Supervisors’ Early Perception of Newcomer Ingratiation and Relationship Development: A Dynamic View

What factors contribute to the effectiveness of ingratiation in the interpersonal relationship development process has been investigated for decades. Research has demonstrated that whether ingratiation is perceived by others is the key to success. Perceived ingratiation generally results in undesirable consequences. The current study focuses on the essential role of perceived ingratiation in the relationship development between supervisors and newcomers. Drawing from a cognitive perspective, the study proposes that supervisors are influenced by primacy effect which causes them to rely on their early perception of newcomers’ ingratiation to decide whether to keep building relationship with newcomers across time. Supervisors with a strong desire to attract admirers (e.g., supervisors with high levels of self-enhancement tendency) are expected to continue interacting with newcomers whom supervisors perceived engaging in ingratiation. By conducting a four-wave longitudinal data collection of 159 supervisors and their newcomers, we used leader-member exchange (LMX) trajectory to reflect the dynamic aspect of the relationship development process. Results showed that even though supervisors’ early perception of newcomers’ ingratiation generally had negative effect on initial LMX, this negative effect of supervisors’ perceived ingratiation on LMX trajectory could be buffered by supervisors’ self-enhancement tendency. In addition, we found that controlling for initial LMX, LMX trajectory was positively related to several socialization outcomes. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed."