Pamela Brandes

Social Exchanges Within Organizations and Work Outcomes The Importance of Local and Global Relationships

Social exchange research has focused primarily on employee relationships with supervisors and with the organization to explain employee in-role and extra-role behaviors. This article extends the understanding of social exchange by exploring two additional exchanges (employee relationships with top management and with employees in other work areas) and examine all four social exchanges’ effects on work behaviors. It also extends notions of employee performance to include employee involvement in organizational improvement efforts. Data collected in a field study of 129 supervisor-subordinate dyads suggest that local (interpersonal exchanges with supervisors and colleagues in other work areas) and global (exchanges with top management and the organization)foci have different effects on work performance and that local social exchanges have a greater influence on work outcomes than global social exchanges.

The importance of being `Indian': Identity centrality and work outcomes in an off-shored call center in India

Existing studies of identity dynamics have shown that employees embody multiple social identities, and have multiple foci of identifications at work that shape their attitudes and behaviors. However, limited research has examined these frameworks in the new, emerging contexts of global workplaces. In this article, we focus on one such significant example of contemporary globalization: transnational service work in the international call center industry in India. Our findings indicate that national identity centrality is indeed negatively associated with employee performance and positively associated with intention to leave. Furthermore, national identity centrality also moderates the relationship of organizational identification with performance and burnout. While we reinforce the importance of organizational identity and occupational identity centrality, we highlight the hitherto ignored consequences of national identity centrality in our study context.

Locating Behavioral Cynicism at Work: Construct Issues and Performance Implications

In this article, we situate organizational cynicism at the nexus of the related constructs of burnout, stress, and antisocial behavior. We expand Dean, Brandes, and Dharwadkars (1998) notion of behavioral cynicism to include cynical humor and cynical criticism. We also propose that cynical behavior has important, non-linear effects on employee work performance. Finally, we suggest that cynical behavior may act as a coping mechanism for employees and that such behavior moderates the stress–performance relationship.

The importance of being 'something': Identity centrality and work outcomes in off-shored call centers in India

This article presents academic business research. The article examines identity centrality and work outcomes in offshore call centers which are located in the country of India. Particular focus is ...