A Review of Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi: Current Trends and Future Research

Abstract

Supervisor–subordinate guanxi is an emerging research area in assessing the link between superior and subordinate inside an organization, and due to its significance in the Chinese setting, this topic has become widely attractive. Yet, because this concept still needs attention to understand the dynamics of guanxi, more research on the content, antecedents and other expert opinions of supervisor–subordinate guanxi is required. In light of the literature review, this study will make a commentary on the findings of both domestic and international research on supervisor–subordinate guanxi from the perspective of the following three aspects: supervisor–subordinate guanxi’s content, its antecedents, functions, and its findings. Finally, it will highlight the dearth of recent research and suggest future directions for supervisor–subordinate guanxi research.

1. Introduction

Guanxi significantly impacts people’s daily lives, business operations, personnel management, and economic activities in Chinese culture [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. In China, the term guanxi is essentially used for successfully completing any task in society or at the workplace [8]. Guanxi shows the quality of interpersonal or reciprocal relationships between the parties (peoples) to fulfil their personal/professional objectives [3,7]. Moreover, generally in Chinese society, the word ‘guanxi’ describes the personal connection between the people for active teamwork [9]. The positive side of guanxi is vast, as this Chinese concept represents the personal and social networks of the people with positive gestures of mutual interests, hobbies, gifts, and economies [8]. Moreover, when guanxi is established between parties, they try to accomplish the reciprocated expectations in the present and future [10,11].

Nevertheless, the relationship between supervisor and subordinate is elaborated in different cultures, for instance, leader-member exchange (LMX) is most common in west [12]. Although supervisor subordinate guanxi (SSG) and LMX share a foundation in social exchange theory, there are significant differences between these two notions. First, SSG and LMX are different from one another due to their various cultural roots and varying meanings [9]. For instance, SSG, a construct established in an eastern environment, incorporates contacts and social exchanges mostly outside of work, whereas LMX, a construct developed within the western setting, is generally restricted to the quality of personal relationships at work [3,13]. LMX usually arises from supervisor–subordinate employment relationships instead of personal links [14]. Contrarily, SSG evolves over time due to non-work-connected and informal connections between supervisors and their subordinates [15]. For instance, it is common for Chinese employees to pay a visit to their supervisor’s home, give presents on significant occasions (such as the supervisor’s birthday), show concern for their supervisor’s family, contact them after work, and extend an invitation to dine with them [3]. In conclusion, the first distinction emerged in a recent study, where LMX is thought to be a work tie, and SSG is postulated as a non-work bond [15]. Moreover, Gao et al. [16,17] elaborated that ‘guanxi gateway’ linkages (a form of barrier for foreigners to enter the Chinese guanxi network) can aid others in entering the Chinese system to conduct business or establish long-term relationships with Chinese individuals [18]. The inner circles require a certain level of intercultural contact; therefore, western business people cannot simply penetrate them [19]. These circumstances can be improved with the assistance of Chinese-western management, making it possible to use insider and outsider networking [17]. However, due to the distinct western values, Westerners cannot sustain their contact with the Chinese internal network for a longer period of time [20]. This research showed some important distinctions between Western personal networking and Chinese guanxi [21]. Generally, guanxi is categorized into three major typologies, i.e., guanxi quality, guanxi type, and guanxi practices [13]. Quality-wise, guanxi is termed into different categories, i.e., “jiaren guanxi (family members), shouren guanxi (familiar persons such as supervisors, colleagues and friends) and shengren guanxi (mere acquaintances or strangers)” [22]. In the present literature review, we only focus on guanxi quality in the form of SSG which is a kind of shouren guanxi [23] through which reciprocation of favors and friendliness are encouraged for the establishment of conditional interrelationship [22].

2. Theoretical and Literature Review

2.1. Theoretical Review

The phenomenon of SSG has been explained through numerous theoretical lenses in the literature, where some theoretical notions consider SSG as a social exchange, an organizational environment, a physical and psychological source, an attachment of humans and a subjective norm for the demonstration of specific behavior [1,12]. Several theories, social exchange theory, social cognitive theory, the conversation of resource theory, attachment theory and the theory of reasoned action, provide a theoretical foundation for explaining the SSG phenomenon.

2.1.1. Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange theory (SET) explains that organizations, being a forum of transactions and exchange, form different exchange relationships, i.e., social and economic exchange [24,25,26]. Moreover, meaningful relationships and exchanges of socio-emotional advantages with open-ended responsibilities based on reciprocal trust and commitment after repeated benefit interactions are the underpinnings of social exchange [12,27]. In comparison, economic interaction is mainly used to correspond with the sharing of tangible resources between exchange stakeholders [12,27]. Through this distinction, SSG is clearly a social exchange because it is spontaneous, inherent, intimate, and less logistical [28]. From the perspective of social exchange, a higher level of SSG contributes to subordinates sharing their thoughts, ideas, needs, and problems with their supervisors [12]; moreover, guanxi at the workplace is beneficial for the subordinates for the fulfilment of certain functions through the social exchange demanded by the organizations [29]. In return, this social exchange motivates the supervisors to use informal means of communication to solve complex problems with the support of subordinates [12,30]. In addition, subordinates obtain social and economic benefits through SSG, i.e., higher self-esteem and career development opportunities [30]. Moreover, employee behavior can be more comfortably inspired by a code of conduct and the guidance of well-connected leaders [6]. Based on the rule of exchange, individuals show their positive behaviors and attitudes toward team development, which becomes beneficial for the organization and, in return, they can gain the support and trust of their leaders [16].

2.1.2. Social Cognitive Theory

From the perspective of social cognitive theory (SCT), employees feel valued, and their supervisors acknowledge their capabilities, spend their maximum time at the workplace, and show their pleasure with the higher level of guanxi by showing their commitment and loyalty to the supervisors [31]. Additionally, SCT explains that a higher level of SSG provides a higher level of confidence to the subordinates in the form of information, which enables the individuals to attain more opportunities and accomplish their daily tasks effectively [2]. The SCT also enlightens the supervisor–subordinate relationship in the form of guanxi; and explains that individuals usually control their thoughts [32] and try to engage themselves in moral behaviors at the workplace; the guanxi relationships, which are based on trust, support, care, and emotions, also encourage and motivate the subordinates to demonstrate moral and ethical behaviors. Moreover, SCT explains that a harmonious workplace relationship between supervisor and subordinate provides relaxation and psychological safety [33]; based on this notion, we can say that the guanxi relationship also provides a comfortable environment to the subordinates, through which they freely and willingly share their knowledge, thoughts and innovative ideas [34,35] with their leaders/supervisors. According to the SCT, when individuals genuinely think they have access to the environment in matters that are meaningful to them, they are energized to wholeheartedly exercise their unique efficacy, increasing their chances of progress [36]. SCT further explains that the behaviors of the employees are also influenced by the social context and organizational environment [37]. In other words, according to SCT, when employees feel an environment of trust and empowerment at the workplace, they react positively [38], as guanxi interaction also provides a sense of psychological safety, empowerment, care and trust [39]; therefore, in turn, subordinates demonstrate positive extra-role behaviors, i.e., creative and innovative work behaviors, organizational citizenship behaviors, etc.

2.1.3. Conservation of Resource Theory

According to the conservation of resource theory (COR), people are strongly willing to obtain, preserve, nurture, and preserve precious resources [40]. In other words, people not only employ the resources (i.e., physical and psychological) to respond to work pressure and stress effectively, but also to build the reservoir of the resources so that they can effectively compete for the future needs of resources [22,40]. Moreover, the threat of loss of resources (i.e., physical and psychological) becomes the cause of pressure and tension, leading to several negative responses at the workplace, i.e., depression, emotional exhaustion, and burnout [41,42]. Researchers further indicated that COR theory supports that employees feel motivated by creating, increasing, and maintaining their resources, enabling them to cope with workplace stress [43]. Moreover, employees feel motivated to protect and invest their current resources to acquire new resources [43,44]. From the perspective of resources (i.e., physical and psychological), the mechanism of SSG improves the subordinates’ resources, enabling them to work harder by reshaping their job tasks, utilizing their experiences, skills, and abilities [45]. Researchers argued that SSG, being a personal social resource, enables individuals to build up their resources (i.e., supervisor support, developmental opportunity, and job autonomy), which enables the subordinates to invest further in these resources, being additional resources (i.e., job crafting), to meet the job demands which resultantly produce higher performance [22]. Scholars found that COR theory further explains that SSG enables the employees to craft their jobs by utilizing their resources and for the attainment of personal and organizational goals [22,40].

2.1.4. Attachment Theory

This study focuses on relationship-based close relationships to examine the crucial mechanisms involved in the SSG and employees’ work behaviors. Attachment theory (AT), an evolutionary–biological theory of human social and interactive behavior initially developed by John Bowlby [46,47], is widely considered one of the utmost persuasive empirically based theories of human behavior [48,49,50]. Attachment theory analyzes the development and quality of interpersonal connections, particularly under times of stress, ambiguity, and anxiety. Although AT was primarily designed to examine the integrity and strength of infant–mother relations, it has been expanded by the critical work of Hazan and Shaver [51] and Popper and Mayseless [52] to comprise adult partnerships and adult connections at work, in groups and organizations. Strong relationships provide support for the vulnerable person in addition to shelter during difficult situations. The behavior involves a system that is a collection of actions engaged throughout life to relieve anxious, unpleasant, or ambiguous situations. When triggered, this attachment system produces the following effects: First, the individual desires physical and/or psychological proximity to his or her secure attachment. According to research, an attachment figure serves as a source of safety, solace, and support when they are in need [53]. Likewise, we assume that SSG enables employees to be psychologically empowered. Moreover, the attachment figure provides a secure base, permitting the individual to explore or follow his/her goals in a safe environment which enables the trust factor to be the major reason that provides leaders to concentrate on the requirements of their followers [54]. Employees and supervisors work together based on mutual trust with psychological empowerment to gain mastery of their organizational climate [53]. Supervisor–subordinate guanxi helps employees to deal with organizational challenges by enabling them to see the organizational change in a favorable light, giving them practical methods for enabling followers/subordinates to trust the supervisor and giving them constructive coping mechanisms for handling organizational stress, anxiety, and ambiguity. Additionally, SSG fosters innovative employee ideas, skills enhancement, and personal development [52]. A strong SSG relationship reduces stress brought on by competing pressures, protects the follower/subordinate from unnecessary hazard, ambiguity, and uncertainty that may occur in problem-solving, development, and innovation, and gives the job of the follower/subordinate meaning and value in the workplace [7,13,55,56,57]. When a follower feels comfortable to “investigate” or take measures without fear of consequences, the follower consistently displays a high work engagement [58].

2.2. Literature Review

It is well-known that guanxi is a common and significant practice in Chinese society (e.g., [59,60,61]). For instance, research has shown that managers support recognizing and promoting staff members with whom they have positive interpersonal relations [3]. The term “guanxi practice” refers to the practice of allowing SSG to determine how meaningful work incentives are distributed. As a result, guanxi is based on interpersonal trust and intensely personal interactions that are frequently boosted by the exchange of benefits and gifts [6,62,63,64]. Lin [65] found that guanxi is regarded as a social network of reciprocal ties through materiality and time investment.

2.2.1. Conceptualization of Supervisor Subordinate Guanxi

Guanxi is a Chinese terminology based on two words, “Guan”, which represents the Chinese meaning gateway or door and “xi”, which means a link (between two persons, group members, or party) or a system [3]. Guanxi describes social links or dyadic relationships between people that are implicitly based on their shared interests and advantages [65,66,67]. It is a typical approach to social interaction in China and has been extensively applied for practical purposes [65]. In China, the supervisor and subordinate relationships are based on the guanxi philosophy [45]. Moreover, SSG is related to the personal connection and communication level of a subordinate with their supervisors, which they developed from non-work and work-related interactions [1,30,68]. Chen and Tjosvold [9] described guanxi from a personal perspective as ‘personal guanxi’, a private mode of communication and exchange through which persons interlink. Moreover, Chou et al. [69] describe guanxi as “a subordinate’s perception of the degree of the quality of work relationship that determines expected behaviors and reciprocal treatment”.

2.2.2. Guanxi and Organizational Management

Traditional Chinese lifestyle recognized guanxi as a key success factor in daily social life and the business world [70]. In particular, guanxi has received extensive attention in various academic fields, including philosophy [8], strategic management [71], sociology [72], ethics [73], and organizational behavior [9,31,74,75], to name just a few. In the workplace setting, guanxi describes social links or dyadic relationships between individuals that are implicitly based on their shared interests and benefits [12,76]. Research on SSG shows that this construct is based on three essential components, i.e., deference to supervisor, affective attachment, and personal life inclusion [1]. Moreover, personal life inclusion and affective attachment represent the features of social exchange and communal sharing; in contrast, deference to the supervisor shows the power distance, which is the essential characteristic of an authority [1]. In contrast, Zhai et al. [77] explained SSG into five components, i.e., ganqing (affect), renqing mutual exchange of courtesy), personal life inclusion, face, and trust. In other words, SSG relates to the personal relationship between supervisor and subordinate outside the workplace boundary limits, which is based on affective interaction, personal communication, and responsibility recognition [68]. Higher level guanxi between supervisor and subordinate creates a trustworthy relationship. In addition, supervisors help their subordinates by providing extra (physical and psychological) resources and opportunities [45,78], which enables career development and advancement. Guanxi, being a two-sided mirror, helps the organization toward the achievement of organizational objectives; guanxi from the supervisor–subordinate perspective shows a higher level of respect and tolerance for supervisors and individuals [12]; in contrast, guanxi from the co-worker perspective shows a higher level of cooperation between the employees at the workplace and after work as well [79]. It has been observed that the performance of subordinates, i.e., in-role and extra-role behaviors and other workplace outcomes (e.g., higher productivity, well-being, innovative and creative behaviors) are influenced by the quality of relationships with the supervisors [14,80,81,82]. Additionally, guanxi at the workplace acts as a tool to solve complex job problems with the help of others, which is resultantly beneficial for career success [60]. Earlier studies found SSG as a crucial tool for the effectiveness of human resources, which alternatively produces positive organizational outcomes [30]. Several studies suggested that a higher level of SSG becomes the cause of development in the organizational working, i.e., improvement in routine supervisory/managerial decisions [3], contribution to the constructive controversy [9], empowerment of participatory supervision [30], and simplification of the subordinates’ career plans [4].

2.3. Empirical studies on Supervisor Subordinate Guanxi

Guanxi ties, as revealed by empirical studies, do exist in the reality of contemporary Chinese society. Guanxi is regarded as a crucial and significant factor in successful human resource management [83,84,85]. First, the supervisor interacts often with subordinates on a daily basis as an organizational agent, carrying out the official and informal procedures of organizational activities [86]. These work connections with their subordinates are an essential component of any professional reality [86]. Formal, official work ties cannot be easily distinguished from informal, unofficial guanxi relationships between superiors and subordinates. Guanxi between superiors and subordinates would enhance successful organizational achievements [87]. For instance, it was discovered that strong guanxi relationships between a supervisor and a subordinate were the source of the subordinates’ high level of trust in their superiors [11,31,74,75], a greater degree of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and decreased turnover [11], a higher degree of in-role performance [11,28,68,69], mutual decision making and open communication between joint business managers and staff [9,76], together with professional success [88,89]. Additionally, empirical studies revealed that strong guanxi relationships between superiors and subordinates at work enhanced social interactions beyond the workplace [3]. Some scholars have noted that guanxi is helpful in resolving day-to-day working issues and essential for job search success [90]. Trompenaars et al. [91] found that in western cultures, neither superiors nor subordinates may assume the right to interfere in the personal affairs of the other. Nevertheless, there is no distinct division between personal and organizational life in “diffuse” cultures like China. The entirety of a person would indeed be involved in a business partnership, and such a relationship would require time to develop [12]. Through everyday engagement with their managers, Chinese employees are more likely to form relationships with their organization [92]. Guanxi between superiors and subordinates would aid in the achievement of organizational objectives and outcomes.

From the perspective of antecedent variables of SSG, earlier research evidenced that different factors influence SSG. For instance, different factors influence the SSG directly, such as organizational factors, i.e., organizational justice (e.g., distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice) [29], and personal factors, i.e., political skills [4,93], and corporate social responsibility (CSR) [94]. Furthermore, leadership style also works as a precursor of high-quality guanxi. It has been observed in earlier studies that leadership style is also a major factor influencing the behaviors and attitudes of subordinates in the workplace [95]. In contrast, leaders’ personal and moral characteristics also influence their subordinates’ professional and personal lives [96], which may resultantly increase the subordinates’ organizational performance and work-life balance. It is natural that subordinates/followers get inspiration from their leaders and try to adopt the personal characteristics of their leaders, i.e., professionalism, honesty, morality, ethics, fairness, kindness, humanity and self-sacrifice [96,97]. Earlier studies reveal that positive leadership styles, i.e., ethical leadership [96], humble leadership [98], participative leadership [68], subordinate-oriented strengths-based leadership [99], and trust in subordinates [100] become the cause of high-quality guanxi relationships between supervisors and subordinates. On the other side, negative leadership styles, i.e., abusive supervision [101], cannot meet the expectations of their subordinates’ favorable social and professional interactions, which decreases their subordinates’ trust in their supervisors and leads to low-level guanxi.

Supervisor–subordinate guanxi, being a tool of success, facilitates the organizations to achieve positive outcomes. In contrast, subordinates/followers accomplish risky and challenging tasks with high-quality guanxi links. Moreover, SSG also facilitates individuals in attaining personal goals and career success. Specifically, earlier studies demonstrated that SSG could be helpful for the promotion of specific behaviors of employees at the workplace, i.e., enhancement of organizational citizenship behaviors [11,12,22,30,102,103], innovative behavior [12,16,104], employee voice behavior [105], employees’ promotive and prohibitive voice [64], compliance behavior [104], and increase constructive voice [56]. Further, SSG also enables individuals to demonstrate certain attitudes at the workplace, i.e., job satisfaction [106], trust in leadership [107], promote in-role performance [31,74], increase organizational commitment [12,16,102], psychological safety and affective commitment [108], improve work meaningfulness and thriving [109], task performance and job crafting [22], perceived organizational support [102], trust in supervisor [103], psychological empowerment and psychological ownership [110], and personal well-being [111]. In contrast, higher levels of guanxi association between supervisors and subordinates also influence the negative attitudes and behaviors of the individuals at the workplace, i.e., reduction in turnover [11,12,30], knowledge-hiding behavior from employees [35], and emotional exhaustion [112].

Recently, scholars have been paying attention to the different aspects of SSG, such as its mediating role in many organizational outcomes. A guanxi link between supervisor and subordinate is similar to a relationship between ‘father’ and ‘child’; therefore, a good SSG helps the employees have smooth working conditions, which helps them to reduce conflict at the workplace and in the family [113,114]. Leadership support also reduces the work pressure from the employees, which resultantly reduces the work–family conflict chances [114] and increases the chances of organizational targets set by the management. Therefore, the working relationship between subordinates and supervisors, especially under the umbrella of SSG through trust, helps the organizations to fulfil organizational objectives and reciprocally facilitate the employees through fair rewards at the workplace and after work [3,29]. Using the quality relationship of guanxi, the employees also receive exceptional help, care, and physical and psychological resources; this support by the leadership enables and encourages them to reduce professional pressure and negative emotions, i.e., anxiety, stress, depression, and emotional exhaustion [3,115,116]. From the perspective of mediating impact of SSG, a recent study conducted by Zhang, Liu, and Xiao [117] showed that there is no such mediating role of SSG between the relationship of Taoism and employee low-carbon behavior. These findings elaborated that Taoism cannot provide an environment of trust between supervisors and subordinates, which is the basic foundation for establishing guanxi. Yang, Shen, and Ma [98] pointed out the relationship between perceived leader integrity and job performance is mediated by SSG. In other words, employees obtain encouragement from the integrity of their leadership, which creates a relationship of guanxi that further helps them demonstrate higher performance. It has also been observed that SSG partially mediates the positive relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee creative behavior [94]. These findings also highlight the importance of SSG, which helps employees demonstrate creative behaviors at the workplace in the presence of corporate social responsibility. A study by Tang, Miao, and Jiang [93] revealed that SSG mediates the relationship between employee political skills and work–family conflict of employees. These findings further explain that employees’ political skills help them establish trust in their supervisors, which leads to high-quality SSG through which employees try to reduce work–family conflicts [118]. The study conducted by Cai et al. [68] showed that participative leadership influences the SSG, which further affects employee creativity, which shows that SSG becomes the cause of employee creativity with the support of participative leadership. When leaders, during the decision-making process, invite their subordinates, this participation process creates a level of trust, cooperation and fairness between supervisors and their subordinates, which not only creates SSG but also fulfill the exceptional expectations of the subordinates. Furthermore, earlier studies also evidenced that SSG partially mediates the relationship between subordinate-related strengths-based leadership and task performance and innovative behavior [99]. When leaders support their subordinates in the acquisition of knowledge, learning and motivation for the attainment of different skills and abilities, this act of leadership boosts the level of trust between supervisors and subordinates, which is the foundation of SSG; resultantly, these positive relationships lead to extraordinary individual outcomes, i.e., innovative and creative behaviors.

Moreover, guanxi represents the positive and reciprocal relationship between leader/supervisor and subordinate based on mutual interest, identity, or emotional obligations; it may also be due to mutual obligations or emotions [119]. SSG developed between leader/supervisor and subordinate with continuous social relations at the workplace [68]. Positive leadership, i.e., humble and participative, took the initiative for the participation of their subordinates for consultation, discussion, and involvement during the decision-making process at the workplace. This participation provided a foundation for respectable interaction, which led to SSG [68]. Employees obtain physical and psychological resources through guanxi relations; a higher level of SSG provides higher resources through higher trust between leader/supervisor and subordinate, whereas a lower level of SSG affects the outcomes of employees [45,119]. The guanxi culture influences Chinese organizations, and due to this, the subordinates’ work and family lives are influenced by SSG [45,72], which positively impacts the workplace and society. Moreover, supervisors in this society especially simplify high-quality SSG, which is beneficial for the organizational citizens and members and influences the organizational effectiveness in a positive way [12,120]. In contrast, subordinates also like the SSG. For the higher level of SSG, subordinates make maximum efforts to get the mutual and maximum benefits as in the emerging economy of China; there is a freedom of decision making in the organizations as per the will of the leader/supervisor [15] for the benefits and organizational achievements.

Nowadays several scholars use SSG as a moderator, and the findings of several studies show that interpersonal relationships between supervisor and subordinate with higher guanxi are the key success factors for organizations and the positive behaviors of the employees [57]. A recent study conducted by Wu and Ma [45] found that SSG moderates the association between perceived overqualification and job crafting. These findings highlight the importance of SSG and explain that higher levels of SSG provide psychological resources that encourage the employees to work hard by reshaping the working routines according to their abilities and skills [45]. Moreover, Su et al. [6] showed that SSG moderated the relationship between self-sacrificial leadership and employees’ knowledge sharing. Meanwhile, a more extraordinary relationship of leadership with the subordinates creates more trust in supervision, shaping a higher level of SSG that encourages and motivates the subordinates to share knowledge at the workplace. In addition, it has also been found that a higher level of SSG plays a vital role in enhancing career growth opportunities with the support of transformational leadership [121]. A higher level of support of transformational leaders provides a foundation for higher quality SSG, which provides motivational and cognitive support to the subordinates, enabling them to achieve career growth opportunities. A study conducted by Jamil and Yukongdi [122] also proved that high-quality SSG improves employees’ innovative work behaviors with participatory management. A higher level of SSG helps the subordinates with the support of higher participatory management and enables them to improve innovative work behaviors. Moreover, a higher level of SSG, being a moderator, weakens the supervisor incivility and psychological safety relationships; in other words, employees feel psychologically safe with higher guanxi even with an uncivil supervisor [55]. Because the quality of the relationship between the supervisor and subordinate in the form of SSG creates harmony and trust, which reduces the negative emotional state, i.e., incivility, and increases employees’ perception of their psychological safety at the workplace, in line with this, we can say that SSG is an imperative tool for employees’ physical and psychological well-being, encouraging them towards positive outcomes. The study by Li, Duverger and Yu [123] showed that a higher level of SSG moderates the perceived organizational support and affective commitment relationships; in contrast, a lower level of SSG also moderates the association between perceived organizational support and pre-quitting behaviors of employees. Moderation of SSG also reduces negative behaviors with the support of the predictor variable, as shown in the study of He et al. [124], where the interaction of SSG and compulsory citizenship behaviors reduces moral disengagement. These findings shows that social interaction of supervisor and subordinates in terms of guanxi increases the positive behaviors in the form of compulsory citizenship behaviors; in contrast, support and motivation of supervisors increase the psychological well-being of subordinates, which forces the reduction in moral disengagement.

3. Literature Search

To conduct the literature review, the appropriate articles, i.e., guanxi, SSG, and related outcomes, i.e., creativity and innovative work behaviors, job performance, career growth, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, job crafting, intention to quit, organizational commitment, trust in supervisor, distributive and procedural justice, voice behaviors, work meaningfulness, self-efficacy, knowledge sharing/hiding, psychological ownership, and psychological safety, empowerment, promotive and prohibited voice, stress, work–family conflict, perceived overqualifications, moral disengagement, and emotional exhaustion, were searched. For that purpose, in the first phase, we searched for literature using electronic databases, i.e., Google Scholar, Google, ProQuest, SSCI, EBSCO Host, PsycNET, ABI/INFORM, and Scopus; in the second phase, we analyzed the organizational behavior, business ethics, human resource management, psychology, strategic management, personality, business, and management journals, and in the last phase the conference papers from the conferences, i.e., International Association for Chinese Management Research, British Academy of Management, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Academy of Management, and Southern Management Association, especially the ones from the last decade. In the present literature review, both qualitative and quantitative articles were included to find the correlation of guanxi with other outcome variables and the effect of guanxi as a mediator and moderator. Moreover, this review includes the studies conducted with a sample of professionals (e.g., real employees working in an organization) instead of students.

4. Discussion

The above discussion about the SSG has been made by reviewing the literature from the last decade to determine SSG’s various roles (i.e., predictor, mediator, and moderator). It is found that SSG predicts a list of behavioral and attitudinal outcomes. The findings of this literature review show that employees who perceive a higher level of SSG become an excellent human capital asset for the organizations by showing higher performance and extra-role behaviors [12]. In contrast, the higher perception of employees about the SSG also enables them to show their workplace position as good organizational citizens and committed workers, and they show a higher level of trust in their supervisors due to higher SSG [12]. Moreover, the literature review of this study demonstrates that the supervisors/managers providing higher quality level SSG to the subordinates will produce good organizational citizens and members, which plays an imperative role in the achievement of organizational goals and organizational effectiveness as well [12,120]. In contrast, higher-level SSG also facilitates the subordinates from their supervisors through career success and personal identity given by the organizations [12,79].

The present study’s findings set several directions for future research. This review of the literature shows the positive outcomes of the SSG in the form of positive attitudes and behaviors at the workplace. However, it is found in the review process that there is a need for research on how SSG reduces employees’ negative behaviors and attitudes, i.e., counterproductive work behaviors [12], workplace incivility, and psychological distress. Additionally, it has also been found during this review that fewer studies tested the antecedents of the SSG, and there is a need to work on the antecedents of the SSG [57] by explaining the reasons why individuals want to build SSG and what the factors which influence the level of SSG are, i.e., negative (dark triad) and positive (agreeableness, extrovert, introvert and consciousness) personality characteristics, as individuals build guanxi at and outside the workplace and the personal interaction of individuals is also involved during the process of guanxi. Several studies test SSG as a moderator with different positive attitudes and behaviors, but earlier scholars neglected the moderating role of SSG to weaken the negative relationships between predictor and criterion variables. From the perspective of social exchange and conservation of resources, there is a need to research the moderating role of SSG further to reduce the harmful attitudes and behaviors of the employees, which not only affect their performance but also affect their psychological and physical health and personal life (e.g., work–family conflict and work–family balance).

4.1. Limitations and Future directions

This study has certain limitations. The present study only focuses on the term guanxi because of the supervisor–subordinate relationship; future studies can assess the guanxi concept in other cultural aspects, especially in comparison with developed and developing economies in the context of Chinese and non-Chinese populations. Further, this study focuses on the guanxi concept only in China; there is a chance that guanxi may exist in other cultures with different social terms. Moreover, this study is based on previous studies conducted on guanxi in China; future research can be done to investigate the impact of Chinese guanxi culture on other cultures in terms of business relationships. Moreover, the researchers of this study suggested that the results would be interesting if tested in those countries where Chinese firms work and compared the phenomenon of guanxi with Chinese and non-Chinese employees. Furthermore, the review of the SSG phenomenon reveals that there is a need for research to determine the influence of personal factors on the relationship of SSG as antecedents, i.e., personality traits (i.e., positive and negative personality), proactive personality, etc. In contrast, the findings of this study also suggested that it would be interesting if future researchers use negative leadership styles (i.e., despotic leadership and dark leadership) as antecedents of SSG to determine the influence of these leaders on the supervisor–subordinate relationship in terms of guanxi. In addition, it would be interesting if future researchers examine the influence of positive leadership styles (i.e., strategic leadership, self-sacrifice leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, visionary leadership, situational leadership, transformational and transactional leadership) on guanxi relationships.

4.2. Practical Implications

Supervisor–subordinate social interactions in the form of SSG play a vital role in enhancing positive outcomes and reducing negative emotions at the workplace. Organizations that enhance the quality of SSG maintain and retain the human capital in the organizations, and higher quality of SSG provides a relaxed and comfortable work environment that enables the subordinates to cope with work stressors and emotional exhaustion [112]. In contrast, a good relationship between the leader/supervisor and the subordinate provides physical and psychological resources to the employees, enhancing trust in the leader/supervisor, encouraging employees to redesign their job responsibilities, and leading to creativity and innovation [45,125]. Moreover, as our planet is suffering from global warming, we need to take steps regarding the awareness of responsible behaviors in society and the workplace. By establishing an employee-friendly work environment, organizations can foster a higher quality of SSG, engage and encourage the subordinates towards green behaviors, especially important in Chinese society, to meet the 2060 target of a carbon-free natural society [117,126]. Effective communication and the support of leaders create mutual trust and positive social interaction between leaders and subordinates [127] in the form of guanxi, which leads to a trustful and harmonious workplace environment [29]. A higher quality SSG shows a positive gesture in the form of care and emotional attachment that leads to higher psychological safety, satisfaction, and commitment, which are the major components for achieving organizational objectives [16,108]. Through the cultivation of higher SSG, organizations provide psychological safety to the workforce, which becomes the cause of their commitment to the organization, which increases higher individual and organizational performance [98] and may reduce the cost of accomplishing organizational goals. Naturally, subordinates follow their leaders, so the organizations must pay attention to the personal character assessment of the leaders [6]. On the other hand, a knowledgeable and responsible workforce is considered great intellectual capital. Quality social interaction between leaders and subordinates in the form of SSG guides, encourages, motivates and fosters this capital for the utilization of existing knowledge through the sharing of knowledge as a professional obligation which leads to the achievement of collective (individual and organizational) goals [6].

5. Conclusions

As China is an attractive and important international market and a lot of foreign projects function there, different research lines have provided helpful information for foreign ventures to manage efficiently in China. It is generally recognized that the practice of guanxi is widespread and imperative in Chinese society [18,59,128,129]. Earlier research on guanxi has focused on connecting guanxi with organizational and individual outcomes. In addition, previous research work specifies that guanxi practice comprises a social dilemma [130]. Moreover, China is one of the world’s largest emerging economies; it has experienced rapid growth and development in recent decades in every field of life; consequently, and there has been a significant amount of research devoted entirely to trying to investigate indigenous Chinese methodologies, one of which is SSG. In the present review of literature, we took articles, especially from the last decade, and found that SSG predicts several positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. This study presented a set of recommendations from theoretical and empirical viewpoints to assist future investigations so that the SSG concept can attain its comprehensive prospects.