Dan S. Chiaburu

Do Peers Make the Place? Conceptual Synthesis and Meta-Analysis of Coworker Effects on Perceptions, Attitudes, OCBs, and Performance

The authors propose that broad aspects of lateral relationships, conceptualized as coworker support and coworker antagonism, are linked to important individual employee outcomes (role perceptions, work attitudes, withdrawal, and effectiveness) in a framework that synthesizes several theoretical predictions. From meta-analytic tests based on 161 independent samples and 77,954 employees, the authors find support for most of the proposed linkages. Alternative explanations are ruled out, as results hold when controlling for leader influences and mediation processes. The authors also observe differential strengths of coworker influence based on its valence, content, and severity, and on the social intensity of the task environment. The authors conclude with a call for more comprehensive, complex theory and investigation of coworker influences as part of the social environment at work.

The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

Using meta-analytic tests based on 87 statistically independent samples, we investigated the relationships between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality traits and organizational citizenship behaviors in both the aggregate and specific forms, including individual-directed, organization-directed, and change-oriented citizenship. We found that Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness/Intellect have incremental validity for citizenship over and above Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, 2 well-established FFM predictors of citizenship. In addition, FFM personality traits predict citizenship over and above job satisfaction. Finally, we compared the effect sizes obtained in the current meta-analysis with the comparable effect sizes predicting task performance from previous meta-analyses. As a result, we found that Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Extraversion have similar magnitudes of relationships with citizenship and task performance, whereas Openness and Agreeableness have stronger relationships with citizenship than with task performance. This lends some support to the idea that personality traits are (slightly) more important determinants of citizenship than of task performance. We conclude with proposed directions for future research on the relationships between FFM personality traits and specific forms of citizenship, based on the current findings.

Quitting Before Leaving: The Mediating Effects of Psychological Attachment and Detachment on Voice

This research advances understanding of the psychological mechanisms that encourage or dissuade upward, improvement-oriented voice. The authors describe how the loyalty and exit concepts from A. O. Hirschmans (1970) seminal framework reflect an employees psychological attachment to or detachment from the organization, respectively, and they argue that psychological attachment and detachment should not be considered as separate, alternative options to voice but rather as influences on voice behavior. Findings from 499 managers in the restaurant industry show that psychological detachment (measured as intention to leave) is significantly related to voice and mediates relationships between perceptions of leadership (leader-member exchange and abusive supervision) and voice, whereas psychological attachment (measured as affective commitment) is neither a direct predictor of voice nor a mediator of leadership-voice relationships.

Individual and contextual influences on multiple dimensions of training effectiveness

Purpose – To investigate individual and contextual antecedents of learning, transfer of learning, training generalization and training maintenance in a work context.Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis on data obtained from 119 employees who attended training programs.Findings – The data supported the relationship between continuous‐learning culture and supervisor support and training motivation. Although training motivation was directly related only to training maintenance, it interacted with performance goal orientation in affecting training transfer and generalization.Practical implications – Practitioners interested in designing interventions directed at increasing similar training outcomes can use various approaches aimed at assessing and monitoring factors such as continuous‐learning culture, supervisor support and training motivation. More importantly, based on the current results, practitioners can manage selectively the performance goal o...

Leader Influences on Training Effectiveness: Motivation and Outcome Expectation Processes

Training effectiveness is a function of trainee characteristics, training design and contextual factors. Social exchanges in the work environment have received less attention compared with other training effectiveness predictors. We focus on the extent to which leaders (through their relationships and exchanges with followers) influence skill transfer, maintenance and generalization. We also examine two intervening processes (training motivation and outcome expectancy). Our findings, based on surveys from 495 employees, argue for the importance of leadermember exchange for training transfer, with training motivation and outcome expectancy as intervening mechanisms.

Employees’ Social Context and Change-Oriented Citizenship A Meta-Analysis of Leader, Coworker, and Organizational Influences

Change-oriented citizenship depends on support received from employees’ social context. Meta-analytic tests based on 131 independent samples and 38,409 employees confirmed positive relationships between leader, coworker, and organizational support and change-oriented citizenship, even after accounting for employees’ attitudes and intentions (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to quit). Moderator analyses indicated that specific coworker and organizational support had stronger relationships with change-oriented citizenship than generic support. In contrast, specific and generic leader support were equally important predictors of change-oriented citizenship.

Managerial trustworthiness and social exchange with the organization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how managerial trustworthiness and social exchange with the organization integrate with perceived organizational support to relate to supervisor‐rated job performance and self‐report organizational commitment.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 119 full‐time employees from a variety of occupations at a single organization completed surveys. Their supervisor rated job performance.Findings – This paper finds that managerial trustworthiness was positively related to job performance and organizational commitment via POS and social exchange with the organization; and that POS was related to organizational commitment through social exchange with the organization.Research limitations/implications – Limitations include cross‐sectional data from a single organization. Strengths include non self‐report ratings of job performance. Future research should consider experimental and longitudinal designs to capture causality.Practical implications – Organizations ma...

The social context of training: coworker, supervisor, or organizational support?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to expand existing tests of what drives training transfer, by including support originating from three sources, i.e. ones coworkers, supervisor, and organization.Design/methodology/approach – The results are based on a sample of trainees attending professional development programs in one organization in the USA.Findings – Coworkers emerge as important, yet neglected, resources employees can draw on as support for both maintaining skills and transferring them to a workplace setting.Practical implications – If the results are supported in other studies, more attention should be given to coworker support interventions.Originality/value – The study provides a first test of the extent to which support originating from three different sources (i.e. coworkers, supervisor, and organization) is related to maintaining and transferring skills acquired during training.

Cross-Level Influences of Empowering Leadership on Citizenship Behavior Organizational Support Climate as a Double-Edged Sword

Using a cross-level design and relying on a contingency approach to understanding empowering leadership, we investigate the mediating role of individual-level psychological empowerment in the cross-level relationship between team-directed empowering leadership and two complementary forms of individual-level citizenship: affiliative organizational citizenship behavior and taking charge. We also investigate the moderating role of organizational support climate in the relationship between empowering leader behavior and these two forms of citizenship. Using data collected from 98 work teams in one large organization in China, in addition to support for the mediating role of psychological empowerment, we found a “double-edged” moderating effect for organizational support climate. For affiliative organizational citizenship behavior, and consistent with reciprocation perspectives posited by social exchange theory, results showed that the highest levels occurred when both empowering leadership behavior and organizational support climate were high. In contrast, for taking charge, and consistent with control theory, results showed that the highest levels occurred when empowering leadership behavior was high but when organizational support climate was low. Our findings highlight the counterintuitive notion that organizational support climate may not always have uniformly positive effects and also reinforce the importance of including both individual and work context factors when attempting to understand cross-level empowering leadership effects.

Does psychological contract breach decrease proactive behaviors? the moderating effect of emotion regulation

In a set of two studies, based on employees from two countries, we examined how emotion regulation moderates the relationship between psychological contract breach and (a) feelings of violation and (b) proactive behaviors (knowledge sharing and taking charge). We found that cognitive change buffers the negative effect of breach on feelings of violation and knowledge sharing (Study 1, United States). We replicate this result using taking charge as an outcome. In addition, we demonstrate that using high levels of attentional deployment as an emotion regulation strategy accentuates the negative effect of both social and generative breach on employees’ taking charge (Study 2, the Netherlands). Based on our results, we call for additional research on how emotion regulation modifies the relationship between psychological contract breach and work outcomes.