Organization Development Commons^™

The Age Of Impact, Scott Fritzen

Asian Management Insights

Across Asia—and increasingly around the world—we are entering what can only be described as an age of impact. Organisations are no longer judged solely by what they produce, but by what changes as a result. Growth remains important, but it is no longer sufficient. Stakeholders—investors, policymakers, partners and the public—are asking a more demanding question: what difference does your work make, and how do you know?

Gen Z Employees’ Characteristics And Their Impacts On Work Motivation And Outcomes: A Comparative Study Of Private Firms And State-Owned Enterprises In China, Yanfang Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study examines the characteristics of Generation Z (Gen Z) employees and investigates how these traits influence work motivation and job-related outcomes within the Chinese organizational context. Specifically, the research compares employees working in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms, two dominant but structurally distinct organizational forms in China. Drawing upon self-determination theory, generational cohort theory, and organizational behavior literature, the study proposes a conceptual model in which Gen Z characteristics influence job outcomes both directly and indirectly through intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, with organizational type acting as a moderating variable. A quantitative, multi-source survey design was employed. Data were …

Accelerating Expertise In Professional Decision Making: The Effects Of A Simple Rules Training, Gavin Raj Maistry, Jochen Reb, Shenghua Luan, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Traditional approaches to professional decision making hold analytical expertise as superior to qualitative judgment. However, this view is increasingly challenged by work on heuristics as effective decision strategies under conditions of uncertainty. Building on this insight, we developed a script-based simple rules training program in the context of insurance underwriting. We then conducted a quasi-experimental intervention study with 220 participants of varying levels of experience. The study compared performance in the training condition with that in an active control condition on a work sample test given before and after the intervention. The results show that training in simple rules could …

Interpersonal Capacity For Trustworthiness: A Reflective Framework For Navigating Entrustment, Roberto Angelo Moreira Vale

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation advances understanding of how trust shapes salient cross-cultural encounters, drawing on a constructivist grounded theory analysis of 220 interview accounts. Across these narratives, trust-related dynamics consistently appeared alongside 16 other contextual, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors. Notably, these dynamics were identified in interviews with participants from all GLOBE cultural clusters, suggesting a degree of cross-cultural breadth that warrants further empirical testing. Together, these patterns indicate that it is not cultural difference alone that makes an encounter meaningful, but how individuals interpret and respond to the possibility or risk of entrusting and being entrusted. Salience emerged at moments when participants …

Design-Led Leadership: A Mixed Methods Study On Understanding How Design Thinking Capabilities Impact Leadership Effectiveness, Tareq Waleed Muhmood

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

“Widespread design thinking among organisation leaders is desirable for the creation of a humanly and sustainable future” (R. J. Boland et al., 2008a)

This study investigates the impact of design thinking capabilities on leadership effectiveness through a mixed-methods research design.

While design thinking is widely used in product and service innovation, its application as a leadership development framework remains underexplored.   To address this gap, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods, including pre- and post-intervention survey of leaders, their supervisors, and subordinates within an education business in Vietnam (EBV), as well as semi-structured interviews with senior leaders at a …

Is Doing-Good-Enough (Dge) Related To Quitting Or Thriving: Organizational Support Moderates The Link Between Dge And Employee Well-Being, Job Satisfaction And Job Crafting, Yun Zhuo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This research introduces the construct, Doing-Good-Enough (DGE), a work strategy in which employees consciously meet, but do not exceed, core job expectations. It is a satisficing approach aimed at prioritizing well-being and managing work demands. Three studies were conducted to build the DGE scale and examined its outcomes. Study 1 developed the new measurement scale of DGE by integrating its initial work definition with the existing Quiet Quitting (QQ) scales. Items composing the DGE scale were identified through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Study 2 validated the DGE scale as unidimensional via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and established its discriminant …

The Dual Impact Of Ict Use On Work Autonomy, Workload, Work Engagement, And Work-Family Conflict: Moderating Effects Of Perceived Organizational Support And Conscientiousness, Shenghui Han

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study investigates the dual impact of information and communication technology (ICT) use intensity on employee outcomes in the workplace, with a particular focus on work autonomy, workload, work engagement, and work–family conflict (WFC). Drawing upon the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and conservation of resources (COR) theory, I propose a dual-pathway framework in which ICT use intensity acts as both a job resource and a job demand. The study also examines the moderating roles of perceived organizational support (POS) and conscientiousness.

Data were collected from 414 full-time employees across six companies in China through a three-wave survey with two-week intervals …

Stress Reactivity And Sociocultural Learning: More Stress-Reactive Individuals Are Quicker At Learning Sociocultural Norms From Experiential Feedback, Shilpa Madan, Krishna Savani, Pranjal H. Mehta, Desiree Y. Phua, Ying-Yi Hong, Michael W. Morris

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

When interacting with others in unfamiliar sociocultural settings, people need to learn the norms guiding appropriate behavior. The present research investigates an individual difference that helps this kind of learning: stress reactivity. Interactions in an unfamiliar sociocultural setting are stressful, particularly when the actor fails to follow its rules. Although stress is typically considered a liability, more stress-reactive individuals may be more motivated to improve, and, thus, quicker to learn these rules. Consistent with this idea, a pilot study found that people genetically inclined to stress reactivity, as computed by a genetic profile score across 59 single nucleotide polymorphisms on …

Felt Obligation, Knowledge Sharing And Innovation Performance: The Role Of Team Performance Goal Orientation, Zenan Wen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In today’s dynamic work environment, individual innovation is vital for organizational success. While knowledge sharing is a recognized driver of innovation, less is known about the internal motivational forces that compel employees to share knowledge. Drawing on the role identity theory, this research examines how felt obligation—a normative motivation, whereby individuals, based on their perceived role identities, believe they should care about organizational goals and contribute to them—encourages knowledge sharing and subsequently enhances innovation performance. Furthermore, I theorize that this relationship is strengthened in teams with higher performance goal orientation (TPGO), where norms and expectations regarding performance excellence amplify the …

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 Impact Of Ai Usage On Employee Work Outcomes: The Mediating Roles Of Personal Control And Job Insecurity And The Moderating Role Of Ai Trust, Tiantian Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the workplace offers significant potential for process optimization andperformance improvement. However, the psychological mechanisms throughwhich AI usage affects employee outcomes remain underexplored. To address this gap, the present study investigated a sample of 170 employees froma media company in China, utilizing a three-wave longitudinal survey design. Specifically, this study examined how AI usage influenced employee creativity and task performance improvement through two mediatingmechanisms: the enhancement of personal control in problem-solving and the elicitation of job insecurity. Furthermore, the moderating role of trust in AI inthe relationship between AI usage and job …

Wingspan: Taking Digital Learning To New Heights, Adam Tatarynowicz, Wee-Kiat Lim, Mahima Rao-Kachroo

Asian Management Insights

How an internal learning platform became a market success. Launched in April 2018, the learning experience platform (LXP) Wingspan was the brainchild of Infosys Co-Founder and Chairman Nandan Nilekani. He had observed that several critical trends were reshaping the world economy. For instance, digital natives were increasingly expecting the learning environment at their workplace to be available 24/7. The late 2000s were also a time when Infosys’ corporate clients had just started on their digital transformation journey. Hence, capturing talent and market share was a strategic priority for the company. In contrast, the learning delivery landscape at Infosys then was …

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 …

Technology As The Sovereign: A Dual-Path Model Of Managers’ Prioritization Of Technical Tasks, Hesheng Huang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Competitive pressures challenge managers to navigate a multitude of responsibilities. On the basis of Vancouver and colleagues’ (Vancouver et al., 2010; Ballard et al., 2016) multiple-task pursuit framework, Sherf, Venkataramani, and Gejendran (2019) theorized that when faced with competition between technical tasks (e.g., getting things done, meeting assigned goals, promoting quality or accuracy of work, satisfying customer demands, and fulfilling technical responsibilities) and justice tasks (e.g., evaluating employees’ performance, recognizing employees’ achievements, and allocating rewards), managers tend to prioritize technical tasks over justice tasks under high workload demands. On this basis, I aim to examine a model that encompasses the …

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 …

Team Development Through Leader Mindfulness And Authentic Leadership: Leader Mindfulness As An Antecedent To Authentic Leadership And Its Relationship With Team Development As Seen In Actual Turnover, Turnover Intention, Performance, Internal Mobility, And Promotions, Stefan Juerg Wermelinger

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The following research examines leader mindfulness as an antecedent to authentic leadership and its relationship with team development seen in actual turnover, turnover intention, performance, internal mobility, and promotions. The study has a significant advantage as team leaders and team members could be surveyed in a real company, and data from the human resource department could be linked to reconstruct the team settings. In addition, insights into internal mobility, actual turnover, and promotions could be calculated.

The study uses a theoretical framework that builds on leader mindfulness as an antecedent of authentic leadership and authentic leadership as a root concept …

A Regulatory Focus Theory Perspective On The Dynamics Between Action And Power, Shereen Fatimah, Hun Whee Lee, Lance D.. Ferris, Henry R. Young

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Building on the strong consensus that the experience of power motivates individuals to take action, prior research postulates a positively reinforcing cycle wherein taking action leads to power, which in turn leads to subsequent actions. Applying regulatory focus theory, we differentiate between promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented actions to develop a within-person theory of when and why promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented actions should relate to power, and vice-versa. Across two studies, we find that when employees engaged in promotive voice behaviors, they were more likely to experience a sense of power; this effect was amplified for employees with trait promotion focus. When employees …

My Manager Endorsed My Coworkers’ Voice: Understanding Observers’ Positive And Negative Reactions To Managerial Endorsement Of Coworker Voice., Emily Poulton, Szu-Han Joanna Lin, Shereen Fatimah, Cony Ho, Lance Ferris, Russell Johnson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research on managerial voice endorsement has primarily focused on the processes and conditions through which voicers receive their managers’ endorsement. We shift this focus away from the voicers, focusing instead on the dual reactions that endorsement generates for observing employees. Drawing from an approach-avoidance framework, we propose that managerial endorsement of coworker voice could be perceived as a positive and negative stimulus for observers, prompting them to approach opportunities and avoid threats, respectively. Results from a pre-registered experiment and a multi-wave, multi-source field study revealed that managerial endorsement of coworker voice was positively related to observers’ voice instrumentality, thus prompting …

Leader-Expressed Humility: Development And Validation Of Scales Based On A Comprehensive Conceptualization, Kraivin Chintakananda, James M. Diefendorff, Burak Oc, Michael A. Daniels, Gary J. Greguras, Michael R. Bashshur

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We introduce new leader humility scales capturing a theoretically rich conceptualization of leader-expressed humility aligned with traditional and ethically-grounded philosophies. These scales draw from recent inductive research (Oc et al., 2015) identifying nine dimensions of leader-expressed humility: (1) having an accurate view of self, (2) recognizing follower strengths and achievements, (3) modeling teachability and being correctable, (4) leading by example, (5) showing modesty, (6) working together for the collective good, (7) empathy and approachability, (8) showing mutual respect and fairness, and (9) mentoring and coaching. The first three dimensions overlap with the most prominent conceptualization of leader-expressed humility in the …

Bridging The Chasm Between Intentions And Behaviors: Developing And Testing A Construal Level Theory Of Internalwhistle-Blowing, Abhijeet K. Vadera, Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Kristina A. Diekmann

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The recent wave of corporate scandals has necessitated a more systematic investigation of internal whistle-blowing as a potential way to prevent wrongdoing. Our understanding of whistle-blowing, however, has been hampered by a deep chasm that exists between employees’ intent to blow the whistle and their whistle-blowing behaviors. We argue that to fully bridge this gap, we need to consider employees’ cognitive states at the time of whistle-blowing intentions versus behaviors and to link these cognitive states to the ethical systems within the organization’s ethical infrastructure to understand which systems are more effective in cultivating whistle-blowing intentions and which systems help …

Social Distance In Workplace Relationships And Its Impact On Employee Well-Being, Jha Nilotpal

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In modern collaborative work environments, interactions with colleagues span a spectrum from close relationships to those perceived as socially distant. While close relationships are traditionally emphasized for their benefits on well-being, distant ties often go overlooked despite their prevalence and ease of maintenance. Building on construal-level theory, I first propose a theory of relational construing, emphasizing how the perceived psychological distance with colleagues influences mental representations and shifts in these representations, termed mindful construing. Leveraging the full spectrum of workplace relationships, from close to distant, can enhance well-being by alleviating the burdens of maintaining solely close connections. I then use …

How Does The Captain Guide The Brightest Stars? The Effect Of Leadership Styles On Star's Work Performance, Jen-Tsung Chen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study aims to investigate the effect of leadership styles on the work performance of star talents. As star talents play more and more critical roles in the sustainable development of enterprise, how to effectively manage star talents’ sustaining growth becomes a crucial issue for organizations. The questionnaire survey is conducted to explore how different leadership styles influence the work performance of star talents. How leader-member exchange mediates the relationship between leadership styles and star talents’ work performance, and how star talents’ annual income moderates the relationship between leadership and star talents’ work performance. A total number of qualified 149 …

Smart Heuristics For Smart Management, Jochen Reb, Shenghua Luan, Gerd Gigerenzer

Asian Management Insights

How leaders can make effective decisions in a VUCA world.

Pay Suppression In Social Impact Contexts: How Framing Work Around The Greater Good Inhibits Job Candidate Compensation Demands, Insiya Hussain, Marko Pitesa, Stefan Thau, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Past research suggests that when organizations communicate the benefits of their work for human welfare—that is, use a social impact framing for work—job candidates are willing to accept lower wages because they expect the work to be personally meaningful. We argue that this explanation overlooks a less socially desirable mechanism by which social impact framing leads to lower compensation demands: the perception among job candidates that requesting higher pay will breach organizational expectations to value work for its intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) rewards, or constitute a motivational norm violation. We find evidence for our theory across five studies: a qualitative …

Envy Influences Interpersonal Dynamics And Team Performance: Roles Of Gender Congruence And Collective Team Identification, Kenneth Tai, Sejin Keem, Ki Young Lee, Eugene Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Our research extends past envy research by considering how envy and gender congruence shape interpersonal dynamics at the dyadic level and their bottom-up effects for team performance. Integrating social comparison theory and social identity theory, we examine when and how dyadic level envy influences team performance. Using time-lagged data from 428 dyads of 161 employees in 51 teams, our results show that envious employees are likely to engage in interpersonal deviance directed toward envied team members and that envied employees are likely to seek advice from envious team members. Gender congruence further influences these relationships, with different patterns for males …

The Effects Of Leader Member Exchange Differentiation On Task Performance And Organizational Citizenship Behaviors, Junhui Gan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This study delves into the intricate dynamics of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) within working teams, with a specific focus on Leader-Member Exchange Differentiation (LMXD) and its subsequent impact on task performance and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB). Utilizing a comprehensive, multisource dataset comprising 394 employees across 120 store teams in three furnishing shopping malls in Zhejiang Province, China, this research employs a two-wave data collection methodology to examine the proposed theoretical model.

Contrary to prevailing assumptions in the LMX literature, this study reveals that LMXD does not significantly influence anticipated team conflict, nor does it exert indirect effects on task performance and …

Mentor Holding Behaviours: The Role Of Supervisors And Effects On Protégés, Menzhong Gao

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The concept of holding behaviours has emerged as a response to the paradox that arises when employees require support but organisations face challenges in providing it. In today’s workplaces, job demands and organisational uncertainty have escalated, rendering traditional, hierarchical support systems inadequate to alleviate anxiety. Holding environments offer a temporary safe space for employees to express emotions and cope with uncertainty and insecurity.

Despite the importance of holding behaviours in addressing self-reliance and support dilemmas, limited research has been conducted on their antecedents, consequences, mechanisms, and boundary conditions. To fill this gap, this study proposes a trickle-down model that integrates …

A Study On The Effect Of Confucian Culture On The Work Enthusiasm Of Enterprise Employees, Mei Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Confucianism represents the core of Chinese philosophical ideologies and values, often regarded as the “root” and “source” of Chinese culture. Its influence extends beyond the realm of culture, imparting enduring impacts on the ethical and behavioral norms of Chinese individuals and organizations (Ip, 2009). Xue and Liu (2009) remarked, “It may seem as though the shadow of traditional Confucian culture has faded from view, but regardless of whether one acknowledges it or not, it remains deeply ingrained in the heart of every Chinese individual, serving as the foundation of the Chinese nation.” As a rising economic power, China’s market mechanisms …

The Impact Of Working From Home On Employee Creativity: A Cross Cultural Comparison Of Germany And China, Andrew Heng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The rise of work-from-home (WFH) arrangements has brought significant changes to how employees work and interact with each other. This dissertation aims to examines the potential impact of WFH arrangements on employee creativity and investigates whether this impact varies across high-context and low-context cultures, with a particular focus on how demographic characteristics such as gender, age, and education may affect this relationship. The study is conducted within a top 10 global automotive supplier with associates in China (high-context culture) and Germany (low-context culture). As individual creativity often arises from collaboration and interaction with others, I hypothesised that as WFH frequency …

The Influence Of Transformational Leadership On Team Performance And Team Creativity: A Team-Level Resilient Proactive Model, Youwei Zhu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The current Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) era is characterized by a number of factors, including globalization, technological advancements, geopolitical instability, and shifting consumer demands. These factors have combined to create an environment in which businesses and organizations must be highly adaptable and agile to survive and thrive.

To succeed in the current VUCA era, organizations must have the ability to anticipate and respond to change quickly while also being able to adapt to new technologies and business models. This task requires a strong focus on innovation, agility, and collaboration as well as a willingness to take calculated risks …