Abstract: Reciprocity, as a social interaction norm of people, resides in almost every culture. In the research of organizational behavior, reciprocity norm is regarded as the core characteristics of social exchange theory to explain the relationship of different variables in organizational context. In order to make more researchers become acquainted with reciprocity theory and make sense the relationship of social exchange and reciprocity, this study summarized the reciprocity’s definition, types, measurement and its researching results. It explained the influence of different reciprocal norms on people’s choice of the way of social exchange. It also analyzed the functional mechanism of reciprocity’s influence on employee’s attitude and behavior through salience of conflict, expressive value and risk of nonreciprocity. Finally, it raises future research directions of reciprocity form researching design and content.

Key words: social exchange, reciprocity, generalized exchange, balanced exchange, negative exchange