Although a great deal of knowledge has accumulated about dyadic relationships (i.e., leader–member exchange (LMX) or team–member exchange (TMX)) within a team, employee behaviours that involve triadic relationships among focal employees, leaders, and teammates have seldom been investigated. Using balance theory, which describes triadic relationships from a power dependence perspective, in the current study, we explore how the interplay of LMX, TMX, and peers’ LMX jointly impacts employees’ feedback‐seeking behaviour (FSB) and subsequent job performance. By conducting a multilevel moderated polynomial regression on three‐wave, multi‐source data from 147 team members and their leaders (from 45 work teams), we found that the incongruence between LMX and TMX facilitates FSB when peers’ LMX or task interdependence is high. We also found an asymmetrical incongruence effect concerning the way in which individuals are more likely to seek feedback when LMX is worse than TMX, compared with when LMX is better than TMX. This differential effect is stronger when peers’ LMX or task interdependence is high. The interplay of LMX, TMX, peers’ LMX, and task interdependence eventually has an indirect effect on job performance through FSB. The results from a follow‐up study of 270 employees from 77 teams further confirm our predictions about the mechanism of balance theory. Specifically, the results indicate that when peers’ LMX is high, the incongruence between LMX and TMX decreases employees’ psychological safety.

中文翻译：

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揭示团队中三元关系对工作绩效的影响：平衡理论在预测寻求反馈行为中的应用

尽管已经积累了关于团队中二元关系的大量知识（即领导者-成员交换（LMX）或团队-成员交换（TMX）），但是涉及员工，领导者和队友之间三元关系的员工行为很少被调查。在当前的研究中，我们使用平衡理论从功率依赖的角度描述三元关系，我们探索LMX，TMX和同伴的LMX的相互作用如何共同影响员工的反馈寻求行为（FSB）和随后的工作绩效。通过对来自147个团队成员及其领导者（来自45个工作团队）的三波多源数据进行多级调节多项式回归，我们发现，当同龄人的LMX或任务相互依赖程度很高时，LMX和TMX之间的不一致会促进FSB 。我们还发现，当LMX优于TMX时，与LMX优于TMX时相比，个人更可能寻求反馈的方式存在非对称不一致效应。当同级的LMX或任务相互依赖性较高时，此差异效果会更强。LMX，TMX，同级人的LMX和任务相互依赖性的相互作用最终会通过FSB间接影响工作绩效。来自77个团队的270名员工的后续研究结果进一步证实了我们对平衡理论机制的预测。具体而言，结果表明，当同龄人的LMX较高时，LMX和TMX之间的不一致会降低员工的心理安全性。当同级的LMX或任务相互依赖性较高时，此差异效果会更强。LMX，TMX，同级人的LMX和任务相互依赖性的相互作用最终会通过FSB间接影响工作绩效。来自77个团队的270名员工的后续研究结果进一步证实了我们对平衡理论机制的预测。具体而言，结果表明，当同龄人的LMX较高时，LMX和TMX之间的不一致会降低员工的心理安全性。当同级的LMX或任务相互依赖性较高时，此差异效果会更强。LMX，TMX，同级人的LMX和任务相互依赖性的相互作用最终会通过FSB间接影响工作绩效。来自77个团队的270名员工的后续研究结果进一步证实了我们对平衡理论机制的预测。具体而言，结果表明，当同龄人的LMX较高时，LMX和TMX之间的不一致会降低员工的心理安全性。