Tae-Yeol Kim

Proactive Personality and Employee Creativity: The Effects of Job Creativity Requirement and Supervisor Support for Creativity.

This study examined the relationships between proactive personality and employee creativity and the moderating roles of job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity in activating proactive personality associated with employee creativity. To provide a rigorous test of the hypotheses, we conducted a field study from a sample of 157 employee–supervisor pairs in South Korea. The results revealed that a proactive personality was positively associated with employee creativity. In addition, job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity jointly influenced the relationship between proactive personality and employee creativity. Specifically, proactive employees exhibited the highest employee creativity when job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity were both high.

Conflict Management Styles: The Differences Among the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans resolve an interpersonal conflict with their supervisors and how cultural factors explain the differences in conflict management styles.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted involving 275 employees from China, Japan and South Korea. A hierarchical regression analysis and A-matrix hypothesis test were used to analyze the data.Findings – Koreans, compared with the Chinese and Japanese, were more likely to use a compromise style. In addition, the Japanese, compared with the Chinese and Koreans, were less likely to dominate and were more likely to oblige their supervisors. The country differences in obliging and dominating styles were partially explained by goal emphasis (self vs collective) and concern for the self, respectively.Research limitations/implications – While limited to recalling specific incidents and self-reported responses, there is evidence that East Asians differ from each other in resolving their interpersonal conflicts with supervisors. Future research needs to examine East Asian differences in resolving an interpersonal conflict with other targets such as peers and subordinates and using other kinds of conflict management styles such as mediation and arbitration.Originality/value – This is one of few studies that have examined East Asian differences in conflict management styles.

Top management credibility and employee cynicism: A comprehensive model

By combining quantitative and qualitative methods of study, we develop a comprehensive model of top management behaviors, perceived management credibility, and employee cynicism and outcomes. Specifically, we identify managerial behaviors that affect employees’ perceptions of two components of top management’s credibility — trustworthiness and competence — and examine how each of those components relates to employee cynicism. Top management competence and trustworthiness relate to different components of employee cynicism (cognitive, affective, and behavioral cynicism), and these dimensions of cynicism differentially relate to organizational commitment and self-assessed job performance. Content analysis of critical incidents revealed that different sets of managerial behaviors generate attributions of competence, incompetence, trustworthiness, and non-trustworthiness. This study and the resulting model open the door to more finely distilled research on management credibility and employee cynicism.

Person–organization fit and employee outcomes: test of a social exchange model

Data obtained from subordinate–supervisor dyads (N = 314) of a large manufacturing company in South Korea were used to test a moderated mediation model of the processes linking person–organization (P–O) fit and employee work attitudes and behaviors. The results revealed that the influence of P–O fit on work attitudes and behaviors was indirect through perceived social exchange with organization. In addition, the relationship between P–O fit and perceived social exchange with organization was moderated by leader–member exchange (LMX) quality. Specifically, a high-quality LMX enhanced the positive effects of P–O fit on perceived social exchange with organization.

Family-Supportive Work Environment and Employee Work Behaviors: An Investigation of Mediating Mechanisms

This study examined psychological mechanisms that underpin the relationships between perceived organizational family support (POFS) and a family-supportive supervisor (FSS) on employee work behaviors. Based on data from employed parents and their supervisors (N = 230) in 12 South Korean organizations, structural equation modeling results revealed three salient findings: (1) POFS and FSS are indirectly related to contextual performance through control over work time, (2) FSS is indirectly related to both contextual performance and work withdrawal through organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and (3) control over work time is indirectly related to the two work outcomes through OBSE. The authors interpret these findings as indicating support for the focus on informal workplace family support and the need for research to examine the psychological resources they engender if we are to understand why these forms of support have their demonstrated outcomes.

Person-career fit and employee outcomes among research and development professionals

This study aims to examine the effects of person-career (PC) fit on employee outcomes. It is based on a sample of 1128 research and development (R&D) professionals and 222 project managers in 15 South Korean organizations. The results revealed that a managerial PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and a technical PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction. For example, job satisfaction increased as career orientation increased toward career development opportunities, then decreased when career development opportunities exceeded career orientation. In addition, as expected, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are higher when career orientation and career development opportunities are both high rather than low. For work performance, contributions to organizations increased as managerial career orientations increased toward managerial career opportunities, then decreased when managerial career opportunities exceeded managerial career orientation.

Personality and Participative Climate: Antecedents of Distinct Voice Behaviors

Based on the work of Van Dyne, Ang, and Botero (2003), the concept of voice, generally defined as speaking up, was expanded to include three types of voice behaviors: prosocial, acquiescent, and defensive. Prosocial voice is a fundamentally positive form of voice, whereas acquiescent and defensive voice behaviors reflect more negative forms of voice. We examined individual-level personality traits of Agreeableness and Extraversion and group-level participative climate as predictors of supervisor ratings of each voice behavior. Testing these ideas with a multilevel design in a sample of Chinese workers and their managers, results demonstrated support for links of Agreeableness, Extraversion, and participative climate with supervisor ratings of voice behaviors. Further, group-level participative climate moderated relationships between individual-level Agreeableness and voice behaviors.

Social Comparison and Distributive Justice: East Asia Differences

Using a survey of 393 employees who were natives and residents of China, Japan, and South Korea, we examined the extent to which employees from different countries within East Asia experience distributive justice when they perceived that their work outcomes relative to a referent other (i.e., someone with similar “inputs” such as educational background and/or job responsibilities) were (1) equally poor, (2) equally favorable, (3) more poor, or (4) more favorable. As predicted, we found that when employees perceived themselves relative to a referent other to be recipients of more favorable outcomes (i.e., pay, job security), Chinese and Korean employees were less likely than Japanese employees to experience distributive injustice. We also found that these differences were partially mediated by employees’ level of materialism. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Come Rain or Come Shine: Supervisor Behavior and Employee Job Neglect

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which supervisor behavior is associated with employees’ job neglect. Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper investigates the extent to which supervisor behavior is associated with employees’ job neglect. Findings – Results from hierarchical regression analyses support the hypothesis that both positive and negative supervisor behaviors have significant effects on job neglect. Negative supervisor behavior was more strongly associated with job neglect than positive supervisor behavior. Research Limitations/Implications – Changing the style of supervision might help to reduce job neglect of employees, benefitting the organization by reducing the associated costs of job neglect and counterproductive behavior. Originality/Value – The findings provide additional evidence for the important effects supervisors can have on employees. They also indicate that – in addition to studying abusive supervision – there is a need to consider the effects of a broad spectrum of supervisor behavior.

Complementary or Substitutive Effects? Corporate Governance Mechanisms and Corporate Social Responsibility

Management researchers have investigated how corporate governance mechanisms influence corporate social responsibility (CSR). The previous literature has been largely based on agency theory, which emphasizes the roles of effective monitoring and incentive alignment, but the empirical evidence has been mixed. This inconsistency may result from the assumption that each governance mechanism functions independently, even though they interact with one another to affect CSR. On the basis of a perspective of bundle of governance mechanisms, we examined whether multiple governance mechanisms act as complements or substitutes for each other in promoting CSR. Using a panel sample of U.S. firms for the years 2004 to 2010, we found that multiple governance mechanisms mainly act as substitutes to promote CSR. Our findings suggest that a similar level of CSR can be achieved with different combinations of governance mechanisms. Our study contributes to the fields of both corporate governance and CSR in theory and practice.