Catherine K. Lam

Harming High Performers: A Social Comparison Perspective on Interpersonal Harming in Work Teams

This study developed a multilevel model of the interpersonal harming behavior associated with social comparison processes in work teams. We tested this model using temporally lagged data from a sample of student teams (Study 1) and cross-sectional data from a sample of work teams in a telecommunication services company (Study 2). In both studies, social relations analyses revealed that in teams with less cooperative goals, comparison to a higher performing team member was positively associated with interpersonal harming behavior, but only when expectations of future performance similarity to that member were low. The interactive relationship of social comparison and expected future performance similarity with interpersonal harming was buffered, however, in teams with more cooperative goals.

When my supervisor dislikes you more than me: the effect of dissimilarity in leader-member exchange on coworkers' interpersonal emotion and perceived help.

According to balance theory (Heider, 1958), when 2 coworkers develop different levels of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships with their supervisor, a triadic relational imbalance will arise among the 3 parties that may result in hostile sentiments and poor social interactions between them. This study examines the consequences and psychological processes of (dis)similar levels of LMX on the interpersonal interactions between coworkers. Using data from 2 independent studies, the results of social relations analyses show that (a) actual (dis)similarity in LMX between Coworkers A and B increases Coworker As feelings of contempt for Coworker B and decreases Coworker As perception of help received from Coworker B (Study 1); (b) Coworker A is more likely to experience contempt for Coworker B when Coworker A perceives that he/she has a higher or lower level of LMX compared to Coworker B than when Coworker A perceives that his/her level of LMX is similar to Coworker Bs (Study 2); and (c) these relationships only hold true for employees with a high social comparison orientation (SCO) in both Studies 1 and 2. Particularly, in Study 1, we also show that contempt is a crucial mediator that transmits the interactive effect of LMX (dis)similarity and SCO on perceptions of help received from coworkers. Furthermore, an average level of perceived help from coworkers is positively related to the sales performance of individual employees.

Slacking Off in Comfort: A Dual-Pathway Model for Psychological Safety Climate

Research on psychological safety climate has primarily focused on its salutary effects on group risk-taking behaviors. We developed a group-level dual-pathway model in which psychological safety climate also exerts a simultaneous negative effect on risk-taking behaviors by diminishing group average work motivation. In a field survey, we found that psychological safety climate was positively related to group learning behavior and voice through a reduction in group average fear of failure but negatively related to them through a reduction in group average work motivation. This dual-pathway model and its mechanisms were conceptually replicated in a laboratory experiment with group creativity as a different risk-taking behavior. In this experiment, we examined the moderating effects of group individualism/collectivism and found that psychological safety climate increased the originality and flexibility dimensions of group creativity through a reduction in group average fear of failure only in groups with a collectivistic orientation and reduced the fluency dimension of and time spent on creativity through a reduction in group average work motivation only in individualistic groups.

Interpersonal conflict and citizenship behavior: The role of suppression and goal interdependence

This study examines the relationship between relational conflict and perceived interpersonal citizenship behavior. Drawing on the threat regulation model (William, 2007), our research demonstrates both the beneficial and detrimental consequences of relational conflict and the role of suppression in a social context. In teams with high goal interdependence, suppression may serve as a buffer against the harmful outcomes of relational conflict and may even transform such negative events into positive consequences (increased interpersonal citizenship behavior among members). Suppression may, in contrast, strengthen the negative conflict-citizenship linkage when team goals are less interdependent. The impacts of relational conflict and suppression appear more complex than we expected - our understanding of the potential beneficial outcomes of these two variables is far from adequate.

Emotional Labor Interactions and Coworker Harming: A Self-Regulatory Depletion Perspective

This study examines spillover effects of emotional labor from customer to coworker interactions using temporally lagged data from a sample of front-line service employees. Results showed that surfa...

Leadership Threshold: Participative Leadership, Information Sharing, and Performance

This study examined a J-shaped curvilinear relationship between participative leadership and performance, suggesting that participative leadership was unrelated to employee performance before attaining a moderate level of participative leadership (i.e., a threshold); above this threshold, higher participative leadership was related to higher employee performance. Integrating theories of activation and dissonance, we hypothesized that leaders’ information-sharing behavior would moderate this curvilinear relationship. We tested this model using two independent samples (Study 1: office administrators, Study 2: agents at call centers and sales representatives). Results across the two studies revealed that this curvilinear relationship was particularly pronounced when leaders’ information-sharing behavior was high and buffered when it was low. Further, Study 2 also found a similar curvilinear relationship between participative leadership and organizational commitment that is moderated by information sharing.