Job engagement,perceived organizational support,high‐performance human resource practices,and cultural value orientations: A cross‐level investigation

Drawing on social exchange theory, we developed and tested a cross‐level model of organizational‐level predictors of job engagement. Specifically, we examined the impact of high‐performance human resource (HR) practices on employee engagement and work outcomes. Based on a sample of 605 employees, their immediate supervisors, and HR managers from 130 companies, our results indicated that high‐performance HR practices were directly related to job engagement as well as indirectly related through employees' perceived organizational support. In turn, job engagement was positively related to in‐role performance and negatively related to intent to quit. Culture was found to act as a critical contextual factor, as our results also revealed that the relationship between HR practices and perceived organizational support was stronger when collectivism was high and when power distance orientation was low. Overall, the findings shed new light on the processes and conditions through which employee work‐related outcomes are enhanced owing to high‐performance HR practices. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Not seeing eye to eye: differences in supervisor and subordinate perceptions of and attributions for psychological contract breach

This study examines supervisor and subordinate perceptions of and attributions for psychological contract breach. The data suggest that supervisor and subordinate perceptions are most likely to differ on the extent to which the organization violated its obligations to provide fair pay, advancement opportunities, and a good employment relationship. In addition, the results indicate that the greater the degree of psychological contract breach reported by subordinates, the less committed they are to the organization and the lower their job performance (as rated by their supervisor). Moreover, when psychological contract breach is perceived, supervisors' and subordinates' attributions regarding the reasons for the breach are likely to differ. Specifically, the findings suggest that subordinates are more likely to attribute breach to the organization's intentional disregard for the commitments that it had made to the employee, while supervisors are more inclined to attribute breach to situations beyond the organization's direct control. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

行人违规过街行为的激励理论模型

为减少行人违规过街现象,提高行人过街的安全性,从社会心理学角度研究行人违规过街行为的动因。基于内容型激励理论和过程型激励理论对行人违规过街的行为机理进行研究。首先,将行人过街需求按照不同的层次和类别划分为安全需要、省时省力需要、社会认同需要、尊重需要和自我实现需要。然后,基于期望理论,对行人违规过街行为激励水平、效价、期望值进行建模,得出行人违规过街的行为机理。最后,对模型结果的应用分析发现,通过降低违规过街需要的效价、增加交通规则制裁的期望和增加危险感知的期望能够减少行人的违规过街行为。     

High‐performer turnover and firm performance: The moderating role of human capital investment and firm reputation

Research has shown a complex relationship between turnover and firm performance. Not only does it matter who leaves (e.g., high‐performing versus low‐performing employees), but the context also stands to influence this effect in complex ways. We apply human capital theory, social capital theory, and the cost–benefit perspective to propose two boundary conditions to the high‐performer turnover and firm performance relationship. Specifically, we predict that the negative impact of high‐performer turnover on firm performance will be the strongest for reputable firms and for firms who invest less in human capital (e.g., selection, training, and incentive‐based pay). We present data from 155 South Korean firms that support the hypothesized model. We discuss findings in terms of current and future theory, practical implications, and subsequent research needs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of perceived system knowledge in predicting appraisal reactions,job satisfaction,and organizational commitment

There is a very large research base in Applied Psychology on the importance of affective reactions on organizational functioning. Likewise, performance appraisal has been a heavily researched area within the field. The present field studies attempt to bridge our understanding of these two areas by studying the relationship between performance appraisal process variables and employee affective reactions. In particular, the current studies examine the effects of a relatively new performance appraisal variable, Perceived System Knowledge (Williams and Levy, 1992), on appraisal reactions and job attitudes. In both studies, there was a strong relationship between employees' levels of perceived system knowledge and their appraisal reactions and job attitudes. In Study 1, when controlling for performance rating, PSK was positively related to appraisal reactions, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The findings from Study 1 were replicated in the second study which employed a longitudinal design. In addition, Study 2 found a relationship between PSK and fairness perceptions. Implications for these results and suggestions for approaching performance appraisal from an organizational perspective are proposed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Work performance,affective commitment,and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level

The purpose of this study was to investigate employee attitudes and behaviors among knowledge workers under different forms of pay administration and pay levels. To examine these issues, I collected data from two business units in a large Norwegian multinational company with pay plans combining individual and collective performance and behaviors as the foundations for individual bonuses; one with two collective components (profit and behavior of the unit and the organization) and one with an individual component in addition to the two collective components. After controlling for organizational tenure, education, gender, perceived unit support, perceptions of distributive and procedural justice, and type of pay plan, the key findings are that base pay level, but not bonus level, was positively related to both self‐reported work performance and affective unit commitment, and that these relationships were partly mediated by intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed that the relationships between bonus level and the outcome variables were not affected by type of pay plan. Implications and directions for future research on pay in knowledge intensive organizations are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The application of the psychological contract to workplace safety

INTRODUCTION: Psychological contracts of safety are conceptualized as the beliefs of individuals about reciprocal safety obligations inferred from implicit or explicit promises. Although the literature on psychological contracts is growing, the existence of psychological contracts in relation to safety has not been established. The research sought to identify psychological contracts in the conversations of employees about safety, by demonstrating reciprocity in relation to employer and employee safety obligations. The identified safety obligations were used to develop a measure of psychological contracts of safety. METHOD: The participants were 131 employees attending safety training sessions in retail and manufacturing organizations. Non-participant observation was used to collect the data during safety training sessions. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Categories for coding were established through identification of language markers that demonstrated contingencies or other implied obligations. RESULTS: Direct evidence of reciprocity between employer safety obligations and employee safety obligations was found in statements from the participants demonstrating psychological contracts. A comprehensive list of perceived employer and employee safety obligations was compiled and developed into a measure of psychological contracts of safety. A small sample of 33 safety personnel was used to validate the safety obligations. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Implications of these findings for safety and psychological contract research are discussed.     

Perceived workplace racial discrimination and its correlates: A meta‐analysis

We combine the interactional model of cultural diversity (IMCD) and relative deprivation theory to examine employee outcomes of perceived workplace racial discrimination. Using 79 effect sizes from published and unpublished studies, we meta‐analyze the relationships between perceived racial discrimination and several important employee outcomes that have potential implications for organizational performance. In response to calls to examine the context surrounding discrimination, we test whether the severity of these outcomes depends on changes to employment law that reflect increasing societal concern for equality and on the characteristics of those sampled. Perceived racial discrimination was negatively related to job attitudes, physical health, psychological health, organizational citizenship behavior, and perceived diversity climate and positively related to coping behavior. The effect of perceived racial discrimination on job attitudes was stronger in studies published after the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was passed than before. Results provide some evidence that effect sizes were stronger the more women and minorities were in the samples, indicating that these groups are more likely to perceive discrimination and/or respond more strongly to perceived discrimination. Our findings extend the IMCD and relative deprivation theory to consider how contextual factors including changes to employment law influence employee outcomes of perceived workplace discrimination. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Management commitment to safety as organizational support: relationships with non-safety outcomes in wood manufacturing employees

INTRODUCTION: Employee perceptions of management commitment to safety are known to influence important safety-related outcomes. However, little work has been conducted to explore non-safety-related outcomes resulting from a commitment to safety. METHOD: Employee-level outcomes critical to the effective functioning of an organization, including attitudes such as job satisfaction and commitment to the organization, were included on surveys given to 641 hourly production employees at three wood products manufacturing facilities. Participants' were asked about perceptions of management commitment to safety and job-related variables such as perceived dangerousness of their position, organizational commitment, and withdrawal behaviors. Supervisors also rated the performance of each of their hourly subordinates. RESULTS: Results suggest that employee outcomes differ based on perceptions of management's commitment to safety. Specifically, management commitment to safety was positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job-related performance. We also found a negative relationship between commitment to safety and employee withdrawal behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increasing employee perceptions of management's personal concern for employee well-being through a dedication to safety will result in positive outcomes beyond improved safety performance. These results also imply that there is a type of social exchange between employees and management that may affect employees similarly to perceived organizational support. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Results further reinforce the value of a commitment to safety by a firm's management. Organizations with a strong commitment to safety may enjoy not only a reduction in safety-related events but also increases in desirable employee attitudes and behaviors.     

The passion bug: How and when do leaders inspire work passion?

Drawing from signaling theory, we propose a work passion transfer model where leaders' passion is transmitted to employees through the former's leadership style and is contingent on employees' perceived importance of performance to self-esteem (IPSE). Data from 201 supervisor–employee dyads from the health-care industry show that leaders' harmonious passion led to employees' harmonious passion through charismatic leadership, whereas contingent reward leadership accounted for the transfer of obsessive passion; IPSE did not play a moderating role for either form of passion. Results from a supplementary study further reveal that the link between leadership and employee passion operated through employees' perception of leader passion and that employees' IPSE accentuated for the relationship between perceived leader obsessive passion and employees' obsessive passion. This study advances research in work passion, leadership, and signaling theory and provides important implications for managerial practice.     

Antecedents and outcomes of employee perceptions of intra‐organizational mobility channels

Employees' beliefs about how promotions are awarded within their organizations can have important consequences. We conducted two studies that focus on perceptions of the criteria used to make promotion decisions. In Study 1, we identified two types of perceived promotion criteria, performance‐based and nonperformance‐based. Then we use justice and social exchange theories to develop a model linking employee perceptions of promotion criteria to performance via their relationships with promotional justice and organizational commitment. In a sample of 305 employee–supervisor pairs, we found that both promotional justice and organizational commitment mediated between perceptions of promotion criteria and supervisor rated in‐role and extra‐role performance, and that having received a promotion in the past predicted attributions that promotions were based relatively more on performance or nonperformance criteria. Study 2 further examined the role of promotions themselves in the formation of perceptions of promotion criteria. Drawing from image and attribution theories, we hypothesized that the relationship between having received a promotion or not and perceptions of promotion criteria depends on ego defensiveness. In a sample of 145 employees, we found that those who scored high on ego defensiveness and who had not been promoted were especially likely to attribute promotion decisions to nonperformance criteria. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of psychological contract breach and violation: a longitudinal study

This study examines factors affecting employees' perceptions that their psychological contract has been breached by their organization, and factors affecting whether this perception will cause employees to experience feelings of contract violation. Data were obtained from 147 managers just prior to their beginning of new job (time 1) and 18 months later (time 2). It was found that perceived contract breach at time 2 was more likely when organizational performance and self‐reported employee performance were low, the employee had not experienced a formal socialization process, the employee had little interaction with organizational agents prior to hire, the employee had a history of psychological contract breach with former employers, and the employee had many employment alternatives at the time of hire. Furthermore, perceived breach was associated with more intense feelings of violation when employees both attributed the breach to purposeful reneging by the employer and felt unfairly treated in the process. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Memento Mori: The development and validation of the Death Reflection Scale

Despite its potential for advancing organizational behavior (OB) research, the topic of death awareness has been vastly understudied. Moreover, research on death awareness has predominantly focused on the anxiety‐provoking aspect of death‐related cognitions, thus overlooking the positive aspect of death awareness, death reflection. This gap is exacerbated by the lack of a valid research instrument to measure death reflection. To address this issue, we offer a systematic conceptualization of death reflection, develop the Death Reflection Scale, and assess its psychometric properties across four studies. Further, using a sample of 268 firefighters, we examine whether death reflection buffers the detrimental impact of mortality cues at work on employee well‐being and safety performance. Results provide strong support for the psychometric properties of the Death Reflection Scale. Further, moderation analysis indicates death reflection weakens the negative effect of mortality cues on firefighters' safety performance. Overall, these findings suggest the newly developed Death Reflection Scale will prove useful in future research on death‐related cognitions.     

The development and validation of a psychological contract of safety scale

Introduction

This paper builds on previous research by the author and describes the development and validation of a new measure of the psychological contract of safety. The psychological contract of safety is defined as the beliefs of individuals about reciprocal safety obligations inferred from implicit and explicit promises.

Method

A psychological contract is established when an individual believes that perceived employer and employee safety obligations are contingent on each other. A pilot test of the measure is first undertaken with participants from three different occupations: nurses, construction workers, and meat processing workers (N = 99). Item analysis is used to refine the measure and provide initial validation of the scale. A larger validation study is then conducted with a participant sample of health care workers (N = 424) to further refine the measure and to determine the psychometric properties of the scale.

Results

Item and correlational analyses produced the final employer and employee obligations scales, consisting of 21 and 17 items, respectively. Factor analyses identified two underlying dimensions in each scale comparable to that previously established in the organizational literature. These transactional and relational-type obligations provided construct validity of the scale. Internal consistency ratings using Cronbach's alpha found the components of the psychological contract of safety measure to be reliable.

Impact on Industry

The refined and validated psychological contract of safety measure will allow investigation of the positive and negative outcomes associated with fulfilment and breach of the psychological contract of safety in future research.     

A process model of employee engagement: The learning climate and its relationship with extra‐role performance behaviors

Employee engagement has recently been introduced as a concept advantageous to organizations. However, little is known about the value of employee engagement in explaining work performance behaviors compared with similar concepts. The learning climate, defined as the organization's beneficial activities in helping employees create, acquire, and transfer knowledge, has also been proposed as an antecedent of employee engagement. Using data from a sample of 625 employees and their supervisors in various occupations and organizations throughout Israel, we investigated employee engagement as a key mechanism for explaining the relationship between perceptions of the organization's learning climate and employees' proactivity, knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity. We also tested whether employee engagement explained the relationship more thoroughly than similar concepts such as job satisfaction and job involvement. Multilevel regression analyses supported our hypotheses that employee engagement mediates the relationship between the perceived learning climate and these extra‐role behaviors. Moreover, engagement provides a more thorough explanation than job satisfaction or job involvement for these relationships. The implications for organizational theory, research, and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple dimensions of human resource development and organizational performance

Building on strategic human resource management literature, this study investigates the effects of various human resource development (HRD) dimensions on organizational performance. We identify four distinct dimensions of HRD that reflect either quantitative or qualitative approaches from either managerial or employee perspectives. Furthermore, we propose that HRD affects organizational performance by shaping employee outcomes, a prevailing but rarely tested assumption. Multi‐source data collected from 207 manufacturing companies at three time points over a 5‐year period largely support our theoretical propositions. A series of structural path analyses confirm that HRD improves employee commitment and competence, which in turn determine the financial performance of the organization. The quantitative dimensions of HRD (resource investment in HRD) predict only employee commitment. By contrast, the qualitative dimensions of HRD (management support for, and perceived benefits of, HRD) enhance both employee commitment and competence. Our analysis also demonstrates synergistic interactions between the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of HRD in predicting employee outcomes. This study elaborates the distinct values of different dimensions of HRD and highlights the significance of employee outcomes as the mediating mechanism between HRD and firm performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An experimental study of the interaction effects of incentive compensation,career ambition,and task attention on Chinese managers' strategic risk behaviors

Building on the person–pay interaction model, we developed and tested a model for the influence of managers' career ambition and task attention on their responses to incentive compensation under different conditions of firm performance. We argued that managers with greater career ambition and task attention will be more responsive to incentive compensation, thereby engaging in more strategic risk behaviors, such as strategic risk taking and strategic change. Results of our experiment using a managerial decision‐making game with a sample of Chinese managers partially supported this contingency perspective. Under the condition of performance decline, managers' career ambition only accentuated the positive relationship between incentive compensation and strategic change. By contrast, task attention strengthened the positive relationships between incentive compensation and both strategic risk taking and strategic change. However, under the condition of performance growth, neither managers' career ambition nor their task attention influenced their responses to incentive compensation. We discuss the implications for how organizational leaders can use incentive compensation to influence the strategic risk behaviors of managers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship between organizational justice and employee work outcomes: a cross‐national study

This study examined the influence of organizational justice perceptions on employee work outcome relationships as moderated by individual differences that are influenced by societal culture. Power distance, but not country or individualism, moderated the relationships between perceived justice and satisfaction, performance, and absenteeism. The effects of perceived justice on these outcomes were stronger among individuals scoring lower on power distance index, and most of these study participants were in the U.S. (versus Hong Kong) sample. Limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for managing cross‐culturally are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Let's get this meeting started: Meeting lateness and actual meeting outcomes

Meeting lateness is pervasive and potentially highly consequential for individuals, groups, and organizations. In Study 1, we first examined base rates of lateness to meetings in an employee sample and found that meeting lateness is negatively related to both meeting satisfaction and effectiveness. We then conducted 2 lab studies to better understand the nature of this negative relationship between meeting lateness and meeting outcomes. In Study 2, we manipulated meeting lateness using a confederate and showed that participants' anticipated meeting satisfaction and effectiveness were significantly lower when meetings started late. In Study 3, participants holding actual group meetings were randomly and blindly assigned to either a 10 min late, 5 min late, or a control condition (n = 16 groups in each condition). We found significant differences concerning participants' perceived meeting satisfaction and meeting effectiveness, as well as objective group performance outcomes (number, quality, and feasibility of ideas produced in the meeting). We also identified differences in negative socioemotional group interaction behaviors depending on meeting lateness. In concert, our findings establish meeting lateness as an important organizational phenomenon and provide important conceptual and empirical implications for meeting research and practice.     

An interpersonal perspective of perceived stress: Examining the prosocial coping response patterns of stressed managers

We adopt an interpersonal perspective and examine the adaptive effects of managers' perceived stress on their behavior towards subordinates. Drawing from the transactional model of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), we advance a model that highlights the propensity for stressed managers to engage in prosocial coping behaviors towards their employees, which in turn are related to lower levels of turnover and higher levels of job performance. We tested our predictions in a sample of 281 employees and their 53 managers working in a clothing retailer in Turkey. Consistent with predictions, we found positive effects of managers' perceived stress on their prosocial coping behaviors and employee outcomes. Managers' perceived stress was positively related to sharing credit with employees for managers who held positive implicit prototypes about employees. Results also indicated that managers' perceived stress was positively related to sharing knowledge with their subordinates regardless of implicit follower prototypes. Both sharing credit and sharing knowledge, in turn, were related to turnover intentions and actual turnover, and sharing credit was related to job performance. This study extends past work by adopting an interpersonal perspective of stress and demonstrating that managerial stress can have positive effects on employee outcomes via prosocial coping behaviors.