School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Leaders’ pro-subordinate rule breaking (LPSRB), a form of constructive deviance, characterized by volitional rule breaking in the interest of the subordinate, is frequently observed in the workplace settings. Despite the increasing recognition that LPSRB can exert a profound influence on benefited subordinates, the effect of such leader’s behavior on other observed employees remains unclear. Based on the literature on constructive deviance and attribution theory, we propose and examine a status-based model to examine the impact of observed LPSRB and its boundary conditions. We proposed that observed LPSRB will elicit employees’ status threat. To maintain their status, employees are likely to adopt two different coping strategies, namely ingratiation toward leaders and social undermining toward coworkers. Furthermore, we proposed that when employees attribute LPSRB to organization-serving, their perceptions of status threat will be attenuated, resulting in a decrease in ingratiation and social undermining behaviors. In contrast, when employees attribute LPSRB to self-serving, these effects will be amplified. Results of a two-wave survey provide robust evidence in support of our hypotheses. We concluded with the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
