Individual and group determinants of employee absenteeism: Test of a causal model

This study examined whether an employee's level of absenteeism was affected by age, organizational tenure, perceptions of interactional justice, affective and continuance commitment, and the perceived absence norm in the employees' work unit or department. One hundred and sixty-six nursing and food services employees in a mid-size chronic care hospital provided attitudinal and perceptual data on an employee survey. Absence data (absence frequency and total days absent) were collected during the 12-month period immediately following an employee survey. Hypothesized relations between the various individual- and group-level factors and employee absenteeism were specified in a structural model and tested using LISREL 7 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1989). General support was found for the study hypotheses.     

The impact of impression‐management tactics on supervisor ratings of organizational citizenship behavior

Previous research indicates that the use of impression management is related to supervisor ratings of employee likeability and job performance. It has been argued, though, that employees might also use impression management so that their superiors will see them as ‘good soldiers’ who engage in high levels of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). This study investigates the ways in which three types of impression management—namely, job‐focused, self‐focused, and supervisor‐focused tactics of impression management—influence supervisor ratings of OCB. Using a sample of 122 supervisor‐subordinate dyads, the findings indicate that supervisor‐focused tactics of impression management are positively related to OCB ratings, while job‐focused tactics are negatively related to such evaluations. Additionally, citizenship behaviors are positively related to supervisor liking of the employee and overall ratings of job performance. Finally, the results suggest that OCB ratings mediate the relationship between supervisor‐focused tactics of impression management and supervisor evaluations of employee likeability. Some implications of this study and directions for future research are also addressed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of managerial and employee attributions for corporate social responsibility initiatives

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) can affect employees, we know little about how it affects them. Employees' interpretation of CSR is important because of the paradoxical nature of CSR. When firms operate in ways that seem counter to their nature (i.e., pursuit of social good rather than profit), the causal attributions of affected employees are crucial to understanding their work‐related behavior, as is the role of contextual factors such as leadership processes in shaping these attributions. Drawing from attribution and social learning theories, we develop a multilevel social influence theory of how CSR affects employees. We integrate managers as second observers in the baseline actor (i.e., firm)—observer (i.e., employee) dyad, whereas most attribution theory research has focused on single actor–observer dyads. Multisource field data collected from 427 employees and 45 managers were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Managers' genuine (self‐serving) CSR attributions are positively related to employees' genuine (self‐serving) CSR attributions; and the strength of the relationship between managers' and employees' genuine CSR attributions depends on managers' organizational tenure. Employees' genuine CSR attributions also are positively related to employee advocacy, whereas—interestingly—employees' self‐serving CSR attributions do not appear to harm employee advocacy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From manager's emotional intelligence to objective store performance: Through store cohesiveness and sales‐directed employee behavior

The relationships among manager's emotional intelligence, store cohesiveness, sales‐directed employee behavior, and objective store performance were investigated. Non‐managerial sales employees of a large retail electronics chain in South Korea (N = 1611) rated the emotional intelligence of their own store managers as well as the group cohesiveness within their stores. Store managers (N = 253) separately rated the sales‐directed behavior of their employees. Objective sales data were collected one month later for each store. No direct relationship between manager emotional intelligence and objective store performance was found. Instead, the results supported the hypothesized four‐variable, three‐path mediation model: store manager's emotional intelligence was related to store cohesiveness, which in turn was related to the sales‐directed behavior of the frontline employees, which ultimately predicted the objective performance of the stores. Manager emotional intelligence and store cohesiveness are seen as intangible organizing resources or socio‐psychological capital for non‐managerial store employees. Implications for future research and more effective management of retail firms are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The interactive effects of procedural justice and exchange ideology on supervisor-rated commitment

Matched data collected from 143 employees and their immediate supervisors of a private sector organization indicated that employee perceptions of procedural justice were only related to supervisor-rated affective commitment among employees with a strong exchange ideology. That is, individuals motivated by a fair exchange exhibited fewer affective commitment behaviors when they viewed the environment as unfair than when they perceived it to be fair. Individuals comparatively indifferent to a fair exchange did not alter their affective commitment behaviors regardless of the level of perceived environmental fairness. These results illustrate the importance of considering individual differences in exchange ideology when attempting to alter the work environment for the purpose of increasing commitment. Implications for research and management practice are presented. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multi‐rater assessment of organizational commitment: are self‐report measures biased?

Most investigations of organizational commitment have been conducted using self‐report measures, however, the veracity of self‐reports is often questioned. In a sample of 79 public‐sector administrative staff, we assessed two types of organizational commitment (affective and continuance) from the perspective of three different sources of raters (self, peer, and supervisor) to test three explanations of the factors influencing self‐report measures (observational opportunities, simple defensiveness, and moderated defensiveness). The pattern of correlations among the measures, analysed using the composite direct product multitrait–multirater approach, suggested that self‐report commitment measures are affected mainly by observations or experiences of the self‐reporter rather than by systematic bias related to defensive responding. This increases our confidence that scores from self‐report measures of affective and continuance commitment are veridical. Further, self‐ and peer‐based measures of commitment were largely redundant in the prediction of a job‐performance criterion whereas supervisory measures added unique predictive variance. Implications are discussed. Copyright © 2001 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 influence of organizational democracy on employees' socio‐moral climate and prosocial behavioral orientations

This study investigates the effects of workers' perceived participation in democratic decision‐making on their prosocial behavioral orientations, democratic values, commitment to the firm, and perceptions of socio‐moral climate. The sample consists of 325 German‐speaking employees from 22 companies in Austria, North Italy, and Southern Germany that vary in their level of organizational democracy (social partnership enterprises, workers' co‐operatives, democratic reform enterprises, and employee‐owned self‐governed firms). The findings suggest that the extent employees participate in democratic forms of organizational decision‐making is positively related to the firm's socio‐moral climate as well as to their own organizational commitment and prosocial and community‐related behavioral orientations. The results also indicate that socio‐moral climate is positively related to employees' organizational commitment. The effect of participation in decision‐making on organizational commitment is partially mediated by socio‐moral climate. Implications for promoting societal and organizational civic virtues among individuals are described. Copyright © 2009 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.     

South Korean managerial reactions to voicing discontent: The effects of employee attitude and employee communication styles

Using a scenario‐based experiment, this study examined how employee attitude and employee communication styles affected managers' reactions to employees' objections to a company policy. In the experiment, employee attitude (cynical versus trusting) and employee communication styles (aggressive versus diplomatic) were manipulated, and managers' reactions to voicing discontent were assessed through a questionnaire. Based on a sample of 185 middle managers working in various organizations in South Korea, the results showed that managers were more likely to engage in social undermining and were less likely to provide social support when cynical (rather than trusting) employees objected to a company policy. Also, attributed motives (i.e., personal attack and health concern) fully mediated the relationship between employee attitude and social support and social undermining. In addition, managers more likely attributed the objection to moral concerns when trusting (rather than cynical) employees communicated in an aggressive manner. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychological ownership and feelings of possession: three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior

An increasing number of scholars and practitioners have emphasized the importance of ‘feelings of ownership’ for the organization (even when employees are not legal owners). In this exploratory study, we examine the relationships of psychological ownership with work attitudes and work behaviors. We start by developing hypotheses based on the psychology of possession and psychological ownership literatures. We then test these hypotheses with data from three field samples, using responses from over 800 employees, as well as manager and peer observations of employee behavior. Results demonstrate positive links between psychological ownership for the organization and employee attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, organization‐based self‐esteem), and work behavior (performance and organizational citizenship). More important, psychological ownership increased explained variance in organization‐based self‐esteem and organizational citizenship behavior (both peer and supervisor observations of citizenship), over and above the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Contrary to prior theoretical work on psychological ownership, results, however, fail to show an incremental value of psychological ownership in predicting employee performance. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of leadership consideration and structure on employee perceptions of justice and counterproductive work behavior

In this paper, we examine the effects of leadership consideration and structure on two important organizational behavior outcomes: employee perceptions of organizational justice and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). We examine these effects across two studies using multisource data (employees and supervisors in Study 1; employees and coworkers in Study 2). Results reveal that consideration and structure have distinct effects across distributive, procedural, informational, and interpersonal dimensions of justice. Moreover, results suggest that consideration and structure have multiplicative effects on employee CWB. We find the highest levels of CWB among employees of supervisors who exhibit high structure and low consideration. Interestingly, results also suggest that the effects of structure on CWB may be curvilinear (u‐shaped) such that moderate levels of structure are associated with the lowest levels of CWB. We discuss implications for future consideration and structure research as well as managerial practice. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Person–organization and person–supervisor fits: Employee commitments in a Chinese context

The present study simultaneously examined people's perceptions of person–organization (PO) and person–supervisor (PS) fit and related these perceptions to employees' commitments. Three‐hundred‐and‐sixty employee–supervisor dyads from Taiwanese organizations reported about their PO fit and PS fit perceptions. In addition, supervisors reported about their perceptions of fit and guanxi with each of their employees. Results indicated that PO and PS fit perceptions both had an independent and additive relationship with organizational commitment. The link between employee PS fit perceptions and organizational commitment was mediated by commitment to the supervisor. Both employee and supervisor fit perceptions contributed to commitment to the supervisor through their influence on the quality of the leader‐member exchange (LMX). Guanxi could not explain additional variance in LMX and supervisor commitment. Implications for theory and practices regarding person–environment fit, commitment, and LMX are discussed. The study findings offered suggestions for a new Theory of Multiple Fits. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Underemployment,job attitudes,and turnover intentions

We surveyed three distinct samples of employees (Ns of 238, 102, and 981) in order to examine relations among various types of underemployment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions. Each dimension of underemployment is explored as a case of poor person‐job fit, and the fit literature is used to produce hypotheses about these relations. We also developed and validated the 9‐item Scale of Perceived Overqualification (SPOQ) to tap employee perceptions of surplus education, experience, and KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities). In general, perceptions of underemployment were associated with poor job satisfaction, particularly for facets with a direct causal relationship with the specific dimension of underemployment, such as overqualification and satisfaction with work. Perceived overqualification was also related to lower affective commitment, and higher intentions to turnover. For part‐time work, negative attitudes were only found when employees expressed a preference for full‐time work; a similar trend was not found for temporary workers, however. Implications for theory, research, and practice are delineated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employee involvement and the middle manager: evidence from a survey of organizations

Although the literature on employee involvement suggests that some organizations experience significant benefits to employee attitudes and productivity, the results from individual studies vary widely. This study focuses on those factors that may mediate the success or failure of employee involvement practices, especially the role played by middle managers. A postal survey of 155 organizations examined the perceived outcomes of different employee involvement practices and the support or resistance attributed to middle managers. Hypothesized correlates of middle management resistance to employee involvement were examined. As hypothesized, positive outcomes of employee involvement were lower in organizations that experienced middle management resistance. The study supports the view that middle managers may resist employee involvement practices in response to threats to self interest (managerial job loss and delayering). However, lack of congruence between organizational systems and structures and the goals of EI and divided or unclear senior management support for EI were also found to be strongly related to middle management resistance. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interactive effects of impression management and organizational politics on job performance

The purpose of this research was to explore the interactive effect of organizational politics and impression management on supervisor ratings of employee performance. We hypothesized that the negative relationship between organizational politics and supervisor‐rated performance is weaker among employees who are high in impression management than among those low in impression management. Data were collected from a matched sample of 112 white‐collar employees and their supervisors. Results indicated that the interaction of organizational politics and impression management explained a significant incremental amount of variance in supervisor ratings of employee performance. These findings demonstrated that the extent to which an individual engaged in impression management in a non‐political atmosphere may have been a key component to receiving favorable performance ratings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differentiating HR systems' impact: moderating effects of age on the HR system–work outcome association

Combining the macro perspective of strategic human resource (HR) management with applied psychology's micro approaches, this paper helps to differentiate the effects of HR practices on individual‐level outcomes by introducing two distinct HR practice bundles. We draw on social exchange theory to hypothesize (i) main effects of both growth‐enhancing and maintenance‐enhancing bundles on affective organizational commitment and in‐role behavior and (ii) moderating effects of age and maintenance‐enhancing practices on work outcomes, such that increasing employee age attenuates the positive impact of HR practices. The results of a multilevel study comprising 600 employees and their direct supervisors in 64 business units provide support for the hypothesized main effects on affective commitment and the interaction between age and maintenance‐enhancing practices on work outcomes. We discuss the results, theoretical contributions, and practical implications of the study, as well as future research directions. Copyright © 2016 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.     

Another look at the locus of control–organizational commitment relationship: it depends on the form of commitment

Previous studies imply that individuals with an external locus of control (LOC) are less likely to be committed to their organizations. More recent work on organizational commitment has suggested that commitment is not a unidimensional construct and can take several forms (e.g., affective and continuance). Using a sample of 232 employees of a Canadian governmental agency, we examined the relations between LOC and two different forms of organizational commitment that have been found to have different antecedents and consequences. We found that internal LOC was associated with affective commitment and external LOC was associated with continuance commitment. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bridging the gap between green behavioral intentions and employee green behavior: The role of green psychological climate

How do employees' perceptions and interpretations of organizational policies, practices, and procedures affect the enactment of their behavioral intentions? In a daily diary study, we examined the between‐persons relationship of corporate environmental strategy and pro‐environmental or “green” psychological climate; and whether green psychological climate moderates the within‐person relationship of employees' daily green behavioral intentions and their green behavior on the following day. To test our hypotheses, we collected survey data from 74 employees across 10 workdays. Results showed that corporate environmental strategy is positively related to green psychological climate that, in turn, moderates the relationship between green behavioral intentions and next‐day employee green behavior. Specifically, we found the relationship to be positive only when employees perceive a positive green psychological climate. We discuss implications of our findings for future research on employee green behavior and for organizations interested in encouraging employee green behavior. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.