Gratitude Expression to Supervisors and Subjective Career Success of Civil Servants: Evidence from China

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0091026021997853
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026021997853

Public Personnel Management

2022, Vol. 51(1) 48 –70

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026021997853

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Article

Gratitude Expression to

Supervisors and Subjective

Career Success of Civil

Servants: Evidence from

China

Cheng Chen1, Liang Ma2, Zhixia Chen1,

and Peng Wen3

Abstract

Subjective career success of civil servants is a major focus of both scholars and public

managers, but few studies have explored its antecedents from the perspective of the

expression of a special positive emotion. To narrow the gap regarding the antecedents

of civil servants’ subjective career success, we use the broaden-and-build theory

of positive emotions to examine whether, how, and when civil servants’ gratitude

expression to their supervisors is related to their subjective career success, as well as

the mediating role of supervisors’ mentoring and the moderating role of traditionality.

By using the survey data of 216 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the Chinese public

sector, we found that gratitude expression by subordinates is positively related to

their subjective career success, and this relationship is mediated by their supervisors’

mentoring. The relationship between gratitude expression to supervisors and

supervisors’ mentoring is positively moderated by supervisor traditionality. Moreover,

supervisor traditionality plays a positive moderating role in the association between

gratitude expression to supervisors and subjective career success via supervisors’

mentoring. The above relationships are stronger when supervisors have a high level

of traditionality. These findings contribute to the literature and generate managerial

implications for civil servants’ career success management.

Keywords

civil servants, gratitude expression, subjective career success, mentoring, traditionality,

broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions

1Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

2Renmin University of China, China

3Central China Normal University, China

Corresponding Author:

Zhixia Chen, College of Public Administration, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyu

Road 1037, Wuhan 430074, China.

Email: chpsy2018@sina.com

997853PPMXXX10.1177/0091026021997853Public Personnel ManagementChen et al.

research-article2021

Chen et al. 49

Introduction

Career success refers to positive career outcomes during an individual’s work experi-

ence, which is determined based on both objective and subjective criteria (Ng et al.,

2005). Objective career success highlights observable career accomplishments such as

salary and promotional history. Subjective career success reflects individual positive

feelings of satisfaction and accomplishment in an employee’s work experience

(Greenhaus et al., 1990; Ng et al., 2005; Rinfret, 2005). The career success of civil

servants has attracted the attention of both public sector managers and scholars because

it helps to improve the work motivation of civil servants and thus provides better pub-

lic services (Bogg & Cooper, 1994; Lu & Guy, 2018). In recent years, subjective

career success has received increasing attention for two reasons. First, with the con-

tinuous advancement of personnel management in the public sector (Haque, 2001; Lu

& Guy, 2018; Okurame, 2012; Rasdi et al., 2009), objective indicators such as com-

pensation are no longer the only criteria for civil servants to evaluate their career suc-

cess and their subjective feelings of job success have become important. Second, due

to the limitations of administrative and political factors in the public sector, such as

limited promotion opportunities and interpersonal connections with supervisors (Li &

Gore, 2018; Ma et al., 2015; Veit & Scholz, 2016), some objective criteria (e.g., pro-

motion and salary) cannot be attributed entirely to individual efforts, but will be

affected by many of the above external factors. Therefore, identifying methods to

improve the subjective career success of civil servants has become a crucial issue.

The existing research examining the antecedents of employees’ subjective career

success has mainly focused on demographic factors (e.g., gender, age, education

level), personality factors (e.g., the Big Five Personality Traits; Lu & Guy, 2018; Ng

et al., 2005; Veit & Scholz, 2016), and organizational factors (e.g., transformational

leadership, promotion system; Ahmad & Saad, 2020). With the rapid rise of positive

psychology, scholars have gradually realized that employees’ positive emotions may

also be an important factor affecting their subjective career success (e.g., Blickle et al.,

2011). The expression of positive emotions helps employees obtain social support and

cultivate psychological resources (Nezlek et al., 2019; Williams & Bartlett, 2015), but

few studies have explored the influence of a specific expression of positive emotions,

such as gratitude expression, on employees’ subjective career success. Gratitude

expression means that the beneficiary expresses gratitude to the benefactor (Lambert

et al., 2010; Lambert & Fincham, 2011). Scholars have pointed out that gratitude as a

typical positive emotion is among the most meaningful and connective experiences

humans can have (Fredrickson, 2013; Yoshimura & Berzins, 2017). However, previ-

ous research on gratitude expression in social science has mainly focused on the ben-

eficial aspects of individuals’ interpersonal relationships and subjective well-being

(e.g., Mccullough et al., 2002). In recent years, scholars have called for more studies

to extend the benefits of gratitude expression to the organizational context (Fehr et al.,

2017). Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of employees’

gratitude expression to their supervisors on their subjective career success in Chinese

public sector. Previous research has shown that supervisors have the power to dispense