Choices, Challenges, and Career Consequences of Global Work Experiences: A Review and Future Agenda

Over the past 20 years, there has been increased interest in global forms of employment. Researchers have identified and investigated a number of global work experiences, including corporate and self-initiated expatriates as well as more novel forms of corporate global employees (flexpatriates, short-term assignees, and international business travelers). In this article, the authors review the empirical research that has investigated individual choices, challenges, and career consequences associated with the various types of global work. They summarize and synthesize this growing body of literature and then develop a taxonomy of global work experiences. Based on their review of this literature and their taxonomy, the authors outline an agenda for future research on global work experiences.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

A transactional stress theory of global work demands : A challenge, hindrance, or both?

We integrate research on global work demands (Shaffer et al., 2012) with transactional stress theory to examine both the harmful and beneficial effects of three global work demands—international travel, cognitive flexibility, and nonwork disruption—for employees engaged in global work. We propose that global work demands have indirect, and conditional, effects on burnout and work-to-family conflict (WFC), as well as thriving and work–family enrichment, through employees’ appraisals that their global work is both hindering and challenging, respectively. We tested the hypotheses with a matched sample of 229 global employees and their spouses. We found that cognitive flexibility demands are related to harmful and beneficial outcomes: It increases WFC through hindrance appraisals of the global work, but also increases thriving through challenge appraisals. In comparison, international travel demands have only beneficial outcomes, such that it positively related to employee thriving through challenge appraisals, but only among employees working in jobs that have fewer nonwork disruption demands. Finally, nonwork disruption demands had only harmful effects in that it positively related to burnout and WFC through hindrance appraisals. Exploratory analyses also revealed that nonwork disruption demands negatively related to employee thriving, through challenge appraisals, when employees experienced lower levels of cognitive flexibility demands. These findings contribute to our understanding of how employees may react to their global work demands and to the transactional theory of stress by providing a more nuanced understanding of when and why job demands contribute to appraisals that work is hindering and/or challenging.© 2022, American Psychological Association. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the final, authoritative version of the article. Please do not copy or cite without authors' permission. The final article will be available, upon publication, via its DOI: 10.1037/apl0001009fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Will a Good Citizen Actively Support Organizational Change? Investigation of Psychological Processes Underlying Active Change Support

The present study investigated motivational factors of employees active change support (ACS). It also investigated good citizens response to the change by highlighting convergence and divergence of motivational factors between ACS and traditional extra-role behavior. The findings based on 166 staff responses and 346 supervisor assessments in a hospital that recently implemented a sharedgovernance structure suggest that active change support is a result of an active thinking process that involves perception of potential benefit from change but not necessarily the consequence of conventional predictors of extra-role behaviors (i.e., positive attitudes). The findings also suggest that good citizens are not necessarily the supporters of organizational change and that in actuality they confront motivational dilemma especially when they hold high quality relationship with their employer because they are reluctant to challenge the status quo

Skill utilization of overseas interns: antecedents and consequences

Overseas internship programs are intended to provide substantive learning and skill development opportunities for interns. At the same time, internships are intended to provide employers with bright students who can help meet staffing needs and opportunities to recruit superior candidates for future job openings. However, overseas internships can be successful for interns and organizations alike only if interns are effectively utilized by their host organizations and have the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge. This research examines the factors that enhance the skill utilization and development of overseas interns as well as the consequences of poor skill utilization or skill misutilization. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 125 interns working in overseas internships in 23 countries. The results suggest that ineffective assignment procedures, poorly articulated duties, inadequate mentoring, and lack of corporate experience with internship programs all contribute to the underutilization or misutilization of interns' skills. In addition, poor skill utilization was strongly associated with negative attitudes about the internship and decreased work effort even after controlling for such variables as age, gender, previous overseas work experience, and cultural distance. The article concludes with directions for improving the design of overseas internships.Overseas internships Skill utilization Career development

Too Many Motives? The Interactive Effects of Multiple Motives on Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Prior research indicates that employees engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) because of prosocial values, organizational concern, and impression management motives. Building upon and extending prior research, we investigate all 3 OCB motives by developing a categorization scheme to differentiate their distinctiveness and by building a contextualized argument regarding their interactive effects on OCB in a more collectivistic culture. In a sample of 379 Chinese employee-supervisor dyads from Taiwan, we found that the relationship between prosocial values motives and OCBs directed at individuals was strengthened by organizational concern motives; likewise, the relationship between organizational concern and OCBs directed at the organization was strengthened by prosocial values motives. However, in contrast to prior research (Grant & Mayer, 2009), the relationship between prosocial values motives and OCBs directed at individuals was weakened by impression management motives. A 3-way interaction between all 3 motives further suggests that, in Asian cultures, impression management motives may undermine the positive effects of prosocial values and organizational concern motives on OCBs directed at individuals but not OCBs directed at the organization

Organizational Citizenship Behavior and the Enhancement of Absorptive Capacity

Firm-level absorptive capacity has been conceptualized as the capability of the firm to identify, assimilate/transform, and exploit new knowledge. Despite the fact that the role of individuals strongly influenced the original conceptualization of the construct, the role of individuals in developing organizational absorptive capacity has been largely ignored. Meanwhile, studies have shown that individual-level behaviors known as organizational citizenship behaviors are related to indicators of organizational performance, yet there have been relatively few theoretically-based arguments explaining this relationship. In this paper, we articulate a model that depicts how the organizational citizenship behaviors of individuals enhance a firm\u27s absorptive capacity. Specifically, we propose that citizenship behaviors moderate the relationship between routines and processes and the exploratory, assimilative, transformative, and exploitative learning capabilities that comprise organizational absorptive capacity. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Citizenship Under Pressure: What\u27s a Good Soldier To Do?

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are typically defined as discretionary behaviors that contribute to the effective functioning of organizations. Prior research has generally focused on instances in which employees willingly engage in such behaviors; however, because OCBs are often informally encouraged and rewarded, workers may experience pressure to be good soldiers within their organizations. Using a sample of 245 employees, our findings indicate that citizenship pressure is related to increased levels of OCB, particularly among unmarried and less conscientious employees. However, there appear to be negative consequences associated with citizenship pressure, even when controlling for OCB and other job demands, such as role overload and hours worked. In particular, citizenship pressure is associated with work-family conflict, work-leisure conflict, job stress, and intentions to quit. Implications of this study and some directions for future research are also discussed. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Costs of Mindfulness at Work: The Moderating Role of Mindfulness in Surface Acting, Self-Control Depletion, and Performance Outcomes

By and large, research in organizational behavior and psychology has emphasized that mindfulness should have positive implications for employee well-being and performance, largely through benefits to self-control. Although some have noted that mindfulness could also have a “dark side,” researchers have yet to examine the potential costs of being mindful at work. Building on prior studies that have found that mindfulness leads to lower levels of surface acting, we investigate the possibility that when mindful employees engage in surface acting, it may contribute to greater self-control depletion, which in turn, results in undesirable performance outcomes. Using six field studies, we collected data at multiple points in time from both employees and their supervisors to test our theoretical model. In two Study 1 samples, we found that mindfulness moderated the relationship between surface acting and self-control depletion, such that this relationship was stronger for more mindful individuals. In four Study 2 samples, we replicated our Study 1 results and found that the mediated relationship between surface acting and five dimensions of employee performance via self-control depletion is moderated by mindfulness at the first stage, such that this mediated relationship is stronger for more mindful individuals. We discuss the implications of this work for future investigations of mindfulness, self-control, emotional labor, and performance outcomes

Where Mindfulness Falls Short

Today, more than half of all large companies offer their employees some form of mindfulness training — a broad set of practices and techniques focusing on increasing awareness of the here and now. But new research suggests that these programs don’t always improve people’s wellbeing or their job performance. Specifically, for employees whose roles require them to act inauthentically (such as salespeople, waiters, or customer service representatives who often have to smile through unpleasant interactions with customers), becoming more mindful of their emotions in the moment can actually have a negative effect on their mental health. Based on these findings, the authors offer four strategies to help organizations successfully implement mindfulness programs at work while limiting these negative side effects. Ultimately, the authors argue that mindfulness is an important tool in the managerial toolbox, but it is not a cure-all, and it must be applied thoughtfully to be effective