Applied Psychology-An International Review-Psychologie Appliquee-Revue Internationale最新文献

Since the rise of working from home, communication between leaders and their followers has become more digital. When communicating through digital media, there is a risk that information and nonverbal signals may not be transmitted adequately. This can be particularly challenging for health-oriented leaders in terms of their StaffCare, which encompasses both the awareness of followers' health needs and concrete behaviors to promote their well-being. When aiming to recognize followers' early warning signals related to mental health issues and take appropriate action, leaders may be hindered by the limitations of digital communication. We conducted an experimental study (n = 47) to investigate whether leaders are better able to recognize and respond to their followers' warning signals during face-to-face (f2f) contact compared to video or telephone communication. Our findings confirm that leaders' StaffCare is more successful in f2f than in video and telephone settings. To further examine the decrease in StaffCare during digital communication, a second field study (n = 275) was conducted. The results showed that leaders' awareness and behavior were lower when working from home without f2f communication than when working on-site. Together, our two studies demonstrate the new challenges and conditions of health-oriented leadership in digital communication and outline practical recommendations for human resource practitioners on how leaders' StaffCare can be fostered.

Zero-sum thinking – the belief that one party's gain necessitates another's loss – remains a pervasive cognitive bias with profound implications for workplace dynamics. Understanding its role in driving counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is critical for fostering healthier organizational cultures and for mitigating interpersonal conflicts. We draw on social exchange theory and equity theory to elucidate how zero-sum beliefs (ZSBs) shape employees' interpretations of workplace interactions, particularly in terms of perceived fairness and reciprocity. Based on two correlational studies (n = 451; n = 438) and an experimental study (n = 596) examining both real-life behaviors and behavioral intentions in hypothetical scenarios, we found that ZSBs motivate CWB. This relationship is mediated – at least partially – by feelings of exploitation: the more employees view success in the workplace as zero-sum, the more they feel exploited by coworkers, which in turn increases their likelihood of engaging in harmful and retaliatory actions. We conclude by highlighting zero-sum beliefs as an important psychological mechanism shaping workplace emotions and counterproductive behavior, and by emphasizing that managers can mitigate these effects through fostering perceptions of mutual gains.

Although emerging studies have documented the benefits of leader mindfulness in the workplace, the mechanisms by which it enables employees to cope with adversity remain unknown. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and social learning theory, I suggest that mindful leaders can enhance subordinates' resilience through a resource-enhancing pathway (indicated by employee psychological empowerment) and an indirect learning pathway (reflected in leader role modeling). I posit, however, that these positive effects of leader mindfulness are weakened in more highly virtual teams. I tested this model across two studies. Study 1 was a multi-wave, multi-source survey based on a sample of 89 leaders and 424 followers. Study 2 was a field experiment in which 112 leaders were assigned to either a mindfulness intervention or a control condition. The results of both studies fully supported my theory. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Prior literature on leader humor primarily focuses on its positive effects on employee attitudes and behaviors; however, its potential negative effects have been largely neglected and underestimated. This research challenges the previous wisdom and proposes a model based on attribution theory that for employees with self-serving attributions, leader humor will promote their psychological entitlement, which further leads to unethical pro-organizational behavior. Based on three-wave survey data collected from 313 employees and an experiment via Master of Business Administration (MBA) students in China, we found that the interaction of leader humor and self-serving attribution was positively related to psychological entitlement, which in turn contributed to unethical pro-organizational behavior. The theoretical and managerial implications for understanding how to manage leader humor are discussed.

Given the paradoxical nature of educational specialization diversity, we suggest that paradoxical leadership effectively manages this diversity and enhances its positive impact on team innovation. Building on the group as information processor framework, we propose that team reflexivity, a critical information-processing activity within teams, mediates the interaction between educational specialization diversity and paradoxical leadership in influencing team innovation. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a multi-wave, multi-source field study with data from 126 teams. Our findings demonstrate that paradoxical leadership positively moderates the relationship between educational specialization diversity and team innovation, as well as the relationship between educational specialization diversity and team reflexivity. Our results also reveal that team reflexivity mediates the moderated relationship between educational specialization diversity, paradoxical leadership, and team innovation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

While leadership structure is recognized as a key mechanism for enabling teams to adapt to dynamic environments, there remains limited understanding of which leadership structural configurations yield optimal performance under such contexts. To address this gap, we draw on adaptive leadership theory and adopt a multidimensional network approach to examine how leadership structure influences team performance in dynamic contexts. Specifically, this study considers not only the dispersion (i.e., centralization) and magnitude (i.e., density) of leadership but also the transition of leadership (i.e., centrality variance). A field study with a sample of 115 entrepreneurial project teams was conducted to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal that, in comparison to the other two basic configurations, the leadership structure with high centralization, low density, and high centrality variance is associated with the lowest level of status conflict, while the structure with high centralization, low density, and low centrality variance is associated with the highest level of status conflict. This three-way interaction further exerts an indirect effect on team performance through status conflict. To enhance the validity of the findings, supplementary analysis was performed using qualitative data collected from five new venture teams, which provided additional support for the hypotheses. This study advances theoretical understanding of leadership structures in dynamic environments and offers actionable insights for fostering effective team adaptation.

Entrepreneurial leadership, a concept bridging entrepreneurship and leadership, has recently become a focal point in academic discussions. Despite its growing prominence, a thorough synthesis of its existing literature, methodological trends, and developing research areas has yet to be explored. This study addresses these gaps through a bibliometric systematic literature review (B-SLR), thereby integrating quantitative bibliometric mapping with qualitative synthesis. By coupling traditional SLR procedures with bibliometric analysis, it delivers a comprehensive overview of entrepreneurial leadership research, clarifies the field's evolution and dynamics, and establishes a robust foundation for future theory development. Seventy-seven Web of Science (WoS) articles from 2004 to 2023 were systematically collected and analyzed using the VOSviewer software for descriptive analysis and visualization, followed by a qualitative review of the emerging clusters. The analysis and review highlighted four key research themes, methodological and temporal trends, and significant publications, revealing a growing interest and recent surge in entrepreneurial leadership studies. Accordingly, these findings spotlight distinct research directions and contribute to theoretical insights and practical implications that serve as a guide for academics and practitioners in the field of entrepreneurial leadership.

Entrepreneurial failure simultaneously can challenge individuals' perceived work meaningfulness and catalyze meaning reconstruction. Although research has explored meaning-making after failure, the specific effects of near-win experiences on this process remain understudied. In this study, we draw on the meaning-making model and focus on the effects of near-wins and entrepreneurs' goal orientations on perceived work meaningfulness after entrepreneurial failure. Using data from 272 individuals who experienced entrepreneurial failure, we show that near-wins affect perceived work meaningfulness positively; furthermore, a performance-approach goal orientation strengthens this positive relationship, while a performance-avoid goal orientation weakens it. These findings illuminate the pivotal role of near-win experiences in the process of meaning-making after entrepreneurial failure and provide actionable insights for enhancing entrepreneurs' work meaningfulness.

This research examines the relationship between free-will beliefs and attitudes toward gay men among heterosexual individuals. Across five studies, we find that endorsement of free will beliefs is associated with less favorable attitudes toward gay men. This effect is explained by the perception that individuals have agency over their sexual orientation—that is, that sexual orientation is controllable. We further examine the robustness of the proposed mechanism via a moderation-as-process approach. Contrary to prior research linking free-will beliefs to prosocial intentions and behaviors, our findings reveal that such beliefs can also foster ingroup favoritism and anti-minority discrimination. Specifically, free-will beliefs are associated with more favorable attitudes toward heterosexual (ingroup) men than gay (outgroup) men, suggesting that these beliefs may contribute simultaneously to outgroup bias and ingroup favoritism. The paper discusses the contributions to the literature on free-will beliefs, sexual orientation discrimination, and ingroup favoritism, and highlights implications for understanding prejudice in light of contemporary sociopolitical dynamics surrounding LGBTQI+ rights.

In recent years, research on extreme contexts has expanded significantly, focussing on management practices in unusual or atypical work environments. However, individual behavioural responses in these settings have received less attention. Our study addresses this gap by using Job-Demand Resources (JD-R) theory to explore how extreme context exposure (i.e. frequent exposure to extreme events) influences counterproductive work behaviour towards the organisation (CWB-O) in high-risk contexts of aviation and shipping. In Study 1, based on data from 297 flight cadre, we found that extreme context exposure is positively linked to CWB-O, with exhaustion linking the two variables. Study 2 replicated these findings with data from 309 seafarers, reinforcing the robustness of our results. Additionally, we identified authentic leadership and spirituality as key job and personal resources that moderate this relationship, reducing the impact of extreme context exposure on CWB-O. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings, emphasising the importance of addressing individual behaviours in extreme work environments.