Understanding the initiative paradox:the interplay of leader neuroticism and follower traits in evaluating the desirability of follower proactivity

This study investigates the relationship between leaders’ neuroticism and their evaluation of the desirability of followers’ proactive behaviour. We argue that leaders high in neuroticism are likely to evaluate follower proactivity as less desirable and that this relationship is amplified when followers are low in conscientiousness and agreeableness. Based on trait activation theory, we further propose that worry and threat act as underlying mechanisms of the interaction between these traits. We hypothesize that leaders high in neuroticism feel more threatened by the proactive behaviours shown by followers’ low in conscientiousness and agreeableness and rate the proactive behaviours of these followers as less desirable. In a field study with 205 leader–follower dyads (Study 1), we found the expected interaction effect. Leaders’ neuroticism interacted with their followers’ conscientiousness and agreeableness to predict their evaluation of the desirability of followers’ proactive behaviour. Study 2, an experimental vignette study, suggests a moderated indirect effect through the experience of threat, but not worry. We found no direct effects of leader neuroticism on the desirability ratings of followers’ proactive behaviour. This research emphasizes the value of investigating the interplay between leader and follower traits and the underlying cognitive-emotional processes for leader evaluations of followers’ proactivity

The Role of Organizational Control Systems in Employees’ Organizational Trust and Performance Outcomes

This study examined how organizational control is related to employees’ organizational trust. We specifically focus on how different forms of control (process, outcome, and normative) relate to employees’ trust in their employing organizations and examine whether such trust in turn relates positively to employee job performance (task performance and organizational citizenship behavior). In addition, and in response to the recommendations of past research, we examined these relationships in a high control and compliance-based cultural context. Using data from 105 employee–supervisor dyads from professional services firms in Singapore, we find support for our hypothesized model. The implications of the results for theory and practice, and directions for future research, are discussed.Economics of Technology and Innovatio

Cultural and leadership predictors of corporate social responsibility values of top management: A GLOBE study of 15 countries.

This paper examines cultural and leadership variables associated with corporate social responsibility values that managers apply to their decision-making. In this longitudinal study, we analyze data from 561 firms located in 15 countries on five continents to illustrate how the cultural dimensions of institutional collectivism and power distance predict social responsibility values on the part of top management team members. CEO visionary leadership and integrity were also uniquely predictive of such values. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 823–837. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400230

Doing it for themselves?: Performance appraisal for project based organizations, the role of employees, and challenges to theory

We explore performance appraisal in project‐based organisations and provide novel insights into appraisal processes in this context. These include the central role of employees in orchestrating the appraisal process, the multiple actors that have input to appraisal including project managers, the distance between employees and their official line managers, and the weak coordinating role of human resource specialists in these systems. We draw attention to the drawbacks of current theorising on appraisal to predict and explain outcomes from appraisal systems that are not premised on stable line manager/employee dyads. Theorising based primarily on social exchange theories needs to be reconsidered in this context and new theories developed. We also question how human resource specialists can better support employees, and managers of all kinds, in their implementation roles in polyadic human resource management systems to ensure transparency, equity, and fairness of appraisal processes in a project‐based organisational context

Doing it for themselves?: Performance appraisal for project based organizations, the role of employees, and challenges to theory

We explore performance appraisal in project‐based organisations and provide novel insights into appraisal processes in this context. These include the central role of employees in orchestrating the appraisal process, the multiple actors that have input to appraisal including project managers, the distance between employees and their official line managers, and the weak coordinating role of human resource specialists in these systems. We draw attention to the drawbacks of current theorising on appraisal to predict and explain outcomes from appraisal systems that are not premised on stable line manager/employee dyads. Theorising based primarily on social exchange theories needs to be reconsidered in this context and new theories developed. We also question how human resource specialists can better support employees, and managers of all kinds, in their implementation roles in polyadic human resource management systems to ensure transparency, equity, and fairness of appraisal processes in a project‐based organisational context

Feeling Vital After a Good Night’s Sleep : The Interplay of Energetical Resources and Self-efficacy for Daily Proactivity

This study aims to investigate the role of daily vitality as an energy-based mechanism through which sleep quantity and quality relate to proactive behavior. In addition, we propose that daily self-efficacy forms a contingency condition in that self-efficacy facilitates the translation of vitality into proactive behavior. We conducted a 7-day diary study based on a sample of 66 employees who completed surveys 3 times daily. We used multilevel regression analyses to test the hypotheses while controlling for the 1-day lagged measures of vitality and proactivity. The results provide evidence for a model of moderated mediation. Sleep quality but not quantity predicted an increase in daily vitality. Self-efficacy moderated the relationship between vitality and daily proactivity such that this relationship was stronger when self-efficacy was reported to be high rather than low. The conditional effect mediated by vitality was significant for sleep quality but not for sleep quantity and occurred at the within-person level of analysis. These results suggest that organizations aiming to boost daily proactivity in employees can benefit from increasing employees' self-efficacy and supporting them in developing strategies to ensure sufficient vitality. One such strategy is improving sleep quality. This study extends the literature on dynamics in proactive work behavior and its well-being-related antecedents by exploring both vitality as an underlying energetic mechanism and daily self-efficacy as a boundary condition. (PsycINFO Database Recor

Een gedragsbenadering van ethisch leiderschap

In dit artikel wordt een overzicht gegeven van de onderzoeksliteratuur op het gebied van ethisch leiderschap. Voor ethische leidinggevenden is het belangrijk om het juiste voorbeeld te geven en een vertrouwensband met werknemers op te bouwen. Dit leidt bij medewerkers onder andere tot meer tevredenheid, inspanning, vertrouwen en bereidheid tot rapporteren van problemen aan het management, maar ook tot meer samenwerking en proactiviteit. Vooral leidinggevenden met een hoge mate van sociale verantwoordelijkheid, cognitief morele ontwikkeling en bepaalde karaktereigenschappen zijn geneigd tot het tonen van ethisch leiderschap. Het artikel besluit met de bespreking van praktische implicaties

Angels and Demons: The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Machiavellian Employees’ Work Behaviors

Machiavellians can be characterized as goal-driven people who are willing to use all possible means to achieve their ends, and employees scoring high on Machiavellianism are thus predisposed to engage in unethical and organizationally undesirable behaviors. We propose that leadership can help to manage such employees in a way that reduces undesirable and increases desirable behaviors. Studies on the effects of leadership styles on Machiavellian employees are scarce. Here we investigate the relationship of ethical leadership with prosocial (helping colleagues or affiliative OCB) and antisocial work behavior (knowledge hiding and emotional manipulation) for employees who are higher or lower in Machiavellianism. The effect of an ethical leadership style on employees predisposed to engage in unethical behaviors has not been investigated so far. In a cross-sectional multi-source survey study among a sample of 159 unique leader–follower dyads, we find interaction effects between leadership and employee Machiavellianism for prosocial and antisocial work behavior. As expected, employee Machiavellianism comes with reduced helping behavior and increased knowledge hiding and emotional manipulation, but only when ethical leadership is low. Under highly ethical leaders, such increases in organizationally undesirable behaviors of Machiavellian employees do not occur. While the cross-sectional design precludes conclusions about the direction of causality, findings of our study suggest to further explore (and from a practical perspective to invest in) ethical leadership as a potential remedy for undesirable behavior of Machiavellian employees