Marie T. Dasborough

A Study of Exchange and Emotions in Team Member Relationships

In this article we aim to generate theory about how individuals perceive their relationships with team members, and their emotional experiences within the team member exchange (TMX) process. Findings from qualitative and quantitative analyses are presented, with data collected from 25 full-time employees working within five teams in two organizations. The qualitative results reveal a variety of exchanges that occur within the team member relationships, including relationship-oriented exchanges and task-oriented exchanges. Team members highlighted the importance of friendship within the team context, and that they experienced positive and negative emotions in response to their TMX relationships. The quantitative results also indicated that positive emotions, rather than negative emotions, were associated with high-quality TMX relationships.

The influence of relation-based and rule-based regulations on hiring decisions in the Australian and Hong Kong Chinese cultural contexts

Investigation of the cultural factors that may influence the employment decisions of managers is of increasing importance in the global business environment. The purpose of this research is to examine whether particularistic ties based on friendship influence hiring practices in relation-based (Hong Kong Chinese) and rule-based (Australian) cultural contexts. Three studies were conducted to examine this research question. Results indicate that friendship-based particularistic ties, specifically guanxi and mateship, can influence hiring decisions in both relation- and rule-based cultural contexts. The results of the studies have implications for human resource managers with regards to staffing organizations operating in different cultural contexts.

The Role of Transaction Costs and Institutional Forces in the Outsourcing of Recruitment

This study investigated reasons for the outsourcing of a core HRM function, recruitment. Drawing from transaction costs and institutional theories, it was hypothesised that the pressure to minimise transaction costs and the presence of industry trends towards outsourcing would be positively associated with the outsourcing of recruitment. Survey data were gathered from 1I 7 HR professionals in Australia. Both hypotheses were partially supported. Specifically, the outsourcing of recruitment activities was positively associated with trust in the agency supplying the recruitment service and with the need to reduce internal labour but not fixed costs. With regard to institutional theory, the outsourcing of recruitment was positively associated with mimetic but not coercive forces. The study concludes that although most assumptions about recruitment agency use are expressed in economic terms, in reality, HRM practices are also influenced by forces exerted by the institutional environment in which organisations are located.

Understanding emotions in higher education change management

Purpose – The authors explore employees’ emotions during a structural change (merging departments) in the higher education sector. The purposes of this paper are to identify how employees’ perceptions shape their emotional responses toward organizational change; and the variation of collective employee emotions pre-merger and post-merger. Design/methodology/approach – This interpretative study uses phenomenography to better understand the phenomena of change. Findings – Employees perceived their experiences as being promising (an opportunity to look forward to), threatening (a threat to be carefully managed) or inevitable (unavoidable). Emotional responses are collective, with male/older/more senior respondents experiencing different emotions as compared to others. Research limitations/implications – This study is exploratory and is limited by small sample size, location and temporal specificity. Practical implications – Managers should recognize that employees’ experiences of change are perceived quite d...

Dynamic models of well-being: implications of affective events theory for expanding current views on personality and climate

Research investigations into employee well-being (EWB) have tended to take a between-individual approach, which highlights differences among people. This traditional paradigm has been complemented by examinations of intraindividual EWB, which explores within-person variation over periods of time. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), we further elaborate the implications of intraindividual EWB for two reasonably stable sets of constructs—personality traits and affective climates. We argue that the intraindividual paradigm challenges scholars to rethink what they mean by stability, concluding that stability can be conceptualized in two ways—as reasonably consistent levels of affect and predictable patterns of affective change.

The Role of Affect, Fairness, and Social Perception in Team Member Exchange

Accumulating evidence suggests that Team-member exchange (TMX) influences employee work attitudes and behaviours separately from the effects of leader-member exchange (LMX). In particular, little is known of the effect of LMX differentiation (in-group versus out-group) as a process of social exchange that can, in turn, affect TMX quality. To explore this phenomenon, this chapter presents a multi-level model of TMX in organizations, which incorporates LMX differentiation, team identification, team member affect at the individual level, and fairness of LMX differentiation and affective climate at the group-level. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our model for theory, research, and practice.

We are all mad in wonderland: an organizational culture framework for emotions and emotional intelligence research

Despite ongoing controversy, emotional intelligence is emerging as a potentially important variable in furthering our understanding of individual behavior in organizations. In this respect, however, most of the research in relation to emotional intelligence has been at the individual level of behavior. In this chapter, we develop a framework for considering the impact of emotional intelligence at the organizational level. Specifically, we map Mayer and Saloveys four emotional intelligence abilities onto Sheins three-level organizational culture schema. We conclude with a discussion of implications for managers and suggest that the model we propose may prove to be a useful starting point for future research into emotional intelligence as an organizational phenomenon.

Human Relations Special Issue call for papers When it can be good to feel bad, and bad to feel good – Exploring asymmetries in workplace emotional outcomes

Within contemporary management research, there is a symmetrical assumption that so-called positive emotions and positive concepts yield positive outcomes (e.g., Bono and Ilies, 2006; Salovey et al., 2002), whereas negative emotions and negative concepts lead to negative outcomes (e.g., Gardner et al., 2009). Our primary intention with this special issue is to challenge these basic assumptions by problematizing this body of knowledge (Alvesson and Sandberg, 2011). Specifically, our proposed alternative is premised on the fact that the realities of organizational life do not reflect such a neat juxtaposition. For instance, Gray and colleagues (2011) demonstrate that sadness motivates the positive behavior of building social connections. In an earlier example, Storbeck and Clore (2005) show that happiness actually impedes memory accuracy (i.e., positive emotion having a negative outcome). In a similar vein, Lindebaum and Fielden’s (2011) study partly dispels the myth that anger is always related to negative outcomes at work. That is, anger was related to perceived leader success in the context of the construction industry. Lastly, Dasborough (2006) empirically showed that individuals tend to recall more negative events with leaders than positive events.