Felt Responsibility Research Articles

Unraveling the impact of environmentally sustainable practices of exhibitions and green behavior of visitors：The role of green psychological climate and environmental felt responsibility

To minimize environmental harm and enhance their competitive advantage, a growing number of exhibitions are adopting environmentally sustainable practices. While there is a growing body of research on exhibitions adopting environmentally sustainable practices, visitors’ perceptions of and responses to these practices remain complex and under-explored. This study explores how visitors' perceptions of environmentally sustainable practices at exhibitions contribute to green behavior. The mediating mechanism of green psychological climate and environmental felt-responsibility and the moderation of visitation frequency in this relationship are also discussed. The proposed hypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling of data collected from visitors. The results of the survey (N = 531) indicate that an exhibition utilizing environmentally sustainable practices has a positive, direct effect on green behavior of its visitors, as well as indirect effects through their green psychological climate and environmental felt responsibility. Moreover, when experienced visitors perceive environmentally sustainable practices, this has a greater impact on their green psychological climate and environmental felt responsibility. With these insights reinforced by a multi-group analysis, they can guide exhibition organizers in implementing more effective environmentally sustainable practices to evoke environmental felt responsibility in visitors and encourage green behavior.

How and when internal marketing orientation affects frontline employees’ positive word of mouth: insights from a hotel in China

PurposeDrawing on the theoretical underpinnings of job crafting, this study aims to investigate how and when internal marketing orientation (IMO) promotes employees’ positive word of mouth (PWOM).Design/methodology/approachThe two-wave, multisource data came from frontline employees and their supervisors in a hotel located in Eastern China. The hypothesized relationships were tested with Mplus with multilevel path analysis.FindingsThe results reveal that IMO encourages frontline employees to change the task, cognitive and relational boundaries of their jobs. Nevertheless, it is through relational crafting that IMO ultimately affects employees’ PWOM, especially when they work with supervisors high in felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC).Research limitations/implicationsTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies to investigate how organizations and supervisors can work together to encourage frontline employees’ PWOM.Practical implicationsThe findings carry important implications for practitioners on how to encourage frontline employees’ PWOM in the service sector.Originality/valueFirst, this research adds to the limited knowledge of how organizations and supervisors can work together to promote frontline employees’ PWOM in the service sector. Second, by proposing job crafting as a key intermediary mechanism underlying IMO’s impact on employee PWOM, this research not only offers a new theoretical perspective to understand how to promote frontline employees’ PWOM but also sheds new light on the underlying mechanisms through which IMO exerts its influence on frontline employees. Third, supervisors’ FRCC as a boundary condition of IMO can help service organizations more effectively capitalize on IMO to motivate frontline employees’ engagement in job crafting and subsequent PWOM.

How does Human Resource Management help service organizations to thrive in uncertainties and risks: Postcrisis as a context

AbstractWith heightened uncertainties and risks in the fluctuating business environment, existing studies have concentrated on elucidating how service organizations leverage human resource practices to adapt to and survive such unforeseen and disruptive threats. However, how such practices could serve the strategic objective of cultivating a sustainably thriving workforce across different situations is not well understood. Thriving is a core transitional state that fosters positive behaviors, such as creative customer‐related problem‐solving. Applying social information processing theory, we propose and test a model by exploring how organizations that engage in thriving‐oriented human resource management (HRM) encourage employees to take responsibility and promote constructive change, thereby activating their creative problem‐solving behaviors. Specifically, we theorize and develop measures to promote thriving‐oriented HRM in Study 1. In Study 2, we collected multisource and multi‐wave data from 296 frontline service employees and 45 supervisors in China. Our findings reveal that thriving‐oriented HRM is positively related to felt responsibility for change, which ultimately encourages creative problem‐solving. We also show that the threat imposed by a crisis, that is, the COVID‐19 pandemic, strengthens the positive relationship between thriving‐oriented HRM and felt responsibility for change. Our study contributes to the HRM literature, especially on thriving‐oriented HRM and employee perception, and has practical implications for service organizations in the uncertain context.

The Multilevel Chain Mediating Mechanism of College Faculty’s Felt Responsibility on Students’ Engagement in Green Building Learning

The limitations surrounding the education and teaching of green building courses in higher education institutions are becoming increasingly evident. The roles of instructors, the learning environments of green building-related courses, and the impact of student engagement in these courses are attracting significant academic interest. This study delves into the cross-level mediating roles of the green building learning climate and helping behaviors, exploring the link between instructors’ sense of responsibility and student engagement. It employs a multi-layer structural equation model for statistical analysis, utilizing paired survey data from 543 students and 51 instructors of green building courses, based on social cognitive theory. This paper incorporates the educational psychology concepts of “climate” and “mutual aid” with the green building learning climate and mutual aid behaviors. It provides a theoretical analysis of how instructors’ sense of responsibility in colleges influences students’ learning of green building knowledge and skills. By merging the ideas of “climate” and “mutual aid”, this study aims to theoretically examine the impact of instructors’ responsibility on student engagement with green building concepts. This approach seeks to offer new theoretical insights for pedagogical studies in green building courses.

Winter is coming: An investigation of vigilant leadership, antecedents, and outcomes.

Within the hierarchical taxonomy of effective leadership, change-oriented leadership stands as a distinct and meaningful metacategory, primarily focusing on promoting change by communicating a compelling vision for the future. However, we consider whether there might be room to broaden the scope of change-oriented leadership by examining more negative-focused leadership behaviors. In this article, we explore the concept of vigilant leadership, which we suggest could be a change-oriented and negative-focused leadership style, and investigate its usefulness as a new leadership construct. In Study 1, we take preliminary steps toward developing a measure of vigilant leadership, employing content adequacy assessment and item response theory analysis. Drawing on the integrative trait-behavioral model of leadership effectiveness (DeRue et al., 2011), we further explore how vigilant leadership is associated with an array of antecedents (i.e., leader characteristics) and leadership outcomes. In Studies 2a and 2b, we present initial findings that leaders high on consideration of future consequences, prevention focus, general self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence might be more inclined to exhibit vigilant leadership. In Study 3, our results suggest that, even after controlling for the effect of visionary leadership (a type of positive-focused change-oriented leadership), vigilant leadership is positively related to follower felt responsibility for change, proactivity, specific proactive work behaviors (taking charge, voice, and problem prevention), teamwork proactivity, and teamwork proficiency. However, it does not seem to relate to follower proficiency, follower adaptivity, teamwork adaptivity, organizational citizenship behavior, positive affect toward the leader, leader-member exchange, or relational identification with the leader. With these preliminary findings, we encourage further discussion and investigation into the potential implications of this emerging construct. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Daily Idea Generation and Employee Creative Performance: Effect of Day-Level Congruence Between Felt Responsibility for Change and Willingness to Take Risks

This study explores a potential joint effect between two proactive motives on creative performance. Departing from the assumption of motivation as a relatively stable between-person construct, we also pay attention to the within-person process to examine how daily fluctuations of proactive motives affect daily idea generation, leading to creative performance. Specifically, drawing on job demands–resources theory, we theorize a joint effect of two proactive motives at the within-person level: daily felt responsibility for change (DFRC) and daily willingness to take risks (DWTR). We test our hypotheses by analyzing data collected from 135 employees and their supervisors by using the experience sampling method followed by multiwave field surveys. Daily idea generation is high when the DFRC and DWTR have high congruence, particularly when both motives are high rather than low. In addition, daily idea generation mediates the effect of the DFRC and DWTR congruence on employee creative performance as appraised by supervisors. Moreover, seeking feedback from coworkers strengthens the indirect effect of the DFRC and DWTR congruence on employee creative performance via daily idea generation. This study offers a fine-grained view of motivational mechanisms and employee social behavior that lead to creative performance in the workplace.

A study of the experience of Norwegian IVF physicians in evaluating the parenting capacity of patients

Research questionHow do Norwegian fertility doctors assess the parenting capacity of applicants, and how do they experience and evaluate the assessment practice? DesignQualitative interview study with 14 Norwegian fertility doctors. Interviews were analysed with systematic text condensation, a qualitative analysis framework. ResultsNorwegian fertility doctors deem parenting capacity assessments of applicants to be straightforward and simple in most cases. Yet, some cases of doubt pose difficulties. Physicians can then draw on resources such as colleagues, physicians from other specialties who know the patient and patient records. All the participating physicians agreed with the principle of parenting capacity assessment for patients seeking fertility treatment. The assessment enabled physicians to refuse patients whom they thought should definitely not have responsibility for children. The physicians’ main argument was their own felt responsibility for the future child. Even though assessments could be challenging, the participants all thought of themselves as competent to perform them. Indeed, some thought that delegating the assessments would imply abdicating a responsibility that was properly theirs. Although national guidelines might aid decision-making, the physicians would not want guidelines to curtail the significant discretion that they exercised. ConclusionsWhether societies should assess applicants’ capacity for parenthood before fertility treatment is an ethical and political question. Although sometimes a difficult task, Norwegian fertility doctors see it as important, and as something they are competent and suited to undertake.

Accountability for responsibility: a case study of a more intelligent enactment of accountability

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how hierarchical accountability can be enacted and accounting control systems mobilized in a way that promotes a sense of felt responsibility.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on interviews, shadowing and observations to explore the implementation of a strategy for “increasing accountability” in a Norwegian Oil Company. The case provided an opportunity to explore the dynamics of hierarchical accountability and felt responsibility, and in particular Roberts (2009) concept of “intelligent accountability”, in an empirical context.FindingsThe case study explores how the strategy of increasing accountability at OilCo was enacted around three operational issues; the control of costs, roles and relationships in the complex matrix structure, and the operation of the management system. It traces how the long history of Beyond Budgeting practices and philosophy in OilCo resulted both in an explicit recognition of the incompleteness of accounting numbers, and trust-based practices which avoided many of the dysfunctional individual and organizational effects typically associated with the exercise of hierarchical control.Originality/valueThe paper explores empirically how OilCo’s embrace of Beyond Budgeting practices and philosophy had created the conditions under which a more intelligent form of accountability could emerge. As a European case study, it calls into question the Anglo-American tradition of accounting research which suggests that externally imposed accountability within a hierarchy mitigates against employees’ felt responsibility.

How Do Normative Public Values Promote Service Innovative Behavior in Public Organizations: The Roles of Felt Responsibility for Change and Responsible Leadership

Innovating public services contributes to enhancing citizen satisfaction and trust in public organizations. The aim of our research is to unravel how and when public sector employees’ perceptions of normative public values shape their service innovative behavior. The data were gathered from 572 employees and 68 managers from local-level governments in an Asia-Pacific setting. The positive link was observed between employee perceptions of normative public values and their service innovative behavior. Felt responsibility for change mediated that relationship. Responsible leadership was found to interact with employee perceptions of normative public values to further promote service innovative behavior.

Linking Entrepreneurs' Felt Responsibility to Ventures' Innovation Performance: The Roles of External Learning and Shared Vision.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, innovation has become a crucial factor for the success of entrepreneurial ventures in China. However, the mechanisms underlying the promotion of innovation by entrepreneurs are not yet fully understood. Drawing on self-determination theory, this study develops a comprehensive "motivation-behaviors-performance" model to examine the relationship between entrepreneurs' felt responsibility for constructive change and ventures' innovation performance. Two waves of questionnaire surveys with a sample of 376 entrepreneurs in East China were conducted. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses. The empirical findings demonstrate that entrepreneurs' felt responsibility for constructive change is a key driver of innovation performance in ventures. Furthermore, external learning, encompassing technological and market learning, serves as a mediator for the positive link between entrepreneurs' felt responsibility and innovation performance. The study also reveals that entrepreneurs' perception of shared vision moderates the relationships between entrepreneurs' felt responsibility and both technological and market learning, such that the relationships are stronger when the perception of shared vision is higher. These results yield important contributions to the entrepreneurial psychology research and self-determination theory. The study also has managerial implications for entrepreneurs aiming to enhance ventures' innovation performance.

Parents' experiences of their children's medical journeys with tracheostomies: A Focus Group Study.

Children living with a tracheostomy have among the most complex medical care needs in Canada. The focus of this study was to gain a contemporary understanding of key aspects of these children's medical journeys. We conducted a qualitative constructivist grounded theory study using semi-structured focus groups with parents whose children are living in the community with a tracheostomy. Parents were recruited from the Stollery Children's Hospital Tracheostomy Clinic, which serves a geographically wide and diverse population. Three focus groups were completed, including a total of 12 participants. Key themes leading up to tracheostomy related to contextual understanding, experiences of inclusion, and perceptions of proportionality. Parents discussed the preparedness for how a tracheostomy would affect their child, their own involvement in recovery, and the education needed for their child's medical care. Navigating hospital units related to inconsistencies in care, accommodations of families' needs, and confidence in care received. Finally, living in the community was the focus of much of the participants' discussions including coping with system-related issues, limited homecare and medical support, cost of care, and connections with the broader community of parents of children with complex medical needs. All themes encircled the family's deeply felt responsibility to care for their child. From both patient- and family-centered care perspectives, there exist individual and systemic issues related to the care delivery for children with a tracheostomy. It is in particular in the community where there is a severe deficiency of support afforded to these children and their families.

Balancing being a ‘good teacher’ and a ‘motivating teacher of English’: Analysing the sense of professional responsibility of pre-service EFL teachers

The professional responsibility of teachers has been primarily understood in international literature in terms of external obligations, primarily from an accountability perspective. Alternatively, more recent approaches have begun to propose that teacher responsibility is more appropriately understood as an internal drive toward their work and its contribution to broader social development, which is seen as crucial to the design of effective pedagogical practices. However, within this continuing dialogue, limited attention has been given to how professional responsibility develops and is nurtured within the unique contexts of English language teacher education. This mixed-method study investigated the sense of professional responsibility held by pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) context, framed by an online survey ( n = 611) based on a teacher responsibility scale and a series of semi-structured interviews ( n = 17). Results demonstrated that there was a comparatively higher sense of responsibility felt in two critical areas: building positive student relationships and ensuring an equitable classroom and society. However, lower levels of responsibility were demonstrated toward the discipline-specific issues of encouraging student engagement, student motivation or success in learning English. This suggests a critical tension that develops in the sense of pre-service teacher responsibility between the abstract and affective notion of being the ‘good teacher’ and the more concrete objectives of building learning environments for language development.

Role clarity, perceived cohesion and felt responsibility as antecedents of altruism and conscientiousness among college teachers in Kerala

PurposeLiterature evidences that altruism and conscientiousness are very important discretionary behaviours within the broader framework of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) among teaching community. The present study is intended to examine the effect of role clarity, perceived cohesion and felt responsibility on altruism and conscientiousness among college teachers in Kerala.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 354 college teachers, and the causal effect was examined using Partial Least Square-based structural equation modelling.FindingsValidity and reliability of the model were established through measurement model evaluation. Explanatory power of the model was established. Cohesion and felt responsibility significantly predicted altruism, but the effect of role clarity on altruism was not significant. Effect of cohesion, felt responsibility and role clarity on conscientiousness was significant.Originality/valueThe study contributed to the existing theory on antecedents of OCB. The model has high levels of predictive accuracy – role clarity, cohesiveness and felt responsibility – capable of explaining the discretionary behaviour among college teachers.

Elective egg freezers’ disposition decisions: a qualitative study

To explore the factors that influence elective egg freezers' disposition decisions toward their surplus-frozen oocytes. Qualitative. Not applicable. Thirty-one participants: 7 past; 6 current; and 18 future oocyte disposition decision-makers. Not applicable. Qualitative thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Six inter-related themes were identified related to the decision-making process which are as follows: decisions are dynamic; triggers for the final decision; achieving motherhood; conceptualization of oocytes; the impacts of egg donation on others; and external factors affecting the final disposition outcome. All women reported a type of trigger event for making a final decision (e.g., completing their family). Women who achieved motherhood were more open to donating their oocytes to others but were concerned about the implications for their child and felt responsibility for potential donor children. Women who did not achieve motherhood were unlikely to donate to others due to the grief of not becoming a mother, often feeling alone, misunderstood, and unsupported. Reclaiming oocytes (e.g., taking them home) and closure ceremonies helped some women process their grief. Donating to research was viewed as an altruistic option as oocytes would not be wasted and did not have the "complication" of a genetically-linked child. There was a general lack of knowledge around disposition options at all stages of the process. Oocyte disposition decisions are dynamic and complex for women, exacerbated by a general lack of understanding of these options. The final decision is framed by: whether women achieved motherhood, dealing with grief if they did not achieve motherhood, and considering the complexities of donating to others. Additional decision support through counseling, decision aids, and early consideration of disposition when eggs are initially stored may help women make informed decisions.

A Theoretical Qualitative Investigation Exploring Illness Perceptions and Decision-Making About COVID-19 in an Ethnically Diverse UK-Based Sample.

The primary aim of the present investigation was to explore perceptions, experiences, and decision-making relating to the COVID-19 illness as the UK entered into a phase of "living safely with COVID-19". A secondary aim was to explore how perceptions around the COVID-19 vaccine might vary by ethnicity. We adopted a qualitative approach with a diverse sample of UK-based participants. One-hundred-and-ninety-three individuals completed an online survey measuring perceptions towards COVID-19 with questions conceptualized through the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation. Through deductive thematic analysis we identified one overarching theme in our data, "The transition back to normal routines", with four themes illustrating individuals' perceptions and experiences with COVID-19: 1) "Living with the uncertainty", 2) "Concern for others", 3) "The multiple consequences of COVID-19", and 4) "Sense of control", with the sub-theme of "Should I vaccinate, should I not vaccinate?". Findings from the present investigation provide key insights for understanding how people's perceptions of COVID-19 during this transition period might impact their decisions and behavior moving forward. Specifically, findings suggest some prevailing concerns around catching the virus, while no strong qualitative evidence for concerns over long COVID were identified in this sample, the responsibility felt by individuals towards taking their own precautionary measures in light of the easing of all national restrictions, and some potential differences in perceptions towards the vaccine between individuals from different ethnic backgrounds.

Effects of subjective and objective task difficulties for feedback- related brain potentials in social situations: An electroencephalogram study.

In this study, the relationship between two types of feedback task difficulties and feedback-related brain potentials, such as feedback-related negativity (FRN), reward positivity (RewP), and P300, was investigated in social situations where participants performed a task simultaneously by a pair. The electroencephalogram activity was measured while participants answered four-choice questions with their partners. Participants were informed about the general accuracy rate of the question (objective task difficulty) before responding to the questionnaire. The feedback outcome was definitely correct when the participants had the knowledge to answer the questions correctly. Therefore, the subjective task difficulty depended on the knowledge of the participant and differed from the objective task difficulty. In the task, the participants selected the choice they deemed correct. Before checking the answers, participants responded to the preceding question's subjective task difficulty. As one of the social factors, the task consisted of two types of conditions: one, in which one's response affected partner's reward, and another, in which it did not. The second social factor was the order of feedback outcomes; in our experiment, these outcomes were presented sequentially to pairs of participants. The effects of subjective and objective task difficulties and social factors on feedback-related brain potentials were comprehensively analyzed. The study showed that subjective task difficulty sensitively modulated the amplitude of gain-related P300, suggesting that it is sensitive to modulation in the allocation of attentional resources to own feedback outcome. The objective task difficulty sensitively modulated the amplitude of RewP after receiving the partner's incorrect feedback outcome. RewP was more sensitive to positive affective valence, such as feelings of superiority over the partner, than to task-dependent rewards received by the participants themselves. In contrast, FRN was more negative in the joint condition than in the individual condition, suggesting sensitivity to social responsibility felt by participants toward their partners.

Residents of Hawaiʻi's Climate Decisions to Remain or Migrate

This study examined the social and psychological factors underlying the decisions of coastal residents in Hawaiʻi to consider migration in response to increasing climate-related threats. Fifteen adults across six islands were individually interviewed regarding their attachment to their community, perception of climate-related risks, and their perceived likelihood of relocation. Thematic analysis of the data identified seven main themes present across the majority of the interviews: rootedness, safety and security, uncertainty and fear, firsthand observation of changes, solastalgia, distrust and resentment, and legacy. These findings suggest that participants were deeply connected to their local communities and were very attuned to changes in their surroundings. Interviewees were motivated to implement adaptive measures to protect against climate change, yet they were not actively considering or planning to relocate to a different region. Although participants understood and accepted the long-term, global implications of a warming planet, interviewees felt as though they had the competency and resources needed to continue to survive in their communities within the archipelago. Interviewees related a deeply felt responsibility to steward their surrounding environment rather than moving away from their home communities. Since interviewees were not motivated to migrate, policymakers may aim at focusing future policy interventions on increasing funding and support for local adaptive measures and community solutions that can prolong island habitability.

Green HRM through social exchange revisited: when negotiated exchanges shape cooperation

Recent research on green human resource management suggests that the social exchange process is conducive to employees behaving pro-environmentally. Previous studies have focused exclusively on reciprocal exchange and have largely overlooked the possibility that negotiated exchange also occurs. In this paper, a research model is developed to test whether the effect of green human resource management on employee eco-initiatives through the mediation of supervisory support for the environment is conditioned by felt responsibility for change and negotiated exchanges. Using data from a two-wave study, the findings show that the mediating effect is stronger at high levels of negotiated exchange only for employees displaying low levels of felt responsibility for change. The results also indicate that negotiated exchanges do not intervene in the case of employees exhibiting high levels of felt responsibility for change. This study provides new insights for understanding how social exchange operates in an environmental sustainability context.

The Role of Overconfidence and Responsibility in Escalation of Commitment in New Product Development

When new product development shows signs of failure, decision makers often face a difficult dilemma: either to cancel the project or to continue investing resources, hoping for success. On many occasions, managers choose to persist with their investments beyond a point that could be considered rational, a phenomenon that has been called escalation of commitment. To understand what drives individuals to escalate commitment, we conducted a randomized experiment investigating three predicting factors: overconfidence arising from past correct decisions, overconfidence arising from how probability information is presented, and responsibility. Our paper contributes to the literature by showing that correct decisions do not necessarily lead to overconfidence or escalated commitment. Instead, it is only when a correct decision leads to a positive outcome that escalation of commitment occurs. Regarding overconfidence arising from how probability information is presented, we found that when statistical information is framed in a positive way, individuals become more overconfident but that overconfidence does not translate into higher escalation of commitment. Our results indicate that knowing that an individual is overconfident is not enough to predict whether they will escalate their commitment; we also need to know the source of this overconfidence. In the case of responsibility, we find a connection between felt responsibility for the project and escalation of commitment to it.

The limited influence of climate norms on leisure air travel

This paper adds to our understanding of how people’s climate change concern and norms influence their leisure air travel. It does so by examining the roles of Norwegians’ beliefs about climate change and emissions from air travel, their felt responsibility to limit emissions (personal norm), and expectations and behaviors of friends and family (social norms) in such travel. A representative sample of Norwegians was surveyed in 2019 and 2020 (N = 2842), based on a framework combining institutional and social-psychological perspectives. Structural equation modeling of the data reveals that leisure air travel is habituated and part of a lifestyle, supported by social norms, self-enhancement values and urban residency. Personal norms for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from flying are beginning to emerge in Norway, but their effect on leisure air travel is small and only indirect. Our findings suggest the need for interventions to complement and potentially amplify the emerging moralization process and support an evolution of new habits and travel lifestyle to limit the emissions from leisure air travel substantially. The disruption of travel habits by the COVID-19 pandemic might ease such a process.