教练型领导对下属职业成功的影响机制研究

Research on the influence mechanisms of coaching leadership on subordinates’career success

教练型领导能够有针对性地指导和启发下属智慧,最大限度地激发下属职业潜力,对有效预测下属的职业成功具有先天优势,但相关研究不足。本研究基于资源保存理论并引入上司政治技能,探索教练型领导对下属职业成功的影响机制,通过对323组配对数据的统计分析结果表明:教练型领导与下属职业成功(包括主观职业成功和客观职业成功)正相关;上下级关系(关系资源)和情感承诺(契约资源)中介了教练型领导对员工职业成功的影响,上司政治技能显著正向调节教练型领导通过上下级关系影响下属职业成功的中介作用,但是教练型领导通过情感承诺影响下属职业成功的中介作用并不受上司政治技能的调节。本文的研究结论丰富了领导行为与下属职业成功之间的中介机制,而且上司政治技能这一边界条件的引入,能够更好地诠释教练型领导对下属职业成功影响过程的实质。

The role of human capital in corporate competition has become increasingly prominent in today’s society.Both companies and employees are aware of the value of human capital,and pay more attention to its utilization and development.This makes employees face more pressure and challenges in their career development,but they also expect to achieve career success.Career success is not just an employee’s personal business.As companies and their employees pay more and more attention to career development,new challenges have been raised for corporate management practices,and corporate managers are also thinking about how to help employees achieve professional success.In this context,the traditional leadership style of"command and hierarchy"has gradually outdated,and a new leadership of"inspiration and equality"which effectively cultivate employees and realize organizational long-term development(that is managerial coaching)has emerged.Managerial coaching leadership refers to a supervisor/manager uses professional coaching techniques to develop employees’abilities and improve organizational performance.The huge advantages of"win-win for both employees and organizations"have received widely recognition in the practice.For example,American Public Personnel Management showed that,compared to the additive productivity by 22.4%in enterprises with only training,productivity can be added to 88%in the enterprises with both training and coaching.A survey from the UK also reveals that three out of four enterprises are experiencing managerial coaching practices and its significance is growing.The existing research of managerial coaching mainly focus on its influences on enhancing employees’psychology,attitudes,and performance,but employees’personal growth and career development are neglected.Therefore,it is timely to understand the effect of managerial coaching on employees’career success and its underlying mechanisms in Chinese context.In sum,our study based on the relevant theories and research,aims to explore the relationship between coaching leadership and employees’career success(including subjective career success and objective career success).In particular,drawing on conservation of resources theory,this study tries to explore whether,how,and when coaching leadership can influence employees’career success,especially employing supervisor-subordinate guanxi and affective organizational commitment as mediating variables and supervisor political skill as a moderating variable.The sample comes from a large state-owned construction company in Shanghai.To reduce the common method bias,we collected the data from employees and their direct superiors.The employee’s questionnaire consisted of the measures of supervisor-subordinate guanxi,affective organizational commitment,career success,and coaching leadership.Each supervisor was asked to rate his or her political skill.The statistical analysis of 323 pairs of matched data shows that managerial coaching is positively related to employees’career success.The stronger managerial coaching is,the higher career competitiveness and satisfaction of employees are,which further leads to subjective and objective career success.This is consistent with the previous research that leadership behaviors have an important impact on employees’career development.Second,we verified the mediating roles of supervisor-subordinate guanxi and affective organizational commitment.Both the two variables mediate the relationship between managerial coaching and employees’subjective career success,as well as employees’objective career success.That is to say,supervisor-subordinate guanxi and affective organizational commitment are the positive consequences of managerial coaching,which in turn influence employees’career success.Third,the indirect effect of managerial coaching on employees’career success through supervisor-subordinate guanxi is moderated by supervisor political skills.However,the indirect effect of managerial coaching on employees’career success through affective organizational commitment is not moderated by supervisor political skills,that is,there is no significant difference between high and low level of supervisor political skills.Although scholars began to notice the influence of leadership behaviors on employees’career development,the relevant research is still in the early stage,and the intervening mechanism is even less explored.To fill this void,our study,based on the unique cultural framework in Chinese context,shows that managerial coaching has a positive impact on employees’career success through supervisorsubordinate guanxi and affective organizational commitment.This mechanism is the first to be found,which enriches the underlying mechanism between leadership behavior and employees’career success.In another perspective,our study adopting the contingency viewpoint,introduces the moderating role of supervisor political skills in the relationship between managerial coaching and employees’career success.By establishing the moderated mediation framework,our study helps to explain the process of coaching leadership’s influence on employees’career success in a deep and accurate way.