Subordinates’ helping, voice, and supervisors’ evaluation of job performance : The moderating effects of supervisor-attributed motives

Purpose It is recognized that employees’ helping and voice behaviors are dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior used by supervisors to evaluate their job performance. However, existing empirical studies of these relationships have shown inconsistent findings. From the perspective of attributional theory, the purpose of this paper is to explain when subordinates’ helping and voice behaviors are more positively related to job performance by considering supervisor-attributed prosocial and impression management motives. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 200 supervisors in South Korea, the authors tested the hypotheses with hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Findings Results indicate that the positive effects of helping and voice behaviors on job performance were stronger when supervisors attributed such behaviors as driven less by impression management motives related to self-interest. However, contrary to the expectations, the positive influences of helping and voice behaviors on job performance were stronger when supervisors perceived low prosocial motives. Practical implications Findings suggest that supervisors need to avoid making the wrong attributions with regard to their subordinates’ helping and voice behaviors during the evaluation process. In addition, subordinates need to have clear motives and demonstrate consistent behavioral stances when engaging in such behaviors. Originality/value Using social information theory and attribution theory, this study contributes to explain when helping and voice behaviors improve evaluations of employees’ job performances by considering supervisor-attributed motives.