Abstract
Situational strength is considered one of the most important situational forces at work because it can attenuate the personality–performance relationship. Although organizational scholars have studied the consequences of situational strength, they have paid little attention to its antecedents. To address this gap, the current study focused on situational strength cues from different social sources as antecedents of overall situational strength at work. Specifically, we examined how employees combine situational strength cues emanating from three social sources (i.e., coworkers, the immediate supervisor, and top management). Based on field theory, we hypothesized that the effect of situational strength from coworkers and immediate supervisors (i.e., proximal sources of situational strength) on employees' perceptions of overall situational strength on the job would be greater than the effect of situational strength from the top management (i.e., the distal source of situational strength). We also hypothesized that the effect of situational strength from the distal source would be mediated by the effects of situational strength from the proximal sources. Data from 363 full-time employees were collected at two time points with a cross-lagged panel design. The former hypothesis was supported for one of the two situational strength facets studied. The latter hypothesis was fully supported.
Highlights
“To explain social behavior it is necessary to represent the structure of the total situation and the distribution of the forces in it.”
The current paper examines the situational strength emanating from three internal sources—namely, coworkers, the immediate supervisor, and top management
Top management can be distanced from the employees in terms of hierarchical rank or social status, suggesting that employees have a lower sense of attachment and identification with top management (Bloom, 1999; Halevy et al, 2011, 2012). These findings suggest that employees have more frequent meaningful interactions with their coworkers and immediate supervisors than with their top management
Summary
“To explain social behavior it is necessary to represent the structure of the total situation and the distribution of the forces in it.”. The situational strength facet of clarity encompasses role clarity (i.e., information that defines the boundaries of the employee’s work roles), work behavior prescribed by organizational and societal culture (Gelfand et al, 2006), instructions from the supervisor regarding how to perform tasks properly, and coworker-generated norms regarding backing-up behavior (Meyer et al, 2010, 2014) As these examples suggest, situational strength represents a broad, psychologically-based conceptualization of situational forces applicable across a variety of situational units (e.g., jobs/occupations, roles, tasks, events; Dalal et al, 2014). The current paper examines the situational strength emanating from three internal sources—namely, coworkers, the immediate supervisor, and top management These are the three social situational sources that have been most studied by organizational researchers interested in examining employee reactions (e.g., job satisfaction) to various aspects of the work situation (Dalal et al, 2011).
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