Disability disclosure as an impression management technique used in the workplace: A grounded theory investigation

BACKGROUND

In order to overcome obstacles to entry and inclusion in the workplace, individuals with disabilities engage in various impression management strategies to present themselves as the socially acceptable 'ideal employee.'

OBJECTIVE

This study expands on previous disclosure research by asking individuals with disabilities to share their experiences of identity management and workplace challenges.

METHODS

We leveraged qualitative research techniques to explore the reciprocal impact of workplace treatment and disclosure.

RESULTS

Impression management emerged as an especially salient aspect of participants' disclosure decisions, and participants used an array of impression management tactics. Some employees with disabilities described positive experiences; however, we also learned that impression management can present unique challenges that may outweigh potential benefits.

CONCLUSION

Our findings affirm that managing the image we project can be remarkably complicated and effortful when having a disability. This paper concludes with implementation recommendations for vocational rehabilitation counselors and human resource practitioners.

Hidden consequences of political discourse at work: How and why ambient political conversations impact employee outcomes

Discussions of politics have become increasingly common in the workplace, likely due to increasing political polarization around the world. Because of this, political conversations have the potential to be emotionally charged and disruptive, creating tension in the workplace and negatively affecting employee productivity and well-being. In light of this possibility, the goal of the current investigation was to examine the costs of ambient political conversations in the workplace, assuming that simply overhearing such discussions-without being a participant in them-may have unintended consequences for employees. Across three studies, our findings indicated that employees experience negative affect after overhearing political conversations at work, with these effects being attenuated (amplified) in contexts where employees perceive that their coworkers are more (less) similar to them. In addition to unpacking the mechanisms through which ambient workplace political conversations might impact employee outcomes, our findings from Studies 3A-B provide evidence that under certain circumstances (i.e., when employees agree with the content of ambient workplace political conversations), employees may experience a boost in positive affect after overhearing such conversations at work. Altogether, our findings provide insight into the costs and potential benefits associated with overhearing coworkers discussing politics in the workplace, particularly for those employees who perceive themselves to be dissimilar from their coworkers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Who speaks up when harassment is in the air? A within-person investigation of ambient harassment and voice behavior at work

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).

An Experience Sampling Analysis of the Impact of Video Monitoring Technology and In-Person Sitters on Nurse Burnout: The Moderating Effect of Nurse Commitment and Mediating Effect of Emotional Labor

BACKGROUND

While it is established that video monitoring technology (compared with the use of in-person sitters) is a safe and cost-effective solution for hospitals, little is known about the impact of these approaches on nurses' stress and well-being.

PURPOSE

To compare the use of video monitoring technology and in-person sitters (likely a resource reallocated from nurses) for monitoring patients on nurses' emotional labor and burnout.

METHOD

An experience sampling method was conducted by surveying nurses twice a day for 3 weeks, resulting in 524 survey administrations provided by 74 nurses. The surveys included measures of daily video monitoring technology and in-person sitter use, emotional labor, emotional exhaustion, and nurse career commitment.

FINDINGS

There were positive effects from video monitoring technology and negative effects of in-person sitters on emotional labor and emotional exhaustion, particularly for nurses lower in commitment.

DISCUSSION

Hospital adoption of video monitoring technology has a positive impact on nurses compared with in-person sitter use.

Laying the Foundation for the Challenge–Hindrance Stressor Framework 2.0

Although traditional views of workplace stress assume that all job demands have deleterious consequences, research indicates that some job demands may benefit employees. Notably, the Challenge–Hindrance Stressor Framework (CHSF) proposes that, although job demands that constrain, hinder, or thwart personal growth and achievement (hindrance stressors) have negative effects on work-related outcomes, job demands that provide the potential for personal growth and achievement (challenge stressors) have positive effects on these outcomes. Despite the attention generated by the CHSF, several criticisms and limitations hinder the potential of this framework. Thus, this article reviews our current understanding of the CHSF, addresses important criticisms about the nature and effects of challenge and hindrance stressors, and discusses how future research should approach conceptual and methodological challenges to lay the foundation for the next iteration of this framework—CHSF 2.0. Building on this new framework, we discuss some implications for cross-cultural research and for practitioners.

Retreating or repairing? Examining the alternate linkages between daily partner-instigated incivility at home and helping at work

Although research has recognized the straining effects of incivility at work, it is less clear how incivility experiences at home affect employees' daily states and behaviors at work. We argue that partner-instigated incivility-ambiguous aggressions from an employee's partner prior to work may affect helping behavior at work in multiple ways. Building on prior research, which has identified different mechanisms (i.e., resource drain, reactive compensation) linking family and work domains, we argue that whereas partner-instigated incivility may be cognitively depleting, thus limiting employees' capacity to help others, it may also induce negative mood, which may drive employees to compensate for this unpleasant experience by engaging in more person- and task-focused helping behaviors at work. Furthermore, we consider perspective taking as an individual difference with the potential to buffer the effects of partner-instigated incivility on cognitive depletion and negative mood. Results from a critical incident study (Study 1) supported our assertion that partner-instigated incivility is cognitively depleting and inducing of negative mood. In an experience sampling study (Study 2), which included daily reports from employees and their partners who instigated incivility, we replicated the initial effects and found support for a compensation linkage between partner-instigated incivility and both forms of helping at work via negative mood and partial support for the moderating role of perspective taking. Results also indicated that person-focused helping lessened employees' negative mood in the evening, suggesting that mood repair benefits are associated with this behavior. Implications of these findings for family incivility occurrences and self-regulation are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

When, why, and for whom is receiving help actually helpful? Differential effects of receiving empowering and nonempowering help based on recipient gender

Helping is a foundational aspect of organizational life and the prototypical organizational citizenship behavior, with most research implicitly assuming that helping benefits its recipients. Despite this, when scholars focus on help recipients, the experience is depicted as somewhat aversive that may actually reduce recipient perceptions of competence. The result is a literature at odds as to whether receiving help is beneficial. Our thesis is that this is the wrong question on which to focus. Instead, we submit that more valuable insight can be gained by asking: "when is receiving help beneficial vs. not beneficial, and for whom?" Regarding when, we differentiate between receiving help that is empowering (i.e., offers tools to empower recipients to become more self-reliant) or nonempowering (i.e., offers only immediate, short-term solutions). Regarding for whom, we draw from theory and research on stereotype threat and benevolent sexism to explain why the help recipient's gender is a critical moderator of the link between receiving nonempowering help specifically and competence perceptions. We present a multistudy "full-cycle" approach to test our hypotheses and understand the consequences of receiving empowering versus nonempowering help in more depth. Combined, our results help shift the conversation as noted above, and identify important practical implications that speak to a larger discussion on systematic disadvantages for women at work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Are Biasing Factors Idiosyncratic to Measures? A Comparison of Interpersonal Conflict, Organizational Constraints, and Workload

Widespread concern has been raised about the possibility of potential biasing factors influencing the measurement of organizational variables and distorting inferences and conclusions reached about them. Recent research calls for a measure-centric approach in which every measure is independently evaluated to assess what factor(s) may uniquely bias it. This paper examines three popular stressor measures from this perspective. Across three studies, we examine factors that may bias three popular measures of job stressors: The Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale (ICAWS), the Organizational Constraints Scale (OCS), and the Quantitative Workload Inventory (QWI). The first study used a two-wave design to survey 276 MTurk workers to assess the three stressor scales, four strains, and five measures of potential bias sources: hostile attribution bias, negative affectivity, mood, neutral objects satisfaction, and social desirability. The second study used an experimental design with 439 MTurk workers who were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or no mood induction condition to assess effects on means of the three stressor measures and their correlations with strains. The third study surveyed 161 employee-supervisor dyads to explore the convergence of results involving the three stressor measures across sources. Based on several forms of evidence we conclude that potential biasing factors affect the three stressor measures differently, supporting the merits of a measure centric approach, even among measures in the same domain.

Is physical activity before the end of the workday a drain or a gain? Daily implications on work focus in regular exercisers

Although organizations increasingly offer wellness programs that enable employees to work out before or during work, it remains unknown what implications physical activity before or during the workday might have for work outcomes. Whereas a workout might be rewarding, especially for those who enjoy exercise, working out might also be draining, especially for those who are less intrinsically motivated to exercise. Integrating the Work-Home Resources model with self-determination theory, we develop and test theory which identifies how physical activity before the end of the workday might exert countervailing effects by impeding work focus through drained personal resources (i.e., ego depletion), while also improving work focus via enhanced personal resources (i.e., self-efficacy). We further theorized that motivation for exercise-whether it is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated-serves as a cross-level moderator of these relations. In a 5-day experience sampling study tracking 74 regularly exercising employees with Fitbit activity monitors, results indicated that physical activity was not significantly related to ego depletion. However, we found that light physical activity was positively related to self-efficacy and self-efficacy positively related to work focus (as rated by coworkers). Further, vigorous physical activity only resulted in better work focus among employees with an intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation for exercise. Finally, moderate physical activity resulted in better work focus via self-efficacy among extrinsically motivated exercises, whereas this relation was negative for intrinsically motivated exercisers. Combined, our results highlight that physical activity can improve work focus when there is a match between physical activity intensity and exercise motivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The fatiguing effects of camera use in virtual meetings: A within-person field experiment

The COVID-19 pandemic propelled many employees into remote work arrangements, and face-to-face meetings were quickly replaced with virtual meetings. This rapid uptick in the use of virtual meetings led to much popular press discussion of virtual meeting fatigue (i.e., "Zoom fatigue"), described as a feeling of being drained and lacking energy following a day of virtual meetings. In this study, we aimed to better understand how one salient feature of virtual meetings-the camera-impacts fatigue, which may affect outcomes during meetings (e.g., participant voice and engagement). We did so through the use of a 4-week within-person experience sampling field experiment where camera use was manipulated. Drawing from theory related to self-presentation, we propose and test a model where study condition (camera on versus off) was linked to daily feelings of fatigue; daily fatigue, in turn, was presumed to relate negatively to voice and engagement during virtual meetings. We further predict that gender and organizational tenure will moderate this relationship such that using a camera during virtual meetings will be more fatiguing for women and newer members of the organization. Results of 1,408 daily observations from 103 employees supported our proposed model, with supplemental analyses suggesting that fatigue affects same-day and next-day meeting performance. Given the anticipated prevalence of remote work even after the pandemic subsides, our study offers key insights for ongoing organizational best practices surrounding virtual meetings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Pain or gain? Understanding how trait empathy impacts leader effectiveness following the provision of negative feedback

Although providing negative performance feedback can enhance employee performance, leaders are sometimes reluctant to engage in this activity. Reflecting this, prior research has identified negative feedback provision as an aversive, yet potentially rewarding, managerial activity. However, little is known about how providing negative feedback impacts the effectiveness of leaders who do so. To shed light on this issue, we develop and test a theoretical model that identifies how leaders' proximal and distal reactions to providing negative feedback are contingent upon their levels of trait empathy. Supporting our theory, results from an experience sampling study indicate that leaders higher in trait empathy report feeling both less attentive and more distressed after providing subordinates with negative feedback, whereas leaders lower in trait empathy report feeling more attentive and less distressed. Attentiveness and distress, in turn, were associated with leaders' daily perceptions of their effectiveness; distress was also associated with leaders' daily enactment of transformational leadership behavior. Results of two subsequent studies focused on single episodes of negative feedback provision revealed that trait empathy amplifies the extent to which feedback recipients' negative emotional reactions impact additional leader effectiveness criteria (e.g., executive functioning and planning/problem-solving), further supporting the need to account for the crucial role of trait empathy in the feedback-provision process. Altogether, our research provides a novel perspective on the feedback-giving process by shifting the focus of theorizing from the recipient to the provider, while challenging current thinking about leader empathy by highlighting its potential downside for leadership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Working through an "infodemic": The impact of COVID-19 news consumption on employee uncertainty and work behaviors

Uncertainty is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, because uncertainty is an aversive state, uncertainty reduction theory (URT) holds that employees try to manage it by obtaining information. To date, most evidence for the effectiveness of obtaining information to reduce uncertainty stems from research conducted in relatively stable contexts wherein employees can acquire consistent information. Yet, research on crises and news consumption provides reasons to believe that the potential for information to mitigate uncertainty as specified by URT may break down during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating URT with research on crises and news consumption, we predict that consuming news information during crises-which tends to be distressing, constantly evolving, and inconsistent-will be positively related to uncertainty. This in turn may have negative implications for employee goal progress and creativity; two work outcomes that take on substantial significance in times of uncertainty and the pandemic. We further predict that death anxiety will moderate this relationship, such that the link between employees' news consumption and uncertainty is stronger for those with lower levels of death anxiety, compared to those with higher levels. We test our theorizing via an experience-sampling study with 180 full-time employees, with results providing support for our conceptual model. Our study reveals important theoretical and practical implications regarding information consumption during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

On-the-Job Treatment of Employees With Disabilities: A Grounded Theory Investigation

Workplace mistreatment is common for workers with and without disabilities. Overt forms of mistreatment in the workplace (e.g., abuse, bullying, harassment) have been well studied; however, less is known about more subtle forms of workplace mistreatment for employees with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine how workers with disabilities are treated on the job, the types of mistreatment present in the workplace, the consequences involved (if any), the courses of action taken (if any), and workers’ satisfaction with the outcomes of actions taken. We used a grounded theory approach to learn from 26 employees with disabilities about their experiences with workplace treatment. Primary themes that emerged from the data were (a) the emotional toll of being mistreated on the job; (b) attempting to “grin and bear it,” as one participant described it, to avoid mistreatment; (c) a desire to feel a sense of belongingness at the workplace; and (d) the intersection of disability characteristics, individual characteristics, and work environment characteristics that influences how people with disabilities are treated on the job. Implications are presented for understanding the role that rehabilitation counselors play in helping workers and employers to respond to mistreatment of employees with disabilities.

Understanding the relationship between prior to end-of-workday physical activity and work-life balance: A within-person approach

Although physical activity has typically been conceptualized by organizational scholars as a postwork activity that spills over to enhance work-related experiences, little is known about how physical activity prior to the end of the workday spills over to affect nonwork criteria. Drawing from Hirschi, Shockley, and Zacher's (2019) action regulation model of work-life balance, we develop a process-oriented model of the implications of prior to end-of-workday physical activity for daily satisfaction with work-life balance. We examine our conceptual model in a 5-day daily diary study that incorporates objective measurements of physical activity (i.e., prior to end-of-workday steps assessed via actigraph) collected from 71 full-time employees. Consistent with our predictions, prior to end-of-workday physical activity yields greater levels of end-of-workday vigor, a boundary-spanning resource that in turn provides the energetic bandwidth to simultaneously achieve work-related (i.e., daily work recovery) and non-work-related (i.e., daily family absorption) goals during the postwork period, ultimately enhancing daily satisfaction with work-life balance. We discuss how our findings expand the scope of theorizing surrounding employee physical activity to encompass nonwork criteria and yield actionable recommendations to harness prior to end-of-workday physical activity as a positive resource. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Informational advantages in social networks: The core-periphery divide in peer performance ratings

Organizations frequently rely on peer performance ratings to capture employees' unique and difficult to observe contributions at work. Though useful, peers exhibit meaningful variance in the accuracy and informational utility they offer about ratees. In this research, we develop and test theory which suggests that raters' social network positions explains this variance in systematic ways. Drawing from information processing theory, we posit that members who occupy core (peripheral) positions in the network have greater (less) access to firsthand and secondhand performance information about ratees, which is in turn associated with more (less) accurate performance ratings. To overcome difficulties in obtaining a "true" performance score in interdependent field settings, we employ an external criterion comparison method to benchmark our arguments, such that larger validity coefficients between established predictors of performance (i.e., a ratee's general mental ability [GMA] and conscientiousness) and peer performance ratings should reflect more (less) accurate ratings for core (peripheral) members. In Study 1, we use an organization-wide network in a technology startup company to examine the validity coefficient of a ratee's GMA on performance as rated by central versus peripheral members. In Study 2, we attempt to replicate and extend Study 1's conclusions in team networks using ratee conscientiousness as a benchmark indicator. Findings from both studies generally support the hypotheses that core network members provide distinct, and presumably more accurate, peer performance ratings than peripheral network members. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

When challenges hinder: An investigation of when and how challenge stressors impact employee outcomes

Over the past two decades, accumulating evidence has indicated that individuals experience challenge and hindrance stressors in qualitatively different ways, with the former being linked to more positive outcomes than the latter. Indeed, challenge stressors are believed to have net positive effects even though they can also lead to a range of strains, eliciting beliefs that managers can enhance performance outcomes by increasing the frequency of challenge stressors experienced in the workplace. The current article questions this conventional wisdom by developing theory that explains how different patterns of challenge stressor exposure influence employee outcomes. Across 2 field studies, our results supported our theory, indicating that when challenge stressors vary across time periods, they have negative indirect effects on employee performance and well-being outcomes. In contrast, when employees experience a stable pattern of challenge stressors across time periods, they have positive indirect effects on employee performance and well-being outcomes. These results, which suggest that the benefits of challenge stressors may not outweigh their costs when challenge stressors fluctuate, have important implications for theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Are coworkers getting into the act? An examination of emotion regulation in coworker exchanges

Research on emotional labor-the process through which employees enact emotion regulation (i.e., surface and deep acting) to alter their emotional displays-has predominately focused on service-based exchanges between employees and customers where emotions are commoditized for wage. Yet, recent research has begun to focus on the outcomes of employees engaging in emotion regulation, and surface acting in particular, with coworkers. Given that coworker interactions are qualitatively distinct from those with customers, we build on the emotional labor and emotion regulation literatures to understand why such acts of emotion regulation occur in coworker-based exchanges, and whether there are well-being and social capital costs and/or benefits for doing so. Across 3 complementary studies spanning over 2,500 full-time employees, we adopt a person-centered approach and demonstrate that four distinct profiles of emotion regulation emerge in coworker exchanges: deep actors, nonactors, low actors, and regulators. Further, our results suggest that certain employees are driven to regulate their emotions with coworkers for prosocial reasons (deep actors), whereas others are more driven by impression management motives (regulators). Our results also suggest that while nonactors and deep actors similarly incur well-being benefits (i.e., lower emotional exhaustion and felt inauthenticity), deep actors alone experience social capital gains in the form of higher receipt of help from coworkers, as well as increased goal progress and trust in their coworkers. Combined, our research delineates the motives that drive emotion regulation with coworkers and identifies when such regulatory efforts yield social capital gains for employees. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Boxed in by your inbox: Implications of daily e-mail demands for managers' leadership behaviors

Over the past 30 years, the nature of communication at work has changed. Leaders in particular rely increasingly on e-mail to communicate with their superiors and subordinates. However, researchers and practitioners alike suggest that people frequently report feeling overloaded by the e-mail demands they experience at work. In the current study, we develop a self-regulatory framework that articulates how leaders' day-to-day e-mail demands relate to a perceived lack of goal progress, which has a negative impact on their subsequent enactment of routine (i.e., initiating structure) and exemplary (i.e., transformational) leadership behaviors. We further theorize how two cross-level moderators-centrality of e-mail to one's job and trait self-control-impact these relations. In an experience sampling study of 48 managers across 10 consecutive workdays, our results illustrate that e-mail demands are associated with a lack of perceived goal progress, to which leaders respond by reducing their initiating structure and transformational behaviors. The relation of e-mail demands with leader goal progress was strongest when e-mail was perceived as less central to performing one's job, and the relations of low goal progress with leadership behaviors were strongest for leaders low in trait self-control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Fuzzy Profiles

Person-centered approaches to organizational scholarship can provide critical insights into how sets of related constructs uniquely combine to predict outcomes. Within micro topics, scholars have begun to embrace the use of latent profile analysis (LPA), identifying constellations of constructs related to organizational commitment, turnover intentions, emotional labor, recovery, and well-being, to name a few. Conversely, macro scholars have utilized fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine numerous phenomena, such as acquisitions and business strategies, as configurations of explanatory conditions associated with firm-level outcomes. What remains unclear, however, is the extent to which these two approaches deliver similar versus unique insights when applied to the same topic. In this paper, we offer an overview of the ways these two methods converge and diverge, and provide an empirical demonstration by applying both LPA and fsQCA to examine a multidimensional personality construct—core self-evaluations (CSE)—in relation to job satisfaction. In so doing, we offer guidance for scholars who are either choosing between these two methods, or are seeking to use the two methods in a complementary, theory-building manner.

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.

When is success not satisfying? Integrating regulatory focus and approach/avoidance motivation theories to explain the relation between core self-evaluation and job satisfaction

Integrating implications from regulatory focus and approach/avoidance motivation theories, we present a framework wherein motivational orientations toward positive (approach motivation orientation) or negative (avoidance motivation orientation) stimuli interact with workplace success to mediate the relation of core self-evaluation (CSE) with job satisfaction. Using data collected from supervisor-subordinate dyads (Sample 1) and time-lagged data (Sample 2), we found that the results from two studies indicated that the interaction of workplace success and avoidance motivation orientation mediated relations of CSE with job satisfaction. Although approach motivation orientation did not interact with workplace success, it did mediate the CSE-job satisfaction relation on its own. Implications for the CSE and approach/avoidance literatures are discussed.

The Ethics of Organizational Secrets

Most organizations are holders of sanctioned and unsanctioned secrets. While some secrets such as product formulas are necessary and ethical, others such as hiding the negative health effects of smoking tobacco are unethical. We examine secrets along two dimensions: The first one examines the beneficiaries and victims/targets of a secret while the second focuses on whether the secret was sanctioned by the secret holders, the organization, or society. Thinking about secrets along these two dimensions helps provide a handle on the complexities involved in understanding the ethics of organizational secrets.

Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance

The authors proposed a model suggesting that organizational environments supporting high levels of informal supervisor and coworker feedback are associated with lower employee perceptions of organizational politics. Furthermore, these lowered perceptions of politics were proposed to result in higher employee morale (as reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment) and, through morale, to higher levels of task performance and organizational citizenship. The proposed mediational model was supported with empirical results from 150 subordinate-supervisor dyads sampled across a variety of organizations. Higher quality feedback environments were associated with lower perceptions of organizational politics, and morale mediated the relationships between organizational politics and various aspects of work performance. These findings suggest that when employees have greater access to information regarding behaviors that are acceptable and desired at work, perceptions of politics are reduced and work outcomes are enhanced.

The effect of non-contingent negative and positive reinforcement operations on the acquisition of superstitious behaviors

The differential effects of non-contingent positive and negative reinforcement operations on the acquisition of superstitious behaviors and rules were investigated in two experiments. College students were instructed to try to produce and/or keep the word "GOOD" on a computer screen (positive reinforcement), or to try to prevent and/or remove the word "BAD" from the screen (negative reinforcement) using response keys. Data from both experiments indicated that participants exposed to lean schedules of negative reinforcers believed that they had greater control over non-contingent stimulus events than participants exposed to either rich or lean schedules of positive reinforcers. These findings and results from research investigating everyday superstitious activities suggest that, relative to positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement operations may provide a more fertile condition for the development and maintenance of superstitious behaviors.