Key behavioural and cognitive employee outcomes : a social exchange model

This paper serves to integrate social exchange with organisational justice and performance theory. Social exchange relationships are represented by employees&rsquo; perceptions of workplace inequity and evaluated using justice rules. Employees are expected to have in-role and extra-role behavioural responses and cognitive responses to inequity. It is theorised that behavioural and cognitive responses are moderated by the employee&rsquo;s perceptions of organisational justice. Much employee performance, commitment, engagement, retention and turnover may be explained by this comprehensive model.<br /

“I can't express my thanks enough”: The “gratitude cycle” in online communities

Gratitude is a fundamental aspect of social interaction that positively influences emotional and social well-being. It is also crucial for promoting online community health by motivating participation. However, how gratitude occurs and can be encouraged in online communities is not yet well understood. This exploratory study investigated how online community users experience gratitude, focusing on how gratitude expression and acknowledgment occurs, can break down or can be reinforced. Semistructured Critical Incident interviews were conducted with 8 users of various online communities, including discussion and support groups, social Q&A sites, and review sites, eliciting 17 memorable examples of giving and receiving thanks online. The findings gave rise to a process model of gratitude in online communities—the “gratitude cycle,” which provides a detailed, holistic understanding of the experience of gratitude online that can inform the design of online community platforms that aim to motivate users to perpetuate the cycle. An enriched understanding of gratitude in online communities can help ensure future platforms better support the expression and acknowledgment of thanks, encouraging participation

A Transaction Governance Perspective on Business Entertainment: A General Model and Evidence From China

Despite the prevalence of business entertainment in economic life, nearly all studies on the phenomenon have explored it from a social perspective by labeling it as a social vice. Although a few scholarly works have identified the role of business entertainment in facilitating exchange relationships; none of them has offered a systematic explanation of how business entertainment plays such a role. Meanwhile, despite some scholars’ recognition of the role of social sanctions in regulating economic activities, virtually none of them has explored the relationship between social sanctions and business entertainment. This dissertation aims to bridge these gaps by arguing that business entertainment plays a governance role by reinforcing social sanctions to regulate economic transactions. Drawing on theories from the literatures on economics, business management, anthropology, sociology, and psychology, I start with the proposition that each society during its evolution forms a transaction governance structure (TGS) featuring a unique combination of market, social, and legal sanctions in regulating economic relationships. Depending on their social and cultural heritages, some societies rely more on social sanctions, and others more on legal sanctions, to compensate for the failure of market sanctions. I further argue that underdeveloped market and legal infrastructures are associated with prevalent practice of business entertainment because the latter plays a role in reinforcing social sanctions that supplement market sanctions. These arguments set up a theoretical framework for systematically explaining the social practice of entertainment in business settings from a perspective of economic transaction governance. To verify the above arguments, I derived two sets of hypotheses and conducted two empirical tests within the Chinese context: one to predict the pervasiveness of business entertainment at the firm level, using secondary data collected from firms listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in China; the other to test the effectiveness of business entertainment at the transaction level, with primary survey data collected from a sample of Chinese corporate client sales managers. Statistical results from both tests provide support for my transaction governance approach to business entertainment

You Owe Me

In many cultures and industries gifts are given in order to influence the recipient, often at the expense of a third party. Examples include business gifts of firms and lobbyists. In a series of experiments, we show that, even without incentive or informational effects, small gifts strongly influence the recipient’s behavior in favor of the gift giver, in particular when a third party bears the cost. Subjects are well aware that the gift is given to influence their behavior but reciprocate nevertheless. Withholding the gift triggers a strong negative response. These findings are inconsistent with the most prominent models of social preferences. We propose an extension of existing theories to capture the observed behavior by endogenizing the “reference group” to whom social preferences are applied. We also show that disclosure and size limits are not effective in reducing the effect of gifts, consistent with our model. Financial incentives ameliorate the effect of the gift but backfire when available but not provided

Service recovery efforts' influence on consumers' desire to reciprocate and forgiveness: the mediating role of perceived justice

Purpose – This paper investigated the impact of firms’ service recovery efforts on consumers’ desire to reciprocate and forgiveness in the hospitality industry of Pakistan. Additionally, this study examined the mediating role of perceived justice between service recovery efforts and their outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Using snowball sampling technique, an online survey was administered and 259 responses were collected from casual-dining restaurant customers. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were used to examine the hypotheses. Findings – The results indicate that perceived justice significantly mediates the effect of service recovery efforts on the consumers’ desire to reciprocate and forgiveness. Moreover, high (vs. low) service recovery efforts lead to high consumer forgiveness. Practical implications – The study provides insights for managers on how optimal recovery efforts predict consumers’ positive responses and minimize the effect of service failure in South Asian consumers. Originality/value – This research is among the early endeavors to examine consumers’ desire to reciprocate in service recovery context. Also, this is the first study to validate the impact of service recovery efforts on consumers’ desire to reciprocate and consumer forgiveness in a South Asian country. Keywords Desire to reciprocate, Perceived justice, Consumer forgiveness, Service recovery efforts, Casual-dining restaurants Paper type Research pape

The bittersweet flavor of a favor:Gratitude, indebtedness, and social exchange

Lay Summary Receiving favors or gifts is considered as a mixed blessing, as it elicits a positive emotion gratitude and a negative emotion indebtedness at the same time. Fascinated by this phenomenon, this dissertation studied the distinct yet complementary roles of gratitude and indebtedness in social exchange. Specifically, gratitude responds to the symbolic aspect of the favor that are associated with the giver’s care and concern of the receiver’s needs (i.e., relational concern), while indebtedness responds to the instrumental aspect of the favor that are associated with the costs and the resulting inequity it incurs (i.e., equity concern). Consequentially, gratitude promotes proximity seeking with the giver so as to build social bonds, while indebtedness promotes reciprocal behavior so as to restore equity. This framework for understanding gratitude and indebtedness has provided new insights into some old research questions. First, I showed that indebtedness, rather than gratitude, promotes reciprocity. Second, I explained why money in different contexts is considered an acceptable or unacceptable medium of social exchange. In most contexts, money expresses little relational concern, undermining gratitude and the promotion of social bonds. But when people endow money with symbolic value, it can express relational concern and become acceptable. Third, I incorporated my framework to extend our understanding of communal relationships in social exchange. People in communal relationships respond to each other’s needs. I further found that when communal dyads exchange with third parties, they also share each other’s social debt (which is reflected in their responses of gratitude and indebtedness) when their partner extends favors to or receives favors from third parties. My work thus provides an account to understand qualitative differences between social exchange situations involving different resources and relationships

The Invisible Language: Unintentional Patronage and Missions Practice in Contemporary Thailand

Patronage-clientelism is a current and important topic of discussion among the anthropological and missiological community. The effects of unintended patronage by Western missionaries in the context of Thai culture, however, are underexplored in academic research. In this study, I analyzed the effects of unintentional patronage among Western missionaries in a Thai cross-cultural ministry context. To do this I utilized a multiple case study method in which I compared four cases and analyzed for examples of how unintentional patronage is generated. I discovered that unintentional patronage was likely a result of insufficient missionary education regarding patronage-clientelism, as well as a lack of educational resources available to missionaries in the field. My study demonstrated that unintentional patronage is a very real concern for Western missionaries working in Thailand. Based on my research, I conclude that missionary training must incorporate patronage-clientelism education into standard practice, and all effort be made to make patronage-clientelism focused resources accessible for missionaries working in the field

Norm of Reciprocity, Reciprocal Benefits, and Reciprocal Relationships: A Revisit of the Role of Reciprocity in Knowledge Sharing

Reciprocity has been considered one of the most important constructs in knowledge sharing literature. However, prior studies have defined and measured this construct in different ways, leading to mixed research findings about its role. To solve the controversy, based on prior reciprocity literature, we differentiate three relevant concepts namely norm of reciprocity, reciprocal benefits, and reciprocal relationships and propose the causal relationships between these constructs according to the norm internalization theory. A field survey with 386 employees in a Chinese organization is conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that reciprocal benefits and reciprocal relationships fully mediate the impacts of norm of reciprocity on knowledge sharing intention. These findings suggest that the internalization mechanism (e.g., indirect effect) works better than the compliance mechanism (e.g., direct effect) under the voluntary knowledge sharing context. This study enriches the knowledge sharing literature and provides suggestions on organizational knowledge sharing practices