Kok-Yee Ng

Turnover of information technology professionals: a narrative review, meta-analytic structural equation modeling, and model development

This study combines a narrative review with meta-analytic techniques to yield important insights about the existing research on turnover of information technology professionals. Our narrative review of 33 studies shows that the 43 antecedents to turnover intentions of IT professionals could be mapped onto March and Simons (1958) distal-proximal turnover framework. Our meta-analytic structural equation modeling shows that proximal constructs of job satisfaction (reflecting the lack of desire to move) and perceived job alternatives (reflecting ease of movement) partially mediate the relationships between the more distal individual attributes, job-related and perceived organizational factors, and IT turnover intentions. Building on the findings from our review, we propose a new theoretical model of IT turnover that presents propositions for future research to address existing gaps in the IT literature.

Culture + intelligence: Old constructs, new frontiers

Despite the extensive research on culture and intelligence in organizational psychology, little attention has been given to the integration of the two constructs. This special issue aims to stimulate new research directions by synthesizing the two streams of research. In this introduction to the special issue, we propose a framework that reflects and reconciles two different approaches to integrating culture and intelligence—the cultural variation of intelligence approach versus the cultural intelligence approach. Our focus is on the latter approach, which centers on validating the emerging construct called cultural intelligence—defined as the capability to be effective across cultural settings. Specifically, we discuss the measurement and substantive issues that future research should address in advancing our understanding of the cultural intelligence construct.

Do I Contribute More When I Trust More? Differential Effects of Cognition‐ and Affect‐Based Trust

This study investigates the relationship between level of trust and cooperative behaviours in a social dilemma. We argue that this relationship should depend on the basis of trust (cognition- versus affect-based) and on beliefs about the equality of resource endowments. Results supported our prediction that increasing affect-based trust increases cooperation, but increasing cognition-based trust to a certain level can reduce cooperation because of free-riding tendency. Moreover, these effects of trust are stronger for individuals who believed that other group members had more resources than they did. Thus, our study demonstrates that higher levels of trust do not necessarily encourage cooperation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Motivation to Serve

The motivation to serve others is deeply embedded in the philosophy of servant leadership. As seen from the quote above, Robert Greenleaf articulated the core essence of a servant-leader as having the desire to serve others. It is this desire that precipitates actions taken by the servant–leader to ensure that others’ critical needs are met (Greenleaf, 1970). In a time where abuse of power and unethical leadership practices are increasingly common, it is not surprising that servant leadership, which emphasizes the leader’s genuine desire and moral responsibility to meet the needs of the subordinates, is gaining more appeal with organizations.