Employees’ Death Awareness and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Journal of Business and Psychology - The purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model that distinguishes how death anxiety and death reflection influence organizational...     

Recruiting Through Employee Referrals: An Examination of Employees’ Motives

As previous research focused on the outcomes of employee referrals, not much is known about its determinants. This study examined employees’ intrinsic, prosocial, and extrinsic motives for encouraging versus discouraging others to apply with their employer. In a sample of 232 employees from two organizations, job satisfaction, the desire to help job seekers find good fitting jobs, the desire to help the organization find good fitting employees, and rewards predicted positive referrals. Negative referrals were motivated by job dissatisfaction and the desire to help job seekers avoid bad fitting jobs. Moreover, in the organization rewarding employees for making referrals, more positive and less negative referrals were made than in the organization without referral program.     

When Does Job Insecurity Lead to Feedback-Seeking Behavior? The Counterintuitive Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support

A competitive business environment makes organizations increasingly dependent on their employees to proactively seek feedback aimed at improving job performance and requires organizations to frequently engage in restructuring activities that may cause employees to experience job insecurity. This poses an important theoretical puzzle regarding the relationship between job insecurity and feedback-seeking behavior. This study clarifies this relationship by addressing the moderating role of perceived organizational support and provides a mechanism that explains the mechanism behind the moderating process. This study builds a mediated moderating model by drawing from the uncertainty reduction and social exchange theories. By analyzing data collected from 567 employees of manufacturing enterprises in China, we find that the relationship between job insecurity and feedback-seeking behavior is negative under conditions of high perceived organizational support and is positive under conditions of low perceived organizational support. Collectivism value can mediate the moderating role of perceived organizational support.     

Business Owner-Employees Contagion of Work-Related Affect and Employees’ Innovative Behavior in Small Firms

The aim of this study was to explore cross-level mechanisms stimulating employees’ innovative behavior in small firms, specifically emotional contagion between small business owners and their employees. Using data from three European countries and applying a multilevel approach, we tested how small business owners’ work-related affect—enthusiasm and comfort—relate to their employees’ work-related affect and innovative work behavior. The sample consisted of 85 small business owners and 711 employees from firms operating in the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain. Controlling for country, the results of multilevel modeling showed that small business owners’ work-related affect was positively related to their employees’ work-related affect. The hypothesized contagion of work-related affect in small firms was, thus, supported. Employees’ work-related affect, in turn, was positively associated with their innovative behavior. Employees’ work-related affect mediated the relationship between small business owners’ work-related affect and employees’ innovative behavior. The results also showed cross-country differences in the strength of some of the relationships. The study is a step forward in understanding innovation in small firms, extending the insights gained from single-level investigations.     

The Role of Job Crafting and Perceived Organizational Support in the Link between Employees’ CSR Perceptions and Job Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model

Current Psychology - This study aims to test the mediating effect of job crafting on the relationship between employees’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions and job performance,...     

Job Stressors,Organizational Innovation Climate,and Employees’ Innovative Behavior

This study attempted to examine the influence of job stressors and organizational innovation climate on employees’ innovative behavior. Data were obtained from 282 employees in 4 cities of China. Results indicated that the nature of stressors matters in predicting employees’ idea generation. Specifically, stressors that employees tend to appraise as challenges were positively related to idea generation, whereas stressors that employees tend to appraise as hindrances were negatively related to idea generation. In addition, hindrance stressors moderated the relationship between organizational innovation climate and innovative behavior. The beneficial effect of organizational innovation climate on innovative behavior became weaker for idea implementation and totally disappeared for idea generation when confronting with high hindrance stressors. Implications of this study are also discussed.     

Embracing Change: Examination of a “Capabilities and Benevolence” Beliefs Model in a Sample of Military Cadets

This research used a capabilities and benevolence framework to examine 2 characteristics (learning orientation and propensity to trust) potentially associated with a cadet's attitudes and responses to organizational change. The research hypothesized that cadets with a high learning orientation and a high propensity to trust others will hold a significantly more positive attitude toward change than other individuals, even when controlling for the cadet's general dispositional resistance to change. Findings confirmed the hypothesis regarding learning orientation but not trust. Discussion focused on how organizations, by identifying the factors associated with a person's dispositional orientation, may ultimately develop better interventions to influence responses to change and increase the overall effectiveness of change initiatives.     

Bridging Service Employees’ Perceptions of CSR and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Moderated Mediation Effects of Personal Traits

This study aims to examine how service employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) at work and its mediated link through organizational identification. Another important purpose of this study is to see whether personal traits such as gender, age, and work experience moderate the relationship between the CSR perceptions of service employees and organizational identification. Using a sample of 250 frontline service employees at four five-star hotels in South Korea and employing a mediation model by way of structural equation modeling, we estimated the moderating effect of three personal traits - gender, age, and work experience - on the relationship between CSR perceptions of service employees and organizational identification. The CSR perceptions of service employees increase their organizational identification, which ultimately increases OCB. Moreover, organizational identification partially mediates the relationship between the CSR perceptions of service employees and OCB. Furthermore, the results of our study show that the positive relationship between the CSR perceptions of service employees and organizational identification are moderated by gender, age and work experience. Our study extends research in both the CSR and the OCB literature since we attempt to bridge the macro concept of CSR with the micro concept of OCB.     

Mitigating the Harmful Effect of Perceived Organizational Compliance on Trust in Top Management: Buffering Roles of Employees’ Personal Resources

This study considers how employees’ POC—defined as their beliefs that the organizational climate stifles change and values compliance with the status quo—reduce their trust in top management, as well as how this negative relationship might be buffered by access to two personal resources that support organizational change: openness to experience and affective commitment to change. Data from a sample of Pakistan-based organizations reveal that POC reduce trust in top management, but this effect is weaker at higher levels of openness to experience and affective commitment to change. These findings are significant in that they indicate that employees who operate in organizational climates marked by “yea-saying” can counter the difficulty of improving their job situation by drawing from adequate personal resources.     

Coping with Abusive Supervision: the Neutralizing Effects of Perceived Organizational Support and Political Skill on Employees’ Burnout

While research into the antecedents of burnout has steadily grown, the relationship between abusive supervision and burnout remains largely unknown. In addition, we know little about the contingencies under which abusive supervision may be related to employees’ burnout. This study aims to examine the contingency side of the abusive supervision-burnout relationship by addressing the exploratory question of whether perceived organizational support and individual differences in political skill play moderating roles in the abusive supervision-burnout relationship. The present article developed a model and tested it with data from a sample of 248 supervisor–subordinate dyads. We hypothesized and found that (1) Abusive supervision was positively associated with burnout; (2) the positive relationship between abusive supervision and burnout was moderated by the employees’ perceived organizational support in such a way that the relationship was weaker for employees who perceive higher rather than lower organizational support; (3) the positive relationship between abusive supervision and burnout was moderated by the employees’ political skill in such a way that the relationship was weaker for people with high, rather than lower level of political skill.     

Embracing Change: Further Examination of a “Capabilities and Benevolence” Beliefs Model in a Military Sample

Building on earlier research that used a “capabilities/benevolence” framework to examine an “embracing change” disposition, the current investigation extended previous cadet-based findings to a sample of company- and field-grade military officers. We hypothesized that officers with a high learning orientation and a high propensity to trust others would hold a significantly more positive attitude toward change than other individuals, even when controlling for the officer's general dispositional resistance to change. As with the earlier cadet results, the findings confirmed the hypothesis for learning orientation but not for trust. Discussion focused on the utility of acquiring a better understanding of an embracing change disposition and on the value of salting individuals with high learning orientations throughout the organization. Additionally, for future research, we consider the importance of employing multiple and diverse methods when exploring the embracing change construct. Such methodological expansion will undoubtedly reduce some conceptual ambiguities associated with the current study.     

Cross‐Cultural Examination of the Tripartite Model in Adults

Abstract

Operant conditioning was applied to a total of 32 female anorexia nervosa patients in order to restore their normal weight. A comparative study was carried out on two groups of 16 patients each, who were treated with two different therapeutic procedures. The group having informational feedback, more flexible contacts with their family and a special psychomotor program (Group B), achieved a greater rate of weight gain compared to the other group (Group A), with an average of 1.75 versus 1.30 per week. The differences in weight evolution and problems during treatment are discussed. The fact that the study only is a short-term one concerning a limited aspect of the treatment of anorexia nervosa, and also the need for further follow-up research is strongly emphasized.     

Number of Children Associated with Mothers’ Perceived Need for Behavior Support: Implications for Parenting Interventions

Researchers acknowledge mothers’ contributing role in influencing children’s behavioral displays of emotion, but there is a dearth in the literature on mothers’ emotion-related behaviors, beliefs, and needs. Urban, Head Start Mothers (n = 114) participated in a quantitative, exploratory investigation to examine child, maternal and community factors that may be associated with level of expressiveness, perceived role in emotional development, and receptivity to behavior support. Findings suggested that, compared to mothers raising two or more children, those raising only one child were significantly less positive in self-reported expressiveness, less supportive of the suggested role of mothers in the literature, and less receptive to parent-focused behavior support. Implications for acknowledging possibly distinct needs of Head Start mothers of singletons as well as seeking input from more experienced Head Start mothers in devising parenting interventions will be discussed.     

Customer-Initiated Support and Employees’ Proactive Customer Service Performance: A Multilevel Examination of Proactive Motivation as the Mediator

Drawing on the proactive motivation model and theories of motivation, the current study examined customer-initiated support as an antecedent of employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) and investigated the mediating role of proactive motivations and the moderating role of serving culture. We conducted two multilevel studies to test the proposed hypotheses. In study 1, we collected diary data from 158 nurses across 10 working days, and results showed that the relationship between nurses’ daily experience of customer-initiated support and their PCSP was mediated by self-efficacy, work meaning, and positive affect. In study 2, we collected multilevel multi-source data from 373 nurses nested within 80 units and found that nurses’ experience of customer-initiated support was positively related to their supervisor-rated PCSP via role-breadth self-efficacy and work meaning, but not through positive affect. Further, team-level serving culture strengthened the positive relationship between customer-initiated support and role-breadth self-efficacy. These findings shed light on understanding the effect of customer-initiated support as an external factor on prompting service employees’ proactive behaviors, potential motivational mediators to explain the underlying mechanisms, and potential boundary conditions inside of service organizations to strengthen the positive effects of customer-initiated support.     

Employees’ Adaptability and Perceptions of Change-Related Uncertainty: Implications for Perceived Organizational Support,Job Satisfaction,and Performance

Purpose

The literature on organizational change has increasingly recognized that characteristics of change recipients influence their reactions to workplace change. Yet little is known about the influence of employees’ adaptability and change-related uncertainty on their interpretation of organizational actions. We examined these antecedents and the mediating role of perceived organizational support as explanations for employees’ job satisfaction and performance.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A survey was administered to material handling employees from two organizations. Employees completed measures of individual adaptability, uncertainty experienced regarding changes in the workplace, support received from the organization, and job satisfaction. Performance data were collected from the records of one organization.

Findings

Results from both samples support the role of perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relationship between employees’ adaptability and perceptions of change-related uncertainty and employees’ satisfaction and performance.

Implications

Change is a frequent occurrence in today’s workplace; thus, improving employee satisfaction and performance requires the consideration of change-related perceptions and individuals’ dispositions relevant to change. The present study offers insights regarding how organizations may help improve perceptions of organizational support by reducing perceived uncertainty as well as identifying employees who may need assistance to adapt to workplace changes.

Originality/Value

Despite practitioners’ expressed interest, there is scant research examining employees’ adaptability and change-related uncertainty. We provide the first evidence explaining how and why these variables impact important workplace outcomes and extend existing theory by identifying appraisals of the organization (and not the self) as a mechanism explaining stressor–strain relationships.     

Coaches’ Perspectives of a Negative Informal Role: The ‘Cancer’ within Sport Teams

Roles are the pattern of behaviors expected of individuals in a given social situation. The general purpose of the present study was to gain an understanding of the negative informal role of the cancer (i.e., an athlete who expresses negative emotions that spread destructively throughout a team) within sport groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Canadian intercollegiate coaches to determine perceptions of the characteristics, emergence, consequences, and management of the cancer. Verification interviews supported the classification and interpretation of information obtained from the initial data collection. The responses from the coaches demonstrate the importance of the cancer in relation to group functioning and contribute to our understanding theoretically and also in relation to practice.     

When Do Employees Speak up for Their Customers? A Model of Voice in a Customer Service Context

We develop a conceptual model of customer‐focused voice and test it in a hospital setting. Drawing from theory and research on voice, we find that customer orientation and job autonomy are positively associated with customer‐focused voice. In addition, consistent with social information processing theory, these relationships are moderated by service climate, such that a high service climate compensates for the less desirable aspects of employees or their jobs. Finally, we provide evidence for a critical but untested assumption of the voice literature by linking hospital‐level customer‐focused voice to hospital‐level service performance. Results based on data from four unique data sources, provided at varying points in time, and at different levels of analysis demonstrate support for our conceptual model.     

Employees’ work effort as a function of leader group prototypicality: the moderating role of team identification

The social identity model of organizational leadership (SIMOL; Hogg and van Knippenberg, 2003 was extended analyzing the degree of employees’ effort as individual outcome of leadership effectiveness. Two studies were conducted with Italian participants. Study 1 was a survey conducted with 68 employees of a medium size company. Results showed the significant two-way interaction effect of team identification × leader group prototypicality in predicting employees’ work effort. Study 2, including 124 students, was a 2 × 2 within subject design (team identification high vs. low × leader group prototypicality high vs. low) using scenarios. Results confirmed experimentally the causal relationship between such variables: subjects in condition of high team identification and high leader group prototypicality perceive leaders as more effective than the subjects in the other three conditions.     

Analysis of Behavior in Forming a Joint Enterprise in Senior Citizens’ Communities of Practice

The aim of this article is to examine the joint enterprise, one of the three keys to form a Community of Practice (CoP) for senior citizens. The researchers visited all the Toy Clinic Shops in Taiwan and employed both semi-structured interview and observation methods to explore how the elderly volunteers form their joint enterprise within these CoPs. This article presents findings that the CoPs for elderly serve as effective knowledge bases to carry intergenerational learning. Elderly education is not just something to do with the senior citizens’ professional knowledge but the formation and reformation of their value. Key elements to form joint enterprise are identified, while suggestions to facilitators are given. The research advances our understanding of applying CoPs to the field of senior adults’ development and provides suggestions on organizing CoPs for elderly volunteers.