Dawn S. Carlson

The Role of Social Support in the Stressor-Strain Relationship: An Examination of Work-Family Conflict

This study examines the role of social support in work-family conflict. Although previous research has examined social support as a promising coping mechanism, questions as to how social support affects work-family conflict remain unanswered. Social support is examined as an antecedent, an intervening, a moderating, and an independent variable in the stressors to work-family conflict relationship. Results suggest that social support may be best viewed as an antecedent to perceived stressors. From this, a more full model of work-family conflict is developed and tested. Discussion centers around how social support reduces the likelihood that situations will be perceived as stressful, thus, indirectly affecting work-family conflict through perceived stressors.

Hofstede's Country Classification 25 Years Later

Nearly 3 decades have passed since Hofstede (1980) collected the data used to classify countries by their underlying work-related value structures. The present study, in which recent data from 9 countries in 4 continents was collected, is a reexamination of his country classifications. The results suggest that many shifts have occurred since Hofstedes study in 1980. These shifts are related to some of the major environmental changes that have occurred.

An Examination of the Perceptions of Organizational Politics Model: Replication and Extension

This study examined the Perceptions of PoliticsModel (Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989) in a three-phaseprocess. In the first phase, the model was examinedusing Anderson and Gerbings (1988) two-step approach to structural equations modeling. Themodel was tested on data collected from 786 employees ofa state government agency and 469 employees of anelectric utility cooperative. Results from this phase indicated that the model had acceptablefit and was more parsimonious than any of the competingmodels to which it was compared. In the second phase,understanding as a moderator of the relationships between perceptions of organizational politicsand several outcome variables was examined. Resultsindicated that understanding only moderated the outcomerelationship between politics and job satisfaction, not intent to turnover or job anxiety. Finally,in phase three, the additional outcome variables oforganizational satisfaction, supervisor effectiveness,and self-reported individual performance were included in an effort to expand the Ferris et al. (1989)framework. Additionally, the moderating effects ofunderstanding on the relationships between perceptionsof politics and these new outcome variables were explored. Results from the final step indicatedthat adding the new outcome variables increased theparsimonyof the model without decreasing model fit. Withrespect to the moderating effects, only thepolitics-performance relationship was moderated byunderstanding.Allof these results are discussed in light of theirimplications for future research.

Institutionalization of organizational ethics through transformational leadership

Concerns regarding corporate ethics have grown steadily throughout the past decade. In order to remain competitive, many organizational leaders are faced with the challenge of creating an ethical environment within their organization. A model is presented showing the process and elements necessary for the institutionalization of organizational ethics. The transformational leadership style lends itself well to the creation of an ethical environment and is suggested as a means to facilitate the institutionalization of corporate ethics. Finally, the benefits of using transformational leadership are demonstrated through the components of a psychological contract, organizational commitment, and ethical culture to institutionalize organizational ethics.

An examination of two aspects of work‐family conflict: time and identity

The part played by time in exacerbating work‐family conflict has long been recognized. Recently, however, researchers have argued that the degree of identification one receives from work and family is also important. While direct effects of both of these sources of work‐family conflict have been found, the trend is not constant. Hence, time and identity alone may not be sufficient to explain work‐family conflict. Proposes and tests an interactive effect for these two antecedents of work‐family conflict in order to understand and explain the phenomenon better.

Learned helplessness as a predictor of employee outcomes: An applied model

Abstract In order to be competitive, organizations are finding ways to become more efficient and effective. One key component in this process is human resources. In an effort to encourage employees to work to their potential, organizations have installed a variety of human resource plans designed to make employees responsible for their behavior. However, many of these plans fail. One possible reason for their failure is that the employees are not capable of understanding the link between effort and performance. Individuals who fall into this category are considered learned helpless. To better understand why some individuals cannot link effort and performance, a model is presented that depicts how individuals become learned helpless, and the potential organizational consequences of learned helplessness. Testable propositions are derived from the model.

Cross-national differences in work-nonwork conflict

The present study examines the level of work-nonwork conflict found in eight countries categorized by value dimensions of individualism/collectivism and masculinity/femininity. Results indicate that masculine/collectivist countries have the lowest level of work-nonwork conflict. In addition, it was found that in masculine/collectivist countries, the work role dominates over the nonwork role.

AN INTEGRATED PERSPECTIVE OF ANTECEDENTS TO INGRATIATORY BEHAVIORS.

Situational (i.e., role ambiguity, leader-member exchange, and job involvement) and dispositional antecedents (i.e., need for power, self-esteem, and shyness) of four ingratiatory behaviors were examined: other enhancing, opinion conformity, favor rendering, and self-promotion. Results suggested each ingratiatory behavior had unique situational antecedents and the dispositional variables explained significant additional variance.