Richard A. Posthuma

Age Stereotypes in the Workplace: Common Stereotypes, Moderators, and Future Research Directions†:

The authors identify, analyze, and summarize prior research from 117 research articles and books that deal with age stereotypes in the workplace. They discover and report the most prevalent and well-supported findings that have implications for human resource management. These findings are described in terms of prevalent age stereotypes that occur in work settings, evidence refuting age stereotypes, and moderators of age stereotypes. The authors provide recommendations for practice and future research.

A High Performance Work Practices Taxonomy Integrating the Literature and Directing Future Research

High Performance Work Systems are designed to enhance organizational performance by improving employee capability, commitment, and productivity. Yet there is very little consensus about the structure of these systems and the practices therein. The lack of structure may be inhibiting the growth of knowledge in this field and the degree to which organizations adopt these systems. To address these concerns we develop a comprehensive High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) taxonomy. We analyzed 193 peer-reviewed articles published over the past 20 years (1992-2011). We classified 61 specific practices into nine categories. We analyze the usefulness of this taxonomy using frequency, time, and countries. Directions for future research are provided.

Comparing the Validity of Turnover Predictors in the United States and Mexico

This article compared the relative validity of traditional predictors of turnover intentions using samples from the USA and Mexico. Matched samples of retail grocery store employees (USA: N = 187; Mexico: N = 150) completed questionnaires that reported perceptions of inter-role conflict, positive affect, job satisfaction, perceived ease of movement and turnover intentions. Results indicate that job satisfaction and perceived ease of movement predicted turnover intentions in both the USA and Mexico. However, job satisfaction and perceived ease of movement were stronger predictors of turnover intentions in the USA. Unexpectedly, work-family and work-personal conflict did not predict turnover intentions in either sample.

Conflict management and emotions

Purpose – The five studies included in this special issue focus on emotions and conflict management. These studies highlight how conflict management research can help managers, employees, and organizations more effectively manage the emotional aspects of conflict. This paper aims to summarize these studies.Design/methodology/approach – Five studies were selected and combined in this single issue so that researchers could have an integrative review of recent research on emotions in the workplace. The studies were chosen to highlight the relationships between emotions and key conflict variables, such as task, relationship, and process conflict; trust; venting; and forgiveness. The studies were also chosen to represent a broad range of samples, including participants from more than 14 countries and cultures.Findings – These studies indicate that a broad range of positive and negative emotions, such as anger, enthusiasm, excitement, guilt, and remorse, are significantly related in complex and varied ways to v...

Mediator Tactics and Sources of Conflict: Facilitating and Inhibiting Effects

Sometimes mismatches between tactics used by mediators and causes of the dispute may reduce the likelihood of achieving a settlement. Data from collective-bargaining disputes suggest that when party inflexibility was a source of the dispute, added mediator pressure increased the likelihood of a settlement, but discussing alternatives reduced the likelihood of a settlement. However, mediation success improved in cases where there is a high level of interparty hostility and mediators focused on negotiation processes.

Arbitrator Acceptability: Does Justice Matter? Arbitrator Acceptability

There is virtually no theory-based research that examines if arbitrator behaviors influence whether they will be chosen for future cases. This longitudinal field study uses organizational justice theory to predict the acceptability of arbitrators in dispute-resolution processes involving labor and management representatives in actual cases. The data indicate that procedural justice is more important in predicting arbitrator acceptability in interest than in rights arbitration cases. Arbitrator distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice are all related to acceptability of arbitrators. Procedural justice and interactional justice are differentially related to evaluation of arbitrators, suggesting that they are distinct constructs.

Conflict management and performance outcomes

Purpose – This introduction aims to summarize five studies included in this themed issue that focus on conflict management and performance outcomes. These studies highlight how conflict management research can help organizations perform more effectively.Design/methodology/approach – The five selected studies were combined into this single issue so that readers can compare and contrast scholarships from many countries and cultures, including Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Norway, and Taiwan to see how conflict management research relates to actual performance outcomes around the world.Findings – These studies show that negotiations conducted by two‐person dyads resulted in higher outcomes when compared to negotiations conducted by multi‐person groups. In addition, when negotiators consider more than one issue at a time and use a constructive problem solving approach, they can reach better outcomes. In addition, higher self‐efficacy of the negotiator can increase objective negotiation outcomes,...

Conflict resolution styles between co-workers in US and Mexican cultures

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate how national culture and proximity to national borders can influence the conflict styles that co‐workers use between themselves.Design/methodology/approach – In this experiment, samples were drawn from regions near the US Mexican border further north in the USA and further South in Mexico. Total n=549. Participants were presented with different conflict styles of co‐workers and asked how they would respond. A new measure of national origin was developed and used to assess affinity with a particular culture based on familial lineage.Findings – This study shows that conflict resolution styles of co‐workers in the USA are different from those in Mexico. Culture also moderates the relationship among the conflict resolution styles of the co‐workers themselves. Mexicans were generally more contending and less yielding to co‐workers than Americans. However, Mexicans were also more likely than Americans to respond to contending co‐workers by accommodating or b...

Predictors of self-efficacy for cognitive ability employment testing

This study examined predictors of initial levels and of changes in self-efficacy (S-E) for cognitive ability employment testing. The testing S-E of 287 job applicants at a utility company was measured before the test, immediately after, and again after pass/fail feedback. Being male, having been hired previously by cognitive ability tests, perceiving such tests as valid and fair, and general S-E were each positively related to initial levels of S-E (Time 1), but race was unrelated. From before- to after-test feedback, S-E increased for those who passed and decreased for those who failed. Failing had a greater negative effect on subsequent S-E for women and Whites (vs. men and minorities). Failing also had a smaller negative effect on S-E for those who had been hired previously by ability tests than for those who had never been hired by them before. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The Dimensionality of Supervisor Evaluations of Job Performance

This paper presents empirical evidence about the dimensions of supervisor evaluations of employee job performance. Factor analytic results supported the conclusion that supervisors were able to distinguish between two dimensions of job performance. While bivariate correlational analysis indicated that these two dimensions of job performance were similarly related to other measures, a multivariate regression analysis suggests that they are distinguishable constructs.