Ernest H. O'Boyle

A meta-analysis of the Dark Triad and work behavior: a social exchange perspective.

We reviewed studies of the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits--Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-and meta-analytically examined their implications for job performance and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Relations among the DT traits and behaviors were extracted from original reports published between 1951 and 2011 of 245 independent samples (N = 43,907). We found that reductions in the quality of job performance were consistently associated with increases in Machiavellianism and psychopathy and that CWB was associated with increases in all 3 components of the DT, but that these associations were moderated by such contextual factors as authority and culture. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that the DT explains moderate amounts of the variance in counterproductivity, but not job performance. The results showed that the 3 traits are positively related to one another but are sufficiently distinctive to warrant theoretical and empirical partitioning.

Mind-Sets Matter: A Meta-Analytic Review of Implicit Theories and Self-Regulation

This review builds on self-control theory (Carver & Scheier, 1998) to develop a theoretical framework for investigating associations of implicit theories with self-regulation. This framework conceptualizes self-regulation in terms of 3 crucial processes: goal setting, goal operating, and goal monitoring. In this meta-analysis, we included articles that reported a quantifiable assessment of implicit theories and at least 1 self-regulatory process or outcome. With a random effects approach used, meta-analytic results (total unique N = 28,217; k = 113) across diverse achievement domains (68% academic) and populations (age range = 5-42; 10 different nationalities; 58% from United States; 44% female) demonstrated that implicit theories predict distinct self-regulatory processes, which, in turn, predict goal achievement. Incremental theories, which, in contrast to entity theories, are characterized by the belief that human attributes are malleable rather than fixed, significantly predicted goal setting (performance goals, r = -.151; learning goals, r = .187), goal operating (helpless-oriented strategies, r = -.238; mastery-oriented strategies, r = .227), and goal monitoring (negative emotions, r = -.233; expectations, r = .157). The effects for goal setting and goal operating were stronger in the presence (vs. absence) of ego threats such as failure feedback. Discussion emphasizes how the present theoretical analysis merges an implicit theory perspective with self-control theory to advance scholarship and unlock major new directions for basic and applied research.

Job Burnout and Employee Engagement A Meta-Analytic Examination of Construct Proliferation

Drawing on 50 unique samples (from 37 studies), the authors used meta-analytical techniques to assess the extent to which job burnout and employee engagement are independent and useful constructs. The authors found that (a) dimension-level correlations between burnout and engagement are high, (b) burnout and engagement dimensions exhibit a similar pattern of association with correlates, and (c) controlling for burnout in meta-regression equations substantively reduced the effect sizes associated with engagement. These findings suggest that doubts about the functional distinctiveness of the dimensions underlying burnout and engagement cannot be dismissed as pure speculation.

A Meta-analytic Test of Redundancy and Relative Importance of the Dark Triad and Five Factor Model of Personality

We examined the relationships between Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy-the three traits of the Dark Triad (DT)-and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The review identified 310 independent samples drawn from 215 sources and yielded information pertaining to global trait relationships and facet-level relationships. We used meta-analysis to examine (a) the bivariate relations between the DT and the five global traits and 30 facets of the FFM, (b) the relative importance of each of the FFM global traits in predicting DT, and (c) the relationship between the DT and FFM facets identified in translational models of narcissism and psychopathy. These analyses identified consistent and theoretically meaningful associations between the DT traits and the facets of the FFM. The five traits of the FFM, in a relative importance analysis, accounted for much of the variance in Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, respectively, and facet-level analyses identified specific facets of each FFM trait that were consistently associated with narcissism (e.g., angry/hostility, modesty) and psychopathy (e.g., straightforwardness, deliberation). The FFM explained nearly all of the variance in psychopathy (R(2) c  = .88) and a substantial portion of the variance in narcissism (R(2) c  = .42).

Examining the Relation Between Ethical Focus and Financial Performance in Family Firms: An Exploratory Study

Empirically, the confluence of family involvement, ethics, and performance is a sparse research area. The authors explore a rich theoretical framework relating family involvement, ethical focus, and firm performance and empirically test a mediated model using a sample of 526 family businesses. The results illustrated that a firm’s ethical focus mediated the relation between family involvement and financial performance. Specifically, data supported the relation between family involvement and a firm’s ethical focus. And increased ethical focus predicted increased financial performance. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and offer potential areas for future research in family business studies.

Bad Apples or Bad Barrels: An Examination of Group- and Organizational-Level Effects in the Study of Counterproductive Work Behavior

Research on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has largely focused on the individual traits and perceptions that enhance or decrease CWB. Although useful, we propose that a multilevel perspective offers greater insight into CWB antecedents and outcomes by acknowledging the nested nature of the individual within the work group. We review the CWB literature and propose a testable multilevel model that incorporates individual, group, and organizational antecedents of CWB. We conclude with recommendations on alternative techniques to measuring individual CWB and its higher order antecedents.

Employee ownership and firm performance: a meta-analysis

Employee ownership has been an area of significant practitioner and academic interest for the past four decades. Yet, empirical results on the relationship between employee ownership and firm performance remain mixed. To aggregate findings and provide potential direction for future theoretical development, we conducted a meta-analysis of 102 samples representing 56,984 firms. Employee ownership has a small, but positive and statistically significant relation to firm performance ( r¯ = 0.04). The effect is generally positive for studies with different sampling designs (samples assessing change in performance pre-employee–post-employee ownership adoption or samples on firms with employee ownership), different performance operationalisation (efficiency or growth) and firm type (publicly held or privately held). Suggesting benefits of employee ownership in a variety of contexts, we found no differences in effects on performance in publicly held versus privately held firms, stock or stock option-based ownership plans or differences in effects across different firm sizes (i.e. number of employees). We do find that the effect of employee ownership on performance has increased in studies over time and that studies with samples from outside the USA report stronger effects than those within. We also find little to no evidence of publication bias.

Ideal, nonideal, and no-marker variables: The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) marker technique works when it matters.

A persistent concern in the management and applied psychology literature is the effect of common method variance on observed relations among variables. Recent work (i.e., Richardson, Simmering, & Sturman, 2009) evaluated 3 analytical approaches to controlling for common method variance, including the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) marker technique. Their findings indicated significant problems with this technique, especially with nonideal marker variables (those with theoretical relations with substantive variables). Based on their simulation results, Richardson et al. concluded that not correcting for method variance provides more accurate estimates than using the CFA marker technique. We reexamined the effects of using marker variables in a simulation study and found the degree of error in estimates of a substantive factor correlation was relatively small in most cases, and much smaller than error associated with making no correction. Further, in instances in which the error was large, the correlations between the marker and substantive scales were higher than that found in organizational research with marker variables. We conclude that in most practical settings, the CFA marker technique yields parameter estimates close to their true values, and the criticisms made by Richardson et al. are overstated.

Absence of malice: a meta-analysis of nonresponse bias in counterproductive work behavior research.

Despite the alleged frequency of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) in the population, most samples exhibit exceedingly low base rates. One potential explanation for this incongruence is nonresponse bias, which leads to range restriction in the CWB distribution. We investigated this possibility by determining whether response rates within CWB research were lower than that found across management research and whether range restriction could explain reduced CWB engagement. We also examined whether range restriction attenuated CWBs relations to other variables. Our primary findings are that reported response rates for studies containing CWB measures are substantially lower (37%) than response rates reported within the general management literature (53%) and that range restriction is likely present in the CWB literature, resulting in low base rates and attenuated relations to CWB. In addition, tests of publication bias indicated that low response rates are less likely to be reported, and the true response rate within the CWB literature may be considerably lower.

Star Performers in Twenty-First-Century Organizations

We argue that changes in the nature of work in twenty-first-century organizations have led to the emergence of star performers—a few individuals who contribute a disproportionate amount of output. ...