Search results

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether negative emotions mediate the relationship between supervisor rudeness and subordinates' retaliatory reactions and how the reactions to supervisor rudeness differ between US Americans and Koreans and between in‐group and out‐group supervisors.Design/methodology/approachA survey involving 197 employees from USA and South Korea. MANCOVA was used to analyze the data.FindingsEmployees who were rudely (rather than politely) treated when receiving explanations for organizational decisions were more likely to engage in retaliation. The latter tendency was partially mediated by the negative emotions that the employees felt about their rude treatment. In addition, the rudeness‐retaliation effects became stronger when the supervisor was dissimilar (rather than similar) to them, and the latter two‐way interaction effect was even stronger to those who highly value vertical collectivism. Surprisingly, however, Koreans were more likely to retaliate against their supervisor rather than US Americans.Research limitations/implicationsPrevious scenario‐based studies contrasting Koreans and US Americans have yielded findings suggesting that Koreans and US American employees may differ in their responses to supervisory rudeness. Additionally, the tendency of people to be more attracted to similar rather than dissimilar others (consistent with the similarity‐attraction paradigm) suggests that the (dis)similarity of a supervisor is likely to influence the rudeness‐retaliation effect. Future research needs to examine when, how, and why employees retaliate against supervisory rudeness to better understand the retaliation dynamics in organizations.Originality/valueThis is the only study that has examined how, in the context of receiving rude treatment from a supervisor, retaliatory reactions by US American versus Korean employees may differ and why (i.e. via emotional mediating variables), and whether US American‐Korean differences in retaliation under these circumstances are influenced by the supervisor's perceived (dis)similarity.

How does diversity of social ties influence creativity? Moving beyond the information argument, we theorize creative self-efficacy as a motivational explanation for the relationship between diversity of social ties and creativity. We further posit tie strength as a boundary condition for this mechanism. We collected social ties data from 309 employees and creativity data from 98 direct supervisors. Results showed that diversity of social ties had a direct positive relationship with creative self-efficacy and an indirect positive relationship with employee creativity via creative self-efficacy. These direct and indirect relationships were fortified when tie strength was reinforced. We contribute to and advance theory development by identifying and testing creative self-efficacy as a motivational mechanism for diversity of social ties. We show the importance of diversity of social ties and tie strength and their synergistic role in the motivational process linking social ties to creativity.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to test the effect of human resource systems on organization attraction. Furthermore, the authors theorize and test how the vocational interests of prospective employees can serve as boundary conditions that affect the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and organization attraction.Design/methodology/approach– To achieve these ends, this study conducts a scenario-based experiment with prospective employees to examine the effects of HPWS and vocational interests on organization attraction.Findings– The authors demonstrated that HPWS is an important feature for organization attraction. Despite the generally positive linkage between HPWS and organization attraction, the most important implication of the findings is that job applicants also have an important role in responding to the features being used by a firm to attract applicants through HPWS. For example, potential job applicants with higher (rather than lower) social vocational interests are more likely to be attracted to the HPWS of firms.Research limitations/implications– This study has limitations that must be considered. In particular, the authors treated HPWS as a unidimensional construct. Given the study design, it is unclear whether the attraction effects are driven by HPWS as a whole or whether they are being driven by any single or multiple component(s) of the system. Future research needs to consider examining how specific practices are matched with specific vocational interests by using multiple scenarios where they bundle different high-performance work practices. Doing so would further the understanding of which specific practices affect attraction and for whom.Originality/value– This study contributes to the authors' knowledge of the effects of HPWS on organization attraction. In addition, job applicants' social vocational interest plays an important role in strengthening the relationship between HPWS and organization attraction.

This study aims to examine the effects of person-career (PC) fit on employee outcomes. It is based on a sample of 1128 research and development (R&D) professionals and 222 project managers in 15 South Korean organizations. The results revealed that a managerial PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and a technical PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction. For example, job satisfaction increased as career orientation increased toward career development opportunities, then decreased when career development opportunities exceeded career orientation. In addition, as expected, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are higher when career orientation and career development opportunities are both high rather than low. For work performance, contributions to organizations increased as managerial career orientations increased toward managerial career opportunities, then decreased when managerial career opportunities exceeded managerial career orientation.

This study examined how person–organization fit and friendship from coworkers combine to affect people's self-verification, and how self-verification ultimately relates to employee outcomes (job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). Based on a sample of 117 employee–supervisor pairs, multilevel analyses revealed a positive relationship between employees' perceptions of person–organization fit and self-verification, and also showed that the relationship was facilitated by friendship from coworkers. Specifically, person–organization fit and self-verification perceptions were positively related when friendship from coworkers was high, but nonsignificant when friendship from coworkers was low. In addition, employees' self-verification perceptions were positively and significantly associated with job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Our research suggests that enhancing person–organization fit and promoting friendship from coworkers in the workplace organizations can satisfy the basic human impulse to feel self-verified, and thus enhance employees' positive work behaviors.

AbstractStatus difference is prevalent within working groups, profoundly influencing employees' perceptions and behaviours towards coworkers and their groups. Despite this ubiquity, exploring the effects of status difference within groups remains relatively underexamined. Drawing on social identity theory, this study examined how and when horizontal status difference (i.e., status comparison between a focal employee and his/her peers) and vertical status difference (i.e., status comparison between a focal employee and his/her leader) influence employees' perceived insider status and proactive behaviour. Results from 421 employees across 113 working groups indicated that horizontal status difference was positively related to perceived insider status, but vertical status difference had a curvilinear effect on perceived insider status. Furthermore, perceived insider status significantly mediated the impact of horizontal and vertical status differences on proactive behaviour. We also demonstrated that promotion criteria significantly moderated the relationship between horizontal status difference and perceived insider status; in particular, this relationship was stronger when organizations used a relative rather than an absolute promotion criterion.

Given the critical role of leaders in managing employees' goal-setting, we theorized and examined how leader proactive goal regulation facilitates employee proactive goal processes and outcomes. Based on a sample of 74 leaders and 371 employees who work in research and development groups, we found that employees' three motivational states—role breadth self-efficacy, psychological ownership, and activated positive affect—were positively associated with job performance via employee proactive goal regulation. In addition, the effects of leader proactive goal regulation on this mediation model were twofold. First, there was a direct effect on employee proactive goal regulation, which, in turn, positively related to job performance. Second, there was a moderating effect of leader proactive goal regulation such that employees delivered high job performance when their leaders were high in proactive goal regulation, regardless of employees' own levels of proactive goal regulation. This study highlights the importance of not only employee but also leader proactive goal regulation in connecting employees' proactive motivational states with job performance.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how team-level empowering leadership related to service performance through thriving at work and how shared organizational social exchange and customer orientation moderated the latter relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected the data from 283 flight attendants and their supervisors working at a major Korean airline. Multi-level analyses were used to test the effect of empowering leadership on employee outcomes.FindingsBoth team-level empowering leadership and customer orientation were significantly and indirectly associated with service performance via thriving at work. Additionally, customer orientation significantly moderated the relationship between team-level empowering leadership and thriving at work such that the relationship was stronger when customer orientation was low rather than high. In addition, shared organizational social exchange augmented the influence of team-level empowering leadership on service performance but not on thriving at work.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that team-level empowering leadership is more effective in enhancing thriving at work of employees when their customer orientation is low rather than high. In addition, a shared high-quality organizational social exchange augments the effect of empowering leadership on employees' service performance.Originality/valueThis paper provides initial evidence of the interaction of team-level empowering leadership and individual¬-level customer orientation on thriving at work and service performance. Additionally, it documents the differential augmenting effect of shared organizational social exchange on the relationship between empowering leadership and these outcomes. Collectively, the findings explain why and when team-level empowering leadership relates to service performance.