Examining Organizational Justice in the Context of LMX and the Effect of LMX on Trust and Job Performance

Services marketing and organizational behavior researchers have studied factors that have a positive influence on employees’ job performance. They viewed that the manager’s role in dealing with his/her subordinates is critical in producing the desired outcomes such as employee job performance. This study based on organizational justice and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory, presents and tests a model, in which relationships among justice, LMX, trust, and job performance are examined. More specifically, the study examines the impact of organizational justice on the quality of LMX and the effect of LMX on employees’ attitudinal and behavioral aspects (trust and job performance). The study employs four dimensions of justice, two bases of trust and two types of job performance. By using a dimensional approach, the study attempts to investigate and comprehend dynamic and complex relationships among the variables. Using the data collected from restaurant employees in South Korea, the study finds that all dimensions of justice have a positive influence on the quality of LMX. LMX plays a significant role in affecting two bases of trust (cognitive trust and affective trust) and two dimensions of job performance (task performance and helping behavior). The study also found that not cognitive trust but affective trust influences task performance. The finding that distributive justice explains the largest portion of the variance in the quality of LMX suggests that distributive justice plays the most important role in building and maintaining the quality of manager-employee relationship. Employees care about fair distribution of the resources and outcomes that reflect the efforts they put into the work. The importance of quality of leader-member exchange is highlighted in this study. The high-quality relationship developed through the organization’s institutionalization of justice helps employees have trust in the leaders. It seems that justice is a mechanism through which managers and employees develop a highquality relationship. The study also found that affective trust has a significant positive effect on task performance, suggesting instilling and nurturing trust among employees is critical for improving their job performance

Genome-Based Construction of the Metabolic Pathways of Orientia tsutsugamushi and Comparative Analysis within the Rickettsiales Order

Orientia tsutsugamushi, the causative agent of scrub typhus, is an obligate intracellular bacterium that belongs to the order of Rickettsiales. Recently, we have reported that O. tsutsugamushi has a unique genomic structure, consisting of highly repetitive sequences, and suggested that it may provide valuable insight into the evolution of intracellular bacteria. Here, we have used genomic information to construct the major metabolic pathways of O. tsutsugamushi and performed a comparative analysis of the metabolic genes and pathways of O. tsutsugamushi with other members of the Rickettsiales order. While O. tsutsugamushi has the largest genome among the members of this order, mainly due to the presence of repeated sequences, its metabolic pathways have been highly streamlined. Overall, the metabolic pathways of O. tsutsugamushi were similar to Rickettsia but there were notable differences in several pathways including carbohydrate metabolism, the TCA cycle, and the synthesis of cell wall components as well as in the transport systems. Our results will provide a useful guide to the postgenomic analysis of O. tsutsugamushi and lead to a better understanding of the virulence and physiology of this intracellular pathogen

Enhancement of phase separation in the InGaN layer for self-assembled In-rich quantum dots

The enhancement of phase separation in the InGaN layer grown on a GaN layer with a rough surface was investigated for the formation of self-assembled In-rich quantum dots(QDs) in the InGaN layer. Transmission electron microscopy images showed that In-rich QDs with a size of 2–5 nm were formed even in an InGaN layer with a low indium content, and a layer thickness less than the critical thickness. The room-temperature photoluminescence(PL) spectrum of this layer showed emission peaks corresponding to In-rich QDs. The temperature-dependent PL spectra showed dominant peak shifts to the lower energy side, indicating that the self-assembled In-rich QDs are formed in the InGaN layer grown on a rough GaNsurface and that the carriers are localized in In-rich QDs

Role of Amphipathic Helix of a Herpesviral Protein in Membrane Deformation and T Cell Receptor Downregulation

Lipid rafts are membrane microdomains that function as platforms for signal transduction and membrane trafficking. Tyrosine kinase interacting protein (Tip) of T lymphotropic Herpesvirus saimiri (HVS) is targeted to lipid rafts in T cells and downregulates TCR and CD4 surface expression. Here, we report that the membrane-proximal amphipathic helix preceding Tip's transmembrane (TM) domain mediates lipid raft localization and membrane deformation. In turn, this motif directs Tip's lysosomal trafficking and selective TCR downregulation. The amphipathic helix binds to the negatively charged lipids and induces liposome tubulation, the TM domain mediates oligomerization, and cooperation of the membrane-proximal helix with the TM domain is sufficient for localization to lipid rafts and lysosomal compartments, especially the mutivesicular bodies. These findings suggest that the membrane-proximal amphipathic helix and TM domain provide HVS Tip with the unique ability to deform the cellular membranes in lipid rafts and to downregulate TCRs potentially through MVB formation