Ioannis Nikolaou

The role of emotional intelligence and personality variables on attitudes toward organisational change

Although the role of organisational characteristics in the change process has been extensively analysed and discussed in the literature, individual characteristics, which are equally crucial for the success of change, have been neglected. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to add a different way of looking and working with organisational change by focusing on individuals’ emotions and personality traits. This paper explores how emotional intelligence and the “big five” dimensions of personality can facilitate organisational change at an individual level by exploring the relationship between these attributes and attitudes toward organisational change. The sample consisted of 137 professionals who completed self‐report inventories assessing emotional intelligence, personality traits and attitudes towards organisational change. The results confirmed that there is a relationship between personality traits and employees’ attitudes toward change. Similarly, the contribution of emotional intelligence to the attitudes to change was found to be significant, indicating the added value of using an emotional intelligence measure above and beyond the effect of personality. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the phases of a change project.

Fitting the Person to the Organisation: Examining the Personality-Job Performance Relationship from a New Perspective

The current study represents an attempt to explore personality dispositions and personality process in a P‐O fit context. A total of 227 employees completed self‐report measures of personality and job satisfaction and their supervisors assessed their citizenship behaviours, generic work competencies and overall job performance. The theoretical approach of the cognitive‐affective personality system was adopted in exploring the research questions and discussing the findings, which reinforced the significance of a confirmatory, theory‐based approach in personality testing. The results supported the existence of relationships between personality and job satisfaction but not between personality and the performance‐related variables, although agreeableness and openness to experience were related to performance for occupations involving interpersonal interaction.

Fairness Reactions to Personnel Selection Techniques in Greece: The Role of Core Self-Evaluations

The current study examines fairness reactions to personnel selection methods and the role of core self-evaluations (CSE) in Greece using two samples of employees (N=158) and students (N=181). Interviews, resumes, and work samples were the best-rated and most favourably appraised methods across students and employees. Students demonstrated more positive attitudes towards psychometric (i.e., ability, personality, honesty) tests than did employees. As far as the procedural dimensions are concerned, similarly to previous studies, face validity and opportunity to perform were the strongest correlates of considering personnel selection methods favourably. Overall, the relationship between fairness reactions and CSE was weak. Our findings are compared with the results from studies of other countries using similar methodologies.

Social Networking Web Sites in Job Search and Employee Recruitment

The use of professionally and nonprofessionally oriented social networking Web sites (SNWs), such as LinkedIn and Facebook, has become widespread from both sides of the Atlantic. The current paper presents and discusses the results of two surveys conducted in Greece exploring the role of SNWs among employees – job seekers and recruiters – human resource professionals. The first study explores how SNWs are used during job search activities and the second how recruiters use them in the attraction recruitment and screening process. Special note is given in the relationship between SNWs and the more established Internet job boards. Our results showed that job seekers still seem to use job boards more extensively than SNWs. It is interesting to note that the association between LinkedIn usage and its effectiveness, on the one hand, and time spent on SNWs and LinkedIn effectiveness, on the other, is stronger for ‘passive’ candidates, demonstrating the important role of SNWs for attracting ‘passive’ candidates. HR professionals are more engaged in LinkedIn than Facebook and were considering the former as more effective than the latter in the recruitment process. The current study sheds more light in the use of SNWs, being one of the first studies conducted in a non‐English speaking country.

Selecting Change Agents: Exploring Traits and Skills in a Simulated Environment

Abstract In the new organizational environment, when business and even political leaders declare their dedication to change, it is a very important need for organizations to recruit and select people capable not only to bring or initiate but, also, handle change effectively. However, only a few attempts have been made to identify the personality profile of a person, able to fulfill the requirements of this position. The current study tries to shed light on this issue by examining if dispositional characteristics and competencies are related to attitudes to change, adopting an experimental business game scenario simulating a real business change context. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing their dispositional traits whereas their performance and change management skills were assessed by independent observers. Results displayed that resilient employees consider themselves as more ready to accept and apply change, as opposed to change-related skills which seemed to predict only task performance and not acceptance of change. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings, managerial implications and possible limitations.

Experiencing organizational change in Greece: the framework of psychological contract

We examine antecedents and outcomes of psychological contract violation in parallel with perceptions of psychological contract fulfilment in the Greek banking sector. We demonstrated that violation mediated the relation between breach and attitudinal outcomes. Trust in the employer partially mediated the relationship of breach and violation with employee attitudes. Finally, careerism moderated the relationship of perceived breach and organizational commitment. Our results are discussed in light of the major organizational changes occurring in the financial sector, and the consequences of these changes on employees’ attitudes and psychological contract breach and violation, along with research and practical implications.

Individuals' inducements and the role of personality: implications for psychological contracts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify relationships between psychological contract inducements and the five‐factor model of personality (FFM) in Greece.Design/methodology/approach – A survey questionnaire that incorporated measures of intrinsic and extrinsic psychological contract inducements and a Greek personality measure of the FFM was completed by 299 respondents. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the hypotheses.Findings – The paper finds that extroversion and conscientiousness are associated with intrinsic but not extrinsic psychological contract inducements and that neuroticism is associated with extrinsic but not intrinsic inducements. The hypothesis pertaining to openness to experience was rejected, because it was not associated with intrinsic psychological contract inducements, as expected.Research limitations/implications – The study design was cross‐sectional and used only self‐report measures. Therefore, it should be cross‐validated with different r...

The Development and Validation of a Measure of Generic Work Competencies

Competency management has attracted much attention, especially between business consultants and human resources professionals. Nevertheless, the lack of a unified framework of generic work competencies has been a significant obstacle for the further development of the field, both in research and in practice. This article discusses the development, validation, and psychometric properties of a measure of generic work competencies assessing three types of generic work competencies.

Validation of the four‐factor Team Climate Inventory in Greece

Purpose – Innovation among team members has long been an area of interest to social scientists, and particularly to industrial/organizational psychologists. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factor structure of the Team Climate Inventory (TCI), a multidimensional team‐level measure of team‐working style, in Greece.Design/methodology/approach – The TCI was translated into Greek and administered to a total of 52 work teams (n=236 individuals) in clerical and shop floor working positions employed in a variety of jobs in the public and private sector.Findings – An item analysis indicated that all original TCI items, except one, should be retained in the Greek version of the TCI. Further analyses yielded high internal consistency both for the full scale and for the four dimensions, and also acceptable discriminant validity among the four scales. An exploratory factor analysis was also successful in extracting the four original factors, accounting for 55.67 percent of the total variance.Research limit...

Exploring the role of social influence in promise beliefs and information acquisition among newcomers

This study investigates the role of social influence in newcomer promise beliefs and promise-related information by co-workers. During their first month on the job, 85 new recruits completed both a one-shot questionnaire and a diary booklet for 10 consecutive workdays. We examined two information sources: contract makers (e.g., managers) and facilitators (e.g., senior colleagues). Two information-gathering processes that newcomers use were also assessed: direct communications and monitoring. Newcomers reciprocation ideologies (creditor ideology and reciprocation wariness) were also assessed. Participants reported daily the promises received along with their sources and the information-gathering processes involved. A total of 601 promissory interactions were assessed. Analysis using multilevel random coefficient modelling demonstrated the importance of line managers and direct communication in promise beliefs. Both reciprocation ideologies related negatively to employer promises. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.