Charn P. McAllister

From Combat to Khakis: An Exploratory Examination of Job Stress With Veterans

Veterans are having a difficult time reintegrating back into the civilian sector following their service, with nearly 44% reporting some type of problem. The experienced stress and resultant strain associated with this reintegration may be caused by an incongruence between veterans’ military identities and their civilian work environments, a form of strain we term veteran identity strain (Vet-IS). To better understand the experienced strain associated with incongruent veteran and civilian work identities, we examine the effects of military rank on Vet-IS, the moderating role of political skill on the relationship between rank and Vet-IS, and how this relationship affects the outcomes of work intensity and vigor. A mediated moderation analysis of 251 veterans provided support for most study hypotheses, which predicted that rank would have an indirect effect on work intensity and vigor through Vet-IS, conditional upon veterans’ levels of political skill. Contributions and future research directions are discussed.

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.

Do I Fit In? Perceptions of Organizational Fit as a Resource in the Workplace Stress Process:

A large number of research studies in the stress literature over the previous 20 years have examined how organizational demands influence experienced stress; however, little research has examined how perceptions of organizational fit influence experienced stress and the stress process. In the present study, we use the conservation of resources (COR) theory to examine how perceptions of hindrance stressors, challenge stressors, and organizational fit (i.e., a resource) affect employees’ intrapersonal (i.e., job satisfaction and work intensity) and interpersonal (i.e., interpersonal workplace deviance and work-to-family conflict) outcomes through job strain (i.e., job tension) and motivational (i.e., vigor) cognitive stress processes. Results from three samples of data (nSample 1 = 268, nSample 2 = 259, nSample 3 = 168) largely supported the hypothesized model and suggested that perceptions of organizational fit can be a resource associated with favorable effects on employees’ stress processes. Thus, we contribute to the stress and fit literatures by proposing and demonstrating empirical support for a COR theoretical explanation of why perceptions of organizational fit are a resource for employees. The results are important because they help provide a broader view of the effects of perceptions of organizational fit on employees’ stress processes than offered by prior research and suggest that organizational leaders have the opportunity to help employees manage workplace stress by fostering perceptions of organizational fit. Implications of results for theory and practice, strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are presented.

The Reputation Playbook: Exploring How Reputation Can Be Leveraged to Improve Recruiting Effectiveness in NCAA Men’s Basketball

Reputation is a critical factor in the recruiting process. Organizational reputation also is a complex variable. Different dimensions of reputation may play very different roles in attracting recruits. In this study, a multidimensional (i.e., performance, character/integrity, support) reputation model is used to predict male basketball recruits’ university choice. Data were collected on the ESPN Top 100 male high school athletes recruited to NCAA Division I basketball programs for each year from 2010–2014 (n = 500). Probit regression analyses using maximum likelihood estimation predicted to what extent each reputation-based dimension affected the likelihood of an athlete selecting a university. Subscribe to JASM

The Call of Duty: A Duty Development Model of Organizational Commitment

Abstract Although the concept of duty has a historic and philosophical foundations dating back to Aristotle, there is very little theory and research in this area of scientific inquiry. In an effort to address this lack of scholarship, a theoretical foundation and a model are presented that clearly delineate the construct of duty, and the nature of its development within an individual-organization relationship. Using social exchange theory and the three-component model of organizational commitment as the conceptual foundations, the proposed duty development model explains the individual-level antecedents and the phases of commitment that individuals may progress through during their tenure in an organization. The various types of exchanges and transactions inherent in the social exchange theory provide the basis for each phase of commitment individuals experience. It is proposed that certain antecedents make individuals more likely to form a sense of duty toward an organization, but the development of this type of relationship requires an organization to focus on commitment building efforts, such as perceived organizational support and organizational culture. Contributions to theory and research, organizational implications, and directions for future research are discussed.

Mitigating influence of transcendence on politics perceptions’ negative effects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how a cognitive process, transcendence, moderates the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and several work outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Participants across two studies (Study 1: 187 student-recruited working adults; Study 2: 158 information technology employees) provided a demographically diverse sample for the analyses. Key variables were transcendence, POPs, job satisfaction, job tension, emotional exhaustion, work effort, and frustration. Findings Results corroborated the hypotheses and supported the authors’ argument that POPs lacked influence on work outcomes when individuals possessed high levels of transcendence. Specifically, high levels of transcendence attenuated the decreases in job satisfaction and work effort associated with POPs. Additionally, transcendence acted as an antidote to several workplace ills by weakening the increases in job tension, emotional exhaustion, and frustration usually associated with POPs. Research limitations/implications This study found that transcendence, an individual-level cognitive style, can improve work outcomes for employees in workplaces where POPs exist. Future studies should use longitudinal data to study how changes in POPs over time affect individuals’ reported levels of transcendence. Practical implications Although it is impossible to eliminate politics in organizations, antidotes like transcendence can improve individuals’ responses to POPs. Originality/value This study is one of the first to utilize an individual-level cognitive style to examine possible options for attenuating the effects of POPs on individuals’ work outcomes.

An exploration of the role of subordinate affect in leader evaluations.

Leadership research has been encumbered by a proliferation of constructs and measures, despite little evidence that each is sufficiently conceptually and operationally distinct from the others. We draw from research on subordinates’ implicit theories of leader behavior, behaviorally anchored rating scales, and decision making to argue that leader affect (i.e., the degree to which subordinates have positive and negative feelings about their supervisors) underlies the common variance shared by many leadership measures. To explore this possibility, we developed and validated measures of positive and negative leader affect (i.e., the Leader Affect Questionnaires; LAQs). We conducted 10 studies to develop the five-item positive and negative LAQs and to examine their convergent, discriminant, predictive, and criterion-related validity. We conclude that a) the LAQs provide highly reliable and valid tools for assessing subordinates’ evaluations of their leaders; b) there is significant overlap between existing leadership measures, and a large proportion of this overlap is a function of the affect captured by the LAQs; c) when the LAQs are used as control variables, in most cases, they reduce the strength of relationships between leadership measures and other variables; d) the LAQs account for significant variance in outcomes beyond that explained by other leadership measures; and e) there is a considerable amount of unexplained variance between leadership measures that the LAQs do not capture. Research suggestions are provided and the implications of our results are discussed.

She got game: Investigating how reputation can be leveraged to improve recruiting effectiveness in National Collegiate Athletic Association women’s basketball:

Although recruiting processes and outcomes in National Collegiate Athletic Association sports is an incredibly important facet of collegiate athletics, it is underdeveloped in several areas. Gaps in knowledge exist when it comes to better understanding actual recruits obtained, the role of reputation, and what factors may influence the school-choice decision of elite, female student-athletes. Probit analyses examining data from 500 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I female basketball players, approximately 100 universities, and 20 National Collegiate Athletic Association conferences yield that recruits’ decisions are primarily influenced by the total number of Elite 8 teams and national championships from a team’s affiliated conference, geographic distance between recruits’ hometowns and the university, average arena attendance, and the percentage comparing the basketball arena capacity and game attendance. The results make both theoretical and practical contributions by demonstrating the predictive power of reputation, while also offering recruiters actionable information that potential recruits likely are considering each recruiting cycle.