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NTU Management Review Vol. 33 No. 3 Dec. 2023

region, he should be more likely to allocate resources to branch managers who both share
his goals and boast superior performance. However, although achieving preferable goals
and maximizing overall performance are both important and benefit the regional manager,
preference for these two factors may create conflict; the effect of one given factor (e.g.,

preferable goal) might prevail over another (Lerner and Whitehead, 1980; Törnblom,
1988; Sondak et al., 1999). That is, the effect of goal consensus might reduce the effect of
the subordinate’s prior performance, and vice versa.

Nonetheless, the availability of information can provide individuals with
considerable opportunity to support and reinforce their preference and biases (Luft,
Shields, and Thomas, 2016; Liu, 2022). Decision-makers usually explore and collect
information that aids particular positions (Healy, 2016; Das and Teng, 1999). In such case,
supervisor attention is drawn to information that appeals to their interests, and they view

this information as fundamental to the allotment decision. Accordingly, supervisors are
expected to be affected by information that differentiates subordinates and that supports
their beliefs when they consider allocation decisions for their subordinates (Majerczyk and

Thomas, 2021). If the information supports supervisors’ previous beliefs and is accessible
for the initial allocation decision, supervisors give extra resources to subordinates who
are better reflected in that information. This initial decision can thus lead to favoritism,
in which supervisors allocate more resources to advantaged subordinates to support this
decision (Majerczyk and Thomas, 2021).

Hence, we posit that with information such as prior performance, regional managers
are motivated to be consistent with and justify this initial allocation preference in their
resource allocation decision in which they dispose more resources to branch managers

with similar goal priority and better prior performance. Therefore, we state our third
hypothesis as follows:
H3: The prior sales performance of a branch office reinforces the relationship between the
degree of goal consensus and the resources received by the office.

3. Methods

3.1 Research Site
Founded in 1987, the target research site is the largest realty company in Taiwan. At

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