The Journal of applied psychology
-
The authors investigate whether known person predictors (trait anger, trait aggression) and situational predictors (perceived interpersonal mistreatment, perceived organizational sanctions against aggression) of supervisor-targeted aggression also predict employee's aggression toward other workplace targets, namely peers, subordinates, and customers' aggression toward service providers. The authors also investigate the moderating impact of situational factors on the relationship between person factors and aggression. Participants (N = 308) were asked whether they had a conflict with their supervisor, a subordinate, a work peer, and/or a service provider in the past 6 months. Different patterns of main and interaction effects emerged across the 4 targets, suggesting the importance of accounting for the target of aggression in workplace aggression research.
-
A longitudinal field experiment was designed to test the efficacy of a new type of orientation program in facilitating sojourners' organizational and cultural entry. Focused on stress coping, this new approach to orientation has the following features: (a) a thorough needs assessment identified the major stressors from both organizational and cultural entry, (b) sojourners were provided with realistic information regarding their future tasks and environment, and (c) sojourners were taught various coping skills to handle the major stressors. Seventy-two new graduate students from Asia entering a large midwestern public university in the United States were randomly assigned to either a traditional orientation program or the new program. ⋯ Results show that participants in the new orientation program had lower pre-entry expectations, felt less stressed, and reported higher levels of academic and interaction adjustment at 6 and 9 months post-entry than participants in the traditional orientation program. Many of the beneficial effects from the new orientation experience were not immediately apparent; rather, they emerged over time. Sojourner stress was found to mediate some of the treatment effects, as predicted.
-
The authors examined the role of employee conscientiousness as a moderator of the relationships between psychological contract breach and employee behavioral and attitudinal reactions to the breach. They collected data from 106 newly hired employees within the 1st month of employment (Time 1), 3 months later (Time 2), and 8 months after Time 1 (Time 3) to observe the progression through contract development, breach, and reaction. ⋯ In contrast, employees who were higher in conscientiousness reduced their job performance to a greater degree in response to contract breach. Future research directions are discussed.
-
The authors propose that broad aspects of lateral relationships, conceptualized as coworker support and coworker antagonism, are linked to important individual employee outcomes (role perceptions, work attitudes, withdrawal, and effectiveness) in a framework that synthesizes several theoretical predictions. From meta-analytic tests based on 161 independent samples and 77,954 employees, the authors find support for most of the proposed linkages. ⋯ The authors also observe differential strengths of coworker influence based on its valence, content, and severity, and on the social intensity of the task environment. The authors conclude with a call for more comprehensive, complex theory and investigation of coworker influences as part of the social environment at work.
-
The present study examines the association between dysfunctional team behavior and team performance. Data included measures of teams' dysfunctional behavior and negative affective tone as well as supervisors' ratings of teams' (nonverbal) negative emotional expressivity and performance. ⋯ On the basis of the findings, the authors conclude that the connection between dysfunctional behavior and performance in team situations is more complex than was previously believed--thereby yielding a pattern of moderated mediation. In sum, the findings demonstrated that team members' collective emotions and emotional processing represent key mechanisms in determining how dysfunctional team behavior is associated with team performance.