Aneika L. Simmons

The Influence of Openness to Experience and Organizational Justice on Creativity

Creative performance is a desired organizational outcome that can be influenced by individual differences and contextual factors. An empirical investigation was conducted to study perceptions of organizational justice, an important situational variable, and its influence on individual creative performance. Literature suggests that organizations look to hire individuals who have individual differences that make them more inclined to produce creative outputs; thus, this investigation also sought to determine how openness to experience, a construct known to have a positive relationship with creative performance, might interact with justice perceptions. This investigation uncovered a main effect relationship between procedural justice and creativity, as well as provided evidence that openness to experience moderates the relationship between distributive justice and creativity.

The Role of Means Efficacy When Predicting Creative Performance

According to the Internal-External Efficacy model, self-efficacy is an insufficient explanation for self-regulated behavior because it ignores the influence of external resources. Applying this theory of motivation to the prediction of creative performance, the extent to which means efficacy or the belief in the utility of external resources predicted independent assessments of creativity was tested. In Study 1, student webmasters’ (N =124) means efficacy predicted subject matter experts ratings of creativity of student organization homepages. In Study 2, employees’ (N = 128) means efficacy predicted individual supervisory ratings of creative performance. In addition, means efficacy enhanced the positive relationship between creative self-efficacy and supervisors’ ratings of creative performance. Implications for enhancing creativity in the workplace are discussed.

Leadership sagacity and its relationship with individual creative performance and innovation

Purpose – The creativity literature has largely overlooked an important construct associated with progressing beyond individual creative performance (i.e. the generation of an idea) to innovation (i.e. the implementation of an idea). That missing construct is leadership sagacity. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the role that sagacity plays between individual creative and innovative work. The authors also aim to discuss the importance of obtaining empirical organizational evidence that creative performance mediates the relationship between leadership supportive behavior and innovation as leadership sagacity plays an integral role among these vital relationships.Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide theoretical reasoning for why sagacity is an important construct with regard to the relationships among leadership supportive behavior, individual creativity and innovation.Findings – It is concluded that leadership sagacity is key to the production of innovative work.Practical implicat...

A quantitative and qualitative analysis of social dominance orientation and race-related comments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine how social dominance orientation (SDO) might influence perceptions of bias when the race of the offender and the target of the biased comment is either white or black. Design/methodology/approach – This investigation was conducted in a laboratory with undergraduate students. Findings – In a study utilizing American student participants, the authors found that when an individual is high in SDO they are more likely to perceive racism/stereotyping when a low-status group member (i.e. African-American) makes a racially biased comment about high-status group members (i.e. Caucasian). Originality/value – The authors determined the influence of SDO on the perception of racial comments regarding African-Americans and Caucasians. These findings are also unique in that the authors manipulate the authority (i.e. status) of the offender and target.

Attitudes toward women managers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine how mens perceptions of power distance (PD) and levels of social dominance orientation (SDO) interact to influence perceptions of women as managers in egalitarian and non‐egalitarian countries.Design/methodology/approach – A team of multinational researchers distributed questionnaires composed of previously validated scales measuring SDO, PD and Attitude toward Women as Managers to US and Kuwaiti men in college. The study hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression.Findings – It was discovered that high levels of SDO in college men was negatively related to a favorable attitude toward women as managers in both the US and Kuwait. It was also found that perceptions of PD moderated the relationship between SDO and attitudes toward women as managers in Kuwait, but not in the USA. In addition, the interaction between PD and SDO was weaker in cultures that are more egalitarian as compared to those considered to be non‐egalitarian. The findings also s...

The selection of leaders and social dominance orientation

Purpose – Individuals who are high in social dominance orientation (SDO) tend to endorse the belief that members of traditionally considered high-status groups should dominate members of traditionally considered low-status groups within society. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how SDO influences the selection of an individual who is a member of a traditionally considered low-status group for a leadership position as opposed to a non-leadership position. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology included undergraduate business students who were investigated in a laboratory setting. Findings – Results indicate that individuals who are high in SDO are more likely to discriminate against the most qualified candidate who is a traditionally considered low-status group member when compared to those low in SDO, and job position moderated this outcome. This effect was stronger when selecting the traditionally considered low-status group member candidate for a leadership role as opposed to a non-lea...

The Effect of Gender Identity on Perceptions of Authority Figures’ Racial Comments

ABSTRACT Social identity affects perceptions of leaders and subordinates in organizations. This investigation examined gender identity an aspect of social identity. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative survey methods, we theorized that gender identity affects perceptions of racism by authority figures. The quantitative results indicated that white women participants with a low gender identity were more likely to perceive racism by a low-status authority figure (e.g., a black individual) who made a derogatory racial comment toward white students than when a high-status group member authority figure (i.e., a white individual) made similar comments. This suggests that women have low feelings of solidarity with oppressed racial groups when they have a low gender identity. However, the qualitative results indicated that, overall, more women than men perceived racism in negative racial comments by the authority figure, no matter the authority figure’s social status.