We investigated the role of employees’ status appraisals within their work group in relation to their challenging-promotive voice behavior. We argued that fair and respectful treatment of their voice ...input by the authority figure of the group (i.e., supervisory responsiveness) enhances employees’ self-perceived status, thereby motivating them to engage in subsequent voice behavior. Using a sample of 337 supervisor-subordinate dyads collected in manufacturing industry organizations in China, we found that self-perceived status mediated the relationship between supervisory responsiveness and voice behavior. We further identified employees’ self-efficacy for voice as a moderator in this mediational chain for the path from supervisory responsiveness to self-perceived status. The indirect relationship between supervisory responsiveness and voice behavior through self-perceived status was more pronounced when self-efficacy for voice was higher rather than lower.
The purpose of this study was to examine how perceptions of distributive and procedural fairness moderate the relationship between innovative behavior and stress. The results of a survey carried out ...among 118 first-line managers from six organizations in the public health domain demonstrated that innovative behavior was positively related to the stress reactions of job-related anxiety and burnout only when levels of both distributive fairness and procedural fairness were low.
•Power relationships with interaction partners shape individuals’ gossip motives and gossip behavior.•In downward interactions gossip has relatively low functionality, and people avoid this type of ...communication.•Gossip is more likely and elaborate in lateral and upward interactions than in downward interactions.•Lateral gossip is functional in seeking information and social support from others.•Upward gossip is functional in exerting informal influence.
Gossip entails spreading evaluative information about people who are not present. From a social exchange perspective, we examined how hierarchical power relationships shape individuals’ gossip motives and behavior. Results of a laboratory experiment (Study 1) partially supported our prediction that gossip is less likely and elaborate in downward compared to upward and lateral interactions. We further predicted that people gossip laterally to seek information and social support, and upwards to exert influence. A scenario (Study 2) and critical incident study (Study 3) with working populations showed that lateral gossip was more functional for seeking information and expressive social support, whereas upward gossip (Study 2) and upward and lateral gossip (Study 3) were more functional for exerting informal influence and for seeking instrumental support. These results confirm our notion that gossip is functional behavior that enables individuals in hierarchical power relationships to strategically exchange different social resources (i.e., information, influence, support).
By combining organizational role theory with core features of the sensemaking perspective of creativity, we propose conditional indirect relationships between creative role expectations and employee ...incremental and radical creativity that are mediated by creative self-expectations and moderated by perceived necessity for performance improvement and creative cognitive style. We find empirical evidence for our hypothesized effects across two studies. First, in a field study using data collected from 325 supervisor–employee dyads in an academic institution in China, we find that creative role expectations are positively related to creative self-expectations and that perceived necessity for performance improvement strengthens this positive relationship. Furthermore, we find that creative self-expectations directly relate to incremental creativity, but that creative cognitive style is a necessary boundary condition under which such self-expectations relate to radical creativity. Second, the results of an additional survey study among 201 US employees suggest that the psychological process through which employees internalize external role expectations for creativity into their self-expectations for creativity is primarily driven by the satisfaction of basic needs for competence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
By integrating social network theory and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory, we explore the effects of three types of social relationships on employee innovative behavior: weak ties outside the ...group, LMX, and strong ties within the group. The results from a sample in a high-tech firm showed that LMX fully mediated the positive relationship between out-group weak ties and innovative behavior. Furthermore, within-group strong ties negatively moderated the second stage of this indirect relationship, such that LMX was positively and significantly related to innovative behavior only when the number of within-group strong ties was low. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
In this study, we use a social exchange perspective to examine when i.e., high- vs. low-quality leader-member exchange (LMX), why (i.e., positive vs. negative reciprocity), and how (i.e., pro-leader ...vs. pro-self unethical behavior) followers consider unethical behavior that either benefits the leader or the self. Across an experimental and a time-split survey study, we find that high-quality LMX relationships motivate pro-leader unethical intention as a means to satisfy positive reciprocity motives, and that low-quality LMX relationships motivate pro-self unethical intention as a means to satisfy negative reciprocity motives. Importantly, our studies demonstrate that it is crucial to incorporate both positive and negative reciprocity motives when studying the effects of LMX. Implications of these results for social exchange theory, LMX, and the broader literature of (self- and other-serving) unethical behavior are discussed.
As hypothesized, data from 170 employees of a Dutch firm showed that the quality of leader-member exchange mediated positive relationships between a mastery orientation and leader-rated in-role job ...performance, leader-rated innovative job performance, and job satisfaction. In contrast, a performance orientation was negatively related or unrelated to those outcomes. These findings suggest that employees with stronger mastery orientations are more effective on the job because they tend to establish higher-quality exchanges with their supervisors.
Based on the goal orientation model of feedback‐seeking behaviour, goal orientations are proposed to influence employees in the type of information they seek from knowledgeable others in the work ...environment. As hypothesized, a survey conducted among 170 medical residents of a Dutch university hospital showed that a learning‐approach goal orientation had a positive relationship with the seeking of self‐improvement information and a negative relationship with the seeking of self‐validation information. In contrast, a performance‐approach goal orientation was negatively related to the seeking of self‐improvement information, while a performance‐avoidance goal orientation was positively related to the seeking of self‐validation information. Unexpectedly, a performance‐avoidance goal orientation was also found to be positively related to the seeking of self‐improvement information.
Gossip, or informal talk about others who are not present, is omnipresent in daily interactions. As such, people who are targeted are likely to hear some gossip about themselves, which may have ...profound implications for their well-being. We investigated the emotions and behavioral intentions of people who hear performance-related gossip about themselves. Based on the affective events theory, we predicted that gossip incidents have strong emotional consequences for their targets and that these emotional responses trigger different behaviors. Two scenario studies (
= 226,
= 21.76;
= 204,
= 34.11) and a critical incident study (
= 240,
= 37.04) compared targets' responses to positive and negative gossip. Whereas, targets of positive gossip experienced positive self-conscious emotions (e.g., pride), targets of negative gossip experienced negative self-conscious emotions (e.g., guilt), especially when they had low core self-evaluations. In turn, these negative self-conscious emotions predicted repair intentions. Positive gossip also led to positive other-directed emotions (e.g., liking), which predicted intentions to affiliate with the gossiper. Negative gossip, however, also generated other-directed negative emotions (e.g., anger), especially for targets with high reputational concerns, which in turn predicted retaliation intentions against the gossiper. This pattern of emotional reactions to self-relevant gossip was found to be unique and different from emotional reactions to self-relevant feedback. These results show that gossip has self-evaluative and other-directed emotional consequences, which predict how people intend to behaviorally react after hearing gossip about themselves.
Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees’ behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what ...extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers’ felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers’ power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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