DOI: 10.6129/CJP.20150309
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2015, Vol.57, No.2, 155-176

Does One Take the Behavior of One’s Company? -- The Peer Influence of Frontline Employees, and the Moderating Effects of Moral Leadership and Self-Esteem

Feng-Hsia Kao（Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University）；Bor-Shiuan Cheng（Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University）；Min-Ping Huang（College of Management, Yuan Ze University）

Abstract

The influence of peer behavior on individual behavior is an important topic in work group research. However, most previous research focused on examining that people learned the same behavior from peers, but rarely examined the generalized effects. In order to fill this theoretical gap, we based on social learning theory and considered positive and negative behavior at the same time, explored the influence of peers’ service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (positive behavior) and service sabotage (negative behavior) on individual service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior and service sabotage, and examined the moderating effects of moral leadership and self-esteem. 539 frontline employees in 40 hotels were enrolled in this study. The results showed that peer service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior was positively related to individual service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Peer service sabotage was positively related to individual service sabotage, but negatively related to service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, moral leadership and self-esteem would moderate the relationship between peer service sabotage and individual service sabotage. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Keywords: peer influence, service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, service sabotage, moral  leadership, self-esteem