Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Toward Whole-Person Fit Assessment: Integrating Interests, Values, Skills, Knowledge, And Personality Using The Occupational Information Network (O*Net), Zihan Liu, Kevin A. Hoff, Chu Chu, Frederick L. Oswald, James Rounds

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Measuring person–occupation fit serves many important purposes, from helping young people explore majors and careers to helping jobseekers assess fit with available jobs. However, most existing fit measures are limited in that they focus on single individual difference domains without considering how fit may differ across multiple domains. For example, a jobseeker might be highly interested in a job, yet not possess the requisite skills or knowledge to perform the job well. The current research addresses this issue by evaluating an integrative set of person–occupation fit assessments that measure 88 fit dimensions across five domains: vocational interests, work values, knowledge, …

The Effects Of Financial Vulnerability On The Prosocial Behavior Of Medical Staff At Pet Hospitals, Guoxing Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has fundamentally disrupted business operations, causing widespread financial strain and uncertainty for employees, and research shows that financial vulnerability – the sense of insecurity regarding one’s economic resources – has reached unprecedented levels among workers. But while conventional wisdom might suggest that financial stress leads to decreased work performance, a critical gap exists in understanding how financial vulnerability influences employee behavior in service-oriented environments.

Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between financial vulnerability and employee behavior within the context of pet hospitals in China, examining how organizational factors moderate this relationship. Data were collected …

Culture And Sustainability: Understanding The Roles Of Values, Norms, And Cultural Tightness In Sustainable Consumption Behaviour, Sook Sum Au

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The past decade has seen an increased interest in environmental sustainability. Yet, few studies have examined the relationship between culture, sustainable consumption intention (SCI), and sustainable consumption behaviour (SCB). This study addresses this gap by examining the roles of values, norms and CTL in an integrative model to predict SCI and SCB. This study focuses on four types of values that are considered most relevant in environmental research (biospheric, altruistic, egoistic, and hedonic). Drawing on data from a sample across the 10 most culturally "tight" and 10 most culturally "loose" states in the US, this study applied multilevel modelling to …

Impact Of Supervisor Support And Organisational Support On Individual Employee Engagement In Environmental Organisational Citizenship Tasks, Yuen Mei Susan Chong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With the rising importance of sustainability in the light of climate change challenges and the rising voices of society, government and investors (UNEP, 2024a, 2024b) as well as the recent report that 2024 was the warmest year on record (Bardan, 2025), organisational sustainability is growing in importance and can be achieved when the organisation is able to contribute to sustainable development by achieving the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and social/human performance simultaneously i.e. profit, planet and people (Boyer et al., 2016; Hart & Milstein, 2003a; Kim et al., 2016a; Spreitzer et al., 2012). The triple bottom line with …

The Secret Ingredients Of Strategy Implementation, Robin Speculand

Asian Management Insights

Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things. Leaders need to develop the same discipline, passion, and tenacity for implementing strategy that they had when crafting it. There are seven key principles that can guide an organisation to succeed in strategy implementation. Implementation is about taking the right actions, so leaders need to support and guide employees to work differently.

Research On Motivations For Corporate Voluntary Environmental Transformation: An Analysis Based On Wwf, Lunyan Lu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study investigates the multidimensional motivations driving corporate voluntary environmental transformation and its subsequent impacts, with a focus on political contexts, industry characteristics, and leadership traits. Situated within the framework of additional transformation requirements proposed by environmental non-profit organizations (e.g., WWF), the research examines how environmental transformation serves as a strategic vehicle for corporations to demonstrate social responsibility practices and enhance market competitiveness through philanthropic engagements. By integrating theoretical construction and empirical analysis, this study advances the explanatory frameworks of corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory, stakeholder theory, and resource dependence theory.

This research first identifies intrinsic motivations for corporations to …

The Impact Of Marriage Status On Career Aspiration And Performance, Qiang Yi

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study explores the impact of marital status on employee workplace behavior and job performance. Specifically, it finds that compared to unmarried employees, married employees demonstrate higher career aspirations and job performance. Further analysis reveals that this effect is primarily driven by the enhancement of family and career commitments brought about by marriage. These increased commitments significantly contribute to the improvement of employees' career aspirations and job performance. Moreover, this study examines the gender differences in the influence of marital status on family and career commitments.

The results show that marriage has a stronger effect on promoting family commitments among …

Every Voice Has Its Bright And Dark Sides: Understanding Observers’ Reactions To Coworkers’ Voice Behaviors, Szu-Han Lin, Shereen Fatimah, Emily C. Poulton, Cony M. Ho, D. Lance Ferris, Russell E. Johnson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The majority of research on voice has focused on how employee voice influences voicers and targets of voice (e.g. supervisors and organizations). We advance theory on voice by examining how third-party observers react to expressions of voice behavior by coworkers. Drawing from affective events theory (AET), we examine the potential benefits and detriments of coworker voice behaviours. Results from an experience sampling study and an experiment revealed that coworker voice was associated with an increase in third-party observers' inspiration, prompting third-party observers to engage in their own voice behaviours. Although coworker voice did not have a significant main effect on …

Well-Being Of Formal Leaders: A Critical And Interdisciplinary Review Of Predictors Shaping Leader Well-Being, Burak Oc, Kraivin Paripont Chintakananda

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Holding a formal leadership role is often idealized, motivating individuals to pursue such positions for independence and success. However, recent reports highlight significant challenges faced by leaders, particularly during as well as after the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased work demands and reduced well-being. This review takes a critical stance and examines whether formal leaders bear a well-being cost. Using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems framework, we categorize predictors of leader well-being, discuss dominant theoretical frameworks explaining the most frequently studied relationships, and identify theoretical gaps in the existing literature. Following this, we identify internal validity issues affecting the interpretation of existing …

Attention To Market Expansion: Aspirational Antecedent And Risk-Taking Consequence, Renfei Gao, Man Zhang, Xiaogang He, Zhengyu Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF) emphasizes the goal-directed logic in explaining firms’ risk-taking.Scholars in this tradition typically conceptualize how performance feedback indicates problems and triggers risk-taking behaviors. Yet, the theory remains underdeveloped in understanding decision-makers’ attention to forward-looking goals, such as market expansion, and its impact on firm risk-taking. In this study, we theorize performance feedback as an antecedent to decision-makers’ attention to forward-looking goals, and firm risktaking as a consequence of such attention. Focusing on market expansion as a critical forward-looking goal, we first theorize how performance feedback influences decision-makers’ attention to market expansion. Then, we examine …

From Low Power To Action: Reappraising Powerlessness As An Opportunity Restores Agency, Tianyu He, Michael Schaerer, Trevor A. Foulk, Elizabeth B. Wolf, Winnie Y. Jiang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Agentic behaviors are a critical pathway to power in contemporary organizations. Paradoxically, employees who lack power are the least likely to think and act agentically—creating a self-perpetuating cycle of disadvantage. Existing research on facilitating employee agentic behaviors relies on structural solutions that are often out of reach for individual employees. Yet, anecdotal evidence suggests that this view may be incomplete, as some individuals seem to be able to overcome the challenges powerlessness poses without relying on external resources, control, or organizational change. Integrating research on powerlessness and cognitive reappraisal, the present research proposes that cognitively reappraising powerless situations as opportunities …

Does Felt Obligation Or Gratitude Better Explain The Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support And Outcomes?, Robert Eisenberger, Xueqi Wen, Dianhan Zheng, Jia Yu, Zihan Liu, Jing Zhang, Lei Wang, Tae-Yeol Kim, Sara Krivacek, Thomas J. Zagenczyk, Min-Kyu Joo, Salar Mesdaghinia, Deog-Ro Lee, Tae-Hyun Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The employee-organization relationship (EOR) is a key component of organizational behavior. Researchers have consistently shown that employees who perceive that they are supported by their organizations (favorable EORs) tend to have positive attitudes and behave in a manner that helps the organization to reach its goals. For many years, the reciprocity norm (e.g. felt obligation) has been a widely accepted explanation for the EOR. Yet, despite calls to explore additional pathways, little work has examined other mediating mechanisms between favorable EORs and outcomes. We draw on the affect theory of social exchange to argue for the mediating effects of gratitude, …

Exploring The Dynamics Of Volitional Personality Change: A Psychoeducational Intervention Study With Young Adults Transitioning To The Workforce, Erica Baranski, Ramona L. Martinez, Zihan Liu, Kevin Hoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

College graduates transitioning to the workforce completed a 13-week, light, psychoeducation intervention designed to increase volitional personality change motivation via weekly email newsletters. Contrary to expectations, the intervention did not significantly enhance overall change motivation or consistently inspire desired trait change goals following the study period or after 6 or 10 months. However, participants in the intervention group did report increased desire to change emotional stability at specific points during the study. These findings underscore the limitations of this particular psychoeducational intervention approach and help to fill in the boundary conditions of when and how personality change is possible. Additionally, …

It's Just A Game! Effects Of Fantasy In A Storified Test On Applicant Reactions, Marie L. Ohlms, Klaus G. Melchers, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There is increasing attention to storification of assessments (i.e., embedding a storyline into a non-storified assessment) in research and practice and to gamified and game-based assessment in general. However, there is a surprising lack of agreement and of recommendations regarding what level of fantasy of the storyline one should choose for the storification from the perspective of applicant reactions. A distinction is typically made between fantasy (e.g., fighting aliens) and realistic (e.g., workday simulations) storylines, with both choices having their advantages and disadvantages. In this study, a sample of 195 participants was shown either a storified realistic test, a storified …

A Head-To-Head Comparison Of Situational Judgment Tests And Assessment Centers For Measuring And Predicting The Same Performance Dimensions, Iman Shakeri, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

To date, a limited set of studies have compared the criterion-related validity of low-fidelity (SJT) versus high-fidelity (AC) simulations for predicting job performance. Unfortunately, these studies validated these simulations through the overall assessment rating (OAR) instead of on the basis of specific dimensions. Given SJTs and ACs were compared that measured different dimensions, our understanding of the relative and comparative validity of these assessment approaches in measuring the same set of dimensions is still limited. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a head-to-head comparison of the criterion-related validity of the AC and the SJT (and their incremental validity) while keeping …

Retirement And Organizations: Advocating Organizational Responsibility For Retirement In Practice And Scholarship, Valerie Caines, Gokhan Ertug, Prashant Bordia, Deidra J. Schleicher

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this editorial we discuss organizations’ role in the process of retirement. We argue that organizations have abdicated their moral obligation to older workers, thereby negatively impacting older workers’ wellbeing and their successful transition to retirement. We also note that organizational studies scholars have not paid adequate attention to that negligence, or its alternatives. We suggest that, among other reasons, this oversight can be a result of the comparatively privileged socioeconomic positions of faculty in business schools vis-à-vis older workers in many other occupations, as well as to a discord between traditional human capital and human resource management theories and …

Coevolution Of Soes And The Chinese Economy: The Roles Of Soe Heterogeneity From The Institutional, Strategic, And Organizational Perspectives, Kenneth G. Huang, Runtian Jing, Jun Xia, Man Zhang, Weiguo Zhong, David Zhu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China play a critical role in national economic development and the country's positioning on the global stage. Chinese SOEs have undergone substantial transformations from traditional government-run entities to a variety of corporate forms exhibiting different levels of state involvement. Despite their substantial influence, the internal diversity of SOEs – from wholly state-owned to mixed-ownership – has not been thoroughly examined. This paper provides an overview of SOEs' critical roles in the Chinese economy, the relationship between SOEs and privately owned enterprises (POEs), and the challenges of SOEs in different stages of Chinese economic development. It then …

When Leaders Self-Sacrifice In Times Of Crisis: The Roles Of Employee Emotional Suppression And Leader Coping Strategies, Xingyu Wang, Xueqi Wen, Zihan Liu, Yixing Lisa Gao, Juan M. Madera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While literature articulates the relevance of self-sacrificial leadership to crisis situations, little attention has been paid to employees’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to self-sacrificial leadership. This is a particularly salient gap in the scholarship, given the decisions leaders must make to address challenges in the hospitality industry (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this pair of field and experimental studies examines how individual differences in employee emotional suppression and leader coping strategy moderate the impacts of self-sacrificial leadership on employee perceptions of leader effectiveness. By sampling U.S. hospitality employees, the studies reveal that leaders who display …

Impact Of Team Power Disparity On Team Performance: The Role Of Team Power Legitimacy, Teamwork, And Team Power Distance, Yong Ren

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study explores the mechanism by which team power disparity affects team efficacy, specifically analyzing the impact of team power disparity on team performance through a sequential mediating mechanism, which consists of team members’ perceptions of power legitimacy first and then team cooperation. Moreover, this study examined the boundary moderating role of team power distance in the impacts of team power disparity on team power legitimacy, as well as its subsequent impact on team cooperation and team performance. Through analyzing multi-timepoint data collected from 76 teams, the study found that team power disparity negatively affected team power legitimacy, thereby reducing …

The Effect Of Human Resource Business Partners' Power On Business Managers' Work Outcomes: The Mediating Role Of Voice, Wei Liu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As a fundamental construct in social sciences, power is defined as an ability to influence others’ behavior to pursue one’s own interests, which affects the work outcomes of individuals within the organizations. The main purpose of Human Resource Business Partners (HRBPs) is to cooperate with business managers to achieve work outcomes, but in practice, HRBPs are often positioned differently in different organizations due to the lack of a precise definition of HRBPs, so their support to business managers is different. In-depth research on the power and influence of HRBPs can provide theoretical guidance for enhancing the internal work outcomes within …

How Deep-Level And Surface-Level Board Diversity, Formal And Informal Social Structures Affect Innovation, Guoli Chen, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Yen Teik Lee, Daniel Z. Mack

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite a growing interest in understanding how board diversity shapes firms’ innovation, findings about the impact of board diversity have remained mixed. In this paper, we conceptualize board diversity as two forms – deep-level and surface-level – and find that these two forms of board diversity have opposing effects on a firm's innovation. We also theorize how formal and informal social structures can strengthen the positive effect of deep-level diversity yet simultaneously weaken the negative impact of surface-level diversity. We test our hypotheses with a panel of 42,432 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2019. Our paper contributes to the literature …

A Power Dependence Model Of The Impact Of Leader Impostorism On Supervisor Support And Undermining: The Moderating Role Of Power Distance, Xueqi Wen, Zihan Liu, Feng Qiu, Keith Leavitt, Xingyu Wang, Ziyang Tang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Leaders, often perceived as possessing exceptional confidence and competence, are not immune to feelings of self-doubt. Leader impostorism describes the experience that one’s attributes, experiences, skills, and abilities fall short of the standards expected in the leadership role, resulting in a sense of deception in fulfilling leadership responsibilities. While existing research has examined the antecedents and individual outcomes of leader impostorism, its implications for leaders’ treatment of subordinates remain largely unexplored. In this research, we investigate the downstream consequences of leader impostorism on behaviors directed toward subordinates. Integrating research on leader impostorism with power dependence theory, we propose that for …

Seeking New Ground For Managing: An Introduction To The Special Issue On “Awakening To Ourselves, One Another, And The Earth: Awareness Practices And Systems Change”, Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, Lemuel W. Watson, Jochen Reb

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We have created this special issue of the Humanistic Management Journal to explore how the interdependence of humans with one another and the Earth is supported by awareness-based systems change. Together, over a period of many months, we as an editorial team developed the focus and description of what we sought to bring together. The combined research, projects, and practices discussed here respect both science and spiritual traditions as sources of knowledge. The articles are intended to contribute to dialogue and actions that yield meaningful participation of all peoples and help readers see new possibilities for a healthy Earth. We …

Path Nets: Concurrence And Recurrence In The Dynamics Of Organizing, Brian T. Pentland, Waldemar Kremser, Kenneth T. Goh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article proposes a link between temporal structuring and the dynamics of organizing that is manifest in a fabric of concurrent paths that we call a path net. Path nets are shaped by mechanisms of temporal structuring, such as entrainment, planning, agency, and chance. Path nets materialize the effects of temporal structuring “here” and “now” in the comings and goings of actors and resources, thereby setting the stage for doings and sayings of situated practice and shaping the dynamics of organizing. Path nets offer a parsimonious system of picturing the complexity of organizing that is built on a processual ontology …

Case Study: Should A Chro Abandon Performance Improvement Plans?, Devasheesh P. Bhave, Sin Mei Cheah

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

At Barton Creek Technologies, Anna Chen, the chief human resources officer, faces a dilemma over the company’s performance improvement plan (PIP). Introduced as a supportive tool to rehabilitate struggling employees, the PIP has widely become perceived as a punitive mechanism. An internal audit revealed that only 15% of employees placed on PIPs complete them, while 60% are terminated and 25% go on stress-­related medical leave, often not returning. Managers admit they lack the training to implement PIPs effectively, and employees describe the plans as stigmatizing and demoralizing. Chen is torn between reforming the program into a mentorship-based system—requiring significant investment …

Fomo And The Ico: The Changing Salience Of Quality Signals, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Sandzhar Tazhibaev, Johannes Gartner

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The manuscript investigates whether the individual personality trait, Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)—typically considered negative—influences the willingness of individuals to contribute to Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a phenomenon that emerged after the blockchain revolution. We conducted both qualitative and quantitative work in this space and present the results of an international survey, including a conjoint experiment. Theoretically, we anchor our study in signaling theory and propose that signal valence (the positive or negative interpretation of a signal) can diverge from signal intent. Specifically, we find that candidate ICO funders with strong FOMO behave predictably irrationally. They are more likely to …

An Integrative, Systematic Review Of The Situational Judgment Test Literature, Sven Kepes, Sheila K. Keener, Filip Lievens, Michael A. Mcdaniel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are popular assessment approaches that present scenarios describing situations that one may experience in a job. Due to its long history and cross-disciplinary nature, today’s SJT literature is quite fragmented. In this integrative review, we start by systematically taking stock and synthesizing the SJT literature from the different scientific disciplines via bibliometric techniques on 524 unique documents. We identify six literature clusters (i.e., SJTs in the medical sciences, SJTs in personnel selection, methodological issues and SJTs for specific constructs, SJTs to assess emotional intelligence and related constructs, technological advances in SJTs, SJTs for teacher assessment and …

Short-Term Personality Development And Early Career Success: Two Longitudinal Studies During The Post-Graduation Transition, Mary-Louise Hotze, Zihan Liu, Chu Chu, Erica Baranski, Kevin A. Hoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Objective: Investigate short-term personality development during the post-graduation transition. Background: Prior research indicates that long-term personality development matters for employment outcomes. However, this evidence is primarily limited to multi-year longitudinal studies. This research switches the focus to personality changes during a shorter, impactful life transition. Method: We examined how short-term personality development during the 14-month post-graduation transition relates to early career outcomes among two diverse samples of graduates from universities (N = 816) and community colleges (N = 567). We used latent growth curve models to examine associations between career outcomes measured 14 months after graduation with initial personality levels …

Trust Building Across And Within Cultures: A Study Of Guinea, West Africa, And China, Hwee Hoon Tan, Xiushun Sun, Yue Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Adopting a cross-cultural perspective, this study provides insights into how Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) with a focus on Confucian values, builds trust and contributes to the globalization process in African settings, specifically Guinea. Using a mixed-methods methodology, we explore the dynamics of trust relationships within and across cultures. In Study 1, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 Chinese supervisors, 20 Guinean supervisors and 19 Guinean workers. We found Chinese expatriates to emphasize ability and integrity in trust building while Guinean workers care more about benevolence. Drawing on the insights of study 1, we proposed a model of interpersonal trust within …

Smart Heuristics In Business Relationships: Toward A Typology, Jochen Reb, Nilotpal Jha

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of heuristics in business relationships. We distinguish between four categories: (1) general heuristics used in the context of a business relationship but that may also (and are often) used in other contexts; (2) relational context heuristics that are typically used in a relational context; (3) relational information heuristics that rely on relational information and (4) genuine relational heuristics that use relational information and are applied in relational contexts. Design/methodology/approach – We draw on existing literature on heuristics and business relationships to inform our conceptual paper. Findings – We …