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Chinese Journal of Management Science ›› 2021, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (9): 236-248.doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2020.1317

• Articles • Previous Articles    

The Influencing Mechanisms of Different Forms of Superior-Subordinate Relationship on Employees' Innovation Behaviors: A Perspective of Multiple Institutional Logics

DENG Yu-lin1, WU Jie1, DA Qing-li2   

  1. 1. Business School of Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China;
    2. School of Economics and Management, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
  • Received:2020-07-10 Revised:2020-11-18 Online:2021-09-20 Published:2021-09-20

Abstract: Under the circumstances of innovation development in China, the employees' innovation behaviors are chosen as the research topic. From the perspective of institutional logic, a two-dimensional analysis framework was constructed according to institutional factors and institutional order. Based on the social exchange theory, by using the two-dimensional analysis framework, a model concerning superior-subordinate relationship, psychological empowerment and innovation behaviors is put forward and the influencing mechanism of superior-subordinate relationship on employees' innovation behaviors is tested empirically.
Firstly, based on two different forms of superior-subordinate relationship, that is, LMX (leader-member exchange) from Western culture and SSG (Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi) from Chinese culture, the basic viewpoints of cognition and behavior are shaped according to institutional factors; and based on social exchange theory, the impact of different superior-subordinate relationship on subordinates' innovative behaviors is explored. Secondly, based on the logic of shaping cognition and behavior according to preferences and interests, the mediating effect of psychological empowerment between superior-subordinate relationship and employees' innovation behaviors is tested. Finally, from the perspective of multiple institutional logic, the different influence mechanisms of SSG and LMX on employees' innovative behaviors are explained based on work logic and family logic in order to understand the difference between two kinds of superior-subordinate relationship, and the difference of their influencing mechanisms on employees' innovation behaviors is distinguished.
The sample is 252 employees in 72 teams from some manufacture, research and development, engineering and software companies in Nanjing and Suzhou of China. Based on the data analysis, it is found that both SSG and LMX had a positive effect on employees' innovative behaviors and psychological empowerment mediated the above positive effects. Notably, SSG based on the family logic in the Chinese context has a stronger explanation on employees' innovative behaviors than LMX based on the work logic. The difference is caused by the influence of different superior-subordinate interactive logic on psychological authorization.
The contribution of this research includes four points. Firstly, the current research about Chinese superior-subordinate relationship mainly concentrated on SSG itself. There are few studies concentrating on the comparision of different kinds of superior-subordinate relationship and their different influencing mechanisms on innovation behaviors. And there are fewer studies exploring the principles underlying the above mechanisms. The different forms of superior-subordinate relationship from LMX and SSG and their different influencing mechanism on employees' innovative behaviors are analyzed, which could make up the deficiency in this research field. Secondly, the institutional logics theory emerging in recent years focuses on the differences among social structure and behaviors, which could effectively explain the differential influencing mechanism of social relationships formed by interpersonal interaction on individual behavior. Based on the two-dimensional analysis framework, the basic institutional logic behind the two types of superior-subordinate relationship is analyzed from the perspectives of exchange's purpose, content, reciprocity rules and long-term orientation in order to explore the psychological process and differential influencing mechanism of superior-subordinate relationship on innovative behaviors, which will be a totally new perspective for deconstructing superior-subordinate relationship in Chinese context. Thirdly, in the process of testing the theoretical hypothesis, by adopting the relative weight analysis method (RWA) developed in recent years that could separate the contribution of each independent variable, based on RWA-Web tool, the differences in the effectiveness of LMX and SSG on employees' innovation behaviors and psychological empowerment are tested, which could avoid the shortcomings of using traditional statistics to produce false or misleading information. Finally, the psychological mechanism of LMX and SSG on employees' innovation behaviors and the differential influencing mechanisms of two types of superior -subordinate relationship on innovative behaviors are found in this study. That is, the former mechanism is explained by the mediating effect of psychological empowerment; the latter mechanism is caused by the different psychological empowerment in different superior-subordinate context, which come from that LMX is based on the short-term oriented work logic and SSG is based on the long-term oriented family logic. At the meantime, innovation has the characteristics of long-term orientation. Therefore, the development of SSG in Chinese organizations could contribute to the promotion of employees' innovation behaviors.
There are also some shortcomings in this study. Firstly, the sample source is limited to Jiangsu Province of China, and the respondents are relatively concentrated. Future research should expand the investigation fields. Secondly, due to the difficulty of the questionnaire survey method of matching supervisors and subordinates, the sample size is limited, and more samples should be chosen in the future study. Finally, the motivation to develop different types of superior-subordinate relationship in Chinese context should be further explored in the future study.

Key words: supervisor-subordinate guanxi, leader-member exchange, institutional logics, psychological empowerment, innovative behavior

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