Helena D. Cooper-Thomas

Neutralizing workplace bullying: the buffering effects of contextual factors.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and buffering effects of three workplace contextual factors – constructive leadership, perceived organizational support, and organizational anti‐bullying initiatives – on bullying and its relationships with relevant criteria. Further, the paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of organizational initiatives against bullying as perceived by targets and non‐targets.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 727 employees in nine New Zealand healthcare organizations. Of these, 133 employees were classified as bullied, as they had experienced at least two negative acts per week over the last six months.Findings – Correlations revealed negative relationships between the three contextual work factors and bullying. Moderated regression showed that perceived organizational support buffered the relationship of bullying with self‐rated job performance, and that organizational initiatives against bullying buffered the relationship of bullyi...

Investigating organizational socialization: A fresh look at newcomer adjustment strategies

Purpose – The majority of organizational newcomers have prior work experience. Organizational socialization tactics are less effective for such “experienced newcomers”, relative to graduate newcomers. Hence experienced newcomers tend to rely on their own actions to become socialized. The aim of this article is to assess and potentially extend the range of adjustment strategies identified as being used by experienced newcomers themselves to achieve positive adjustment.Design/methodology/approach – Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 86 experienced newcomers entering a professional services organization.Findings – Nineteen strategies emerged, with seven newly identified in this research. These are compared with strategies found in past research.Practical implications – HR, and the managers and colleagues of newcomers can use the strategies identified and categorized here to encourage newcomers to use organizationally‐appropriate behaviors. Newcomers can use these strategies to help themselves ach...

Predictors of Workplace Bullying and Cyber-Bullying in New Zealand

Background: The negative effects of in-person workplace bullying (WB) are well established. Less is known about cyber-bullying (CB), in which negative behaviours are mediated by technology. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the current research examined how individual and organisational factors were related to WB and CB at two time points three months apart. Methods: Data were collected by means of an online self-report survey. Eight hundred and twenty-six respondents (58% female, 42% male) provided data at both time points. Results: One hundred and twenty-three (15%) of participants had been bullied and 23 (2.8%) of participants had been cyber-bullied within the last six months. Women reported more WB, but not more CB, than men. Worse physical health, higher strain, more destructive leadership, more team conflict and less effective organisational strategies were associated with more WB. Managerial employees experienced more CB than non-managerial employees. Poor physical health, less organisational support and less effective organisational strategies were associated with more CB. Conclusion: Rates of CB were lower than those of WB, and very few participants reported experiencing CB without also experiencing WB. Both forms of bullying were associated with poorer work environments, indicating that, where bullying is occurring, the focus should be on organisational systems and processes.

It’s Not What You Say, It’s The Way That You Say It: The Mediating Effect of Upward Influencing Communications on the Relationship Between Leader-Member Exchange and Performance Ratings

The quality of relationships between supervisors and their subordinates has been found to be predictive of subordinate performance. A number of explanatory mechanisms have been proposed, and the frequency and nature of dyadic communication have been posited as contributory. To further explore this potential mechanism, the authors tested the hypothesis that upward influencing communications mediate the relationship between relationship quality, as measured by leader-member exchange (LMX), and supervisor ratings of subordinate performance. In a study involving 107 supervisors, LMX was positively associated with reported frequencies of upward influences delivered as rational argument and negatively associated with ingratiatory and assertive communications. LMX was also positively associated with performance ratings, but this relationship was fully mediated by the frequency of upward influencing tactics, with rational argument being positively predictive of performance ratings and assertiveness being negatively associated with ratings of performance.

The fun paradox

Purpose – Fun means different things to different people and the purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer the question “what is fun at work?”. Given that perceptions of fun differ among people, the answer is that a pluralistic concept of fun best captures different notions of what constitutes fun at work. Design/methodology/approach – The research combines two separate studies. The first is an in-depth ethnographic project involving interviews, participant observations and document collection investigating fun and humour in four different New Zealand companies. The second study extends findings from the first by specifically asking participants to reply to survey questions asking “what is fun at work?”. Findings – Currently fun is described in a variety of ways by researchers using different descriptors for similar concepts. Combining current conceptions of fun with the own research the authors categorize the complex notion of workplace fun into three clear categories: organic, managed and task fun. ...

The neglected role of cultural intelligence in recent immigrant newcomers’ socialization

The purpose of this article is to investigate the role of cultural intelligence (CQ) in contributing to the socialization of recent immigrant newcomers (RINs). Drawing on relevant literatures, a conceptual model is developed, highlighting the role of RINs’ CQ in helping them choose the appropriate adjustment strategies that in turn allow them to better perform their job and to socially integrate into their workplace. The article also examines the impact of the social context of the organization, namely the level of diversity, specifically focusing on how RINs may choose different adjustment strategies depending on the type of organizational context and according to the variance in their CQ. Thus, the article makes three important contributions. First, the article integrates CQ literature with immigrant and socialization literatures by exploring the process through which RINs’ CQ can enhance their role performance and social integration during socialization. Second, at the individual level, RINs may find the analysis useful in comprehending the role of CQ for understanding cultural nuances and developing relationships with their new work colleagues, and this may motivate them to further develop their CQ. Third, organizations may consider providing RINs—as well as other employees—with cross-cultural training incorporating CQ modules to enhance and improve their CQ and thereby optimize RINs’ organizational socialization.

Costs and Benefits of Newcomer Adjustment Tactics

Research on information seeking, feedback seeking, and newcomer proactive behavior reveals that employees use various criteria in deciding how to act. This article investigates an integrative framework for such criteria proposed by Cooper-Thomas and Wilson, comprising three domains (performance, ego, social) and two factors (cost, benefit). Three independent scenario-based studies were used to test their model. The results supported some propositions of the model, such as the primacy of performance concerns, yet failed to support other propositions, with benefits consistently predominating over costs. Factors that might underlie the contradictory results were systematically controlled for, namely the sample, hypothetical scenario, and initial asset position. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.