Supervisor-employee Relationships Research Articles

Turning down employee voice with humour: A mixed blessing for employee voice resilience?

AbstractGiven that not all suggestions can be implemented, understanding how supervisors can turn down employee voiced suggestions while not discouraging employees voicing in the future is critical for theoretical and practical reasons. Supervisors may use humour when not endorsing employees' suggestions as they attempt to ease tension by injecting something lighthearted, but doing so, we argue, is not uniformly beneficial. Hence, we conducted a preregistered study that tests how supervisors' use of humour when turning down an employee's voiced suggestion affects voice resilience. Utilizing signaling theory, we theorize supervisors' use of humour when turning down voice strengthens voice safety but weakens voice impact perceptions. Indirectly, humour therefore may constitute a mixed blessing for voice resilience (voice behaviour after voice non‐endorsement). Additionally, we hypothesized that the positive link between humour and voice safety and the negative link between humour and voice impact are moderated by supervisor–employee relationship quality (leader–member exchange (LMX)). We tested these predictions in a time‐lagged study of 343 employees whose voice was recently turned down. Humour indeed increased voice resilience via voice safety; against expectations, humour positively related to voice impact (via it, resilience). LMX is significantly moderated. However, unexpectedly, humour helped voice safety, impact and the resilience of low LMX employees.

Influence of absorptive capacity and emotion regulation on business performance through the mediating role of knowledge management

This study aims to explore the impact of absorptive capacity, emotion regulation, and knowledge management on performance, in Vietnam. The qualitative method is based on an overview of previous studies, the research team builds the first scale. For the quantitative research, data was collected using the convenience sampling method from a total of 536 Small and Medium Enterprises in the Mekong Delta. Owners, directors, and managers were targeted to be interviewed. The methods of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) are used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the quality of the supervisor-employee relationship is a crucial factor in enhancing business performance. Specifically, the study found that absorptive capacity and emotion regulation have a positive influence on performance through the mediating role of knowledge management. The study suggests that enhancing absorptive capacity and emotion regulation in the enterprise and promoting the role of knowledge management can contribute to increasing business performance. This has great implications for firms looking to remain competitive in the market. By investing in these areas, firms can ensure that they are utilizing their resources effectively and efficiently to drive growth and success.

Mental health issues and illness and substance use disorder (non-)disclosure to a supervisor: a cross-sectional study on beliefs, attitudes and needs of military personnel

ObjectivesResearch suggests that military personnel frequently delay disclosing mental health issues and illness (MHI), including substance use disorder, to supervisors. This delay causes missed opportunities for support and workplace accommodations...

Relationship between top management communication performance and job satisfaction.

THIS field study of 327 professional hospital nurses Investigates the relationship between employees' perceptions of top-level management organizational communication and employee job satisfaction and job performance. Pearson product-moment and canonical correlation analyses revealed significant positive relationships between top management communication and employee job satisfaction and, to a lesser ex tent, with job performance. Although considerable research has been conducted into the immediate supervisor employee communication relationship, which has demonstrated a strong, positive association, the top management-employee communication link has been largely overlooked. Findings here suggest that employees look to top managers and im mediate supervisors to fulfill separate and distinct communication needs. This study sought to pave the way for more research into the effects of top management communication on various orginizational effectiveness variables. The authors draw conclusions from their fin dings, propose a model for future research and suggest future research directions.

Trouble with Big Brother: Counterproductive Consequences of Monitoring through Erosion of LMX

Changing workplace dynamics have led employers to increasingly adopt electronic monitoring technologies so supervisors can observe and ensure employee productivity—an outcome the monitoring literature has long supported. Yet, employee engagement and success depend on strong leader-member exchange (LMX), and the relational consequences of electronic monitoring for supervisor and employee are surprisingly unknown. To help resolve tension within the monitoring literature and add understanding regarding the effects of electronic performance monitoring on employee productivity, we use social exchange theory to examine the implications of electronic monitoring for the supervisor-employee relationship. We theorize that employee electronic monitoring facilitates (rather than inhibits) production deviance and inhibits (rather than facilitates) task performance by eroding the leader-member exchange relationship between supervisor and employee. Acknowledging the potential for electronic monitoring data to be useful to employees, we further argue that supervisors can buffer the negative relational consequences of electronic monitoring by using monitoring data for developmental purposes (i.e., developmental feedback). Across an experimental online study and a field study, we find converging support for our predictions and rule out alternative explanations. This research provides timely insights into how to effectively use electronic performance monitoring without promoting unintended consequences.

Catching emotions: the moderating role of emotional contagion between leader-member exchange, psychological capital and employee well-being

PurposeThis paper uses conservation of resources theory to compare the impact of supervisor-employee relationships and the extent to which emotional contagion (EC) moderates the links between psychological capital (PsyCap) and well-being for United States (US) healthcare workers.Design/methodology/approachIn this study structural equation modeling (SEM) and analysis of variances (ANOVAs) were used to test survey data collected at two points in time from 240 US doctors, nurses and allied health professionals.FindingsThe findings provide insight into why healthcare professionals, who undertake emotional labor, have a higher incidence of lower well-being and increased burnout rates compared with other jobs, except for emergency workers. The findings show that the relationship between PsyCap and well-being was different for low and high EC employees. The impact of PsyCap on well-being was greater for those with lower EC, and this means that those employees who have high EC have a greater risk of reduced well-being.Originality/valueTraditional bureaucratic rationalist management models are inappropriate for managing those who have high EC and/or undertake emotional labor. Instead, new human resource (HR) models are needed that focus on employee well-being, and in providing greater organizational support and upskilling employees in how to cope with their emotions and to build their own reservoirs of personal support.

The relationship between ambivalence towards supervisor's behavior and employee’s mental health

Ambivalence in social interactions has been linked to health-related outcomes in private relationships and recent research has started to expand this evidence to ambivalent leadership at the workplace by showing that ambivalent supervisor-employee relationships are related to higher stress levels in employees. However, the mental health consequences of ambivalent leadership have not been examined yet. Using a multilevel approach, this study estimated associations of ambivalent leadership with mental health indicators (depression, anxiety, vital exhaustion, fatigue) in 993 employees from 27 work groups. A total effect of ambivalent leadership was found for all four mental health measures, as well as within-group and between-group effects. The consistent relationships of ambivalent leadership with higher symptoms of mental ill-health at the individual- (i.e., within-group) and the group-level (i.e., between-group) support the existence of an un-confounded association, as well as group effects of collective ambivalence.

Abusive supervision and the knowledge worker productivity: the mediating role of knowledge management processes

PurposeDrawing upon the theoretical underpinning of knowledge worker productivity, this study aims to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge management (KM) process (creation, application and sharing of knowledge) and its impact on the knowledge worker productivity in knowledge-intensive organizations.Design/methodology/approachHypothesis were tested through PROCESS Macro in IBM SPSS v.26 on a sample of 204 employees working in banking sector of Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the model fitness through AMOS v. 26.FindingsThe results showed that the relationship between abusive supervision and KM process (creation, application and sharing of knowledge) is negative and highly significant, i.e. greater the abusive supervision in the banking sector, the lower is the engagement in KM processes. Furthermore, there is a positive and highly significant relationship between the KM process and knowledge worker productivity. Finally, the study indicates the negative impact of abusive supervision on the knowledge worker productivity through the mediating mechanism of knowledge management processes.Research limitations/implicationsA key limitation is that the study is cross-sectional, and the findings may only be generalizable to developing countries context.Originality/valuePrevious studies have focused on supervisor–employee relationship but not in the context of knowledge worker productivity. This article fulfills this gap through understanding the impact of abusive supervision on the knowledge worker productivity in relation to KM processes (knowledge creation, sharing and application) by drawing upon the theoretical underpinning of knowledge worker productivity.

How’s Your Relationship with Your Managers? The Impact of Strong Supervisor-Employee Relationships on Turnover

More than ever, organizations are facing the growing challenge of maintaining strong talent as employees are leaving jobs quicker than ever before. Many approaches have been taken to help tackle the problem of employee turnover; however, the question still remains, what is the best method for keeping employees happy and engaged enough to stay? Recent research has shown that strong supervisor-employee relationships could be the solution. For decades researchers and organizational leaders alike have sought to find solutions to the growing problem of employee turnover. In a culture of transience and low commitment, corporations are struggling more than ever to find ways to retain top talent and avoid the cyclical process of replacing employees. Turnover dramatically impacts the bottom line as additional resources have to be allocated to recruitment, selection, and the training of new employees. Additionally, changeover within organizations has the potential to unsettle social networks and decrease productivity as teams adjust to the shift of losing key players and onboarding new coworkers.

Empowering leadership: employee-related antecedents and consequences

We develop a theoretical model of empowering leadership that integrates role-based views of followership and social information processing theory and adds a reciprocal component to research on empowering leadership. Our theoretical model proposes that employee task performance and the quality of the supervisor-employee relationship serve as cues that shape supervisor empowerment behaviors, which, in turn, serve as cues that influence employee voice through employee state promotion focus. Data from 223 supervisor-employee dyads supported our hypotheses and showed that supervisors engage in more empowerment behaviors with employees who perform well and with whom they have a good relationship. Supervisors’ empowerment behaviors elicit a state promotion focus in employees, which stimulates these employees to express their concerns, ideas, and opinions in order to improve the functioning of the employee, the team, or the organization.

Contextual Feedback Seeking: Conditional Effects of Individual Power Distance & Feedback Orientation

Employee feedback seeking may be limited by supervisor–employee relationships that feature an inherent status differential, and these effects could be magnified by higher power distance cultural values. Among the extensive research into feedback-seeking behavior, few studies offer empirical examinations of the role of cultural values or considerations of employee reactions to the feedback environment (i.e., perceptions of fit, fairness, and satisfaction with the environment). Therefore, the present study develops and tests a framework for understanding the feedback-seeking process, focusing specifically on the contextual effects of individual-level power distance values, feedback environment reactions, and feedback orientation. With data obtained from 438 employees in the finance sector in Peru, this article details a conditional, mediated relationship in which the supportiveness of the feedback environment influences feedback-seeking behavior, through employee reactions to the environment. Two conditional effects inform these relationships: the interaction of the employee’s feedback orientation with the feedback environment in predicting reactions and the interaction of individual-level power distance with reactions to the feedback environment. Together, they influence subsequent feedback-seeking behavior.

Growth Mindset for Human Resource Development: A Scoping Review of the Literature with Recommended Interventions

Although the concept of mindsets is relatively ubiquitous in the common press and well-studied in the education literature, the idea of a growth mindset, rooted in implicit theories is less represented in human resource development (HRD) scholarly literature. Given that absence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of a growth mindset on HRD outcomes. To achieve this purpose, we conducted a scoping literature review including research conducted globally and in a wide variety of organizations. Based on the empirical findings, we discuss three categories of HRD outcomes of mindsets: (a) individual-level outcomes (e.g., work engagement, creativity, task performance, job satisfaction), (b) dyadic-level outcomes (e.g., supervisor-employee relationship and conflict resolution), and (c) organizational-level outcomes (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviors and organizational growth mindset). We synthesize several suggestions for growth mindset interventions emphasizing career development, training and development, and organizational development for HRD practitioners. Research implications and future research suggestions for HRD scholars are presented.

Bankers closing idiosyncratic deals: Implications for organisational cynicism

AbstractTo better meet flexibility demands and increase person–job fit, organisations might offer their employees the opportunity to negotiate task‐related arrangements, namely, idiosyncratic deals, referred to as “i‐deals.” However, not every employee who requests an i‐deal is successful in their negotiations. Thus, this study aims to further the knowledge of potential shortcomings of task‐related i‐deals and the role of supervisors in determining them. Drawing on social exchange theory, we hypothesise that low‐quality supervisor–employee relationships (i.e., leader–member exchange) are more likely to result in unsuccessful task‐related i‐deal negotiations, which consequently might provoke increased organisational cynicism. We analysed three waves of data from 202 Swiss bankers who had requested task‐related i‐deals within the investigated business cycle. The results supported our hypothesis. Our findings highlight the role of supervisors in reducing the potential costs of using task‐related i‐deals as employee‐initiated job design practices.

“I know it’s not your job but…”: Extra-role tasks, communication, and leader-member exchange relationships

Employees are sometimes assigned tasks that lie outside their official role. Employees may perceive such extra-role tasks (ERTs) as unreasonable or illegitimate. Grounded in role theory and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, we conducted two studies that examined how ERTs are associated with supervisor-employee relationship quality and how the ERT assignment is communicated. While supervisor-subordinate relationship quality was unrelated to the likelihood and frequency with which supervisors assign ERTs to employees, employees with low-quality relationships evaluated ERTs as more unreasonable than those in high-quality relationships. Study 1 showed that ERT messages that included a request (vs. command), acknowledgement, explanation, and appreciation were associated with higher quality LMX relationships. Study 2 found that ERT message characteristics influenced the perceived unreasonableness of the task for employees in high-quality relationships, suggesting employees in such relationships are particularly vulnerable to “job creep” and role expansion.

Student Job Satisfaction and Leader-Member Exchange: Relationships with Employers

Over 70% of undergraduate students hold part-time jobs while in college. Certain aspects are positively and/or negatively impacted by employment in college, such as a student’s academic performance, relationships, and self-worth. As such, research examining factors that might positively influence work-related outcomes (and subsequent collegiate experiences) for student workers is warranted. The current work utilized the Leader-Member Exchange as a theoretical framework to examine how work-related factors (i.e., leadership qualities and the supervisor-employee relationship) impact job satisfaction among student workers. Seventy-eight undergraduate students completed the study. Leadership qualities and supervisor-employee relationship positively correlated with job satisfaction; however, further analysis revealed that the relationship between the supervisor and employee was a significant mediator. These findings add unique information to prior research and might be used by individuals who work with student employees. Additional implications of this work as well as limitations are discussed.

A social exchange perspective for achieving safety culture in healthcare organizations

PurposeUsing social exchange theory (SET) and Cooper’s (2000) model, the purpose of this paper is to operationalise a comprehensive model of safety culture and tests whether SET factors (supervisor-employee relationships and engagement) predict safety culture in a causal chain.Design/methodology/approachThe model was tested using surveys from 648 healthcare staff in an Italian acute care hospital and analysed using structural equation modelling.FindingsSafety behaviours of clinical staff can be explained by the quality of the supervisor-employee relationship, their engagement, their feelings about safety and the quality of organisational support.Practical implicationsThe model provides a roadmap for strategically embedding effective safe behaviours. Management needs to improve healthcare staff’s workplace relationships to enhance engagement and to shape beliefs about safety practices.Originality/valueThe contribution of this paper is that it has empirically developed and tested a comprehensive model of safety culture that identifies a causal chain for healthcare managers to follow so as to embed an effective safety culture.

Effects of responsible human resource management practices on female employees’ turnover intentions

This study focuses on the effects of socially responsible human resource management (SR‐HRM) practices on female employees’ turnover intentions and the moderating effect of supervisor gender on this relationship. With a sample of 212 female employees from eight different industries in Finland, the results indicate that SR‐HRM practices promoting equal career opportunities and work–family integration play a significant role in reducing women's turnover intentions. The study adds to the academic discourse of corporate social responsibility by highlighting the impact of the organizational‐level HRM determinants on the individual‐level outcome. In addition, supervisor gender makes a difference in the studied relationship: female supervisors have a stronger and more significant impact on the relationship than male supervisors. Our findings suggest that organizational measures which support work–family integration should be taken seriously to decrease female employees’ turnover intentions. Male supervisors could adopt some gender‐incongruent leadership behaviors, such as individualized emotional concern and caring when dealing with female employees. In the future, other gender combinations in the supervisor–employee relationship would merit research.

Workplace Relationships, Psychological Capital, Accreditation and Safety Culture: a new Framework of Analysis within Healthcare Organizations

This paper used Social Exchange Theory (SET), Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) and Cooper’s (Safety Science, 36(2), 111–136, 2000) frameworks to operationalize a comprehensive model of safety culture, and tests whether one SET factor (supervisor-employee relationships) and one POB factor (psychological capital) predict accreditation and safety culture in a causal chain. Surveys from 1125 Italian doctors were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Supervisor-employee relationships and psychological capital accounted for two-fifths of the accreditation culture, and, in turn, explained more than half of the safety culture. Hence, effective workplace relationships between management and doctors provide a trusting foundation to develop safe practices for better healthcare.

Relational Models in Organizations: Communal Sharing Schemas and Creativity

Using qualitative and quantitative methods, we draw on Relational Models Theory to propose that communal sharing supervisor-employee relationships will influence employee creativity processes and outcomes. Study 1 was a field interview study that established through real accounts that people construe of their relationships with their supervisors in a way consistent with Relational Models Theory. Study 2 was a survey study that used dyad-data from employees and their supervisors. Results show that supervisor-employee relationships that were mentally framed as communal sharing (but not equality matching, authority ranking, or market pricing), were positively associated with employee creative process engagement, which in turn had a positive influence on employee creativity. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Gestão de Desempenho: validação de um instrumento de medida

Esta investigação pretende validar e adaptar uma medida de gestão de desempenho em Portugal. Participaram do estudo 1.815 indivíduos. Foram demonstradas propriedades psicométricas estáveis e adequadas (validade fatorial, consistência interna e validade convergente). A medida é composto de 28 itens, divididos por cinco fatores (relação supervisor-colaborador, resultados, feedback desfavorável, feedback favorável e documentos) e cotados numa escala de Likert de 5 pontos (diferente da estrutura encontrada pelos autores originais). Além disso, procedeu-se à análise da relação entre esta medida e a reação ao feedback. Verificou-se uma correlação positiva entre as subdimensões desta escala e da reação ao feedback. Conclui-se que essa escala é uma mais-valia, pois permite uma perspectiva multidimensional da gestão de desempenho, ou seja, a análise dos resultados consequentes da avaliação e do fornecimento de dados preciosos sobre a comunicação desses resultados aos colaboradores.