Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods Commons^™

Going Beyond Research On Goal Setting: A Proposed Role For Organizational Psychological Capital Of Family Firms, Esra Memili, Dianne H.B. Welsh, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Kotlar and De Massis found that membership assortment and the number of organizational members, as well as the imminence of succession, influence goal diversity in family firms. They also showed that goal diversity can be managed and family-centered goals can be stabilized through professional and familial social interactions, driving the formation of collective commitment to family- centered goals (CCFG). Using this research as a point of departure, we propose that CCFG may impact family firm economic and noneconomic performance. Furthermore, we introduce to the family firm literature the organizational psychological capital (OPC), consisting of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. We …

Participation In Decision Making As A Property Of Complex Adaptive Systems: Developing And Testing A Measure, Ruth A. Anderson, Donde Plowman, Kirsten Corazzini, Pi-Ching Hsieh, Hui Fang Su, Lawrence R. Landerman, Reuben R. Mcdaniel

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Objectives. To (1) describe participation in decision-making as a systems-level property of complex adaptive systems and (2) present empirical evidence of reliability and validity of a corresponding measure. Method. Study 1 was a mail survey of a single respondent (administrators or directors of nursing) in each of 197 nursing homes. Study 2 was a field study using random, proportionally stratified sampling procedure that included 195 organizations with 3,968 respondents. Analysis. In Study 1, we analyzed the data to reduce the number of scale items and establish initial reliability and validity. In Study 2, we strengthened the psychometric test using a …

Positive Global Leadership, Carolyn M. Youssef, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In the wake of increasing globalization, today’s organizational leaders are faced with unprecedented complexity. To help meeting the challenge, this article proposes a new positive approach to global leadership. After first providing the background on positivity, positive global leadership is carefully defined and its similarities and differences with both the established and contemporary leadership theories are noted. The discussion then turns to how positive global leadership addresses three major challenges in the global context of distance, cultural differences and cross-cultural barriers. The article concludes that this new positive approach can help global leaders to leverage diverse strengths in themselves and …

Driven To Work And Enjoyment Of Work: Effects On Managers’ Outcomes, Laura M. Graves, Marian N. Ruderman, Patricia J. Ohlott, Todd J. Weber

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The authors examined the effects of two types of motivation, driven to work and enjoyment of work, on managers’ (N = 346) performance, career satisfaction, and psychological strain. Performance was assessed using 360-degree performance ratings. The authors also tested the effects of self-esteem on the two motives. They found that the enjoyment motive was positively related to career satisfaction and performance and negatively related to strain. Driven to work had no main effects but appeared to interact with enjoyment of work to influence performance and strain. When enjoyment of work was high, driven to work was unrelated to performance or …

Workplace Spirituality, Meditation, And Work Performance, Pawinee Petchsawanga, Dennis Duchon

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

This paper reports two studies that examine how an organization might enable more productive work practices by encouraging the expression of its employees’ spiritual selves in an eastern context. Study 1 shows that people who regularly practice meditation have higher workplace spirituality scores than people who do not regularly practice meditation. Study 2 reports a quasi-experimental study in which people practiced insight meditation. The data did not reveal a direct effect for the meditation, however spirituality does relate to work performance. Moreover, the practice of meditation is also found to partially mediate the relationship between workplace spirituality and work performance.

Recognizing Leadership At A Distance: A Study Of Leader Effectiveness Across Cultures, Peter D. Harms, Guohong Han, Huaiyu Chen

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The present study investigated whether personality and leadership evaluations based on photographs of Chinese CEOs made by Western raters were accurate at predicting organizational outcomes. Consistent with implicit leadership prototypes held by Westerners, perceived effectiveness was associated with higher levels of perceived intelligence, dominance, and positivity. However, actual organization performance was associated with the culturally appropriate leadership trait of risk taking. These findings suggest that although it is possible to use perceptions of personality based on photographs to predict objective leader effectiveness, individuals using a leadership paradigm suited to Western cultures are poor judges of potential success in Eastern cultures.

Ethnic Identity And Job Attribute Preferences: The Role Of Collectivism And Psychological Capital, Gwendolyn Combs, Ivana Milosevic, Wonho Jeung, Jakari Griffith

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The globalization of the workforce has resulted in the need to recruit talent from an increasingly diverse labor market. Understanding how ethnicity may drive individual preferences regarding two important types of job attributes is of value in knowing how to attract potential employees from different ethnic backgrounds. Using a sample of 380 college students from the Midwest and Southeastern region, the authors examined the relationship between ethnic identity, job attributes, collectivism/individualism, and psychological capital. Using structural equation modeling, they found that ethnical identity is more strongly related to the competence and growth aspect of job attribute preferences than status and …

The Entrepreneurial Growth Ceiling: Using People And Innovation To Mitigate Risk And Break Through The Growth Ceiling In Initial Public Offerings, Theresa M. Wellbourne, Heidi Neck, G. Dale Meyer

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Purpose – In this paper the authors aim to introduce a concept that they call the “entrepreneurial growth ceiling” (EGC). They develop arguments that new venture IPOs hit the EGC prior to their IPO, and the ceiling is part of the impetus for going public. The paper argues that proceeds from the IPO will aid firms in breaking through the ceiling if the proceeds are strategically allocated.

Design/methodology/approach – The study examines a cohort of firms that went public in the same year. The authors code data from the prospectuses of 366 organizations, including how proceeds were to be spent, …

Rehabilitation Settings After Joint Replacement: An Application Of Multiattribute Preference Elicitation, Tiffany A. Radcliff, Murray J. Côté, David L. Olson, Debra Liebrecht

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

While advances in medical treatment and technologies have the potential to improve the delivery of health care, their use typically involves making multiple, complex decisions. Patients and their medical providers may share in the decision-making processes and balance a variety of criteria and/or attributes in the pursuit of improved health. This necessitates a stronger understanding of the role of human behavior in health care processes and presents a timely opportunity to use decision analysis tools to contribute to this important aspect of health care operations. This article reports on the application of multiattribute preference elicitation to identify postsurgical rehabilitation setting …

Emergent Organizational Capacity For Compassion, Laura T. Madden, Dennis Duchon, Timothy M. Madden, Donde Ashmos Plowman

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Our model of emergent organizational capacity for compassion proposes that organizations can develop the capacity for compassion without formal direction. Relying on a framework from complexity science, we describe how the system conditions of agent diversity, interdependent roles, and social interactions enhance the likelihood of self-organizing around an individual response to a pain trigger. When agents then modify their roles to incorporate compassionate responding, their interactions amplify responses, changing the system, and a new order emerges: organizational capacity for compassion. In this new order the organization's structure, culture, routines, and scanning mechanisms incorporate compassionate responding and can influence future responses …

Measuring Implicit Psychological Constructs In Organizational Behavior: An Example Using Psychological Capital, Peter D. Harms, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Implicit psychological constructs are effective predictors of behavioral outcomes but are rarely used in organizational settings because of real or imagined problems with measurement validity and administration. To address these concerns, we present a means of assessing implicit constructs quickly and easily by using psychological capital as an example.

An Evaluation Of The Consequences Of Using Short Measures Of The Big Five Personality Traits, Marcus Credé, Peter D. Harms, Sarah Niehorster, Andrea Gaye-Valentine

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Researchers often use very abbreviated (e.g., 1-item, 2-item) measures of personality traits due to their convenience and ease of use as well as the belief that such measures can adequately capture an individual’s personality. Using data from 2 samples (N = 437 employees, N = 355 college students), we show that this practice, particularly the use of single-item measures, can lead researchers to substantially underestimate the role that personality traits play in influencing important behaviors and thereby overestimate the role played by new constructs. That is, the use of very short measures of personality may substantially increase both the Type …

Meta-Analysis Of The Impact Of Positive Psychological Capital On Employee Attitudes, Behaviors, And Performance, James B. Avey, Rebecca J. Reichard, Fred Luthans, Ketan H. Mhatre

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The positive core construct of psychological capital (or simply PsyCap), consisting of the psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism, has recently been demonstrated to be open to human resource development (HRD) and performance management. The research stream on PsyCap has now grown to the point that a quantitative summary analysis of its impact on employee attitudes, behaviors, and especially performance is needed. The present meta-analysis included 51 independent samples (representing a total of N = 12,567 employees) that met the inclusion criteria. The results indicated the expected significant positive relationships between PsyCap and desirable employee attitudes (job satisfaction, …

Psychological Capital And Employee Performance: A Latent Growth Modeling Approach, Suzanne J. Peterson, Fred Luthans, Bruce J. Avolio, Fred Walumbwa, Zhen Zhang

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The positive core construct of psychological capital (consisting of efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) has been conceptually and empirically demonstrated to be related to employee performance. However, much of this work has relied on cross-sectional designs to examine these relationships. This study utilizes longitudinal data from a large financial service organization (N = 179 financial advisory-type employees) to examine withinindividual change in psychological capital over time and if this change relates to their change in performance. Latent growth modeling analyses revealed statistically significant within-individual change in psychological capital over time, and that this change in psychological capital was related to …

Hospital Boards And Hospital Strategic Focus: The Impact Of Board Involvement In Strategic Decision Making, Karen Ford-Eickhoff, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Reuben R. Mcdaniel Jr.

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Background: Despite pressures to change the role of hospital boards, hospitals have made few changes in board composition or director selection criteria. Hospital boards have often continued to operate in their traditional roles as either “monitors” or “advisors.” More attention to the direct involvement of hospital boards in the strategic decision-making process of the organizations they serve, the timing and circumstances under which board involvement occurs, and the board composition that enhances their abilities to participate fully is needed.

Purposes: We investigated the relationship between broader expertise among hospital board members, board involvement in the stages of strategic decision making, …

Developing A Capacity For Organizational Resilience Through Strategic Human Resource Management, Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall, Tammy E. Beck, Mark L. Lengnick-Hall

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Resilient organizations thrive despite experiencing conditions that are surprising, uncertain, often adverse, and usually unstable. We propose that an organization's capacity for resilience is developed through strategically managing human resources to create competencies among core employees, that when aggregated at the organizational level, make it possible for organizations to achieve the ability to respond in a resilient manner when they experience severe shocks. We begin by reviewing three elements central to developing an organization's capacity for resilience (specific cognitive abilities, behavioral characteristics, and contextual conditions). Next we identify the individual level employee contributions needed to achieve each of these elements. …

Mentoring Impact On Leader Efficacy Development: A Field Experiment, Paul B. Lester, Sean T. Hannah, Peter D. Harms, Gretchen R. Vogelgesang, Bruce J. Avolio

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

While practitioners and scholars tout the importance of mentorship in leader development, few studies have empirically determined whether mentoring actually positively impacts a leader’s development, and if so, in what ways. In a longitudinal field experiment, we examined how a targeted mentorship program that unfolded over 6 months enhanced the development of protégés’ leader efficacy and performance. Results showed that the targeted mentorship intervention increased protégés’ level of leader efficacy more than a comparison intervention that was based on a more eclectic leadership education program delivered in a group setting. Leader efficacy then predicted rated leader performance. Both protégés’ preferences …

Leader Development And The Dark Side Of Personality, Peter D. Harms, Seth M. Spain, Sean T. Hannah

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The present study investigates the role of subclinical personality traits as determinants of leader development over time. In previous literature, subclinical traits have been identified as potential causes of leader derailment. However, leader development researchers have argued that developmental interventions based on increasing self-awareness may be effective at mitigating the negative effects of these character flaws. Using a multi-wave, multi-method longitudinal study of military school cadets we evaluate the impact of subclinical traits on externally-rated measures of leader development over a three year period. Results demonstrated that adding subclinical traits to models of development significantly increased model fit and that …

Dialogue, Asghar Zardkoohi, Leonard Bierman, Daria Panina, Subrata Chakrabarty

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In a recent Academy of Management Review article, Professor Andrew von Nordenflycht (2010) focused on defining professional service firms (PSFs). In the article von Nordenflycht argues that past research leaves the term professional service firms either undefined or at best provides only examples, such as law firms, accounting firms, "etc." In addition, he argues that while most scholars agree that law firms and accounting firms fit the "definition" of PSFs, there is "little consensus on what the 'etc.' refers to. Does it include ad agencies? Physician practices? Software firms? Why or why not?" (2010: 155). The author's contributions include …

The Gendering Of Organizational Research Methods: Evidence Of Gender Patterns In Qualitative Research [With Commentaries And Response], Donde Ashmos Plowman, Anne D. Smith

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that gender plays in choice of research methods.

Design/methodology/approach — The publication patterns of men and women in four prominent management journals over two decades were analyzed in three North American journals—Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Organization Science—and one European journal—Journal of Management Studies. The authors coded the research methodology—qualitative or non-qualitative—and author gender for each article from 1986 through 2008, other than Organization Science which began in 1990. The authors also coded the stage of career for the journals …

Adult Attachment Styles In The Workplace, Peter D. Harms

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Prior research has demonstrated that attachment styles are important antecedents of interpersonal relationship quality and psychological well-being. Despite this, the theory of attachment styles has been largely ignored by researchers interested in workplace phenomena. The present paper aims to explain the theory of attachment styles, why researchers have overlooked attachment styles as an antecedent of organizational behavior, and a possible means of reconciling attachment theory with current models of personality. Moreover, I will review what existing research has actually demonstrated in terms of linking attachment styles to leadership, trust, satisfaction, performance and other outcomes. Finally, I will explore what possible …

The Impact Of Positivity And Transparency On Trust In Leaders And Their Perceived Effectiveness, Steven M. Norman, Bruce Avolio, Fred Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

A critical challenge facing today’s organizational leaders is gaining their followers’ trust and having them view leaders as effective in addressing turmoil and change. Using a downsizing scenario as the context, this field experiment examined how a leader’s positivity and transparency impacted followers’ perceived trust, defined in terms of willingness to be vulnerable, and effectiveness of their leader. To test the hypotheses, 304 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions of high (low) leader positivity × high (low) leader transparency. Results of our mixed methods study indicated both the leader’s level of positivity and transparency impacted followers’ …

Managing Bpo Service Workers In India: Examining Hope On Performance Outcomes, Gwendolyn M. Combs, Rachel Clapp-Smith, Sucheta Nadkarni

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Much attention has been given to the explosion in business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in India. Little concern, however, has been paid to the performance of Indian service workers in these fast-paced and sometimes turbulent environments. Using a sample of 160 service workers from a privately held BPO firm in India, we examine the relationship between Indian service workers’ hope and their performance outcomes. Regression and structural equation model analyses indicated a significant positive relationship between Indian service workers’ levels of hope and their performance. These promising results highlight the importance of measuring and managing employee hope to maximize employee …

Impact Of Positive Psychological Capital On Employee Well-Being Over Time, James B. Avey, Fred Luthans, Ronda M. Smith, Noel F. Palmer

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The recently recognized core construct of psychological capital or PsyCap (consisting of the positive psychological resources of efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) has been demonstrated to be related to various employee attitudinal, behavioral, and performance outcomes. However, to date, the impact of this positive core construct over time and on important employee well-being outcomes has not been tested. This study meets this need by analyzing the relationship between a broad cross-section of employees’ (N = 280) level of PsyCap and two measures of psychological well-being over time. The results indicated that employees’ PsyCap was related to both measures of well-being …

Everyday Sensegiving: A Closer Look At Successful Plant Managers, Anne D. Smith, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Dennis Duchon

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The authors conducted in-depth interviews and on-site visits with successful plant managers to understand similarities in their management approaches. Across 11 different plants, representing nine different industries, the authors found each plant manager actively engaged in shaping how employees viewed the organization and its values through what the authors call “everyday sensegiving.” From themes inductively identified from the interviews and on-site visits, four central values—”Here, we value people, we value openness, we value being positive, and we value being part of a larger community”— were identified. In this article, the authors link everyday sensegiving of these middle managers and extend …

The Development And Resulting Performance Impact Of Positive Psychological Capital, Fred Luthans, James B. Avey, Bruce J. Avolio, Suzanne Peterson

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Recently, theory and research have supported psychological capital (PsyCap) as an emerging core construct linked to positive outcomes at the individual and organizational level. However, to date, little attention has been given to PsyCap development through training interventions; nor have there been attempts to determine empirically if such PsyCap development has a causal impact on participants’ performance. To fill these gaps we first conducted a pilot test of the PsyCap intervention (PCI) model with a randomized control group design. Next, we conducted a follow-up study with a cross section of practicing managers to determine if following the training guidelines of …

Regulation And Mindful Resident Care In Nursing Homes, Cathleen S. Colón-Emeric, Donde Ashmos Plowman, Donald Bailey, Kirsten Corazzini, Queen Utley-Smith, Natalie Ammarell, Mark Toles, Ruth Anderson

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Regulatory oversight is intended to improve the health outcomes of nursing home residents, yet evidence suggests that regulations can inhibit mindful staff behaviors that are associated with effective care. We explored the influence of regulations on mindful staff behavior as it relates to resident health outcomes, and offer a theoretical explanation of why regulations sometimes enhance mindfulness and other times inhibit it. We analyzed data from an in-depth, multiple-case study including field notes, interviews, and documents collected in eight nursing homes. We completed a conceptual/thematic description using the concept of mindfulness to reframe the observations. Shared facility mission strongly impacted …

What Do Conscientious People Do? Development And Validation Of The Behavioral Indicators Of Conscientiousness (Bic), Joshua J. Jackson, Dustin Wood, Tim Bogg, Kate E. Walton, Peter D. Harms, Brent W. Roberts

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Typical assessments of personality traits collapse behaviors, thoughts, and feelings into a single measure without distinguishing between these different manifestations. To address this lack of specification, the current study develops and validates a measure that assesses a number of broad behaviors associated with the personality trait of conscientiousness (the Behavioral Indicators of Conscientiousness; BIC). Findings suggest that the lower-order structure of conscientious behaviors is mostly similar to the lower-order structure in extant trait measures. Furthermore, a daily diary method was used to validate the BIC against frequency counts of conscientious behavior. Overall, the results identify specific behaviors that conscientious individuals …

Perceiver Effects As Projective Tests: What Your Perceptions Of Others Say About You, Dustin Wood, Peter D. Harms, Simine Vazire

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

In three studies, we document various properties of perceiver effects—or how an individual generally tends to describe other people in a population. First, we document that perceiver effects have consistent relationships with dispositional characteristics of the perceiver, ranging from self-reported personality traits and academic performance to well-being and measures of personality disorders, to how liked the person is by peers. Second, we document that the covariation in perceiver effects among trait dimensions can be adequately captured by a single factor consisting of how positively others are seen across a wide range of traits (e.g., how nice, interesting, trustworthy, happy, …

Relationship Between Positive Psychological Capital And Creative Performance, David S. Sweetman, Fred Luthans, James B. Avey, Brett C. Luthans

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Despite considerable attention to the creative process and its relationship with personal characteristics, there is no published study focused directly on the relationship between the recently recognized core construct of psychological capital (PsyCap) and creative performance. Drawing from a large (N = 899) and heterogeneous sample of working adults, this study investigates PsyCap and its components (i.e., efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) as predictors of creative performance. Overall PsyCap predicted creative performance over and above each of the four PsyCap components. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

Malgré la grande attention accordée à la démarche créatrice et …