Linda Rhoades Shanock

Wasted Time and Money in Meetings: Increasing Return on Investment

Meetings are a significant investment for organizations and the groups that comprise them, but the small group literature has often neglected the direct study of meetings. This article closes the special issue on work meetings by exploring the costs associated with unnecessary or poorly facilitated meetings and proposes a three-stage model that groups and organizations may use to assure that the time invested in meetings is more likely to deliver a return on the resources invested.

Interaction of Core Self-Evaluations and Perceived Organizational Support on Work-to-Family Enrichment

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article was to offer an empirical test of J. H. Greenhaus and G. N. Powells (2006) model of work–family enrichment by examining dispositional (i.e., core self-evaluations; CSEs) and situational (i.e., perceived organizational support; POS) factors associated with work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and whether these variables interact in predicting WFE. In a survey of 220 employed adults, our hierarchical regression analysis revealed that in highly supportive work environments, individuals reported high WFE regardless of CSE. However, when POS was low, individuals high in CSEs reported higher WFE than those low in CSEs, in support of conservation of resources theory (S. E. Hobfoll, 2002). Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Leading Group Meetings: Supervisors’ Actions, Employee Behaviors, and Upward Perceptions

This study focuses on a common-yet-understudied group process: supervisor-led group meetings at work. Specifically, the study explores the relationships among employees’ perceptions and reported behaviors with regard to such meetings. Respondents are 291 adults working in different organizations. Structural equation modeling of the data largely supports the hypothesized model. Employee perceptions of relationship quality with their supervisors (leader–member exchange) fully mediates the relationship between perceptions of supervisors’ fairness (interactional justice) in group meetings and perceived organizational support. Leader–member exchange also fully mediates the relationship between interactional justice perceptions and meeting citizenship behaviors—a new construct describing extra-role behaviors that support meeting processes—and between good meeting practices by the supervisors and meeting citizenship behaviors. Leader–member exchange partially mediates the relationship between good meeting practices and perceived organizational support. These findings highlight the importance both of supervisors’ behaviors within meetings that they lead and of the supervisor-led group meeting itself as a phenomenon worthy of future exploration.

Meetings at Work Advancing the Theory and Practice of Meetings

Although advances in communication technology were once expected to diminish the need for synchronous work meetings, meeting activity in organizations continues to rise. Regrettably, the time and energy employees spend in work meetings is not matched by the amount of direct attention group and organizational scholars have paid to meeting phenomena. This special issue of Small Group Research helps to address this gap by presenting empirical studies of work meetings that explore the theory and practice of work meetings.

What did you mean by that? Justice implications of interpersonal interactions for Latino/as.

The labor force in the United States is increasingly becoming diverse, fueled by a growth in Latino/as, which increases the prevalence of cross-cultural interactions at work. The purpose of the current study is to understand the implications of microaggressions and communication values for Latino/as’ interpersonal and informational justice. Qualtrics Panels were used to recruit 259 working Latino/a adults in the United States. Regression analyses and polynomial regression with response surface analysis were used to test the hypotheses. Discrimination, in the form of microaggressions, is negatively related to interpersonal justice. Though, the relationship is buffered if subordinates trust their supervisor. Furthermore, the greater the discrepancy in a cultural values regarding communication style preference (High-Context/Low-Context [HCLC]) between supervisors and subordinates, the lower levels of perceived informational justice. Our findings contribute to the limited literature on managing Latino/as in the U.S. workforce, and in particular, the cultural implications for fairness. The current study answers a call to understand U.S. Latino/as’ experiences at work while being among the first to apply the concept of microaggressions to a work context. In addition, we add to the justice literature by investigating cultural predictors of justice. La fuerza laboral en los EE.UU. se está convirtiendo cada vez más diversa, impulsado por un crecimiento de los Latinos/as, lo que aumenta la prevalencia de las interacciones entre las culturas. El propósito de este estudio es comprender las implicaciones de microagresiones y valores de comunicación para Latinos/as’ justicia interpersonal e informativo. Paneles Qualtrics se utilizaron para contratar 259 trabajadores adultos latinos en los análisis de regresión EE.UU. y la regresión polinómica con el análisis de superficie de respuesta se utilizaron para probar las hipótesis. La discriminación, en forma de microagresiones, es una relación negativa con la justicia interpersonal. Sin embargo, la relación es amortiguada si subordinados confían en su supervisor. Por otra parte, cuanto mayor sea la discrepancia en unos valores culturales con respecto a las preferencias de estilo de comunicación (Contexto de alta/baja Contexto [HCLC]) entre supervisores y subordinados, los niveles más bajos de la justicia de información percibida. Nuestros resultados contribuyen a la escasa literatura sobre la gestión de Latinos/as en la mano de obra EE.UU., y en particular, las implicaciones culturales de imparcialidad. El presente estudio responde a una llamada a entender EE.UU. Latino/as experiencias en el trabajo mientras se encuentran entre los primeros en aplicar el concepto de microagresiones a un contexto de trabajo. Además, añadimos a la literatura mediante la investigación de la justicia predictores culturales de la justicia.