B. Parker Ellen

Personal Initiative and Job Performance Evaluations Role of Political Skill in Opportunity Recognition and Capitalization

In recent years, personal initiative has been found to predict job performance. However, implicit in this direct initiative–performance relationship are more complex process dynamics that can be better understood when contextual antecedents, moderators, and mediators are considered. Drawing from perspectives of proactive behavior as a goal-directed process, a research model of personal initiative was tested in a three-study investigation intended to build upon and advance prior work. Specifically, the model indicates that climate for initiative interacts with the social astuteness dimension of political skill (i.e., opportunity recognition) to influence the demonstration of personal initiative, and this first part of the model is tested and supported in Study 1. Then, personal initiative is hypothesized to interact with the interpersonal influence dimension of political skill (i.e., opportunity capitalization) to predict supervisor assessments of job performance, and this part of the model is tested and supported in Study 2. Study 3 provided a test of the entire model and demonstrated support for moderated mediation, thus adding increased confidence in the validity of the theory and findings through constructive replication.

The role of reputation in the organizational sciences: A multilevel review, construct assessment, and research directions

Abstract Scholarship on reputation in and of organizations has been going on for decades, and it always has separated along level of analysis issues, whereby the separate literatures on individual, group/team/unit, and organization reputation fail to acknowledge each other. This sends the implicit message that reputation is a fundamentally different phenomenon at the three different levels of analysis. We tested the validity of this implicit assumption by conducting a multilevel review of the reputation literature, and drawing conclusions about the “level-specific” or “level-generic” nature of the reputation construct. The review results permitted the conclusion that reputation phenomena are essentially the same at all levels of analysis. Based on this, we frame a future agenda for theory and research on reputation.

Personality and political skill as distal and proximal predictors of leadership evaluations

Purpose – Although individual difference variables are important in the prediction of leadership effectiveness, comparatively little empirical research has examined distal and proximal traits/characteristics that help managers lead effectively in organizations. The aim of this paper is to extend previous research by examining whether and how specific distal, narrow personality traits and the more proximal characteristic of political skill are related to decisiveness, a specific competency of leadership effectiveness, as rated from direct reports and peers. Design/methodology/approach – Self-report data on political skill and personality traits (i.e. perceptiveness and affability) from 225 practicing managers from the US, together with other-report (i.e. peer and subordinate) ratings of their leadership effectiveness (i.e. decisiveness) were used to test the mediating effects of political skill. Findings – Results show that political skill (i.e. the social astuteness dimension) mediated the relationships b...

Examining the interactive effects of accountability, politics, and voice

Purpose – Research has shown accountability can produce both positive and negative outcomes. Further, because of inherent environmental uncertainty, perceptions of organizational politics often interact with accountability to produce negative effects. However, using uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that employees can use proactive voice to exercise control in the ambiguity of highly accountable and political environments. Design/methodology/approach – This two sample study of graduate school alumni (n=211) and insurance employees (n=186) explored the three-way interaction of felt accountability×politics perceptions×proactive voice on work performance, job satisfaction, and job tension. Findings – As hypothesized, high levels of felt accountability and politics were most strongly associated with favorable outcomes when coupled with increased voice behavior. Conversely, felt accountability and politics were related to negative outcomes in settings associated with low proa...

Social Influence Opportunity Recognition, Evaluation, and Capitalization: Increased Theoretical Specification Through Political Skill’s Dimensional Dynamics:

Social influence is one of the oldest and most researched constructs in organizational behavior. Most research has examined the “what” and “who” of social influence behavior, but it was not until recently that scholars began examining the “how,” or the operation, of social influence techniques and behaviors. Social effectiveness constructs, such as political skill, have been the primary focus of this research effort. However, despite these constructs illuminating social influence processes, little is known about the actual operation of the social effectiveness constructs themselves. Thus, to develop a more complete understanding of social influence effectiveness, this article develops a theoretical framework by synthesizing several literatures and explaining how the individual dimensions of political skill affect the social influence process. Specifically, the authors (a) review and integrate research and theory in social influence and political skill; (b) develop an opportunity recognition, evaluation, and capitalization model to provide a theoretical framework for the dimensional dynamics of political skill; and (c) provide suggestions for how this framework informs future political skill research.

Board Antecedents of CEO Duality and the Moderating Role of Country-level Managerial Discretion: A Meta-analytic Investigation

CEO duality reduces boards’ monitoring capacity. But governance substitution theory holds that boards of directors who can effectively monitor their CEOs are more likely to adopt the CEO duality governance structure. By examining relationships between board characteristics underlying their monitoring capacity and CEO duality, we bring evidence to bear on governance substitution theory. Further, by applying a managerial discretion theory lens to CEO duality, we extend governance substitution theory to the cross‐country context where institutional features vary in their constraints on managerial discretion. Meta‐analytic results from a dataset of 297 studies across 32 countries/regions provided support for the majority of our predictions. As predicted, board independence and certain types of board human capital were positively related to CEO duality. Unexpectedly, board ownership was negatively related to CEO duality. Additionally, country‐level managerial discretion significantly moderated the board independence‐ and human capital‐duality relationships (but not the board‐ownership‐duality relationship) as predicted.