Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes最新文献

Although information gaps frequently occur in the workplace, surprisingly little organizational research considered their psychological consequences for employees. We refine the information gap theory by integrating it with the cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) framework to argue that work-related information gaps constitute a double-edged sword for work engagement because they elicit both specific curiosity and frustration. We find support for our cognitive-affective process model of information gaps across two experience-sampling studies and an experimental study. In Study 1 (74 employees, 270 days), we validated a work-related information gap scale to empirically disentangle information gaps from specific curiosity. In Study 2 (107 employees, 719 days), information gaps were positively associated with specific curiosity and frustration, which in turn had differential effects on work engagement. In Study 3 (405 employees across two conditions), we provide causal support for our model and rule out alternative cognitive (i.e., boredom) and affective (i.e., thriving) mechanisms.

The popular business press has portrayed workplace curiosity – defined as the pursuit of information, knowledge, or learning in the workplace – as the most valuable quality employees can possess. Most research examining workplace curiosity has found that it is positively related to desirable employee outcomes; however, little is known about the potential dark side of this well-intentioned, yet risky, workplace behavior. Further, past research suggests that well-intentioned risky follower acts can lead to unintended negative leader perceptions. In this paper, we theorize that the relationship between follower curiosity and leader ratings of follower likability is mediated by leader perceptions of follower insubordination, and that this mediated relationship is moderated by follower political skill, such that the indirect effect of follower curiosity on follower likability via perceptions of follower insubordination is stronger for followers with lower (rather than higher) political skill. In Study 1, using data from three samples of leader–follower dyads collected at three time points, we find support for our theoretical model. In Study 2, using experimental vignette methodology, we not only find that follower curiosity and political skill interact to predict lower levels of leader perceptions of follower insubordination, but also that the curiosity of politically skilled followers is perceived as more constructive than the curiosity of followers who are less politically skilled. In Study 3, also using experimental vignette methodology, we find that leaders rate curious followers as more insubordinate and less likable when they engage in unconstructive curiosity. Together these three studies suggest that political skill enables followers to be curious without being perceived as insubordinate, that follower curiosity is less risky when it is constructive, and that curious followers who ask the right questions are less likely to be considered insubordinate or unlikable by their leader. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a probabilistic reward scheme to motivate workers and increase their performance. Across seven experiments (three of which are in the online appendices) testing three different real effort tasks, we compared two novel probabilistic reward schemes with two traditional non-probabilistic reward schemes. In our flagship “single lottery” probabilistic scheme, worker performance was associated with the accumulation of lottery tickets in the worker’s own personal lottery with a moderate jackpot on offer. It was possible for the worker to accumulate all tickets and thus guarantee the jackpot. We found that the single lottery scheme increased motivation and performance relative to other probabilistic and non-probabilistic schemes with the same expected values. There was also evidence that the single lottery scheme was particularly effective for lower-ability workers relative to the non-probabilistic schemes. We argue that the single lottery scheme uniquely benefited from optimism bias and the goal gradient effect. Considering perceptions of (un)fairness associated with probabilistic reward schemes – at least at first – we discuss what labor contexts are appropriate for the introduction of a probabilistic reward scheme.

While psychological safety climate is widely seen as having a positive relationship with work performance, there are compelling reasons as to why that may not always apply. We draw on cognitive psychology literature to suggest that high levels of psychological safety climate can actually harm the performance of routine tasks. The negative effect of high levels of psychological safety climate on these tasks can be moderated, however, by collective accountability. We find evidence for these propositions across five independent studies at different levels of analysis and organizational settings. We find that while moderate levels of psychological safety climate are associated with better in-role performance, high levels are associated with decreasing in-role performance. Collective accountability can buffer that decreasing performance. These results help identify the boundary conditions of psychological safety climate and extend research on it to organization-level and business outcomes with real-world consequences.

Individuals value benevolence and integrity in their partners. However, in many workplace dilemmas benevolence and integrity conflict. Across 5 experiments (and 8 supplemental studies), we demonstrate that the relative importance individuals attach to having partners that prioritize either benevolence or integrity systematically shifts across relationships. We introduce the Size-Closeness-Hierarchy (SCH) Model, a theoretical framework to characterize preferences individuals have for benevolent versus high-integrity partners across workplace relationships that vary in group size, emotional closeness, and hierarchy. According to our model, as relationships involve more people, become more emotionally distant, and become more hierarchical (relational features common in leaders), individuals become more likely to prefer high-integrity partners. However, as relationships involve fewer people, become more emotionally close, and become more equal (relational features common in friends), individuals become more likely prefer benevolent partners. Our findings advance our understanding of the interplay between moral values, leadership, and interpersonal perceptions.

Professionals are often required to introduce themselves and engage in self-promotion in writing. Text-based self-promotion allows people to reach a wide audience but can make it difficult to convey warmth. Across seven studies (N = 2,533), we show that people conveyed greater warmth in written introductions when they emphasized their journey (i.e., the path taken to achieve their accomplishments) along with their outcomes (i.e., the accomplishments). In Studies 1a-1d, we used a real-world context and found that more journey-oriented LinkedIn introductions increased warmth perceptions, partly because these introducers were perceived as humbler. These results extended beyond naïve evaluators to human resources specialists. Studies 2–4 experimentally replicated these effects, additionally examining how information regarding the difficulty of outcomes affected perceptions and identifying communication medium as a boundary condition: journey information increased perceived warmth in text, but not video introductions. Adding journey information to written introductions conveys warmth and creates more favorable impressions.

Conflict plays a profound role in the lives of individuals, organizations, and entire societies – and has become an ever-expanding area of interdisciplinary research. This special issue brings together five new papers examining conflict antecedents and processes using the experimental method. In the following introduction, we consider the challenges inherent to studying conflict using experiments and the various approaches that researchers have developed to overcome some of those challenges. In doing so, we present a high-level taxonomy of successful experimental approaches to the study of conflict and highlight the manner in which the papers in the Special issue exemplify each of these approaches. We conclude with several pieces of specific advice to researchers seeking to make robust and impactful contributions to this area.

This paper explores the impact of self-forgiveness on transgressors’ self-improvement motivation and their subsequent moral disengagement and unethical behavior. It also investigates whether self-forgiveness might be more critical for transgressors with a fixed mindset compared to those with a growth mindset. Eight studies (Total N = 2,522), in which self-forgiveness was both measured (Studies 1a to 3) and experimentally manipulated (Studies 4 and 5), were conducted to test the proposed theoretical model. Overall, the results of these studies suggest that when transgressors forgive themselves for a transgression, they show greater self-improvement motivation, and therefore are less likely to morally disengage and commit another transgression. Furthermore, self-forgiveness offers greater benefits for transgressors with a fixed mindset than those with a growth mindset. These findings highlight the transforming power of self-forgiveness, particularly for individuals with a fixed mindset.

Nudges are increasingly used by governments and organizations to promote behaviors like healthy eating or effective financial planning. Due to their cost-effectiveness, such nudges may earn a profit for the nudger. We investigate whether this profit taints nudges, as suggested by recent research showing that altruistic acts can be regarded less favourably if they result in private benefits to the actor. Across seven preregistered experiments, we demonstrate that prosocial nudges are indeed rated less positively if a profit is earned. But this tainting is limited: prosocial but profitable nudges are evaluated much more favourably than merely profitable ones, unless profit-motivated nudgers deceptively claim their motive is prosocial. Our findings apply to both for-profit and non-profit organizations and provide behaviorally informed guidelines for the introduction of nudge interventions. We suggest organizations can avoid the potential risk of backlash by openly disclosing the win–win nature of their prosocial nudges.

Although holding oneself accountable is deemed important for effective leadership, CEOs tend to demonstrate a self-serving tendency when reporting their company’s performance to the financial community. Leaders do so by providing internal accounts for favorable performance and external accounts for unfavorable performance. The effects of this strategy on the financial community’s judgments of a company’s value, however, is frequently mixed. Guided by the actor-observer perspective, we propose that observers (i.e., analysts) are likely to provide higher forecasts for firms whose CEOs attribute unfavorable organizational outcomes to internal factors and favorable outcomes to external factors. Integrating this conceptual perspective with attribution theory, we predicted that CEO accounts will have a stronger influence on analysts’ forecasts when the company performs unfavorably versus favorably. Results of archival data analysis (N = 35,676 quarterly earnings conference calls) generally supported our hypothesis, and were then replicated in a pre-registered follow-up field experiment (Study 2; N = 307), showing that analysts’ perceptions of the leader’s integrity mediated the effects of CEO accounts on analysts’ evaluation of the company. The mediating role of leader integrity was only significant when the company performed unfavorably (versus favorably). The present research adds to theory on causal accounts and perceived leader integrity, while offering guidance on how leaders’ accounts can relate to observers’ evaluations of those leaders and their companies.