Margaret M. Luciano

Modeling time-lagged reciprocal psychological empowerment-performance relationships

Employee psychological empowerment is widely accepted as a means for organizations to compete in increasingly dynamic environments. Previous empirical research and meta-analyses have demonstrated that employee psychological empowerment is positively related to several attitudinal and behavioral outcomes including job performance. While this research positions psychological empowerment as an antecedent influencing such outcomes, a close examination of the literature reveals that this relationship is primarily based on cross-sectional research. Notably, evidence supporting the presumed benefits of empowerment has failed to account for potential reciprocal relationships and endogeneity effects. Accordingly, using a multiwave, time-lagged design, we model reciprocal relationships between psychological empowerment and job performance using a sample of 441 nurses from 5 hospitals. Incorporating temporal effects in a staggered research design and using structural equation modeling techniques, our findings provide support for the conventional positive correlation between empowerment and subsequent performance. Moreover, accounting for the temporal stability of variables over time, we found support for empowerment levels as positive influences on subsequent changes in performance. Finally, we also found support for the reciprocal relationship, as performance levels were shown to relate positively to changes in empowerment over time. Theoretical and practical implications of the reciprocal psychological empowerment-performance relationships are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Multiteam Systems A Structural Framework and Meso-Theory of System Functioning

It has been over a decade since organizational researchers began seriously grappling with the phenomenon of multiteam systems (MTSs) as an organizational form spanning traditional team and organizational boundaries. The MTS concept has been met with great enthusiasm as an organizational form that solves both theoretical and practical challenges. However, the development of the MTS domain has been stifled by the absence of theory that clearly delineates the core dimensions influencing the interactions between the individuals and teams operating within them. We contribute to such theory building by creating a multidimensional framework that centers on two key structural features of MTSs—differentiation and dynamism—that create distinct forces affecting individual and team behavior within the system. Differentiation characterizes the degree of difference and separation between MTS component teams at a particular point in time, whereas dynamism describes the variability and instability of the system over time. For each dimension, we discuss the underlying subdimensions that explain how structural features generate boundary-enhancing and disruptive forces in MTSs. We then advance a mesolevel theory of MTS functioning that associates those forces with individuals’ needs and motives, which, in turn, compile upward to form team and MTS emergent states. Finally, we discuss coordination mechanisms that offset or compensate for the structural effects and serve to cohere the MTS component teams. The theoretical and practical implications of our work and an agenda for future research are then discussed.

Commentary: Autonomy and Relatedness Reconsidered: Learning from the Inuit

Psychology has long struggled with defining constructs while preserving their meaning within a cultural context. Autonomy and relatedness have been construed as a dichotomy, which does not contribute to the understanding of how humans can act autonomously while being attached to one another. It is more fruitful to discuss the constructs in the context of an inclusive relationship in which autonomy and relatedness are proposed to be compatible as they are located on different dimensions: agency and interpersonal distance, respectively. The nuances of the constructs and the dialogical process, which includes the middle ground between the two extremes, are crucial for a complete understanding. The presence of autonomy does not imply or negate the presence of relatedness. Autonomy and relatedness not only can but do synthesize in a variety of forms.

Commentary: Autonomy and relatedness reconsidered: Learning from Indian families

The relationships between individuals and between individuals and contexts have been studied extensively in cultural psychology as well as in several other disciplines. This commentary attempts to discuss the roles of autonomy and relatedness in these relationships while preserving meaning in the cultural context. It explores further the nature of the constructs as domain-specific, situational, and relative, as well as the concept of choice in terms of the process of choosing and limitations. The potential disparities in events as they are experienced and as they are explained are both considered, together with the construction of meaning. Situational behaviors as related to varying circumstances and social contexts are also reflected on. Finally, autonomy and relatedness are reconsidered within the sociological network, in which the individual systems at the psycho-logics level interact with the functions at the socio-logics level.

A Fitting Approach to Construct and Measurement Alignment: The Role of Big Data in Advancing Dynamic Theories

Many phenomena of interest to management and psychology scholars are dynamic and change over time. One of the primary impediments to the examination of dynamic phenomena has been challenges associated with collecting data at a sufficient frequency and duration to accurately model such changes. Emerging technologies that produce nearly continuous streams of big data offer great promise to address those challenges; however, they introduce new methodological challenges and construct validity concerns. We seek to integrate the emerging big data technologies into the existing repertoire of measurement techniques and advance an iterative process to enhance their measurement fit. First, we provide an overview of dynamic constructs and temporal frameworks, highlighting their measurement implications. Second, we discuss different data streams and feature emerging technologies that leverage big data as a means to index dynamic constructs. Third, we integrate the previous sections and advance an iterative approach to achieving measurement fit, highlighting factors that make some measurement choices more suitable and viable than others. In so doing, we hope to accelerate the advancement of dynamic theories and methods.

Empowered to perform: A multi-level investigation of empowerment on performance in Hospital units

Psychological empowerment has been studied intensively over the past few decades and researchers have identified a number of potent antecedents and beneficial outcomes. However, a recent meta-analy...