Who benefits from independent careers? Employees,organizations, or both?

The traditional organizational career has been depicted as the classic example of how employers and employees can develop a mutually beneficial relationship; but changes in the competitive landscape and in individual work values have challenged its viability. Commentators have argued that a ‘new career’ deal, encapsulated by the notions of the protean and the boundaryless career, has emerged suggesting a shift in control of careers from organizations to individuals. Research has explored the implications for individuals' careers while largely neglecting consequences for organizations. Our paper seeks to remedy this by exploring both the individual and the organizational outcomes of independent career orientations and the extent to which organizations can manage these through high commitment human resource management (HRM) practices. Our study, conducted with 655 employee–supervisor dyads, indicates that a protean career orientation results in gains for both employees and organizations, whereas a boundaryless career orientation is associated with mutual losses. In addition, our findings suggest that high commitment HR practices play an important role in managing the outcomes of employees seeking traditional careers but have only a limited impact on those with a boundaryless career orientation.     

The effect of spatial competition between object-level representations of target and mask on object substitution masking

One of the processes determining object substitution masking (OSM) is thought to be the spatial competition between independent object file representations of the target and mask (e.g., Kahan & Lichtman, 2006). In a series of experiments, we further examined how OSM is influenced by this spatial competition by manipulating the overlap between the surfaces created by the modal completion of the target (an outline square with a gap in one of its sides) and the mask (a four-dot mask). The results of these experiments demonstrate that increasing the spatial overlap between the surfaces of the target and mask increases OSM. Importantly, this effect is not caused by the mask interfering with the processing of the target features it overlaps. Overall, the data indicate, consistent with Kahan and Lichtman, that OSM can arise through competition between independent target and mask representations.     

Testing the differential effects of changes in psychological contract breach and fulfillment

Rousseau (1989 and elsewhere) argued that a defining feature of psychological contract breach was that once a promise had been broken it could not easily be repaired and therefore that the effects of psychological contract breach outweighed those of psychological contract fulfillment. Using two independent longitudinal surveys, this paper investigated whether changes in breach and fulfillment differentially affected work-related attitudes and affective well-being outcomes. Results generally supported differential effects, where increases in reported breach had greater effects on outcomes than increases in fulfillment, for the outcomes of affective wellbeing, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The present study underlined the importance of breach as a determinant of negative affect and attitudes. However, fulfillment had a lesser impact, in that it maintained (i.e., had no effect) or had only a modest positive effect on wellbeing and attitudes.     

A dual-process model of brand extension: Taxonomic feature-based and thematic relation-based similarity independently drive brand extension evaluation

The success of a brand extension depends largely on the similarity between the brand and its extension product. Recent psychological and neuroscientific evidence supports a dual-process model that distinguishes taxonomic feature-based similarity from thematic relation-based similarity. In addition to providing a parsimonious organizational framework for prior brand extension research, this dual-process model also provides novel predictions about the processing and evaluation of taxonomic brand extensions (e.g., Budweiser cola) and thematic brand extensions (e.g., Budweiser chips). Results indicate that taxonomic and thematic similarities independently contribute to branding professionals' and lay consumers' evaluations of real and hypothetical brand extensions (Studies 1A and 1B). Counter-intuitively, thematic brand extensions are processed more rapidly (Study 2), judged more novel, and evaluated more positively than taxonomic extensions (Study 3). When induced to consider the commonalities between the brand and the extension product, however, taxonomic extensions are judged more novel and evaluated more positively (Study 3). Implications for brand extension and marketing more generally are discussed.