Edward C. Tomlinson

Organizational Transparency A New Perspective on Managing Trust in Organization-Stakeholder Relationships

Transparency is often cited as essential to the trust stakeholders place in organizations. However, a clear understanding of the meaning and significance of transparency has yet to emerge in the stakeholder literature. We synthesize prior research to advance a conceptual definition of transparency and articulate its dimensions, and posit how transparency contributes to trust in organization-stakeholder relationships. We draw from this analysis to explicate the mechanisms organizations can employ that influence transparency perceptions.

Disentangling the Moral Integrity Construct: Values Congruence as a Moderator of the Behavioral Integrity–Citizenship Relationship

Research on the relationship between integrity and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has been inconsistent and confusing. We trace some of the confusion to the way that the integrity construct has been defined in the literature. Some researchers have conceptualized integrity as word-action consistency and congruence between the actor’s values and the values of observers judging that action, often through a moral lens (moral integrity [MI]). More recently, a second group of researchers has restricted the domain of integrity to word-action alignment alone (behavioral integrity [BI]), separating out the values congruence component. In this article, we consider word-action consistency and values congruence as separate but linked constructs that interact when predicting OCBs. Across two samples, we present evidence that the positive relationship between BI and certain OCBs is strengthened when values congruence is higher. We elaborate on the implications of these findings for both theory and practice.

The negotiation of contractual agreements

We provide a focused review of the extant negotiation literature to address four highly salient objectives for contract negotiations: how to maximize the likelihood of reaching a [good] agreement; how to reach an agreement that will fulfill its intended purpose; how to reach an agreement that will last; and how to reach an agreement that will lead to subsequent negotiations. Throughout the article, we rely on integrative negotiation as the key strategy to achieve these objectives and review work that has highlighted the specific tactics involved.

The Benefits of Walking Your Talk: Aggregate Effects of Behavioral Integrity on Guest Satisfaction, Turnover, and Hotel Profitability:

Extending theory on behavioral integrity to department and business unit levels of analysis, we examined a chain of relationships culminating in operational and financial performance measures. Specifically, we analyzed survey data from 6,800 workers from 76 same-branded US hotels and integrated it with operational and financial data. Latent variables structural equation modeling and path analyses showed strong associations between manager behavioral integrity and worker turnover, customer satisfaction, and hotel profitability. In fact, behavioral integrity accounted for 13% of the variance in profitability across hotels. This relationship was partially mediated by trust in managers, affective commitment, and discretionary service behavior.