to consider all four dimensions of ingratiation by using some distinct scales. Originality/value: Previous research emphasized more on customer-directed employee ingratiation but this study offers its contribution by emphasizing coworker as well as supervisor directed employee ingratiation. Moreover, this study measures effectiveness of ingratiation in terms of employee task performance representing supervisor satisfaction.
Practical implications:
This study investigates the combined effect of ingratiation and helping behavior on supervisor satisfaction in the workplace. Based on a sample of 168 supervisors and 453 employees working in Pakistan’s hospitality sector, we find that the effect of ingratiation is insignificant at lower levels of helping behavior. However, the relationship between ingratiation and supervisor satisfaction becomes significant as helping behavior increases. This suggests that a combination of ingratiation and helping tactics is more effective in achieving supervisor satisfaction than relying on a single influence tactic.
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