Leader Arrogance and Subordinate Outcomes: the Role of Feedback Processes

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between leader arrogance on subordinate outcomes of feedback seeking, morale, and burnout through its relationships with subordinate feedback environment perceptions. Additionally, perceived organizational support and subordinate feedback orientation are examined as moderators that influence the degree to which leader arrogance exerts its effects on these outcomes.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Survey data were obtained from 302 participants on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website and analyzed using Hayes’ (2013) PROCESS in SPSS.

Findings

Subordinates with more arrogant supervisors reported less favorable feedback environment perceptions, and subsequently, lower levels of feedback seeking, morale, and higher levels of burnout. Perceived organizational support and feedback orientation were identified as significant moderators in these relationships. Subordinates were less vulnerable to the negative outcomes of leader arrogance when they experienced higher levels of perceived organizational support. Finally, subordinates with favorable feedback orientations exhibited lower levels of feedback seeking in the face of the unfavorable feedback environments associated with arrogant leaders.

Implications

Given these findings, leader arrogance should be of great concern to organizations, as subordinates exposed to arrogant leaders are likely to experience adverse outcomes. Supplementing perceptions of organizational support may help alleviate some of these effects. Additionally, subordinates with favorable feedback orientations may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of leader arrogance on outcomes of feedback seeking and morale.

Originality/Value

This study is the first to demonstrate the interpersonal implications of leader arrogance for subordinates, as well as explore mediators that play a role in these relationships.

     

Reflection Toward Creativity: Team Reflexivity as a Linking Mechanism Between Team Goal Orientation and Team Creative Performance

Purpose

This study aims at testing the mediating role of team reflexivity in the relationships between team learning, performance-prove, and performance-avoid goal orientations and team creative performance and assessing the relative importance of the three types of team goal orientation in team reflexivity and creative performance.

Methodology

We conducted Study 1 on 68 student teams by using a two-wave time-lagged design. In Study 2, we carried out a cross-sectional field study on 108 intact work teams in diverse Korean companies.

Findings

Team learning goal orientation was significantly associated with team creative performance. While team learning and performance-prove goal orientations were equally influential in predicting team reflexivity, team performance-avoid goal orientation had no relationship with team reflexivity and creative performance. Team reflexivity mediated the relationships between team learning and performance-prove goal orientations and team creative performance.

Implications

By revealing that team learning and performance-prove goal orientations can contribute to team creative performance through the facilitation of team reflective process, this study provides practitioners with insight into critical antecedents and team process that are conducive to the creative performance of work teams.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to explore a mediating mechanism between team goal orientation and creative performance. This study attends to the role of team reflexivity as a key team-regulatory process that underlies the relationship between team goal orientation and team performance. Furthermore, the use of multiple studies in different contexts strengthens the robustness of the study findings.

     

Perceptions of Nepotism Beneficiaries: The Hidden Price of Using a Family Connection to Obtain a Job

Purpose

This study tested competing predictions about the impact of nepotistic hiring on perceptions of nepotism beneficiaries, focusing specifically on the performance attributions made about nepotism hires. Of particular interest is how the qualifications of the family member compared to other applicants impacts perceptions of the nepotism hire.

Methodology

Two experimental studies, using scenarios that simulated the hiring process, were conducted. Participants reviewed materials describing the hiring process for a manager and then completed a questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the person hired.

Findings

Results showed that successful performance of nepotism beneficiaries was attributed more to political skills and relationships with upper management and less to ability and effort than was the case for non-beneficiaries and that they were perceived as less competent and as having fewer characteristics of successful managers. These negative perceptions occurred regardless of the family member’s qualifications.

Implications

This study contributes to our understanding of nepotistic hiring practices. More negative performance attributions and perceptions of competence for nepotism beneficiaries may hinder their effectiveness on the job. Knowledge gained from this study may help businesses who want to hire family members of current employees to manage this process more effectively.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to examine the consequences of nepotistic hiring for nepotism beneficiaries and the first study to examine how nepotistic hiring effects the performance attributions made about nepotism beneficiaries. It is also the only study to empirically examine how the qualifications of the nepotism beneficiary influence others’ reactions to them.

     

Exploring the Effects of Job Autonomy on Engagement and Creativity: The Moderating Role of Performance Pressure and Learning Goal Orientation

Purpose

The 21st century work environment calls for team members to be more engaged in their work and exhibit more creativity in completing their job tasks. The purpose of this study was to examine whether team performance pressure and individual goal orientation would moderate the relationships between individual autonomy in teams and individual engagement and creativity.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A sample consisting of 209 team members and 45 team managers from 45 work teams in 14 companies completed survey measures. To test our hypotheses, we used multilevel modeling with random intercepts and slopes because the individual-level data were nested within the team-level data.

Findings

Hierarchical linear modeling showed that team-level performance pressure attenuated the positive relations between job autonomy and three dimensions of engagement. There were also 3-way interactions between job autonomy, psychological performance pressure, and learning goal orientation in predicting three dimensions of engagement and creativity.

Implications

This study highlights the importance of exploring the moderating effect of team-level task characteristics and individual differences on the relationships between job autonomy and individual engagement and creativity. Organizations need to carefully consider both individual learning goals and performance pressure when empowering team members with job autonomy.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to explore the association between individual job autonomy in teams and individual outcomes in a contingency model. We first introduced team performance pressure as a moderator of job autonomy and examined the 3-way interaction effects of performance pressure, individual job autonomy, and learning goal orientation.

     

How Far Can Support Go? Supported Supervisors’ Performance and Subordinate Dedication

Purpose

The present study builds on prior research involving organizational support theory and the trickle-down effects of supervisors’ perceived organizational support (POS). We examine benefits of supervisor POS for the supervisors themselves (enhanced affective commitment and in-role performance), and a behavioral mechanism through which supervisors’ POS may lead to subordinate dedication, a multifaceted conceptualization of performance.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Using three sources of data (from 139 human resource professionals, their 47 supervisors, and the 22 bosses of their supervisors) we assessed the hypothesized relationships using multilevel path modeling.

Findings

Supervisors’ POS related positively to supervisors’ affective commitment to their organization, resulting in better supervisor in-role performance two months later. Also, having better performing supervisors resulted in more dedication by employees in the form of extra-role performance, as rated by their supervisor 2 months later, and extra hours worked.

Implications

It appears providing organizational support to supervisors may result in beneficial outcomes for the supervisors and the organization in terms of supervisors’ enhanced emotional attachment to the company, and better performance in their job, with consequences for subordinate dedication in terms of extra hours worked and extra-role performance.

Originality/Value

These findings contribute to organizational support theory by showing initial evidence that supervisor in-role performance can serve as an explanatory mechanism through which supervisors’ POS trickles down to aid subordinates.

     

Supervisor Humor and Employee Outcomes: The Role of Social Distance and Affective Trust in Supervisor

Purpose

To examine how social distance and affective trust in supervisor affect the relationships between supervisor humor and the psychological well-being and job performance of subordinates.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A survey was conducted among 322 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads in 14 South Korean organizations. Multi-level analyses were performed to test the research hypotheses, including the moderating effects.

Findings

Self-enhancing humor of supervisors was positively associated with the psychological well-being and job performance of subordinates. Affiliative humor was positively associated with psychological well-being, whereas aggressive humor was negatively associated with psychological well-being. In addition, supervisor humor was indirectly related to the psychological well-being of subordinates via social distance. Moreover, affective trust in supervisor significantly moderated the relationship between supervisor humor and social distance, such that the relationship between affiliative humor and social distance was stronger when affective trust in supervisor was high rather than low.

Implications

These findings are important in developing and refining humor theory on the responses of employees to various types of supervisor humor. Moreover, they provide practical implications for organizations. For example, organizations should note that supervisor humor may not always produce good results, and thus should encourage managers to use constructive humor. Similarly, supervisors should build a high-trust relationship with their subordinates to increase the effectiveness of their constructive humor.

Originality/Value

This study is one of the few studies that has examined the mechanism and boundary conditions of the effects of supervisor humor on employee outcomes.

     

Linking Workplace Aggression to Employee Well-Being and Work: The Moderating Role of Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSB)

Purpose

The present study examined the moderating effects of family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) on the relationship between two types of workplace aggression (i.e., patient-initiated physical aggression and coworker-initiated psychological aggression) and employee well-being and work outcomes.

Methodology

Data were obtained from a field sample of 417 healthcare workers in two psychiatric hospitals. Hypotheses were tested using moderated multiple regression analyses.

Findings

Psychiatric care providers’ perceptions of FSSB moderated the relationship between patient-initiated physical aggression and physical symptoms, exhaustion and cynicism. In addition, FSSB moderated the relationship between coworker-initiated psychological aggression and physical symptoms and turnover intentions.

Implications

Based on our findings, family-supportive supervision is a plausible boundary condition for the relationship between workplace aggression and well-being and work outcomes. This study suggests that, in addition to directly addressing aggression prevention and reduction, family-supportive supervision is a trainable resource that healthcare organizations should facilitate to improve employee work and well-being in settings with high workplace aggression.

Originality

This is the first study to examine the role of FSSB in influencing the relationship between two forms of workplace aggression: patient-initiated physical and coworker-initiated psychological aggression and employee outcomes.

     

Examining Ethicality Judgements of Theft Behavior: The Role of Moral Relativism

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether situational factors predict ethicality judgments of theft behavior, and whether the effect of situational factors is moderated by moral relativism.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained across two laboratory experiments using undergraduate business students attending a Canadian university (n = 372). Student participants viewed a videotaped vignette of an employee informed that he had been caught stealing sales commission. In the vignettes, we manipulated two situational factors: whether or not (a) the theft has monetary consequences for the organization, and (b) similar theft is commonplace within the organization.

Findings

In Experiment 1, both situational factors interacted with moral relativism in the prediction of ratings of unethical conduct. In Experiment 2, using a within-participant research design, we achieved an interaction between the organizational consequences manipulation and moral relativism, although we obtained a considerably stronger effect size for the interaction compared to the first experiment.

Implications

We discuss implications of our findings and suggest avenues for future research. In particular, we consider the possibility that managers may not share a common frame-of-reference when considering the ethicality of theft. This could affect whether and the extent to which theft behavior is reprimanded.

Originality/Value

Our study contributes to research on employee theft, and also adds incrementally to our understanding of how both situational factors and moral relativism jointly influence perceptions of theft behavior.

     

Idiosyncratic Deals and Helping Behavior: The Moderating Role of I-deal Opportunity for Co-workers

Purpose

This study draws from social comparison theory to explore why and under which circumstances individuals receiving idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are likely to help their co-workers.

Design

Data were collected with an alumni association of engineers. Participants completed two questionnaires (N = 182 at Time 2).

Findings

We find that the relationship between i-deals and helping behavior is not direct, but is mediated by organizational-based self-esteem. This relationship is stronger when i-deal recipients believe that their co-workers do not have the opportunity to get i-deals for themselves.

Implications

I-deal recipients are expected to help their colleagues because helping colleagues is consistent with the positive self developed thanks to i-deals. When co-workers have the opportunity to get i-deals for themselves, social comparison between the i-deal recipient and colleagues is likely to be more salient, which strengthen the indirect relationship between i-deal and helping behavior.

Originality

This study tests i-deals from the vantage point of social comparison theory rather than from the perspective of social exchange. We thereby provide a richer account of the complexities involved in helping behavior. By exploring contextual variables that are likely to trigger social comparisons, we also expect to better understand the circumstances under which i-deals are likely to be associated with helping behavior.

     

Unpackaging Manager Mistrust in Allowing Telework: Comparing and Integrating Theoretical Perspectives

Purpose

We developed and tested an integrative model centering on the significance of trust as a basis for managers’ decisions about allowing versus prohibiting their employees to telework. We examined the importance of trust in relation to several other factors managers may consider in making telework decisions including coordination and communication, equity, and a desire to accommodate employees.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Study 1 was a policy capturing investigation of 71 respondents intended to document the relative importance and interactions among trust and these other theoretically based factors. Study 2 was a test of the full theoretical model based on the responses of 85 managers who reported on these considerations for the 191 employees about whom they make telework decisions.

Findings

Results from the two studies were largely consistent. Managers’ assessments of employees’ conscientiousness and trustworthiness were paramount in predicting telework allowance, with the other theoretically based considerations generally failing to attenuate the importance of those personal assessments.

Implications

Organizations wishing to increase the use of telework (e.g., by implementing manager telework training) must directly address managers’ mistrust as a factor underlying this resistance. Job-related and technological changes may not dampen the effects of mistrust.

Originality

To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive and theoretically grounded assessment of the various considerations factoring into managers’ telework decisions.

     

Double Jeopardy: Subordinates’ Worldviews and Poor Performance as Predictors of Abusive Supervision

Purpose

To test a moderated mediation model where a positive relationship between subordinates’ perceptions of a dangerous world—the extent to which an individual views the world as a dangerous place—and supervisory abuse is mediated by their submission to authority figures, and that this relationship is heightened for more poorly performing employees.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from 173 subordinates and 45 supervisors working in different private sector organizations in Pakistan.

Findings

Our model was supported. It appears that subordinates’ dangerous worldviews are positively associated with their perceptions of abusive supervision and that this is because such views are likely to lead to greater submission to authority figures. But this is only for those employees who are performing more poorly.

Implications

We highlight the possibility that individual differences (worldviews, attitudes to authority figures, and performance levels) may lead employees to become victims of abusive supervision. As such, our research informs organizations on how they may better support supervisors in managing effectively their subordinate relationships and, in particular, subordinate poor performance.

Originality/Value

We add to recent work exploring subordinate-focused antecedents of abusive supervision, finding support for the salience of the previously untested constructs of individual worldviews, authoritarian submission, and individual job performance. In so doing we also extend research on dangerous worldviews into a new organizational setting. Finally, our research takes place within a new Pakistani context, adding to the burgeoning non-US based body of empirical work into the antecedents and consequences of abusive supervision.

     

Evaluating Item-Sort Task Methods: The Presentation of a New Statistical Significance Formula and Methodological Best Practices

Purpose

An item-sort task is a common method to reduce over-representative item lists during the scale-creation process. The current article delineates the limitations and misapplications of the accepted statistical significance formula for item-sort tasks and proposes a new statistical significance formula with greater utility across a wider range of item-sort tasks.

Design

First, a simulation study compares the two formulas in an array of conditions that vary on sample size and number of assignment choices. Second, an empirical study compares the results of three separate item-sort tasks across the two formulas for statistical significance.

Findings

In the empirical study, the proposed formula produces more correct retention decisions than the existing formula across all three item-sort tasks. In the simulation study, the proposed formula is more appropriate than the existing formula under most conditions. The two formulas function identically in item-sort tasks with only two assignment choices.

Implications

Researchers could obtain erroneous results when misapplying the existing item-sort task statistical significance formula to cases with more than two assignment choices. The proposed formula corrects this limitation, ultimately providing accurate results more often than the existing formula. Applying the proposed formula could help future research and practice throughout the scale development process.

Originality

Despite widespread use, few attempts have been made to improve scale-creation pretest methods, particularly item-sort tasks. The current study demonstrates that even conventional statistical methods are susceptible to misuse and misapplication, and future research could benefit from the reexamination of other common methods.

     

The Moderating Role of Intergroup Contact in Race Composition,Perceived Similarity,and Applicant Attraction Relationships

Purpose

This study investigated the moderating effect of intergroup contact on the relationship between the race composition of organizational representatives, perceived similarity, and minority applicant attraction.

Design/Methodology/Approach

344 minority Malaysian-Chinese university students read a job advertisement that varied the racial composition of organizational representatives (100 % Malay or 50 % Malay–50 % Chinese or 100 % Chinese). Of these participants, 161 were Malaysian-Chinese in Malaysia (high intergroup contact location) and 183 were Malaysian-Chinese in Australia (low intergroup contact location). After reading the advertisement, participants responded to a series of scale items (e.g., perceived surface-level similarity, perceived deep-level similarity, and applicant attraction).

Findings

Results showed that the effect of race composition on attraction was stronger for minority participants in Australia than for minority participants in Malaysia. Perceived deep-level similarity mediated this moderated relationship.

Implications

The study findings suggest that organizations should include minority representatives in their recruitment advertising to attract minority applicants, particularly to attract minorities in locations with few opportunities for intergroup contact.

Originality/Value

By testing the mediating effects of perceived surface-level and deep-level similarity, this study contributes to our understanding of the mechanism linking the interaction between race composition and location with applicant attraction.

     

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Attitude Toward Applicants’ Faking in Job Interviews

Purpose

This study questions whether applicants with different cultural backgrounds are equally prone to fake in job interviews, and thus systematically examines cross-cultural differences regarding the attitude toward applicants’ faking (an important antecedent of faking and a gateway for cultural influences) on a large scale.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Using an online survey, employees’ (N = 3252) attitudes toward faking were collected in 31 countries. Cultural data were obtained from the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project (GLOBE).

Findings

Attitude toward faking can be differentiated into two correlated forms (severe/mild faking). On the country level, attitudes toward faking correlate in the expected manner with four of GLOBE’s nine cultural dimensions: uncertainty avoidance, power distance, in-group collectivism, and gender egalitarianism. Furthermore, humane orientation correlates positively with attitude toward severe faking.

Implications

For international personnel selection research and practice, an awareness of whether and why there are cross-cultural differences in applicants’ faking behavior is of utmost importance. Our study urges practitioners to be conscious that applicants from different cultures may enter selection situations with different mindsets, and offers several practical implications for international personnel selection.

Originality/Value

Cross-cultural research has been expected to answer questions of whether applicants with different cultural backgrounds fake to the same extent during personnel selection. This study examines and explains cross-cultural differences in applicants’ faking in job interviews with a comprehensive sample and within a coherent theoretical framework.

     

Running on Empty: The Effects of Aggregate Travel Stress on Team Performance

Purpose

In this study, we explore the effects of travel on performance at the team level using conservation of resources (COR) theory as an explanatory mechanism. We investigate the effects of aggregate travel stress, which we define as the accumulated strain experienced by a team when traveling, on key components of team functioning and performance including team task performance, team concentration level, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB).

Design/Methodology/Approach

We analyze 3054 games played in the National Football League across six seasons using multilevel structural equation modeling. Replicating our findings, we also analyzed an additional 11,802 games played in the National Basketball Association across five seasons.

Findings

Aggregate travel stress, as a latent construct, negatively impacts team task performance and team concentration level. Team concentration partially mediates the relationship between aggregate travel stress and CWB.

Implications

Findings suggest that travel has a deleterious effect on various forms of team functioning and performance. As a result, organizations and leaders need to be aware of the potential side effects of travel, and researchers need to further incorporate travel into models and examinations of workplace stress.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to provide a theoretically driven investigation of the effects of business travel on team outcomes and to apply COR theory to team-level phenomena. Results put forth offer a more nuanced understanding of the effects of travel as well as open up new avenues of exploration for COR theory.

     

Giving and Making Sense About Change: The Back and Forth Between Leaders and Employees

Purpose

Leader sensegiving—the attempt to affect employees’ sensemaking—is a crucial leadership activity during organizational change. Yet, it is unclear how employee sensemaking and leader sensegiving vary across different change phases: Although addressing employee needs is key for successful sensegiving, current literature remains vague about how leaders account for different employee needs over the course of a change process.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were obtained from an interview study with organizational members who underwent episodic change. To integrate both perspectives, interviews were conducted with leaders (n = 26) and employees (n = 29). Data were analyzed using template analysis.

Findings

Our analysis revealed and confirmed different sensemaking needs and respective sensegiving foci in each change phase. During exploration, leaders respond to employees’ need for reassurance with receptive sensegiving. During preparation, leaders show participative sensegiving to answer employees’ need for orientation. During implementation, leaders’ compensating sensegiving responds to employees’ need for balance. During evaluation, leaders’ evaluative sensegiving accounts for employees’ need for acknowledgment. Each sensegiving mode is associated with a specific set of discursive and symbolic strategies in each phase.

Implications

This study provides a systematic framework on how leaders can respond successfully to employee sensemaking needs in each change phase using different discursive and symbolic sensegiving strategies.

Originality/Value

The study enhances our understanding of development in sensemaking and sensegiving by outlining the specific interlocking between both processes within the different change phases. Furthermore, it outlines how the relevant sensegiving modes can be obtained through particular symbolic and discursive strategies.

     

Can Being Gay Provide a Boost in the Hiring Process? Maybe If the Boss is Female

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether men and women differentially prefer hiring gay and lesbian job applicants relative to equally qualified heterosexual job applicants.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected from two samples of non-student participants. Each participant evaluated the perceived hirability of an ostensibly real job applicant by reviewing the applicant’s resume. In reality, all participants were randomly assigned to evaluate the same fictitious resume that differed only in the gender and sexual orientation of the applicant.

Findings

We find that men perceived gay and lesbian job applicants as less hirable, while women perceived gay and lesbian job applicants as more hirable than heterosexual job applicants. Additionally, we show perceptions of hirability are mediated by perceptions of gay and lesbian job applicants’ competence.

Implications

These results show that bias against gays and lesbians is much more nuanced than previous work suggests. One implication is that placing more women in selection roles within organizations could be a catalyst for the inclusion of gay and lesbian employees. Additionally, these results could influence when and how gays and lesbians disclose their gay identities at work.

Originality/Value

These studies are the first to identify a positive bias in favor of gay and lesbian job applicants. As attitudes toward gays and lesbians become more positive, results like these are important to document as they signal a shift in intergroup relations. These results will also help managers and organizations design selection processes to minimize bias toward applicants.

     

The Influence of Change-Oriented Leadership and Psychological Safety on Team Learning in Healthcare Teams

Purpose

Researchers have identified team learning as an important predictor of team performance. In healthcare organizations, it is especially critical for care quality and hospital performance that teams engage in learning behaviors to reduce errors and improve service effectiveness. The main objective of this study is to examine the role of change-oriented leadership in the learning process and outcomes of healthcare teams.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The sample comprises a total of 698 healthcare professionals working in 107 teams at different public hospitals throughout Spain. Members of teams were invited to participate voluntarily by completing an anonymous individual questionnaire.

Findings

The results show a mediating effect of team learning on the relationship between change-oriented leadership and team performance and psychological safety and team performance.

Originality/Value

Our study contributes to the literature by investigating the role of change-oriented leadership in facilitating team learning behaviors. Moreover, this study advances our understanding of the mediators of the relationship between team leadership and outcomes by testing to assess whether specific change-oriented leader behaviors nurture psychological safety, team learning and, therefore, performance.

     

Editorial: Evidence on Questionable Research Practices: The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly

Purpose

Questionable research or reporting practices (QRPs) contribute to a growing concern regarding the credibility of research in the organizational sciences and related fields. Such practices include design, analytic, or reporting practices that may introduce biased evidence, which can have harmful implications for evidence-based practice, theory development, and perceptions of the rigor of science.

Design/Methodology/Approach

To assess the extent to which QRPs are actually a concern, we conducted a systematic review to consider the evidence on QRPs. Using a triangulation approach (e.g., by reviewing data from observations, sensitivity analyses, and surveys), we identified the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Findings

Of the 64 studies that fit our criteria, 6 appeared to find little to no evidence of engagement in QRPs and the other 58 found more severe evidence (91 %).

Implications

Drawing upon the findings, we provide recommendations for future research related to publication practices and academic training.

Originality/value

We report findings from studies that suggest that QRPs are not a problem, that QRPs are used at a suboptimal rate, and that QRPs present a threat to the viability of organizational science research.