Archival data present opportunities to test important research questions. Unfortunately, archival data do not always include validated measures of the psychological constructs that may be of interest to researchers. In this article, the authors describe how the construct equivalence approach can be applied to organizational archival data to derive and empirically validate surrogate measures of psychological constructs. A step-by-step explanation of how to validate such measures, which includes the use of confirmatory factor analysis to examine the data from a multitrait-multimethod perspective, is described. This approach facilitates the use of organizational archives for research purposes.
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how individual differences influence employees' attitude toward organizational change. Specifically, the present study examined how and why proactive personality, dispositional resistance to change, and change self-efficacy influence employees' perceived fairness about the organizational change.Design/methodology/approach– Structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the survey data obtained from a sample of 140 food service employees after some organizational changes in leadership, menu offerings, and facilities.Findings– The results revealed support for two micromediational chains predicting change fairness: first, change self-efficacy leads to less uncertainty and second, dispositional resistance to change leads to less communication regarding change resulting in employees perceiving they have fewer opportunities to voice concerns about the changes.Research limitations/implications– The cross-sectional design prevents causal inferences and the generalizability of the present findings beyond similar samples experiencing similar changes is unknown. However, the predictions were based on theories that apply to all employees regardless of the changes or the employees' occupations or workplace.Social implications– Employees with particular personality traits are more receptive to change, suggesting that organizations should consider the impact of individual differences when facing large-scale change. To ensure the success of organizational change, organizations should communicate with employees and encourage employee input before implementing change which in turn improves the chances that employees will have favorable reactions to the change.Originality/value– This is the first study to examine how and why individual difference variables influence employees' perceptions about organizational change fairness.
Little dispute exists with regard to the conceptual and practical contributions of team mental models (TMMs) to team-related research and applications, yet the measurement of TMMs poses great challenges for researchers and practitioners. Borrowing from performance appraisal practices, this article presents a new method for assessing TMMs that is user-friendly and allows for the measurement of both TMM accuracy and similarity. The extent to which TMM similarity and accuracy indices predict team performance in a field setting is examined. Contributions to team research and practice are discussed.
This research investigated how much and in what direction newcomer psychological contracts changed during the first year of employment and the extent to which change was a function of a psychological contract breach. These issues were investigated using a sample of 88 organizational newcomers with diverse job duties/titles, prior experience, and age levels. Newcomers were surveyed at three points in time during the first year of employment, including employee perceptions of both employee and employer obligations. Consistent with equity theory, results revealed employees perceived more balanced than imbalanced employment relationships upon organizational entry as well as after 1 year of employment. A failure of the employer to fulfil commitments was associated with perceived imbalance in the employment relationship and a significant decrease in perceived employer obligations, suggesting breach is perceived as a trigger for an adjustment to the psychological contract rather than a signal of an injustice. Implications of these findings for research and theory on psychological contracts and breach in the employment relationship are discussed.Practitioner pointsNewcomers' and employees with 1 year of organizational tenure are more likely to report a balance than an imbalance between employer and employee obligations, reflecting the mutuality of perceived obligations in employment relationships.When employees perceive their employer has failed to fulfil obligations, employees are likely to alter their subsequent perceptions of employer obligations downwardly.Based on the way employees adjusted their perceptions of obligations following a breach in their psychological contract, this study provides evidence for newcomers to perceive a breach as a trigger to adjust perceptions concerning employer obligations.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare employee reactions to the use of an online performance appraisal (PA) system to the traditional paper‐and‐pencil (P&P) approach.Design/methodology/approachA quasi‐experimental study is conducted comparing the reactions of a group of 83 employees evaluate with a traditional P&P PA instrument to the reactions of a group of 152 employees evaluated with an online version of the same assessment tool.FindingsEmployees rate with the online version reported significantly higher levels of rater accountability and employee participation than employees rate with the traditional instrument. They report no difference in perceived security of the ratings, utility of the ratings, or satisfaction with the PA. Online employees report significantly lower levels of quality for the PA ratings than traditional employees.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is limited to employees in one organization and the variables examined. In the future, researchers should examine supervisor and human resource (HR) manager reactions to the system, additional individual difference variables, variables related to technology acceptance and use, and additional PA reactions.Practical implicationsThe findings inform HR managers about how one sample of employees' reacted to an online appraisal. It is important for organizations to ensure all system users are well‐trained in how to provide quality ratings and feedback through the system.Originality/valueThis is the first quasi‐experiment comparing employees' attitudes toward an online administration of PA to a traditional P&P administration.
