Daniel B. Turban

Corporate social performance as a competitive advantage in attracting a quality workforce

Several researchers have suggested that a talented, quality workforce will become a more important source of competitive advantage for firms in the future. Drawing on social identity theory and signaling theory, the authors hypothesize that firms can use their corporate social performance (CSP) activities to attract job applicants. Specifically, signaling theory suggests that a firm’s CSP sends signals to prospective job applicants about what it would be like to work for a firm. Social identity theory suggests that job applicants have higher self-images whenworking for socially responsive firms over their less responsive counterparts. The authors conducted an experiment in which they manipulated CSP and found that prospective job applicants are more likely to pursue jobs from socially responsible firms than from firms with poor social performance reputations. The implications of these findings for academicians and practitioners alike are discussed.

Supervisor-subordinate similarity: Types, effects, and mechanisms.

Three types of supervisor-subordinate similarity were identified: (a) perceived similarity, perceptions of how similar the supervisor and subordinate are; (b) perceptual congruence, similarity of perceptions about behaviors important in receiving a high merit pay raise; and (c) actual similarity of individual characteristics. The relation(s) among the types of similarity and of each type with various employee outcomes were examined. Results supported the distinctions among types. Each type was related to subordinate performance. Results were less consistent for job satisfaction and pay ratings. Perceived similarity yielded the strongest relation with the dependent variables. The findings also suggest that similarity affects evaluations not only through bias, but also partly because of differences in supervisor-subordinate interactions. Numerous studies have identified factors that affect performance ratings. One such factor is supervisor-subordinate similarity (Landy & Farr, 1980). The present study explores possible effects of three types of similarity: (a) perceived similarity between the evaluator and another person, (b) similarity of supervisor and subordinate perceptions about aspects of the work environment, and (c) actual or demographic similarity. In research on perceived similarity it has generally been assumed that a person who is perceived as similar to the evaluator is more attractive, so that decisions and evaluations regarding that person are biased positively (Byrne, 196 l; Byrne, Young, & Griffitt, 1966). Experimental manipulations of similarity have generally supported this assumption. Persons seen as similar in attitudes and background were treated and evaluated more favorably than were those seen as dissimilar (Baskett, 1973; Golightly, Huffman, & Byrne, 1972; Griffitt & Jackson, 1970; Peters & Terborg, 1975; Rand & Wexley, 1975; Wexley & Nemeroff, 1974). However, studies conducted in the field suggested that the biasing effects of similarity might be less robust and more subject to individual differences than the aforementioned results indicate. Pulakos and Wexley (1983) found that perceived similarity between managers and their subordinates led both to give higher performance ratings to the other, but studies involving college and job-applicant interviews found sizable individual differences in the effects of perceived similarity (Frank & Hackman, 1975; Sydiaha, 1962). Finally, Dalessio and Imada (1984) found that the decision made by most interviewers re

The Role of Gender Stereotypes in Perceptions of Entrepreneurs and Intentions to Become an Entrepreneur

In this study we examine the role of socially constructed gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship and their influence on men and womens entrepreneurial intentions. Data on characteristics of males, females, and entrepreneurs were collected from young adults in three countries. As hypothesized, entrepreneurs were perceived to have predominantly masculine characteristics. Additional results revealed that although both men and women perceive entrepreneurs to have characteristics similar to those of males (masculine gender–role stereotype), only women also perceived entrepreneurs and females as having similar characteristics (feminine gender–role stereotype). Further, though men and women did not differ in their entrepreneurial intentions, those who perceived themselves as more similar to males (high on male gender identification) had higher entrepreneurial intentions than those who saw themselves as less similar to males (low male gender identification). No such difference was found for people who saw themselves as more or less similar to females (female gender identification). The results were consistent across the three countries. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Personality and the Goal-Striving Process: The Influence of Achievement Goal Patterns, Goal Level, and Mental Focus on Performance and Enjoyment

The purpose of this study is to examine the mechanisms by which personality traits influence performance and satisfaction. Specifically, the authors examined how 3 personality characteristics derived from self-determination theory (autonomy, control, and amotivated orientations) influence performance and enjoyment through achievement goal patterns, goal level, and mental focus. Data were collected from 284 students at 5 points in time. In particular, mental focus emerged as an important aspect of the self-regulation process. The results suggest that global personality traits can help researchers to understand and predict the motivational strategies that people use while working toward goals in achievement settings.

Who Is a Mentor? A Review of Evolving Definitions and Implications for Research

The authors’ review of the mentoring literature describes how the construct has changed since Kram’s influential work in the early 1980s, the implications of such changes for the field, and suggestions for the future. In addition to highlighting changes over time in the topics mentoring researchers have studied, the authors provide an in-depth review of the way researchers have defined mentoring and the implications of those definitions. They identified approximately 40 different definitions used in the empirical literature since 1980. The discussion of definitions is followed by a delineation of the core attributes of all mentoring relationships and recommendations for specific information that researchers should collect about the relationship. The authors conclude by describing research trends and directions for future mentoring research.

Human resource practices and firm performance of multinational corporations: influences of country origin

Drawing from a cultural values perspective, we investigate the effects of country origins on HR (human resource) practices of firms from the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Hong Kong operating in Hong Kong. In general, results supported hypothesized differences in HR practices of firms from different countries. In addition, results indicated that HR practices, specifically structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation, were related to various measures of firm performance. Of further interest was the finding that country origin moderated relationships of HR practices with firm performance; in general, relationships of structural training and development and retention-oriented compensation were stronger for Hong Kong firms. Implications of the results are discussed.

Disentangling Role Perceptions: How Perceived Role Breadth, Discretion, Instrumentality, and Efficacy Relate to Helping and Taking Charge

The objective of this study was to empirically disentangle role perceptions related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that have been confounded in past research, investigate their unique relationships with both an affiliative (helping) and a challenging (taking charge) form of OCB, and determine their relative importance in explaining these 2 forms of OCB. The authors also examined whether role discretion and role breadth independently moderate the procedural justice-to-OCB relationship. The authors surveyed 225 engineers in India and their direct supervisors. The results showed that 3 of the 4 facets of OCB role perception explain unique variance in either helping or taking charge, and that role breadth moderates the relationships between procedural justice and both helping and taking charge. The authors discuss implications of these findings for OCB theory and research, as well as for managerial practice.

The Effect of Gender Stereotype Activation on Entrepreneurial Intentions

In this study, the impact of implicit and explicit activation of gender stereotypes on mens and womens intentions to pursue a traditionally masculine career, such as entrepreneurship, was examined. On the basis of stereotype activation theory, it was hypothesized that men and women would confirm the gender stereotype about entrepreneurship when it was presented implicitly but disconfirm it when it was presented explicitly. Hypotheses were tested by randomly assigning 469 business students to one of 6 experimental conditions and then measuring their entrepreneurial intentions. Results supported the hypothesis when entrepreneurship was associated with stereotypically masculine characteristics but not when it was associated with traditionally feminine characteristics. Men also had higher entrepreneurial intention scores compared with women when no stereotypical information about entrepreneurship was presented, suggesting that underlying societal stereotypes associating entrepreneurship with masculine characteristics may influence peoples intentions. However, men and women reported similar intentions when entrepreneurship was presented as gender neutral, suggesting that widely held gender stereotypes can be nullified. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

All in a Day's Work: How Follower Individual Differences and Justice Perceptions Predict OCB Role Definitions and Behavior

The authors draw on theories of social exchange and prosocial behavior to explain how employee perceptions of procedural justice and individual differences in reciprocation wariness, empathic concern, and perspective taking function jointly as determinants of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) role definitions and behavior. As hypothesized, empirical findings from a field study show both direct and interactive effects of procedural justice perceptions and individual differences on OCB role definition. In turn, OCB role definitions not only predict OCB directly but also moderate the effects of procedural justice perceptions on OCB. The authors explore the implications of these findings for practice as well as research.

Organizational attractiveness of firms in the People's Republic of China : A person-organization fit perspective

The authors investigated factors related to firm attractiveness as an employer in the Peoples Republic of China. The organizational attributes of type of ownership, nationality of the supervisor, and firm familiarity in organizational descriptions were manipulated and their effects were measured on firm attractiveness. In addition, the authors adopted a person-organization fit perspective to investigate how individual difference characteristics moderated the effects of these organizational attributes on attractiveness. Although, in general, participants were more attracted to foreign than state-owned firms and to familiar than unfamiliar firms, results provided support for the person-organization fit perspective in that the individual differences moderated the effects of the organizational attributes on firm attractiveness. For example, participants were more attracted to state-owned versus foreign firms when they were more risk averse and had a lower need for pay. Thus, the results provide initial support for the generalizability of the person-organization fit perspective to a non-Western setting.