The Higher Performance Expectation, the Less Territorial Behavior? A Psychological Mechanism Moderated by Performance Comparison

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of psychological safety in the relationship between high performance expectation and territorial behavior. Territorial behaviors refer to the actions people expressed to mark and defend certain objects that they believe belong to them. Drawing on leader-member exchange theory, we proposed that high performance expectation negatively affects employees’territorial behavior through the mechanism of psychological safety and that this indirect effect is moderated by performance comparison. We tested our hypotheses using data from 229 employees in Shang-hai, China. We found that high performance expectation had a negative indirect effect on employees’ territorial behavior through psychological safety and performance comparison moderated the indirect relationship. The moderated mediation relationship was stronger among followers who had lower rather than higher performance compared to average.