A Social Information Processing Perspective of Coworker Influence on a Focal Employee

Zhijun Chen (), Riki Takeuchi () and Cass Shum ()
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Zhijun Chen: Department of Human Resource Management, School of International Business Administration, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, 200433 Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
Riki Takeuchi: Department of Management, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Cass Shum: Department of Management, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Organization Science, 2013, vol. 24, issue 6, 1618-1639

Abstract: Acritical omission in the coworker influence literature is how a coworker influences a closely related (focal) employee’s job performance behaviors and whether this influence is contingent on that coworker’s own behaviors. By integrating social information processing and social cognitive theories with social exchange and role theories, we hypothesize that there are, at least, three distinct types of coworker dyadic influence. Accordingly, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model to explicate such influence. Two multisource, field-design studies conducted in Hong Kong support the modeled relationships in that employee role ambiguity partially mediated the relationships between coworker–employee exchange and two types of employee job performance behaviors—task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Furthermore, coworker OCB fostered employee job performance behavior both directly and interactively, acting as a moderator to weaken the relationships between employee role ambiguity and the two types of job performance behaviors.

Keywords: social information processing; coworker–employee exchange; role ambiguity; job performance behaviors; moderated mediation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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