The mediating influence of role stressors in the relationship between mentoring and job attitudes

This study investigated the influence of two role stressors—role ambiguity and role conflict—on previously established relationships between mentoring activities—vocational support, psychosocial support, and role modeling—and prominent job attitudes. Full and partial mediation models were tested with a sample of 355 protégés. Results showed that both role conflict and role ambiguity completely mediated the relationships between psychosocial support and role modeling with job attitudes. There was also support for role conflict as a partial mediator of the relationship between vocational support and job attitudes. Additional analyses revealed that psychosocial support served as a suppressor-variable in this study. Implications for future research and mentoring practice are discussed.     

Multiple commitments in the Chinese context: Testing compatibility, cultural, and moderating hypotheses

This paper evaluates the contribution of the multiple constituencies of commitment framework in explaining work attitudes and behaviors in a sample of Chinese manufacturing workers. Findings suggest that the organization, the supervisor, and co-workers were seen by respondents as separate commitment foci. Although the various commitments were moderately positively correlated, they were related differently to the dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior and withdrawal cognitions, in a way which provides support for the “compatibility” hypothesis. There was only limited support for our “cultural” hypothesis. An analysis of interactions between commitments suggested that commitment to supervisor was a stronger positive predictor of protecting company resources and interpersonal harmony when commitment to work group was lower, providing partial support for our moderating hypotheses.     

The interactive effects of perceived external prestige and need for organizational identification on turnover intentions

Recent research has highlighted the importance of understanding the influence of an organization’s external image on its members. Although progress has been made in understanding how perceived external prestige relates to workplace outcomes, researchers have not examined the joint effect of perceived external prestige and individual differences on such outcomes. In this article, we tested the impact of perceived external prestige on turnover intentions, but we also assumed that this influence is moderated by individuals’ need for organizational identification. Using three samples and a longitudinal research design, we found consistent support for this assumption. These results provide empirical support for the theoretical integration of social identity and need-based motivation theories.     

The relationship between multiple commitments and organizational citizenship behavior in Arab and Jewish culture

This study examined the relation between multiple commitments (organizational commitment, occupational commitment, job involvement, and group commitment), ethnicity, and cultural values (individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity) with organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and in-role performance. Two ethnic groups of Israeli teachers, Jews and Arabs, were examined. Of the 880 questionnaires that were distributed in 18 schools in northern Israel, 569 usable questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 65%. The findings showed substantial differences between the two groups in the four cultural dimensions and in two commitment forms. Ethnicity and the four cultural values related strongly to in-role performance and organizational OCB. The results showed 16 significant interactions of multiple commitments with ethnicity and with cultural dimensions in relation to OCB and in-role performance. Implications of the findings for research on commitment and culture are discussed.     

The effects of early socialization experiences on content mastery and outcomes: A mediational approach

This field study examined how early socialization experiences affect new employee mastery of socialization content and socialization outcomes. New employees reported the realism of their preentry knowledge and the helpfulness of socialization agents. A follow-up survey assessed mastery of socialization content along with role clarity, job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment. The results, based on 194 new employees of a large educational institution and using structural equation modeling, were highly supportive of the hypotheses. Realism of preentry knowledge and agent helpfulness, the two indicators of early socialization experiences, were associated with greater role clarity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. In addition, the mastery of specific socialization content dimensions, the often-assumed intervening processes, was explicitly shown to mediate those relationships. The specific patterns of mediation observed further advance our understanding of the relationships between new employee mastery of socialization content and the determinants and consequences of that mastery.     

Relationships between organizational justice, identification with organization and work unit, and group-related outcomes

This research examined the differential antecedents and consequences of organizational identification and work-unit identification. Specifically, we hypothesized that organization-focused procedural justice and distributive justice would be positively related to organizational identification, whereas supervisor-focused interactional justice would be positively related to work-unit identification. A further hypothesis was that organizational identification would relate to organization-focused outcomes (turnover intentions and extra-role behavior toward the organization), and work-unit identification to work-unit-focused outcomes (extra-role behavior toward the work unit). Our results from a sample of 160 employees of a research institution supported these hypotheses. In addition, we found some evidence that organizational identification and work-unit identification differentially mediated the relationships between organization-focused and supervisor-focused justice, and organization-focused and work-unit-focused outcomes. We discuss our findings in terms of their implications for social-identity research on organizational identification, and for research on organizational justice.     

Reliability and Validity of the Vicarious Trauma Organizational Readiness Guide (VT‐ORG)

The Vicarious Trauma Organizational Readiness Guide (VT‐ORG) is an assessment of an organization's readiness to address vicarious trauma (VT), which is exposure to the traumatic experiences of people served. This study reports on the psychometric properties of the VT‐ORG. Employees of first responder agencies (e.g., law enforcement, fire, emergency services) and victim assistance agencies are at a high risk for vicarious traumatization, which can lead to PTSD, substance use, and suicidal ideation, among other negative impacts. Organizations that do not address VT may see such effects as employee turnover, reduced efficiency, and negative work environments. The VT‐ORG is an assessment tool designed to help organizations complete the first step of organizational change—conducting a needs assessment. Study participants were 3,018 employees across 13 first responder and victim assistance agencies who completed the 67‐item VT‐ORG and additional measures for evaluation of its validity and reliability. The VT‐ORG was found to have excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .98). A structural equation model demonstrated that the subscales of the VT‐ORG predicted criterion measures of turnover intention, compassion satisfaction, and organizational resilience, with an overall model fit of CFI = .99, RMSEA = .053. This study found the VT‐ORG to be a reliable and valid assessment of organizational responses to vicarious trauma.     

Being well at work: the impact of organizational climate and social identity on employee stress and self-esteem over time

In organizational psychology, staff perceptions of organizational climate have been found to be an important predictor of employee outcomes, such as employee stress. However, only a small pool of research has investigated the psychological mechanism that underpins the relationship, and no past literature has explored how the relationship persists over time. This paper uses the social identity approach to investigate whether social identification predicts and mediates the relationship between staff perceptions of organizational climate and their levels of stress and self-esteem over time. Employing a sample of public school teachers, the study was conducted over two years (N = 281, 65 schools). The results indicated that social identification fully mediated the relationship between organizational climate and self-esteem longitudinally but showed no significant relationship with stress. The implications of these findings are discussed, with recommendations for future research.     

Engagement envers le supérieur et recherche de feedback négatif : le rôle des variables de statut du supérieur

The relationship between employees’ affective commitment to the supervisor and negative feedback seeking is barely explored in the literature. Moreover, the role of the characteristics related to the context where this relationship develops is unknown. In the present article, we examine the relationship between affective commitment to the supervisor and negative feedback seeking using data collected from 250 employees affiliated with organizations operating in the service industry. Three moderating variables were measured: supervisor-organization value incongruence, supervisors’ networking ability, and supervisors’ perceived organizational status. Data analysis through moderated multiple regression indicates that commitment to the supervisor is positively related to negative feedback seeking, and that this relationship is enhanced when the supervisor is perceived to have a low value incongruence with the organization or a weak networking ability. In contrast, supervisors’ perceived organizational status did not exert a moderating role. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on feedback seeking behavior in the workplace.     

The interactive effect of job involvement and organizational commitment on job turnover revisited: a note on the mediating role of turnover intention

This study extends previous theoretical and empirical research on Blau and Boal's (1987) model of the interactive effect of job involvement and organizational commitment on employee withdrawal. Using longitudinal data from a survey among the nursing staff of a Swedish emergency hospital (N = 535) and register information on actual turnover, the results showed, in contrast to the statement of the original theoretical model, that turnover intention mediates the additive and multiplicative effects of job involvement and organizational commitment on actual turnover. The study suggests that the proposed involvement by commitment interaction is theoretically justified, and underscores the pertinence of investigating intermediate linkages in turnover research.