Leader–Member Exchange and Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Mediation-Moderation Model of Employee Envy and Psychological Empowerment Among Hotel Frontline Employees

Abstract

Leader–member exchange (LMX) is critical to service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (SOOCB). This research investigates a mediation–moderation model theorizing the influence of employee envy and psychological empowerment on the LMX and SOOCB relationship. Using survey data acquired from 559 hotel frontline employees and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study reveals that LMX reduces employee envy and contributes to SOOCB, albeit indirectly, as employee envy was found to have an indirect influence on the relationship between LMX and SOOCB. To address the negative influence of employee envy, the findings suggest that psychological empowerment should be cultivated as it strengthens the effect of LMX in reducing employee envy and thus enabling LMX to exert an indirect influence on SOOCB when employee envy is mitigated.