Servant leadership across cultures

Servant leadership is anchored in the human drive to bond with others and contribute to the betterment of the society. An emphasis on service motivation, as demonstrated by empowering and developing people with empathy and humility, differentiates servant leadership from other leadership frameworks. In this study, we analyzed the degree to which five aspects of servant leadership, Egalitarianism, Moral Integrity, Empowering, Empathy and Humility were endorsed as important for effective leadership across cultures. While each of these dimensions was found to be associated with effective leadership, there was considerable variation in degree of endorsement of components of servant leadership across different GLOBE culture clusters. The dimensions of Egalitarianism and Empowering were endorsed more strongly in Nordic/European cultures but less so in Asian and similar cultures. On the other hand, servant leadership dimensions of Empathy and Humility were more strongly endorsed in Asian cultures than European cultures. Further, significant relationships were found between several societal cultural values and aspects of servant leadership which help us understand why nations differ in endorsing this leadership construct.     

Can gamification increases consumers’ engagement in fitness apps? The moderating role of commensurability of the game elements

Many app firms have adopted gamification, aiming at making consumers more engaging and loyal. Given the ambivalent evidence on the effectiveness of gamification, this study proposes that the effectiveness of gamification is moderated by the types of game elements, i.e., commensurate and incommensurate. Commensurate elements, such as points, are directly associated with performances such as step counts, and may be perceived by consumers as external incentives to their efforts; whereas incommensurate elements, such as “likes”, are not directly related to performances, and may be considered as avenues to satisfy psychological needs, leading to stronger intrinsic motivation. Results from a longitudinal field study confirm that compared with apps using commensurate elements, apps using incommensurate elements can better help increase intrinsic motivation and further enhance engagement and loyalty.     

Motivation toward financial incentive goals on construction projects

Construction industry observers tout the use of financial incentives as promoters of motivation and commitment on projects. Yet, little empirical evidence exists concerning their effectiveness. What are the drivers of motivation on construction projects? The reasons that construction project participants are motivated to pursue voluntary incentive goals are examined through four Australian case studies. The results demonstrate the critical role played by project relationships and equitable contract conditions in promoting the effectiveness of financial incentives. In the context of a construction project, this study finds financial incentives to be less important to motivation and performance than relationship enhancement initiatives. This finding is unexpected and has implications for the design of project procurement strategies. These results suggest that if project clients ignore the importance of relationship quality between participants, the impact of any financial incentive will be compromised.     

How Economic Incentives May Destroy Social,Ecological and Existential Values: The Case of Executive Compensation

Executive compensation has long been a prominent topic in the management literature. A main question that is also given substantial attention in the business ethics literature—even more so in the wake of the recent financial crisis—is whether increasing levels of executive compensation can be justified from an ethical point of view. Also, the relationship of executive compensation to instances of unethical behavior or outcomes has received considerable attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the social, ecological, and existential costs of economic incentives, by discussing how relying on increasing levels of executive compensation may have an adverse effect on managerial performance in a broad sense. Specifically, we argue that one-dimensional economic incentives may destroy existential, social, and systemic values that influence the manager’s commitment to ensure responsible business conduct, and have negative spillover effects that may reduce the manager’s performance. There are well-documented findings that demonstrate that reliance on sources of extrinsic motivation (such as economic incentives) may displace intrinsic motivation. Our perspective is a holistic one, in the sense that we will explore the influence of sources of extrinsic motivation on the manager’s intrinsic commitment to different types of values. We will in particular investigate how it may influence the manager’s ethical reflection and behavior or lack thereof.     

The influences of cooperative climate,competitive climate and customer empowerment on service creativity

To extend the relationship between customer empowerment and creativity, this study explores the mediating effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (individual level). The study aims to clarify whether cooperative and competitive climates influence service creativity through intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (across level). A matching sample of 333 coaches and customers from 30 stores in the fitness industry was used to examine the study hypotheses by employing Mplus 8.3 statistical software. The results show that (1) customer empowerment and cooperative climate have significant positive effects on service creativity (that is, the service creativity of coaches); (2) the intrinsic motivation of coaches mediates the relationship between customer empowerment and service creativity; and (3) the intrinsic motivation of coaches mediates the relationship between cooperative climate and service creativity, but the mediating mechanism of extrinsic motivation does not exist in the relationship between competitive climate and service creativity.     

The relationship between perceived training opportunities,work motivation and employee outcomes

The purpose of this study was to explore alternative relationships between training opportunities and employee outcomes. A cross‐sectional survey of 343 trainees from a broad range of Norwegian service organizations showed that the relationship between perceived training opportunities, and both task performance and citizenship behaviors were fully mediated, and that the relationship between perceived training opportunities and turnover intention was partially mediated by employee intrinsic motivation. In addition, intrinsic motivation was found to moderate the relationship between perceived training opportunities and organizational citizenship behaviors. The form of the moderation revealed a positive relationship for those with high intrinsic motivation. In sum, the variables included as predictors in our study explained 13 per cent of the variance in task performance, 19 per cent of the variance in organizational citizenship behavior and 24 per cent of the variance in turnover intention. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

自我决定理论与积极组织管理

积极组织管理的目的是帮助员工自我实现,自我实现源自于员工强烈的内在动机。根据自我决定理论,组织应当满足员工的三大心理需要,同时促使员工采取自主定向归因才能使员工产生内在动机。所以积极组织管理的重点应当包括重视员工能力培养、进行合理的工作设计、构建和谐的人际氛围、提高员工心理资本四个方面。     

Source characteristics and advertising effectiveness

The study examines the impact of source likeability and source credibility on the effectiveness of print advertisements. A theoretical model that depicts the impacts of source characteristics on (1) ad attitude, (2) brand attitude, and (3) willingness to purchase is investigated using data collected through a quasi-experimental design. In addition to direct impacts, the moderating role of message processing motivation (involvement) and product category knowledge in the relationships of interest are investigated via multigroup analyses. Findings indicate that the sequence of relationships between source characteristics, attitudinal responses and willingness to purchase may vary substantially across the four conditions characterised by high/low levels of processing motivation and product category knowledge.     

Competence Enhancement and Anticipated Emotion as Motivational Drivers of Brand Attachment

Focusing on the motivational processes underlying consumer attachments to brands, this research examines how competence enhancement and anticipated emotion (anxiety and joy) contribute to attachment. Personal attachment style (attachment anxiety) and type of motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) are included as individual differences. Employing two field studies across different contexts indicates that competence enhancement leads to stronger attachments with anticipated anxiety (avoidance) and joy (approach) mediating this relationship. Analyses of moderated mediation further show that the effect mediated through anticipated emotion is stronger under conditions of high extrinsic and low intrinsic motivation, and when individual attachment anxiety is low. Implications for brand attachment research and management are discussed.     

Associations Between Organizational/Individual Factors and the Intentions of Employees

Abstract

This study of a university school foodservice operation examines whether a positive or negative association exists between the individual and organizational factors and the intentions to stay or leave the current job for foodservice employees or internal customers. The individual factors include job status, service length, age, education level, and job position. The organizational factors include several job characteristics, intrinsic motivation, formalization, participative decision-making and psychological stress. Job characteristics indicated a significant positive impact on university retention across the job characteristics of autonomy, feedback, dealing with others, and variety. The organizational factors of perceived formalization and participative decision-making also had a significant positive impact on university employee retention. The organizational factors of intrinsic motivation, task identity, and friendship opportunities did not have a statistically significant positive or negative impact on university employee retention yet had the directions of relationship that was expected. Finally, psychological stress had a negative impact on university employee retention. The article ends with suggestions for future research and limitations of the current study.     

Unintended effects of incentivizing consumers to recommend a favorite brand

Marketers often use incentives such as coupons, rewards or special membership discounts in order to motivate consumers to purchase or recommend a particular brand. This practice is based on the underlying assumption that an increase in incentives will lead to an increase in consumer response – an idea which has been at the core of traditional economic thinking for decades. Some psychologists have claimed, however, that under specific conditions an increase in incentives can reduce (rather than increase) one's willingness to perform the behavior which is being incentivized. If materialized, the possibility that extrinsic incentives may diminish consumer willingness to recommend a favorite brand could have important theoretical and practical consequences in the context of word-of-mouth or buzz marketing. This study tests that possibility in the context of an experiment about Apple computers, a favorite brand among US college students. Participants were asked to recommend the brand to a friend (1) in absence of any monetary reward and (2) for a small monetary incentive. Students who were promised a small monetary reward experienced a decrease in intrinsic motivation and wrote shorter recommendations than those who were not promised any incentives. Data also suggest that the quality of the recommendation may decrease when incentives are offered. The results are discussed in line of their possible theoretical and practical significance.     

Just the Right Amount of Ethics Inspires Creativity: A Cross-Level Investigation of Ethical Leadership,Intrinsic Motivation,and Employee Creativity

Based on ideology-infused psychological contract theory and cognitive evaluation theory, this study investigated the curvilinear relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity. A curvilinear mediation model was proposed to explain the impact of ethical leadership on creativity, using employee intrinsic motivation as the mediator. Applying a two wave sampling design that consist 258 employees and their leaders, we found that employee creativity improved as ethical leadership increased from low to moderate levels. However, the employee creativity improvement was attenuated when ethical leadership increased from moderate to high levels. Furthermore, the study also revealed that employee intrinsic motivation partially mediated this curvilinear relationship. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

How Ethical Leadership Influence Employees’ Innovative Work Behavior: A Perspective of Intrinsic Motivation

Drawing on the cognitive evaluation theory, we proposed a homologous multilevel model to explore how ethical leadership influenced employees’ innovative work behavior through the mediation of intrinsic motivation at both group and individual level. With questionnaires rated by 302 employees from 34 work units of two companies in the mainland of China, we conducted multilevel analysis to examine our hypotheses. The results showed that individual innovative work behavior was positively related to both individual perception of ethical leadership and group ethical leadership, while individual intrinsic motivation mediated the two relationships. Moreover, group intrinsic motivation mediated the relationship between group ethical leadership and innovative work behavior. The theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.     

Where does ESG pay? The role of national culture in moderating the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance

This study investigates the moderating role of a country’s culture as an external contingency factor in the relationship between a firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and financial performance. Using ESG performance data of 4978 firms from 48 countries for 17 years, we argue that the financial return from engaging in ESG varies depending on the countries’ cultural aspects because stakeholder evaluations and appreciations for a firm’s ESG performance differ across nations. We find that a country that espouses a culture of high individualism or masculinity tends to appreciate and reflect on this more explicitly, strengthening the relationship between a firm’s ESG performance and financial performance. Contrastingly, in a country with a culture of high power distance or uncertainty avoidance, firms’ ESG efforts are less likely to be associated with financial performance. Our findings have important implications for multinational enterprises facing various cultural environments when dealing with heterogeneous stakeholder demands across countries.     

A conceptual framework for analyzing consumers' food label preferences: An exploratory study of sustainability labels in France,Quebec, Spain and the US

In a qualitative study of 375 consumers in France, Quebec, Spain and the US, respondents are asked to choose between pairs of actual food labels and to describe the reason(s) for their choice. The food labels included sustainability labels (eco‐labels, Fair Trade, origin) as well as product attribute (e.g. quality, kosher) and health/nutrition labels. Respondents' reasons were coded in the original language using the same coding system across all four nations to examine their preferences for label message, design and source. We also examined the role of consumers' values, beliefs and experiences on their label choices. The coding system was drawn from a review of theoretical and empirical literature and provides a conceptual framework we call the Label Consumer Interaction model for evaluating consumers' food label preferences. Although this is case study, the results point to substantial differences across nations in terms of preferred labels, as well as the rationale for their choice in terms of attributes of the labels and consumer characteristics.     

战略性新兴产业集群式发展及其政策支撑体系研究

集群式发展是战略性新兴产业快速、健康发展的重要路径。从各个产业集群来看,其形成和发展过程要受各种独特因素的影响,如经济状况、技术条件、自然和人力资源、资本的集中、历史文化传统等。战略性新兴产业集群的发展模式,从大的方面还要归结为市场主导发展模式和政府倡导发展模式两大类。作为公共政策的制定者,政府应充分发挥自身职能,加强规划引导,优化空间布局;积极培育市场,以需求拉动战略性新兴产业集群的快速发展;加强战略性新兴产业集群创新能力建设,吸引更多的新兴产业企业加入战略性新兴产业集群,通过各种政策推动战略性新兴产业集群式发展,从而促进战略性新兴产业集群迅速成长、壮大,为区域经济和社会发展做出贡献。     

Agents or Stewards? Linking Managerial Behavior and Moral Development

The goal of this paper is to connect managerial behavior on the “agent-steward” scale to managerial moral development and motivation. I introduce agent- and steward-like behavior: the former is self-serving while the latter is others-serving. I suggest that managerial moral development and motivation may be two of the factors that may predict the tendency of managers to behave in a self-serving way (like agents) or to serve the interests of the organization (like stewards). Managers at low levels of moral development are more likely to behave like agents, while managers at higher levels of moral development are more likely to behave like stewards. I also argue that managers at the highest level of moral development may serve the interests of people other than the firm’s owners and thereby transfer wealth from the firm’s owners to third parties. Moral motivation is likely to be a factor that moderates the proposed relationships. Finally, I develop propositions that address the role of material incentives in controlling behavior of managers at different levels of moral development.     

How Employees’ Perceptions of CSR Increase Employee Creativity: Mediating Mechanisms of Compassion at Work and Intrinsic Motivation

This study aims to examine how service employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect their creativity at work and its mediated link through compassion at work and their intrinsic motivation. Working with a sample of 250 hotel employees in South Korea, structural equation modeling is employed to test research hypotheses. The results of this research suggest that employees’ perceptions of CSR are positively related to employee creativity. Second, compassion at work mediated the positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of CSR and creativity. Third, employees’ intrinsic motivation also mediated the positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of CSR and employee creativity. Finally, the relationship between employees’ perceptions of CSR and employee creativity is sequentially and fully mediated by compassion at work and their intrinsic motivation. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results and limitations of the study are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

The relationship of antecedents of search and self‐esteem to adolescent search effort and perceived product knowledge

This article reviews pertinent research related to the antecedents of search and discusses a research study involving teenagers. For the low‐esteem group, “enjoyment of shopping” (intrinsic motivation) and “benefit of search” (extrinsic motivation) were the significant predictors of search effort and perceived product knowledge, whereas for the high self‐esteem group, only enjoyment of shopping (intrinsic motivation) was a significant predictor. The results are explained in terms of an intrinsic‐extrinsic motivation model. For the high–self‐esteem group, the intrinsic enjoyment of shopping leads to search effort, which in turn leads to perceived product knowledge. In contrast, for the low–self‐esteem group, the intrinsic enjoyment of shopping and the extrinsic benefit of search together lead to greater perceived product knowledge as a result of search effort. Thus, the intrinsic motivation model prevails for the high–self‐esteem group, whereas a hybrid intrinsic–extrinsic motivation model prevails for the low–self‐esteem group. The article concludes with directions for future research. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The effect of communication practice on deviance among Korean salespeople: The mediating role of intrinsic motivation

Previous research on salesperson behavior largely focused on positive and productive behavior and less on the negative side of the salesperson behavior. This research examines the effect of leader–member communication exchange on salesperson workplace deviance and the mediating role of trust and intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Data were collected from 469 salespeople in the Korean banking industry. Results of the structural equation model show that indirect and bi-directional communication between manager and salesperson decrease salesperson workplace deviance by increasing trust and motivation. However, communication frequency and mood have no significant effects on salesperson trust. Finally, motivation (achievement, status, and communion striving) plays a mediating role in the negative relationships between salesperson trust and his/her deviant behavior toward specific targets (organization, coworker, and customer).