When does an employee not help coworkers? The effect of leader-member exchange on employee envy and organizational citizenship behavior

Using a sample of 233 front-line hotel employees, we examined leader-member exchange (LMX), envy, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) The results from path analysis support the research model that employees who have a relatively poor working relationship with their supervisor (i e, low-quality LMX relationship) were more likely to show higher levels of envy than employees who have relatively closer working relationships with the same super visor (re, high-quality LMX relationship) Ultimately, higher levels of envy decreased employee voluntary helping behavior (i e, organizational citizenship behavior, OCB) toward coworkers This finding suggests that employees perceiving a poor working relationship with their super visor committed less voluntary helping behavior toward coworkers than their counterparts Implications for managers and suggestions for future research are discussed (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved