Guihyun Park

A Process Model of Goal Orientation and Feedback Seeking

This study investigated antecedents of seeking different types of feedback. Individual differences in goal orientation and cost and value perceptions were proposed as antecedents of seeking different types of feedback. We hypothesized that 4 dimensions of cost and value perceptions of feedback seeking (expectancy value, appraisal value, ego cost, and self-presentation cost) are related to an individuals goal orientation. Furthermore, moving beyond a focus on the frequency of feedback seeking, we proposed that the perceptions of costs and values of feedback seeking influence the preference for and choice among 4 distinct feedback types (diagnostic, normative, assurance, and no feedback). A total of 240 students participated in a computer-simulated work setting. Results were largely consistent with the hypotheses; each goal orientation had a unique pattern of relations with the perceptions of costs and values. Cost and value perceptions, in turn, influenced preference and choice for feedback type. The theoretical implications of the research are discussed.

A multilevel model of minority opinion expression and team decision-making effectiveness.

The consideration of minority opinions when making team decisions is an important factor that contributes to team effectiveness. A multilevel model of minority opinion influence in decision-making teams is developed to address the conditions that relate to adequate consideration of minority opinions. Using a sample of 57 teams working on a simulated airport security-screening task, we demonstrate that team learning goal orientation influences the confidence of minority opinion holders and team discussion. Team discussion, in turn, relates to minority influence, greater decision quality, and team satisfaction. Implications for managing decision-making teams in organizations are discussed.

Advancing Our Understanding of Team Motivation Integrating Conceptual Approaches and Content Areas

Although research on team motivation has been one of the fastest growing research domains in organizational science, progress in this domain has been hampered by a lack of integrative reviews. Thus, we develop a theoretical framework in this article to summarize and discuss different conceptual approaches to team motivation for the following six content areas: team design, team needs, team goals, team self-regulation, team efficacy, and team affect. Our framework organizes previous research according to two dimensions. First, we assess the degree of interdependence between team members’ motivational states, differentiating between models that conceptualize team motivation as functionally equivalent to individual level motivation and models that conceptualize team motivation as a truly collective phenomenon. Second, we assess the extent to which research conceptualizes team motivation as a dynamic phenomenon that evolves over time, with static models of team motivation and dynamic models of team motivation demarcating the opposite ends of this continuum. With this framework, we show that previous research on team motivation has overemphasized conceptual similarities between motivation constructs at the individual and team levels of analysis. We address this shortcoming by developing a theory of interdependent regulatory dynamics. This theory emphasizes the interdependent and dynamic nature of team motivation. It depicts the processes in which team members decide how to allocate their efforts and resources between individual goals and team goals, and it identifies the multiple pathways through which teams coordinate and regulate their collective efforts over time.

Job apathy: Scale development and initial validation

Work anecdotes and popular media programs such as Office Space, The Office, and Dilbert suggest that there are a number of workers in the United States who feel a sense of apathy toward their workplace and their job. This article develops these ideas theoretically and provides validity evidence for a scale of job apathy across two studies. Job apathy is defined as a type of selective apathy characterized by diminished motivation and affect toward one’s job. A scale of job apathy was developed and data from a sample of currently or recently employed college students supported two dimensions: apathetic action and apathetic thought. Job apathy was found to be empirically distinct from clinical apathy, negative affectivity, cynicism, and employee engagement. Job apathy was also found to have incremental validity in the prediction of personal initiative, withdrawal, and organizational deviance. Practical implications and future research directions for job apathy are discussed.

Terrorist teams as loosely coupled systems.

Acts of terrorism can be harrowing and cause extensive damage, yet they occur far too frequently. How do terrorist groups organize and coordinate their attacks? What makes those groups simultaneously cohesive and flexible in a hostile environment? Different academic disciplines have contributed to a better understanding of the proliferation of terrorist acts in recent years. With very few exceptions, however, extant psychological research on terrorism has almost exclusively focused on the individual terrorist. We leverage the team literature to better understand how a team of terrorists radicalizes, organizes, and makes decisions. Drawing from the work of Weick (1976), we characterize terrorist teams as loosely coupled systems. Examples of different terrorist attacks from the last 15 years illustrate how loose coupling in terrorist teams is especially powerful because of the high familiarity and intimacy among members of terrorist teams. Loosely coupled structures have led to highly adaptive and resilient teams whose actions are fluid, unpredictable, and often lethal. We conclude by discussing implications for counterterrorism and for future research.