Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology最新文献

If asked to destroy a dollar bill, one would likely hesitate. After all, the destruction of the dollar bill equals the loss of its economic value. Yet the reluctance to destroy a dollar bill may also stem from social knowledge—the fact that it exists in the minds of many members of one's valued group. Here, we investigate whether social knowledge of money increases people's reluctance to destroy it. We create a fictional currency and vary the social knowledge of its existence across experimental conditions. Results across three studies suggest that people are slower to destroy more socially known currency without liking it more. Our findings suggest that money can be respected when it is merely known by many, without being necessarily liked by them.

According to the job demands–resources model, job demands (or hindrances) can drain energy and yield physiological and psychological costs by requiring sustained physical and/or mental effort at work. Using self-determination theory, the current study examined the associations among role conflict (as a proxy for job demands), frustration of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, mindfulness, and employees’ health and work-related functioning. In line with hypotheses, the results revealed an indirect effect of role conflict on burnout, somatic symptom burden, and turnover intentions through basic psychological need frustration. Further, these indirect effects were moderated by mindfulness, such that the mediation by basic psychological need frustration was less evident among individuals who reported higher levels of mindfulness. Taken together, these findings contribute to a small but growing literature on the benefits of mindfulness in organizational settings.

This research examines how supervisor–subordinate relational dynamics influence how individuals become bound to their work unit. As such, it addresses recent calls for theory-driven research into the psychological mechanisms that influence relational identity formation as well as related organizational outcomes. The work integrates self-determination and identity theory as a means of exploring nuanced relationships that clarify how role perceptions impact supervisor–employee and unit relationships. Data were collected from 259 nurses from two healthcare organizations. The questionnaire included measures of perceived competence, perceived autonomy, identification with supervisor, and normative unit commitment and demographic descriptors. A proposed model was tested via mediated-moderation regression analyses. Consistent with predictions, nurses' perceptions of their competence were found to interact with their experience of autonomy in their work to influence their identification with supervisor such that stronger competence perceptions effect identification when employees also experience higher autonomy. Further, this interaction was found to work through supervisor identification as well as to directly influence employee normative commitment to their unit. This investigation strengthens our understanding of how supervisors can positively impact subordinates' connectedness to their work unit. To this end, we elaborate how the supervisor, as a prototypical representative in the unit, helps bridge employee empowerment and unit commitment.

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is often hailed for its positive linkages to individual outcomes and organizational effectiveness. Despite these findings, research on OCB often fails to consider how an individual's past OCB may influence the outcomes stemming from current OCB performance. Such a contextually bland image truncates our understanding of the impact of these behaviors. Furthermore, the theories that drive literature on OCB (e.g., social exchange, expectancy, and conservation of resources) are socially focused. However, there is limited research examining how coworkers' responses to others' OCBs, in light of past OCB performance, may alter the nature of their perceptions and behavioral reactions to changes in OCB. Recent literature on OCB also calls for consolidation of OCB-related typologies, but few efforts test the efficacy of composite frameworks. Accordingly, this effort investigates the impact that fluctuations (increase vs. decreases) in different types of OCB (orientation vs. direction) have on coworker perceptions and responses to OCB performers. This effort also explored the impact that coworker's assumptions regarding another employee's motivations for OCB has on the outcomes that stem from OCB. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.

The own-anchor effect concerns the assimilation of judgments of other people's external characteristics such as age, weight, and height toward the estimator's own characteristics. The phenomenon is related to theories of social projection and classical anchoring. It has previously been described as an estimation bias in studies of eyewitness accuracy and has been measured by the correlation between the estimates and the participants' own corresponding characteristics. We suggest that the term own-anchor effect should be reserved for cases when the estimate and the estimator's own value both are bigger than the target person's value, or when both are smaller than the target person's value. Two subtypes of own-anchoring and their association to different target persons of different ages and sizes are also described. A new index of own-anchoring based on the deviation between the estimate and the target persons' values is introduced, and differences between the two measures are discussed, as well as the implications for moderation by gender.

Despite substantial evidence supporting the positive impact of employee work engagement on organizational outcomes, it remains unclear how engagement changes in demanding work settings within a given time frame. Drawing on the job demands–resources model, we examine the weekly dynamic patterns of vigor, dedication, and absorption (three dimensions of work engagement), as well as the relationship between self-efficacy and the trajectories of these three dimensions. Two field studies were conducted to examine our hypotheses. In Study 1, with the use of a sample of 111 entrepreneurs participating in a 5-day-long Gobi hike designed to enhance professional development, we found that vigor, dedication, and absorption declined over time and that self-efficacy was positively associated with initial vigor, dedication, and absorption. In Study 2, to extend the findings of Study 1, we collected data from 106 employees in various industries using a daily diary survey across five consecutive workdays. Analyses of linear growth models indicates a consistent decline in dedication and absorption, with a positive effect of self-efficacy on all three dimensions of daily engagement.

Research has investigated how each of numerous indicators of attitude strength separately affect an attitude's stability, resistance to persuasion, and utility in predicting behavior. More recent studies, however, have revealed interactive effects of attitude certainty and objective ambivalence. High (vs. low) certainty strengthened an attitude low in objective ambivalence (e.g., higher resistance to persuasion and attitude stability) but weakened an attitude high in objective ambivalence (e.g., lower resistance and stability). Extending these findings, we show that attitude certainty also moderates the effect of an attitude high or low in subjective ambivalence on attitude stability. Moreover, we generalize an interaction perspective on indicators of attitude strength by showing that attitude knowledge also interacts with ambivalence and certainty regarding attitude stability. Findings are discussed in regard to the interplay of different strength indicators more generally.

Perceived organizational support (POS) is considered a central factor in employees' work-related attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on the relational model of authority, we propose that perceived authority legitimacy, which reflects subordinates' identification with and acceptance of authority directives and power, may mediate the effect of POS on employees' work-related outcomes, including job satisfaction, affective commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and work deviance behavior. We analyzed the data from a cross-organizational sample of n = 343 employees using structural equation modeling with latent constructs. Results indicated perceived authority legitimacy partially mediated the relations of POS with work-related outcomes. When organizations recognize their employees' contributions, acknowledge their importance, and demonstrate an interest in their needs, employees tend to better accept the authority directives. Perceived authority legitimacy is then echoed in employees' functioning. While the benefits of POS have mostly been discussed as reflecting exchange processes, our findings point to identity-based processes emphasizing the important role of perceived authority legitimacy. The paper concludes by discussing implications for human resource management theory and practice.

This research expands knowledge of individual tendencies to “pay it forward,” as a result of commitment to the organization. It is desirable for organizations to have employees who go above and beyond their prescribed work duties, resulting in positive outcomes and increased organizational performance. The critical role that organizational citizenship behavior plays in providing internal and external benefits for the organization highlights the importance of research in this field. This is particularly important in dynamic work environments with an increase in non-traditional (e.g., decentralized and remote) working arrangements. This work conceptually confirms that the generalized social exchange driven behavior of paying it forward (PIF) is an organizational citizenship behavior distinct from other conceptualizations. The research proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model contributing to literature examining individual tendencies to engage in social exchange and organizational citizenship behavior in organizations. The research uses a single, cross-sectional descriptive research design and data are analyzed using regression analyses. The findings confirm that a positive relationship exists between organizational commitment and PIF. Age and gender are confirmed moderators of this relationship, with younger respondents and males exhibiting the highest levels of PIF. Key practical implications from this research relate to furthering the understanding of individual tendencies to engage in organizational citizenship behavior, as a result of their commitment to the organization. This provides managers insight into fostering desired behavior, which assists with the creation of a self-reinforcing, positive behavioral cycle.

Humans are naturally social, and according to relational models theory (RMT), they use cognitively represented and motivationally operative models (i.e., relational models) to structure and understand their social interactions. RMT proposes that the fit between the expected and perceived relational model (i.e., RM fit) in a given social interactive situation is related to perceptions of justice, while an RM misfit is related to injustice perceptions. The experience of RM fit/misfit is motivationally operative for generating behavior intended to either strengthen a just relationship or transform an unjust relationship. Building on these theoretical considerations, it is argued that RM fit (misfit) is positively (negatively) related to perceived justice which in turn is positively related to willingness to help and negatively related to willingness to hide one's knowledge from an interaction partner. Willingness to help and sharing information are of particular practical importance in the context of teamwork and for cooperative relationships in organizations more generally. Three experimental studies (n₁ = 441, n₂ = 618, n₃ = 455) were conducted in which RM fit/misfit was manipulated as an independent variable in three different work scenarios (vignettes). We assessed participants' justice perceptions and willingness to exhibit (un)cooperative behavior (i.e., more or less helping and knowledge hiding) toward their interaction partners. All three experiments confirmed the hypothesized relationships. The results are discussed with respect to the theoretical relevance of RMT for explaining mechanisms underlying justice perceptions, helping behavior, and knowledge hiding at work in teams and organizations.