What Drives the Trickle-Down Effect of Calling Orientation From Supervisors to Subordinates? The Perspective of Social Learning Theory

Despite an increase in research on calling orientation, few studies have investigated its antecedents. Drawing on social learning theory, we hypothesized that subordinates’ perceptions of their supervisor’s role modeling mediate the relationship between supervisor’s and subordinates’ calling orientations. Supervisor’s organizational status is supposed to augment the trickle-down process for calling orientation. We used multilevel modeling to test these hypotheses in a sample of 738 subordinates nested in 77 work teams in Chinese firm. We found that supervisor’s calling orientation was positively related to subordinate’s calling orientation and that the relationship was fully mediated by subordinates’ perceptions of role modeling. Additionally, the relationship between supervisor’s calling orientation and subordinates’ calling orientation via role modeling was moderated by supervisor’s organizational status at the second stage.