Emotions research in OB: The challenges that lie ahead

We discuss four challenges facing emotion scholarship in organizational behavior: (1) inconsistent definitions; (2) aggregation of discrete emotions into affective dimensions; (3) aggregation across time; and (4) failure to recognize the role of context. We discuss literature related to these challenges, and call for empirical research to address them. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceived intra-organizational mobility: Reliable versus exceptional performance as means to getting ahead

‘Work hard and get ahead’ is a fundamental tenet of modern organizations, but employees have different interpretations of what it means to ‘work hard’ and perceive that there are multiple channels to ‘get ahead’. The current research explores employees' perceptions of the factors affecting their intra-organizational upward mobility. Results using a survey instrument in a large American medical college show that employees can distinguish among intra-organizational mobility channels based on reliable role performance, on exceptional role performance, and on non-performance factors such as personal characteristics (e.g. race and gender), or luck and favoritism. Perceptions of mobility channels are related to such organizationally relevant outcomes as employee satisfaction and turnover intentions. Occupational sub-groups, however, perceive different structures for upward mobility.     

The allocation of prestigious positions in organizational science: accumulative advantage,sponsored mobility,and contest mobility

More than 200 freshly minted doctoral graduates enter the field of organization science every year. A non‐trivial number of existing faculty members move from one university to another every year, while other organization science faculty leave academia to enter retirement, consulting, or industry. Despite the importance of this large, complex system of entries and exits, few attempts have been made to explicitly understand how the system works. Drawing upon sociology of science and careers research, we studied the underlying form of the position allocation system by focusing on the relative importance of research success and prior affiliations as antecedents of movement and stability across positions. We used three theoretical models: accumulative advantage, sponsored mobility, and contest mobility. Tracking hundreds of faculty members for 16 years post doctorate, we find a downward cascading of affiliation prestige over time that affects people more dramatically and quickly than we expected, especially women. Accumulative advantage, the most predictive of our models, does help to maintain relative but not absolute prestige, at least until its effects wane in later years of the career. These findings are relevant to scholars interested in the sociology of science, organization scholars interested in the underlying dynamics of their discipline, and individuals making career choices. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Person-based reward systems: A theory of organizational reward practices in reform-communist organizations

A type of organizational reward system based on personal power is described and partially tested. The theory, developed from observations of Hungarian organizations, is grounded in theories of procedural justice and learned helplessness. Person-based organizational reward systems are characterized by highly valued rewards combined with personalistic criteria for reward distribution. Such organizational reward systems were hypothesized to lead to employee perceptions of organizational unfairness; negative evaluations of others; anxiety; and perceptions of self, collegial and organizational inefficacy. These hypotheses were supported in tests in a sample of three Hungarian state-owned organizations classified as having person-based systems and five non-person-based organizations (two Hungarian privately-owned companies, one American state-owned and two American privately-owned organizations). In addition, several behavioral effects of person-based reward systems were proposed: they foster bargaining behavior, withholding of information, avoidance of collaborative tasks, ingratiation and noncompliance with rules.     

Little things that count: A call for organizational research on microbusinesses

The purpose of this Incubator is to encourage organizational researchers to attend to the most common type of business in the United States—the microbusiness. After defining and describing these businesses, we propose research questions on defining and managing performance, organizational citizenship, and work–family conflict in this novel business setting. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.