Research On Employee Career Growth Based On The Perspective Of Leader-member Exchange

Career growth reflects the career status of employees in the current organization,such as promotion speed and remuneration growth.It is one of the career outcomes that employees pursue diligently,and also the focus of the organization.From the perspective of leader-member exchange(LMX),promoting the establishment of high-quality LMX is a crucial way for employees to achieve more positive career outcomes.Therefore,it is necessary and practical to deeply analyze the impact mechanism of LMX on employee career growth,and to explore how to establish high-quality LMX.The impact of LMX on employee career outcomes has attracted the attention of scholars.Extant literature has explored the relationship between LMX and employee career outcomes(e.g.,promotion speed),but the findings are inconsistent,and there are few studies on the underlying mechanisms that may help to explain this relationship.Additionally,although scholars stress the indispensable role of LMX on employee and organizational outcomes(including career outcomes)and explore a variety of antecedents of LMX,there is still a lack of research on the impact of individual discretionary behavior,such as organizational citizenship behavior directed to the organization(OCBO),on LMX.In view of this,it is necessary to further investigate what factors(i.e.,moderating variables)change the relationship between LMX and employee career outcomes,the mediating mechanisms of the impact of LMX on employee career outcomes,as well as the relationship between individual discretionary behavior and LMX.However,until now,few studies have comprehensively and systematically explored the relationship between LMX and a critical employee career outcome,career growth.Therefore,it is of great theoretical implication to.deeply investigate the antecedents(e.g.,OCBO)of LMX and its impact mechanism on employee career growth.Based on the above background,this study mainly focuses on three questions:(1)Do job autonomy and performance ability moderate the relationship between LMX and employee career growth?-The boundary conditions of the impact of LMX.(2)Do supervisor developmental feedback and job self-efficacy mediate the relationship between LMX and employee career growth?Which is stronger in mediating effect?-The mediating mechanisms of the impact of LMX.(3)Does OCBO affect LMX?Does employee political skill moderate this effect?-The formation mechanism of LMX.This study will address the above three questions across three sub-studies,namely Study 1,Study 2 and Study 3.For each sub-study,cross-sectional data and multi-wave data were collected and analyzed in this study,and the results convergently supported the proposed theoretical models.Specifically,Study 1 explores the moderating variables which infuence LMX-employee career growth relationship from the perspective of job autonomy and performance ability based on social exchange theory.Results indicate that LMX positively affects employee career growth,and this impact increases with the improvement of job autonomy and performance ability.Study 2 explores the mediating roles of supervisor developmental feedback and job self-efficacy in the relationship between LMX and employee career growth based on the integrated perspective of social exchange theory and social cognition theory.Results indicate that:(1)LMX positively affects supervisor developmental feedback and job self-efficacy;and(2)both supervisor developmental feedback and job self-efficacy mediate the relationship between LMX and employee career growth,but the mediating explanatory power of supervisor developmental feedback is stronger than job self-efficacy.Study 3 explores whether OCBO affects LMX,and in turn,affect subsequent employee career growth based on social exchange theory.Meanwhile,it investigates the role of employee political skill as a moderating variable.Results indicate that:(1)OCBO positively affects LMX,and this impact increases with the improvement of employee political skill;and(2)LMX positively affects employee career growth;(3)LMX mediates the relationship between OCBO and employee career growth.The theoretical contributions of this study mainly include five aspects:(1)it improves the understanding of the moderating variables that can alter the relationship between LMX and employee career outcomes;(2)it deepens the understanding of the internal mechanisms of the relationship between LMX and employee career growth;(3)it makes the research on the antecedents of LMX more comprehensive;(4)it extends the research on the outcomes of LMX;and(5)it deepens the understanding of the internal mechanisms of the relationship between OCB and employee career growth.The management implications of this study mainly include four aspects:(1)employees should be aware of the importance of becoming "insiders" in the eyes of supervisors to their own career growth,while supervisors should pay attention to their varying effects on the behavior differences between "insiders" and "outsiders";(2)employees should not blindly believe that if they have a good relationship with their supervisors,they will surely achieve faster career growth.They should also try to enhance their job autonomy,especially their performance ability;(3)organizations and employees should pay attention to and take measures to promote supervisor developmental feedback.Additionally,organizations should consciously improve employees’ job self-efficacy;and(4)employees should take the time to do more things that are beneficial to the operation of the organization,which will not only avoid losses,but also make themselves "insiders" in the eyes of supervisors,and thus achieve faster career growth.At the meantime,employee political skill should be valued in order to make full use of the positive impact of doing more.