Department of Management, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida.
Raymond A. Mason School of Business, College of William & Mary.
J Appl Psychol. 2016 Oct;101(10):1487-1497. doi: 10.1037/apl0000146. Epub 2016 Aug 8.
Organizational newcomers are unfamiliar with many aspects of their workplace and look for information to help them reduce uncertainty and better understand their new environment. One aspect critical to newcomers is the disposition of their supervisor-the person who arguably can impact the newcomer's career the most. To form an impression of their new supervisor, newcomers look to social cues from coworkers who have interpersonal contact with the supervisor. In the present research, we investigate the ways newcomers use observed ingratiation-a common impression management strategy whereby coworkers try to appear likable (Schlenker, 1980)-to form impressions of a supervisor's warmth. Research on social influence cannot easily account for how third parties will interpret ingratiation, as the behaviors linked to ingratiation suggest something positive about the target, yet the unsavory aspects of the behavior imply it may not have the same effects as other positive behaviors. Our findings suggest that newcomers are unique in that they are motivated to learn about their new supervisor, and are prone to ignore those unsavory aspects and infer something positive about a supervisor targeted with ingratiation. Our findings also suggest that this effect can be weakened based on the supervisor's response. In other words, newcomers rely less on evidence from a coworker's ingratiation in the presence of direct behaviors from the supervisor. (PsycINFO Database Record
组织中的新成员对工作场所的许多方面不熟悉，他们会寻找信息来帮助他们减少不确定性，更好地了解新环境。对于新成员来说，一个关键方面是他们的主管——可以说对新成员的职业发展影响最大的人。为了对他们的新主管形成印象，新成员会从与主管有过人际接触的同事那里寻找社交线索。在本研究中，我们调查了新成员如何利用观察到的讨好行为——一种常见的印象管理策略，即同事试图表现得讨人喜欢（Schlenker，1980）——来形成对主管热情的印象。社会影响研究很难解释第三方将如何解释讨好行为，因为与讨好行为相关的行为表明目标是积极的，但行为的不讨喜方面暗示它可能不会产生与其他积极行为相同的效果。我们的研究结果表明，新成员是独特的，他们有动力去了解他们的新主管，并且容易忽略那些不讨喜的方面，并对被讨好的主管做出积极的推断。我们的研究结果还表明，这种影响可以根据主管的反应而减弱。换句话说，在主管有直接行为的情况下，新成员对同事讨好行为的证据的依赖程度降低。
