Working hard or hardly working? How supervisor’s liking of employee affects interpretations of employee working overtime and performance ratings

In this research, we examine how a supervisor’s divergent interpretations of employee working overtime would influence the supervisor’s ratings of employee performance. Adopting affect-consistency bias theory, we propose that whether a supervisor likes an employee is a critically contingent factor on whether employee working overtime is perceived as conscientious or using an exemplification tactic to gain a favorable image. This assessment will subsequently impact how the supervisor rates the employee’s job performance. Using a multi-source, time-lagged survey and a scenario experiment, we found that when a supervisor’s liking of employee is low, the supervisor will perceive employee working overtime as a tactic to exemplify good behavior, and this will result in lower performance ratings for the employee. However, when a supervisor’s liking of employee is high, the positive relationship between employee working overtime and performance ratings received from the supervisor via perceived employee conscientiousness is not supported. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are also discussed.