Self‐Engagement Moderates the Mediated Relationship Between Organizational Constraints and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors Via Rated Leadership

We examined self‐engagement in job performance in a moderated mediation model where engagement moderated the relationship between organizational constraints and ratings of leadership effectiveness, and ratings of leadership effectiveness mediated the relationship between organizational constraints and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). University employees representing diverse occupations completed measures of self‐engagement, organizational constraints, and leader effectiveness. Supervisors provided ratings of OCB. Tests of mediated moderation using random coefficient modeling revealed that leadership mediated the relationship between constraints and OCB for highly engaged employees. Results are discussed in terms of highly engaged workers being attuned to stressors in the work environment that may compromise performance, potentially blaming leaders for the presence of these obstacles, thus causing withdrawal of effort on nonessential performance tasks.     

With partners like you,who needs strangers? Ostracism involving a romantic partner

Being ostracized by others threatens the satisfaction of fundamental needs, although less so when individuals first are reminded of a close relationship. What remains unknown is the effect of being ostracized directly by a relationship partner, which may vary depending on attachment security. We examined how a partner's involvement in ostracism affects need satisfaction and relationship evaluations, and explored attachment security. One hundred and twenty‐seven couple members played Cyberball in a between‐subjects experiment manipulating ostracism and partner involvement. Need satisfaction was more strongly affected by the partner's presence (vs. absence). Individuals evaluated their relationship more negatively as a function of partner ostracism and high attachment avoidance. Attachment anxiety was associated with lower need satisfaction. The results highlight relational expectations and influences on belonging needs.     

INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNICATION NETWORKS AS A PREDICTOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

This study examines the relationship between involvement in a job-related communication network and organizational commitment. The findings indicate a complex relationship that is moderated by the degree of job involvement. For employees who are not involved in their jobs, involvement in the job-related communication network functions to foster commitment to the organization. Two major conclusions are drawn: (1) the impact of involvement in communication networks on employee attitudes and behaviors may occur only for individuals with certain characteristics; and (2) previous studies that have reported main effects for individual variables on organizational commitment may need reinterpretation in light of the disordinal interaction obtained here. The possibility that different commitment processes operate for different kinds of employees is explored, with special emphasis on those employees for whom communication is a potent factor in determining attitudes. Implications for future research on the relationship between communication network involvement and other employee responses are discussed.     

Concepts and Conceptual Analysis

Conceptual analysis is undergoing a revival in philosophy, and much of the credit goes to Frank Jackson. Jackson argues that conceptual analysis is needed as an integral component of so-called serious metaphysics and that it also does explanatory work in accounting for such phenomena as categorization, meaning change, communication, and linguistic understanding. He even goes so far as to argue that opponents of conceptual analysis are implicitly committed to it in practice. We show that he is wrong on all of these points and that his case for conceptual analysis doesn't succeed. At the same time, we argue that the sorts of intuitions that figure in conceptual analysis may still have a significant role to play in philosophy. So naturalists needn't disregard intuitions altogether.     

NEWTON AND SPINOZA: ON MOTION AND MATTER (AND GOD,OF COURSE)

This study explores several arguments against Spinoza's philosophy that were developed by Henry More, Samuel Clarke, and Colin Maclaurin. In the arguments on which I focus, More, Clarke, and Maclaurin aim to establish the existence of an immaterial and intelligent God precisely by showing that Spinoza does not have the resources to adequately explain the origin of motion. Attending to these criticisms grants us a deeper appreciation for how the authority derived from the empirical success of Newton's enterprise was used to settle debates within philosophy. What I emphasize is that in the progression from More to Clarke to Maclaurin, key Newtonian concepts from the Principia (1687), such as motion, atomism, and the vacuum, are introduced and exploited in order to challenge the account of matter and motion that is presented in Spinoza's Ethics (1677). Building on this treatment, I use the arguments from More and Clarke especially to help discern the anti‐Spinozism that can be detected in Newton's General Scholium (1713). Ultimately, the Newtonian criticisms that I detail offer us a more nuanced view of the problems that plague Spinoza's philosophy, and they also challenge the idea that Spinoza seamlessly fits into a progressive narrative about the scientific revolution.     

Moral Disengagement Through Displacement of Responsibility: The Role of Leadership Beliefs

The present study examined the relationship between a person's leadership beliefs and the propensity to justify his or her unethical behavior by shifting responsibility to those people in leadership positions who ordered or condoned the behavior. Theoretical support for this relationship comes from the moral disengagement branch of social cognitive theory, which proposes that one cognitive mechanism people employ to justify unethical behavior involves displacing responsibility for their action onto someone else ( Bandura, 1999b ). The study's results revealed that leadership self‐efficacy, affective and noncalculative motivation to lead, and shared orientation toward leadership were related to moral disengagement through the displacement of responsibility.