A Social Exchange Perspective of Leader Nepotism: The Roles of Kinship and Self-Interest
基于社会交换理论，研究了领导任人唯亲如何通过降低员工对领导的信任，进而减少员工的不道德亲领导行为，并发现亲属关系和职业自我利益会调节这一过程。
Abstract Although nepotism practices are commonplace worldwide and while still being universally condemned, little is known about how and when employees react to leaders’ nepotism. Informed by social exchange theory, we theorize that leader nepotism is negatively linked to employees’ unethical pro-leader behavior (UPLB) via reduced trust in the leader. We further examine whether the relationships among leader nepotism, employees’ trust in the leader, and UPLB are bounded by kinship to the leader (first-stage moderator) and career self-interest (second-stage moderator). Three studies were conducted to test the research model: an experiment in Jordan (Study 1), two experiments in China (Studies 2a and 2b), and a multi-wave organizational sample in Jordan (Study 3). Results revealed that leaders’ nepotism negatively affects employees’ UPLB through reducing their trust in the leader. Additionally, the negative effect of leader nepotism on trust in the leader was lower for employees with kinship to the leader, and the effect of trust in the leader on UPLB was higher for employees with higher career self-interests. With these findings, we advance research on the effects of leaders’ nepotism and its boundary conditions and provide insights for practice.