Leader-member Exchange Social Comparison and Employee

Voice Behavior: An Empirical Study based on Multiple

Linear Regression Model

Zhiling Wang

and Mingjian Zhou

School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China

Keywords: Leader-Member Exchange Social Comparison, Organizational-based Self-Esteem, Team Differential

Atmosphere, Employee Voice Behavior.

Abstract: In the context of Chinese culture, employee voice behavior is confronted with the awkward situation of the

contradiction between individual interests and organizational interests. This paper used SPSS and AMOS to

process the questionnaire data, and explored the relationship between leader-member exchange social

comparison and employee voice behavior by establishing multiple regression model and structural equation

model. The results show that leader-member exchange social comparison is positively correlated with

employee voice behavior. This study enriches the leader-member exchange theory and provides theoretical

support for the enterprise management mode reform in the modern market environment.

1 INTRODUCTION

After entering the 21st century, the rapid

development of science and technology makes the

environment facing enterprises more dynamic. In

such a complex and changeable dynamic

environment, enterprises must maintain the flexibility

and innovation of the organization if they want to

continue to develop. This process not only depends

on the strategic vision and decisiveness of managers,

but also on the suggestions of all employees of the

organization (Morrison 2011). Many studies have

shown that the expression of rationalization

suggestions and opinions by employees can enhance

the creativity of individuals and teams, and also

improve the operating performance of organizations

(Sherf et al. 2018; Deng et al. 2018). However, in the

context of Chinese culture, employee voice behavior

is confronted with the dilemma of contradiction

between organizational interests and individual

interests. Although employee voice behavior can

benefit the organization and the leader, there are

certain risks for the speaker, such as being regarded

by the leader as a challenge to authority and affecting

the career development of the employee (Fuller et al.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5790-8074

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9395-9656

2015). Therefore, current organizational behavior

researchers are more concerned about how to

encourage employees' voice behavior.

Voice behavior refers to the behavior that

employees actively put forward reasonable

suggestions and ideas to the organization in order to

improve the operating performance of the

organization or in view of the problems existing in the

organization (Zhan et al. 2016). Previous studies have

shown that organizational context is an important

antecedent of employee voice behavior. As the main

object of employee voice behavior and the owner of

the right to reward and punish, leaders undoubtedly

have an important influence on employee voice

behavior (Detert & Burris, 2007). Scholars also

carried out some theoretical and empirical studies,

which confirmed that leader-member exchange,

inclusive leadership, management openness,

emotional leadership and etc have an influence on

voice behavior (Dyne et al., 2013; Qi et al., 2019; Xie

et al., 2020). It can be seen from literature review that

researches on the influence of leader-member

exchange (LMX) on employee voice behavior mostly

focus on the absolute value of LMX, while according

to social comparison theory, employees will obtain

152

Wang, Z. and Zhou, M.

Leader-member Exchange Social Comparison and Employee Voice Behavior: An Empirical Study based on Multiple Linear Regression Model.

DOI: 10.5220/0011344300003437

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis (PMBDA 2021), pages 152-157

ISBN: 978-989-758-589-0

self-related information from the comparison with

colleagues to obtain their own cognition, especially

their own social status. This perception of relative

position will affect the organizational self-esteem of

employees. According to social cognition theory, this

kind of organization-based self-esteem enables

employees to develop a positive attitude and do more

things that are good for the organization outside of

their job description. Therefore, this paper takes

leader-member exchange social comparison

(LMXSC) as the independent variable, organization-

based self-esteem(OBSE) as the mediating variable,

and team differential atmosphere(TDA) as the

moderating variable to explore its influence

mechanism on employee voice behavior (the research

model is shown in Figure 1)

Figure 1: Research model

2 THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND AND

HYPOTHESIS

2.1 LMXSC and Employee Voice

Behavior

Voice behavior refers to the behavior of employees

who take the initiative to put forward their own ideas

or suggestions in order to improve organizational

efficiency. Liang et al. (2012) divided it into

Promotive Voice and Prohibitive Voice. Promotive

voice behavior means that employees express new

ideas or suggestions that are helpful to the

development of the organization. Prohibitive voice

behavior refers to that employees express their

concern about the wrong working style and

leadership style. The former focuses on the future of

the enterprise and provides innovative ideas for the

development of the enterprise, while the latter

focuses on the present and aims to correct the existing

problems of the enterprise to avoid worsening. Voice

behavior, to some extent, is a challenge to the status

quo of the organization by employees, reflecting their

sense of responsibility and attitude (Liang et al.

2019). Based on social exchange theory, LMX theory

holds that leaders tend to establish high-quality LMX

with some members, give them sufficient trust, and

make them feel obligated to return, thus generating

voice behavior, which is supported by a large number

of empirical studies.

However, these studies treated the LMX in

isolation. In the leader-member exchange situation,

members are task related and communicate with each

other, which provides effective social information for

individual self-cognition. At the same time, LMX is

regarded as a limited and scarce resource within a

team, which leads to LMX competition among

members and easily triggers individuals to conduct

social comparison to define their relative social

position and form leader-member social comparison

(LMXSC).

Leader-member exchange social comparison

(LMXSC) is an extension of leader-member

exchange (LMX), which compares the mean value of

employee LMX and team LMX, reflecting their

relative social position in the team. Its theoretical

basis is social comparison theory, which holds that

individuals search for self-related information by

comparing with others on certain characteristics, and

finally obtain self-knowledge and discover self-

reality, the special representative is the fact of relative

social status (Festinger 1954, Wood 1996). Society

exists widely in human society and is deeply

embedded in organizational teams (Greenberg et al.

2007). As for the work team, subordinates under the

same leader share some common practices,

experiences and experiences in daily interaction, and

tend to choose colleagues to compare and evaluate

themselves (Hu&Liden 2013). Furthermore, a

Leader-member Exchange Social Comparison and Employee Voice Behavior: An Empirical Study based on Multiple Linear Regression

Model

153

number of studies have shown that self-evaluation

generated by social comparison is also a motivating

factor, which can affect individual attitudes and

behaviors. Therefore, different from the sense of

exchange and reciprocity generated by LMX,

LMXSC, as a member of the self-recognition formed

in team comparison, can also be transformed into a

motivating factor to promote employee voice

behavior. When members have high LMXSC, he will

feel relative to the other employees, he had led more

support and trust, this trust is not only close to the

psychological distance between the higher and lower,

also can strengthen the information sharing between

the two sides, helps in emotional interaction with staff

and working on, and then promote the staff

recommendations. To sum up, this paper assumes:

H1:LMXSC has a positive impact on employee

voice behavior.

2.2 The Mediating Role of

Organizational Self-esteem

Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) was

proposed by Pierce, Gardnr and Cummings et al.

(Pierce et al. 1989) on the basis of the concept of self-

esteem, who defined organizational self-esteem as:

The degree to which organization members believe

that roles in the organizational context can meet their

needs. Organization-based self-esteem reflects the

self-perceived value of an employee as a member of

a particular organization. Employees with high

organization-based self-esteem felt that they were

important and valuable to the organization, while

those with low organization-based self-esteem felt

that they were essential and worthless. Based on

social cognition theory, some scholars believe that

employees with higher organization-based self-

esteem tend to have more positive psychological

cognition, which leads to more positive behaviors (Yu

& Wang 2017). Because direct leaders or supervisors

control the distribution of resources and power, they

are usually regarded as agents of the organization

(Levinson 1965). Therefore, in some studies on

organization-based self-esteem, leadership behaviors

or characteristics are considered to have an important

influence on organization-based self-esteem.

Especially when leaders establish high-quality

relationships with their subordinates, their sense of

value in the organization will be enhanced (Lind et al.

2000), thus helping to enhance their organization-

based self-esteem.

As mentioned above, subordinates with higher

organization-based self-esteem will show more

positive behaviors, such as employee voice behavior.

Based on the above logic, when employees think that

they have a higher LMX than other members of the

team, they will feel that their value in the organization

is confirmed, and their organization-based self-

esteem will be enhanced. Once an employee has a

high level of organization-based self-esteem, he will

naturally adjust his own behavior to maintain the

level of organization-based self-esteem (Wilson etal.

2018) and participate more actively in all kinds of

activities that are spontaneous and beneficial to the

organization (Mayer et al. 2017). Expect to continue

to be recognized and appreciated by leaders.

Meanwhile, based on the theory of cognitive

dissonance, individuals often act in a way consistent

with their own cognition in order to avoid cognitive

dissonance (Festinger 1957). Therefore, employees

with high organization-based self-esteem will exhibit

behaviors that match their own value, and voice

behavior is just a specific behavior to prove their

value and ability in the team. Based on the above

analysis, this paper proposes the following

hypotheses:

H2: Organization-based self-esteem plays a

mediating role in the relationship between LMXSC

and employee voice behavior.

2.3 The Moderating Effect of Team

Differential Atmosphere

Team differential atmosphere, developed from the

differential pattern proposed by Taiwan scholar Fei

Xiaotong, refers to the degree of difference in the

density of the relationship between team members

around the team leader (Liu et al. 2009). Liu Jun et al.

(2009) believe that team differential atmosphere is a

relative concept generated by comparison, but it

generally does not rely on subjective comparison, but

depends on the differentiated treatment of individual

relationships by the team resource controller's

evaluation of affinity, loyalty and talent. The size of

such differentiation is represented at the team level.

There may be two scales of strong and weak

differential atmosphere. The stronger the difference

atmosphere is, the higher the team members perceive

the differential treatment by the team leader.

In a team with a strong atmosphere of difference,

it means that the leader treats the members differently

and forms an obvious "circle" within the team. The

relative position of high LMXSC members in the

team is more significant, which can strengthen the

psychological advantage transformed by social

comparison, and thus improve the perception of self-

worth. For low LMXSC members, the identity of

"outsiders" makes them doubt the value of self in the

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organization and produce lower organizational self-

esteem. In the atmosphere of the weak group of

difference, often means that the resources of the team

members to get on the nature and quantity difference

is small, the rights and status differences between

team members is not obvious, even if high LMXSC

members think relative position is higher than most

people, but it is not very obvious, will weaken the

psychological advantage due to social comparison,

And then reduce the influence of LMXSC on

organizational self-esteem. Therefore, based on the

above analysis, this paper proposes the following

hypotheses:

H3: Team difference atmosphere has a positive

moderating effect on the impact of LMXSC on

organization-based self-esteem. That is, the stronger

the differential atmosphere, the greater the impact of

LMXSC on organization-based self-esteem.

3 MODEL DESIGN

To test the above hypotheses in the paper, several test

models are constructed.

For the hypotheses 1, the test models are

constructed as:

T+1

= β

+β

LMXSC

+ ∑Controls + ε (1)

T+1

= β

+β

LMXSC

+ ∑Controls + ε (2)

For the hypotheses of mediating role of OBSE

between LMXSC and employee voice behavior, the

test models are constructed as:

OBSE

= β

+β

LMXSC

+ ∑Controls + ε (3)

T+1

= β

+β

LMXSC

OBSE

∑Controls + ε (4)

T+1

= β

+β

LMXSC

+ β

OBSE

∑Controls + ε (5)

For the hypotheses of moderating role of TDA

between LMXSC and OBSE, the test models are

constructed as:

OBSE

= β

+β

LMXSC

+β

TDA +

LMXSC

*TDA + ∑Controls + ε (6)

4 CONCLUSION AND

DISCUSSION

4.1 Research Conclusions

Based on social comparison theory and social

cognition theory, we find that LMXSC positively

affects organizational self-esteem and employee

voice behavior. Organizational self-esteem has a

significant positive effect on employee voice

behavior. Organizational self-esteem plays a partially

mediating role in the influence of LMXSC on

employee voice behavior. There is a positive

moderating effect between LMXSC and

organizational self-esteem.

4.2 Theoretical Significance

This study has the following theoretical significance:

First, existing LMX theories basically deal with LMX

in isolation, but LMX does not exist in isolation, and

its scarcity is easy to cause competitive behaviors

among employees and social comparison to form

LMXSC. This paper discusses the influence

mechanism of LMXSC on voice behavior, broadens

the interpretation range of LMX theory and deepens

the research content of LMXSC theory. Secondly,

based on social comparison theory and social

cognition theory, this study focuses on the indirect

impact of LMXSC on employee voice behavior

through organizational self-esteem in the context of

Chinese organizations, deepening and expanding the

theoretical research of LMXSC. Thirdly, LMX

belongs to the individual-level construct, while

LMXSC belongs to the individual-level construct

within the team. This study found that LMXSC has a

stronger impact on employees' organizational self-

esteem in a strong team order atmosphere. From the

theoretical perspective, this paper discussed the

multi-level impact path of LMX phenomenon on

organizational self-esteem, and confirmed the multi-

level characteristics of LMX theory.

4.3 Significance of Management

Practice

This study has guiding significance for management

practice: First, leaders should differentiate LMX

relationships as far as possible, and construct the

social comparison process of key members in

different situations to conduct self-evaluation and

obtain social self-concept, and finally stimulate work

enthusiasm. If a leader treats all subordinates equally,

Leader-member Exchange Social Comparison and Employee Voice Behavior: An Empirical Study based on Multiple Linear Regression

Model

155

it will frustrate the work enthusiasm of key members

and cause a distant relationship between everyone

and the leader, which may affect the voice behavior

of employees. However, LMX differentiation will

cause team conflict and destroy team integration (Li

& Liao 2014). Therefore, leaders should

appropriately differentiate LMX. Second, the

information conveyed by leaders may influence

employees' judgment of their own value to the

organization. Therefore, leaders can express their

trust and authorization to subordinates through

various channels, improve the level of organizational

self-esteem of team members, and thus promote more

proactive behaviors of subordinates. Thirdly, leaders

should constantly improve the level of knowledge

and employment, and allocate resources and power

according to working ability. If employees with

different abilities perceive the same LMXSC,

although the self-worth of employees can be

improved, the improvement range is obviously

different.

4.4 Limitations

First, the use of questionnaire survey is likely to

produce homologous bias; Second, differential order

patterns are common in Chinese organizational

contexts, while other moderating variables may exist

in other contexts. Third, there may be a limit to

sample size.

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