Stefanie K. Johnson

Physical Attractiveness Biases in Ratings of Employment Suitability: Tracking Down the “Beauty is Beastly” Effect

ABSTRACT The “what is beautiful is good” heuristic suggests that physically attractive persons benefit from their attractiveness in a large range of situations, including perceptions of employment suitability. Conversely, the “beauty is beastly” effect suggests that attractiveness can be detrimental to women in certain employment contexts, although these findings have been less consistent than those for the “what is beautiful is good” effect. The current research seeks to uncover situations in which beauty might be detrimental for female applicants. In two studies, we found that attractiveness can be detrimental for women applying for masculine sex-typed jobs for which physical appearance is perceived as unimportant.

Realities of Working in Virtual Teams: Affective and Attitudinal Outcomes of Using Computer-Mediated Communication

Many organizations are using computer-mediated communication to facilitate group work among virtual teams. However, little is known about the effects of using computer-mediated communication on team member outcomes. Examining use of computer-mediated communication as a continuum, the authors found that team members who used computer-mediated communication more often experienced lower levels of positive affect while working with their teams and had lower levels of affective commitment to their teams. Positive affect mediated the relationship between use of computer-mediated communication and affective commitment. Moreover, this study identified a tipping point (using computer-mediated communication more than 90% of the time) at which the use of computer-mediated communication was particularly detrimental to team outcomes.

Effects of Charismatic Content and Delivery on Follower Task Performance The Moderating Role of Task Charisma Conduciveness

The current study examined the moderating effect of task type on the effectiveness of charismatic leadership. Using a laboratory study, the content (visionary, nonvisionary) and delivery (expressive, unexpressive) of a leadership speech were manipulated, along with the charisma conduciveness of performance tasks. Based on the propositions asserted by Shamir and Howell, the authors suggest that charisma-conducive tasks are low in analyzability (more complex) and require greater levels of initiative and creativity. In addition, the authors expected that the effects of charismatic leadership on task performance should be more pronounced in terms of quality than quantity of performance. As expected, visionary content and expressive delivery resulted in higher attributions of charismatic leadership. In addition, visionary content led to better quality of performance on more charisma-conducive tasks.

Organizational rewards: considering employee need in allocation

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate how employee need relates to rewards and employee perceptions of fairness within an organization in the USA using a pay-for-performance system. Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate the presence of a relationship between employee need and reward allocation in a pay-for-performance system, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of 292 employees from two departments at an academic medical center. Findings – The findings highlight the positive relationship between employee need and reward allocation that remains when controlling for employee performance evaluation ratings. Findings further show that employee communication with the manager about need explains this relationship. Research limitations/implications – The findings make two important contributions to research on reward allocation and performance management. First, the results show employee need is related to the allocation of rewards in organizational settings outside of collectivistic...

Leadership and Leader Developmental Self‐Efficacy: Their Role in Enhancing Leader Development Efforts

This chapter describes the role of two types of self-efficacy-leader self-efficacy and leader developmental efficacy-for enhancing leadership development. Practical implications for designing and developing leadership programs that take into account these two types of self-efficacy are discussed.

Retesting personality in employee selection: implications of the context, sample, and setting.

The present study sought to assess when and how actual job applicants change their responses when filling out an unproctored personality selection assessment for a second time. It was predicted feedback would be a key contextual motivator associated with how much applicants change their answers during the second administration. Mediation results showed that individuals receiving feedback that showed a low score on the personality assessment was the reason they did not get the job were more likely to employ faking response strategies in the second testing session, predicting the highest change in scores between the first and second testing sessions. Individuals receiving no feedback and those not experimentally motivated to fake (i.e., a comparison group of students) showed less change in responses across administrations.

Believing Is Becoming: The Role of Leader Developmental Efficacy in Leader Self-Development

Leader developmental efficacy, or one’s belief in his/her ability to develop leadership knowledge or skills, is theorized to predict engagement and success in leader development. Conducting the first empirical studies on this construct using cross-sectional and quasi-longitudinal surveys across three samples consisting of 73, 94, and 49 leaders, respectively, we find that leader developmental efficacy predicts intentions to self-develop leadership above and beyond past leader development. Intentions to develop as a leader, in turn, predicts actual implementation of leader development behaviors 1 month later. Examining reverse directionality, we observe that the quantity, and potentially the quality, of past leader development behaviors are positively related to current leader developmental efficacy. Finally, leader developmental efficacy is associated with an increase in leader efficacy through a leader development program. Implications for assessing and developing leader developmental efficacy prior to formal programs are discussed.

Interactive effects of leader justice and support for safety on safety performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the main and interactive effects of general and safety-specific leader justice (SSLJ) (i.e. fair treatment) and leader support for safety (LSS) on safety performance. Design/methodology/approach – Two independent samples of construction workers rate their leaders with regards to fair treatment and support for safety and report their own safety performance in a survey. Findings – In both studies, LSS significantly moderated relationships of both general and SSLJ with safety performance. In Study 1, the strength of relationship between general leader justice and safety performance increases while LSS is increased. Similar pattern was found for the relationship between SSLJ and safety performance in Study 2. Practical implications – Safety interventions targeting leadership should consider training for leader safety practices that are perceived as supportive and fair. Originality/value – The research is unique in its examination of leader justice in a safety-...

Chapter 5 The secret life of mood: causes and consequences of unconscious affect at work

The influence of affect has become a hot topic in organizational research. This chapter seeks to expand the conceptualization of affect at work to include the role of unconscious affect. In this chapter, we review current research and theory on unconscious affect and extend those findings to organizationally relevant situations. We propose several antecedents, moderators, and outcomes of unconscious affect at work.

Mastery Goal Orientation and Performance Affect the Development of Leader Efficacy During Leader Development

Leader efficacy is a key outcome of leader development, but little is known about if and when developmental leader experiences, such as engaging in training, relate to gains in leader efficacy. We present a theoretical model of the effects of mastery goal orientation and performance during development as determinants of leader efficacy. We argue that a mastery goal orientation, whether dispositional (Studies 1, 2) or situationally induced (Study 2), can increase performance and mitigate the deleterious effects of poor performance, resulting in higher leader efficacy. Two field studies of individuals taking leader development courses largely supported these predictions. Study 1 showed that individuals with a high dispositional mastery goal orientation (dMGO) added effort over time, performed better, and had higher leader efficacy than low dMGO individuals. The benefits of dMGO increased over the 4-week leader development course. Study 2 showed that a mastery goal intervention reduced the effects of low dMGO on leader efficacy.