L. A. Witt

Interactive Effects of Personality and Perceptions of the Work Situation on Workplace Deviance

Previous research on workplace deviance has examined the relationship of either personality or employees situational perceptions with deviant behavior. In this study, the authors focused on the joint relationship of personality and perceptions of the work situation with deviant behavior. Using 4 samples of employees and multiple operationalizations of the core constructs, the authors found support for the hypothesis that positive perceptions of the work situation are negatively related to workplace deviance. In addition, consistent with hypotheses, the personality traits of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness moderated this relationship. Specifically, the relationship between perceptions of the developmental environment and organizational deviance was stronger for employees low in conscientiousness or emotional stability, and the relationship between perceived organizational support and interpersonal deviance was stronger for employees low in agreeableness.

The interactive effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness on job performance.

The authors hypothesized that the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance would be stronger for persons high in agreeableness than for those low in agreeableness. Results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses for 7 independent samples of employees across diverse occupations provided support for the hypothesis in 5 of the samples. In samples supporting the hypothesis, among the highly conscientious workers, those low in agreeableness were found to receive lower ratings of job performance than workers high in agreeableness. One explanation for lack of an interaction between conscientiousness and agreeableness in the other 2 samples is that those jobs were not characterized by frequent, cooperative interactions with others. Overall, the results show that highly conscientious workers who lack interpersonal sensitivity may be ineffective, particularly in jobs requiring cooperative interchange with others.

Interaction of social skill and general mental ability on job performance and salary.

Job and organizational changes have promoted the importance of social skill at work, yet research in this area has been limited. The authors investigated the interaction between social skill and general mental ability (GMA) in the explanation of job performance and salary, controlling for personality and demographic characteristics. The results indicated that the relationships between social skill and job performance were stronger among workers high than low in GMA. In a similar manner. the relationships between GMA and job performance were stronger among workers high than low in social skill. The interaction on salary indicated that increases in social skill (or GMA) for high-GMA (or social skill) individuals were associated with higher salary levels. It is interesting, however, that increases in social skill (or GMA) for those low in GMA (or social skill) contributed to lower salaries. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

The Interactive Effect of Leader-Member Exchange and Communication Frequency on Performance Ratings

The authors tested the hypothesis that communication frequency moderates the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and job-performance ratings. In a study of 188 private sector workers, they found that LMX was more strongly related to job-performance ratings among individuals reporting frequent communication with the supervisor than among those reporting infrequent communication. At high levels of LMX, workers reporting frequent communication with the supervisor received more favorable job-performance ratings than did workers reporting infrequent communication. In contrast, at low levels of LMX, workers reporting frequent communication with the supervisor received less favorable job-performance ratings than workers reporting infrequent communication. The authors conducted a 2nd study of 153 public sector workers to provide a constructive replication and found similar results.

The Role of Participation in Decision-Making in the Organizational Politics-Job Satisfaction Relationship

The present study examined the impact participation in decision-making (PDM) had on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and expressions of job satisfaction among 1251 public sector employees. We hypothesized that perceptions of organizational politics would reduce job satisfaction and that the detrimental effect of poltics on job satisfaction would be weakest among workers who engage in consensus decision-making with their supervisors. We used confirmatory factor analyses to determine whether the variables used in this study reflected distinct constructs. Then, we used correlational analysis and hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that the variables reflected distinct constructs and confirmed the hypotheses. Examination of the interaction indicated that the effect of PDM on job satisfaction was robust at high levels of perceived politics.

The Work-Family Interface and Job Performance: Moderating Effects of Conscientiousness and Perceived Organizational Support

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors hypothesized that two aspects of the work-family interface--family-to-work conflict (FWC) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE)--are related to job performance. The authors also hypothesized that two variables moderate those relationships--individual differences in conscientiousness and aspects of the work environment in terms of perceived organizational support (POS). Data collected from a matched set of 136 private sector workers and their respective supervisors revealed that high FWC was more strongly related to lower job performance: (1) among high- than low-conscientiousness workers and (2) among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. However, FWE was unrelated to job performance.

Enhancing organizational goal congruence: A solution to organizational politics.

Results of moderated multiple regression analyses on data collected from 979 workers in 5 organizations confirmed the hypothesis that supervisor-subordinate goal congruence would moderate the relationship between organizational politics and organizational commitment. Similar analyses on data collected from 366 workers in 2 of those organizations provided partial support for the second hypothesis that goal congruence would also moderate the relationship between organizational politics and job performance. Perceptions of politics were more strongly related to expressions of commitment and supervisorrated performance among individuals who did not share the priorities of their supervisors than among those whose goal priorities were consistent with those of their supervisors. Results suggest that supervisors and managers can help their employees cope with politics by making efforts to ensure that they share their goal priorities.

Social skill as moderator of the conscientiousness-performance relationship: Convergent results across four studies

The authors conducted 4 studies to test the hypothesis that the relationship between Conscientiousness and job performance reflecting interpersonal effectiveness is more strongly positive among workers who are higher rather than lower in social skill. Results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses supported the hypothesis in all 4 studies. Among workers high in social skill. Conscientiousness was positively related to performance. Among workers low in social skill, the relationship between Conscientiousness and performance was essentially irrelevant in Study 2 but was negative in the other 3 studies. Potential implications of these results are discussed as are directions for future research.

The interaction of social skill and organizational support on job performance.

The present study examined the moderating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on the relationship between social skill and supervisor-rated job performance. On the basis of regulatory and activation models of behavior, the authors argue that low-POS environments activate social skill because they reflect situations in which interpersonal acuity is required to demonstrate effective job performance. Accordingly, the authors hypothesize that social skill is more strongly related to performance among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. Results of hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses on data gathered from 2 samples support the hypothesis. These results suggest that the relevance of social skill to job performance may be dependent on contextual cues. Implications for substantive research, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are offered.

When Conscientiousness Isn’t Enough: Emotional Exhaustion and Performance Among Call Center Customer Service Representatives

The authors examined the relationship of the interaction between emotional exhaustion and conscientiousness with objectively-measured call volume performance and subjectively-measured service quality ratings among 92 call center customer service representatives (CSR’s) of a financial services institution. Results supported the interactive effects on call volume but not service quality. Specifically, the relationship between emotional exhaustion and call volume was stronger among high- than low-conscientiousness CSR’s. Among CSR’s reporting low levels of emotional exhaustion, those high in conscientiousness achieved higher call volumes than those low in conscientiousness. In contrast, among CSR’s reporting high levels of emotional exhaustion, those high in conscientiousness achieved lower call volumes than those low in conscientiousness. Implications for both the personality and stress literatures are discussed. Practical implications for human resources managers also are offered.