Value Congruence Awareness: Part 2. DNA Testing Sheds Light on Functionalism

Part 1 of this exploratory study demonstrated that for terminal, instrumental, and work values, supervisors could only accurately assess the extent to which their terminal values are congruent with their employees, whereas, employees could only accurately describe degrees of alignment with their supervisors' work values. Thus, supervisors appear to possess conscious awareness of the terminal values held by their employees and employees similarly possess conscious awareness of their supervisors' work values. Part 2 of the study examined what each of these two parties might do with their conscious knowledge concerning value congruence with the other member. Supervisor ratings and employee self-ratings concerning employee job performance, citizenship, climate fit, working relationship (LMX), and other issues, were correlated with supervisor terminal value congruence estimates and employee work value congruence estimates respectively. For supervisors, only one significant finding was noted, indicating a positive relationship between the supervisors' awareness of terminal value congruence with the employee and the supervisors' estimate of the employee's potential for future promotion. For employees, seven hypotheses received support demonstrating relationships between the employees' 0awareness of supervisor/employee work value congruence and self-ratings of work behaviours, citizenship behaviours, volunteerism behaviours, work climate behaviours, work climate attitudes, work climate organizational-wide attitudes, and the supervisor/employee working relationship. Implications for management and future research are discussed.     

Models of Congruence of Personal and Organizational Values: How Many Points of Contact are There Between Science and Practice?

The paper aims to analyse the structure of the formed models of congruence of personal and organizational values, opportunities of their application in order to conceptualize the guidelines for the formation of an integrated model. The models for analysis were selected from the articles published in international databases with the keywords associated with value congruence models and grouped by the types of models: models that represent the origin of the phenomenon of value congruence and methodology of evaluation, and models, which depict the impact of value congruence on the employee and activities of the organization. The main result of this research is a complex analysis of all models of congruence of personal and organizational values presented in the scientific literature, in the aspect of their structure, content and practical application. It was found that the essential elements of the models analysed are personal values, organizational values, congruence of personal and organizational values and the influence of congruence on the person and the organization. However, the models lack not only the scientific substantiation of the influence of the phenomenon of value congruence on the person and the organization, but also practical recommendations on how to achieve strong value congruence in the organization. This article exclusively presents the analysis of models developed by different scientists, but the obtained results of empirical studies are not compared statistically, applying certain models in practice. Such criteria as the sample size, the nature of activities of the organizations were not analysed and the states, in which the studies were carried out with the application of the analysed models, are not emphasized. This study also does not aim to determine the most appropriate diagnostic instrument for evaluation of value congruence, leaving the open way for the further discussions. The originality of this research is presupposed by the fact that it presents most of the models described in the scientific literature that evaluate the congruence of personal values of employees and the values prevailing in the organization. This will help the researchers of value congruence form a clear view about the models published in scientific literature, not to be disorientated in the diversity of the presented models and look for new directions for improvement of models of value congruence. A newly developed complex model of value congruence also offered to executives of organizations will help perceive the process of formation of this phenomenon and its benefits, and understand how to manage this phenomenon in practice.     

Sectoral Differences in Value Congruence and Job Attitudes: The Case of Nursing Home Employees

Drawing on a survey of nursing staff of nursing homes in a Midwestern state in the United States, the study examines how the relationships between employee–organization value congruence and job attitudes vary between nonprofit and for-profit organizational types. Statistical comparison of the levels of employee value congruence and job attitudes does not suggest significant difference between the two types of employees. Although value congruence is found positively associated with nursing home employees’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and negatively associated with intent to quit, consistent with prior research, the difference in the magnitude of the relationships between the two types of employees is not found. These findings suggest inconsistency with conventional wisdom of profiling employee value according to organizational ownership type.     

Unpacking the Goal Congruence–Organizational Deviance Relationship: The Roles of Work Engagement and Emotional Intelligence

Drawing from research on person–organization fit, work engagement, and emotional intelligence, this study investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the link between goal congruence and organizational deviance, as well as how this mediating effect might be moderated by emotional intelligence. Data captured from 272 employees of four IT companies show that the goal congruence between employees and their supervisor negatively affects the former’s organizational deviance, though this effect disappears when controlling for the intermediate role of work engagement. Further, emotional intelligence moderates both the positive relationship between goal congruence and work engagement and the negative relationship between work engagement and organizational deviance, such that these relationships become invigorated at higher levels of emotional intelligence. The findings also reveal that the indirect effect of goal congruence on organizational deviance through work engagement is more pronounced at higher levels of emotional intelligence, which offers evidence of moderated mediation. These findings have significant implications for research and practice.     

Influence of Personal Values and Value Congruence on Unethical Practices and Work Behavior

The study examines whether (a) personal and organizational values differ in private and public sectors, and (b) personal values and value congruence – the extent of matching between personal and organizational values – influence unethical practices and work behavior. Three hundred and forty middle-level managers from four manufacturing organizations rated 22 values as guiding principles to them to identify their personal values. In order to index organizational values, 56 top-level managers of the same organizations rated how important such values were to the organization. Results revealed that the important shared values among managers of private and public sectors are product quality and customer service. Congruence between personal and organizational values is found to be higher in the private sector compared to the public sector. Middle-level managers in the private sector shared the organizational values more than the managers in the public sector. Irrespective of the type of organizations and age of managers, personal values more potently and consistently decreased unethical practices and increased work behavior compared to value congruence. Hiring managers emphasizing personal values can demote unethical practices and promote work behavior.     

The influence of task characteristics and job-related characteristics on retail salesperson selling orientation

This study examines the influence of task characteristics and job-related characteristics on the level of customer orientation exhibited by retail salespeople. The task characteristics examined are task variety, task autonomy, task identity and feedback. The job-related characteristics included in the study are job satisfaction, work motivation, organizational commitment, job involvement, role conflict, and supervisor–employee relationship. A survey using a self-administered close-ended questionnaire was conducted on retail salespeople from five major retailers in Singapore. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that the above factors, with the exception of role conflict, have significant influence on the customer orientation of retail salespeople. The six most important predictors of the customer orientation of retail salespeople identified by multiple regression analysis were task identity, organizational commitment, autonomy, education level, job satisfaction, and supervisor–employee relationship.     

Values congruence and differences between the interplay of personal and organizational value systems

Following the research of Liedtka (1989), this paper examines the impact of her “values congruence” model on managers' work attitudes and perceptions of ethical practices within their firms. A nationwide cross-section of managers (N=1,059) provides the sample for the study. Consonance or clarity about both personal value systems and organizational value systems were found to be more important and, in the absence of one or the other, clarity of personal values were shown to have a more positive impact than organizational value clarity.     

Rebounding from Corruption: Perceptions of Ethics Program Effectiveness in a Public Sector Organization

We examine the perceived importance of three organizational preconditions (awareness of formal ethics codes, decision-making techniques, and availability of resources) theorized to be critical for ethics program effectiveness. In addition, we examine the importance of ethical leadership and congruence between formal ethics codes and informal ethical norms in influencing employee perceptions. Participants (n=418) from a large southern California government agency completed a survey on the perceived effectiveness of the organization’s ethics program. Results suggest that employee perceptions of organizational preconditions, ethical leadership and informal ethical norms were related to perceptions of ethics program effectiveness. Based on these findings, organizations should evaluate the presence (or absence) of essential preconditions and take steps to ensure that leaders model espoused organizational values to foster perceptions of effective ethics programs.Kathie L. Pelletier is a doctoral student in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, 123 East Eighth Street, Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: kathie.pelletier@cgu.edu. Her research interests include organizational ethics, ethical leadership, and women’s issues in the workplace. Michelle C. Bligh is an assistant professor of Organizational Behavior in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, 123 East Eighth Street, Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: michelle. bligh@cgu.edu. Her research interests include charismatic leadership, political and executive leadership, and organizational culture.     

Behavioral Integrity: How Leader Referents and Trust Matter to Workplace Outcomes

Behavioral integrity (BI) is the alignment pattern between an actor??s words and deeds as perceived by another person. Employees?? perception that their leader??s actions and words are consistent leads to desirable workplace outcomes. Although BI is a powerful concept, the role of leader referents, the relationship between perceived BI of different referents, and the process by which BI affects outcomes are unclear. Our purpose is to elaborate upon this process and clarify the role of different leader referents in determining various outcomes. To understand the impact of referents, we explicitly compared the BIs of two leader referents: senior management and supervisor. In contrast to previous research findings where supervisory BI was found to have a stronger relationship with outcomes than senior management, we find that both referents are important. However, their impact varies based upon the outcome studied. Only senior management BI predicted organizational commitment, while senior management BI, supervisory BI and supervisory trust predicted organizational cynicism. Only trust in supervisor, and not supervisory BI, impacted organizational citizenship behaviors. When senior management is the referent, trust and not BI might play an important role for outcomes that require extensive employee investments, such as organizational commitment. In contrast, when the outcome measured does not require employee investments, BI might have a direct impact on the outcome. We also uncovered that trust in supervisor substantially influences the trust employees have in their senior management.     

(Un)Ethical Behavior and Performance Appraisal: The Role of Affect,Support, and Organizational Justice

Performance appraisals are widely used as an HR instrument. This study among 332 police officers examines the effects of performance appraisals from a behavioral ethics perspective. A mediation model relating justice perceptions of police officers’ last performance appraisal to their work affect, perceived supervisor and organizational support and, in turn, their ethical (pro-organizational proactive) and unethical (counterproductive) work behavior was tested empirically. The relationship between justice perceptions and both, ethical and unethical behavior was mediated by perceived support and work affect. Hence, a singular yearly performance appraisal was linked to both ethical and unethical behaviors at work. The finding that ethical and unethical aspects of employee behavior share several of the same organizational antecedents, namely organizational justice perceptions, has strong practical implications which are discussed as well.     

Involving mind, body, and friends: Management that engenders creativity

Based on the careful observation and interviews of employees at three companies, and supplemented by cases from the popular business press, a discovery approach is used to derive four management principles that engender creativity and innovation in organizations: (1) manage organizations so that their knowledge base is more diverse than what would occur naturally; (2) encourage employees to embrace a collaborative and non-complacent attitude towards work and the organization; (3) make it possible for organization members to engage in the quick testing of ideas and solutions as they emerge; (4) reward employee and supervisor behaviors that support these principles and punish resistance to their implementation. The principles work in companies even if creativity and innovation are not stated organizational objectives, and do not require large investments or disruptions to work processes to yield valuable results.     

Effects of responsible human resource management practices on female employees’ turnover intentions

This study focuses on the effects of socially responsible human resource management (SR‐HRM) practices on female employees’ turnover intentions and the moderating effect of supervisor gender on this relationship. With a sample of 212 female employees from eight different industries in Finland, the results indicate that SR‐HRM practices promoting equal career opportunities and work–family integration play a significant role in reducing women's turnover intentions. The study adds to the academic discourse of corporate social responsibility by highlighting the impact of the organizational‐level HRM determinants on the individual‐level outcome. In addition, supervisor gender makes a difference in the studied relationship: female supervisors have a stronger and more significant impact on the relationship than male supervisors. Our findings suggest that organizational measures which support work–family integration should be taken seriously to decrease female employees’ turnover intentions. Male supervisors could adopt some gender‐incongruent leadership behaviors, such as individualized emotional concern and caring when dealing with female employees. In the future, other gender combinations in the supervisor–employee relationship would merit research.     

Returning the favor: positive employee responses to supervisor and peer support for training transfer

Drawing on social exchange theory and associated notions of reciprocity, we argue that interpersonal support for training transfer in the workplace is associated with increased employee task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and reduced turnover intention. We test our hypotheses using survey data from 786 Chinese retail employees. The findings show that when employees perceive high levels of supervisor/peer support for training transfer, they are more likely to deliver higher levels of task performance and OCB in response, which in turn, lead to reduced turnover intention. We also found that the strength of the relationship between supervisor/peer support for training transfer on individuals’ OCB varied across regions within China. The results confirm the moderating role of regional context (coastal and inland regions) on the relationship between supervisor/peer support for training transfer on individuals’ OCB, with a stronger effect found in less economically developed inland regions. The moderating effect of region indicates that cross‐cultural researchers need to be aware of possible within‐country variations in employee attitudes and values.     

Correlates of creative behaviour: the role of leadership and personal factors

An organizational field study was conducted to test the relationship between subordinate openness to experience, supervisor charismatic leadership, and creative behaviour. Data were collected from 167 employee‐supervisor pairs of a manufacturing company that produces advertising specialty products. Charismatic leadership related positively to subordinates' creative behaviour only for subordinates low in openness to experience and not for their high openness to experience counterparts. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

管理者自恋会导致员工沉默吗:心理安全感与上下级关系的作用

员工沉默是近年来组织行为学领域关注的热点问题.本研究基于进化心理学理论和领导成员交换理论,构建管理者自恋与员工沉默关系的研究模型.通过两阶段的问卷调查,检验管理者自恋与员工沉默的关系、 心理安全感的中介作用及上下级关系的调节作用.研究结果表明:(1)管理者自恋与员工沉默显著正相关,员工的心理安全感在两者之间起部分中介作用;(2)上下级关系负向调节管理者自恋与心理安全感之间的关系,即上下级关系质量越高,管理者自恋与员工心理安全感的负相关关系越弱;(3)上下级关系显著负向调节心理安全感对管理者自恋与员工沉默之间关系的中介作用,即上下级关系质量越高,心理安全感的中介作用就越强;反之则越弱.     

Is the Ethical Culture of the Organization Associated with Sickness Absence? A Multilevel Analysis in a Public Sector Organization

The main aim of the present study was to examine whether an ethical organizational culture is associated with sickness absence in a Finnish public sector organization at both the individual (within-level) and work unit (between-level) levels. The underlying assumption was that employees working for organizations that are characterized by a strong ethical organizational culture report less sickness absence. The sample consisted of 2192 employees from one public sector city organization that included 246 different work units. Ethical organizational culture was measured with the Corporate Ethical Virtues scale covering eight sub-dimensions. Sickness absence was inquired by asking the participants to report how many days they had been absent from work because of their own sickness over the past year. Multilevel structural equation modelling showed that, at the individual level, perceptions of a strong ethical organizational culture were associated with less sickness absences after controlling for the background factors. This link was not found at the work-unit level. The findings indicate that an ethical organizational culture plays a significant role in enhancing employee well-being measured as sickness absence. It seems that especially supervisor’s ethical role modeling and possibilities to discuss about ethical issues are important factors in preventing sickness absence in the organizations.     

Does it Take More Than Ideals? How Counter-Ideal Value Congruence Shapes Employees’ Trust in the Organization

Research on value congruence rests on the assumption that values denote desirable behaviors and ideals that employees and organizations strive to approach. In the present study, we develop and test the argument that a more complete understanding of value congruence can be achieved by considering a second type of congruence based on employees’ and organizations’ counter-ideal values (i.e., what both seek to avoid). We examined this proposition in a time-lagged study of 672 employees from various occupational and organizational backgrounds. We used difference scores as well as polynomial regression and response surface analyses to test our hypotheses. Consistent with our hypotheses, results reveal that counter-ideal value congruence has unique relations to employees’ trust in the organization that go beyond the effects of ideal value congruence. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this expanded perspective on value congruence.     

My Boss is Morally Disengaged: The Role of Ethical Leadership in Explaining the Interactive Effect of Supervisor and Employee Moral Disengagement on Employee Behaviors

The popular press is often fraught with high-profile illustrations of leader unethical conduct within corporations. Leader unethical conduct is undesirable for many reasons, but in terms of managing subordinates, it is particularly problematic because leaders directly influence the ethics of their followers. Yet, we know relatively little about why leaders fail to apply ethical leadership practices. We argue that some leaders cognitively remove the personal sanctions associated with misconduct, which provides them with the “freedom” to ignore ethical shortcomings. Drawing on moral disengagement theory (Bandura 1986, 1999), we examine the relationship between supervisor moral disengagement and employee perceptions of ethical leadership. We then examine the moderating role of employee moral disengagement, such that the negative relationship between supervisor moral disengagement and employee perceptions of ethical leadership is stronger when employee moral disengagement is low versus high. Finally, we examine ethical leadership as a conditional mediator (based on employee moral disengagement) that explains that relationship between supervisor moral disengagement and employee job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results from a multi-source field survey provide general support for our theoretical model.     

The Effects of Performance Rating, Leader–Member Exchange, Perceived Utility, and Organizational Justice on Performance Appraisal Satisfaction: Applying a Moral Judgment Perspective

The performance appraisal process is increasingly seen as a key link between employee behaviour and an organization’s strategic objectives. Unfortunately, performance reviews often fail to change how people work, and dissatisfaction with the appraisal process has been associated with general job dissatisfaction, lower organizational commitment, and increased intentions to quit. Recent research has identified a number of factors related to reactions to performance appraisals in general and appraisal satisfaction in particular. Beyond the appraisal outcome itself, researchers have found that appraisal reactions are affected by perceptions of fairness and the relationship between the supervisor and the employee. To explain the relationships among these factors, the present article proposes a moral cognition perspective. We suggest that employees judge a performance appraisal from the perspective of its moral justifiability, and that appraisal reactions will be determined, at least in part, by the perceived moral justifiability of the process. The proposal was supported by results from a survey of government employees using measures of performance ratings, leader–member exchange, perceived utility, and organizational justice.     

Organizational Ethical Standards and Organizational Commitment

Organizations interested in employee ethics compliance face the problem of conflict between employee and organizational ethical standards. Socializing new employees is one way of assuring compliance. Important for longer term employees as well as new ones, however, is making those standards visible and then operable in the daily life of an organization. This study, conducted in one large organization, found that, depending on organizational level, awareness of an organization's ethical standards is predicted by managerial adherence to and organizational compliance with those standards and/or discussions with peers. Regardless of level, organizational commitment was predicted most strongly by managerial adherence to organizational standards. These findings have theoretical implications for the fields of business ethics, organizational identity and organizational socialization and practical implications for the implementation of ethics policies.