Jessica Mesmer-Magnus

Information sharing and team performance: A meta-analysis.

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

The cognitive underpinnings of effective teamwork: A meta-analysis.

Major theories of team effectiveness position emergent collective cognitive processes as central drivers of team performance. We meta-analytically cumulated 231 correlations culled from 65 independent studies of team cognition and its relations to teamwork processes, motivational states, and performance outcomes. We examined both broad relationships among cognition, behavior, motivation, and performance, as well as 3 underpinnings of team cognition as potential moderators of these relationships. Findings reveal there is indeed a cognitive foundation to teamwork; team cognition has strong positive relationships to team behavioral process, motivational states, and team performance. Meta-analytic regressions further indicate that team cognition explains significant incremental variance in team performance after the effects of behavioral and motivational dynamics have been controlled. The nature of emergence, form of cognition, and content of cognition moderate relationships among cognition, process, and performance, as do task interdependence and team type. Taken together, these findings not only cumulate extant research on team cognition but also provide a new interpretation of the impact of underlying dimensions of cognition as a way to frame and extend future research.

A meta‐analysis of positive humor in the workplace

Purpose – The benefits of humor for general well‐being have long been touted. Past empirical research has suggested that some of these benefits also exist in the work domain. However, there is little shared understanding as to the role of humor in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to address two main gaps in the humor literature. First, the authors summarize several challenges researchers face in defining and operationalizing humor, and offer an integrative conceptualization which may be used to consolidate and interpret seemingly disparate research streams. Second, meta‐analysis is used to explore the possibility that positive humor is associated with: employee health (e.g. burnout, health) and work‐related outcomes (e.g. performance, job satisfaction, withdrawal); with perceived supervisor/leader effectiveness (e.g. perceived leader performance, follower approval); and may mitigate the deleterious effects of workplace stress on employee burnout.Design/methodology/approach – The authors examine...

Moving Beyond Relationship and Task Conflict: Toward a Process-State Perspective

Teams are formed to benefit from an expanded pool of expertise and experience, yet 2 aspects of the conflict stemming from those core differences will ultimately play a large role in determining team viability and productivity: conflict states and conflict processes. The current study theoretically reorganizes the literature on team conflict--distinguishing conflict states from conflict processes--and details the effects of each on team effectiveness. Findings from a meta-analytic cumulation of 45 independent studies (total number of teams = 3,218) suggest states and processes are distinct and important predictors of team performance and affective outcomes. Controlling for conflict states (i.e., task and relationship conflict), conflict processes explain an additional 13% of the variance in both team performance and team affective outcomes. Furthermore, findings reveal particular conflict processes that are beneficial and others detrimental to teams. The truth about team conflict: conflict processes, that is, how teams interact regarding their differences, are at least as important as conflict states, that is, the source and intensity of their perceived incompatibilities.

Moving emotional labor beyond surface and deep acting A discordance–congruence perspective

Emotional labor (EL) is the process by which employees manage their true feelings in order to express organizationally desired emotional displays. We develop and test components of an organizing framework for emotional labor wherein various aspects of emotional labor are understood through the underlying discordance versus congruence in felt versus displayed emotions. Meta-analytic results from 109 independent studies (total N = 36,619) demonstrate that discordant emotional labor states are associated with a range of harmful consequences (health-, attitudinal-, and performance-related), whereas congruent emotional labor states do not incur these harmful consequences. We identify different patterns of worker- and work-related correlates on the basis of emotional discordance–congruence, as well as interesting occupational differences in these relationships. Lastly, we find discordant forms of emotional labor partially mediate the effects of organizational display rules on burnout, whereas congruent states do not mediate this relationship.

Inducing Maximal Versus Typical Learning Through the Provision of a Pretraining Goal Orientation

Goal setting has been used in a variety of contexts in an effort to induce maximal effort and to facilitate greater performance outcomes than would otherwise be achieved through an individuals more typical efforts. Do pretraining goals induce trainees to maximize learning efforts in training? Does the type of goal matter? We meta-analytically cumulated the results of 61 independent studies (N = 10,151) that examined the efficacy of pretraining goals. Results suggest pretraining goals (regardless of type) yield higher performance on posttraining cognitive, skill, and affective learning assessments than “no-goal” conditions. Performance-oriented goals facilitated better performance on measures of declarative knowledge, whereas mastery-oriented goals yielded greater learning on higher levels of cognitive learning and for all levels of skill-based learning. Further, mastery-oriented goals fostered greater posttraining self-efficacy, more positive attitudes toward training, and better intentions to transfer training material than performance-oriented goals and no-goal conditions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Emotional Intelligence, Individual Ethicality, and Perceptions that Unethical Behavior Facilitates Success

Los resultados de este estudio (N = 198) sugieren que la inteligencia emocional es un predictor significativo de la eticidad individual, la percepcion de la condicion etica de los demas y la percepcion de que el comportamiento no etico facilita el exito. Especialmente, la inteligencia emocional muestra varianza anadida en la percepcion de la condicion etica de los demas, sobre la explicada por la eticidad individual. La relacion entre la inteligencia emocional y la percepcion de que el comportamiento no etico facilita el exito esta totalmente mediada por la autoestima. Los resultados sugieren que los trabajadores emocionalmente inteligentes, frente a los bajos en inteligencia emocional, son mas expertos en la interpretacion de la eticidad de las acciones de los demas y potencialmente menos propensos a participar en las acciones poco eticas. Se discuten las implicaciones para la investigacion y la practica

Teaching the Art of Negotiation: Improving Students' Negotiating Confidence and Perceptions of Effectiveness

Negotiation classes are one way in which many of todays managers try to develop negotiation skills. Despite the popularity of such courses, relatively little research has assessed their effectiveness in improving trainee self-confidence and posttraining transfer. The results of 2 data collection efforts indicate that students in a typical negotiation-training course integrating the principles of instructional design believed that they had improved their negotiating skills and confidence, adopted more integrative conflict management styles, and implemented their newfound skills in important real-world negotiations. These perceived changes persisted over time.

Coworker Informal Work Accommodations to Family: Scale Development and Validation

Drawing on research regarding the utility of coworker support in mitigating work/ family conflict, the authors developed a scale to measure Coworker-enacted Informal Work Accommodations to Family (C-IWAF). C-IWAF differs from coworker support in that it describes actual behaviors coworkers engage in to help one another deal with incompatible work and family demands. Results based on a sample of 390 working caregivers provide support for the independence of C-IWAF from other forms of coworker support. Analyses of the factor structure obtained for this instrument indicate that C-IWAF is composed of six unique factors: child care assistance, facilitating telework, continuing work modification, short-term work modification, helping behavior, and deviating behavior. Implications of these results for research and practice are discussed.

Workplace Predictors of Family-Facilitative Coworker Support

In todays team-based work environments, coworkers have a unique opportunity to help one another manage work–family conflict through various forms of family-facilitative support. The authors explored four potential predictors of such coworker support. Results from surveys of 194 full-time working parents indicate coworkers are more likely to offer family-facilitative support when supervisors are supportive, the organizations work culture is family friendly, workgroup cohesion is high, and organizational justice perceptions regarding the administration of family-friendly benefits are high. Results suggest potential for coworker support is highest when the supervisor and work culture are family supportive, and when cohesion and justice are high.