Target Commitment Research Articles

Seeing you, seeing me: Links between perceived commitment, metaperceptions, and relationship well‐being

AbstractAre perceiver's impressions of target's commitment associated with the target's relationship experience? Could target's metaperceptions (i.e., target's beliefs about the perceiver's impressions of the target) help explain why? In the present dyadic study (N = 206; Ncouples = 103), we found that perceiver's impressions of target's commitment was positively related to target's relationship well‐being, and target's metaperceptions helped to account for this link. Additional analyses disentangled the roles of accuracy and bias of metaperceptions. On average, people underestimated their partners' impressions of commitment, and this negative mean‐level bias was related to lower relationship well‐being. Overall, the present results shed light on the potential implications of metaperceptions for relational well‐being.

Target Data Breach: Accounting for Contingent Liabilities

This is a flexible case that provides for discussion about the form and content of 10-K reports, managerial discussion and analysis, non-GAAP reporting, and accounting for contingent liabilities. What is unique is that Target included lengthy disclosures about the data breach, but many questions remain because the breach occurred shortly before year end. Further, the instructor can compare the contingent liability of $17 million reported in the 2013 10-K to the $201 million costs incurred by Target related to the breach as of the 2015 year end. Excerpt UVA-C-2390 Oct. 6, 2017 Target Data Breach: Accounting for Contingent Liabilities It was December 19, 2013, and Josiah Thrasher had just hung up the phone. His grandmother was very worried about the news disclosed that day that millions of credit cards were stolen from Target Corporation (Target) because she loved shopping at Target and was not sure what the news meant for her. Was she at risk of fraud? Thrasher was not sure what it meant for himself, either, as Target was a publicly traded company (NYSE: TGT) in his portfolio of investments. Thrasher figured it was worth the time to get to the bottom of the story. He read the press release Target issued, which indicated that 40 million credit and debit cards belonging to customers who had shopped at Target stores from November 27 through December 15, 2013 had been compromised. The next day, Target issued two press releases. The first reassured customers that they would not be responsible for any fraudulent charges to their cards, and the second was a more personal message from the CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, which confirmed Target's commitment to its customers and offered a 10% discount for all shoppers on December 21 and 22. “That seems generous,” Thrasher thought, but he wondered who would shop at a store that had just been hacked. The next several days were busy for Target's public relations group, and it continued to issue security updates throughout December. What bad luck to be on the receiving end of the largest hack of a retailer in history, right in the middle of the busiest shopping season of the year! Luckily for Thrasher, though, Target's stock had barely budged (Exhibit 1). While the Internet was full of discussion about the breach, very little of it related to the costs Target was likely to incur. Target had just filed Q3 results on November 27, 2013, and would not file year-end results until March because, as a retailer, it had a fiscal year that ended on an unusual date. The current fiscal year would end on February1. Thrasher would have to wait until then to figure out the extent of the financial damage caused by the data breach. . . .

Influence tactics and perceptions of transformational leadership

The study examined the association between four influence tactics known to be effective in generating a target's commitment to a task and perceptions of transformational leadership. Eighty military personnel were rated by 181 peers on four influence tactics and four transformational leadership factors. The influence tactics of rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation and collaboration were expected to differentially predict idealized influence (behaviour), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Results show that rational persuasion significantly contributed to the variance in all four transformational leadership factors. Inspirational appeals made significant contributions to the variance in idealized influence and inspirational motivation. Consultation and collaboration did not significantly contribute to explaining the variance in any of the four transformational leadership factors. These results suggest that training in rational persuasion and inspirational appeals may increase perceptions of transformational leadership style.

Escalating commitment to a relationship: The sexual harassment trap

Divergent perceptions of sexual harassment were explored in a case of a perpetrator's gradual sexual advancements and a target's escalating commitment to their relationship. Participants were 60 male and 60 female undergraduate students from a private midwestern university. Approximately 7% were minority members. Males and females interpreted the male perpetrator's actions differently, particularly when the female target made prior commitments to a friendly relationship. Specifically, males' ratings of sexual harassment decreased when the female target participated in increasingly informal, friendly interactions. Females ratings remained relatively constant despite the target's reactions. Attributions and reactions to the harassment also were influenced. Interestingly, as the target's commitment increased, both males and females reported a lower likelihood that the target would seek help.