The influence of authentic leadership behaviors on trust and work outcomes of health care staff

A key element of a healthy work environment is trust: trust between staff and their leaders. Authentic leadership is proposed as the core of effective leadership needed to build trust because of its clear focus on the positive role modeling of honesty, integrity, and high ethical standards in the development of leader‐follower relationships. A model linking authentic leadership behaviors with trust in management, perceptions of supportive groups and work outcomes (including voice or speaking‐up behavior, self‐rated job performance, and burnout) using secondary analysis procedures was examined. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling in two samples of health care employees from a western Canadian cancer care agency: clinical care providers including nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and other professionals (N = 147) and nonclinical employees including administrative, support, and research staff (N = 188). Findings suggest that supportive leader behavior and trust in management are necessary for staff to be willing to voice concerns and offer suggestions to improve the workplace and patient care.     

Demographic diversity in the workplace and its impact on employee voice: the role of trust in the employer

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between demographic diversity principles and evaluations of employee voice. An analysis of survey data from 707 employees working at 37 hospitality institutions with different star categories confirmed that trust in the employer, followed by the modest contribution of education, is of the utmost importance in the evaluation of voice systems by all employees. Employee evaluations of voice opportunities were found to display differences between male and female employee groups. While generational cohort was a differentiating attribute for the male group, job tenure had the same effect for the female employees. Implications for future research and for HR managers are discussed.     

Leveraging the employee voice: a multi-level social learning perspective of ethical leadership

Extending social learning theory to a multi-level perspective, this study proposes a theoretical model that investigates both individual and team-level mechanisms that mediate the effect of ethical leadership on employee voice. Specifically, in terms of an individual-level social learning perspective, we suggest that an ethical leader acts as a prototype of a moral person (i.e. an ethical role model). From a team-level social learning perspective, we propose that, as a moral manager, team ethical leadership will foster an ethical climate within the team which will create a moral context that impacts employees’ behaviors. In both instances, employee voice behaviors will be enhanced through these mechanisms. Evidencing the importance of the interaction between leader behaviors and context for leader effectiveness, we also show that employees are more likely to regard their ethical leaders as ethical role models in a team that highly values ethical conduct (i.e. high in ethical climate). Results obtained from 47 managers and 211 subordinates in China support our theoretical model. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are also discussed.     

投桃何以报李:企业内外部社会责任对管家行为的影响机制研究

当员工感知到企业的善行,即企业善待员工或是积极履行对外部利益相关者的责任,是否会激发员工"舍己为公"的行为倾向,使其为了保护组织长远利益而牺牲个人短期利益呢?本研究依据社会交换和社会认同理论,通过524份有效样本进行实证分析,探讨员工感知的企业社会责任对"舍己为公"的管家行为的作用机制。结果表明,员工感知的内部和外部企业社会责任均正向影响员工的管家行为。责任知觉和道德认同分别在员工感知的内部企业社会责任与管家行为、员工感知的外部企业社会责任与管家行为间起中介作用,且责任知觉和道德认同的中介作用没有显著差异。     

Cultural intelligence and voice behavior among migrant workers: the mediating role of leader–member exchange

Abstract

This empirical study is the first to explicitly examine cultural intelligence (CQ) as an antecedent of voice behavior and to explore the mediating role of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the CQ–voice relationship. Two hundred and sixty-one usable questionnaires were collected from migrant workers in Australia using an online survey. The data were analyzed with regression analyses and structural equation modeling. Results showed that migrant employees with higher CQ were more likely to engage in voice behavior. The positive relationship between CQ and voice behavior was partially mediated by LMX. These findings verify a relatively new individual antecedent (i.e. CQ) of voice behavior and reveal the underlying mediation mechanism that explains the effects of CQ on employee voice. This study also carries important implications for managing culturally-diverse workforces (i.e. migrant workers) regarding the promotion of voice.     

Trust in management: the role of employee voice arrangements and perceived managerial opposition to unions

This study examines the relationship between employee voice arrangements and employees' trust in management using data from the 2007 Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey of 1,022 employees. Drawing on social exchange theory and employee relations literature, we test hypotheses concerning the relationships between direct and union voice arrangements, perceived managerial opposition to unions and employees' trust in management. Consistent with our predictions, after controlling for a range of personal, job and workplace characteristics, regression analyses indicated that direct voice arrangements were positively related to employees' trust in management. Union voice arrangements and perceived managerial opposition to unions were negatively related to trust in management. The article concludes by highlighting the study's implications for management practice and avenues for further research.     

Lone wolves reciprocate less deviance: a moral identity model of abusive supervision*

Abstract

Although previous studies provide diverse perspectives on the influences of abusive supervision, the moral perspective receives little attention in the literature. We rely on social cognitive theory to present a moral identity model of abusive supervision that accounts for the influences of perceiving abusive supervision on organizational and interpersonal deviance. In particular, we propose that employee moral identity mediates the positive relations between abusive supervision, as perceived by followers, and their subsequent organizational and interpersonal deviance. We also test the extent to which lone wolf tendencies alleviate the main negative impact of abusive supervision on moral identity and the indirect effect of abusive supervision on organizational and interpersonal deviance through moral identity. More specifically, when the level of lone wolf tendencies is high, the relationship between abusive supervision and moral identity, and the magnitude of the moral identity mediating mechanism will be weaker. Using multi-wave, multiple-source data collected in China, our findings support most of our hypotheses and offer insightful theoretical directions for mistreatment, morality, and disposition research. Our moderated mediation model serves as a springboard for future research to understand the social cognitive processes that link abusive supervision and deviant behavior from the moral perspective.     

Trust in the supervisor and the development of employees’ social capital during organizational entry: a conservation of resources approach

Abstract

This article aims to understand how trust in the supervisor contributes to the development of employees’ social capital using Conservation of Resources theory as a theoretical framework and networking ability as an indicator of social capital development. We hypothesize that the relationship between newcomers’ trust in the supervisor and networking ability will be mediated by feedback seeking from the supervisor and moderated by emotional exhaustion. Based on a three-wave time-lagged study of newcomers (N = 224), we found trust in the supervisor to be indirectly and positively related to networking ability through the mediating influence of feedback seeking from the supervisor. In addition, feedback seeking interacted with emotional exhaustion in predicting networking ability such that it was more positively related to it at high levels of emotional exhaustion. The indirect relationship of trust to networking ability as mediated by feedback seeking was also stronger at high levels of emotional exhaustion. We discuss this study’s implications for our understanding of supervisors’ role and newcomers’ experience during entry, as well as for social capital research.     

Line managers’ AMO to manage employees’ performance: the route to effective and satisfying performance management

Abstract

Performance management systems are used to increase employees’ performance with the ultimate aim of increasing organizational performance. Organizations rely on line managers to implement performance management systems and to engage in a continuous process of goal-setting, feedback, coaching and performance appraisal with their employees. Drawing on the AMO theory, we predict that the effectiveness of performance management implementation will be a function of three factors. First, line managers should have the Ability to enact the activities that are involved in performance management. Secondly, they should be Motivated to perform these activities. Thirdly, line managers should have sufficient Opportunity to fulfill these activities on top of the demands from other organizational. If not, they could experience role conflict. We developed several cross-level hypotheses. The data came from 71 line managers and 318 employees working in Flemish education. Hierarchical linear modelling found that line managers’ AMO to implement performance management systems was positively related to employees’ satisfaction with the system. These relationships were mediated by employees’ perceptions that the performance management system is strong. A strong system signals that its features are salient across employees and that the system is clear and understood. This study has several theoretical and practical implications.     

顾客需求与组织制度的碰撞:亲顾客偏离行为的形成与影响

亲顾客偏离行为是指一线员工以帮助顾客、维护顾客利益、满足顾客个性化需求为首要动机,在服务交付过程中有意识偏离组织正式规章制度、服务规程或政策禁令的一种角色外行为。本文立足于亲顾客偏离行为"亲顾客"与"偏离组织规则"这两个特征,系统性揭示员工亲顾客偏离行为的形成机制与影响后果。在形成机制方面,揭示了服务型领导通过激发员工的心理安全感与工作自主性,来增强员工的自我效能感,最终促进员工的亲顾客偏离行为,组织创新氛围与员工冒险倾向在上述过程中起到正向调节作用。在影响后果方面,揭示了亲顾客偏离行为的双刃剑效应,既能引发涉事顾客的感知优待与赞许他人的道德情绪,促使其做出积极的服务评价;又会引发同属顾客的不公平感知与谴责他人的道德情绪,致使其做出消极的服务评价,涉事顾客的涉入度在上述过程中起到负向调节作用。本文有助于科学地认识、评估并有效引导员工的亲顾客偏离行为。     

Organizational public value and employee life satisfaction: the mediating roles of work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

Building on Meynhardt’s public value concept, which has been developed to make transparent an organization’s contributions to the common good, we investigate the influence of organizational common good practices in the perceptions of employees (measured as public value) on employees’ work attitudes and life satisfaction. The proposed model is tested on a sample of 1045 Swiss employees taken from the 2015 Swiss Public Value Atlas data-set. Study findings reveal that organizational public value is positively related to employee life satisfaction, and that this relationship is partially mediated by work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Further, we show that employee common good orientations strengthen the positive impact of organizational public value on employee work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Results also provide evidence that the indirect effects of organizational public value on employee life satisfaction via work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior are stronger at higher employee common good orientation levels.     

‘My People’: the potential of LGBT employee networks in reducing stigmatization and providing voice

Abstract

This paper explores the separation and isolation from the mainstream workforce that lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees can experience due to their sexual orientation, and how this can affect their voice and silence in the workplace. In response to perceived threats and actual experience of stigma in the workplace, we highlight the need for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) voice in organizations, while unpacking the complexities and concerns for LGBT employees in publicly voicing their sexual orientation at work. We explore how LGBT employee networks help mitigate LGBT isolation at work, and can directly and indirectly provide them with voice in the organization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with LGBT employees across organizations in Ireland. The findings confirm that LGBT employees can experience isolation at work, affecting their voice, and that workplace networks may moderate this loneliness and stigma. However, the findings question the value of LGBT employee networks in providing voice for all sexual minority employees. Our research considers the individual-level responses of LGBT employees to participation in, and the value of, employee networks, and the perceived role of these networks in giving them visibility and voice.     

Partnership at work and worker participation: an NHS case study

This article considers issues of workplace union strategy in a study of a National Health Service hospital trust in which the focus of the investigation is the ‘employee voice’ gains, or losses, arising from partnership and worker participation. The impact of government policy on local management and, in turn, employees’ opportunities to participate in organisational decision making is therefore the main theme explored in this analysis.     

企业社会责任特征对员工绿色行为的影响:基于道德决策的机制模型

员工绿色行为作为提升组织环保绩效、促进企业可持续发展的关键因素,越来越多的学者对其进行了深入探讨。然而,现有研究大多从态度、动机和领导者行为等方面考察员工绿色行为的形成过程,忽视了组织特征因素,以及员工内在的道德认知和道德情绪因素的共同作用。本文基于道德决策理论,从理性道德认知和非理性道德情绪出发,建构企业社会责任特征与员工绿色行为的关系模型,并分析员工的道德认知与道德情绪交互作用对员工绿色行为的即时影响。研究结果将从道德决策视角拓展员工绿色行为的理论版图;实践上为培育员工的生态素养、激发员工绿色行为寻求道德动力,为组织环保实践和绿色可持续发展提供管理依据和策略。     

自豪还是焦虑?感知上级信任的双刃剑效应研究

在组织管理中,上级信任作为组织内部"软控制"的核心要素,能够激发下属积极性并提升绩效。然而,有学者质疑,员工在感知到上级信任之后就一定会快乐吗?为了回应这个问题,本文基于情绪认知评价理论,提出感知上级信任的两个维度存在双刃剑效应:一方面,当员工感知到上级的依赖时,会产生自豪,进而从事更多的主动性行为;另一方面,当员工感知到上级的披露时,会产生焦虑,进而表现出更多的工作退缩行为。通过对各个行业216名在职员工的三阶段配对数据进行回归分析,本文提出的双中介模型获得了数据的支持。本研究的发现有利于从新的研究视角来认识感知上级信任的双刃剑效应,引导管理者合理表达信任,以激发下属主动性行为,规避退缩行为。     

The influence of workgroup identification on turnover intention and knowledge sharing: the perspective of employees in subsidiaries

Abstract

Turnover intention and knowledge sharing of local employees in multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiary workgroups have received relatively little attention in IHRM research, yet are central to everyday operation of the organisation. Drawing on optimal distinctiveness theory, we consider the influence of workgroup identification on two important employee attitudes and behaviours, turnover intention and knowledge sharing, by examining the influence of the supervisor on workgroup identification. Participants included 306 employees in an Australian and New Zealand subsidiary of an MNE headquartered in Europe. The results indicate that employees’ tendency to identify with their workgroup is enhanced by the distinctiveness of a supervisor from a different national or cultural group, which in turn leads to decreased turnover intention and increased knowledge sharing among workgroup members. Higher supervisor prototypicality however, that counterbalances distinctiveness through higher inclusion, weakens the mediation effect. An important practical implication of this research is that the HR function could play a valuable role in training or group development to raise supervisors’ and employees’ understanding and management of needs for both inclusion and distinctiveness.     

The presence of a feedback-seeking role model in promoting employee feedback seeking: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

Despite an increasing number of studies that show a positive relationship between the supportiveness of a feedback source and feedback seeking, little is known about the impact of supervisors’ demonstration of feedback-seeking behavior on promoting employees seeking feedback from them. In addition, although previous studies have shown that feedback seeking is an interactive process and is emotionally charged, to our knowledge, no studies have investigated the role that the source’s emotion regulation played in the feedback seeker’s seeking frequency. The present article developed a moderated mediation model to fill this void and tested it with data from a sample of 215 supervisor–subordinate dyads from China. We hypothesized and found that supervisors’ feedback seeking from subordinates were positively related to subordinates’ feedback seeking from supervisors, mediated by the perceived value and cost of the feedback seeking. The results also supported the moderating roles of supervisors’ emotion regulation in the mediation model.     

How Do Controls Impact Employee Trust in the Employer?

Do organizational controls facilitate or hinder employees’ trust in their organization? We addressed this question through a mixed‐methods design using three studies. Based on a literature review and an open‐response survey study (Study 1), we developed a theoretical model proposing that organizational control is positively related to employees’ trust in their organization, and that this relationship is mediated by procedural fairness and organizational prestige. This mediated model was tested and supported in a quantitative survey of 582 European managers and professional employees from a range of organizations (Study 2). A complementary, qualitative interview‐based study (Study 3) confirmed that well‐implemented controls facilitate trust in the organization; however, poorly implemented control systems that are inconsistent, overly rigid, or incentivize untrustworthy behavior can undermine trust in the organization. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Listen carefully: transgender voices in the workplace

Abstract

We find that only 17% of FTSE 100 company websites refer directly to transgender (‘trans’) individuals, illustrating the extent to which trans voices are unheard in the workplace. We propose that these voices are missing for a number of reasons: voluntary silence to protect oneself from adverse circumstances; the subsumption of trans voices within the larger ‘LGBT’ community; assimilation, wherein many trans voices become affiliated with those of their post-transition gender; multiple trans voices arising from diversity within the transgender community; and limited access to voice mechanisms for transgender employees. We identify the negative implications of being unheard for individual trans employees, for organizational outcomes, and for business and management scholarship, and propose ways in which organizations can listen more carefully to trans voices. Finally, we introduce an agenda for future research that tests the applicability of the theoretical framework of invisible stigma disclosure to transgender individuals, and calls for new theoretical and empirical developments to identify HRM challenges and best practices for respecting trans employees and their choices to remain silent or be heard.     

The impact of supervisor interpersonal justice on supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors in social enterprises: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

While prior research has examined the strategic role of social enterprise managers in the achievement of a double economic and social performance objective, a clear understanding of the supervisors’ role in fostering employees’ attitudes and behaviors is still lacking. To address this gap, our paper aims to examine the impact of supervisor interpersonal justice on supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors by developing a moderated mediation model. Survey data were collected from 196 supervisor-subordinate dyads employed in diverse French social enterprises. Our results show that psychological contract breach mediates the supervisor interpersonal justice – supervisor-directed citizenship behaviors relationship. Further, employees’ prosocial motivations moderate this indirect effect. Our research provides insight into the mechanisms of social exchange relationships in social enterprises. In a practical perspective, it also demonstrates that the development of an effective HRM in social enterprises requires the implementation of specific training and development programs for managers.