An embeddedness framing of governance and opportunism: towards a cross‐nationally accommodating theory of agency—critique and extension

Research on corporate governance has been increased in recent years, reflecting growing concern about the future of global capitalism. Much of this research has been under socialized. Lubatkin and colleagues attempt to address this serious shortcomings of past research. While making an important and informative contribution to research, I believe these authors overlook the questionable assumptions of agency models of governance. Lubatkin and colleagues also key issues resulting from the internationalization of corporate governance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Old faces,new places: equity theory in cross‐cultural contexts

Equity theory proposes that individuals compare ratios of their own outcomes and inputs to the ratios of outcomes and inputs of others. According to this theory, if the ratios are unequal, individuals are motivated to take actions that will restore equity. Although equity theory has received considerable attention from organizational scholars, relatively few studies have investigated the cross‐cultural applicability of the theory. In this conceptual paper, the value‐orientation model of culture is used to identify the ways in which the cultural context may influence how employees conceptualize inputs and outcomes, their selection of referent others, their equity preferences, and their reactions to inequity. The paper also describes potential avenues for future investigations of equity theory in cross‐cultural settings. Finally, some practical implications of this work are discussed as well. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Erratum: Old faces,new places: equity theory in cross‐cultural contexts

The above article (DOI: 10.1002/job.454) was published online in Early View on 12 April 2007. A printing error was subsequently identified in the article: Page 10, line 27: ‘likelihood that he or she will select particular referent’ should read ‘likelihood that he or she will select a particular referent’     

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.     

Team job‐related anxiety and creativity: Investigating team‐level and cross‐level moderated curvilinear relationships

Researchers have examined the effects of individual job‐related anxiety on employee attitudes and behaviors but have yet to examine whether team job‐related anxiety would have similar or different effects. Building on prior research on negative group affective tone and creativity, we propose that team job‐related anxiety has an inverted U‐shaped curvilinear relationship with both team and individual creativity. Furthermore, we posit that team cooperativeness moderates those curvilinear relationships. Using a two‐wave research design and matched employee‐supervisor data from 290 employees nested in 65 teams, we found support for the proposed inverted U‐shaped relationships. Moreover, the intermediate level of team job‐related anxiety was associated with higher individual creativity in teams with higher cooperativeness. We conclude the study with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.     

Pre‐training perceived social self‐efficacy accentuates the effects of a cross‐cultural coping orientation program: Evidence from a longitudinal field experiment

Analyzing additional data from a longitudinal field experiment, the present research investigate whether pre‐training perceived social self‐efficacy (PSSE) may moderate cross‐cultural training effectiveness. On the basis of the interactionist perspective, we hypothesized that sojourners with high pre‐training PSSE would benefit more from a cross‐cultural coping orientation program, called “Realistic Orientation Program for Entry Stress” (ROPES), than sojourners with low pre‐training PSSE. As a result, the treatment effects (the ROPES program over the control program—a traditional cross‐cultural orientation program) would be more positive for high‐PSSE sojourners than for low‐PSSE sojourners. Seventy‐two incoming graduate students from East Asia entering a large US public university were randomly assigned to either a ROPES program or a control program, and were assessed pre‐entry and multiple times post‐entry. The results strongly supported our predictions, as the hypothesized PSSE × Treatment interactions were observed on a comprehensive set of training outcomes based on multisource data. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flexible work bundles and organizational competitiveness: a cross‐national study of the European work context

The present study explores the categorization of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) into bundles and their connection to organizational competitiveness in the European Union. The measures of competitiveness were performance, turnover, and absenteeism. Four moderators were used in the study, organization sector, industry sector, organization size, and organizational women‐supportiveness. The analyses revealed four FWA Bundles, namely Non‐Standard Work Patterns, Work Away from the Office, Non‐Standard Work Hours and Work Outsourced. Non‐Standard Work Patterns were found to be related to decreased turnover (in the private sector), while Work Away from the Office was related to improved performance and reduced absenteeism. Non‐Standard Work Hours and Work Outsourced (within the public sector) were positively related to turnover, suggesting that these types are possibly not being used as true flexibility arrangements. Finally, post‐hoc analysis revealed that Non‐Standard Work Hours was related to increased performance only among Swedish organizations. Implications for management and future research are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Weekly work–school conflict,sleep quality,and fatigue: Recovery self‐efficacy as a cross‐level moderator

This study employed a weekly diary method among a sample of 74 Midwestern college student workers in order to examine the within‐person relationships between work–school conflict, sleep quality, and fatigue over five weeks. Further, recovery self‐efficacy was proposed as a cross‐level moderator of the relation between sleep quality and fatigue. Results from multilevel analyses demonstrated that weekly work–school conflict was negatively related to weekly sleep quality and positively related to end‐of‐week fatigue, with sleep quality partially mediating the relation between work–school conflict and fatigue. These findings enhance understanding of the process by which work–school conflict contributes to college student workers' strain on a weekly basis. Additionally, student workers with low recovery self‐efficacy demonstrated a negative relation between sleep quality and fatigue; however, this relation did not exist for student workers with high recovery self‐efficacy. This finding suggests recovery self‐efficacy as an important resource that may reduce the association between poor sleep quality (as a result of work–school conflict) and fatigue. The current findings provide important theoretical and practical implications for researchers, organizations, and college institutions as a whole. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employees' self‐efficacy and perception of individual learning in teams: The cross‐level moderating role of team‐learning behavior

Despite the importance of employee learning for organizational effectiveness, scholars have yet to identify the factors that influence employees' perception of individual learning. This paper identified employees' self‐efficacy as a potential antecedent to their perception of individual learning in the context of teamwork. We also hypothesized that team‐learning behavior had a moderating effect on the relationship between employees' self‐efficacy and their perception of individual learning. We conducted a study of 236 teams working in a retail firm, comprising 236 team supervisors and 1397 employees, and analyzed the data using hierarchical linear modeling. This study revealed that employees' individual‐level self‐efficacy was positively associated with their perception of individual learning in teams. Additionally, team‐learning behaviors moderated the positive relationship between employees' self‐efficacy and the perception of individual learning. This study has theoretical and practical implications for a more nuanced understanding of the perception of individual learning in the context of teamwork. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

The effects of job complexity and autonomy on cohesiveness in collectivistic and individualistic work groups: a cross‐cultural analysis

Increased job complexity and autonomy have often been associated with improved performance in work groups. This study examines the mediating effect of group cohesiveness. The moderating effects of individualism/collectivism on the relationship between job characteristics (both complexity and autonomy) and cohesiveness are also tested. The sample consists of 381 teams drawn from the Hong Kong and U.S. branches of an international bank. The findings indicate that an increase in job complexity and/or task autonomy will increase group cohesiveness, which subsequently translates to better performance. The positive effects of job complexity and autonomy on group cohesiveness are also found to be more prominent for individualistic rather than collectivistic work groups. The theoretical implications of the results and the limitations of the study are also discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The cross‐level effects of culture and climate in human service teams

This two‐level study of child welfare and juvenile justice case management teams addresses construct, measurement, and composition issues that plague multilevel research on organizational culture and climate. Very few empirical studies have examined both culture and climate simultaneously, and none have provided evidence that culture and climate are distinct or similar constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), within‐group consistency analysis (r_wg), between‐group differences (ICC and eta‐squared), and hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis provide evidence that climate and culture are separate constructs that vary by organizational unit, and are related to work attitudes, perceptions, and behavior. Findings link team‐level culture and climate to individual‐level job satisfaction and commitment, perceptions of service quality, and turnover. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hardworking coworkers: A multilevel cross‐national look at group work hours and work–family conflict

This study investigates the relationship between coworker work hours and perceived work‐to‐family conflict (WFC) in a multinational sample of professional service employees. Building on recent research on the ways in which workgroups influence individual WFC, we demonstrate that the average hours worked by coworkers has a significant relationship to reported WFC independent of an employee's own work hours. Although this finding is universal across the multinational sample, national cultural differences were found to moderate the relationship, such that employees in more collectivist countries are more strongly influenced by average coworker hours than their counterparts in less collectivist countries. The multilevel analysis was conducted using a sample of 7,600 professional service employees in 497 different workgroups across 20 countries. The results provide support for the effect of culture on the relationship between group average hours and perceptions of WFC. We conclude with a discussion of how national culture affects WFC.     

A multilevel perspective of interpersonal trust: Individual,dyadic, and cross‐level predictors of performance

While it is generally known that interpersonal trust facilitates individual functioning, few studies have examined the role of specific features of the interpersonal trust network — individual, dyadic, third‐party, and network‐level features — on individual performance. We adopt a multilevel perspective of interpersonal trust to examine how individuals' performance is not only predicted by their individual‐level centrality in the interpersonal trust network but also moderated, at the network level, by the overall centralized nature of that network. Further, we examine whether mutual trust relationships at the dyadic level, as well as shared trust ties to common third parties, can predict individuals' performance. We test our hypotheses with 206 members in 15 professional networking groups and find that interpersonal trust operates at multiple levels to predict members' performance in terms of generating income from business referrals. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications on how interpersonal trust relationships operate and can be managed for performance gains. 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     

Leader self‐awareness: An examination and implications of women's under‐prediction

Self‐awareness represents an important aspect of leadership. However, past research on leader self‐awareness has focused on one component of self‐awareness, self versus others' ratings, leaving the second component, the ability to anticipate the views of others, largely neglected. We examined this second component of self‐awareness by focusing on women leaders who have been found to under‐predict how others rate them. In two studies, we measured how women leaders anticipate the views of their bosses in regard to their leadership. In Study 1, 194 leaders rated their leadership, were rated by their bosses, and then predicted how their bosses rated their leadership. While we found that women under‐predict their boss ratings compared with men, we did not find that boss gender or feedback played a role in this under‐prediction. In Study 2, 76 female leaders identified (via open‐ended questions) possible reasons and consequences of under‐prediction for women in organizations. Results from Study 2 reveal the following: (1) the reasons for women's under‐prediction include a lack of self‐confidence, differences in feedback needs, learned gender roles, and self‐sexism; and (2) the perceived consequences of under‐prediction are negative for both women and the organization. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A cross‐level model of shared leadership,meaning, and individual creativity

Research on leadership and creativity is dominated by the study of leadership from people in formal leadership positions. The very nature of creativity requires self‐direction, however. This points to shared leadership, a process in which members dynamically share the leadership role, as a particularly relevant influence to consider. Drawing on psychological empowerment theory, we develop the shared leadership perspective on individual creativity. We argue that shared leadership has a cross‐level influence on individual creativity that is mediated by the experience of meaning of work and moderated by individual differences in power distance value: for individuals lower on power distance, shared leadership has a positive linear relationship with individual creativity; for individuals higher on power distance, shared leadership has a curvilinear relationship with individual creativity that is decreasingly positive. Using a sample of 623 members from 95 teams in 34 Chinese organizations, we find support for this multilevel model. Findings offer theoretical implications for shared leadership and creativity research and provide managerial implications.     

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.