Organizational Support and Contract Fulfillment as Moderators of the Relationship Between Preferred Work Status and Performance

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine organizational context variables as moderators of the relationship between preferred work status and job performance. The moderators were perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological contract fulfillment. Design/Methodology/Approach Survey data was collected from 164 participants working in a health and fitness organization. These participants ranged in age from 18 to 79 years old (M = 40, SD = 12.5) and held various positions including middle managers, clerical workers, maintenance workers, and sports trainers. Findings The relationship between preferred work status and extra-role performance was negative when POS was higher but not when POS was lower. Also, the relationship between preferred work status and extra-role performance was positive when contract fulfillment was lower but not when it was higher. No moderating effects were found when examining in-role performance. Implications Given the large and growing use of part-time workers it is important to understand differences across various subgroups of them in order to better inform human resource policies and practices. Specifically, the results highlight a key role for the management of reciprocity perceptions. Originality/Value The literature on part-time workers suggests there are important differences between employees who work part-time because they prefer it and those who work part-time but prefer to work full-time. Research regarding the relationship between preferred work status and performance has produced mixed results. This study helps reconcile conflicting results regarding the relationship between preferred work status and performance by examining the moderating effects of theoretically relevant variables

Brokering Trust to Enhance Leadership: A Self-Monitoring Approach to Leadership Emergence

What kind of person is likely to emerge as an informal leader in the workplace? Experimental research shows that high self-monitors—who tend to adjust their attitudes and behaviors to the demands of different situations—emerge as informal leaders in temporary groups. By contrast, low self-monitors—who tend to be true to themselves in terms of consistency in attitudes and behaviors across different situations—are less likely to emerge as leaders. But this prior research does not address the criticism that the emergence of high self-monitors as leaders represents ephemeral impression management in the context of laboratory experiments. To address this issue, we collected and analyzed data from a 116-member high-technology firm. Our results show that self-monitoring is related not only to leadership emergence, but also to the provision of advice to co-workers. Further, people who occupied brokerage positions (being trusted by those who did not trust each other) tended to be seen as leaders if they were high rather than low self-monitors. From these results, we build a picture of the high self-monitoring emergent leader as someone who notices problems and ameliorates them through the provision of advice and the brokerage of relationships across social divides. The occupation of a structurally advantageous position may well be more advantageous for some (i.e., high self-monitors) relative to others (i.e., low self-monitors)

Associations between job demands, perceptions of noise at work and the psychological contract

Despite the widespread interest in the effects of workload on behaviour, there has been little research on the effects of it on attitudes and values in the workplace and life generally. The aim of the present research was to examine associations between noise exposure (which increases workload) and components of the psychological contract (fairness; trust; organisational commitment; work satisfaction; motivation; organisational citizenship; and intention to stay/quit). 166 workers completed a survey measuring components of the psychological contract, perceptions of noise exposure and other job characteristics. Univariate analyses showed that higher noise exposure was associated with a more negative psychological contract. However, adjustment for other job characteristics, both negative (e.g. job demands) and positive (e.g. control and support), removed the significant effects of noise. These results confirm previous research suggesting that psychosocial stressors have greater behavioural effects than components of the physical working environment such as noise

Psychopathic leadership a case study of a corporate psychopath CEO

This longitudinal case study reports on a charity in the UK which gained a new CEO who was reported by two middle managers who worked in the charity, to embody (respectively) all or most of the ten characteristics within a measure of corporate psychopathy. The leadership of this CEO with a high corporate psychopathy score was reported to be so poor that the organisation was described as being one without leadership and as a lost organisation with no direction. This paper outlines the resultant characteristics of the ensuing aimlessness and lack of drive of the organisation involved. Comparisons are made to a previous CEO in the same organisation, who was reportedly an authentic, effective and transformational leader. Outcomes under the CEO with a high corporate psychopathy score were related to bullying, staff withdrawal and turnover as effective employees stayed away from and/or left the organisation. Outcomes also included a marked organisational decline in terms of revenue, employee commitment, creativity and organisational innovativeness. The paper makes a contribution to both leadership and to corporate psychopathy research as it appears to be the first reported study of a CEO with a high corporate psychopathy score

SME insolvency, bankruptcy, and survival: an examination of retrenchment strategies

A key assertion in the turnaround literature is that when survival is threatened, it is necessary to undertake asset and cost retrenchment strategies that stabilise the performance decline and provide a base for survival and recovery. Correcting for methodological weaknesses in the literature, this study of Spanish SMEs finds that retrenchment of inventory and employees is associated with liquidation. Furthermore, neither intangible asset nor tangible asset retrenchment is associated with survival. Only retrenchment of debt is associated with survival. These results challenge conventional wisdom on retrenchment in turnaround situations. Automatic, across-the-board retrenchment is not a universal panacea to achieve turnaround and should not be implemented as a reflex response to insolvency. Instead, managers of insolvent firms should focus on liquidity and operational improvements, which result in debt reduction. Great care should be taken with the need for, and the extent of, retrenchment in inventory and employees

Fast Fish Eat Slow Fish: Business Transformation at Autogrill

status: publishe

Self-monitoring

Individual difference construct that captures an individual’s ability to observe and control one’s own behavior, based on situational cues and social appropriateness