The performance evaluation context: Social, emotional, cognitive, political, and relationship components

Workplace Attachment Style as Moderator of the Relationship Between Political Skills and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

A number of studies have demonstrated the role played by political skills on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Other research has also shown how the work environment can affect OCBs. However, no research has yet addressed the role that workplace attachment style plays in influencing employee OCBs. The present study aims to investigate the moderating role of workplace attachment style on the relationship between political skills and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) using a cross-sectional design. The research was carried out with the participation of 185 French office workers. Research hypotheses were tested by means of three moderation models. The results show that political skills are positively related to OCB, and that secure and preoccupied workplace attachment styles moderate the relationship between political skills and OCB. These results therefore underline the importance of appropriate organizational environmental management in promoting OCBs.

Cross-level research on the impact of self-serving leadership on employee innovation behavior: The roles of workplace anxiety and team psychological safety

Employee innovative behavior is significant in maintaining an organization's sustainable development. This study explored the impact of team psychological safety and workplace anxiety on the association between self-serving leadership and employee innovation behavior by synthesizing social information processing theory, conservation of resources theory, and ego depletion theory. We conducted a hierarchical linear model analysis using three-wave paired data collected from 86 leaders and 392 employees. The research results showed that self-serving leadership is negatively correlated with employee innovation behavior. Meanwhile, team psychological safety and workplace anxiety mediated this relationship. In addition, team psychological safety mitigates the impact of workplace anxiety on employee innovation behavior and the indirect impact of self-serving leadership on employee innovation behavior via workplace anxiety. These findings have a number of theoretical and practical implications in the domains of self-serving leadership and employee innovation behavior.

The Role of Authentic Leadership in Shaping Performance Feedback Reactions: The Mediating Role of Trust in Leader

In this study we attempted to explore the effect of authentic leadership on followers’ feedback reactions in the performance appraisal context using trust in leader as the mediating variable. We collected data from a sample of 183 employees working in the information technology sector of Pakistan using a self-administered questionnaire, employing a cross-sectional study design with convenience sampling technique. The study provided empirical evidence about the effect of authentic leadership on performance feedback reactions and the associated mediating mechanism. It drew on authentic leadership theory and investigated why such a leadership style was important in making the performance appraisal process successful and effective. As hypothesized, authentic leadership significantly predicted perceived feedback accuracy and utility (two feedback reactions in performance appraisal). Our findings confirmed that there was a significant mediating effect of trust in leaders between authentic leadership and performance feedback reactions. The inferences drawn based on the results suggested that raters’ authenticity in performance appraisal context creates a trusting situation and leads to ratees’ perception of feedback accuracy and utility.

Cyberloafing to Escape From the “Devil”: Investigating the Impact of Abusive Supervision From the Third-Party Perspective

Purpose

Previous studies on cyberloafing focus on individual and organization factors, ignoring the situation of employes as the event observers. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), the present study proposed a theoretical model for the relationships among peer abusive supervision, negative affectivity, cyberloafing, and hostile attribute bias, which aims to bridge the above research gap.

Methodology

Multiwave data of 355 employes from 8 service-oriented companies in Southwest China supported our model. Time-lag method and critical incident techniques were introduced during the data collection stage. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and bootstrapping method were employed for hypothesis test.

Findings

The empirical results indicated that peer abusive supervision was positively related to third party’s cyberloafing, and the third party’s negative affectivity plays a mediating role among the above relationships. In addition, the third party’s hostile attribution bias moderated the mediating role of third party’s negative affectivity. Specifically, the effect of peer abusive supervision on third party’s negative affectivity and the mediating effect of this negative affectivity were stronger when the third party’s hostile attribution bias was higher.

Originality

Drawing on AET, the current study constructed a process model of third party’s cyberloafing reactions to peer abusive supervision, which helps explain the affective mechanism and the boundary conditions of the above “events-affectivity-behavior” path. Our model is a positive response to previous scholars’ calls for research of abusive supervision from multiple perspectives. Meanwhile, the current study explored the antecedent variable of cyberloafing from the perspective of event observers, which provides a theoretical basis for follow-up-related research. Thirdly, this study further expanded the theoretical boundaries of AET.

Weight Bias 2.0: The Effect of Perceived Weight Change on Performance Evaluation and the Moderating Role of Anti-fat Bias

Overweight employees are viewed as lazy, slow, inactive, and even incapable. Even if such attributes are false, this perspective can seriously undermine others' evaluation of their work performance. The current study explores a broader phenomenon of weight bias that has an effect on weight change. In a longitudinal study with a time lag of 6 months, we surveyed 226 supervisor-employee dyads. We found supervisor perceptions of employee weight change notably altered their evaluation of the employee performance from Time 1, especially following low vs. high Time-1 performance evaluation. Meanwhile, the moderating effects among different levels of supervisor anti-fat bias functioned as boundary conditions for such performance evaluation alteration. In particular, the interaction between the Time-1 performance evaluation and the impact of supervisor perception of employee weight change on the Time-2 performance evaluation was significant only if supervisors held a stronger anti-fat bias.

An innovative work behaviour-enhancing employability model moderated by age

Purpose

This study aims to empirically validate an innovative work behaviour-enhancing model of employability in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to examine possible moderating effects of age.

Design/methodology/approach

Data have been collected from 487 pairs of employees and their immediate supervisors who worked in 151 SMEs. Structural equation modelling (SEM) has been used to investigate the predictive validity of employability on innovative work behaviour using a multi-source approach. The moderating effect of employee age on the relationship between, on the one hand, self-ratings and supervisor ratings of employability, and, on the other hand, innovative work behaviour has been tested using multi-group SEM.

Findings

Results suggest that self-rated employability correlates positively with supervisor-rated innovative work behaviour, and that supervisor-rated employability correlates positively with self-rated innovative work behaviour. Age appeared to have a weak influence on the relationship between employability and innovative work behaviour; more specifically, in case of a higher age, the relationship was stronger.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-sectional design is a limitation of this study. Another limitation relates to the generalizability of the study findings outside the context in which the research has been undertaken. The relational meaning of employee age might be different in other cultures.

Practical implications

Supervisors appear to play an essential role in providing an age-friendly working life for employees. Moreover, as SMEs often do not employ professionals to manage human resources, supervisors themselves have to carry the responsibility to encourage aging employees to develop themselves the enhancing innovative work behaviour.

Originality/value

This study is the first to investigate the predictive validity of employability on innovative work behaviour and the effects of age on this relationship.

Using observational research methods to study voice and silence in organizations

The current article offers a behaviour-based perspective on employee voice and silence in organizations. Specifically, we outline two observational approaches to study the dynamics of voice and silence in real time: coding of voice behaviour using a behavioural instrument, and behavioural rating scales. In an exemplary study, we sampled repeated measurements of voice and silence behaviour based on videotaped supervisor–subordinate interactions during annual appraisal interviews. Both approaches provided insights into temporal processes of silence and voice. At the conversational event level, behavioural coding revealed significant sequential patterns between supervisor behaviour and subordinate voice. Findings showed that supervisors’ listening behaviour played a central role in stimulating subordinate voice at the event level of conversational conduct, whereas discussing the subordinates’ past performing, sharing knowledge and procedural statements had the opposite effect and were significantly less likely to initiate subordinate voice. Finally, our results indicated better reliabilities for voice in contrast to silence when observer ratings were used. We discuss strengths and limitations of both approaches and outline how they complement traditional survey measures. Moreover, we provide recommendations for steering more effective appraisal interviews.

Workplace Politics and Performance Appraisal

Drawing from Johns’s theory of self-serving behavior, we identified workplace politics as a contextual factor that affects the relative costs and benefits associated with supervisor rating behaviors. Our investigation tested these ideas by considering how politics influence the way in which raters combine information when evaluating subordinate performance. Specifically, we examined the three-way interaction of in-role behavior, extra-role behavior, and politics perceptions on overall ratings of performance in a two-study, multilevel investigation. Across two studies, results generally were consistent with the hypothesized three-way interaction, such that the joint effects of extra-role and in-role behavior on performance ratings varied across levels of politics. Implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Getting Rid of Performance Ratings: Genius or Folly? A Debate

Despite years of research and practice, dissatisfaction with performance appraisal is at an all-time high. Organizations are contemplating changes to their performance management systems, the most controversial of which is whether to eliminate performance ratings. The pros and cons of retaining performance ratings were the subject of a lively, standing-room-only debate at the 2015 Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference in Philadelphia (Adler, 2015). Given the high interest in this topic, this article recaps the points made by the panelists who participated in the debate. The arguments for eliminating ratings include these: (a) the disappointing interventions, (b) the disagreement when multiple raters evaluate the same performance, (c) the failure to develop adequate criteria for evaluating ratings, (d) the weak relationship between the performance of ratees and the ratings they receive, (e) the conflicting purposes of performance ratings in organizations, (f) the inconsistent effects of performance feedback on subsequent performance, and (g) the weak relationship between performance rating research and practice in organizations. The arguments for retaining ratings include (a) the recognition that changing the rating process is likely to have minimal effect on the performance management process as a whole, (b) performance is always evaluated in some manner, (c) “too hard” is no excuse for industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology, (d) ratings and differentiated evaluations have many merits for improving organizations, (e) artificial tradeoffs are driving organizations to inappropriately abandon ratings, (f) the alternatives to ratings may be worse, and (g) the better questions are these: How could performance ratings be improved, and are we conducting the entire performance management process properly? The article closes with questions organizational members have found useful for driving effective performance management reform.

Appraisal Participation and Perceived Voice in Annual Appraisal Interviews

Appraisal interviews (AIs) are one of the most commonly used human resource practices in organizations. However, they are often criticized for comprising conflicting purposes. In this study, we focus on contextual factors of the appraisal process. Specifically, we propose that AIs follow a two-phase model of performance evaluation and development planning. These two phases trigger different levels of employee appraisal participation which, in turn, affects employees’ perception of voice. In a sample of 48 audiotaped AIs, we coded employees’ objective appraisal participation throughout the entire interview session and linked it to subsequent ratings of perceived voice. Results showed that interviews were highly leader-centered and mainly concentrated on performance evaluation. Employees’ appraisal participation was significantly lower during performance evaluation than during development planning. Appraisal participation during development planning, but not during performance evaluation, was related to subsequent ratings of perceived voice. In addition, this relationship was moderated by supervisor trust.

The Performance Management Fix Is In: How Practice Can Build on the Research

The scientist–practitioner model of training in industrial and organizational psychology provides the foundation for the education of industrial and organizational psychologists across the world. This approach is important because, as industrial and organizational psychologists, we are responsible for both the creation and discovery of knowledge and the use or application of that knowledge. In multiple articles recently published in this journal, Pulakos and her colleagues (Pulakos, Mueller Hanson, Arad, & Moye, 2015; Pulakos & O’Leary, 2011) have argued that performance management (PM), as applied and implemented in organizations, is broken. This is not a unique take on the state of PM in organizations, as others have been arguing for many years that PM is no longer working in organizations the way that we would like it to work (Banks & Murphy, 1985; Bretz, Milkovich, & Read, 1992). Further, for many years and in many Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference panels and debates in the literature, we have been inundated with discussions and conversations around the science–practice gap and around the gap being especially evident in PM.

Overcoming the Help-Seeker’s Dilemma: How Computer-Mediated Systems Encourage Employee Help-Seeking Initiation

Helping processes are critical for organizations. Yet, research suggests that there are strong disincentives for employees to seek help from others. Drawing on self-presentation theory, this paper tested how computer-mediated communication may be used to stimulate a help-seeking response from workers. Subjects were placed in an induced-failure work scenario and provided with a computer-mediated channel with which to request help. By experimentally manipulating feedback, anonymity, and interdependence features of the work context, we then measured the length of time before subjects requested help. Eighty three percent of subjects initiated a request for help within the work period, and these help-seeking requests were made more quickly under strong helping norms, high goal interdependence, and high anonymity conditions rather than weak helping norms, low goal interdependence, and low anonymity conditions. The results provide new insights into the design of official communication channels intended to encourage employee help-seeking.

Validity in work-based assessment: expanding our horizons

CONTEXT

Although work-based assessments (WBA) may come closest to assessing habitual performance, their use for summative purposes is not undisputed. Most criticism of WBA stems from approaches to validity consistent with the quantitative psychometric framework. However, there is increasing research evidence that indicates that the assumptions underlying the predictive, deterministic framework of psychometrics may no longer hold. In this discussion paper we argue that meaningfulness and appropriateness of current validity evidence can be called into question and that we need alternative strategies to assessment and validity inquiry that build on current theories of learning and performance in complex and dynamic workplace settings.

METHODS

Drawing from research in various professional fields we outline key issues within the mechanisms of learning, competence and performance in the context of complex social environments and illustrate their relevance to WBA. In reviewing recent socio-cultural learning theory and research on performance and performance interpretations in work settings, we demonstrate that learning, competence (as inferred from performance) as well as performance interpretations are to be seen as inherently contextualised, and can only be under-stood 'in situ'. Assessment in the context of work settings may, therefore, be more usefully viewed as a socially situated interpretive act.

DISCUSSION

We propose constructivist-interpretivist approaches towards WBA in order to capture and understand contextualised learning and performance in work settings. Theoretical assumptions underlying interpretivist assessment approaches call for a validity theory that provides the theoretical framework and conceptual tools to guide the validation process in the qualitative assessment inquiry. Basic principles of rigour specific to qualitative research have been established, and they can and should be used to determine validity in interpretivist assessment approaches. If used properly, these strategies generate trustworthy evidence that is needed to develop the validity argument in WBA, allowing for in-depth and meaningful information about professional competence.

Relationship between union strength and supervisor‐subordinate power relations

Purpose

A labor union's strength is a crucial factor when considering outcomes such as its constituents' empowerment. One of the most important goals of any labor union is to achieve increased balance‐of‐power between the labor and management groups; hence, union strength is an accomplishment of this fundamental aim. It follows that stronger unions, measured by their perceived effectiveness in dealing with management, will contain more empowered constituents. Previous union‐related research typically considered employee empowerment at the group‐level of analysis (e.g. improved work rules, pay, and benefits for entire groups of employees). The purpose of this paper is to propose and test hypotheses on the relationship between perceived union strength, a micro‐ or workplace‐level analog of union bargaining power, and perceptions of shared leader‐member expectations using supervisor‐subordinate dyads as a unit of analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

Working adults across the USA were sampled (n=347), through the use of a survey software company that makes survey panels commercially available. Respondents were racially/ethnically diverse, with a mean age of about 41 years (range of 18 to over 62 years), and slightly more females than males (about 65 percent female). Also, about 13.5 percent were members of a labor union.

Findings

Employees who belonged to more powerful unions (i.e. compared to employees who belonged to less powerful unions) demonstrated increased shared‐leadership expectations with their supervisors. In support of Hypothesis 1, non‐union employees also possessed increased shared leadership expectations in comparison to union workers where the union was perceived as weak. As proposed in Hypothesis 2, unions perceived as strong produced more empowered constituents relative to unions perceived as weak. Finally, non‐union employees did not appear to differ in shared‐leadership expectations from employees perceiving strong unions, contrary to Hypothesis 3.

Originality/value

A contribution of the present study is to show that unions also have significant connections with supervisor‐subordinate relations (i.e. shared leadership), and that simply having a unionized workplace does not guarantee increased employee empowerment; unions must also be strong.