Purpose Using the social exchange perspective, the aim of this research is to add value to the construct by looking at direct and indirect effects through perceived organizational support (POS) and leader‐member exchange (LMX) of the guanxi network in job involvement, and ultimately the effect of job involvement on in‐role performance. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was used as the medium for data collection. A total of 458 respondents took part in research at two points of time. Respondents were selected using random sampling technique from hotels of western part of Malaysia. Descriptive statistics, CFA, and SEM were used for this purpose. Findings Findings of the study reveal that individual guanxi network significantly contributes towards social exchange relations (POS and LMX), and employees' job involvement. The individual guanxi network has both direct and indirect effects on job involvement, which confirms that individual guanxi network affects involvement through social exchange relations, i.e. POS and LMX; it also confirms the basic notion of individual guanxi network (social relations with norm of reciprocity). Research limitations/implications This study covers only hotel employees working in Western Malaysia. Other sectors can be selected for future research endeavours with a larger sample size. Practical implications One obvious implication of this research is that management should utilize the guanxi network of employees, which can result in increasing involvement and improved performance. Originality/value The main contributions of the study contain: consideration of LMX as a mediator and explaining the social exchange essence of individual guanxi network.
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