Michelle K. Duffy

Social Undermining in the Workplace

An interactive model of social undermining and social support in the workplace was developed and tested among police officers in the Republic of Slovenia. As predicted, social undermining was signi...

Turnover, social capital losses, and performance

A theory of turnover, social capital losses, and store performance was developed and tested in 38 locations of a restaurant chain. We assessed the ability of social capital losses to predict varian...

Abusive Supervision and Subordinates' Organization Deviance

The authors developed an integrated model of the relationships among abusive supervision, affective organizational commitment, norms toward organization deviance, and organization deviance and tested the framework in 2 studies: a 2-wave investigation of 243 supervised employees and a cross-sectional study of 247 employees organized into 68 work groups. Path analytic tests of mediated moderation provide support for the prediction that the mediated effect of abusive supervision on organization deviance (through affective commitment) is stronger when employees perceive that their coworkers are more approving of organization deviance (Study 1) and when coworkers perform more acts of organization deviance (Study 2).

Predictors of Abusive Supervision: Supervisor Perceptions of Deep-Level Dissimilarity, Relationship Conflict, and Subordinate Performance

The moral exclusion literature identifies three previously unexamined predictors of abusive supervision: supervisor perceptions of deep-level dissimilarity, relationship conflict, and subordinate performance. Invoking theory and research on workplace diversity, relationship conflict, and victim precipitation, we model the three predictors as associated with abusive supervision. Path-analytic tests using data collected from supervisor-subordinate dyads at two time points suggest that supervisor perceptions of relationship conflict and subordinate performance mediate the relationship between perceived deep-level dissimilarity and abusive supervision and that relationship conflict mediates that between perceived deep-level dissimilarity and abusive supervision when supervisors perceive subordinates as having low performance. Estimates suggest that more than 13 percent of working people in the United States become targets of abusive supervision, or nonphysical hostility perpetrated by employees’ immediate superiors (Schat, Frone, & Kelloway, 2006). Examples of behaviors that fall within the abusive supervision content domain include undermining, public denigration, and explosive outbursts (Tepper, 2007). Sustained exposure to abusive supervision is associated with serious negative outcomes for victims and employers, including psychological distress (Tepper, 2000), problem drinking (Bamberger & Bacharach, 2006), and aggression directed against a

MINDFULNESS AT WORK

In this chapter, we argue that state and trait mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices in the workplace should enhance employee outcomes. First, we review the existing literature on mindfulness, provide a brief history and definition of the construct, and discuss its beneficial effects on physical and psychological health. Second, we delineate a model of the mental and neurobiological processes by which mindfulness and mindfulness-based practices improve self-regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, linking them to both performance and employee well-being in the workplace. We especially focus on the power of mindfulness, via improved self-regulation, to enhance social relationships in the workplace, make employees more resilient in the face of challenges, and increase task performance. Third, we outline controversies, questions, and challenges that surround the study of mindfulness, paying special attention to the implications of unresolved issues for understanding the effects of mindfulness at work. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our propositions for organizations and employees and offer some recommendations for future research on mindfulness in the workplace.

The Salieri Syndrome: Consequences of Envy in Groups

A model of the impact of envy in groups is proposed and tested in a longitudinal study of 143 groups. Envy was directly and negatively related to group performance. Moreover, envy indirectly influenced group performance, absenteeism, and group satisfaction by increasing social loafing and reducing both group potency and cohesion. This study provides an initial step in identifying the processes through which envy impacts group effectiveness. Implications are discussed and future research directions are identified.

A Contingency Model of Conflict and Team Effectiveness

The authors develop and test theoretical extensions of the relationships of task conflict, relationship conflict, and 2 dimensions of team effectiveness (performance and team-member satisfaction) among 2 samples of work teams in Taiwan and Indonesia. Findings show that relationship conflict moderates the task conflict-team performance relationship. Specifically, the relationship is curvilinear in the shape of an inverted U when relationship conflict is low, but the relationship is linear and negative when relationship conflict is high. The results for team-member satisfaction are more equivocal, but the findings provide some evidence that relationship conflict exacerbates the negative relationship between task conflict and team-member satisfaction.

The Organizational Socialization Process: Review and Development of a Social Capital Model

The authors selectively review the literature on newcomer socialization in organizational settings and develop a social capital model of the organizational socialization process. The model highlights the roles of (1) socialization factors (i.e., organizational socialization tactics and newcomer proactivity) in facilitating newcomer accessibility to social capital, (2) effective mobilization of social capital for newcomer adjustment and subsequent career success, and (3) organizational insiders in facilitating newcomer adjustment. An agenda for future studies on socialization, social capital, and social networks is provided.

Positive affectivity and negative outcomes : The role of tenure and job satisfaction

In this study, the authors proposed and tested a 3-way interaction among positive affectivity (PA), job satisfaction, and tenure in predicting negative employee outcomes. Specifically, the authors predicted that the relationship between job satisfaction and negative outcomes would be stronger for high PAs and that this relationship would be more pronounced for longer tenured employees. Results support this 3-way interaction in predicting job search behavior, physical health complaints, and counterproductive employee behavior. In particular, the relationship between job satisfaction and negative outcomes was most strongly negative for high-PA individuals with longer tenure. The authors discuss the implications of these results and some directions for future research.

Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative Review

Mindfulness research activity is surging within organizational science. Emerging evidence across multiple fields suggests that mindfulness is fundamentally connected to many aspects of workplace functioning, but this knowledge base has not been systematically integrated to date. This review coalesces the burgeoning body of mindfulness scholarship into a framework to guide mainstream management research investigating a broad range of constructs. The framework identifies how mindfulness influences attention, with downstream effects on functional domains of cognition, emotion, behavior, and physiology. Ultimately, these domains impact key workplace outcomes, including performance, relationships, and well-being. Consideration of the evidence on mindfulness at work stimulates important questions and challenges key assumptions within management science, generating an agenda for future research.