Digital Commons Network^™

Employees’ Response To Corporate Greenwashing, Jennifer Robertson, Wren A. Montgomery, Timur Ozbilir

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Research on corporate greenwashing has expanded rapidly in recent years. At the same time, emerging studies in related literatures have found that employees are seeking out firms that are social and environmental leaders, and employee activism within firms is growing. However, the effect of firms’ exaggeration and misrepresentation of environmental claims, or greenwashing, on their own employees has been overlooked. Accordingly, we investigate greenwashing from an organizational psychology lens, exploring the impact it can have on employees, and whether these effects differ for different types of employees. Using data collected at three separate time points from a sample of employees …

Humor Styles Are Related To Loneliness Across 15 Countries, Julie Aitken Schermer, Radoslaw Rogoza, Marija Brankovic, Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios, Tatiana Volkodav, Truong Thi Khanh Ha, Eva Papazova, Joonha Park, Christopher Marcin Kowalski, Marta Doroszuk, Sadia Malik, Samuel Lins, Gines Navarro-Carrillo, Jorge Torres-Marin, Anna Wlodarczyk, Sibele D. Aquino, Georg Krammer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

The relationships between self-report loneliness and the four humor styles of affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, and self-enhancing were investigated in 15 countries (N = 4,701). Because loneliness has been suggested to be both commonly experienced and detrimental, we examine if there are similar patterns between humor styles, gender, and age with loneliness in samples of individuals from diverse backgrounds. Across the country samples, affiliative and self-enhancing humor styles negatively correlated with loneliness, self-defeating was positively correlated, and the aggressive humor style was not significantly related. In predicting loneliness, 40.5% of the variance could be accounted. Younger females with lower affiliative, lower …

Examining Nurses’ Vengeful Behaviors: The Effects Of Toxic Leadership And Psychological Wellbeing, Oktay Koc, Hayrettin Sahin, Gokten Ongel, Ayse Gunsel, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Toxic leadership is becoming increasingly common in healthcare organizations and there is strong need for studies focusing on organizational factors that can trigger revenge. Additionally, how psychological well-being functions in shielding against toxicity has not been adequately studied. Hence, this study aims to examine the relationship between toxic leadership and vengeful behaviors of nurses, along with the contingency of psychological well-being on the relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this exploratory cross-sectional study, we attempt to examine the antecedent effect of toxic leadership on vengeful behaviors based on self-reports from 311 nurses. Using partial least squares and moderation analyses, the …

Climate Anxiety, Pro-Environmental Action And Wellbeing: Antecedents And Outcomes Of Negative Emotional Responses To Climate Change In 28 Countries, Charles A. Ogunbode, Rouven Doran, Daniel Hanss, Maria Ojala, Katriina Salmela-Aro, Karlijn L. Van Den Broek, Navjot Bhullar, Sibele D. Aquino, Tiago Marot, Julie Aitken Schermer, Anna Wlodarczyk, Su Lu, Feng Jiang, Daniela Acquadro Maran, Reza Najafi, Joonha Park, Takashi Tsubakita, Hajra Tahir, Mai Albzour, Marc Eric S. Reyes, Samuel Lins, Violeta Enea, Tatiana Volkodav, Tomas Sollar, Gines Navarro-Carrillo, Jorge Torres-Marin, Winfred Mbungu, Arin H. Ayanian, Jihane Ghorayeb, Charles Onyutha, Michael J. Lomas, Mai Helmy, Laura Martinez-Buelvas

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and negatively linked to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries. In contrast, it …

Altruism And The Dark Triad, Cassidy Trahair, Kristi B. Macdonald, Adrian Furnham, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Background: The Dark Triad literature examining pro-social behaviours is minimal, with mixed results. Participants and procedure: This study investigates the relationships between the Dark Triad and altruistic behaviours based on self-report data from 286 adults. Altruism was assessed using two scales: a general measure as well as a more recent scale measur-ing compassionate altruism towards family, friends, and strangers. Results: Machiavellianism negatively correlated with general altruism; however, when controlling for the other dark variables plus age and gender in a regression, narcissism was the only Dark Triad trait that significantly predicted altruism. None of the Dark Triad traits were significantly …

Effects Of Perceived Scarcity On Covid-19 Consumer Stimulus Spending: The Roles Of Ontological Insecurity And Mutability In Predicting Prosocial Outcomes, R. Bret Leary, Rhiannon Macdonnell Mesler, Bonnie Simpson, Matthew D. Meng, William Montford

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

In 2021, the United States government provided a third Economic Impact Payment (EIP) for those designated as experiencing greater need due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With a particular focus on scarcity and ontological insecurity, we collected time-separated data prior to, and following, the third EIP to examine how these variables shape consumer allocation of stimulus funds. We find that scarcity is positively associated with feelings of ontological insecurity, which, interestingly, correlates to a greater allocation of stimulus funds towards charitable giving. We further find evidence that mutability moderates the relationship between ontological insecurity and allocations to charitable giving. In other …

Political Hearts Of Darkness: The Dark Triad As Predictors Of Political Orientations And Interest In Politics, Edward Bell, Christopher Marcin Kowalski, Philip Anthony Vernon, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Background: This study investigated the relationships between the Dark Triad of personality (sub-clinical psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) and four political variables: socio-religious conservatism, support for greater economic equality, overall liberal–conservative orientation, and interest in politics. A theoretical approach that focused on the influence of the Dark Triad in large groups was provided to interpret those relationships. Methodological issues found in previous research that related to the use of abbreviated scales to measure the dark traits and the use of unidimensional indicators of political orientations were addressed. Methods: A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine whether any of the three …

Predicting Pro-Environmental Values And Behaviors With The Supernumerary Personality Inventory And Hope, Bonnie Simpson, Meghan Maguire, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This research examinesthe role ofpersonality traits beyond the Five-Factor Model (FFM) frameworkin predicting pro-environmental values and behaviors. A sample of 410participants completed personality scalesand reported both their environmental values and the extent to which they had engaged in a series of pro-environmental behaviors in the preceding 24 hours. Small positive correlations were found between environmental values and behaviors with integrityand femininityand negative correlations with religiosity. Overall, the results show limited evidence supporting the personality dimensions measured in predicting pro-environmentalvalues and behaviors.Implications of the findings are discussed.

Exploring Locus-Of-Hope: Relational Tendencies, Self-Esteem, Attachment, And Gender, Sereena Dargan, Kristi Baerg Macdonald, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Background: As little research has been devoted to examining associations between the four locus-of-hope dimensions (internal, external—peer, external—family, and external—spiritual) and individual differences, the current study explores the correlations with individual-level individualist and collectivist relational tendencies, self-esteem, insecure attachment, and gender within a culturally diverse sample of university undergraduate students. Methods: questionnaires were completed by a culturally diverse sample of undergraduate students measuring locus-of-hope, individualist and collectivist relational tendencies, self-esteem, insecure attachment, and gender. Results: State and trait locus-of-hope were significantly correlated. Individualism showed positive correlations with internal and external—family locus-of-hope. Collectivism positively correlated with internal locus-of-hope and the three …

How Affective Displaysand Self-Construal Impact Consumers’ Generosity, Rhiannon Macdonnell, Bonnie Simpson

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Nonprofit brands vary widely in their positioning to consumers, ranging from crisis and desperation, to joy and optimism.The literature, however, provides limiteddirection for the many nonprofit organizations that seek to align their brand with positive emotions. Herein, we examine the relationship between affective displays (sad vs. happy) portrayed in charitable advertisements and consumer self-construal in shaping consumer generosity.We employ one field study (study 1) and one lab experiment (study 2), using different charitable causes (i.e., Kiva.org[study 1] and a fictitious children’s cancer charity [study 2]) and currencies (i.e., lending money [study 1] and volunteering time [study 2]).Taken together, we find …

Predicting Donation Behaviour With The Supernumerary Personality Inventory, Christopher M. Kowalski, Bonnie Simpson, Julie Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

The present study aimed to broaden the investigation of personality traits and donation behaviour beyond the Five-Factor Model (FFM) framework. A sample of 506 participants completed the Supernumerary Personality Inventory (Paunonen, 2002), reported both their frequency of charitable giving and, given the option to donate potential lottery winnings to a charitable cause, the amount that they would donate. Religiosity was moderately positively correlated with charitable frequency, while integrity was weakly positively correlated with donation amount. Manipulativeness and egotism were weakly negatively correlated with donation amount. Overall, the results show limited evidence for the relevance of Supernumerary Personality Inventory personality traits …

Negative Emotions About Climate Change Are Related To Insomnia Symptoms And Mental Health: Cross-Sectional Evidence From 25 Countries, Charles Adedayo Ogunbode, Ståle Pallesen, Gisela Böhm, Rouven Doran, Navjot Bhullar, Sibele Aquino, Tiago Marot, Julie Aitken Schermer, Anna Wlodarczyk, Su Lu, Feng Jiang, Katariina Salmela-Aro, Daniel Hanss, Daniela Acquadro Maran, Rahkman Ardi, Razieh Chegeni, Hajra Tahir, Elahe Ghanbarian, Joonha Park, Takashi Tsubakita, Chee Seng Tan, Karlijn L. Van Den Broek, John Bosco Chika Chukwuorji, Kehinde Ojewumi, Marc Eric S. Reyes, Samuel Lins, Violeta Enea, Tatiana Volkodav, Tomas Sollar

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Climate change threatens mental health via increasing exposure to the social and economic disruptions created by extreme weather and large-scale climatic events, as well as through the anxiety associated with recognising the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. Considering the growing levels of climate change awareness across the world, negative emotions like anxiety and worry about climate-related risks are a potentially pervasive conduit for the adverse impacts of climate change on mental health. In this study, we examined how negative climate-related emotions relate to sleep and mental health among a diverse non-representative sample of individuals recruited from 25 countries, …

Humor Styles And The Ten Personality Dimensions From The Supernumerary Personality Inventory, Marisa L. Kfrerer, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

BACKGROUND The present study examines the relationship between humor styles and the 10 Supernumerary Personality Inventory (SPI) traits to understand how humor styles correlate with personality dimensions “beyond the Big Five” model. Humor styles and the personality dimensions of the SPI have yet to be explored. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore how humor styles correlate with traits outside of conventional personality models, in order to better understand humor expression related to personality traits. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE The data were from 693 adult participants (135 men and 560 women) from North America. RESULTS All four humor styles …

No Laughing Matter: How Humor Styles Relate To Feelings Of Loneliness And Not Mattering, Kristi Baerg Macdonald, Anjali Kumar, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Loneliness and feeling that one does not matter are closely linked, but further investigation is needed to determine differentiating features. The relationship between not mattering to others (anti-mattering) and loneliness was explored by assessing how the two constructs correlated with an interpersonal dimension, specifically four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, self-defeating, and aggressive). One hundred and fifty-eight women and 96 men completed a three-item loneliness scale, a new measure of anti-mattering, and a humor styles questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the new anti-mattering measure is a unidimensional scale. Loneliness and anti-mattering were strongly correlated, and each correlated in the …

Making The World A Better Place: How Crowdfunding Increases Consumer Demand For Social-Good Products, Bonnie Simpson, Martin Schreier, Sally Bitterl, Katherine White

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative means of financing new ventures wherein a large number of individuals collectively back a project. This research specifically looks at reward based crowdfunding, where those who take part in the crowdfunding process receive the new product for which funding is sought in return for their financial support. This work illustrates that consumers make fundamentally different decisions when considering contributing their money to crowdfund versus purchase a product. Six studies demonstrate that compared to a traditional purchase, crowdfunding more strongly activates an interdependent mindset and, as a result, increases consumer demand for social-good products (i.e., …

Genetic And Environmental Causes Of Individual Differences In Borderline Personality Features And Loneliness Are Partially Shared, Julie Aitken Schermer, Lucia Colodro-Conde, Katrina L. Grasby, Ian B. Hickie, Jane Burns, Lannie Ligthart, Gonneke Williamsen, Timothy J. Trull, Nicholas G. Martin, Dorret I. Boomsma

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Loneliness is related to mental and somatic health outcomes, including borderline personality disorder. Here, we analyze the sources of variation that are responsible for the relationship between borderline personality features (including four dimensions, affective instability, identity disturbance, negative relationships, self-harm and a total score) and loneliness. Using genetically informative data from two large nonclinical samples of adult twin pairs from Australia and the Netherlands (N = 11,329), we estimate the phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlations between self-reported borderline personality features and loneliness. Individual differences in borderline personality and loneliness were best explained by additive genetic factors with heritability estimates h2 …

Genetic And Environmental Causes Of Individual Differences In Borderline Personality Disorder Features And Loneliness Are Partially Shared, Julie Aitken Schermer, Lucía Colodro-Conde, Katrina L. Grasby, Ian B. Hickie, Jane Burns, Lannie Ligthart, Gonneke Willemsen, Timothy J. Trull, Nicholas G. Martin, Dorret I. Boomsma

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Loneliness is related to mental and somatic health outcomes, including borderline personality disorder. Here, we analyze the sources of variation that are responsible for the relationship between borderline personality features (including four dimensions, affective instability, identity disturbance, negative relationships, self-harm and a total score) and loneliness. Using genetically informative data from two large nonclinical samples of adult twin pairs from Australia and the Netherlands (N = 11,329), we estimate the phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlations between self-reported borderline personality features and loneliness. Individual differences in borderline personality and loneliness were best explained by additive genetic factors with heritability estimates h2 …

Predicting Loneliness From Where And What People Do, Kristi J. Macdonald, Gonneke Willemsen, Dorret I. Boomsma, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

The many devastating mental health outcomes associated with chronic loneliness is the motivation behind research into examining personal and demographic characteristics of the lonely. The present study sought to examine the connection of where people live (degree of urbanization) and what people do (leisure activities) with self-report of loneliness in a large sample (N = 8356) of unrelated Dutch adults. Information regarding where people live and what they do in their leisure time was entered into a regression analysis for self-reported loneliness. The overall regression was significant and accounted for 2.8% of the loneliness scale scores. Significant independent predictors for …

Using The 16pf To Test The Differentiation Of Personality By Intelligence Hypothesis, Julie Aitken Schermer, Georg Krammer, Richard D. Goffin, Michael D. Biderman

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

The differentiation of personality by intelligence hypothesis suggests that there will be greater individual differences in personality traits for those individuals who are more intelligent. Conversely, less intelligent individuals will be more similar to each other in their personality traits. The hypothesis was tested with a large sample of managerial job candidates who completed an omnibus personality measure with 16 scales and five intelligence measures (used to generate an intelligence g-factor). Based on the g-factor composite, the sample was split using the median to conduct factor analyses within each half. A five-factor model was tested for both the lower and …

A Framework For Considering Dissociative Identity Effects In Consumption, Bonnie Simpson, Lea Dunn, Katherine White

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This chapter examines the mirror image of the identity association principle: dissociation. While the association principle posits that stimuli associated with a positively regarded identity receive more positive evaluations, the dissociation principle suggests that stimuli associated with negatively regarded identities will receive negative evaluations and be abandoned. The authors focus on the nature of dissociative reference groups or groups that the consumer is motivated to avoid association with, and present a framework outlining how dissociative influence can impact consumer behavior. They review the literature on dissociative influence and note that although dissociative reference groups often spur avoidance behaviors, they can …

Stress And Well-Being At The Consumer-Employee Interface, Bonnie Simpson, Madelynn Stackhouse, Katherine White

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Although stress has become a prominent research theme in consumer behavior and occupational health, to the authors knowledge there is only one review on the relationship between consumer behavior and stress (i.e., when internal and external factors exceed an individual’s resources and endangering the individual’s well-being) and this was published 10 years ago. Further, research on occupational stress has yet to be fully integrated into the consumer stress literature. In this chapter, the authors attempt to advance research on consumer stress by a drawing on a satisfaction mirror framework which outlines that consumers and employees influence each other through a …

Peering Inside The ‘Black Box’: The Impact Of Management-Side Representatives On The Industrial Relations Climate Of Organizations, Shelagh Campbell, Johanna Weststar

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

The labor climate of an organization can have a great impact on productivity and efficiency. Managing this climate is often left to union stewards and management-side labor relations representatives. While there is a large literature on the role of union stewards, little is written about the role that management-side labor relations representatives play in establishing or maintaining positive labor-management relations. Building from a series of interviews with labor relations representatives in Canada and a nationwide pilot study of frontline industrial relations workers, we model the role of the labor relations representatives and their specific job actions in the established model …

Building Momentum For Collectivity In The Digital Games Community, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Studies of digital game labor have tended to document problems in the working lives of developers while devoting relatively limited attention to solutions, or to collective representation as a step toward solutions. An increasing number of game developers are dissatisfied with their working conditions, and dissatisfaction is a necessary condition for workers to engage in collective action to gain the representational power needed to achieve change in the workplace. Noting that the landscape of collective mobilization in the game industry has not yet been systematically mapped, this article documents collective actions over the past five decades, and asks, “Are the …

Gender Pay Gap: A Cross-Sectional Study Of The Effect Of Workplace Entitlement On Pay Difference, Ayisha Ayisha, Julie Aitken Schermer

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Aim Past empirical studies investigating the possible causes of the gender pay gap have focused on cognitive trait differences between males and females. While several researchers have concluded that personality (or non-cognitive) traits play a role in the pay gap, no definitive lists of personality variables have been discovered to explain the gender pay differentials. We explored whether self-entitlement may result in sex differences in expected salaries. Methods We surveyed 413 undergraduate students from an introductory university course studying management to investigate the possible relationship between employee entitlement and expected pay. The survey included two parts of questions asking about …

How Co-Creation Increases Employee Corporate Social Responsibility And Organizational Engagement: The Moderating Role Of Self-Construal, Bonnie Simpson, Jennifer Robertson, Katherine White

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This research merges literature from organizational behavior and marketing to garner insight into how organizations can maximize the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for enhanced CSR and organizational engagement of employees. Across two field experiments, the authors demonstrate that the effectiveness of employee co-creation activities in increasing employees’ positive CSR perceptions is moderated by self-construal (i.e., whether an individual views the self as relatively independent from or interdependent with others). In particular, the positive effect of co-creation on CSR perceptions emerges only for employees with a salient interdependent self-construal (either measured as an individual difference or experimentally manipulated). Moreover, …

Women's Experiences On The Path To A Career In Game Development, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This chapter seeks to identify whether there is a dominant, presupposed career pipeline to a career in game development and then looks for women and women’s experiences at each stage of that pipeline. It concludes that a dominant pipeline does exist and that this pathway both disadvantages women who attempt it and marginalizes other pathways. Along the way women deal with obstacles that can delegitimize their choices and experiences and/or make the assumed pathway inhospitable. This chapter relies on published literature as well as data from the 2014 and 2015 Developer Satisfaction Surveys (DSS) conducted by the International Game Developers …

When Public Recognition For Charitable Giving Backfires: The Role Of Independent Self-Construal, Bonnie Simpson, Katherine White, Juliano Laran

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This research examines the effectiveness of public recognition in encouraging charitable giving, demonstrating that public recognition can sometimes decrease donations. While previous work has largely shown that making donations visible to others can motivate donors, the present research shows that the effectiveness of public recognition depends on whether potential donors are under an independent (i.e., separate from others) or interdependent (i.e., connected with others) self-construal. Across seven experimental studies, an independent self-construal decreases donation intentions and amounts when the donor will receive public recognition compared to when the donation will remain private. This effect is driven by the activation of …

Why Might A Video Game Developer Join A Union?, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This paper contributes to the union renewal literature by examining the union voting propensity of workers in the high-tech tertiary sector of videogame development toward different forms of unionization. We used exclusive data from a survey of videogame developers (VGD) working primarily in Anglo-Saxon countries. When looking at the factors related to voting propensity, our data indicated that the type of unionism matters and that industry/sectoral unionism is an increasingly salient model for project-based knowledge workers. This is an important policy dimension given that the legal structures and norms in Anglo-Saxon countries still tend to support decentralized enterprise-based unionism. It …

Videogame Developers Among 'Extreme Workers': Are Death Marches Over?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Purpose: The videogame industry is a work environment that is emblematic of O’Carroll’s (2015) encompassing model of a 24/7/365 working time model of flexibility. We use O’Carroll’s model to challenge two myths about videogame developers (VGDs): the long hours of work are in fact unpredictable hours, and flextime HR programs do not allow for real control over working hours.

Design/methodology/approach: We use a mixed methods approach (international online survey and 100 Canadian interviews) to analyse the case of VGDs - a different, but similar type of worker to the IT workers analysed by O’Carroll.

Findings: We can generalize O’Carroll’s model …

Extreme Risk And Small Investor Behavior In Developed Markets, Lorne N. Switzer, Jun Wang, Seungho Lee

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

This paper examines the responses of small investors of ten developed markets as they are exposed to extreme risk. We focus on mutual fund flows that are induced by extreme market episodes (measured daily, weekly, and monthly) versus volatile periods captured by the traditional standard deviation metric. The extreme-day measure captures the behavior of small retail investors in the US and Canada better than the traditional standard deviation measure, based on funds flows to equity mutual funds. The evidence for the other countries of the study is mixed. Small investors in countries in the G-7 with more collective (as opposed …