Junqi Shi

Economic inequality is linked to biased self-perception

People’s self-perception biases often lead them to see themselves as better than the average person (a phenomenon known as self-enhancement). This bias varies across cultures, and variations are typically explained using cultural variables, such as individualism versus collectivism. We propose that socioeconomic differences among societies—specifically, relative levels of economic inequality—play an important but unrecognized role in how people evaluate themselves. Evidence for self-enhancement was found in 15 diverse nations, but the magnitude of the bias varied. Greater self-enhancement was found in societies with more income inequality, and income inequality predicted cross-cultural differences in self-enhancement better than did individualism/collectivism. These results indicate that macrosocial differences in the distribution of economic goods are linked to microsocial processes of perceiving the self.

Chinese Adolescents’ Social Status Goals Associations with Behaviors and Attributions for Relational Aggression

This study examined two social status goals in relation to aggressive and prosocial behaviors as well as attributions for relational aggression among 477 (244 girls) Chinese early adolescents. Findings indicate that, after controlling for each other, the social preference goal was negatively related to self-reported overt aggression, and positively associated with prosocial behaviors as reported by self, peers, and teachers, whereas the popularity goal was not uniquely related to either aggressive or prosocial behaviors. Regarding attributions, adolescents with the popularity goal displayed a tendency to justify relational aggression by not attributing it to the aggressor’s characteristics (e.g., jealousy). In contrast, adolescents with the social preference goal were more likely to attribute relational aggression to the aggressor’s characteristics as well as neutral reasons. Findings of this study highlight the importance of investigating the social cognitive processes of peer status among adolescents.

Work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and displaced aggression toward others: the moderating roles of workplace interpersonal conflict and perceived managerial family support

Taking a resource-based self-regulation perspective, this study examined afternoon emotional exhaustion as a mediator linking the within-person relations between morning work-family conflict and later employee displaced aggression in the work and family domains. In addition, it examined resource-related contextual factors as moderators of these relations. The theoretical model was tested using daily diary data from 125 employees. Data were collected at 4 time points during each workday for 3 consecutive weeks. Multilevel modeling analysis showed that morning family-to-work conflict was positively related to afternoon emotional exhaustion, which in turn predicted displaced aggression toward supervisors and coworkers in the afternoon and displaced aggression toward family members in the evening. In addition, morning workplace interpersonal conflict exacerbated the impact of morning work-to-family conflict on afternoon emotional exhaustion, whereas perceived managerial family support alleviated the impact of morning family-to-work conflict on afternoon emotional exhaustion. These findings indicate the importance of adopting a self-regulation perspective to understand work-family conflict at work and its consequences (i.e., displaced aggression) in both work and family domains.

Linking Subordinate Political Skill to Supervisor Dependence and Reward Recommendations: A Moderated Mediation Model

In this study, we examined the relations of subordinate political skill with supervisors dependence on the subordinate and supervisor reward recommendation, as well as mediating (interaction frequency with supervisor) and moderating (supervisor political behavior) variables of these relations. Our theoretical model was tested using data collected from employees in a company that specialized in construction management. Analyses of multisource and lagged data from 53 construction management team supervisors and 296 subordinates indicated that subordinate political skill was positively related to supervisor reward recommendation via subordinates interaction frequency with supervisor. Although interaction frequency with a supervisor was also positively related to the supervisors dependence on the subordinate, the indirect effect of subordinate political skill on dependence was not significant. Further, both the relationship between subordinate political skill and interaction frequency with a supervisor and the indirect relationships between subordinate political skill and supervisor reward recommendation were stronger when supervisors exhibited more political behavior.

Customer Mistreatment, Employee Health, and Job Performance Cognitive Rumination and Social Sharing as Mediating Mechanisms

The current study examined employee outcomes associated with customer mistreatment, conceptualizing customer mistreatment as signaling failure regarding employees’ pursuit of task and social goals at work. We argue that employees make internal attributions when experiencing customer mistreatment and are likely to engage in rumination because of this perceived goal failure. The goal of this article was to test this conceptualization and examine the outcomes of customer mistreatment–induced rumination as well as emotional labor strategies as potential protective mechanisms against customer mistreatment. Findings from time-lagged data collected from 737 call-center customer representatives indicated that cognitive rumination mediated the relationship between customer mistreatment and supervisor-rated job performance, customer-directed sabotage, employee well-being, and emotional exhaustion. The second mediator, social sharing of negative events, mediated the relationship between customer mistreatment and emotional exhaustion only. As expected, cognitive rumination was positively related to customer sabotage and emotional exhaustion and negatively related to job performance and well-being. Social sharing of negative events was positively related to both well-being and emotional exhaustion. Finally, we found that deep acting, but not surface acting, buffered the effects of customer mistreatment on cognitive rumination and social sharing. Limitations, future research directions, and managerial implications are discussed.

Chinese and American children’s perceptions of popularity determinants: Cultural differences and behavioral correlates

The present study aimed to investigate cultural construction of children’s perceptions of popularity determinants using a cross-cultural approach. This study examined 327 Chinese and 312 American fifth-graders’ perceptions of what individual characteristics and peer relationships would make a peer popular. Consistent with cultural emphases, Chinese children primarily endorsed prosocial behaviors and academic competence and perceived opposite gender interactions unfavorably. In contrast, American children endorsed more social connections, appearance and opposite gender interactions. Compared with American children, Chinese children perceived antisocial behaviors more unfavorably. For both cultural groups, children’s popularity status and behavioral characteristics, as measured by peer nominations, related to their perceptions of popularity determinants. Discussions regarding cultural implications of these findings are provided.

Attitudes Toward Computers: A New Attitudinal Dimension

The present study examined the reliability and the construct validity of a questionnaire designed to measure the attitudes toward computers in everyday life. A total of 2,050 participants responded to the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that attitudes toward computers are composed of three dimensions: sense of benefit, sense of dependence, and sense of harm.

When and how does functional diversity influence team innovation? The mediating role of knowledge sharing and the moderation role of affect-based trust in a team

Findings from prior research on the relationship between functional diversity and team innovation have been inconclusive. This study aims to reconcile the mixed findings in the literature by investigating how functional diversity may influence team innovation and when such influence may or may not occur. The view of teams as information processors suggests that functionally diverse teams may capitalize on their knowledge benefits to produce innovations through knowledge sharing. However, knowledge sharing and subsequent team innovation do not necessarily occur in functionally diverse teams. Drawing on the motivated information processing in groups theory, we propose that affect-based trust in a team moderates the effects of functional diversity on team innovation (via knowledge sharing). The results based on a sample of 96 research and development teams indicate that functional diversity had a negative indirect relationship with team innovation via knowledge sharing when affect-based trust in a team was low, and this relationship became less negative as the level of affect-based trust in a team increased. The relationship was not significant when affect-based trust in a team was high.

Eating your feelings? Testing a model of employees' work-related stressors, sleep quality, and unhealthy eating.

Although organizational research on health-related behaviors has become increasingly popular, little attention has been paid to unhealthy eating. Drawing on the self-regulation perspective, we conducted 2 daily diary studies to examine the relationships between work-related stressors, sleep quality, negative mood, and eating behaviors. Study 1 sampled 125 participants from 5 Chinese information technology companies and showed that when participants experienced higher levels of job demands in the morning, they consumed more types of unhealthy food and fewer types of healthy food in the evening. In addition, sleep quality from the previous night buffered the effect of morning job demands on evening unhealthy food consumption. Study 2 used data from 110 customer service employees from a Chinese telecommunications company and further demonstrated a positive association between morning customer mistreatment and evening overeating behaviors, as well as the buffering effect of sleep quality. Results from Study 2 also supported afternoon negative mood as a mediator linking morning customer mistreatment to evening overeating behaviors. Finally, our findings revealed that the buffering effect of sleep quality was channeled through employees’ vigor in the morning, which subsequently weakened the effect of customer mistreatment on negative mood.

Psychometric Properties of a Chinese Translation of the Political Skill Inventory

Ferris and colleagues defined political skill in organizations as “the ability to effectively understand others at work and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance ones personal and/or organizational objectives.” In this study, the psychometric properties of a Chinese translation of the Political Skill Inventory were investigated, supporting construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion validities. The results suggested that the Chinese translation retained a four-factor structure. Political skill was positively correlated with self-monitoring, conscientiousness, political savvy, emotional intelligence, extraversion, agreeableness, and proactive personality, and was negatively correlated with trait anxiety and external locus of control. After controlling for age, sex, and job tenure, political skill was predictive of task performance, work contribution, and interpersonal help.