Perceived Image, Prestige, Respect and Support: How Employees Manage Multiple Reflected Appraisals at the Workplace

This thesis collects three articles that explore the construct of reflected appraisal –individuals’ beliefs about how they are seen in the eyes of others. These manuscripts are linked by the overarching question “How do employees manage the bombardment of myriad reflected appraisals in their daily organizational lives?” To address this, the articles examine four workplace manifestations of reflected appraisals that are represented by the constructs of perceived supervisor support, organizational support, respect and external prestige (also called image) while considering the referents inherent in each construct (i.e., Co-workers, team members, the employing organization and external stakeholders). The theoretical manuscript (article 1) examines the four reflected appraisals together, asking what contextual and individual factors predict which reflected appraisals employees are more likely to focus on and when. We use employees’ work-roles as the key construct that links these factors together, arguing that self-motives drive individuals to focus on some reflected appraisals under the constraint of accountability and interdependence that are part of the organizational structure. The quantitative manuscript (article 2) examines the concurrent impact of respect and prestige on relational and organizational identification. In a survey of student-athletes from varsity sports teams, we found that the matching principle prevailed: Prestige and respect that are focused on the relationship predicted relational identification while respect and prestige focused on the collective predicted organizational identification. However, prestige was the better predictor of both the relational and organizational foci. The qualitative manuscript (article 3) focuses on organizational image and explores how individuals respond to perceived organizational stigma. I interviewed employees of general contractors during a city-wide scandal in which various audiences marked their organizations as “the enemy” by virtue of their category-membership. I found that interviewees negotiated two images that embodied individuating and de-individuating reflected appraisals of their organization. Furthermore, employees constructed these images using various sources of information that they integrated into their reflected appraisals. Overall, the three articles demonstrate that employees actively engage with a plethora of reflected appraisals from multiple referents in the organizational environment

How to combine influence tactics : using the elaboration likelihood model to guide sequencing of tactics

This scenario study used a 3 (influence tactic) x 2 (strength of rational persuasion) experimental design to investigate what combination of proactive influence tactics was most effective in gaining commitment. It was only the second study after Barry and Shapiro (1992) to examine experimentally combinations of proactive influence tactics. It used the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to derive hypotheses. It tested 103 individuals (46 men and 57 women) who were on average 20.8 years old. Participants read a hypothetical e-mail by a co-manager. They rated the extent to which they would commit to the co-manager's request. They also listed their positive and negative thoughts about the issue. The results showed that: (1) Rational persuasion gained the same amount of commitment whether it was combined with ingratiation or apprising; (2) ingratiation and apprising did not affect how deeply participants scrutinized the issue (i.e., elaboration); (3) commitment was not related to participants' level of elaboration; and (4) the number of influence tactics used did not change the level of commitment. One hypothesis was supported: that stronger rational persuasion gains more commitment than weaker forms of rational persuasion. These results are consistent with some of the literature, which states that not all tactics can be effectively combined. These conclusions are explored in light of the study's limitations. Future lines of research using ELM are also discussed. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT

Effects of group size on the threat-sensitive response to varying concentrations of chemical alarm cues by juvenile convict cichlids

The threat-sensitive predator avoidance model predicts that prey should balance the intensity of antipredator responses against perceived predation risk, resulting in a graded response pattern. Recent studies have demonstrated considerable interspecific variation in the intensity of threat-sensitive response patterns, ranging from strongly graded to relatively nongraded or "hypersensitive" threat-sensitive response patterns. Here, we test for intraspecific plasticity in threat-sensitive responses by varying group size. We exposed juvenile convict cichlids, Archocentrus nigrofasciatus (Günther, 1867), as individuals or in small (groups of three) or large (groups of six) shoals to a series of dilutions of conspecific chemical alarm cues and a distilled water control. Singleton cichlids exhibited significant reductions in time spent moving and in frequency of foraging attempts (relative to distilled water controls) when exposed to a 12.5% dilution of conspecific alarm cue, with no difference in response intensity at higher stimulus concentrations, suggesting a nongraded (hypersensitive) response pattern. Small shoals exhibited a similar response pattern, but at a higher response threshold (25% dilution of stock alarm cue solution). Large shoals, however, exhibited a graded response pattern. These results suggest that group size influences the trade-off between predator avoidance and other fitness related activities, resulting in flexible threat-sensitive response patterns