The purpose of this study was to contribute to the limited body of knowledge of antecedents to supervisor support by utilizing the ecology model to explore the biographical information that differentiates highly supportive supervisors from those who are less supportive. We analysed qualitative biographical data from 65 supervisors rated as highly supportive and 63 supervisors rated as less supportive by their subordinates, comparing and contrasting their personality characteristics, work experiences, and life experiences. We found that highly supportive supervisors were more likely to see themselves as being warm and sociable, to think that their communication and leadership skills were their key strengths, and they were more involved in a variety of social and professional groups than less supportive supervisors. Supportive supervision is one way organizations can inexpensively work to build the job skills, abilities, and the interpersonal skills of organizational members. On the basis of the findings of this study, we propose some ways in which an organization can hire and develop supervisors to be more supportive.
Recent work on organizational identity has recognized the possibility of dual identification. We present an analysis of complementary dual identification, according to which the known positive benefits of employer identification are amplified when there exist strong secondary forms of identification at work. Thus, even though non-employer identification is weakly associated with beneficial job outcomes, these secondary aspects of non-employer work identification remain important because they amplify the beneficial impact of employer identification on work attitudes and performance. Using a sample of sales representatives at department stores in Taiwan, we found that the stronger the department-store identification was, the stronger the positive effects of employing-company identification on job performance and customer-oriented behaviour were.
In a field experiment, we investigated the impact of a ‘strange’ recruitment medium on the quantity and quality of the applicant pool. Recruiting through an unusual medium (i.e., postcard) was associated with higher applicant pool quantity, as compared to a more frequently used medium (i.e., e-mail). With respect to quality, applicants recruited through the strange medium were higher educated. A follow-up questionnaire confirmed that the media were perceived to differ in strangeness, not in media richness or credibility. These results suggest that ‘changing things up’ in recruitment by employing strange recruitment media can positively affect key recruitment outcomes.
Situational judgment tests (SJTs) have become popular in recent years. Yet, there is little research on how the constructs targeted within SJTs influence standardized ethnic group differences. Further, most research in this area is subject to differential range restriction concerns that hinder understanding of the role of constructs. We report on scale-level data from four jobs in which SJTs were part of the first major hurdle of selection, thus providing an analysis of how constructs might relate to standardized group differences when range restriction concerns are minimized. Results indicate that cognitively saturated scales were associated with d values of 0.56 and 0.76, while interpersonal items were associated with d values of 0.07, 0.20, and 0.50. Based on the obtained ds, we simulated hiring and obtained adverse impact ratios to help interpret these values of d for decision-makers. Overall, we demonstrate the importance of examining constructs and gathering data at the applicant level of analyses when attempting to understand SJT d values (and any associated adverse impact).
The current study examined a moderated mediation model of perceived overqualification and job search, with job attitudes as mediators and the competence and growth work value as a moderator. We also hypothesized a positive relationship between overqualification and actual voluntary turnover behaviour. College graduates from diverse occupations completed two surveys spaced 6 months apart (n = 368). Results suggested that perceived overqualification at Time 1 led to active job search behaviour at Time 2, both directly and through job satisfaction. The direct link was moderated by work values, such that the overqualification–job search relationship was stronger for employees who highly valued work which offered skill utilization and growth. Perceived overqualification was also predictive of voluntary turnover behaviour; those at the high end of the overqualification scale were over four times more likely to have left their position than those at the low end of the scale. Finally, those who left their original positions reported less overqualification in their new positions. The current findings extend the limited existing literature by establishing relationships between overqualification and withdrawal behaviours 6 months later, and also providing evidence that individual differences may influence reactions to being overqualified.
The construct of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) focuses on the positive psychological capacities of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience and their relationship with a range of desirable work attitudes, behaviours and organizational outcomes. There is now almost a decade of accumulated PsyCap research. However, a critical and synthesized analysis of the construct in terms of its theoretical conceptualization and psychometric properties is yet to appear in the literature. Consequently, this article aims to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the PsyCap literature, focusing in particular on issues relevant to the psychometric profile of PsyCap as it is currently assessed. Six directives for advancing PsyCap research are proposed as part of an integrated research agenda aimed towards strengthening the conceptualization and measurement of PsyCap.
This study examines the impact of engaging in seven types of activities on depression and quality of life in retirees and older workers over a period of 2 years, using a sample from the survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe. Longitudinal data were available from 2,813 retirees and 1,372 older employees. Our results showed that volunteering, providing help and going to sports or social clubs at the baseline improved retirees' quality of life over a period of 2 years. No direct effects of engaging in activities were found for older employees. Moreover, higher depression at the baseline fostered the depression experience at the follow-up in those retirees and older employees who were caring for disabled adults at baseline. In retirees with higher depression at baseline, participation in religious organizations was associated with a greater decrease in depression at follow-up than in those who had lower levels of depression at baseline. For older employees, taking part in political or community organizations at baseline was related to a greater decrease in depression at follow-up than in those employees who experienced higher initial depression.
Over the past decade, experimental and longitudinal research has shown that psychological flexibility is an important determinant of mental health and behavioural effectiveness in the workplace. These findings have been established using a general measure of this psychological process, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–Revised (AAQ-II). Consistent with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) theory, psychological flexibility may demonstrate even stronger associations with variables related to a work context (e.g., job satisfaction) if it were assessed using a measure of the construct that is tailored to the workplace. To test this hypothesis, we first developed such a measure, the work-related acceptance and action questionnaire (WAAQ). Findings from 745 participants across three studies reveal that the structure, validity and reliability of the WAAQ are satisfactory. As predicted, the WAAQ, in comparison with the AAQ-II, correlates significantly more strongly with work-specific variables. In contrast, the AAQ-II tends to correlate more strongly with outcomes that are likely to be more stable across different contexts (e.g., mental health and personality variables). These findings are discussed in relation to ACT theory.
Diversity has the potential to significantly benefit organizations by leading to positive work outcomes when diversity ‘works’. Unfortunately, not only is our knowledge limited as to the necessary conditions and the mechanisms by which diversity affects individual, work performance and organizational outcomes, but we still know very little about which diversity management practices are most effective in promoting positive outcomes. We analyse the literature on diversity and its management, and describe how the seven papers included in this section advance our understanding of what organizations can do to get diversity at work to work. Our discussion points to the need for more research on how diversity at multiple levels affects work and organizational outcomes; the development of integrative theory which takes into account that diversity might not only engender separation and variety but also disparity; as well as to the need for more empirical attention to the climates or cultures that facilitate the positive effects of diversity on work and organizational outcomes. We suggest that future research should also identify those people management practices that are most powerful in the creation of a positive diversity climate, and the factors that moderate and underlie its effects on work and organizational outcomes. We conclude with proposals about how this might be achieved.
]]>Racial biases affect many important personnel decisions such as performance appraisal and promotion. Yet, little is known about how these biases might influence evaluations of employee lateness behaviour. Integrating attribution theory and research on racial stereotypes and meta-stereotypes, we investigated whether tardy Black and Hispanic employees are penalized harsher than their White counterparts in terms of unfavourable personnel outcomes. Findings from a national US survey (N = 2,789) showed that Black employees perceive fewer advancement opportunities the more often they are late – an effect that did not hold true for Hispanic or White incumbents. A follow-up experimental study with full-time working adults (N = 204) further illustrated that the tardiness of Black, but not White, employees negatively impacts their performance appraisal ratings and subsequent chances of advancement. This model of differential penalization of lateness behaviour suggests similar processes may generalize to other forms of stereotypical misbehaviour in organizations.
With an increasingly integrated global economy, the need to understand how national work contexts impact newcomers is critical. In particular, it is important to understand individuals' possible responses to interaction within multicultural work contexts. Blending theoretical perspectives on social identity, cross-cultural diversity, and identity formation/change, this paper explores the complex role played by dispositional and situational factors on acculturation strategies and, in turn, labour market outcomes. To guide this exploration, a theoretical model depicting the acculturation process is developed and presented. We posit that the relationship between cultural identity salience and acculturation strategy will be moderated by two key factors: desire for economic rewards and relational pressures. We further propose that acculturation strategy will influence the social networks and organizations that newcomers join, while these latter choices can help predict their income, employability, and advancement. We advance a number of testable propositions to stimulate future research and conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical contributions.
Applying social identity theory and the relational demography approach, this paper proposes that the effect of age diversity on individual team members' health is contingent on the individual age as well as on age stereotypes. We suggest that younger and older employees' health is negatively associated with age diversity, while middle-aged team members' health is not affected. We further postulate that age stereotypes strengthen the negative effect of age diversity for the younger age group, while they weaken the effect for older employees. For middle-aged team members, age stereotypes are expected not to determine the relationship between age diversity and health. We tested our hypotheses based on data from a representative sample of the German workforce (n = 1,214). The results fully confirmed our hypotheses.
The composition of the workforce with regard to organizational tenure is rapidly changing. In this paper, we examine the cross-level effects of tenure diversity on individual-level creativity. In keeping with the categorization-elaboration model, we propose individual-level explicit knowledge as a mediating mechanism between tenure diversity and individual creativity, and knowledge sharing as moderating the relationship between tenure diversity and individual explicit knowledge. Using a sample of 341 Korean insurance agents from 76 groups, we find that knowledge sharing moderates the relationship between tenure diversity and individual explicit knowledge. Results further support the direction of the hypothesized relationships, with tenure diversity positively influencing individual explicit knowledge at high levels of knowledge sharing and exhibiting a negative influence at low levels. Individual explicit knowledge carries these indirect effects to individual creativity, although directional significance was only found at extremely high and low values.
In accounting for the positive and negative consequences of work group diversity, researchers have generally relied on the information/decision-making (i.e., diversity as variety) and the social categorization (i.e., diversity as separation) perspective, respectively. In this conceptual paper we argue that there is a need to integrate status-related processes (i.e., diversity as disparity) as key to understanding the outcomes of work group diversity. Based on expectation states theory, we argue that status differences between group members automatically emerge when group members differ in their characteristics and/or associated (informational) resources. These within-group status differences lead to the formation of a status configuration, an informal social order that serves a coordination function. We propose that the effect of a status configuration on group performance depends on the interplay between the veridicality, the legitimacy and the stability of a status configuration. We discuss how our propositions can be tested and how our status perspective relates to the information/decision-making and the social categorization perspective. We close with a discussion on the implications of our status perspective for practitioners.
Previous diversity research has neglected the role of psychological mechanisms that underlie the relationship between diversity climate and employee performance. Drawing on social and racial identity theories, we hypothesized that psychological safety mediates the relationship between diversity climate and employee performance. Furthermore, we proposed that race moderates both stages of the mediation, whereby the relationships between diversity climate and psychological safety and between psychological safety and performance are stronger for minorities than for Whites. Results, based on a survey of employees and their colleagues, revealed that the relationship between diversity climate and employee performance was mediated by psychological safety. We also found that the diversity climate–psychological safety and psychological safety–extra-role performance relationships were moderated by race, such that these relationships were stronger for minorities than for Whites. Further, the indirect effects of diversity climate on extra-role behaviours via psychological safety were also moderated by race, such that these relationships were stronger for minorities than for Whites. For efficient management of diversity in organizations, research and practical implications are also discussed.
Diversity initiatives do not necessarily yield sought-after outcomes. Following Bamberger and Pratt's (2010 Acad. Manage. J. 53, 665) suggestion of pursuing exploration-based unconventional research, we conducted a case study of a uniquely diverse organization. Using focus groups, interviews and reviews of organizational documents and artefacts, we describe what underlies a strong positive climate for diversity. The themes that emerged around centrality of diversity to identity, accommodation, respecting difference, continuous learning and structural inclusiveness indicated how diversity can be translated into attitudes (openness to change, openness to others, openness to error and perceived person-environment fit) and competencies (efficacy for change, interpersonal competence, improvement capacity and actual person-environment fit). Implications for promoting positive diversity climates that may enhance organizational effectiveness are discussed.