Lynda Jiwen Song

Humble Chief Executive Officers’ Connections to Top Management Team Integration and Middle Managers’ Responses

In this article, we examine the concept of humility among chief executive officers (CEOs) and the process through which it is connected to integration in the top management team (TMT) and middle managers’ responses. We develop and validate a comprehensive measure of humility using multiple samples and then test a multilevel model of how CEOs’ humility links to the processes of top and middle managers. Our methodology involves survey data gathered twice from 328 TMT members and 645 middle managers in 63 private companies in China. We find CEO humility to be positively associated with empowering leadership behaviors, which in turn correlates with TMT integration. TMT integration then positively relates to middle managers’ perception of having an empowering organizational climate, which is then associated with their work engagement, affective commitment, and job performance. Findings confirm our hypotheses based on social information processing theory: humble CEOs connect to top and middle managers through collective perceptions of empowerment at both levels. Qualitative data from interviews with 51 CEOs provide additional insight into the meaning of humility among CEOs and differences between those with high and low humility.

Guanxi as impetus? Career exploration in China and the United States

Purpose – The present paper seeks to analyze the role of social networks in the process of career exploration, including its main effect on search intensity, and moderation effect on the linkage between search intensity and job search confidence.Design/methodology/approach – It is a longitudinal design with 239 USA and 165 Chinese graduating students.Findings – Social networks in job search have greater effects on job search intensity in the USA sample. Moderation effects could be detected in the Chinese sample, and guanxi search (a Chinese reference to social networks) minimizes job search confidence and job satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – Social networks, particularly guanxi search in China, could reflect interdependency in job search process, and might constrain job choice.Originality/value – The paper examined the cultural differences of guanxi search construct, and compared the role of social networks (guanxi search) in cross‐cultural settings.

Expressing religious identities in the workplace : Analyzing a neglected diversity dimension

Responding to Jackson and Joshi’s (2011) call for specific models of the effects of particular diversity types and against the backdrop of the rising desire for the public expression of religious identities in the workplace (Hicks, 2003), we develop a framework that systematically explores when and how the expression of diverse religious identities induces relational conflicts in organizational units. In developing this framework, we integrate the respective literatures on religion studies (e.g. Hicks, 2003), identity-disclosure (e.g. Ragins, 2008) and diversity within organizational groups (Jackson and Joshi, 2011). Our framework specifies three paths whereby the public expression of diverse religious identities can engender relational conflicts. As mediators, we discuss perceivers’ attribution of proselytism and religious discrimination, as well as identity threats. Moreover, we examine the moderating roles of actors’ and perceivers’ religious fundamentalism, perceivers’ religious identity salience and minority members’ attribution of majority members’ religious hegemonial claims. At the theoretical level, we delineate particularities of religious identity diversity that distinguish this diversity type from other deep-level diversity attributes. Concerning practical implications, we argue that it is important to not only foster self-expression, but also to be cognizant of the risks that the public expression of religious identities entails.

Exploration, Exploitation and Human Resource Management Practices in Cooperative and Entrepreneurial HR Configurations

Human resource (HR) practices for selection, performance appraisal, performance–compensation linkage and training are found to be less formalized in entrepreneurial HR configurations (exploratory) than in cooperative HR configurations (exploitative). Although less formalization may support more flexibility and improvisation, it was found to have the disadvantage of reducing process transparency, developmental feedback, performance–compensation linkage strength and the amount of training available. These findings are consistent with theories of exploration and exploitation, with their extensions to human resource management and leadership, and the view that HR systems and practice should be varied in light of the organizational processes to which they are being applied.

Rethinking Psychological Contracts in the Context of Organizational Change: The Moderating Role of Social Comparison and Social Exchange

The employee–employer relationship is said to be affected by extensive workplace transitions, and yet little is known about how employees make sense of these changes while deciding on their responses to them. Our study investigated two factors, social comparison and the nature of the exchanges, as moderators of the effects of psychological contract (i.e., employee beliefs regarding the terms of exchange between the employee and the organization) and psychological contract fulfillment (i.e., employee beliefs regarding the extent to which the employer is fulfilling these terms of exchange) on employee performance. Analysis of data before and after organizational change showed that unfavorable social comparison is associated with lower employee performance for transactional, relational, and balanced psychological contracts. Employees’ perception of the social nature of exchange was associated with lower performance in response to relational and balanced psychological contract fulfillments.

A Multilevel Analysis of Middle Manager Performance: The Role of CEO and Top Manager Leadership CEO及高层经理的领导行为对中层经理工作绩效的多层次交互影响

English Abstract: We investigate the multilevel interactive effects that CEO leadership behaviours and top‐level managers’ support have on middle managers’ performance in China. Our sample consists of 608 middle managers and 140 of their direct supervisors (top managers) from 40 companies. After controlling for middle managers’ demographic variables, hierarchical linear modelling analysis shows that when non‐caring, authoritative, or task‐oriented CEOs lead the organization, supportive top managers more positively enhance middle manager performance. Contributions to multilevel leader influences and social exchange research are discussed.Chinese Abstract: 作者在企业CEO、高层经理和中层经理三个管理层次上，探讨中国企业CEO的领导行为与高层经理的支持对中层经理的工作绩效的多层次交互影响作用。研究样本包含了40家企业的140名高层经理及其直接领导的608名中层经理。多层次线性模型分析结果表明，低关怀、高权威以及绩效导向的CEO领导风格能有效增强高层经理的支持对中层经理工作绩效的正面影响。作者进一步讨论了研究结果对多层次领导效能与社会交换理论的贡献。

Swim or Sink Together The Potential of Collective Team Identification and Team Member Alignment for Separating Task and Relationship Conflicts

This article investigates collective team identification and team member alignment (i.e., the existence of short- and long-term team goals and team-based reward structures) as moderators of the association between task and relationship conflicts. Being indicators of cooperative goal interdependence in teams, both moderators are hypothesized to mitigate the positive association between the two conflict types. Findings from 88 development teams confirm the moderating effect for collective team identification, but not for team member alignment. Moreover, the moderating role of collective team identification is found to be dependent on the level of task conflict: It is more effective in decoupling task and relationship conflicts at medium as compared with high or low levels of task conflict.

Is it new? Personal and contextual influences on perceptions of novelty and creativity.

Novelty recognition is the crucial starting point for extracting value from the ideas generated by others. In this paper we develop an associative evaluation account for how personal and contextual factors motivate individuals to perceive novelty and creativity. We report 4 studies that systematically tested hypotheses developed from this perspective. Study 1 (a laboratory experiment) showed that perceivers’ regulatory focus, as an experimentally induced state, affected novelty perception. Study 2 (a field study) found that perceivers’ promotion focus and prevention focus, measured as chronic traits, each interacted with normative level of novelty and creativity: perceivers who scored higher on promotion focus perceived more novelty (or creativity) in novel (or creative) targets than those who scored lower, whereas perceivers who scored higher on prevention focus perceived less novelty (or creativity) in novel (or creative) targets than those who scored lower. Study 3 (a field study) showed that organizational culture affected the perception of novelty and creativity. Study 4 (a laboratory experiment) found perceiver-by-idea-by-context 3-way interaction effects: for perceivers with prevention focus, the positive relation between normative level of novelty and novelty ratings was weakened in the loss-framing condition versus the gain-framing condition. We discuss implications of the findings for future research and management practice.

How does leader communication style promote employees’ commitment at times of change?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the structure of leader communication style in the context of organizational change. In doing so, the authors intend to shed more light on how leaders can effectively communicate change projects to their subordinates, which is viewed as the key to implementing change initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – This paper builds an integrated conceptual model for understanding leader’s communication style and subordinates’ commitment to change. By analyzing subordinates’ different fears of change, the paper further proposes a multidimensional structure of leader communication style in the context of change. The authors then develop a scale to measure these different dimensions and test the relationship between the proposed communication style and subordinates’ affective commitment to change. Findings – Leader communication style in the context of change is found to be composed of five dimensions: hope orientation, reality orientation, subordinate orientation...

The role of employee participation in generating and commercialising innovations: insights from Chinese high-tech firms

To date, employee participation finds very little recognition in China in research as well as in management practice. It seems to fundamentally contradict traditional values in Chinese culture. The effect of employee participation on innovation is completely unknown, not only for China, but also for many other emerging economies. In contrast, employee participation finds a lot of recognition in the western world for quite some while. Research suggests that employee participation is particularly relevant for innovations in skilled labour contexts, which are becoming increasingly important also for China. Based on a survey of 620 medium-sized and large companies we are investigating the effect of employee participation on innovation generation and commercialisation in China. In the formulation of our hypotheses we take the moderating effects of incentives into account. The contribution of this article is to give evidence on the explanation power of the western concept of employee participation outside the western world. This allows for a better understanding of the robustness of the concept towards cultural context factors.