The role of the formal employment contract in the range and fulfilment of the psychological contract: Testing a layered model

This study investigates the employment contract (temporary vs. permanent) in relation to psychological contract content and fulfilment. The psychological contract includes employees' perceptions of their obligations and their entitlements. We hypothesize that transactional elements constitute a common core that is shared both by temporary and permanent workers. Relational elements are added to this core to show employees' and employers' loyalty, and their intentions to do more than necessary. These elements are more likely to be perceived by permanent workers as compared to temporary workers. Additionally, we suggest that relational elements are difficult to fulfil. Accordingly, we expect lower levels of perceived fulfilment for permanent workers as compared to temporary workers. Based on exchange theory, we furthermore hypothesize that these perceptions follow a similar pattern in how employees report entitlements (i.e., what they receive from the company) and reports of their own obligations (i.e., what they give in return). Results based on a seven-country sample (N _permanent = 3354; N _temporary = 1980) show that permanent workers as compared to temporary workers perceive more relational entitlements and obligations but a similar level of transactional entitlements and obligations. Thus, these results supported the idea of a layered model. The relationship between contract type and fulfilment of the psychological contract was only partly in line with expectations. Temporary workers reported higher fulfilment of entitlements and transactional obligations, but no difference was found for fulfilment of relational obligations.     

Leader Network Centrality and Team Performance: Team Size as Moderator and Collaboration as Mediator

The social network perspective provides a valuable lens to understand the effectiveness of team leaders. In understanding leadership impact in team networks, an important question concerns the structural influence of leader centrality in advice-giving networks on team performance. Taking the inconsistent evidence for the positive relationship of network centrality and leadership effectiveness as a starting point, we suggest that the positive impact of leader centrality in advice-giving networks is contingent on team needs for leadership to meet communication and coordination challenges, which we argue are larger in larger teams. Developing our analysis, we examine the mediating role of member collaboration in the relationship of leader network centrality and team performance as moderated by team size. Based on a multi-source dataset of 542 employees and 71 team leaders, we found that leader centrality in advice-giving networks related positively to team performance in larger teams but negatively in smaller teams. Results supported the mediated moderation model via member collaboration in smaller teams, but not in larger teams.

     

A longitudinal person-centred view on perceived employability: The role of job insecurity

The primary aim of the present 1-year longitudinal study among university employees (N = 1314) was to investigate individual development of perceived employability (PE) by utilizing a person-centred approach. Thus, we identified latent classes of PE across 1 year based on growth mixture modelling. In addition, the latent classes were characterized by perceived job insecurity and the type of employment contract and its changes over the 1-year time period. The results showed four latent classes of PE that differed in the level and the direction of mean-level changes over time. These latent classes were: (1) stable relatively high PE (n = 641); (2) unstable decreasing PE (n = 45); (3) unstable increasing PE (n = 24); and (4) stable relatively low PE (n = 603). Perceived job insecurity associated with the latent class membership of PE. That is, low levels of perceived job insecurity were associated with favourable PE classes (i.e., “stable relatively high” and “unstable increasing employability”), whereas high levels of job insecurity associated with unfavourable PE classes (i.e., “stable relatively low” and “unstable decreasing employability”). Furthermore, transitions from temporary to permanent job contract occurred more often in the favourable than in unfavourable PE classes, but transitions from permanent to temporary contract were more likely in the unfavourable classes. Thus, our study indicated a substantial amount of heterogeneity in the development of PE across 1 year.     

The Role of Leadership and Trust in Creating Structural Patterns of Team Procedural Justice: A Social Network Investigation

We adopt a social network perspective to investigate the distinct structural patterns (i.e., centralization and density) of procedural justice (PJ) in teams and the antecedent factors that create them. Across 2 longitudinal field studies in which we gathered social network data from 1,008 workers on 138 teams (Study 1) in China and 672 workers on 125 teams (Study 2) in the United States, we found that differentiation in leader–member exchange relationships significantly influenced the centralization and density of PJ within a team by affecting the level of intrateam trust. Specifically, the more differentiated leader treatment team members received, the lower the level of trust within a team, which resulted in more concentrated (high centralization) and fewer (low density) social interactions among members regarding team PJ. Furthermore, differentiated leader treatment of team members was especially damaging to intrateam trust and, in turn, the structural patterns of team PJ when team members were in close proximity and highly sensitive to equity issues.     

Centrality and charisma: comparing how leader networks and attributions affect team performance

When leaders interact in teams with their subordinates, they build social capital that can have positive effects on team performance. Does this social capital affect team performance because subordinates come to see the leader as charismatic? We answered this question by examining 2 models. First, we tested the charisma-to-centrality model according to which the leader's charisma facilitates the occupation of a central position in the informal advice network. From this central position, the leader positively influences team performance. Second, we examined the centrality-to-charisma model according to which charisma is attributed to those leaders who are socially active in terms of giving and receiving advice. Attributed charisma facilitates increased team performance. We tested these 2 models in 2 different studies. In the first study, based on time-separated, multisource data emanating from members of 56 work teams, we found support for the centrality-to-charisma model. Formal leaders who were central within team advice networks were seen as charismatic by subordinates, and this charisma was associated with high team performance. To clarify how leader network centrality affected the emergence of charismatic leadership, we designed Study 2 in which, for 79 student teams, we measured leader networking activity and leader charisma at 2 different points in time and related these variables to team performance measured at a third point in time. On the basis of this temporally separated data set, we again found support for the centrality-to-charisma model.     

Selection in Teams: An Exploration of the Teamwork Knowledge,Skills, and Ability Test

In 1994, Stevens and Campion introduced the Teamwork Knowledge, Skills, and Ability test (teamwork KSA test) for selecting employees for team–based organizations. Using experimental data from 57 ad hoc student teams (N = 227), we examined this test's relationship with both the behavior of the assigned leader in a team and the behavior of the other team members, respectively. We found that the teamwork KSA test successfully predicted individual team member behavior as indexed by external raters (r= .31) and peers (r= .34) such that higher scores on the teamwork KSA test related to greater individual effectiveness within the team. The teamwork KSA test was unrelated to the behavior of the assigned leader in the teams studied. Self–efficacy for teamwork was not related to individual behavior in teams, nor did it moderate the relationship between the teamwork KSA test and individual performance in teams. Limitations as well as directions for future research in team selection are discussed.     

The impact of job insecurity and contract type on attitudes,well‐being and behavioural reports: A psychological contract perspective

Research on the impact of job insecurity for temporary employees has been largely exploratory and atheoretical in nature. This paper addresses this issue by considering the role of job insecurity on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, life satisfaction, and self‐rated performance among permanent employees (N = 396) as compared with temporary ones (N = 148). Hypotheses are formulated using the tradition of transactional versus relational psychological contract types. Psychological contract theory assumes (1) that job insecurity effects are due to a violation of the relational psychological contract, and (2) that permanents as compared with temporaries engage more in relational psychological contracting. As a result, job insecurity is expected to be problematic in terms of outcomes for permanents, but not for temporaries. Results validate the assumptions made in psychological contract theory. Furthermore, job insecurity proved problematic for permanents but not for temporaries when job satisfaction and organizational commitment are concerned. No such differential effects are observed for life satisfaction and self‐rated performance. Implications for future research are discussed.     

When does gender diversity enhance team performance? The dual need for visionary leadership and team tenure

Teams in organizations are becoming more gender diverse as women continue to participate more in the workforce than ever before. Prior theory and research indicate that the characteristics of the team influence whether gender diversity in a team is an asset or a detriment. As such, this research explores a contingency model of the relation between gender diversity and team performance and looks to understand conditions that make this relation positive or negative. Specifically, we examine how leader vision communication (i.e., visionary leadership) affects the relation between gender diversity and team performance. Results from a sample of 595 full-time employees across 106 teams in China indicate that leader vision communication moderates the relation between gender diversity and team performance such that when leader vision communication is low gender diversity decreases team performance and when leader vision communication is high gender diversity has no significant relation with team performance. We also test whether team tenure changes this relationship. Our results suggest that gender diversity improves team performance when both leader vision communication and team tenure are high. The findings in our sample demonstrate that gender diversity can help teams enhance performance, but only when the conditions are right for gender-diverse teams to flourish.     

Advice networks in teams: the role of transformational leadership and members' core self-evaluations

This article examines the team-level factors promoting advice exchange networks in teams. Drawing upon theory and research on transformational leadership, team diversity, and social networks, we hypothesized that transformational leadership positively influences advice network density in teams and that advice network density serves as a mediating mechanism linking transformational leadership to team performance. We further hypothesized a 3-way interaction in which members' mean core self-evaluation (CSE) and diversity in CSE jointly moderate the transformational leadership-advice network density relationship, such that the relationship is positive and stronger for teams with low diversity in CSE and high mean CSE. In addition, we expected that advice network centralization attenuates the positive influence of network density on team performance. Results based on multisource data from 79 business unit management teams showed support for these hypotheses. The results highlight the pivotal role played by transformational leadership and team members' CSEs in enhancing team social networks and, ultimately, team effectiveness.     

Organizational and client commitment among contracted employees: A replication and extension with temporary workers

This study replicates and extends Coyle-Shapiro and Morrow’s study (Coyle-Shapiro, J.A.-M., & Morrow, P.C. 2006. Organizational and client commitment among contracted employees. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 28, 416-431) of organizational and client commitment among contracted employees. Our study focuses on temporary workers rather than long-term contracted employees, and also finds that perceived organizational support (POS) from a client organization indeed relates to affective organizational commitment towards the client. However, this study further suggests that client POS also relates to continuance commitment towards the client as well as affective and continuance commitment towards the temporary agency. Finally, temporary workers’ desire to pursue temporary work relates to affective commitment towards the temporary agency, but continuance commitment to the temporary agency is related to a preference for permanent employment.     

How differences in perceptions of own and team performance impact trust and job satisfaction in virtual teams

Employees frequently engage in social comparison processes and tend to perceive their own performance as superior compared to that of their peers. We expect this to be particularly salient in virtual teams where employees receive few cues upon which the comparison with other members of their team can be based. With reliance on social comparison and social exchange theory, we propose that such “perceived overperformance” has negative effects on job satisfaction, which is mediated by trust in the team. We confirm this with a sample of field-service employees (n = 753) using structural equation modeling with bootstrapping. We corroborated our findings in focus groups, which suggest the need for performance indicators that are easily communicated to and comprehended by employees to maintain trust and satisfaction.     

The end is the beginning – the role of residual affective commitment in former interns’ intention to return and word-of-mouth

Interns are ubiquitous in organizations, yet relatively rarely studied, particularly after their temporary organizational membership has ended. Adopting an organizational commitment perspective, we conducted two studies to investigate two important outcomes of former interns’ membership: intention to return to their former employer, and word-of-mouth, that is, promoting the organization as an employer. In Study 1 (N = 436; lagged design), we found that residual affective commitment, that is, the remaining commitment after leaving an organization, related to former interns’ subsequent intention to return and word-of-mouth. In Study 2 (N = 236; cross-sectional design), we replicated our findings, and further found that intention to return was related to (lack of) alternative employment, hiring expectation, and attractiveness of the organization’s location. Location attractiveness also interacted with residual affective commitment on both intention to return and word-of-mouth, albeit in different directions. Overall, our findings suggest that the internship experience relates to future behaviours important for recruiting new (and old) employees. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our studies.     

A MULTILEVEL INVESTIGATION OF LEADER– MEMBER EXCHANGE,INFORMAL LEADER EMERGENCE,AND INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM PERFORMANCE

This study examines the antecedents and outcomes of informal leader emergence in work teams. Drawing upon research in vertical and shared leadership, we hypothesized that the relationship between leader‐‐member exchange (LMX) quality and employees’ emergence as informal leaders is moderated by team shared vision such that there is a positive (negative) LMX—leader emergence relationship for teams with high (low) shared vision. Informal leader emergence, in turn, was expected to relate to higher individual and team performance. Results based on multisource and multimethod data collected at 3 points in time (361 followers in 74 work teams) provided support for these hypotheses. The findings highlight the role played by formal leaders and team shared vision in jointly promoting or inhibiting informal leader emergence and thereby impacting individual performance and team effectiveness.     

Perceptions of leader-member exchange: comparison of permanent and temporary employees

This study was done to explore how perceived scores for leader-member exchange varies among temporary employees and permanent employees. Study of 158 subordinates indicated no significant difference between the two member groups.     

EFFECT OF TEMPORARY CONTRACTS ON PERCEIVED WORK CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB STRAIN: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This longitudinal study investigates differences in perceived work characteristics and job strain as a function of employment status. The study examines the effects of a change from involuntary temporary to permanent status ( N = 75) compared to staying permanent ( N = 257), as well as comparing temporary contract and permanent contract employees at Time 1 and a second-wave comparison that included new temporary contract employees ( N = 92) and new permanent contract employees ( N = 34). Results suggest that temporary employment status is associated with negative and positive consequences. On the negative side, temporary status reduced perceptions of job security and participative decision making, which had deleterious effects on job strain. On the other hand, temporary employees had fewer strain-inducing role demands (in particular, lower role overload). The net effect was that temporary employees had lower job strain, which analyses suggested was due to indirect effects of the lower role demands.     

Different temporary work status, different behaviors in organization

This study examined the contributions of the psychological contract framework to an understanding of the effects of different work statuses on employees’ behavior. We compared temporary firm workers (n=71) with core workers (n=268) and direct-hire temporary workers (n=149) with core workers (n=42) in two different samples. As expected, temporary firm workers consider that they receive fewer socio-emotional inducements from the organization they work for (opportunities for promotion, career development, long-term employment), but direct-hire temporary workers who succeeded in having their contracts extended had a psychological contract in which socio-emotional components predominated. A psychological contract with a predominance of socio-emotional components was important for organizations because it mediated the influence of work status on civic virtue behaviors on the part of temporary firm workers, and directly and positively influenced these behaviors in direct-hired temporary workers (behaviors as assessed by their supervisors). Contrary to the hypothesis, psychological contract had a direct and positive influence on the in-role behavior of direct-hire temporary workers. The implications of the findings for psychological contract research are discussed.     

Diversity climate promises in ideological psychological contracts: racial differences in responses to breach and fulfilment

ABSTRACT

Diversity, a major societal force that exerts an important influence on contemporary workplaces, may play a role in shaping present-day workers’ psychological contracts. In two studies, we explored diversity as an ideological commitment in psychological contracts and its impacts on workers and organizations. In Study 1, a three-wave longitudinal study following workers from pre- to post-hire, organizations’ use of diversity recruitment was positively associated with job-seekers’ perceptions that ideological diversity climate promises were made pre-employment. In addition, we found that subsequent perceptions of breaching these promises have negative effects on worker attitudes and behaviours above and beyond the consequences of traditional (i.e., transactional and relational) psychological contract breach. Unexpectedly, fulfilment and breach of ideological diversity climate promises were more weakly related to racial minority than majority group workers’ attitudes and behaviours. In Study 2, using both between- and within-person experimental designs, we largely replicate this counter-intuitive moderating effect and uncover that racial minority versus majority workers’ differential reactions can be explained by their prior experiences with racial discrimination. Our work substantiates that diversity is an important ideological commitment and provides novel insights as to the mechanisms and consequences of ideology for workers’ psychological contracts.     

Social influence and perceived organizational support: A social networks analysis

We suggest that employees’ perceptions of organizational support (POS) are not solely a product of independent evaluations of treatment offered by the organization, but are also shaped by the social context. We argue that coworkers will directly (through inquiry via cohesive friendship and advice ties) and indirectly (through monitoring of employees structurally equivalent in advice and friendship networks) affect employees’ perceived organizational support. Network studies in the admissions department of a large public university and a private company specializing in food and animal safety products indicate that employees’ POS are similar to those of coworkers with whom they maintain advice relationships as well as to those who hold structurally equivalent positions in organizational friendship and advice networks. Our work contributes to organizational support theory by developing and testing a theoretical explanation for the relationship between the social context and perceptions of support among employees. Implications for research and practice are offered.     

An examination of when and how leader political skill influences team performance in China: A cultural value perspective

This study examined the relationship between leader political skill and team performance, as well as the mediating (team cohesion) and moderating (power distance) variables of the relationship. Our theoretical model was tested using data collected from employees in a food service company. Analyses of multisource and lagged data from 59 teams and 276 members indicated that leader political skill was positively related to team performance via team cohesion. Further, both the relationship between leader political skill and team cohesion and the indirect relationship between leader political skill and team performance were stronger when teams exhibited lower power distance.     

“Dear Employer,Let Me Introduce Myself” – Flow,Satisfaction with Work–Life Balance and Millennials’ Creativity

With creativity being recognised as a key driver of organizational success, organizations emphasize the need for their employees to be creative and to work long hours. This article takes a step toward understanding the factors contributing to the creativity of millennials, a generation pursuing meaningful work and cherishing a work–life balance. In Study 1 (n = 238), the relationships between creativity, flow, satisfaction with work–life balance and job crafting were explored; in Study 2 (n = 120) the focus was on examining flow as the mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and creativity. In experimental Study 3 (n = 90), the findings from Study 2 were replicated. Overall, the results of the three studies established flow as the mediating variable and demonstrated the beneficial role of satisfaction with the work–life balance and job crafting in the process leading to creativity.