Peter Bamberger

The Organizational Transformation Process: The Micropolitics of Dissonance Reduction and the Alignment of Logics of Action

Arguing that current theories of organizational change fail to pay adequate attention to how organizations move from one stable state to another, a model is generated of the organizational transformation process. It is argued that to the degree that organizations are systems of exchange, they may be said to be transformed through a process by which the logics of action that parties bring to the exchange are aligned, misaligned, and realigned. Developing the concept of logic of action and drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, examination is made of how, in the face of a massive environmental shift (in this case, airline deregulation), changes at the institutional level were transformed into changes at the core level. The model is generated from an analysis of qualitative data on the impact of deregulation on labor and managements approach to employee emotional well-being in the airline industry.

Abusive supervision and subordinate problem drinking: Taking resistance, stress and subordinate personality into account

We test hypotheses derived from two alternative perspectives regarding the association between supervisory abuse and subordinate problem drinking. Drawing from the employee resistance literature, we examine the degree to which such an association may be sensitive to variation in subordinate personality. Drawing from the stress literature, we examine the degree to which this association may be mediated by somatic stress. Multi-source data from 1473 blue-collar workers employed in 55 work units, indicates that while the main effect of abusive supervision on problem drinking is attenuated under conditions of high subordinate conscientiousness and agreeableness (consistent with a resistance-based explanation), the main effect is not mediated by somatic stress.

Work Processes, Role Conflict, and Role Overload The Case of Nurses and Engineers in the Public Sector

This study examined five sets of work process variables with respect to their relationship with role conflict and role overload among samples of public sector nurses and engineers. The findings suggest that managerial strategies appropriate for minimizing role conflict are not necessarily appropriate for minimizing role overload. The findings also suggest that, in the context of public sector employment, some work process predictors of role conflict and overload may be similar across professions. Finally, in contrast with some of the assumptions of recent job design theory, the findings indicate that for public sector professionals, managerial strategies that reflect professional ethos may not reduce role conflict and role overload.

The Dimensionality of Decision Participation in Educational Organizations: The Value of a Multi-Domain Evaluative Approach

While the literature on education reform has called for increased teacher participation in decision making, little is known about the decision participation construct itself Previous research in this area may be categorized according to the approach taken with respect to the conceptualization and operationalization of participation in decision making. We argue that an approach which views the construct as both evaluation-based and multi-dimensional in nature has advantages over three other common approaches taken in such studies. A sample of 842 elementary and 689 secondary teachers is used to (a) show the utility of a multi-domain evaluative approach to examine participation in decision making and (b) empirically identify four decision domains.

Empowerment Cognitions and Empowerment Acts: Recognizing the Importance of Gender

By distinguishing between empowerment cognitions and empowerment acts, the effect of gender is tested on (a) the impact of empowerment and disempowerment acts on subordinates’ empowerment cognitions, and (b) the direct impact of these acts on subsequent job satisfaction and performance. A total of 135 master of business administration students participated in a three-session simulation of the empowerment process. Findings indicate that although empowerment cognitions are affected by empowerment and disempowerment acts for both men and women, the impact of empowerment acts on job satisfaction and performance varies by gender.

Firefighters, critical incidents, and drinking to cope: the adequacy of unit-level performance resources as a source of vulnerability and protection.

The authors investigated the moderating role of unit-level performance resources on the distress-mediated relationship between the intensity of involvement in workplace critical incidents and problematic drinking behavior (i.e., drinking to cope). Building on recent developments in hierarchical linear modeling, the authors tested a cross-level, moderated-mediation model using data from 1,481 firefighters in 144 companies. The findings indicate that (a) there is a significant, distress-mediated association between intensity of involvement in such incidents and drinking to cope, which varies by company (i.e., unit), and (b) the adequacy of unit-level performance resources explains much of this cross-unit variance and attenuates both individual-level mediation stages (i.e., intensity of involvement in critical incidents 3 distress, and distress 3 drinking to cope). Implications regarding the role of unit resources adequacy as a vulnerability factor in stressor-strain relations are discussed.

Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: The moderating effect of social support

Although it is commonly assumed that alcohol consumption has a significant impact on employee absenteeism, the nature of the alcohol-absence relationship remains poorly understood. Proposing that alcohol impairment likely serves as a key mechanism linking drinking and work absence, we posit that this relationship is likely governed less by the amount of alcohol consumed and more by the way it is consumed. Using a prospective study design and a random sample of urban transit workers, we found that the frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the previous month is positively associated with the number of days of absence recorded in the subsequent 12-month period, whereas modal consumption (a metric capturing the typical amount of alcohol consumed in a given period of time) is not. In addition, consistent with both volitional treatments of absenteeism and social exchange theory, perceived coworker support was found to attenuate, and supervisory support to amplify, the link between the frequency of heavy episodic drinking and absenteeism.

The impact of structural empowerment on individual well-being and performance: Taking agent preferences, self-efficacy and operational constraints into account

We integrate psychological and socio-structural perspectives on empowerment by examining: a) the impact of actual structural empowerment initiatives (as opposed to perceptions of such empowering acts) aimed at enhancing employee influence over which tasks to perform (as opposed to how to perform them) on employee well-being and performance, b) the degree to which self-efficacy mediates these effects, and c) the extent to which, by applying such initiatives more selectively, performance-related empowerment effects may be amplified. Results of a simulation-based experiment indicate that while granting decision latitude over which tasks to perform has beneficial effects on both individual performance and well-being, self-efficacy partially mediates the effects only on the latter. Results also indicate that the direct performance-related effects of such interventions may be further increased without any significant decline in employee well-being to the extent that such structural empowerment is applied more selectively and offered as a performance-based incentive.

Research Notes: The Antecedents and Consequences of Union Commitment: A Meta-Analysis

To study union commitment antecedents and consequences, we performed a meta-analysis of 76 published and unpublished studies. Using the meta-analytically derived, corrected correlation coefficients, we examined four alternative structural equation models, each testing identical, key union commitment antecedents and consequences. Our results strongly suggest that union commitment has two potent antecedents (i.e., union attitudes and union instrumentality) and explains a moderate degree of the variance in union participation. The covariances show that these constructs are highly correlated but have clear divergent validity. Moreover, our findings suggest that the more dominant socially weaker groups in a unions overall membership, the greater the relative importance of union instrumentality as a predictor of union commitment. Nevertheless, in all of the subsamples examined, the findings indicate that union attitudes are a more powerful predictor of union commitment than union instrumentality.

Aversive workplace conditions and absenteeism: taking referent group norms and supervisor support into account.

Past research reveals inconsistent findings regarding the association between aversive workplace conditions and absenteeism, suggesting that other, contextual factors may play a role in this association. Extending contemporary models of absence, we draw from the social identity theory of attitude-behavior relations to examine how peer absence-related norms and leader support combine to explain the effect of aversive workplace conditions on absenteeism. Using a prospective design and a random sample of transit workers, we obtained results indicating that perceived job hazards and exposure to critical incidents are positively related to subsequent absenteeism, but only under conditions of more permissive peer absence norms. Moreover, this positive impact of peer norms on absenteeism is amplified among employees perceiving their supervisor to be less supportive and is attenuated to the point of nonsignificance among those viewing their supervisor as more supportive.