Thomas S. Bateman

Cynicism in the Workplace: Some Causes and Effects

A scenario-based experiment was employed to test seven hypotheses concerning several causes and consequences of cynicism in the workplace. The results of a 2×2×2 MANOVA revealed that high levels of executive compensation, poor organizational performance, and harsh, immediate layoffs generate cynicism in white-collar workers. Furthermore, regression analyses showed that cynicism relates negatively to intentions to perform organizational citizenship behaviors and intentions to comply with requests to engage in unethical behaviors. The study provides a first experimental investigation of an important employee attitude and indicates directions for further research.

Individual Environmental Initiative: Championing Natural Environmental Issues in U.S. Business Organizations

Several bodies of literature contributed to a framework describing how three activities—identifying, packaging, and selling—can lead to successful environmental championing. The results of a field ...

Self-regulation: from goal orientation to job performance.

The authors investigated the effects on job performance of 3 forms of goal orientation and 4 self-regulation (SR) tactics. In a longitudinal field study with salespeople, learning and performance-prove goal orientation predicted subsequent sales performance, whereas performance-avoid goal orientation negatively predicted sales performance. The SR tactics functioned as mediating variables between learning and performance-prove goal orientations and performance. Social competence and proactive behavior directly and positively predicted sales performance, and emotional control negatively predicted performance.

Objective and Social Factors as Determinants of Task Perceptions and Responses: An Integrated Perspective and Empirical Investigation

The purpose of this study was to test the merits of an integrated perspective derived from the job characteristics and social information processing models of task design. We conducted a complex la...

Roger, Me, and My Attitude: Film Propaganda and Cynicism Toward Corporate Leadership

Two studies of U.S. and Japanese respondents assessed attitudes resulting from viewing the film Roger & Me (Moore, 1989). In Experiment 1, the responses of 162 adults who had seen the film in the U.S. were contrasted with 106 people about to view the film. Those who saw the film exhibited more cynical (negative) attitudes toward General Motors in particular and toward U.S. business in general. Experiment 2 employed a Solomon four-group design in Tokyo, Japan, to assess the generalizability of the U.S. results and also to assess attitude change from pretest to posttest

A Model of Employee Responses to Drug-Testing Programs

Testing employees for drug use is an increasingly widespread organizational response to the problem of employee drug abuse. Despite this, little attention has been given to its effects on employee attitudes and behavior. This paper reviews the issue of drug testing in industry, provides a theoretical model of employee perceptions of and responses to drug-testing programs, and offers an agenda for future research directions.

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.

Perceptions of Influence in Managerial Dyads: The Role of Hierarchy, Media, and Tactics

Relationships among dyadic structure, the influence tactics used by managers, the communication media they employ, and perceived influence success were investigated in a field study. Surveyed managers (n = 139) responded to questions about their patterns of communication and influence with respect to a single other individual in the organization. Dyadic relationship (upward, downward, or horizontal) affected influence tactics and media usage; these behaviors in turn were found to be selectively related to influence success, depending on the dyadic relationship between agent and target of influence.

Contingent concession strategies in dyadic bargaining

Abstract This study investigated the relative effects of two parameters of contingent concession strategies (derived from reinforcement and reciprocity theories) on a representatives bargaining. The magnitude of the contingent reward, either low, moderate, or high, and the level of the opening offer, either moderate or extreme, were varied. Further, the effectiveness of these strategies in conditioning concessions over time was studied by employing several sequential bargaining issues. The most important finding was that, contrary to the predictions of a reinforcement strategy, bargainers who rewarded their opponents for conceding did more poorly than bargainers who did not reward. The implications of these and other results are discussed.

Wisdom: Exploring the Pinnacle of Human Virtues as a Central Link from Micromarketing to Macromarketing

The macromarketing system is largely the function of many micromarketing decisions made each day. But this connection has not been probed thoroughly in the macromarketing literature, and there is a need for conceptual frameworks that can successfully link the challenges of effective micromarketing with the laudable goals of the macromarketing field, which focuses on the interdependencies between marketing and society. To this end, we explore wisdom, the zenith of human virtues, through pertinent literature and in-depth interviews with executives nominated for their wise decision making. We discovered that wisdom in marketing is characterized by the recognition and management of five central paradoxes (e.g., the need for expertise versus the need to admit knowledge limitations and the need to enact authority and accountability versus the need for ego control). We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory, practice, and teaching of macromarketing and for basic wisdom theory.The macromarketing system is largely the function of many micromarketing decisions made each day. But this connection has not been probed thoroughly in the macromarketing literature, and there is a need for conceptual frameworks that can successfully link the challenges of effective micromarketing with the laudable goals of the macromarketing field, which focuses on the interdependencies between marketing and society. To this end, we explore wisdom, the zenith of human virtues, through pertinent literature and in-depth interviews with executives nominated for their wise decision making. We discovered that wisdom in marketing is characterized by the recognition and management of five central paradoxes (e.g., the need for expertise versus the need to admit knowledge limitations and the need to enact authority and accountability versus the need for ego control). We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory, practice, and teaching of macromarketing and for basic wisdom theory.