Felt Obligation Research Articles

Does Union Practice Improve Employee Voice? An Analysis from the Perspective of Planned Behavior Theory

As the representative and maintainer of employees’ rights and interests, union plays an important role in solving the actuality that employees won’t say a word even though their opinions and suggestions can make a difference. However, most of the existing studies only focus on the direct relationship between union practice and employee voice, and few scholars have explored the influence mechanism of union practice on employee voice. Guided by the three-pronged approach of the theory of planned behavior, we integrate the typical variables from previous studies on the influencing factors of employee voice, and establish the framework of the joint effect of psychological safety, voice efficacy and felt obligation for constructive change on employee voice, in order to reveal the black box” between union practice and employee voice. Based on the data of 368 employees in 46 enterprises from Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong provinces, this paper uses structural equation to test the research model. It arrives at the main findings as follows: union practice has a significant positive influence on employee voice, which means the higher the level of union practice is, the more inclined employees are to voice. In addition, psychological safety, voice efficacy and felt obligation for constructive change mediate the relationship between union practice and employee voice. That is to say, union practice can not only improve employees’ psychological safety by protecting their legitimate rights and interests, enhance employees’ voice efficacy through activities such as reflecting reasonable suggestions to the enterprise, freeing them from worries, but also inspire employees’ felt obligation for constructive change, so as to promote employee voice. This empirical research contributes to the literature in three important aspects. Firstly, it verifies the promoting effect of union practice on employee voice, enriches the research on the influencing factors of employee voice, and further confirms the theoretical value of union practice as an independent variable, providing some new ideas for the future research on employee voice behavior and union practice. Secondly, this study explains the specific process of union practice influencing employee voice from the perspective of planned behavior theory, making up for the lack of the influence mechanism between union practice and employee voice. Lastly, it promotes the integration of theories and achievements in the research fields such as labor relations, human resource management and organizational behavior, provides theoretical support for enterprises to strengthen the cooperation with union, and impulses the construction of harmonious labor relations.

Antecedents and outcome of job embeddedness: Evidence from four and five-star hotels

The present study explores the antecedents and outcome of job embeddedness. The antecedents are: level of control over work hours and felt obligation. The outcome is proactive customer service performance. Using self-administered questionnaires, 163 paired responses were gathered from frontline employees and their supervisors/managers in 16 hotels/resorts with a rating of four and five stars in Malaysia. Frontline employees responded to the questions on level of control over work hours, felt obligation and job embeddedness (on-the-job and off-the-job). Supervisors/managers responded to the questions on their employees’ proactive customer service performance. The salient findings are: (1) Level of control over work hours and felt obligation have significant relationships with on-the-job embeddedness; (2) On-the-job embeddedness has a significant relationship with proactive customer service performance; (3) On-the-job embeddedness mediates the relationship between felt obligation and proactive customer service performance; and (4) Off-the-job embeddedness has a significant relationship with on-the-job embeddedness.

Does the Experience of Parasocial Interaction Enhance Persuasiveness of Video Public Service Messages?

Does the experience of parasocial interaction (EPSI) increase the persuasiveness of a video message? In a between-subjects experiment (N = 465) we used bodily addressing to successfully vary EPSI in viewers of three brief video-recorded health messages. This manipulation, however, yielded no significant effect on viewers’ perceived persuasiveness of the message and their attitude toward the recommended behavior, and the effect on viewers’ felt obligation to comply with the presenter of the message was only marginally significant. However, self-reported EPSI was significantly positively correlated with all persuasion measures, and exploratory analyses yielded significant indirect effects of the manipulation on persuasion via self-reported EPSI. Limitations and implications are discussed.

How responsible leadership predicts organizational citizenship behavior for the environment in China

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of felt obligation for constructive change on the relationship between responsible leadership and organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) in a China corporate environment, and this paper also analyze the moderated mediating effect of supervisor-subordinate guanxi on indirect relationship between responsible leadership and OCBE via felt obligation for constructive change.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used 380 employee samples to analyze the relationship between responsible leadership and OCBE. Hierarchical regression analyses and structural equation modeling was adopted to analyze the data.FindingsThe authors found that the felt obligation for constructive change plays a fully mediating role between responsible leadership and OCBE. The authors also found a positive interaction between responsible leadership and supervisor-subordinate guanxi on felt obligation for constructive change, and then the indirect effect of responsible leadership on OCBE via felt obligation for constructive change was stronger when employees perceived a high-level supervisor-subordinate guanxi.Research limitations/implicationsWhen responsible leadership stimulates employees to generate a high sense of constructive change, employees are more likely to engage in OCBE. This study provides evidence for cognitive evaluation theory. This study further demonstrated the importance of establishing high-quality supervisor-subordinate guanxi for responsible leaders and subordinates in China.Practical implicationsIn the management practice of the organization, the role of responsible leadership should be strengthened in terms of leadership development and, employee training and promotion, and high-quality supervisor-subordinate guanxi help to promote the effectiveness of responsible leadership.Originality/valueThis paper discusses how and when responsible leadership influences OCBE in a China corporate environment.

Beyond relationship quality: The role of leader–member exchange importance in leader–follower dyads

In this paper, we introduce a novel construct, leader–member exchange (LMX) importance, which we position as a meta‐perception indicating whether followers view their LMX relationship as personally important or valuable to them. Based on social exchange theory, we examine the extent to which the obligation followers feel towards their leader depends jointly on the quality and the importance of the LMX relationship. We examine how LMX importance influences the process through which LMX quality affects employees’ level of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) by focusing on felt obligation (a measure of followers’ reciprocity obligation in the social exchange process) as a mediating variable. Across two studies, we found that high levels of both LMX quality and LMX importance interacted to engender a greater feeling of obligation in followers to repay the perceived favourable exchanges with their leader. Felt obligation predicted leader‐rated OCB, demonstrating support for our hypothesized moderated mediation model. However, psychological empowerment, when included alongside felt obligation (in Study 2), did not mediate the LMX‐OCB relationship. Overall, our findings extend the focus of LMX theory beyond the confines of LMX quality to incorporate the importance of the LMX relationship.Practitioner points Leaders should be aware that followers vary in the extent to which they perceive the leader–follower relationship to be personally important. As such, they may decide to invest heavily in helping followers understand that the relationship is instrumental for their success at work. Leaders should invest not only in trying to build positive relationships, but also in establishing the importance of these relationships. Doing so will maximize the benefits of developing a high‐quality relationship. Followers appear to be more willing to reciprocate when they perceive a high‐quality relationship with the leader and one when they perceive the relationship to be important. Thus, managers should be aware that the norm of reciprocity may vary depending on how important followers perceive the relationship to be and leaders may need to find other ways to motivate employees who do not see the relationship as important. When followers do not see the leader–follower relationship as important, managers should avoid trying to engage in reciprocity contingent influence tactics and/or try to change followers’ perceptions of the importance of the relationship.

Role of employee felt obligation and endorsement of the just world hypothesis: A social exchange theory investigation in an organizational justice context

AbstractAccording to social exchange theory, felt obligation after being treated justly is key to explaining why justice perceptions influence behaviors important to organizations, such as task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Perhaps those who believe in a just world (Just World Hypothesis, JWH) are more likely to feel obligated to reciprocate just treatment with behaviors benefiting the organization. Thus, our goal was to investigate whether belief in the JWH influences to what extent people feel obligated after being treated justly and the importance of felt obligation in regard to behavioral outcomes, such as OCB and task performance. Based on 160 university alumni and their supervisors, results provide support that justice perceptions can relate to both job performance and OCB via felt obligation, providing empirical support for the theoretical role of felt obligation in the social exchange theory explanation of how justice perceptions can translate into employee behaviors benefiting the organization. Results also suggest that endorsement of the JWH interacts with procedural and distributive justice perceptions, but not interpersonal justice perceptions, to influence felt obligation and that the indirect effect of distributive and procedural justice perceptions on both OCB and task performance via felt obligation is only significant for individuals with relatively high levels of endorsement of the JWH. Implications are discussed.

When profession trumps potential: The moderating role of professional identification in employees’ reactions to talent management

This study aimed to investigate the role that a professionalized context plays in shaping employee reactions to talent management decisions. We examined the mediating role of felt obligation in the relationship between talent ratings and organizational citizenship behavior. Further, the study tested whether professional identification moderates the relationship between talent ratings and felt obligation towards the organization. Five hundred and ninety-eight teachers that had recently received ratings of their talent status responded to a survey questionnaire. Felt obligation mediated the relationship between talent ratings and organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, professional identification moderated the relationship between ratings of potential and felt obligation in such a way that the relationship was strongest for the teachers expressing the lowest professional identification. At high levels of professional identification, the relationship was not significant. These results indicate that conventional talent management might be less effective for increasing favorable attitudes and behaviors among employees in highly professionalized contexts, such as the education sector.

Leader–member exchange social comparisons and follower outcomes: The roles of felt obligation and psychological entitlement

In the current study, we aimed to extend the understanding of how and when leader–member exchange social comparison (LMXSC) influences followers’ work behaviour. Based on social exchange theory, we argue that felt obligation to one's leader is a mediator of the relationship between LMXSC and follower outcomes. Further, we posit that the relationship between LMXSC and felt obligation will occur over and above overall LMX quality. We also investigate whether the effect of LMXSC is not consistent across employees but influenced by their level of psychological entitlement (PE). We found evidence that LMXSC was associated with followers’ organizational commitment in Study 1 (using data collected in two phases from 188 employees) and both organizational commitment and job performance in Study 2 (based on data collected in two phases from 300 employees and their 34 supervisors) via felt obligation towards the leader. In both studies, we found this relationship was significant while controlling for LMX quality, suggesting that perceptions of relative LMX standing are more influential than overall LMX quality. Moreover, high levels of PE reduced employees’ feelings of obligation to reciprocate positive treatment and the extent to which they exhibit higher levels of organizational commitment and job performance. Our findings show that individual differences play a significant role in determining the outcomes of exchange relationships.Practitioner points Followers do not evaluate their Leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship in isolation from their co‐workers, and social comparisons in this context have powerful effects on followers. If leaders want to motivate their followers, treating each follower in the same way and avoiding differentiation may be ineffective. Followers appear to be more willing to reciprocate when they perceive a better LMX relationship with the leader than their co‐workers’ LMX relationship with the leader. Managers should be cognizant that followers with varying levels of psychological entitlement may respond differently to LMX relationships. As such, managers could decide to invest more heavily in building strong relationships with followers low in psychological entitlement, as these followers are likely to respond more positively to favourable treatment by the leader. Managers should be aware that the norm of reciprocity might not apply to the same extent when employees are high in psychological entitlement; and thus, other influence tactics may be required to get the most out of these employees. Managers should set clear guidelines and expectations on followers early in the employment relationship. When entitled employees are made fully aware of the relationship expectations, they may be more prepared to meet them.

Speaking Up When Water Is Murky: An Uncertainty-Based Model Linking Perceived Organizational Politics to Employee Voice

Employee voice is thought to result from a cognitive calculus of costs and benefits. However, it is not known whether and when employees speak up in contexts where the costs and benefits of voice are not readily assessed. The purpose of this research is to answer this question by exploring the impact of employees’ perceived organizational politics (POP)—a social context in which complicated interpersonal relationships make it difficult to predict the outcomes of voice—on promotive and prohibitive voice. Results from an experimental scenario study and a time-lagged field study revealed that POP is negatively related to the two types of voice through psychological uncertainty, even after controlling for psychological safety and felt obligation to voice. Furthermore, job autonomy weakened the negative influence of psychological uncertainty on promotive voice, whereas job security weakened the negative influence of psychological uncertainty on prohibitive voice. Not only do the findings demonstrate psychological uncertainty as a viable mechanism that links unpredictable social contexts such as POP to employee voice, but they also offer insight into the remedies that might mitigate its negative impact. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

A critical approach to human helping in information systems: Heteromation in the Brazilian correspondent banking system

• We explore heteromation (the reliance on user helping for information system success) as a labor relation and as a design strategy for ICT4D projects. • We take a critical approach as we examine issues of the type of labor and amount of effort such helping requires. • Empathy in terms of a felt obligation to local people spurred helping in the correspondent banking system that we studied. • Context was important in shaping the extent and type of helping across four banking settings. • Given the rise in heteromated systems, we discuss important concerns that heteromation raises as a labor relation and as a system design strategy.

Crowdfunding to Support Social Entrepreneurship: A Multi-Method Approach

Most social entrepreneurship crowdfunding efforts fail. To understand the process and factors associated with achieving successful outcomes, we conducted four controlled lab experiments and a field experiment involving an actual crowdfunding campaign. Consistent across both methods, we found that social closeness and contact frequency increase the probability of contributing, and mention of high contribution amounts (anchors) in solicitation messages increases the amount pledged without decreasing the probability of pledging. Felt obligation mediated the effect of social closeness and contact frequency on probability of contributing. Surprisingly, invoking authority did not influence the probability of contributing.

The importance of group‐focused transformational leadership and felt obligation for helping and group performance

SummaryLeaders face a challenge to simultaneously motivate workgroups and the individuals within them. Recent criticisms highlight the need to deconstruct broad leadership constructs to offer better theoretical insight into the effects of specific leadership behaviors on groups versus individuals. We address this call by exploring the effects of group‐focused and individual‐focused aspects of transformational leadership. Applying social identity theory, we theorize that group‐focused transformational leadership is key to fostering felt obligation, motivating helping behavior, and enhancing group performance, whereas individual‐focused leadership may only foster helping when individuals also feel a sense of obligation toward their workgroup. In a field study of 260 employees reporting to 36 supervisors in a skilled trade company, we find support for these predictions using multilevel structural equation modeling and multilevel mixed effects modeling. Thus, group‐focused (vs. individual‐focused) transformational leadership and subsequent felt obligation are important antecedents for encouraging helping and, in turn, workgroup performance.

"Why and when workplace ostracism inhibits organizational citizenship behaviors: An organizational identification perspective: Correction to Wu et al. (2016).

Reports an error in "Why and when workplace ostracism inhibits organizational citizenship behaviors: An organizational identification perspective" by Chia-Huei Wu, Jun Liu, Ho Kwong Kwan and Cynthia Lee (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2016[Mar], Vol 101[3], 362-378). In the article, the authors incorrectly reported that they measured job mobility using three items from Tepper (2000) in the Measures section of Study 1. The section for job mobility should read: "We measured job mobility using two items from Tepper (2000) and one item added by the authors. A sample item from Tepper (2000) was: 'I would have no problem finding an acceptable job if I quit.' The added item was: 'If I went out to find a job, many companies would consider giving me offers with a similar or higher salary.' Cronbach's alpha was .80." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-49213-001.) Why and when do employees respond to workplace ostracism by withholding their engagement in citizenship behavior? Beyond perspectives proposed in past studies, we offer a new account based on a social identity perspective and propose that workplace ostracism decreases citizenship behavior by undermining employees' identification with the organization. We also theorize that perceived job mobility influences the extent to which employees identify with the organization when being ostracized. These hypotheses were examined in two time-lagged studies conducted in China. The proposed hypotheses were supported by results in Study 1, and findings were generally replicated in Study 2, where effects of other known mediators (i.e., organization-based self-esteem, job engagement, and felt obligation toward the organization) and moderators (i.e., collectivism, power distance, and future orientation) suggested by previous perspectives were controlled. Results of Study 2 provided further support of the hypothesized directional effect of workplace ostracism on citizenship behavior via organizational identification. Our studies support the identification perspective in understanding workplace ostracism and also strengthen the application of this perspective in understanding workplace aggression broadly. (PsycINFO Database Record

The dark side of feeling trusted for hospitality employees: An investigation in two service contexts

Emerging research appears to suggest that feeling trusted by management can facilitate employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). However, it is possible that feeling trusted can have negative effects on hospitality employees. In this paper, we draw on social exchange theory and self-determination theory to examine how feeling trusted can lead to potentially negative consequences for hospitality employees. We tested the hypotheses using data from two different studies. Study 1 used a time-lagged research design to collect a sample of 349 employee-supervisor dyads in a chain of six economy hotels. Study 2 was designed to generalize the results by examining a sample of 509 employees in healthcare hospitals. The results show that employees' feeling trusted has a direct effect on employee compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB). Furthermore, feeling trusted has an indirect effect on CCB mediated by employee organization based self-esteem (OBSE) and felt obligation, with the latter having a stronger effect. Our research contributes to the literature by examining the dark side of feeling trusted and the mechanism of how feeling trusted influences employee outcomes.

Ghanaian immigrants’ differential trust in and obligation to obey the US police and Ghana police: findings from a qualitative study

Qualitative research enhances scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of our social world. Most published studies on trust in the institution of policing and obligation to obey the police are undergirded by quantitative data; as a result, this research study enhances the literature on trust and obligation to obey by employing a qualitative approach. In this study, interviews obtained from two focus groups of Ghanaians in Alexandria, Virginia explored research participants’ understanding of trust in the institution of policing and obligation to obey the police in the United States and Ghana. The continued migration of sub-Saharan Africans to the United States means that the US police must begin to address this immigrant community’s policing needs. The results of this study show that although Ghanaian immigrants trust the US police more than the Ghana police, the respondents believe also that the US police are overbearing and abuse their authority. Additionally, the participants’ greater confidence in the US police is tempered by a lack of clarity as to whether the participants’ trust in the US police is due to their felt obligation to obey the police or due to a ‘dull compulsion.’ The implications of the findings are discussed.

Uncertainty Reducer, Exchange Deepener, or Self-Determination Enhancer? Feeling Trust Versus Feeling Trusted in Supervisor-Subordinate Relationships

Trust in supervisor and leadership contribute to positive employee outcomes. Employees are also affected by the feeling of being trusted by those supervisors (i.e., felt trust). In order to clarify the theoretical and functional interactions between trust in supervisor and felt trust, we propose and test a moderated mediation model predicting turnover intention and work engagement. Uncertainty management theory, social exchange theory, and self-determination theory underlie the pathways through which trust in supervisor and felt trust have an impact on employee turnover intention and engagement. Surveys were collected from a diverse sample of 208 employees. Tests of moderated mediation were performed using the PROCESS Macro (Hayes, 2012). Trust in supervisor and felt trust interact to reduce turnover intention via a reduction in workplace uncertainty, whereas felt trust increases engagement on the job through a deepening of the social exchange relationship (i.e., felt obligation) and self-determination (i.e., autonomy). Trust in supervisor and felt trust are not interchangeable. Felt trust plays a central role in the motivations of employees on the job, especially those that contribute to greater effort. Our study is the first to provide both theoretical and empirical evidence explaining why trust in supervisor and felt trust predict separate motivational outcomes. The contents of the study should guide future integration of the felt trust construct into models predicting employee attitudes and performance.

Why do I contribute when I am an “insider”? A moderated mediation approach to perceived insider status and employee’s innovative behavior

PurposeThe relationship between perceived insider status (PIS) and innovative behavior may be mediated by felt obligation. Then the relationship between felt obligation and innovative behavior may be moderated by job stress. At last, felt obligation may conditional mediate the relationship between PIS and innovative behavior when job stress at different level. The purpose of this paper is to test these hypotheses.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the moderated mediation model with data from a sample of 529 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the People’s Republic of China. Employees were asked to evaluate their PIS, felt obligation, and job stress when in the workplace. Their innovative behavior was evaluated by their immediate supervisors.FindingsResults suggest that PIS is positively related to employee’s innovative behavior, and felt obligation mediates this relationship. In addition, job stress moderates two stage relationships: one is to moderate the relationship between felt obligation and innovative behavior; the other is to moderate the whole mediation model.Practical implicationsIn China, managers can treat some employees as family members and support them when they are in trouble so that the employees will perceive insider status. Let employees get the feeling of PIS maybe a good way to motivate them to contribute to the organization. In addition, managers should reduce the work load of some employees who are expected to be innovative. Then those employees will have much more spare time to engage in innovative behavior.Originality/valueThis research sheds light on the relationship between PIS and innovative behavior in a non-western context by testing the mediating mechanism guided by role identity and appropriateness framework, which is a way different from social exchange process.

A social exchange perspective on why and when ethical leadership foster customer-oriented citizenship behavior

Grounded in social exchange theory, we investigated why and when ethical leadership may relate to hospitality employees’ customer-oriented citizenship behavior (CCB) by exploring the mediating and moderating roles of felt obligation and psychological detachment from an organization respectively. Using a two-wave sample of 152 employees and their 152 coworkers from 10 hotels in Africa, we found that ethical leadership positively relates to CCB via increased felt obligation. In addition, our results revealed that psychological detachment moderated the ethical leadership and CCB relationship, such that this relationship was stronger when psychological detachment was low (versus high), as mediated by felt obligation.

Trust in Supervisor and Job Engagement: Mediating Effects of Psychological Safety and Felt Obligation

ABSTRACTIn the social context of job engagement, the role of trust in supervisor in predicting engagement of employees has received attention in research. Very limited research, however, has investigated the mechanisms mediating this dynamic relationship. To address this important gap in knowledge, the aim of this study was to examine psychological safety and felt obligation as two psychological mechanisms mediating the effect of trust in supervisor on job engagement. Drawing from job engagement and social exchange theories, the mediating roles of psychological safety and felt obligation in the trust-engagement relationship were empirically investigated in the Malaysian context. Using self-report questionnaires, data were collected from 337 nurses employed in a public hospital located near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Results fully supported the proposed serial multiple mediator model. Trust in supervisor was indirectly related to job engagement via psychological safety followed by felt obligation. This study provides empirical evidence that trust in supervisor makes employees feel psychologically safe to employ and express their selves in their job roles. This satisfaction of the psychological safety need is interpreted by employees as an important socioemotional benefit that, in turn, makes them feel obligated to pay back to their organization through their enhanced level of job engagement. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.

Status Quo and Prospect of Felt Obligation Research

Felt obligation is a new concept in the research of organizational behavior. This research has stated the definition of felt obligation perception and combed the measurement method of felt obligation, which provides some new perspectives for the research of organizational behavior theory. The research summarizes five aspects in the latest progress of studies on perception of felt obligation at home and abroad: background of felt obligation; definition and measurement of felt obligation; difference and relation among perception of felt obligation, role identity, self-efficacy and organizational-based self-esteem; mechanism of felt obligation; factors and effects of felt obligation. In the end, the research has proposed to pay more attention to enrich research method, develop the measures of prevention and conduct the research of cross-cultural factors in the further study on the basis of analyzing the existing problems in researches of felt obligation