Search

Integrating the literature on faultlines, conflict, and pay, we drew on the basic principles of multilevel theory and differentiated between group- and organizational-level faultlines to introduce a novel multilevel perspective on faultlines. Using multisource, multilevel data on 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, we found that group-level faultlines were negatively associated with group performance, and that internally focused conflict exacerbated but externally focused conflict mitigated this effect. Organizational-level faultlines were negatively related to organizational performance, and were most harmful in organizations with high levels of compensation. Implications for groups and teams in the sports/entertainment and other industries are discussed.

Summary The relationship between organizational culture and financial performance remains elusive even though researchers have studied it for some time. Early research suggested that a strong culture that aligns members’ behavior with organizational objectives boosts financial performance. A more recent view is that, because strong cultures promote adherence to routines and behavioral uniformity, they are less effective in dynamic environments. We suggest that the relationship between culture and performance can be reconciled by recognizing that culture encompasses three components: (1) the content of norms (norm content); (2) how widely members agree about norms (culture consensus); and (3) how intensely organizational members hold particular norms (norm intensity). We hypothesize that “strong cultures”—where a high consensus exists among members across a broad set of culture norms—can contribute to better financial performance even in dynamic environments if norm content intensely emphasizes adaptability. We test this hypothesis in a sample of large firms in the high-technology industry. Firms characterized by higher culture consensus and intensity about adaptability performed better three years later than did those characterized by lower consensus, lower intensity about adaptability, or both. We discuss how parsing culture into content, consensus, and intensity advances theoretical and empirical understanding of the culture–performance relationship. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Four studies examined the effect of a perceived unique opportunity on compliance. In all four studies, participants who believed they had an opportunity available to few others were more likely to agree with a request than participants who believed the opportunity was widely available or participants who received no opportunity information. We attribute the effect to a widely held heuristic that one should take advantage of unique opportunities. Study results demonstrated that people respond to a perceived unique opportunity even when supplies are not limited and when the opportunity is the result of pure chance. The results of a mediation analysis supported the interpretation that the perceived uniqueness of the opportunity underlies the effect.

Past research suggests that wearing either a black or a red uniform leads to increased aggression or an increase in perceived aggression during professional sports. However, this research suffers from a number of limitations, including an inability to manipulate the independent variable. A recent change in the National Hockey League’s uniform policy created the possibility of a naturally occurring experiment that allowed the authors to examine whether aggression levels were higher when teams wore black or red jerseys. The authors compared games against the same opponent in which home teams wore red or black jerseys for one game and their usual color for another game on several measures of aggression. They found no evidence that either black or red uniforms were related to higher levels of aggression in professional hockey games.

Research has confirmed that leader behavior influences group and organizational behavior, but we know less about how senior leaders ensure that group and organizational members implement their decisions. Most organizations have multiple layers of leaders, implying that any single leader does not lead in isolation. We focused on how the consistency of leadership effectiveness across hierarchical levels influenced the implementation of a strategic initiative in a large health care system. We found that it was only when leaders' effectiveness at different levels was considered in the aggregate that significant performance improvement occurred. We discuss the implications of these findings for leadership research, specifically, that leaders at various levels should be considered collectively to understand how leadership influences employee performance.

Much of the research on emotions and decision making has focused on how desire to avoid regret influences choices and post-decision information search. Recently van Dijk and Zeelenberg (2007) demonstrated that under certain circumstances individuals will seek out information about an alternative even though this information may induce regret about a previous decision. In two experiments, we extend this finding and show that curiosity is least likely to affect information seeking when the initial choice is made from fewer alternatives (a regret-inducing “near miss”) and the outcome of the choice is negative.

Background: Shifts in the environment can compel health care organizations to change their strategies. However strategic change frequently fails because individuals do not adopt the behaviors necessary to successfully implement the new strategy. Purpose: This study explores how three variables—agreement with new strategy, leaders’ actions, and groups’ general orientation toward change—can influence members of physician teams to take actions supporting a strategic shift aimed at improving patient satisfaction. Methodology: Physicians in 37 specialty departments in a large health care organization were surveyed regarding their support for a new customer service initiative, the actions of department leaders, and generalized norms supporting change. The results of the survey were linked to changes in patient satisfaction for the department. Results: Normative support for the specific strategic change was directly related to increased patient satisfaction 1 year later. The interaction between norms supporting change readiness and the quality of leadership was positively related to change in patient satisfaction. Practice Implications: Successfully implementing a strategic change often requires getting individuals to change their behaviors. Leaders can enhance the results of the change by working to develop general norms such as teamwork and tolerance for mistakes that increase general readiness for change with the group.

Although there is clear evidence that particular words and phrases evoke emotional reactions, little research has explored these in the context of negotiations. In two studies, we identify words that trigger emotional responses in the other party in conflict‐laden negotiations and demonstrate how the perception of negotiators is affected by the use of those words. Words that elicit emotional responses are likely to increase the perception that the party using them is unfair but paradoxically increase the optimism of observers that the conflict will be successfully resolved. This effect is influenced by the gender of the observer.

Using the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP), this research investigated the extent to which fit between individuals (n = 136) and their competency groups (P–G fit) and the organization (P–O fit) were related to job satisfaction. Even in a consulting firm with a strong organization culture, we found small, but interpretable, differences between the value-based cultures of the competency groups in the firm. Although the two forms of fit were highly correlated, both individual consultants' fit with the culture of their competency group and the organization as a whole were significant predictors of job satisfaction. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We tested the self-perception explanation of the foot-in-the-door effect by manipulating self-perceived helpfulness and assessing self-concept. Participants given $1 to sign a homelessness petition were less likely to see themselves as altruistic than participants not given the monetary incentive. The paid participants also complied less often with a request to work on a canned food drive 2 days later than unpaid participants. In contrast, participants told they were helpful individuals were more likely to see themselves as altruistic and were more likely to volunteer for the food drive than unlabeled participants. Mediation analyses provide evidence that changes in self-concept underlie a successful foot-in-the-door manipulation and support the self-perception explanation for the foot-in-the-door effect.

This study investigates the role of work group norms in promoting innovation in high-technology organizations. Through structured discussions, samples of senior executives identified organizational patterns and norms associated with successful innovation. Based on the results, a survey was developed and administered to a set of managers. Results show four norms associated with increased group innovation: support for risk taking, tolerance of mistakes, teamwork, and speed of action. An instrument to assess these norms is developed.

In this paper we test two hypotheses that stem from the work of Mellers, Chang, Birnbaum and Ordonez (1992). The first hypothesis is that in a binary gamble, the ratio of WTA to WTP is decreasing in the probability attached to a nonzero event. The second hypothesis is that this ratio is independent of the size of stakes. We find support for the first hypothesis, but mixed support for the second. The second hypothesis holds in the case of gains, but not in the case of losses. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Past research has found that trait positive affect as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and extraversion as measured by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) are highly correlated. We examined the relation between these two measures within the context of three social behaviors. Approximately 4 months before graduation, college seniors entering the job market completed the PANAS and the NEO-FFI and reported on their social activities during college. Three months later, these students were contacted again and described their job search strategies and success at obtaining follow-up job interviews. Trait positive affect scores and extraversion scores were highly correlated and both predicted behavior in each of the three areas investigated. Regression analyses indicated that trait positive affect predicted behavior in all three areas after the effects of extraversion were removed. However, extraversion did not add significantly to predicting behavior in any of the three areas after the effects of trait positive affect were removed. The findings have implications for the conceptual relation between extraversion and trait positive affect.

Understanding the relationship between personality and behavior requires accounting for a broad set of traits within each person and the demands of a specific role or situation. To address these requirements, we assessed the relevance or ordering of traits within an individual (an idiographic approach) and compared these orderings across individuals occupying similar organizational situations (a nomothetic approach). We illustrate the utility of this semi-idiographic approach with a longitudinal study of Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students. The MBAs whose personalities were more similar to a template of the successful young manager received more job offers upon graduating and, subsequently, earned higher salaries, were more likely to be working full-time, and had changed jobs less often than did those who fit the managerial template less well.

Although there is substantial evidence that personality constructs are valid predictors of job performance, there is less systematic evidence of how personality characteristics relate to success in the interviewing process. Measures of the Big Five personality markers were obtained from a sample of graduating college seniors (n= 83) who were engaged in a job search. At a later time these students reported the strategies used in the job search and success in generating follow-up interviews and job offers. Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness were positively related to the use of social sources (e.g., talking to others) to prepare for interviews. Conscientiousness was positively related to the use of non-social preparation. Use of social sources for preparation for initial interviews was positively related to the likelihood of receiving follow-up interviews and job offers. The results suggest that personality is related to interviewee's success in part through actions taken well before the interviewing process begins and in part through the interviewers' inferences of the applicants' personality during the interview.

© The Author(s) 2014. Studies of organizational culture are almost always based on two assumptions: (a) Senior leaders are the prime determinant of the culture, and (b) culture is related to consequential organizational outcomes. Although intuitively reasonable and often accepted as fact, the empirical evidence for these is surprisingly thin, and the results are quite mixed. Almost no research has jointly investigated these assumptions and how they are linked. The purpose of this article is to empirically link CEO personality to culture and organizational culture to objective measures of firm performance. Using data from respondents in 32 high-technology companies, we show that CEO personality affects a firm’s culture and that culture is subsequently related to a broad set of organizational outcomes including a firm’s financial performance (revenue growth, Tobin’s Q), reputation, analysts’ stock recommendations, and employee attitudes. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research on organizational culture.

Two studies were conducted to examine the relation between personality and the use of social influence strategies in the workplace. In Study 1, MBA students reported how often they used various influence tactics with their peers at work. They also completed measures of the Big Five personality dimensions, desire for control, and self-monitoring. Canonical correlation analyses found several significant relations between the reported use of influence strategies and personality. High scores on extra-version, self-monitoring, and desire for control predicted more and more varied use of influence strategies. In Study 2, coworkers of the Study 1 participants indicated the extent to which they believed the student used each of the influence strategies and how effective they believed that person was at influencing them. The use of rational persuasion and efforts to involve the other person were related to perceived effectiveness, whereas relying on others to influence a coworker was seen as ineffective.

Narcissism is characterized by traits such as dominance, self-confidence, a sense of entitlement, grandiosity, and low empathy. There is growing evidence that individuals with these characteristics often emerge as leaders, and that narcissistic CEOs may make more impulsive and risky decisions. We suggest that these tendencies may also affect how compensation is allocated among top management teams. Using employee ratings of personality for the CEOs of 32 prominent high-technology firms, we investigate whether more narcissistic CEOs have compensation packages that are systematically different from their less narcissistic peers, and specifically whether these differences increase the longer the CEO stays with the firm. As predicted, we find that more narcissistic CEOs who have been with their firm longer receive more total direct compensation (salary, bonus, and stock options), have more money in their total shareholdings, and have larger discrepancies between their own (higher) compensation and the other members of their team.

The fit between individual characteristics and job requirements is a frequently used variable to explain job performance and satisfaction. We test a Q-sort based method for assessing person- job fit and demonstrate that overall person-job fit is related to satisfaction, performance, and turnover.

This article brings together three current themes in organizational behavior: (1) a renewed interest in assessing person-situation interactional constructs, (2) the quantitative assessment of organizational culture, and (3) the application of “Q-sort,” or template-matching, approaches to assessing person-situation interactions. Using longitudinal data from accountants and M.B.A. students and cross-sectional data from employees of government agencies and public accounting firms, we developed and validated an instrument for assessing person-organization fit, the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP). Results suggest that the dimensionality of individual preferences for organizational cultures and the existence of these cultures are interpretable. Further, person-organization fit predicts job satisfaction and organizational commitment a year after fit was measured and actual turnover after two years. This evidence attests to the importance of understanding the fit between individuals' preferences and organiza...

Using a sample of forty-five new product teams this study examines how groups interact with their organizational environment. Four key activity sets were identified: ambassador, task coordinator, s...

Although much research has been conducted in the area of organizational commitment, few studies have explicitly examined how organizations facilitate commitment among members. Using a sample of 291 respondents from 45 firms, the results of this study show that rigorous recruitment and selection procedures and a strong, clear organizational value system are associated with higher levels of employee commitment based on internalization and identification. Strong organizational career and reward systems are related to higher levels of instrumental or compliance-based commitment.

One outgrowth of the person-situation debate has been the use of fit or congruence models to explain work satisfaction and performance. We describe a Q-sort based technique, the profile comparison ...

Utilisation d'un processus de comparaison de profils (base sur une technique de type Q procurant une evaluation isomorphique des prerequis du travail et des competences individuelles) pour evaluer l'ajustement homme-travail sur 7 petits echantillons de population representant divers metiers et organisations

Leadership has been a central, and sometimes controversial, topic in the study of organizations. In spite of claims to the contrary, there is substantial evidence that leadership is positively related to a variety of individual and organizational outcomes. While research has confirmed that leadership-performance associations exist, less attention has been paid to how senior leaders ensure that their strategic decisions are implemented. In this study, we investigated one mechanism of action, exploring how the consistency of leadership effectiveness across hierarchical levels enhanced or impeded influenced the implementation of a strategic initiative in a large health care system. We found that medical department performance was not affected by any one leader's (CEO, medical center leader, department leader) effectiveness but rather, it was only when leadership effectiveness at different levels were considered in the aggregate that significant performance improvement occurred. We discuss the implications of these findings for leadership research, specifically, that leaders at various levels should be considered collectively to understand how leadership influences strategic change.

The use of portable computers connected to high-speed networks is changing the way groups do their work. Such systems reduce the need for teams to be co-located by allowing team members to communicate with one another and access a wide range of databases. Despite the growing use of such systems, relatively little research has looked broadly at how these systems affect aspects of group process and performance. We interviewed individuals in 10 firms that are implementing mobile computing in work groups. Based on those interviews, we describe how mobile computing is changing interdependent work and speculate on how it may influence job scope and team empowerment, group composition, supervisory practices, and socialization processes. We also conclude that attention to both the functional and informal characteristics of knowledge management systems associated with mobile computing can influence group processes and performance.

Although organizational researchers have debated the meaning and consequences of organizational culture, the relationship between culture and firm performance is still not well understood. Conventi...

The increasing reliance on teams in organizations raises the question of how these teams should be formed. Should they be formed completely of engineers or should they include a range of specialists? Should they be made up to people who have long tenure in the organization, or those with a wide range of experience? As teams increasingly get called upon to do more complex tasks and to cross functional boundaries within the organization, conventional wisdom has suggested that teams be composed of more diverse members. This study suggests that the answer may not be so simple. Using 409 individuals from 45 new product teams in five high-technology companies, this study investigates the impact of diversity on team performance. We found that functional and tenure diversity each has its own distinct effects. The greater the functional diversity, the more team members communicated outside the team's boundaries. This communication was with a variety of groups such as marketing, manufacturing, and top management. The more the external communication, the higher the managerial ratings of innovation. Tenure diversity had its impact on internal group dynamics rather than external communications. Tenure diversity is associated with improved task work such as clarifying group goals and setting priorities. In turn, this clarity is associated with high team ratings of overall performance. Yet diversity is not solely positive. While it does produce internal processes and external communications that facilitate performance, it also directly impedes performance. That is, overall the effect of diversity on performance is negative, even though some aspects of group work are enhanced. It may be that for these teams diversity brings more creativity to problem solving and product development, but it impedes implementation because there is less capability for teamwork than there is for homogeneous teams. These research findings suggest that simply changing the structure of teams (i.e. combining representatives of diverse function and tenure) will not improve performance. The team must find a way to garner the positive process effects of diversity and to reduce the negative direct effects. At the team level, greater negotiation and conflict resolution skills may be necessary. At the organization level, the team may need to be protected from external political pressures and rewarded for team, rather than functional, outcomes.

Improvement of the quality of MBA teaching requires use of evaluation instruments unique to the problems and concerns of MBA students. This study used critical incident methodology to develop and evaluate a behaviorally based system to gauge the perception of MBA students regarding teaching quality. Perceptions fell into five distinct categories: instructor's accessibility to the student; instructor's application of course material; instructor's knowledge of the subject; instructor's preparation and organization; and instructor's empathy for the student.

Boundary-spanning positions require occupants to interact with groups whose norms may differ from one another. It was hypothesized that individuals holding these positions would perform better if they were sensitive to social cues and able to adapt their behavior to fit the circumstances. 93 field representatives (average age 30.5 yrs) who acted as boundary spanners were given the Self-Monitoring Scale. Results show that significant relationships existed between job performance and an individual difference variable (self-monitoring) that assessed the ability of respondents to adjust their self-presentation to fit the situation; self-monitoring was most important during the period of early tenure. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

When confronted with failure, previous research has shown that decision makers may escalate their commitment to the failing course of action. The present study demonstrates that subjects may also a...

The study demonstrates that, when confronted with failure, subjects may attempt to justify their position by manipulating information that is to be presented to others. Evidence also was found that...

In this article the authors discuss research they conducted on the relationship between employee turnover and their access to accurate information about their job. The authors hypothesized that ind...

Using a racially mixed sample (N= 1400) of store clerks, the relationship between recruiting source and employee success was examined. The results suggest that for Whites, informal recruiting sources (e.g., employee referrals, in-store notices) were associated with longer tenure, generally confirming earlier research. For Blacks, more formal sources (e.g., employment agencies, media announcements) were associated with longer tenure. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for practice.

Using interview and log data from 38 new product team managers and 15 team members, we identify a set of activities that group members use to manage their dependence on external groups. Team members carry out scout, ambassador, sentry, and guard activities along with immigrant, captive, and emigrant roles to manage external transactions. It is hypothesized that high team performance is associated with a fit between the level of boundary activity and the degree of resource dependence.

One hundred and eight recent Master's of Business Administration graduates were surveyed immediately after accepting jobs and again 6 months later. It was hypothesized that subjects who made job choices on intrinsic bases (e.g., intrinsic interest in the job, opportunity for advancement) would be more satisfied and committed than those who made the decision based on extrinsic factors (e.g., external pressures such as family concerns and preference for geographic location). Results showed both intrinsic and extrinsic decision factors to be positively related to subsequent satisfaction and commitment. Canonical correlation analysis showed an extrinsic job feature (salary) to be positively related to future tenure intention and negatively related to job satisfaction. These findings suggest that job satisfaction and commitment may be related to both the intrinsic and extrinsic factors considered when the original job choice is made. In a recent article on organizational entry, Wanous (1977, p. 601) noted that much of the research literature on job choice was organizationally rather than individually oriented, that is, focused on the organizational activities associated with recruitment and selection rather than on the individual choice process. Although representatives of organizations need to devise methods for attracting and choosing new members, the individual must also make a decision to choose one firm and job over others offered. On what basis does an individual make this decision? The field of vocational psychology has contributed much to our understanding about how individuals choose particular occupations (e.g., Crites, 1969; Holland, 1973). The selection of an occupation, however, is typically a more extended process than the decision to accept a job. The latter activity, as Wanous (1977) observed, is far more of a conscious personal decision than the lengthy process involved in entering an occupation. Occupational entry is often in

This study examined the effects of observed and experienced rewards and punishments on positive and negative behaviors and satisfaction with supervision. Results showed that experienced rewards wer...

Previous research indicates that self-monitoring may be an important psychological construct. However, little evidence on the personality correlates of self-monitoring has been accumulated. This study investigated associations among self-monitoring and measures of Murray's needs assessed by the Adjective Check List. Analysis shows that there are interpretable patterns of individual needs associated with facets of self-monitoring. Implications of these findings for prior research on self-monitoring are discussed.

(1990). Improving the Performance of New Product Teams. Research-Technology Management: Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 25-29.

The constructive comments of W. Gary Wagner, Barry M. Staw, and anonymous ASO reviewers are gratefully acknowledged. The effects of postdecisional justifications on the job satisfaction and commitment of new employees were investigated. One hundred and eight M.B.A.'s were questioned about their job choice immediately after making the decision and then again six months later. Turnover data were collected after 24 months. Results showed that individuals who had made the original decision volitionally, that is, from among a number of offers and free from external constraints, and who had perceived the choice to be irrevocable were more satisfied and committed six months later than others. The perceived irrevocability of the choice and behavioral commitment were also negatively related to turnover after two years. Interaction effects between the sufficiency of the original justification and job alternatives was associated with diminished job satisfaction and commitmentfor insufficiently justified respondents. Overall, the results of this investigation are interpreted as consistent with the view that attitudes and commitment may be created retrospectively through processes of rationalization and justification.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Blake Frank for his help in obtaining the turnover data for this study and the University of California Institute of Industrial Relations for research support. Using 20 actual work units with 79 respondents, this study explores the relationships among group demography, social integration of the group, and individual turnover. Results suggest that heterogeneity in group tenure is associated with lower levels of group social integration which, in turn, is negatively associated with individual turnover. Models of these effects using individual-level integration measures are not significant. Further, the results suggest that it is the more distant group members who are more likely to leave. Both individual-level and group-level age demography directly affect turnover and are not moderated by social integration. The findings suggest a process by which group demography affects outcomes and support the usefulness of organizational demography for understanding group and individual functioning.'