Abstract
Evidence establishes that employees often expand their roles to take on broader responsibilities in response to direct requests from others. However, surprisingly little research has investigated the interpersonal influence processes through which individuals convince others to expand their roles. We develop a conceptual framework to explain how senders persuade receivers to accept role expansion requests. Our framework describes why senders often fail to tailor their requests to receivers’ values, identifies the conditions under which this systematic bias is eliminated, and suggests strategies for senders to tailor their requests more effectively. Our perspective highlights how role expansion is often a reactive—rather than proactive—process in which interpersonal influence is a key building block.
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