Relationships between psychological climate perceptions and work outcomes: a meta‐analytic review

In this study, meta‐analytic procedures were used to examine the relationships between individual‐level (psychological) climate perceptions and work outcomes such as employee attitudes, psychological well‐being, motivation, and performance. Our review of the literature generated 121 independent samples in which climate perceptions were measured and analyzed at the individual level. These studies document considerable confusion regarding the constructs of psychological climate, organizational climate, and organizational culture and reveal a need for researchers to use terminology that is consistent with their level of measurement, theory, and analysis. Our meta‐analytic findings indicate that psychological climate, operationalized as individuals' perceptions of their work environment, does have significant relationships with individuals' work attitudes, motivation, and performance. Structural equation modeling analyses of the meta‐analytic correlation matrix indicated that the relationships of psychological climate with employee motivation and performance are fully mediated by employees' work attitudes. We also found that the James and James ( 1989 ) PC_g model could be extended to predict the impact of work environment perceptions on employee attitudes, motivation, and performance. Despite the number of published individual‐level climate studies that we found, there is a need for more research using standardized measures so as to enable analyses of the organizational and contextual factors that might moderate the effects of psychological climate perceptions. Finally, we argue for a molar theory of psychological climate that is rooted in the psychological processes by which individuals make meaning or their work experiences. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multilevel study of group‐focused and individual‐focused transformational leadership,social exchange relationships,and performance in teams

Using matched reports from 73 team leaders and 359 of their members across 23 companies in Korea, we examined a multilevel model where group‐ and individual‐focused transformational leadership and their influence processes operate at the team and dyadic levels independently and interactively to be associated with team and member performance. Results indicated that group‐focused transformational leadership was positively associated with team performance through team member exchange (TMX), whereas individual‐focused transformational leadership positively related to team members' in‐role and extra‐role performance through leader–member exchange (LMX). TMX not only positively mediated the relationships between group‐focused transformational leadership and member performance after controlling for LMX but also positively moderated LMX–performance relationships. Moreover, the indirect effect of individual‐focused transformational leadership through LMX on member performance was contingent upon the level of TMX. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multilevel model of emotional skills,communication performance,and task performance in teams

There is increasing research regarding the influence of emotions on teamwork. In this study, we use a multilevel approach to examine how team members' use of emotion‐related skills affects team task performance and communication performance within the team. We measured individual self‐reported emotional skills prior to team formation and then collected peer‐rated individual communication performance and independently rated team task performance eight weeks later. Although there was no influence at the individual level between emotional skills and performance, team‐level emotional skills positively predicted team task performance scores. At the cross level, team‐level emotional skills predicted individual‐level communication performance. These findings emphasize the importance of distinct team emotional skills in shaping both team performance and individual team member performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changing careers: the effects of social context

This paper investigates the social context in which career decisions are made. Results show that beyond individual‐level factors such as demographics and work history, individuals' decisions to change careers are socially embedded. Findings suggest that the greater the diversity of an individual's network of advisors, the greater the likelihood that an individual will change careers. In addition, this paper explores the mechanisms through which different subsets of advice relationships — instrumental versus psychosocial — affect the decision to change careers. Results show that the greater the diversity of an individual's set of instrumental relations, the greater the number of offers he or she receives during the job search process and, further, that the number of offers received is positively related to the likelihood of changing careers. The diversity of an individual's set of psychosocial relations was related to his or her confidence to overcome career obstacles. However, confidence was not, in turn, related to career change, counter to expectations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of self‐emotion,counterpart emotion,and counterpart behavior on negotiator behavior: a comparison of individual‐level and dyad‐level dynamics

This study expands the negotiation literature by examining how negotiator behavior is predicted by various emotions felt by the negotiators and their counterparts and by counterpart negotiation behavior. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we also compare individual‐ and dyad‐level processes that lead to negotiator behavior and outcomes. The results from a dyadic negotiation simulation showed that both the valence and agency of negotiator and counterpart emotions need to be considered to understand the roles of emotion in negotiator behavior. Negotiators tend to reciprocate counterparts' integrating, compromising, and dominating behaviors, but they also offer complementary (or matching) responses to the counterparts' dominating and yielding behaviors. Integrating behavior was more dependent on dyad‐level interpersonal dynamics than were the other behaviors. The comparison of negotiator‐level and dyad‐level results suggests that negotiation needs to be understood in the context of collective exchanges as well as individual‐level cognitive processes. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality and social networks in organizations: A review and future directions

Recent research linking individuals' personality characteristics to their social networks has brought a new understanding of how individual patterns of behavior affect networks in organizations. This review summarizes the major advancements in the three areas of social network research relevant to organizational behavior: (a) brokerage and structural holes; (b) network centrality and network size; and (c) strength of ties. This review also provides an agenda outlining three key opportunities for future research. These opportunities involve personality and social network change, bidirectional and dyadic processes, and the potential effect of network position on personality expression. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The path(s) to employee trust in direct supervisor in nascent and established relationships: A fuzzy set analysis

While many of the propositions advanced by Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman's (1995) integrative model of interpersonal trust have been supported empirically, we still know little about how time impacts the relative importance of the model's elements. In addition, there may be situations in which trust can develop with lesser degrees of any of the trustworthiness facets or propensity to trust. Hence, we apply a configurational set‐theoretic perspective to examine what combinations will be sufficient to produce the presence of trust in a direct supervisor across nascent and established relationships. We find three distinct configurations associated with trust in supervisor, which allows us to elaborate theory and provide novel insights to trust research. In particular, we find that in both nascent and established relationships, perceptions of high supervisor ability, benevolence, and integrity constitute a sufficient configuration for high trust in supervisor. In established relationships, however, there were two paths to high trust in supervisor: (i) perceptions of high supervisor ability and integrity, or (ii) perceptions of high supervisor ability and benevolence, accompanied by high propensity to trust. As such, in established relationships, perceptions of high supervisor benevolence and high propensity to trust may be substitutable with perceptions of high supervisor integrity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Being trusted: How team generational age diversity promotes and undermines trust in cross‐boundary relationships

We examine how demographic context influences the trust that boundary spanners experience in their dyadic relationships with clients. Because of the salience of age as a demographic characteristic as well as the increasing prevalence of age diversity and intergenerational conflict in the workplace, we focus on team age diversity as a demographic social context that affects trust between boundary spanners and their clients. Using social categorization theory and theories of social capital, we develop and test our contextual argument that a boundary spanner's experience of being trusted is influenced by the social categorization processes that occur in dyadic interactions with a specific client and, simultaneously, by similar social categorization processes that influence the degree to which the client team as a whole serves as a cooperative resource for demographically similar versus dissimilar boundary spanner–client dyads. Using a sample of 168 senior boundary spanners from the consulting industry, we find that generational diversity among client team members from a client organization undermines the perception of being trusted within homogeneous boundary spanner–client dyads while it enhances the perception of being trusted within heterogeneous dyads. The perception of being trusted is an important aspect of cross‐boundary relationships because it influences coordination and the costs associated with coordination. © 2015 The Author Journal of Organizational Behavior Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

How certain can we really be that our boss is trustworthy,and does it matter? A metacognitive perspective on employee evaluations of supervisor trustworthiness

This research helps to integrate the metacognitive concept of evaluation certainty into the trust literature by demonstrating that certainty can amplify the effects of trustworthiness evaluations and stabilize trustworthiness evaluations over time. Across an experimental study (Study 1) and a multiwave survey of employees (Study 2), we show that trustworthiness evaluations exert a stronger influence on individuals' trust at higher levels of certainty and that trust transmits the multiplicative effects of trustworthiness evaluations and certainty on key indicators of employee risk-taking including reliance and disclosure behavior. Further, in Study 2, we show that certainty can help predict change in trustworthiness evaluations over time. Finally, in a two-wave field survey (Study 3), we examine factors that influence evaluation certainty and show that relational transparency and leader prototypicality (LP) have interactive effects on employees' certainty such that the influence of relational transparency on certainty will be more positive at higher levels of LP. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Societal individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance as cultural moderators of relationships between job resources and strain

The job demands–resources model is a dominant theoretical framework that describes the influence of job demands and job resources on employee strain. Recent research has highlighted that the effects of job demands on strain vary across cultures, but similar work has not explored whether this is true for job resources. Given that societal characteristics can influence individuals' cognitive structures and, to a lesser extent, values in a culture, we address this gap in the literature and argue that individuals' strain in reaction to job resources may differ across cultures. Specifically, we theorize that the societal cultural dimensions of individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance shape individual‐level job resource–strain relationships, as they dictate which types of resources (i.e., individual vs. group preference‐oriented and uncertainty‐reducing vs. not) are more likely to be valued, used, or effective in combating strain within a culture. Results revealed that societal individualism–collectivism and uncertainty avoidance independently moderated the relationships between certain job resources (i.e., job control, participation in decision making, and clear goals and performance feedback) and strain (i.e., job satisfaction and turnover intentions). This study expands our understanding of the cross‐cultural specificity versus generalizability of the job demands–resources model.     

A within‐individual study of interpersonal conflict as a work stressor: Dispositional and situational moderators

Focusing on interpersonal conflict as a work stressor, the authors used a within‐subjects research design to examine the effect of conflict episodes on employees' negative affect on the job. The roles of agreeableness and social support in moderating the negative effects of conflict episodes were also examined. A two‐week experience‐sampling study revealed that interpersonal conflict influenced employees' intraindividual fluctuations in negative affect. As predicted, agreeableness and social support influenced individuals' patterns of affective responses to conflict, such that conflict was more strongly associated with negative affect for agreeable employees, and for those with lower levels of social support at work. Overall, the results suggest that both personality (agreeableness) and context (social support) significantly moderate the affective implications of interpersonal conflict at work. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

No person is an island: The effects of group characteristics on individual trait expression

Although most researchers now espouse a person‐by‐situation interactionist approach, there remains much work to be carried out to fully understand how different features of the environment interact with personality to influence behavior. Thus, this study sought to examine the moderating effects of three group‐level constructs on the relationships between two personality traits (conscientiousness and extraversion) and individual performance and counterproductive behaviors. Specifically, using trait activation theory as an organizing framework, we considered the moderating effects of the following: (i) a previously unexamined construct called core group evaluations (CGEs); (ii) group conscientiousness composition; and (iii) group extraversion composition. Data were obtained from a sample of university football players (N = 225–252 from 40 groups). The results indicated that CGEs moderated the relationships between individual conscientiousness and both performance (subjective) and counterproductive behaviors. Group conscientiousness composition also moderated the relationships between individual conscientiousness and both performance (objective and subjective) and counterproductive behaviors. Lastly, group extraversion composition moderated the relationship between individual extraversion and counterproductive behaviors. These findings highlight the importance of considering a team's CGEs, as well as the personality composition of team members when investigating the effects of conscientiousness and extraversion on individual performance and counterproductive behaviors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Capturing the dynamics of leader–follower interactions: Stalemates and future theoretical progress

Despite being based on the premise of a dynamic interpersonal process, studies on leader–member exchange theory often fail to acknowledge its dyadic and dynamic nature. We discuss how the interpersonal affect dynamics literature—and particularly its focus on the emergence of relationship patterns—may advance research on leader–follower interactions.     

Making sense of organizational change: Is hindsight really 20/20?

This qualitative study explores the conceptual links between 2 different approaches to managerial cognition, sensemaking and cognitive bias, in the context of organizational change. A longitudinal case study utilizing both real‐time assessments and retrospective sensemaking data from interviews with 26 hospital employees at 3 points in time was undertaken. Patterns related to individuals' retrospective accounts and real‐time assessments were identified and used to construct 4 prototypical narratives. Data analysis revealed that organizational change was not a markedly negative experience for most informants, which is contrary to the prevailing theme in the literature. This and other findings are discussed in terms of sensemaking and cognitive bias. This study makes 2 contributions to our understanding of how individual's experience and make sense of organizational change over time as (a) little is known about how the process of change unfolds over time at the individual level and (b) extant research has not investigated the extent to which individuals' retrospective sensemaking about organizational change reflects or diverges from their real‐time assessments over the course of the change. More broadly, the study provides insights and focused advice for management researchers regarding the use of retrospective data to understand individuals' perceptions of situations that have already occurred.     

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.     

The two faces of high self‐monitors: Chameleonic moderating effects of self‐monitoring on the relationships between personality traits and counterproductive work behaviors

This study examines whether and how self‐monitoring moderates the relationships between two personality traits (agreeableness and conscientiousness) and counterproductive work behavior directed toward the organization (CWB‐O) and toward other employees (CWB‐I). High self‐monitors strive to attain personal goals related to status and prestige enhancement by adjusting their behavior to what the situation requires or allows for. We propose that the status enhancement motive can take on two different yet related forms—impression management (interpersonal potency) and opportunism (win‐at‐all‐costs)—depending on relevant situational cues. We hypothesize that in public, interpersonal settings where their behavior is visible to others, high self‐monitors' desire to enhance their status by looking good to others suppresses the natural expression of low agreeableness via increased engagement in CWB‐I. Conversely, we hypothesize that in private, non‐interpersonal settings where their behavior is rarely visible to others, high self‐monitors' desire to enhance their status by doing whatever it takes to get what they want intensifies the natural expression of low conscientiousness via increased engagement in CWB‐O. On the basis of two independent samples of participants, results of moderated multiple regression analyses provided support for the hypotheses. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

External relational attributions: Attributing cause to others' relationships

I present an attributional approach to understanding how people perceive and respond to the effects of others' relationships in the workplace by suggesting that people perceive others' relationships to be causal sources of workplace outcomes. Specifically, I suggest that individuals' responses to negative outcomes at work can be better understood by differentiating between two types of external attributional explanations: external relational attributions and external nonrelational attributions. This research focuses on the conceptual development of external relational attributions, which are defined as those attributional explanations made for outcomes or behaviors experienced or observed by a focal individual that locate the cause of an outcome within the relationship between two others (people, groups, organizations, or any combination), not including the focal individual. Further, I propose situational antecedents and behavioral outcomes of external relational attributions, with an emphasis on individuals' behaviors toward others' relationships. Lastly, I highlight the advantages of considering the role of others' relationships when applying attribution theory to a variety of organizational phenomena and present directions for future research.     

Personality and teamwork behavior in context: The cross‐level moderating role of collective efficacy

This research examines whether the relationship between an individual's personality and their behavior within a team is contingent on the team's overall perception of its capability. Individuals were peer‐rated on the extent to which they displayed interpersonal and performance management teamwork behaviors over the course of an 8 week business simulation. The personality trait of agreeableness predicted interpersonal teamwork behavior, while the personality traits of conscientiousness and core self‐evaluation (CSE) predicted performance management behavior. Multilevel analysis showed that collective efficacy influenced the extent to which an individual engaged in both types of behavior, and was also a cross‐level moderator of the relationship between agreeableness and interpersonal behavior and the relationship between CSE and performance management behavior. At the team level, interpersonal behavior mediated between collective efficacy and team performance. The study's results show that in team settings the personality and individual behavior relationship may depend on group level confidence perceptions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Abusive according to whom? Manager and subordinate perceptions of abusive supervision and supervisors' performance

Recognizing that supervisor–subordinate dyads exist within a broader organizational hierarchy, we examine how the individual's role within the organizational hierarchy influences perceptions of abusive supervision. Specifically, we examine how supervisors' abusive behaviors are perceived by abusive supervisors' managers as well as abusive supervisors' subordinates. Drawing on role theory, we propose that these perceptions will differ. Further, we suggest that these differences will be reflected in different relationships between manager-rated abusive supervision and subordinate-rated abusive supervision and managers' evaluations of supervisor performance. Results from manager–supervisor–subordinate triads indicate differences between managers' and subordinates' view of abusive supervision. Further, managers' perceptions of abuse were related to supervisors' in-role performance, whereas subordinates' perceptions of abuse were related to workgroup performance. In Study 2, we replicate these findings and expand our investigation to an examination of supervisors' contextual performance. Additionally, we examine another contextual characteristic—aggressive climate—and demonstrate it influences how abusive supervision relates to managerial evaluations of supervisor performance. Future research and managerial implications are discussed.     

The missing link? Implications of internal,external, and relational attribution combinations for leader–member exchange,relationship work,self‐work,and conflict

Attributions are causal explanations made by individuals in response to important, novel, and/or unexpected events. Numerous attribution theories have examined how people use information to make attributions and how attributions impact an individual's subsequent emotions and outcomes. However, this research has only recently considered the implications of dyadic‐level attributions (i.e., relational attributions), particularly in the context of leader–follower relationships in organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this theoretical paper is threefold. First, we integrate research on attributional biases into the research on relational attributions. Second, we integrate and extend attribution theory to consider the implications of convergent and divergent internal, external‐person, external‐situational, and relational attributions for leader–member exchange (LMX) quality, relationship work, self‐work, and conflict. Third, we make the implicit ranking of attribution combinations and the resultant levels of relationship work explicit. In doing so, we contribute to attribution theory and research by proposing how attribution combinations produce positive and negative outcomes that are both intrapersonal and interpersonal. Further, we contribute to the LMX literature by explicating how leader–follower attribution combinations influence relationship quality.