Does performance appraisal legitimacy predict employee sabotage and innovative behaviors? The mediating role of performance appraisal satisfaction

This study examines whether three employee perceptions, namely perceived organizational justice (POJ), perceived leader-member exchange (LMX), and perceived ethical climate (EC), predict performance appraisal satisfaction (PAS). In turn, whether PAS influences two employee behaviors, namely innovative work behavior (IB) and employee sabotage behavior (SSB). Moreover, it examines the mediating effect of PAS in the relationships between employee perceptions (POJ, LMX, EC) and employee behaviors (SSB, IB). 600 questionnaires were distributed to frontline hotel employees from 5-star hotels in Egypt using a convenience sampling approach. The results revealed that POJ, LMX, and EC have a significant positive impact on PAS. Furthermore, PAS has a significant negative impact on SSB and a significant positive impact on IB. The study confirms the full mediating effect of PAS between POJ and SSB and LMX and SSB, and the partial mediating effect of PAS between POJ and IB, LMX and IB, and EC and IB. However, the current study found no evidence for the mediating effect of PAS on the relationships between EC and IB. The results of the current study demonstrate that, if hotel managers and owners would like to increase the innovative behaviors, and decrease the sabotage behaviors, of their employees, they need to ensure that PAs are perceived satisfactorily. The current study has made several novel contributions. It is one of the first studies to link EC to SSB and IB, and to connect POJ to IB, either directly or indirectly through PAS.