Editorial summary. This is our text summary of an article published by frontiers. Charts, figures, and the author’s full voice are at the original — read it there .
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Editorial verdict
Methodologically competent but geographically narrow — the core finding that ingratiation predicts counterproductive work behaviors via emotional exhaustion is plausible and theoretically grounded, but the small Chinese manufacturing sample (n=216) and absence of Western replication limit generalisability; treat findings as hypothesis-generating rather than definitive.
Executive summary
This study addresses the under-examined question of whether ingratiation — a common workplace impression-management tactic — harms the ingratiator rather than solely benefiting them. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the authors propose and test a moderated mediation model in which employee ingratiation leads to counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), mediated by emotional exhaustion, with power distance orientation as a boundary condition. Data were collected across three time points from 216 supervisor-employee dyads at six Chinese manufacturing firms. Results confirmed that ingratiation positively predicted CWBs, that emotional exhaustion mediated this relationship, and that power distance orientation negatively moderated both the ingratiation-exhaustion link and the indirect path to CWBs — meaning employees with low power distance orientation were more susceptible to the exhaustion-to-deviance pathway. The study contributes to impression management and CWB literatures by surfacing the resource-depleting costs of ingratiation for the ingratiator, identifying emotional exhaustion as a mechanism, and demonstrating that cultural value orientations condition these effects. Limitations include a small, single-country, single-industry sample and reliance on an adapted Western ingratiation scale.
Key insights
- 1Employee ingratiation — flattery, opinion conformity, and other-enhancement directed at supervisors — positively predicts counterproductive work behaviors, suggesting it carries hidden costs for the ingratiator beyond any impression-management benefits.
- 2Emotional exhaustion mediates the ingratiation-to-CWB pathway: the cognitive and emotional resources consumed by ingratiation deplete employees, leading to exhaustion that in turn reduces self-control and increases deviant behavior.
- 3Power distance orientation acts as a buffer: employees high in power distance view ingratiation as a normal, role-consistent behavior, experience less resource depletion and emotional exhaustion, and consequently exhibit fewer CWBs — while low power distance employees show the opposite pattern.
Practical takeaways
- Organizational cultures or structures that rely heavily on hierarchical deference may inadvertently normalize ingratiation, which the study's findings associate with a risk pathway toward employee exhaustion and deviant behavior among employees who do not share high power distance values.
- Transparent, merit-based evaluation environments — where advancement is visibly tied to performance rather than impression management — may reduce the perceived incentive for ingratiation and thereby the resource-depletion cycle the study describes.
Frameworks mentioned
Conservation of Resources Theory
A stress theory proposing that individuals strive to obtain, retain, and protect valued resources; threats or losses of resources produce psychological strain and motivate compensatory behaviors.
References
- Higgins, Judge, and Ferris (2003).A meta-analysis of ingratiation.
- Hobfoll (1989).Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress.
- Bennett and Robinson (2000).Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect.
- Maslach and Jackson (1981).The Measurement of Experienced Burnout.
- Bolino and Turnley (1999).Ingratiation scale.
- Kirkman et al. (2009).Power distance orientation scale.
- Schaufeli et al. (1996).Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey.
Source & Provenance
frontiers
Miao Yan, Yu-ping Xie, Jun Zhao, Yong-jun Zhang, Mohsin Bashir, Ying Liu
September 1, 2020
Research Study
Asia-Pacific
Original source metadata is preserved. AI analysis is generated separately.
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