Understanding the Disparate Behavioral Consequences of LMX Differentiation: The Role of Social Comparison Emotions
基于社会比较理论，研究领导-成员交换差异化如何通过触发社会比较情绪，影响员工的人际自发行为，解释其不一致的行为后果。
The burgeoning literature on LMX differentiation has demonstrated positive and negative cross-level outcomes depending on specific boundary conditions. Although this research has provided key insights into the LMX phenomenon at multiple levels of analysis, we currently lack a conceptual understanding of when and why LMX differentiation may have positive or negative consequences at work. Opening the black box between LMX differentiation and work behaviors, we draw on social comparison theory to develop a conceptual model of the cross-level implications of LMX differentiation for employee emotions and discretionary behaviors. Since each LMX dyad is nested within the broader workgroup, we incorporate multilevel relationships in our theorizing. Relying on social comparison theory, we theorize that specific instances of resource allocation by leaders function as affective events that trigger social comparison emotions. More specifically, we posit that these affective events trigger an emotion appraisal process that causes relative individual LMX status and justice perceptions to interact as sources of social comparison information, influencing the type of social comparison emotion that emerges, with subsequent effects on interpersonal discretionary behavior. Overall, our social comparison perspective unravels emotional mechanisms that provide one explanation for why LMX differentiation has inconsistent effects on employee work behaviors.