Focal Employee Research Articles

A relative deprivation perspective of the differentiation of abusive supervision in groups

While prior research has found that leaders tend not to abuse subordinates equally, empirical studies exploring the differentiation phenomenon of abusive supervision still remain limited. Drawing on relative deprivation theory, the differentiation of abusive supervision is defined as the two operational indicators of relative abusive supervision and abusive supervision variability according to the dual influence this differentiation imposes on both individuals and groups. How the interactive effect of relative abusive supervision and abusive supervision variability impacts employees’ behaviors is examined and the solution to the abusive supervision differentiation dilemma is explored. The results of a two-wave empirical study including 254 employees from 84 groups demonstrate that focal employee relative abusive supervision negatively influences task performance and organizational citizenship behavior via relative deprivation. This effect is amplified when the group has lower levels of abusive supervision variability. This study contributes to a better understanding of abusive supervision in groups.

Does voice endorsement by supervisors enhance or constrain voicer's personal initiative? Countervailing effects via feeling pride and feeling envied.

While the previous research has examined antecedents of supervisors' voice endorsement, it has generally overlooked its effects on voicers' affective and behavioral reactions, probably because of the underlying assumption that supervisors' voice endorsement is inherently beneficial and likely to encourage more proactive behaviors in the future. In this research, we offer a theoretical model of the double-edged effects of supervisors' voice endorsement on voicers' subsequent personal initiative. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and related research, we proposed that supervisors' voice endorsement prompts two different cognitive appraisal processes in voicers that evoke two distinct emotional experiences-feeling pride and feeling envied-with countervailing effects on voicers' subsequent personal initiative. Specifically, voice endorsement results in voicers not only feeling pride, which enhances their subsequent personal initiative, but also in their feeling envied, which reduces their later personal initiative. Moreover, we extend the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion from a social constructionist approach by incorporating coworker support-an important relational context-as a contingent factor shaping the effects of voice endorsement on feeling pride and feeling envied and on voicers' subsequent personal initiative. The results from two field studies-a weekly experience sampling study with 574 observations from 119 employees and an event-based daily experience sampling study with 787 observations from 180 employees-largely support our theoretical model. This research suggests the importance of considering the perspectives of all the stakeholders in the proactivity triad (i.e., the focal employee, the supervisor, and coworkers) in order to sustain employee proactivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Friend or foe in the eyes of the beholder? How and when LMX increases and decreases workplace ostracism

Purpose This study aims to build on social comparison theory to develop a theoretical model of leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship to workplace ostracism through perceived organizational status by coworkers and envy. This study further proposes that warmth and competence may potentially moderate these two indirect effects. Design/methodology/approach This study tested the hypotheses in a battery manufacturing company located in South China by a survey of 216 employees organized in 55 work teams, using different sources. Additionally, the authors conduct two online vignette experiments to test this study’s mediation, proving the causality. Findings The authors found that high-level LMX leads to both envy and perceived organizational status by coworkers, which results in a mixed blessing on workplace ostracism toward the employee with high-level LMX. The focal employee’s warmth and competence moderate these indirect relationships. Research limitations/implications The authors use LMX to explore antecedents of workplace ostracism and explain how and when these focal employees suffer workplace ostracism from their coworkers. The authors extend the research on LMX by examining the interpersonal risk of being a focal employee. The authors discover two critical boundary conditions – warmth and competence. Practical implications This study suggests that it is important to balance the level of the differential LMX; appropriately endorsing other members is a good way to avoid eliciting envy and opposition. Meanwhile, person-oriented citizenship behaviors such as demonstrations of concern or help may shortly build up an employee’s warm impression on their coworkers. Originality/value By discovering the bright and dark sides of LMX, this paper has the potential to advance theories on LMX and workplace ostracism. Therefore, the authors believe the current research will have an important impact on relevant research in the future.

Do proactive peers inhibit employee innovative behavior? The roles of team cooperative climate and sense of power

Drawing on approach–inhibition theory and proactivity research, this study examines the potential dark side of peer proactive personality for employee innovative behavior by exploring the mechanism through which peer proactive personality hinders employee innovative behavior and the underlying boundary condition. To test the hypotheses, we conducted a three-wave field study using a nested dataset (i.e., 861 employees and their 122 leaders) in China and an experimental vignette study with a U.S. sample. The results supported our hypotheses that peer proactive personality has a negative effect on employee innovative behavior via reduced employee sense of power, depending on the level of team cooperative climate. This study shifts research attention from the focal employees' proactive personality to peer proactive personality and advances the proactive personality literature by highlighting the potential dark side of peer proactive personality.

How coworker undermining leads justice-sensitive employees to miss deadlines

PurposeThis study examines how employees’ exposure to coworker undermining may lead them to miss work deadlines. It offers a particular focus on the mediating role of diminished organization-based self-esteem and the moderating role of justice sensitivity in this connection.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses are tested with data collected among employees and supervisors who work in various industries.FindingsPurposeful efforts by coworkers to cause harm translate into an increased propensity to fail to complete work on time, because the focal employees consider themselves unworthy organizational members. The extent to which employees feel upset with unfair treatments invigorates this process.Practical implicationsFor employees who are frustrated with coworkers who deliberately compromise their professional functioning, diminished self-worth in relation to work and the subsequent reduced willingness to exhibit timely work efforts might make it more difficult to convince organizational leaders to do something about the negative coworker treatment. Pertinent personal characteristics can serve as a catalyst of this dynamic.Originality/valueThis study contributes to extant human resource management research by detailing the link between coworker undermining and a reduced propensity to finish work on time, pinpointing the roles of two hitherto overlooked factors (organization-based self-esteem and justice sensitivity) in this link.

Good for you, bad for me? The daily dynamics of perspective taking and well-being in coworker dyads.

Perspective taking is encouraged by organizations as a form of supporting coworkers. Yet, its impact on employees' and coworkers' well-being is not well understood. We, therefore, take a dyadic approach to understand the daily dynamics of employees' perspective taking, its benefits for coworkers, and its costs for employees themselves. Specifically, we draw from self-regulation theory to examine the double-edged sword of perspective taking for one's own and one's coworker's well-being (reflected by subjective vitality). With regard to coworker well-being, we take an other-oriented resource lens and theorize that the focal employee's perspective taking increases the coworker's received support and well-being. With regard to the focal employee's well-being, we take a self-oriented resource lens and theorize that perspective taking increases the focal employee's self-regulatory resource depletion, which impairs their well-being. We examined our research model in a dyadic experience sampling study with three daily measurement occasions over 2 working weeks in a sample of 89 coworker dyads (178 individuals). Multilevel analyses showed that perspective taking had a positive indirect effect on coworker well-being via received coworker support, while it had a negative indirect effect on the focal employee's well-being via self-regulatory resource depletion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Workplace status differences and proactive behaviours: The role of perceived insider status and promotion criterion

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.

The role of sociopolitical workplace networks in involuntary employee turnover

While poor performance is one reason employees are fired, previous research suggests it plays a limited role in explaining terminations. We argue that sociopolitical concerns play a role in determining who is terminated. Using field data from a U.S. health care company and experimental data using participants with supervisory experience, we show how the supervisor’s political concerns with the focal employee, which are contingent on the supervisor-employee political relationship and the way it is embedded within the workplace network, are related to dismissal decisions. Not only do we expect that a supervisor will be less likely to terminate an employee they see as a political ally and more likely to dismiss an adversary, but we also argue that a supervisor with fewer (more) alternative allies to the employee is less (more) likely to dismiss the employee. Additionally, a supervisor with numerous adversaries in their own network depends more heavily on the employee politically, making dismissal less likely, whereas if the employee has numerous adversaries, the supervisor has greater latitude to terminate the employee. Our findings contribute to research on involuntary turnover by showing that a social network approach to understanding organizational politics helps us understand why specific individuals are targeted for dismissal, above and beyond performance considerations.

The Performative Production of Trace Data in Knowledge Work

Firms increasingly harness data that are created as by-products of information systems usage to evaluate and manage employees. However, such “trace data” can be a double-edged sword. The data can provide a whole new visibility into work practices but also, make work less transparent if the employees start to change their behavior to shape the data. We study this dilemma in the context of knowledge work that has traditionally eluded behavioral measurement. We show that when knowledge workers become aware of data collection and have an interest in how their work may be represented by the data, they start to actively perform the data. We identify different patterns by which employees shape work practices to produce trace data. The changes affect not only the actions and data of the focal employee but also, the actions and data of their colleagues and subordinates. Therefore, to fully realize the potential of trace data, managers may need to get involved in designing the data and to set a trace data policy that states how the data will be used in the organization.

Role of Leader-Member Exchange, Knowledge Hiding, Prosocial Motivation, And Impression Management Motivation for The Creative Potential of Employees

The main purpose of the research was to investigate whether employees who develop a high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX), do they also engage in knowledge exchange activities or they hide knowledge, and do their knowledge hiding affects creativity. Data for this investigation were collected from 413 subordinates and their respective 57 supervisors working in a pharmaceutical organisation operating in Jakarta, Indonesia. The collected data was then analyzed for regression and mediated moderation with MPlus. We found that LMX may have a negative side, as those in quality exchange relationships with supervisors may hide knowledge from others, which may affect the creative potential of employees. With this research, we have shown that interpersonal mechanisms in general and LMX in particular will not always be beneficial for the exchange of knowledge and creativity of employees. We contributed to creativity research by introducing prosocial motivation and impression-management motivation as having a moderating role in knowledge hiding and creativity relationships. Our research revealed that the motivation of a focal employee overrides knowledge hiding, the underlying social exchange, knowledge hiding, and creativity relationships. The motivation of focal employees influences the social exchange patterns by affecting knowledge hiding among coworkers, thereby enhancing/ suppressing their creativity. Limitations and future research directions were also discussed.

What happens at work does not always stay at work: Daily job crafting and detachment among colleagues

AbstractThrough job crafting, employees proactively change or modify their tasks, thus reducing adverse job demands or protecting resources. There is still a lack of understanding of the impact that job crafting may have on colleagues at work (crossover effect), and how this may affect their ability to disconnect from work (spillover effect). In the present daily diary study, we examine these two processes among 82 dyads of colleagues (N = 164 employees) over five consecutive working days (N = 820 observations). We found a number of crossover and differential spillover effects. For example, when the focal employee starts new challenging projects, their colleague reacts by reducing the number of stressful tasks. This, in turn, affects psychological detachment from work. Specifically, whereas increasing challenging demands hinders daily detachment, decreasing hindering demands facilitates it. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the impact of job crafting goes beyond the focal employee and beyond the work domain.

Benefits of leaders' pleasurable recovery activities on follower performance via emotional contagion.

Recovery research has amply documented the benefits of employee recovery for their well-being and performance. However, most research to date has mainly focused on intraindividual benefits, so that we know relatively little about how focal employees' recovery activities might affect others at work. Bridging the gaps in the recovery and leadership literatures, this study focuses on leader-follower dyads and examines the interpersonal effects of leaders' recovery activities on followers' daily performance quality. In particular, our proposed model-which is informed by the conservation of resource and emotional contagion theories-explains the spillover-crossover process by which leaders' pleasurable recovery activity at home influences their positive affect (PA) displays at work, their followers' PA, and ultimately followers' task performance and creative behavior. We conducted two experience sampling method studies that relied on leader-member dyads of full-time working adults who responded to multiple online surveys for five workdays (n₁ = 511 daily observations) and 10 workdays (n₂ = 576 daily observations). In both studies, multilevel path analyses showed that leaders' previous-night pleasurable recovery activity leads to increased morning PA displays at work (observed by followers), which in turn crosses over to followers' midday PA and positive work outcomes. In particular, the affective crossover from leaders to followers was stronger when followers were in an inadequate morning recovery state and, therefore, more in need of resource replenishment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Peer effects in subjective performance evaluation

AbstractWe investigate the influence of peer quality on subjective performance evaluation using 75,413 ratings of 130 employees from 6,908 raters in a business school setting. We find that subjective performance ratings are lower for employees with higher quality peer groups in both randomized and nonrandomized settings. Using a novel long‐window setting, we observe peer effects persisting, but slowly decaying, for several months even when priming raters with the employees' previous performance information. We find that the strength of the peer effects is greater for focal employees with weaker performance, for the peers with higher attribute similarity, and when the performance of peers is more extreme. Overall, we find strong and persistent peer effects in subjective performance evaluation.

The effects of perceived overqualification on spouse undermining and support

PurposeBased on the work–home resources model regarding the work domain and the home domain as a whole resource exchange system with directional resource flows, this study proposed that perceived overqualification could lead to personal resources drain, especially for employees with high work–family centrality (i.e. valuing work more than family). Furthermore, the drained personal resources of the focal employees brought in more spouse undermining and less spouse support at home.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach in which Study 1 involving 259 pairs and Study 2 involving 260 pairs of employees and their spouses from China provided support to the first-stage moderated mediation model.FindingsResults revealed that when employees' work–family centrality is high, perceived overqualification could elicit personal resources drain and induce more spouse undermining and less spouse support. On the contrary, when employees' work–family centrality is low, perceived overqualification could reduce personal resources drain and render less spouse undermining and more spouse support. The two studies consistently provided support for most of the hypotheses.Practical implicationsThe research results suggest that organizations could take some feasible measures to help overqualified employees articulate the value of work–family centrality to manage overqualified employees' work–family resources further, bringing appropriate sequential behaviors at home.Originality/valueResearch on perceived overqualification has primarily focused on its consequences in the work domain, paying scant attention to whether it can influence the home domain outside work. This research contributes to this line of literature by investigating how and when perceived overqualification leads to family outcomes.

Too smart to work hard? Investigating why overqualified employees engage in time theft behaviors

AbstractIntegrating the theory of workplace deviance with person–environment fit theory, we propose a two‐pathway model to explain why and how employees who feel overqualified engage in time theft behavior. Specifically, we anticipate that feeling overqualified will negatively influence focal employees' experienced authority fairness and erode their work meaningfulness, which in turn will lead to increased time theft behavior. Further, we argue that voice endorsement serves as a key boundary condition mitigating the negative effects of perceived overqualification. We conducted two multi‐waved and multi‐sourced field studies to test our proposed hypotheses. Study 1 (247 employees and 47 supervisors) revealed that perceived overqualification is associated with time theft behavior through the mediators of experienced authority fairness and meaningfulness. Study 2 (405 employees and 73 supervisors) replicated the findings of Study 1 and tested our full model. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Are gossipers looked down upon? A norm-based perspective on the relation between gossip and gossiper status.

While some scholars regard workplace gossip as norm-violating behavior that costs gossipers status, others suggest that gossip clarifies organizational norms and thereby increases gossiper status. Integrating gossip literature with norm research, we develop a model to distinguish positive gossip from negative gossip and theorize their independent and joint effects on gossiper workplace status via peers' perceptions of norm violation and norm clarification-two concurrent but countervailing mechanisms. We hypothesize that positive gossip relates positively to norm clarification perceptions but negatively to norm-violation perceptions, whereas negative gossip relates positively to both norm clarification and norm-violation perceptions. Interactively, positive gossip weakens the norm-violation effects of negative gossip on gossiper status, and each type of gossip replaces the norm clarification effects of the other type of gossip on gossiper status. These hypotheses were largely supported in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment with 345 full-time employees (Study 1), a three-wave field survey with data from 192 full-time employees (Study 2), and a round-robin field survey with data from 287 focal employees and 1,075 of their team members embedded in 87 teams (Study 3). Three additional studies reported in the supplementary materials revealed contingencies of the hypotheses: The hypotheses received support with a different experimental manipulation (Study 4), and the hypothesized norm-violation effect of negative gossip was not contingent on gossip content (target's self-serving vs. nonself-serving behavior, Study 5) but gossip intention such that the effect became nonsignificant when gossip intention was group-serving (cf. self-serving, Study 6). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Power to Reward vs. the Power to Punish: The Influence of Power Framing on Individual-Level Exploration

This article adopts a relational perspective to demonstrate that characteristics of the dyadic relationship between supervisors and their employees are critical to understanding individual-level exploration—understood as the extent to which organizational members pursue new opportunities and experiment with changes to current practices. To this end, we introduce the concept of power framing—that is, whether the control over valued resources is emphasized as the ability to reward or to punish—and propose that supervisor power framing shapes employee exploration. In an experimental study, we demonstrate that reward (versus punishment) power framing increases employee exploration behavior and that this effect is mediated by perceived trustworthiness of the supervisor. In a second survey study, we replicate these findings in a field sample and show that the relationship between reward power framing and exploration depends on the degree to which the focal employee is sensitive to power characteristics (i.e., power distance orientation). This investigation advances scholarship on the microfoundations of exploration while also highlighting the ability of leaders to alter trustworthiness perceptions and induce employee exploration through power framing. Funding: This work was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER Award from the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences [Grant 1943688] granted to O. Schilke. Additional funding was provided by the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1672 .

Leveraging perceived HPWS to improve service encounter quality in high-contact service industries

This study utilizes social exchange theory to explicate how perceived high-performance work systems (perceived HPWS) improve service encounter quality through overall justice and psychological contract fulfillment processes. We amassed survey responses from focal employees and their respective customers in three waves. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the impact of perceived HPWS on service encounter quality via overall justice and psychological contract fulfillment. Results from structural equation modeling affirmed a positive and direct association between perceived HPWS and service encounter quality. Additionally, the positive relationship between perceived HPWS and service encounter quality was uniquely and serially mediated by overall justice and psychological contract fulfillment. The current study makes a novel contribution by revealing how high-contact service organizations can leverage frontline employees' (rather than managers') perception of HPWS to optimize service encounter quality.

Intragroup conflict dynamics and their linkages with horizontal power disparity configurations, upper management conflicts and coworker support

PurposeThis study aims to examine how changes in power disparity shape in-groups and upper-level management conflict are associated with intragroup relationship and task conflict variations. It also examines how workplace conflicts relate to focal employees’ perceptions of coworker support.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 3,343 respondents for nine years, comprising measurements taken on six occasions in 47 departments and stores of a Canadian retailer. The relationships between, within and across levels were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results showed that higher levels of power concentration vested by a few members or a single person are associated wih higher levels of intragroup conflict than usual. Furthermore, higher levels of task and relationship conflicts at upper management levels are associated with higher-than-usual task and relationship conflicts between nonhierarchical employees. Additionally, a higher-than-usual intragroup task conflict level was associated with lower-than-usual coworker support, supporting the proposed multilevel dynamic model.Research limitations/implicationsAn important limitation of this study is that all variables are self-reported despite using the six-wave repeated measurements, thereby increasing the possibility of inflating some observed relationships. Future research should examine the emergence of a larger spectrum of power dispersion configurations and their role on process conflict.Practical implicationsRetail managers should legitimize why a high-power concentration occurs when the equal distribution of power is not possible and find ways to minimize the trickle-down effects of conflicts at upper levels on their subordinates.Originality/valueThis study examines the effect of variability on power configurations and conflict in upper management ranks on conflict dynamic. The findings show that a high-power concentration elicits increasing conflicts, and that there is no empirical evidence that intragroup conflict is associated with positive outcomes.

Leader-member exchange and creative idea validation: The role of helping and bullying

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of leader-member exchange (LMX) for selection-focused creativity. Thus, we seek to understand when subordinates develop high- quality relationships with their supervisors, do they also get their creative ideas validated by co-workers or not? The proposed model was tested using data obtained at two points in time from three data sources (co-workers, subordinates, and supervisors) working at a software solution provider operating in Pakistan. The obtained data were then analysed for random coefficient models with Mplus. It was found that having only quality LMX will not guarantee the validation of co-workers’ ideas. The focal employee needs to signal to others that they also care about their co-workers and have quality LMX. Subordinates who maintain quality relationships with their supervisors also need to consider what they signal to their co-workers by their behaviours and actions at work. Co-workers are more likely to provide support for creativity to those who are more supportive at work. We extend novel benefits associated with high-quality LMX, that is, the validation of co-workers’ ideas. Additionally, by focusing on social relationships for selection-focused creativity, we also extended creativity literature.