Organizational Psychology Research Research Articles

Invisible families, invisible conflicts: Examining the added layer of work-family conflict for employees with LGB families

Despite the prominent place of work-family conflict (WFC) research in organizational psychology, surprisingly little is known about the WFC experiences of individuals who belong to LGB families. We argue that challenging heteronormative assumptions of “family” by examining the WFC experiences of employees with LGB families may reveal an added layer of conflict that has been previously unexplored. Based on a qualitative study of fifty-three employees in same-sex relationships, we develop new theory regarding the additional WFCs and associated family identity management behaviors and psychological strains faced by LGB employees who perceive their family identity to be stigmatized at work. Our analysis suggests that the work and family domains often conflict in unique ways for employees with LGB family structures, resulting in added strains that are not experienced by those with heterosexual family structures. We propose the concept of stigma-based WFC to capture the additional WFCs experienced by members of LGB families. We conclude by highlighting implications and avenues for future research.

Work & Organizational Psychology Research in Services for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Humanitarian Perspectiveeath

Work & Organizational Psychology Research in Services for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Humanitarian Perspectiveeath

Work & Organizational Psychology Research in Services for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Humanitarian Perspectiveeath

Work & Organizational Psychology Research in Services for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Humanitarian Perspectiveeath

Team Innovation

Team innovation is of growing importance in research in organizational psychology and organizational behavior as well as organizational practice. I review the empirical literature in team innovation to draw integrative conclusions about the state of the science and to provide a research agenda to move the field forward. The review identifies two main perspectives in team innovation research, the knowledge integration perspective and the team climate perspective. Key conclusions focus on the need to integrate these perspectives to develop an integrative contingency model of the factors providing teams with diverse informational resources and the factors influencing the extent to which teams integrate these resources in a process of information exchange and integration. As part of these integrative efforts, construct consolidation efforts are important to reverse the tendency for proliferation of substantially overlapping moderators and mediators proposed. The review also identifies the contingencies of the relationship between idea development and idea implementation as the most important understudied issue in team innovation research.

Recruitment and Retention Across Cultures

The flow of human capital into and out of organizations is a crucial aspect of organizational functioning. Recruitment is the primary mechanism for attracting human capital to the organization, whereas retention involves keeping desired employees in the fold once they are employed. Although extensive research explores and informs recruitment and retention, the bulk of the theory and research in major organizational psychology and organizational behavior journals adopts a US-centric perspective. This narrow perspective may be misleading, particularly in an increasingly globalized work context. We systematically analyze studies on the flow of people into and out of organizations in a variety of cultural contexts and especially in organizations managing talent across national borders. In so doing, we seek to create a coherent platform for future research by identifying key themes in the literature and using these themes to summarize what we know and indicate where we need to go in studying recruitment and retention across cultures.

Multilevel Modeling: Research-Based Lessons for Substantive Researchers

Organizations are multilevel systems. Most organizational phenomena are multilevel in nature, and their understanding involves variables (e.g., antecedents and consequences) that reside at different levels. The investigation of these phenomena requires appropriate analytical methods: multilevel modeling. These techniques are becoming increasingly popular among organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OPOB) researchers. In this article we review the literature that has evaluated the performance of multilevel modeling techniques to test multilevel direct and indirect effects and cross-level interactions. We also provide guidelines for OPOB researchers about the appropriate use of these techniques, and we suggest ways these techniques can contribute to theoretical advancement and research development in OPOB.

Ethical considerations for sleep intervention in organizational psychology research

Over the past several years, interest into the role of sleep in the workplace has grown. The theoretical shift from research questions examining sleep as an outcome to placing sleep as the independent variable has increased experimental approaches to manipulating sleep in organizational studies. This is an exciting trend that is likely to continue in the organizational sciences. However, sleep experimentation can also pose special challenges for organizational researchers unaccustomed to sleep science. In this commentary, I discuss five ethical considerations of conducting negative sleep interventions in organizational psychology research. I also provide recommendations for organizational researchers-or even other researchers in disciplines outside of sleep science-who wish to implement sleep interventions in their studies.

Study of authentic-transformational leadership styles in information technology sector - a canonical correlational study

Leadership study has been a topic of great interest and debate in organisational psychology research for several years. Several leadership theories have been proposed and have evolved over the years. Each leadership trait has been found to have several beneficial outcomes at specific organisational levels. This article aims to empirically study two such successful leadership theories- transformational and authentic. Authentic leadership is a relatively new leadership trait and has been found to elicit positive effects on individual and team level outcomes. While transformational leadership has been analysed extensively over the decades and found to contribute towards organisational improvement at all levels. This article aims to understand if it is possible to combine these two leadership traits so as to maximise the potential success of an individual, team as well as organisation. Canonical correlation is applied to understand how conducive these traits are to each other and if it is possible to train an individual to possess a combination of these two leadership behaviours. The results of this study would be of enormous interest to organisations aiming to gain competitive advantage in terms of talented human resources.

Study of authentic-transformational leadership styles in information technology sector - a canonical correlational study

Leadership study has been a topic of great interest and debate in organisational psychology research for several years. Several leadership theories have been proposed and have evolved over the years. Each leadership trait has been found to have several beneficial outcomes at specific organisational levels. This article aims to empirically study two such successful leadership theories- transformational and authentic. Authentic leadership is a relatively new leadership trait and has been found to elicit positive effects on individual and team level outcomes. While transformational leadership has been analysed extensively over the decades and found to contribute towards organisational improvement at all levels. This article aims to understand if it is possible to combine these two leadership traits so as to maximise the potential success of an individual, team as well as organisation. Canonical correlation is applied to understand how conducive these traits are to each other and if it is possible to train an individual to possess a combination of these two leadership behaviours. The results of this study would be of enormous interest to organisations aiming to gain competitive advantage in terms of talented human resources.

Stuck in the Muck? The Role of Mindsets in Self‐Regulation When Stymied During the Job Search

Although there is a vast amount of literature on the psychologically harmful effects of unemployment, there has been less scholarship aimed at helping those struggling with the motivational challenges involved in a frustrated job search. This conceptual article draws on theory and extensive research in educational, social, and organizational psychology to explain the likely role of mindsets in self‐regulation during the job search. Specifically, the authors outline how a person's mindset can cue patterns of functional and dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during a range of job search tasks. They then provide practical advice for counseling individuals—and for people helping themselves—through the job search process.

Amazon Mechanical Turk in Organizational Psychology: An Evaluation and Practical Recommendations

Purpose Amazon Mechanical Turk is an increasingly popular data source in the organizational psychology research community. This paper presents an evaluation of MTurk and provides a set of practical recommendations for researchers using MTurk.

Een waardig neoliberalisme in de arbeids- en organisatiepsychologie

Matthijs Bal pleit in zijn artikel voor meer nadruk op het menselijke waardigheidsparadigma in A&O-onderzoek. Menselijke waardigheid biedt een interessant en relevant paradigma voor het kijken naar A&O-vraagstukken. Gezien de dominantie van het neoliberalisme in de organisatiepraktijk én de samenleving staat de A&O psychologie vooral voor de uitdaging om te onderzoeken hoe de menselijke waardigheid kan worden geïntegreerd met het neoliberalisme. Daarnaast stellen we dat het paradigma van menselijke waardigheid nieuwe uitdagingen biedt op het gebied van theorieontwikkeling en onderzoeksmethoden in de A&O-psychologie.

Two decades of qualitative research in Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management within South Africa: A critical review

Orientation: Qualitative research is marked by phenomenal growth and development over the years.Research purpose: This article aims to offer insight into the emerging qualitative methodologies used in the fields of Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management.Motivation for the study: The value of qualitative organisational research has been recognised since the 1970s. Regardless of its perceived value, national and international trends show a greater tendency for quantitative research.Research design, approach and method: This article investigates qualitative articles (n = 242) published over two decades in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP), South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP), and the South African Journal of Human Resource Management (SAJHRM). More specifically, a content analysis was conducted to highlight the trends of paradigms, designs and analysis methods employed in the studies.Main findings: Although there seems to be a slight increase in qualitative publications over the years, qualitative studies show a lower volume than its counterparts. The SAJIP published the least qualitative articles when compared to the SAJP and SAJHRM. There is a pattern of preference for specific paradigms and methods in all the journals. Overall, all the journals carry a large number of articles that do not specifically state their paradigmatic alignment or the designs they used, while some articles omits the methodology used in the studies altogether.Practical/managerial implications: The results indicate a clear need for increased exposure to qualitative methodology, both by publishing more qualitative studies in local journals and by providing formal training opportunities. A publication does not solely rely on authorship, but also on a review process. Therefore certain adjustments in this process may lead to more and better qualitative publications in future.Contribution/value-add: This article provides a critical analysis of the current trends and developments in qualitative research conducted in Industrial and Organisational Psychology(IOP) research in South Africa. The study identifies dominant methodologies in use, and thereby identifies possible opportunities to expand the ‘methodological menu’ of IOP research.

Beneficiary contact and innovation: The relation between contact with patients and medical innovation under different institutional logics

The recent policy agenda to enhance translational research in biomedicine emphasizes the need to promote interactions among all the actors involved in the medical innovation process. While patients are generally acknowledged to be a critical source to facilitate medical innovation, there is little empirical evidence on the relation between direct contact with patients and medical innovation. Drawing on organizational psychology and institutional theory research, we propose that contact with beneficiaries is likely to enhance scientists’ propensity to engage in innovation activities, and that the intensity of this relation is contingent on the institutional setting in which actors are embedded. Our study is based on a large-scale survey of biomedical scientists in Spain. Our findings show an inverted U-shaped relationship between contact with patients and participation in medical innovation. We also observe that the effect of contact with patients varies depending on the institutional logic in which scientists are embedded: our results show that the positive relation between contact with patients and innovation is particularly pronounced for scientists who are embedded in a science logic compared to a care logic.

Dynamic Modeling

Recent effort in organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OPOB) research has placed increasing emphasis on understanding dynamic phenomena and processes. This calls for more and better use of dynamic modeling in OPOB research than before. The goals of this review are to provide an overview of the general forms of dynamic modeling in OPOB research, discuss three longitudinal data analytic techniques for conducting dynamic modeling with empirical data [i.e., time-series-based modeling, latent-change-scores-based modeling, and functional data analysis (FDA)], and introduce various dynamic modeling approaches for building theories about dynamic phenomena and processes (i.e., agent-based modeling, system dynamics modeling, and hybrid modeling). This review also highlights several OPOB research areas to which dynamic modeling has been applied and discusses future research directions for better utilizing dynamic modeling in those areas.

A Naturalistic Multilevel Framework for Studying Transient and Chronic Effects of Psychosocial Work Stressors on Employee Health and Well‐Being

Research in work and organisational health psychology (WOHP) has traditionally employed methodologies targeted at examining between‐individual associations of psychosocial stressors, psychological strain, health, and well‐being. Recently, however, there has been a shift towards more ecologically valid assessments of these classes of constructs, i.e. assessing them as and when they occur, often involving multiple assessments of the individual within a day. Known as Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), studies employing this methodology enable examinations of within‐individual (daily) fluctuations in well‐being as a result of work stressors and other environmental factors, as well as investigations of person–environment interactions. In addition, the study of employee health and well‐being can benefit from the application of new and exciting technologies for measurement, such as smartphones and wearable devices for the tracking of physiological well‐being indicators. Drawing on the Allostatic Load Model as an integrative framework, the current article aims to organise previous EMA research efforts in the field of WOHP, provide an overview of methodological tools that can be used in EMA research, and provide guidelines for analyzing EMA data. Finally, we conclude by discussing opportunities and challenges in the use of EMA in WOHP.

Where in the World Are the Workers? Cultural Underrepresentation in I-O Research

Few would dispute that the nature of work, and the workers who perform it, has evolved considerably in the 70 years since the founding of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) as the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Division 14, focused on industrial, business, and organizational psychology. Yet, in many ways the populations sampled in industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology research have failed to keep pace with this evolution. Bergman and Jean (2016) highlight how I-O research samples underrepresent (relative to the labor market) low- or medium-skill workers, wage earners, and temporary workers, resulting in a body of science that is overly focused on salaried, professional managers and executives. Though these discrepancies in the nature of individuals’ work and employment are certainly present and problematic in organizational research, one issue that should not be overlooked is that of adequately representing nationality and culture in I-O research samples.

Developing and investigating the use of single-item measures in organizational research.

The validity of organizational research relies on strong research methods, which include effective measurement of psychological constructs. The general consensus is that multiple item measures have better psychometric properties than single-item measures. However, due to practical constraints (e.g., survey length, respondent burden) there are situations in which certain single items may be useful for capturing information about constructs that might otherwise go unmeasured. We evaluated 37 items, including 18 newly developed items as well as 19 single items selected from existing multiple-item scales based on psychometric characteristics, to assess 18 constructs frequently measured in organizational and occupational health psychology research. We examined evidence of reliability; convergent, discriminant, and content validity assessments; and test-retest reliabilities at 1- and 3-month time lags for single-item measures using a multistage and multisource validation strategy across 3 studies, including data from N = 17 occupational health subject matter experts and N = 1,634 survey respondents across 2 samples. Items selected from existing scales generally demonstrated better internal consistency reliability and convergent validity, whereas these particular new items generally had higher levels of content validity. We offer recommendations regarding when use of single items may be more or less appropriate, as well as 11 items that seem acceptable, 14 items with mixed results that might be used with caution due to mixed results, and 12 items we do not recommend using as single-item measures. Although multiple-item measures are preferable from a psychometric standpoint, in some circumstances single-item measures can provide useful information.

Flourishing in the Workplace Through Meditation and Mindfulness

We believe that Hyland, Lee, and Mills (2015) introduced important considerations concerning the importance of mindfulness for research and practice in industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology, and we applaud their effort. We also feel that some equally important points were neglected or given scant attention. We amplify their introduction in three ways. We discuss (a) how construct confusion is common when new constructs are introduced and how paying attention to the type of meditation practice used to induce mindfulness will enhance construct clarity, (b) how using forms of meditation that employ physical movement and other activities to induce mindfulness expand the choices for intervention and training, and (c) how meditation and mindfulness provide a valuable bridge linking positive psychology and I-O psychology theory and practice.

Thinking Big About Big Data

Guzzo, Fink, King, Tonidandel, and Landis (2015) review important issues—privacy, informed consent, and data/data analysis integrity—that are critical logistical considerations in any program of research with human subjects, including studies utilizing big data. Overall, we agree with the cautionary sentiment conveyed throughout the focal article; industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology researchers and practitioners should not assume that big data is a panacea, and many of our established disciplinary approaches for ensuring ethical and accurate research are applicable—or modifiable—in big data contexts. However, we believe that the conversation about big data in I-O psychology is broader than that reviewed by Guzzo et al., and we would like to further elaborate on the focal article. We present this commentary from our perspective as junior scholars entering the field at a critical time—a time when I-O psychology is becoming increasingly intertwined with big data science.