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Guanxi with Supervisor and Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction

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Abstract

This study aims to explore the role of informal leader–member interactions in managing counterproductive work behavior (CWB) in a non-Western context. We propose that under the Chinese background, guanxi with supervisor increases employees’ job satisfaction, which further reduces their CWB. Partial least square structural equation modeling with a sample of 272 Chinese employees confirms this mediating effect of job satisfaction. However, we also find that job satisfaction passes the effect of guanxi with supervisor on to CWB targeting people, but not to CWB targeting the organization. Implications for research on CWB and guanxi with supervisor are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Can Wang for his help in data collection and Dr. Deborah Poff and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. This research received support from the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund of the Ministry of Education of China (11YJC630285) and the Outstanding Innovative Talent Program of Hohai University. The work descried in this paper by Yulin Deng was supported by the Social Sciences Foundation of Jiangsu Province (12GLC005) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71173105).

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  1. Business School, Hohai University, Rm. 1111, Boxue Building, 8# West Focheng Road, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Long Zhang & Yulin Deng

  2. School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yulin Deng

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  1. Long Zhang
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Correspondence to Long Zhang.

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Table 3 Counterproductive work behaviors by subscale
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Zhang, L., Deng, Y. Guanxi with Supervisor and Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction. J Bus Ethics 134, 413–427 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2438-7

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