Examining personality—Job characteristic interactions in explaining work outcomes

Although research suggests personality traits and job characteristics are each important drivers of work outcomes, there has been little focus on potential interactions between the two. In the current studies, we integrate the theory of purposeful work behavior with the job demands-resources model to examine how five-factor model personality traits interact with job resources and challenging job demands in explaining employee motivation and performance. We tested our hypotheses in two studies with different sample types and utilized item response theory scoring. Results across the studies were mixed, but generally support that there are important interactive effects between certain traits and contextual factors in explaining work behavior. Implications for theory and practice and future directions are discussed.     

Rights, Responsibilities, and Respect: A Balanced Citizenship Model for Schools of Business

In a world increasingly described as turbulent and chaotic, management scholars have acknowledged the importance of a virtue-based set of criteria to serve as a moral rubric for the stakeholders that an organization serves. Business schools play a unique role in helping their students to understand the ethical issues facing business. Business schools can also model the way for creating a clear statement of values and principles, by creating a bill of rights for business schools that recognizes the importance of rights and responsibilities and articulates the important ethical issues that apply not only to business but to the business school context. Four models for creating a bill of rights in schools of business are presented and a framework of a bill of rights is provided. The advantages of a virtue ethics model for a bill of rights are explained as the most practical approach for business faculty to consider.     

Israeli Teachers’ Perceptions of Lateness: A Gender Comparison

The study examines the relationship between distributive justice and teachers’ lateness, focusing on the mediation effect of organizational commitment and taking into account gender differences. The sample consisted of 1,016 teachers from 35 high schools in Israel. Results, based on multi-level analysis, showed that, for women, organizational commitment partially mediated the relation between perceived distributive justice and lateness. No such effect was found for men. The findings are explained in terms of women using lateness behavior to establish a balance between their amount of effort and the measure of their perceived reward.     

对新员工入职期望变化的一项纵向研究

通过对419名企业新员工入职期望的纵向研究,并运用LGM分析,结果表明：①在组织社会化初期,新员工入职期望的变化呈独特规律,即,工作期望线性下降,团队和企业期望的变化呈不定义曲线形式;②新员工入职期望各维度的变化率都存在显著的个体差异,但仅工作期望初始状态的个体差异显著;③新员工入职期望各维度的初始状态和变化速度之间都存在显著的正相关。由本研究而引发的诸如个体差异的预测因素等问题,还有待进一步研究     

Learning climate scale: Construction,reliability and initial validity evidence

The current study developed an instrument for measuring learning climate in organizations. A review of the organizational learning and facilitation of workplace learning literature resulted in three theoretically relevant dimensions referring to facilitation, appreciation, and error avoidance. The 3-dimensional learning climate scale (LCS) was tested in a heterogeneous sample of Dutch wage earners (N = 1013). Confirmatory factor analysis and analysis of measurement invariance were conducted to establish the factorial structure of the measure. Also, convergent, divergent, and construct validity of the LCS were investigated. The findings showed that the newly developed instrument for learning climate has good psychometric properties: the three-factor structure was supported and the sub-scales were reliable. Furthermore, the LCS showed good convergent and divergent validity.     

Joint effects of social networks and information giving on innovative performance after organizational entry

We combine the social network approach and organizational socialization literature in order to examine the influence of social networks and proactive behavior on newcomers' innovative performance. A sample of new employees completed questionnaires on social network and proactive measures, and their supervisors rated their innovative performance. The results suggest that both sparse (low density) social networks and newcomers' information giving were related to innovative performance. The results also indicate that information giving moderated the relation between sparse social networks and innovative performance: when newcomers' information giving was high, the characteristics of their social networks were not related to their innovative performance.     

Les effets des demandes au travail et de la justice organisationnelle sur l’épuisement professionnel : quels effets médiateurs du soutien social et de l’estime de soi ?

This study focuses on the burnout framework and aims at examining the links between, on the one hand, the psychological burden, decision latitude, organizational justice and self-esteem and, on the other hand, the burnout. We measure the mediator effect of the social support. The data derived from a questionnaire submitted to 122 managers allowed us to establish a correlation matrix, linear regressions on the burnout and mediation analyzes. The results indicate that the predominant variables would be the organizational justice, support from colleagues, self-esteem and affects. The mediator effect of the social support between the different types of justice and the burnout was partially validated.     

Affective commitment as a moderator of the adverse relationships between day-specific self-control demands and psychological well-being

Recent research has focused on the day-specific adverse effects of stressors at work. Thus, in the present study, we examine the relationships between day-specific work-related self-control demands (SCDs) as a stressor and day-specific indicators of psychological well-being (ego depletion, need for recovery, and work engagement). On the basis of the limited strength model of self-control, we predict that SCDs deplete limited regulatory resources and impair psychological well-being. Furthermore, we propose affective commitment as a buffering moderator of this relationship. Consistent with the broaden and build theory of positive emotions and the self-determination theory, we suggest that affective commitment satisfies employees basic psychological needs and provides positive emotions, which, in turn, help restore limited regulatory resources. Thus, affective commitment should buffer the negative relationships between day-specific SCDs and day-specific psychological well-being. To examine our hypotheses, we conducted a diary study with N = 60 employees over 10 working days and used multi-level models to test our predictions. Our results demonstrated that day-specific SCDs indeed impaired indicators of psychological well-being. Furthermore, affective commitment buffered these adverse relationships; thus, on days with high SCDs, highly committed employees reported higher levels of psychological well-being than did less committed employees.     

Improving Public Perception of Behavior Analysis

The potential impact of behavior analysis is limited by the public’s dim awareness of the field. The mass media rarely cover behavior analysis, other than to echo inaccurate negative stereotypes about control and punishment. The media instead play up appealing but less-evidence-based approaches to problems, a key example being the touting of dubious diets over behavioral approaches to losing excess weight. These sorts of claims distort or skirt scientific evidence, undercutting the fidelity of behavior analysis to scientific rigor. Strategies for better connecting behavior analysis with the public might include reframing the field’s techniques and principles in friendlier, more resonant form; pushing direct outcome comparisons between behavior analysis and its rivals in simple terms; and playing up the “warm and fuzzy” side of behavior analysis.     

The Need for a More Effective Science of Cultural Practices

Behavior analysis has produced a robust theoretical analysis of the contingencies involved in cultural evolution. Yet, thus far, the empirical yield of this work remains quite limited. With this paper, I attempt to provide specific examples of the ways to advance an experimental analysis of the contingencies involved in cultural evolution. I begin with a review of the theoretical analyses developed by behavior analysts and other contextually oriented scientists. Next, I submit that, if the goal of our science is both predicting and influencing cultural phenomena, we must produce experimental analyses of the impact of meta-contingencies on organizations’ practices. There is no more pressing reason for doing this than the threat of climate change posed by the continuing growth in human use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the paper provides an analysis of the contingencies influencing organizational practices now affecting continued use of fossil fuels and the contingencies for organizations seeking to prevent their use. One concrete step to advance a science of cultural change relevant to climate change would be to create a database of organizations that are promoting vs. working to prevent fossil fuel consumption and the consequences that seem to maintain their practices. I call for experimental analysis of the impact of altering consequences for these practices and for experimental analyses of interventions intended to change the norms, values, and behavior of organizational leaders who can influence fossil fuel consumption. I then discuss the role of prosocial behavior and values in affecting behavior relevant to reducing fossil fuel consumption because the empirical evidence shows that prosociality favors more “green” behavior. Recent advances in prevention research have identified interventions to promote prosociality, but we need experimental analyses of how advocacy organizations can be more effective in getting these interventions widely adopted.