Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations

The present study examines the effects of training and development on organizational innovation. We specifically suggest that the training and development investments of an organization affect its innovative performance by promoting various learning practices. We empirically tested our hypothesis by using time‐lagged, multi‐source data collected from 260 Korean companies that represent diverse industries. Our analysis showed that corporate expenditure for internal training predicts interpersonal and organizational learning practices, which, in turn, increase innovative performance. The data also revealed that the positive relationship between interpersonal and organizational learning practices and innovative performance is stronger within organizations that have stronger innovative climates. By contrast, investment in employee development through financial support for education outside an organization poses a significant negative effect on its innovative performance and no significant effect on learning practices. The present study provides a plausible explanation for a mechanism through which the investment of an organization in employees enhances its innovative performance. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Organizational Behavior published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Empowering leadership: A meta‐analytic examination of incremental contribution,mediation, and moderation

The concept of empowering leadership (EL) has seen increasing scholarly interest in recent years. This study reports a meta‐analysis investigating the effects of EL on employee work behavior. On the basis of data from 105 samples, we found evidence for the positive effects of EL on performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and creativity at both the individual and team levels. We further examined these relationships by exploring potential boundary conditions and the incremental contribution of EL over transformational leadership and leader–member exchange. Furthermore, at the individual level, both trust in leader and psychological empowerment mediated the relationships of EL with task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and creativity. We also found evidence that leader–member exchange was a significant mediator between EL and task performance. At the team level, empowerment mediated the effects of EL on team performance, whereas knowledge sharing showed no significant indirect effect. Our results have important theoretical and practical implications and suggest some areas that require further 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.     

Cross‐level effects of demography and diversity climate on organizational attachment and firm effectiveness

We studied the impact of demographic diversity on individual attachment and firm unit performance in a relatively diverse organization. We implemented cross‐level regression to study gender and race/ethnic categorical, relational, and organizational demography in a sample of 26 units part of a regional restaurant chain. At the individual level, we found that diversity climate (DC) moderates the impact of relational and categorical demography on affective organizational commitment, organizational identification, and intention to quit. At the organizational level, we found that DC moderates the impact of organizational diversity on firm productivity and return on profit. We discuss the importance of organizational DC as organizational context on individual attachment, and implications for firm effectiveness in diverse organizations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Occupational embeddedness and job performance

While researchers have recently focused their attention on organizational embeddedness, occupational embeddedness has received little theoretical and empirical attention. Using multisource data on 162 employees in multiple jobs and organizations, we found that occupational embeddedness is positively related to both task performance and creativity and is negatively related to counterproductive work behavior, even after controlling for the effects of organizational embeddedness. In addition, we found that trait affect moderated the relationships of occupational embeddedness to job performance. Occupational embeddedness was more strongly related to counterproductive work behavior when trait negative affect was high, while occupational embeddedness was more strongly related to both citizenship behavior and creativity when trait positive affect was high. Results also indicated that the various components of occupational embeddedness had different effects on job outcomes. Fit had a strong positive effect on core task performance, links had a positive effect on creativity, and sacrifice had a small positive effect on citizenship behavior. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future research and management practice. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beyond the mean: Understanding firm‐level consequences of variability in diversity climate perceptions

We develop and test an organizational‐level model of the consequences of diversity climate for company performance. Drawing from affective events theory and the organizational climate literature, we highlight the role of idiosyncrasies in employees' diversity climate perceptions. Specifically, we consider diversity climate strength (i.e., agreement in employees' climate perceptions) as a boundary condition of diversity climate's organizational‐level effects and expect high climate strength to be particularly beneficial in demographically diverse organizations. Moreover, we introduce collective positive affect as an underlying mechanism of diversity climate's conditional effects on company performance. Hypotheses are tested in a study of 82 German small‐and‐medium‐sized companies with 13,695 surveyed employees. Results show a moderated mediation relationship where diversity climate is only positively related to organizational performance (via collective positive affect) at relatively high diversity climate strength. Although this finding holds for both demographically diverse and homogeneous organizations, post hoc analyses provide initial evidence that a strong climate only helps to realize the effects of diversity climate on collective positive affect when members of age‐ and gender‐related demographic subgroups converge in their climate perceptions. Our study contributes to a better understanding of diversity climate as an effective lever for managing diversity.     

Does participative leadership enhance work performance by inducing empowerment or trust? The differential effects on managerial and non‐managerial subordinates

We examined whether participative leadership behavior is associated with improved work performance through a motivational process or an exchange‐based process. Based on data collected from 527 employees from a Fortune 500 company, we found that the link between superiors' participative leadership behaviors and subordinates' task performance and organizational citizenship behavior toward organizations (OCBO) was mediated by psychological empowerment (motivational mediator) for managerial subordinates. Yet, for non‐managerial subordinates such as supporting and front‐line employees, the impact of participative leadership on task performance and OCBO was mediated by trust‐in‐supervisor (exchange‐based mediator). Implications for theories and practices are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐quality relationships,psychological safety,and learning from failures in work organizations

How can organizations support employees to engage in learning from failures? In this paper, we draw on the concept of high‐quality relationships to explore the relational underpinnings of learning from failures in organizations. We focus on relational coordination as a specific manifestation of high‐quality relationships and examine how the relational dimensions of relational coordination—shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect—foster psychological safety and thus enable organizational members to engage in learning from failures. The results of two separate studies support our mediation model where psychological safety mediates the link between high‐quality relationships and learning from failures in organizations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When does adaptive performance lead to higher task performance?

Adaptive performance is a facet of performance that reflects acquiring enhanced competencies in response to change. Micro‐level researchers have assumed that adaptive performance is beneficial for task performance. Similarly, macro‐level researchers have suggested that organizations need to attend to, monitor, and respond to contingencies in their environments for adaptive performance to be beneficial for firm performance. Drawing from the attention‐based theory of the firm and resource theory, we suggest that perceptions of organizational politics and individual differences in conscientiousness constitute contingencies of the adaptive performance–task performance relationship. In a sample of 92 call center employees, we found that adaptive performance is positively associated with task performance but that conscientiousness and organizational politics jointly influence the adaptive performance–task performance relationship. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Negotiating a flexible work arrangement: How women navigate the influence of power and organizational context

Prior work‐life research has highlighted that while organizations may be introducing more work‐life policies, organizational members are not necessarily using these policies. Empirical research is needed that focuses on the individual and provides insight into who is taking advantage of these policies and how they go about negotiating access. In this study, we explore this issue as we investigate the behavioral dynamics that underlie women's experiences negotiating a flexible work arrangement. Focusing on the individual, we examine the influence that perceptions of power and organizational work‐life support have on flexible work arrangement negotiations. The results of our research indicate that both macro level factors such as perceived work life support and micro level factors such as perceptions of power affect both the process and outcomes of these negotiations. We explore the implications these findings have for work‐life and negotiation research. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Career communities: a preliminary exploration of member‐defined career support structures

This paper explores the concept of career communities: social structures that provide career support and frequently transcend the boundaries of any single organization. The theoretical background notes the convergence of a number of different perspectives from both career development and organization studies, pertaining to the social contextualization of careers. The methodology involved eliciting expressions of the (individual) subjective career from the members of three potential career communities, and then exploring (communal) inter‐subjective interpretations in focus groups. Our results suggest that career communities typically involve a hybrid of types rather than any one pure type. Preliminary support is found for the view that career communities facilitate career support, sensemaking and learning. The results invite further research into career communities and have implications for organizational behavior and human resource management, suggesting greater appreciation of the extra‐organizational as well as intra‐organizational communities in which careers develop. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Careers as tournaments: The impact of sex and gendered organizational culture preferences on MBAs' income attainment

Drawing on gender role theory and tournament theory, we examined the effects of sex and organizational culture preferences on the incomes of MBA graduates over an 8‐year period. We found that masculine culture preferences led to higher income 4 years after graduation and, in contrast to previous research, the effect was stronger for women. By 8 years after graduation, however, men's rate of income increase was significantly higher than women's, an effect that was mediated by hours worked per week. These findings clarify some of the conflicting results of previous research on the effects of gender roles on women's careers and suggest that a tournament‐like aspect of careers may account for higher incomes in organizations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceived organizational support and affective commitment: the mediating role of organization‐based self‐esteem in the context of job insecurity

Research on the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AC) has primarily adopted a social exchange perspective. In this study we considered complementary socio‐emotional explanations of the POS–AC relationship. We focused on the mediating role of organization‐based self‐esteem (OBSE) and tested competing models of the POS–OBSE‐AC relationship separately on data from two Korean banks that experienced different levels of downsizing following the 1997 Korean financial crisis. We further extended the analysis by examining the extent to which the relationship between POS and OBSE and AC, respectively, was affected by employees' perceived sense of job insecurity in the two banks. The results showed that OBSE was a significant mediator of the POS–AC relationship in both organizations. POS, however, also retained a strong independent direct effect on commitment. Moreover, as expected, perceived job insecurity tended to attenuate the POS–OBSE relationship, but augmented the direct relationship between perceived organizational support and affective commitment. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Life after the layoff: getting a job worth keeping

The competitive environment of business today makes corporate layoffs an organizational reality, and losing one's job can be a highly stressful experience. We propose and test a model that places objective underemployment and subjective underemployment in a causal sequence between organizational actions and employees' restoration of equilibrium by obtaining jobs worth keeping. We longitudinally examine relationships between layoff fairness, workers' stress symptoms and appraisal, and subsequent employment outcomes among 149 laid‐off technical employees over the course of one year. Structural equation model results support seven of nine hypothesized paths, and demonstrate discriminant validity between and mediational properties of objective and subjective underemployment. Findings also reveal the important role that employees' perceptions and subjective assessments play in successfully returning to pre‐job loss equilibrium following displacement. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Knowledge hiding as a barrier to thriving: The mediating role of psychological safety and moderating role of organizational cynicism

Research demonstrates that knowledge hiding has a detrimental effect on the knowledge hider himself or herself. Extending this area, the present research examines how and when knowledge hiders struggle to thrive at work. Integrating self‐perception theory and the socially embedded model of thriving, we propose that knowledge hiding negatively influences employees' thriving through psychological safety, and this influence is contingent on organizational cynicism. In Study 1a, a cross‐sectional survey of 214 Chinese participants from a general working population supported the mediating role of psychological safety in the knowledge hiding and thriving relationship. Study 1b verified this result using two‐wave data collected from 392 working adults in a panel that recruited participants mainly in Europe and North America. In addition to confirming the mediation with a two‐wave field survey conducted among 205 employees in three Chinese organizations, Study 2 supported the moderating role of organizational cynicism. Specifically, the negative effect of knowledge hiding on psychological safety was greater under higher levels of organizational cynicism, as was the indirect effect of knowledge hiding on thriving via psychological safety. These findings contribute to both the knowledge hiding and the thriving literature and provide practical implications for both the manager and the employee.     

Thriving at work: Toward its measurement,construct validation,and theoretical refinement

Thriving is defined as the psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and learning. We developed and validated a measure of the construct of thriving at work. Additionally, we theoretically refined the construct by linking it to key outcomes, such as job performance, and by examining its contextual embeddedness. In Study 1, we conducted second‐order confirmatory factor analyses in two samples, demonstrating initial support for the two‐dimensional structure of thriving. We provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of thriving in relation to theoretically related constructs, such as positive and negative affects, learning and performance goal orientations, proactive personality, and core self‐evaluations. In Study 2, across two different samples, we further assessed construct validity by establishing a relationship between thriving and career development initiative, burnout, health, and individual job performance, explaining significant variance beyond traditional attitudinal predictors, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Finally, in Study 3, we focused on understanding the contextual embeddedness of thriving. We found differences in reports of thriving across two points in time, when substantial changes are occurring in peoples' work lives and across contexts (i.e., work and non‐work). Implications for theory and practice, as well as directions for future research, are discussed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leader–member exchange and job performance: The effects of taking charge and organizational tenure

We theorized and tested the mechanisms by which leader–member exchange (LMX) quality is associated with job performance. The results obtained using 212 employee–supervisor pairs from eight Chinese companies indicated that LMX quality had an indirect and positive relationship with taking charge via psychological empowerment and had an indirect and positive relationship with job performance via taking charge. In addition, organizational tenure significantly moderated the relationship between taking charge and job performance, such that the positive effect of taking charge on job performance became weaker as organizational tenure increased. Furthermore, organizational tenure significantly moderated the indirect positive relationship between LMX quality and job performance via taking charge; the indirect effect became weaker as organizational tenure increased. These results suggest that organizations should encourage managers to develop high‐quality LMX with their subordinates, which may make them feel more empowered and engage in more taking charge, and result in better job performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thriving at work: Impact of psychological capital and supervisor support

Thriving at work is a positive psychological state characterized jointly by learning and vitality. Conventional wisdom and some initial research indicate that such thriving benefits both employees themselves and their organizations. This study specifically tests thriving at work by linking it to a theoretically important personal outcome variable (self‐development), refining its relationship with agentic work behaviors (task focus and heedful relating), and proposing and testing two new antecedent variables (psychological capital and supervisor support climate). Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 198 dyads (employees and their supervisors), strong support was found for the theory‐driven hypothesized relationships. The results contribute to a better understanding of positive organizational scholarship and behavior in general and specifically to the recently emerging positive construct of employees' thriving at work. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Subjective theories of organizing and learning from events

The present paper outlines potential shortcomings of analyzing events in high hazard systems. We argue that the efficiency of organizational learning within high hazard systems is at least partially undermined by the subjective theories of organizing held by their members. These subjective theories basically reflect an “engineering” understanding of “how a system and its components perform”, and are assumed to involve (social-) psychological blind spots when applied to the analysis of events. More specifically, we argue that they neglect individual motives and goals that critically drive work performance and social interactions in high hazard systems. First, we focus on the process of identifying the causes of failed organizing within the course of an event analysis. Our analysis reveals a mismatch between the basic functional assumptions of the event analyst on the motives of social actors involved in an event and on the other hand, the perspective held by the social actors themselves. Second, we discuss the process of correcting failed social system performance after events. Thereby we draw on blind spots that emerge from the direct application of technical safety principles (i.e., standardization and redundancy) to the organization of social systems. Finally, we propose some future research strategies for developing event analysis methods which are aimed at improving an organization’s learning potential.