What does it take to get ahead? Investigating boundary conditions in the relationships among career-related psychological needs, ingratiation and promotability
Ingratiation, which is defined as "an attempt by individuals to increase their attractiveness in the eyes of others" (Liden & Mitchell, 1988, p. 572), can be used as a career influence tactic that enables career-motivated employees to achieve career-related benefits, such as positive performance evaluations, pay increases, and promotions (King, 2004). However, past research has disproportionately examined, predominantly separately, main-effect relationships between antecedents and ingratiation (Kacmar, Carlson & Bratton, 2004), and ingratiation and career-related outcomes (Wayne & Liden, 1995). Further, past studies that examined main-effect associations have been inconsistent at best (Ayree, Wyatt & Stone, 1996; Kacmar et al., 2004; Thacker & Wayne, 1995). Hence, what is currently missing from the literature on ingratiation is an understanding of the more complex processes involved in the performance of ingratiatory behaviours. These include (a) what contributes to one's conscious decision to ingratiate, and (b) what contributes to one's efficacy to ingratiate successfully (Liden & Mitchell, 1988). Accordingly, this thesis draws on a functional approach to motivation (Snyder, 1993) as a domain-specific theory to explain how ingratiation may serve as an intermediary mechanism in the relationship between career-related psychological needs (i.e., need for achievement, need for power) and promotability. This thesis also draws on Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory (SCT) as an overarching theory to identify relevant boundary conditions that help explain inconsistent findings shown by past research. In particular, organisation-based self-esteem (OBSE) and political skill are identified as relevant boundary conditions. Finally, this thesis draws on an attribution theory (Kelley, 1967) as an additional domain-specific theory to help explain how OBSE and political skill may contribute to the effectiveness of ingratiatory behaviours exercised by employees in an attempt to achieve higher promotability ratings. This thesis consists of two empirical studies. The first study, using 120 matched supervisor-subordinate dyads from Thailand, examines the independent first-stage and second-stage moderating impacts of OBSE on the conditional indirect effect of need for achievement on promotability through ingratiation. By testing the hypothesised moderated-mediation relationships, Study 1 generally finds that the conditional indirect effect is significant only when OBSE is high either at the first-stage or at the second-stage moderation. The second study, using 200 matched subordinate-peer-supervisor triads from Thailand, builds on Study 1 in three main ways. First, it incorporates need for power as an additional predictor of ingratiation, and political skill as an additional boundary condition. Second, it tests the interactive effects of OBSE and political skill on the conditional indirect effects of the two career-related psychological needs (i.e., need for achievement and need for power). And third, it constructively replicates the findings obtained from Study 1. One emerging pattern can be identified from the results obtained in Study 2. The conditional indirect effects became significant and strongest only when political skill and OBSE were taken into consideration at the second-stage moderation. These results suggest that ingratiation would serve as an intermediary mechanism only to the extent that the behaviour is being exercised effectively, which is contingent on relevant boundary conditions.
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