Maria L. Kraimer

A Social Capital Theory of Career Success

A model integrating competing theories of social capital with research on career success was developed and tested in a sample of 448 employees with various occupations and organizations. Social capital was conceptualized in terms of network structure and social resources. Results of structural equation modeling showed that network structure was related to social resources and that the effects of social resources on career success were fully mediated by three network benefits: access to information, access to resources, and career sponsorship.

Social Networks and the Performance of Individuals and Groups

A field study involving 190 employees in 38 work groups representing five diverse organizations provided evidence that social networks, as defined in terms of both positive and negative relations, are related to both individual and group performance. As hypothesized, individual job performance was positively related to centrality in advice networks and negatively related to centrality in hindrance networks composed of relationships tending to thwart task behaviors. Hindrance network density was significantly and negatively related to group performance.

The role of human capital, motivation and supervisor sponsorship in predicting career success

Based on Turners (1960) contest- and sponsored-mobility systems, a comprehensive model of the determinants of career success was examined. Human capital and motivational variables represented the contest-mobility system whereas leader–member exchange and supervisor career mentoring represented the sponsored-mobility system. Results based on data from 245 supervisor–subordinate dyads indicated limited support for the contest-mobility system and strong support for the sponsored-mobility system. Interestingly, the two forms of sponsorship were differentially related to career outcomes. Specifically, leader–member exchange was positively related to salary progression, promotability, and career satisfaction. Career mentoring, however, was only related to promotability. Copyright

An Examination of Perceived Organizational Support as a Multidimensional Construct in the Context of an Expatriate Assignment

We examined a multidimensional measure of perceived organizational support (adjustment POS, career POS, and financial POS) within an integtrative stress model of expatriate success. Expatriate success was defined in terms of multiple criteria and the predictors included role stressors, situational stressors, supervisor support, and POS. Hypotheses were tested with 230 expatriate–supervisor dyads and S.E.M. analyses. Support was found for a partially mediated model. The results showed that the POS dimensions differentially predicted expatriate success criteria.

Choices, Challenges, and Career Consequences of Global Work Experiences: A Review and Future Agenda

Over the past 20 years, there has been increased interest in global forms of employment. Researchers have identified and investigated a number of global work experiences, including corporate and self-initiated expatriates as well as more novel forms of corporate global employees (flexpatriates, short-term assignees, and international business travelers). In this article, the authors review the empirical research that has investigated individual choices, challenges, and career consequences associated with the various types of global work. They summarize and synthesize this growing body of literature and then develop a taxonomy of global work experiences. Based on their review of this literature and their taxonomy, the authors outline an agenda for future research on global work experiences.

Psychological Empowerment as a Multidimensional Construct: A Test of Construct Validity.

The construct validity of scores on Spreitzer’s Psychological Empowerment scale was examined. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of data from a sample of 160 nurses showed substantial support for Spreitzer’s four empowerment dimensions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. In contrast to Spreitzer’s findings, the results of this study indicated that self-determination is a precursor of impact. This finding was cross-validated with data from a subset of the same sample 1 year later, after implementation of a job redesign program. In addition, results from structural equation modeling (SEM) demonstrated job characteristics to relate differentially to the empowerment dimensions, providing evidence for both convergent and discriminant validity of scores on the four empowerment dimensions. Finally, this study found that the four empowerment dimensions differentially related to organizational commitment and career intentions, providing evidence for the predictive validity of the Empowerment scale scores.

Procedural Justice as a Two-Dimensional Construct An Examination in the Performance Appraisal Context

Procedural justice is generally thought of as a unidimensional construct. In this article, it is argued that in the performance appraisal context procedural justice can be conceptualized as two-dimensional: system procedural justice and rater procedural justice. Regression results from a study of one organization in Turkey support this distinction. Due process characteristics and employee characteristics were differentially related to two dimensions of procedural justice. Specifically, perceived validity of performance criteria, knowledge of performance criteria, and organizational level of employees were related to system procedural justice, whereas perceived performance feedback and fair hearing were each positively related to rater procedural justice.

Organizational goals and values: A socialization model

Abstract Research on the content of socialization has incorporated multiple content areas into one general framework. However, it has been suggested that the organizational content areas actually assess different constructs, thus, researchers should examine the content areas independently. The purpose of this article is to present a model of socialization that focuses on the antecedents and outcomes of socialization in one specific content area: organizational goals and values. The model suggests that an individuals agreement with the organizations values (work value congruence) and the importance of the individuals own work values interact to determine the outcomes of socialization to the organizational goals and values. When there is low work value congruence, the individual may engage in detrimental behaviors if the individual has a strong belief in his/her own values.

Management of Poor Performance: A Comparison of Manager, Group Member, and Group Disciplinary Decisions

Managers and 231 members of 41 work groups representing 4 diverse organizations participated in an experiment involving disciplinary decisions. Managers and group members responded individually to scenarios describing a group members poor performance, followed by group members meeting to reach consensus on the disciplinary decisions. As hypothesized, manager disciplinary decisions were more severe than decisions made by individual group members. Contrary to predictions, the severity of manager and group disciplinary decisions did not differ. A test of choice shifts revealed that when the prevailing view among individual group members was for a relatively lenient disciplinary action, the group consensus decision was more severe than the average of the individual decisions. Attributions and outcome seriousness were found to influence the severity of manager, group member, and group decisions.

The Role of Research Strategies and Professional Networks in Management Scholars’ Productivity

We propose a model of knowledge creation, transfer, and adoption based on theories of creativity and social networks. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 119 full professors in management departments at U.S. universities. We examine the effects that two research strategies, coauthoring and working in multiple research fields, have on the number of publications in each of three journal quality tiers during an 8-year period. In addition, we examined the influence that having strong ties and a dense network of professional colleagues each has on the total number of citations garnered by those publications. Results showed a heterogeneous pattern of coauthoring (distributing coauthoring activity evenly across a greater number of coauthors) is positively related to the number of publications in the highest-quality journals for the focal researcher. The heterogeneity of research fields in which a researcher works is also positively related to greater productivity, albeit in second- and third-tier publication outlets. In addition, we found that the number of strong ties in the focal author’s professional support network positively related to his or her total citation count, independent of the number and quality of publications. Implications for the social network theory of creativity, organizational knowledge theory, and models of management scholars’ productivity are explored.