D. Lance Ferris

The Development and Validation of the Workplace Ostracism Scale

This article outlines the development of a 10-item measure of workplace ostracism. Using 6 samples (including multisource and multiwave data), the authors developed a reliable scale with a unidimensional factor structure that replicated across 4 separate samples. The scale possessed both convergent and discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity was demonstrated through the scales relation with basic needs, well-being, job attitudes, job performance, and withdrawal. Overall, the present study suggests that the Workplace Ostracism Scale is a reliable and valid measure and that the workplace ostracism construct has important implications for both individuals and organizations.

Core Self-Evaluations: A Review and Evaluation of the Literature

Core self-evaluation (CSE) represents the fundamental appraisals individuals make about their self-worth and capabilities. CSE is conceptualized as a higher order construct composed of broad and evaluative traits (e.g., self-esteem and generalized self-efficacy). The authors review 15 years of CSE theory and research, focusing in particular on the outcomes, mediators, and moderators of CSE via qualitative and quantitative literature reviews. Meta-analytic results support the relation of CSE with various outcomes, including job and life satisfaction, in-role and extra-role job performance, and perceptions of the work environment (e.g., job characteristics and fairness). The authors conclude with a critical evaluation of CSE theory, measurement, and construct validity, highlighting areas of promise and concern for future CSE research. Key topics requiring further research include integrating CSE within an approach/avoidance framework, ruling out alternative explanations for the emergence of the higher order construct, testing the possibility of intraindividual change in CSE, evaluating the usefulness of CSE for staffing and performance management, and moving beyond CSE to also consider core external evaluations.

Does Power Distance Exacerbate or Mitigate the Effects of Abusive Supervision? It Depends on the Outcome

We predicted that the effects of abusive supervision are likely to be moderated by subordinate power distance orientation and that the nature of the moderating effect will depend on the outcome. Drawing upon work suggesting that high power distance orientation subordinates are more tolerant of supervisory mistreatment, we posited that high power distance orientation subordinates would be less likely to view abusive supervision as interpersonally unfair. Drawing upon social learning theory suggestions that high power distance orientation subordinates are more likely to view supervisors as role models, we posited that high power distance orientation subordinates would be more likely to pattern their own interpersonally deviant behavior after that of abusive supervisors. Across 3 samples we found support for our predicted interactions, culminating in a mediated moderation model demonstrating that social learning mediates the interaction of abusive supervision and power distance on subordinate interpersonal deviance, while ruling out alternate self-regulation impairment or displaced aggression explanations. Implications for the abusive supervision literature are discussed.

Lost sleep and cyberloafing: Evidence from the laboratory and a daylight saving time quasi-experiment.

The Internet is a powerful tool that has changed the way people work. However, the ubiquity of the Internet has led to a new workplace threat to productivity-cyberloafing. Building on the ego depletion model of self-regulation, we examine how lost and low-quality sleep influence employee cyberloafing behaviors and how individual differences in conscientiousness moderate these effects. We also demonstrate that the shift to Daylight Saving Time (DST) results in a dramatic increase in cyberloafing behavior at the national level. We first tested the DST-cyberloafing relation through a national quasi-experiment, then directly tested the relation between sleep and cyberloafing in a closely controlled laboratory setting. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory, practice, and future research.

Interpersonal Injustice and Workplace Deviance The Role of Esteem Threat

The authors integrated predictions from the group value model of justice with an esteem threat framework of deviance to examine the within-person relation between interpersonal justice and workplace deviance. Using a moderated-mediation approach, they predicted that daily interpersonal injustice would lower daily self-esteem; daily self-esteem would in turn mediate the effect of daily interpersonal injustice and interact with trait self-esteem in predicting daily workplace deviance. Using 1,088 daily diary recordings from 100 employees from various industries, the results generally support the hypothesized model linking daily interpersonal justice and daily workplace deviance, even when the effects of previously established mediators (i.e., affect and job satisfaction) were controlled for. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

When Is Success Not Satisfying? Integrating Regulatory Focus and Approach/Avoidance Motivation Theories to Explain the Relation Between Core Self-Evaluation and Job Satisfaction

Integrating implications from regulatory focus and approach/avoidance motivation theories, we present a framework wherein motivational orientations toward positive (approach motivation orientation) or negative (avoidance motivation orientation) stimuli interact with workplace success to mediate the relation of core self-evaluation (CSE) with job satisfaction. Using data collected from supervisor-subordinate dyads (Sample 1) and time-lagged data (Sample 2), we found that the results from two studies indicated that the interaction of workplace success and avoidance motivation orientation mediated relations of CSE with job satisfaction. Although approach motivation orientation did not interact with workplace success, it did mediate the CSE-job satisfaction relation on its own. Implications for the CSE and approach/avoidance literatures are discussed.

A Review of Self-Determination Theory’s Basic Psychological Needs at Work

Self-determination theory (SDT) conceptualizes basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness as innate and essential for ongoing psychological growth, internalization, and well-being. We broadly review the literature on basic psychological need satisfaction at work with three more specific aims: to test SDT’s requirement that each basic psychological need should uniquely predict psychological growth, internalization, and well-being; to test whether use of an overall need satisfaction measure is appropriate; and to test whether the scale used to assess basic psychological needs influenced our results. To this end, we conducted a meta-analytic review of 99 studies with 119 distinct samples examining the antecedents and consequences of basic need satisfaction. We conclude with recommendations for addressing issues arising from our review and also identify points for future research, including the study of need frustration and culture, integrating the basic needs with other motivation theories, and a caution regarding the measures and methods used.

The influence of work personality on job satisfaction: incremental validity and mediation effects.

Drawing from recent developments regarding the contextual nature of personality (e.g., D. Wood & B. W. Roberts, 2006), we conducted 2 studies (1 cross-sectional and 1 longitudinal over 1 year) to examine the validity of work personality in predicting job satisfaction and its mediation of the effect of global personality on job satisfaction. Study 1 showed that (a) individuals vary systematically in their personality between roles- they were significantly more conscientious and open to experience and less extraverted at work compared to at home; (b) work personality was a better predictor of job satisfaction than both global personality and home personality; and (c) work personality demonstrated incremental validity above and beyond the other two personality measures. Study 2 further showed that each of the work personality dimensions fully mediated the association between its corresponding global personality trait and job satisfaction. Evidence for the discriminant validity of the findings is also presented.

Blame it on the supervisor or the subordinate? Reciprocal relations between abusive supervision and organizational deviance.

Drawing on various theoretical perspectives, extant research has primarily treated subordinate organizational deviance as a consequence of abusive supervision. Yet, social interaction theories of aggression and victimization perspectives provide support for the opposite ordering, suggesting that subordinate organizational deviance may be an antecedent of abusive supervision. By using a cross-lagged panel design, we empirically test the potentially reciprocal relation between abusive supervision and subordinate organizational deviance. In Study 1, we measured both abusive supervision and organizational deviance at 2 separate times with a 20-month lag between measurement occasions and found evidence that subordinate organizational deviance leads to abusive supervision, but not vice versa. In Study 2, with a shorter time lag (i.e., 6 months), the reciprocal effects of abusive supervision and organizational deviance were supported. Furthermore, we found that the effects of abusive supervision on organizational deviance were moderated by subordinate self-control capacity and intention to quit such that the effects were only significant when subordinates had low self-control capacity and high intention to quit. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Perceptions of Organizational Politics: A Need Satisfaction Paradigm

Stressor and exchange relationship paradigms have developed in isolation from each other to explain the negative effects of perceived organizational politics. We outline how these different paradigms share a common basis—a focus on psychological need satisfaction—and develop a needs-based paradigm to account for the negative effects of perceived organizational politics. Moreover, we argue that psychological need satisfaction acts as an unmeasured third variable, which, once accounted for, should limit the utility of stressor and exchange relationship paradigms. Across four samples using a combination of multiple sources, operationalizations of constructs, and measurement occasions, we found full support for the needs-based paradigm as a mediator of the effects of politics on contextual performance, creativity, and proactive behavior, whereas strain and exchange relationship constructs by and large had no effect on outcomes once psychological need satisfaction was accounted for. Theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.