Taking a style perspective to understand organizational behavior: a four-decade review

To study whether public sector employees are a different type of employee with different expectations than the private sector employees, we look at differences in the generic dimensions of their psychological contract. Data from a survey of 4956 Belgian employees show that, compared to private sector employees, public sector employees attach less importance to career development opportunities and financial rewards promises, and perceive these promises as less fulfilled. They also perceive social atmosphere and work–life balance as less fulfilled. Furthermore, we observed significant gender differences in the importance and fulfilment of the psychological contract

The Hunt for the Heffalump Continues: Can Trait and Cognitive Characteristics Predict Entrepreneurial Orientation?

In this paper, we aimed to get more insight into what typifies Flemish entrepreneurs. Therefore, we compared entrepreneurs with non-entrepreneurs for five characteristics (tolerance for ambiguity, self-efficacy, proactive personality, locus of control, need for achievement) and for cognitive styles. Additionally, we used these trait and cognitive characteristics to predict variances in entrepreneurial orientation (EO). We found that entrepreneurs (n = 177) score significantly higher on all traits than non-entrepreneurs (n = 60). For the cognitive styles (measured with the Cognitive Style Indicator), we found that non-entrepreneurs score higher on the knowing and planning style. No differences were found for the creating style. With regard to the link between the entrepreneur's profile and EO, we found a significant contribution of tolerance for ambiguity and proactive personality to EO

Cognitive styles and person-environment fit: an inquiry on the consequences of cognitive (mis)fit

There is currently considerable interest in the key elements of person-environment fit to understand vocational behaviour and to develop strategic human resource management practices. In the light of this interest, we wanted (1) to investigate with the new Cognitive Style Indicator whether people within similar functions have similar cognitive styles, and (2) to examine the consequences of cognitive (mis)fit on three work attitudes. We used two large-scale databases (N = 24,267 and N = 2,182) to address these issues. We identified mainly a knowing-oriented cognitive climate in finance, information technology (IT), and research and development (R&D) functions, a planning-oriented cognitive climate in administrative and technical and production functions, and a creating-oriented cognitive climate in sales and marketing functions and general management. Furthermore, our findings demonstrated that people with a creating style show more job search behaviour and intention to leave than people with a planning style, irrespective of the cognitive climate they are working in. We contribute to increased understanding of the influence of cognitive styles on organisational behaviour and work attitudes. This study is relevant for selection and recruitment policies of organisations and in the context of training, job design, and workforce planning