Journal of Applied Psychology最新文献

The "Bamboo Ceiling" refers to the perplexing phenomenon that, despite the educational and economic achievements of East Asians (e.g., ethnic Chinese, Koreans) in the United States, they are disproportionately underrepresented in leadership positions. To help elucidate this phenomenon, we propose a novel theoretical perspective: East Asians are underselected for leadership positions partially because they are stereotyped as lacking creativity, a prized leadership attribute in U.S. culture. We first tested our proposition in two field studies in a natural setting: Across 33 full class sections of 2,304 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students in a U.S. business program, East Asians were perceived by their classmates as less creative than other ethnicities (e.g., South Asian, White) at the beginning of the MBA program-when the students had limited interactions and thus were likely influenced by creativity stereotypes. Lower perceived creativity mediated why East Asians were less likely than other ethnicities to be nominated (Study 1) and elected (Study 2) as class-section leaders by their classmates. These patterns were robust after accounting for variables such as assertiveness (parallel mediator), leadership motivation, English proficiency, and demographics. These findings were conceptually replicated in two preregistered vignette experiments of non-Asian Americans with managerial experience (Studies 3 and 4, N = 1,775): Compared to candidates of other ethnicities, East Asian American candidates with a substantively identical profile were viewed as less leader-like as a function of lower perceived creativity. Overall, although East Asians are commonly stereotyped as competent, they are also stereotyped as lacking creativity, which can hinder their leadership emergence in U.S. organizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

It is clear that sexual harassment has a profound impact on the victims who are targets of these egregious behaviors. Comparably less is known, however, about how other members of the organization react affectively and behaviorally when these acts transpire, and who has stronger reactions to such events. In the current research, we draw from the sexual harassment and vicarious mistreatment literatures to develop a theoretical model that considers how bystanders react behaviorally to ambient harassment-the experience of overhearing sexist and disparaging gender-related comments without necessarily being the direct target of such remarks-by enacting various types of voice behaviors at work via feelings of fear and anger. We also explore whether certain work conditions-namely an organization's tolerance for sexual harassment-attenuate such reactions, and how gender of the witness to ambient harassment may shape the effects. Across an experimental investigation (Study 1) and an experience sampling study (Study 2), we find that exposure to ambient harassment is positively related to feelings of fear and anger. In Study 2, we further unpack the differential behavioral consequences associated with ambient harassment, finding that while anger is positively related to voice after witnessing ambient harassment, fear negatively contributed to voice behaviors at work. Interestingly, these effects were further exacerbated for employees who worked in an organization tolerant of sexual harassment and for men (vs. women). Combined, our results shed light on how, and when, employees can feel empowered to enact voice behaviors after experiencing ambient harassment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Learning and adaptation are essential for success. However, human effort is inherently finite, which creates a dilemma for employees. Is it better to prioritize capitalizing on existing knowledge structures to maximize immediate performance benefits (exploitation) or develop adaptive capabilities (exploration) at the expense of short-term productivity? Understanding how employees answer this question can inform the design of evidence-based interventions for optimizing and sustaining learning amidst workplace challenges. In this article, we attempt to unpack the composition of on-task effort during performance-based learning by testing the proposition that the information-knowledge gap-a regulatory discrepancy between unknown aspects of a task and a person's perceived competence in dealing with that task-is the psychological mechanism responsible for guiding effort-allocation decisions during performance-based learning. In Study 1, we found that larger information-knowledge gaps resulted in increased subsequent investments of on-task attention within a sample of adults learning to perform a complex task (N = 121). As participants learned, information-knowledge gaps systematically shrank, resulting in a reduced emphasis on learning-oriented effort (i.e., exploration) relative to achievement-oriented effort (i.e., exploitation) over time. In Study 2 (N = 176), a task-change paradigm revealed that introducing novel demands caused information-knowledge gaps to suddenly expand, which prompted participants to increase on-task effort and shift their focus away from achievement and back toward learning as an adaptive response. Collectively, these findings support the notion that information-knowledge gaps shape how (and when) on-task effort is spent and present a framework for understanding how learners strategically structure their limited attentional resources. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The fast-changing work environment has created growing hindrances to employee daily goal pursuits and rendered it not uncommon for employees to leave work with unachieved daily work goals. The significant ramifications of unachieved goals on employee well-being and performance thus call for more research efforts to understand how employees respond to unsatisfactory goal progress (e.g., goal-performance discrepancy [GPD]). Interestingly, two paradoxical theoretical perspectives exist on this matter, with the self-regulation perspective suggesting an adaptive feedback loop (i.e., GPD on a given day eventually reduces next-day GPD), whereas the self-focused cognition perspective suggesting a maladaptive feedback loop (i.e., GPD on a given day eventually exacerbates next-day GPD). Taking a temporal lens to integrate these two perspectives, we conducted a daily diary study to map out the self-regulatory cognition mechanisms (i.e., anticipatory thinking) and self-focused cognition mechanisms (i.e., rumination) underlying the feedback loops, and identify employee temporal focus (future and past focuses) as critical cross-level boundary conditions to explain why some react to daily GPD adaptively, whereas others maladaptively. Based on 485 daily reports from 100 work professionals, we revealed that daily GPD at work resulted in reduced next-day GPD via increased after-work anticipatory thinking. Meanwhile, daily GPD also resulted in aggravated next-day GPD via increased after-work rumination. Moreover, employee future focus mitigated the maladaptive cycle, whereas employee past focus hindered the adaptive cycle. Our study thus provides important theoretical and empirical insights into employee goal-pursuit process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

While leader departures from work units frequently occur within organizations and are assumed to negatively impact unit functioning, the collective reaction to a leader departure event can vary across time. While a common expectation of leader departure models is that the incoming leader is permanent, it is unclear how unit-level reactions, such as collective turnover and unit performance, might change over time in response to a departure event when the departing leader is replaced with a temporary leader. We draw on context emergent turnover (CET) theory and literature on leader departures to develop and empirically test specific hypotheses exploring relationships among leader departures, collective turnover, and unit performance over time. In addition, we examine the extent to which these relationships are influenced by the temporary status of the incoming leader. Using discontinuous growth models, we examine a longitudinal data set from 324 units within a large Latin American operation of a global direct sales company (N = 3,082 performance periods). Findings indicate that, after a leader departs, there is an immediate increase in collective turnover and that unit performance decreases over time. Further, when the incoming leader is temporary, unit performance increases briefly, but the rate of performance drops over time. Overall, our research offers insights with regard to how leader departures impact unit outcomes, as well as how long such effects last. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Recruiters increasingly cybervet job applicants by checking their social media profiles. Theory (i.e., the political affiliation model, PAM) and research show that during cybervetting, recruiters are exposed to job-unrelated information such as political affiliation, which might trigger similarity-attraction effects and bias hireability judgments. However, as the PAM was developed in a more polarized two-party political system, it is pivotal to test and refine the PAM in a multiparty context. Therefore, we asked working professionals from the United States (two-party context, N = 266) and Germany (multiparty context, N = 747) to rate an applicant's hireability after cybervetting a LinkedIn profile that was manipulated in a between-subjects design (party affiliation by individuating information). Key tenets of the PAM could be transferred to multiparty contexts: The political similarity-attraction effect predicted hireability judgments beyond job-related individuating information, especially regarding organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, in a multiparty context, these biasing effects of political similarity and liking were not attenuated. Yet, there were also differences: In a multiparty context, political similarity had to be operationalized in terms of political value similarity and recruiters' political interest emerged as a significant moderator of the effects. So, this study refines the PAM by showing in multiparty contexts the importance of (a) a values-based perspective (instead of a behavioral political affiliation perspective) and (b) political interest (instead of identification). Accordingly, we provide a more nuanced understanding of when political affiliation similarity contributes to perceived overall similarity in affecting liking and hireability judgments in cybervetting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Positive emotions stemming from leisure activities are often promoted as a way to achieve a state of recovery, in particular by counteracting negative emotions experienced throughout the workday. Yet the recovery literature frequently takes an undifferentiated view of both the positive emotions employees experience as well as the negative emotions employees are recovering from. This implicitly assumes that all positive emotions are equally effective in facilitating recovery from all negative emotions. Drawing from theory treating emotional movements as a metaphorical journey, we develop a framework for understanding recovery that highlights the importance of the distance and direction that individuals "travel" when moving from negative emotions to positive emotions during the recovery process. We argue that the negative emotions that people start with from work-that is, their emotional origin-as well as the positive emotions that people end with following leisure activities-that is, their emotional destination-jointly influence the state of being recovered. Across two studies using experience-sampling methodologies, we find that "shorter" journeys consisting of emotional destinations that match the activation level of emotional origins (e.g., experiencing high activation positive emotion [HAP] to counter high activation negative emotion) are effective in promoting recovery, while "longer" journeys consisting of mismatches (e.g., experiencing HAP to counter low activation negative emotion) are ineffective for recovery. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The phenomenon of group turnover has generated substantial yet disconnected scholarly interests. Despite valuable insights gained from the collective turnover literature as well as parallel research concerning related or coordinated quitting, a holistic understanding of the unique group turnover phenomenon is needed, both to synthesize existing research across multiple domains and disciplines and to kindle new inquiries regarding its dynamic nature and developmental process. To this end, we begin by conducting an integrative review of research relating to group turnover, reinterpreting it by identifying its common pathways as a function of varying triggers, temporal patterns, and departure destinations. We then leverage the groups literature to explicate group turnover's self-reinforcing and dynamic nature and propose a three-dimensional Interdependence, Temporality, and Emergence (ITE) framework that accounts for its developmental process. Using this framework, we develop an illustrative set of propositions regarding how ITE-related group properties affect the extent to which individual departures might escalate into group turnover of a larger scale and faster speed. Our emphasis on groups as a unique unit of reference thus provides an important conceptual refinement and extension for understanding collective turnover-shifting from a static focus on aggregate exit (rates) to a dynamic focus on the often-coordinated, temporally evolving nature of multiple group member quit events. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Organizational members' responses to organizational change have a key role in determining the success of the change. The predominant conceptualization of responses to change has focused on the valence of responses-the degree to which they are positive (e.g., openness to change) versus negative (e.g., resistance to change). Yet, recent theory suggests that rather than a single continuum, ranging from negative to positive, responses to change are better represented with a bidimensional framework including both a valence-based continuum and an activation-based continuum (active vs. passive; Oreg et al., 2018), comprising a change response circumplex. Based on this theoretical framework, we develop and validate a scale for measuring the four dimensions of the change response circumplex (i.e., change acceptance, change proactivity, change disengagement, change resistance). We conducted five studies in which we develop the scale and demonstrate its content validity (Study 1, N = 208), circumplex structure and construct validity (Study 2, N = 221; Study 3, N = 315), concurrent validity (Study 4, N = 588), and predictive validity (Study 5, N = 146). We also demonstrate the usefulness of distinguishing among the four responses for predicting the amount and types of feedback that change recipients provide, and show the particular value of active responses, above and beyond valence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Many women experience psychological and emotional challenges during their transition to becoming a working mother. Postpartum depression (PPD) is one common, salient aspect of motherhood that can serve as a work-life shock event and profoundly shape women's work and nonwork lives yet has evaded discussion in the organizational sciences. Taking a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 41 women who experienced PPD as well as key informants who provided additional insights about PPD (e.g., an obstetrician, women working for organizations that support postpartum health). Our analysis highlights how being diagnosed with PPD activates a complex sensemaking process in which women process an imposing identity-a concept we introduce to the identity and work-family literatures reflecting an unexpected, undesirable identity that imposes upon existing (e.g., work) and/or provisional identities that may or may not be fully elaborated (e.g., motherhood), ultimately shifting how women think about the intersection of work and family. We also delineate how supports and antisupports (i.e., overt acts dismissive of women's PPD) shape the aforementioned processes. Combined, our research aims to advance the discussion of PPD within organizational scholarship, rendering significant implications for both theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).