Thomas Jønsson

Moderators of shared leadership: work function and team autonomy

Purpose – Previous studies show that sharing leadership in teams offers potential performance benefits across various contexts. This paper aims to investigate moderators of the effectiveness of shared leadership. In particular, it seeks to explore the moderating effects of team work function – manufacturing versus knowledge team work – and team autonomy.Design/methodology/approach – In order to test the hypotheses, the authors conducted hierarchical regression analyses and ran moderated two‐way regression analyses using a field sample of 552 employees comprising 81 teams in a Danish manufacturing company.Findings – Contrary to expectations, the results demonstrated a non‐significant relationship between shared leadership and team performance. However, as expected, work function significantly moderated this relationship such that shared leadership exhibited a negative relationship with manufacturing team performance and a positive relationship with knowledge team performance. Moreover, team autonomy was po...

Multiple affective commitments: quitting intentions and job performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interactions and the usefulness of distinguishing among employees’ affective commitments (ACs) to the job, to the department, and to the organization in relation to the effects of quitting intentions and job performance. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a survey questionnaire in the Danish healthcare system (n=496). Findings – First, the authors demonstrates that AC to the job, to the department, and to the organization is factorially distinct. Second, the authors finds that AC to the department is related to intention to quit the department and the organization, whereas AC to the job and to the organization is not when considered as part of the analysis. The authors test for interactions between AC to the job, to the department, and to the organization in relation to quitting intentions, and find these results to be non-significant. Third, the authors finds that AC to the job is more strongly related to job performance than AC t...

Employee attitudes to the distribution of organizational influence: Who should have the most influence on which issues?

This article investigates the relationship between how individuals actually experience influence in organizational issues and which actors in the organizational structure are preferred to have the most influence over different issues. In this way the article also highlights links between different forms of direct and indirect influence. Four different Danish companies applying teamwork, varying in size and type, participated in the study. The total sample size included 526 employees involved in teamwork who returned the questionnaire (response rate of 72 percent). The results indicated that employees would like the actors who already have responsibilities for a given area to control that area. The results of the regression analyses show significant associations between the degree to which influence was experienced and desires for which organizational actors should have most influence. Furthermore, employees who experience the highest degree of influence within a domain want similarly placed colleagues to have high levels of influence. The results emphasize the significance of considering the level of employee influence in understanding employee attitudes to the distribution of organizational influence and leadership.

A closer look into the employee influence

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to elucidate the relationship between perceived employee influence and organizational commitment by applying a multidimensional approach that includes influence perceived to stem from the individual and the team, as well as affective and normative commitment.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 526 out of a population of 732 employees (72 percent reply rate) from four Danish companies in different industries and with different types of teams participated in the questionnaire study.Findings – Results of bootstrapping mediation analyses reveal that a relationship between perceived influence of the team and affective commitment is fully mediated by perceived individual influence. Results of multiple regression analyses show a positive relationship between team and individual influence, and that normative commitment moderated the relationship negatively. The results are to suggest that influence of the team may stimulate employees’ individual influence, and in turn t...

Is our knowledge of voice and silence in organizations growing? Building bridges and (re)discovering opportunities

This article has three objectives. Firstly, we seek to demonstrate the relevance of voice and silence – that is, whether employees contribute or withhold information, ideas, views and/or concerns at work – for the sustainable development of individuals, organizations and societies. Our second objective is to identify emerging (and enduring) issues – conceptual, theoretical and methodological – that have not yet been adequately addressed in voice and silence research. These issues include the relationship between voice and silence, how they may manifest in organizations, their manifold antecedents inside and beyond organizational boundaries, their potentially positive and negative effects for internal and external stakeholders, and methodological questions. The third objective is to propose opportunities for addressing these issues with the ultimate aim to build a broader and more integrative approach to the nature of silence and voice and their antecedents and consequences. These opportunities include a multi-level model specifying elements and processes leading to individual and collective voice and silence, approaches to voice and silence that have received little attention in organizational research so far, and methodological developments that might reveal new facets of voice and silence. Based on these elaborations, we derive avenues for practitioners who are concerned with promoting voice and preventing/overcoming silence in organizations.

The development and validation of a Multitarget Affective Commitment Scale

Purpose – In order to contribute to the understanding of affective commitment towards distinct workplace targets, the purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a Multitarget Affective Commitment Scale (MACS) through two data collections. The MACS uses similarly worded items for distinct targets and reflects the most recent theoretical development of affective commitment. Design/methodology/approach – In the first data collection, items from previous commitment scales were tested through the social network service Facebook (n=305). The second data collection was conducted in the healthcare system of Denmark (n=496) using survey questionnaires. Findings – In Study 1, exploratory factor analyses were conducted to reduce the items based on the Facebook data. In Study 2, the authors confirm the findings of Study 1 and further reduce the items based on the healthcare sample. The healthcare sample is also used in Study 3, where the authors validate the MACS by investigating its relationship with predictor...