Maribeth Kuenzi

Assembling Fragments Into a Lens: A Review, Critique, and Proposed Research Agenda for the Organizational Work Climate Literature:

Work climates exert an important influence on organizations and the people who work in them. For more than half a century, scholars have sought to understand their antecedents and consequences. However, in recent years, this literature has become fragmented and somewhat adrift. This article attempts to remedy this by reviewing existing research related to organizational work climates and providing a review and critique of the current state of knowledge. Furthermore, the authors seek to assemble the individual pieces into a unified lens capable of identifying overarching themes and challenges facing researchers. Finally, the authors turn this lens to the future, so as to provide a clearer view of some promising avenues for research opportunities and potential for reintegrating the field.

Better understanding work unit goal orientation: Its emergence and impact under different types of work unit structure.

With a multisource sample comprising 1,150 employees and 230 supervisors, we investigate the effect of leader goal orientation on leaders perceptions of unit performance. We propose that a leaders goal orientation indirectly impacts performance perceptions via the shared achievement goal adopted within the unit (i.e., unit goal orientation). Further, we hypothesize that the presence and impact of unit goal orientation depend on the work unit structure. We find general support for this moderated mediation model, with the strongest evidence being associated with the learning and prove dimensions of goal orientation.

Chapter 12 Exploring the “black box” of justice climate: what mechanisms link justice climate and outcomes?

Purpose – This chapter highlights that we do not know why justice climate is related to various unit outcomes and proposes a number of mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach – This chapter draws on the extant literature on justice climate, organizational climate, and a number of theories to link justice climate to unit outcomes. Findings – We have little understanding of the mechanisms linking justice climate to unit outcomes and it is important to consider various mechanisms. Research limitations/implications – The primary limitation of this chapter is that although we present several ideas for future research, we do not provide any new empirical findings. The primary implications have to do with specifying the theoretical mechanisms responsible for the effects of justice climate on unit outcomes. Originality/value – The novel aspect of this chapter is that it questions why justice climate is related to several disparate outcomes and tries to take a theoretical approach to uncover the mechanisms.