Exploring the Dark and Bright Side of Leader-member Exchange Differentiation: A Social Comparison Perspective

Abstract

Although Public sector organizations face many employee-related issues, it has been identified that the employee task performance and organization cynicism-related issues are affecting more of the success of the organizations. Despite prior studies exploring the inclusion of perfect leadership in the public sector organization, it can enhance and build positive behavioral tendencies of its employees. However, leaders are also the main cause of generating social comparison emotion and envy in their in-group and out-group employees. In line with the thoughts, the current objectives were to identify the impact of Leader-Member Exchange differentiation on positive and negative behavior through social comparison emotions. Positivism research philosophy following the deductive approach has been used for the current study. 235 sample collected through self-administrated questionnaires from Public Sector organizations has been used to meet the study's objective. Results suggested sequential mediation of social comparison emotions and envy on employees' positive and negative behavior. The study has several implications presented at the end of the study and will provide help for the management of public sector organizations.