Barbara Wisse

The Formation of Group Affect and Team Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Identification

In the current research we use the social identity perspective to enhance our understanding of group affect (i.e. a collectively shared pattern of affective states among group members). Because higher identification (i.e. the extent to which group members define themselves in terms of their group membership) is related to higher attentiveness to fellow group members, we expected that group identification would foster affective convergence, and that the effects of group affective tone on team effectiveness would be stronger for higher identifying groups. A survey of teams (n=71 teams) confirmed our expectations. A scenario experiment (n=121 participants) added to our findings by showing that identification does indeed lead group members to affectively converge to their fellow group members and that this affective convergence, in turn, explains subsequent team-oriented attitudes. Our study testifies to the notion that team managers may want to take notice of and manage affect in work groups, because, especially in higher identifying teams, affect may spread among team members and influence the teams effectiveness.

An Image of Who We Might Become: Vision Communication, Possible Selves, and Vision Pursuit

We propose a model of vision communication that emphasizes the mediating role of follower collective possible selves—that is, self-conception in terms of what the collective (team, organization) which one is a member of may become in the future that can be held by individuals but can also be shared by multiple individuals. Our model is the first to provide an integrative account of how vision communication may stimulate the pursuit of the vision by individuals and collectives, and it complements and extends prior research in three important ways. First, in contrast to an earlier emphasis on the role of individual perceptions of the current self, our model puts perceptions of the future self at the forefront. It captures how vision communication can invite social sharedness of these perceptions, thus doing justice to visions’ nature as images of a future for the collective. Second, in contrast to earlier work on vision communication focusing on general indicators of leadership effectiveness, our model puts what is arguably the most important outcome for vision communication center stage: vision pursuit, the followers’ actions aimed at making the vision reality. We argue that the creation of collective possible selves by followers is crucial for vision communication because collective possible selves explain how vision communication relates to vision pursuit. Third, our model also addresses aspects of vision communication that may facilitate the processes through which visions become internalized as possible selves, and it captures the processes through which such possible selves become shared among members of a collective and lead to collective vision pursuit.

Power and interdependence in organizations

List of figures List of tables List of contributors Foreword Introduction Part I. Relationships to Manage the Faces of Power: 1. Understanding power in organizations Jeffrey Pfeffer 2. How can power be tamed? David G. Winter 3. Power and self-construal: how the self affects power processes Barbara Wisse and Daan van Knippenberg 4. The conceptualization of power and the nature of interdependency: the role of legitimacy and culture Joris Lammers and Adam D. Galinski 5. Power in cooperation and competition: understanding the positive and negative faces of power Dean Tjosvold and Peiguan Wu Part II. Participative Leadership: Leading with Others: 6. Growing powerful using cherry picking strategies: coworker networks as cherry trees George B. Graen 7. Acting fairly to be the boss: procedural justice as a tool to affirm power relationships with subordinates David De Cremer and Marius van Dijke 8. A tale of two theories: implicit theories of power and power-sharing in organizations Peter T. Coleman Part III. Exchange Dynamics and Outcomes: 9. Power and social exchange Linda Molm 10. The power process and emotion Edward J. Lawler and Chad A. Proell 11. Gender inequalities in power in organizations Alice H. Eagly and Agneta Fischer Part IV. Power to Influence: 12. Power and the interpersonal influence of leaders Gary Yukl 13. Bases of leader power and effectiveness M. Afzal Rahim 14. Power tactics preference in organizations: individual and situational factors Meni Koslowsky and Joseph Schwarzwald 15. Influence triggers and compliance: a discussion of the affects of power, motivation, resistance and antecedents John E. Barbuto, Jr. and Gregory T. Gifford 16. Leadership and conflict: using power to manage conflict in groups for better rather than worse Randall S. Peterson and Sarah Ronson 17. Organizational change Lourdes Munduate and Francisco J. Medina Part V. Leading with Values: 18. Servant-leadership, key to follower well-being Dirk van Dierendonck, Inge Nuijten and Imke Heeren 19. Ethical leadership: the socially responsible use of power Annebel H. B. De Hoogh and Deanne N. Den Hartog 20. The tao of value leadership and the power of interdependence Ping Ping Fu and Caroline Fu Index.

Shared perceptions of perceived justice as a predictor of externally rated departmental level academic performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate if shared perceptions of organizational justice affect externally rated group-level performance. Previous studies did not consider distributive justice, nor did they control for the possible confounding effects of baseline performance. The present study relates shared perceptions of procedural, interactional, and distributive justice to externally rated departmental level academic performance and takes previous performance into account. We found support for the distributive justice performance link, partial support for the procedural justice-performance link, but contrary to our expectations interactional justice was unrelated to performance. All in all, the results seem to support the call for a re-examination of the role of distributive justice in organizational processes.

Motivation in words : promotion- and prevention-oriented leader communication in times of crisis.

Research demonstrates that situational uncertainty or crisis strongly influences the endorsement of the more charismatic or decisive leadership styles and that inspirational communication is at the heart of these styles. However, there is currently little understanding of what leaders should convey through their communication to be endorsed in crisis. Based on regulatory focus theory, we argue that times of crisis make leaders who use more promotion-oriented communication more likely to be endorsed and leaders who use more prevention-oriented communication less likely to be endorsed. Results of Study 1, an archival study of U.S. presidents, show that presidents who use more promotion-oriented communication are more endorsed but only if economic growth is low or if inflation is high, while no effects of the use of prevention orientation of communication surfaces. Results of Study 2, a laboratory experiment, show that leaders who communicate a promotion orientation, as compared to a prevention orientation, motivate higher performance in participants in a crisis condition, but that there is no difference in a no-crisis (i.e. control) condition. Finally, results of Study 3, a scenario experiment, demonstrate that organizational leaders that communicate more promotion-oriented (as opposed to more prevention-oriented) have a higher chance of being endorsed but only in times of crisis and that this effect is mediated by followers’ motivation to realize the plans of the leader.

On Ethically Solvent Leaders: The Roles of Pride and Moral Identity in Predicting Leader Ethical Behavior

The popular media has repeatedly pointed to pride as one of the key factors motivating leaders to behave unethically. However, given the devastating consequences that leader unethical behavior may have, a more scientific account of the role of pride is warranted. The present study differentiates between authentic and hubristic pride and assesses its impact on leader ethical behavior, while taking into consideration the extent to which leaders find it important to their self-concept to be a moral person. In two experiments we found that with higher levels of moral identity, authentically proud leaders are more likely to engage in ethical behavior than hubristically proud leaders, and that this effect is mediated by leaders’ motivation to act selflessly. A field survey among organizational leaders corroborated that moral identity may bring the positive effect of authentic pride and the negative effect of hubristic pride on leader ethical behavior to the forefront.

When Change Causes Stress: Effects of Self-construal and Change Consequences.

PurposeOrganizational change can be a major stress factor for employees. We investigate if stress responses can be explained by the extent to which there is a match between employee self-construal (in personal or collective terms) and change consequences (i.e., does the change particularly have consequences for the individual or for the group). We further investigate if the interactive effect of self-construal and change consequences on stress will be mediated by feelings of uncertainty.Design/Methodology/ApproachData were obtained in three studies. Study 1, a laboratory study, focused on physiological stress. Study 2, a business scenario, focused on anticipated stress. Study 3, a cross-sectional survey, focused on perceived stress. Studies 2 and 3 also included measures of uncertainty in order to test its mediating qualities.FindingsChange is more likely to lead to stress when the change has consequences for matters that are central to employees’ sense of self, and particularly so when the personal self is salient. This effect is mediated by feelings of uncertainty.ImplicationsUnderstanding why some people experience stress during change, while others do so to a lesser extent, may be essential for improving change management practices. It may help to prevent change processes being unnecessarily stressful for employees.Originality/ValueThis is one of the first studies to show that different kinds of change may be leading to uncertainty or stress, depending on employees’ level of self-construal. The multi-method approach boosts the confidence in our findings.

No Regard for Those Who Need It: The Moderating Role of Follower Self-Esteem in the Relationship Between Leader Psychopathy and Leader Self-Serving Behavior

Recent instances of corporate misconduct and examples of blatant leader self-serving behavior have rekindled interest in leader personality traits as antecedents of negative leader behavior. The current research builds upon that work, and examines the relationship between leader psychopathy and leader self-serving behavior. Moreover, we investigate whether follower self-esteem affects the occurrence of self-serving behavior in leaders with psychopathic tendencies. We predict that self-serving behaviors by psychopathic leaders are more likely to occur in the interaction with followers low in self-esteem. We first conducted an experimental study (N = 156), in which we manipulated follower self-esteem, measured leader psychopathy, and assessed their combined effect on leader self-serving behavior using an ultimatum game. We then conducted a multi-source field study (N = 124 leader–follower dyads) using questionnaires to assess leader psychopathy, follower self-esteem, and perceived leader self-serving behavior. Across both studies, we found that leader psychopathy was positively related to their self-serving behavior, but only when followers had low rather than high self-esteem. As expected, our studies showed that the degree to which (perceived) psychopathic traits of leaders are reflected in their behavior depends on the characteristics of their followers. Apparently, the behavioral expression of negative leader traits is not only a matter of the trait strength, but instead is the result of the interplay between leader and follower in a certain context.

Puppet Masters in the Lab: Experimental Methods in Leadership Research

The use of experimental research methods can be of great benefit to researchers who want to gain more insight into causal relationships in leadership processes. In this chapter, we first explain which experimental paradigms and methods are often used by leadership researchers (e.g., vignette studies, laboratory experiments, field experiments, group experiments) and we provide some examples. Subsequently, we address some unique strengths of these experimental methods. Some specific points we discuss are related to issues of internal validity/testing causal explanations, the opportunity of studying specific underlying processes in isolation, testing possible interventions, testing complex models, and the relatively low time investment needed to conduct some types of experimental research. Notably, experimental methods also have potential pitfalls and we discuss those as well by pointing to the pervasive use of student samples, a general lack of psychological realism/external validity, the use of low-impact manipulations of high-impact situations, and the use of short-term approaches to long-term phenomena. Finally, we present a look to the future of leadership research, highlighting recent developments in experimental leadership methods and pointing out opportunities for further development and refinement of these methods.

When uncertainty counteracts feedback seeking: The effects of interpersonal uncertainty and power on direct feedback seeking

Individuals often do not seek as much performance feedback as they actually need in order to adapt to their environment and to improve their performance. The aim of the present research is to examine which individuals are less likely to seek feedback and what their underlying motives are. Across three studies, we argue and show that individuals are less likely to seek feedback when they experience high (vs. low) interpersonal uncertainty, particularly when they feel powerful. As expected, stronger ego-protective motives and weaker image-enhancement motives among powerful individuals who feel interpersonally uncertain explain these findings. The discussion focuses on how these findings contribute to the understanding and promotion of feedback seeking in organizations.