Tag Archives: organizational effectiveness

What are the performance implications of your organization’s culture?

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Topic: Culture, Human Resources, Organizational Performance
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology (JULY 2011)
Article: Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Competing Values Framework’s Theoretical Suppositions
Authors: Hartnell, C.A., Ou, A.Y., & Kinicki, A.
Reviewer: Neil Morelli

Try to define your organization’s culture in one word… The word you came up with may be a predictor of how your organization is performing. Although organizational culture is assumed to be a key component of organizational effectiveness, the theoretical connection between these two important concepts remains fuzzy. Hartnell, Ou, and Kinicki conducted a meta-analysis to explore how a prolific taxonomy of organizational cultures, called the competing values framework (CVF), may help connect our understanding of organizational culture to organizational effectiveness.

Briefly, the CVF arranges organizational cultures into four categories: clan (internal focus on human capital and membership), adhocracy (external focus on adapting through creativity, innovation, and gathering of resources), market (external focus on competitiveness and aggressiveness to meet customer demands), and hierarchy (internal focus on maintain predictability and performance through precise control and clearly defined roles).

After examining 84 studies across three dimensions of organizational effectiveness (employee attitudes, operational effectiveness, and financial effectiveness), the authors found that clan cultures were more positively associated with job satisfaction than were adhocracy cultures, subjective innovation was more strongly related to market cultures than adhocracy cultures, and market cultures had stronger positive relationships with financial effectiveness criteria than were clan or adhocracy cultures.

All that to say, each of the CVF culture types were related to organizational effectiveness criteria in varying ways; this highlights the importance of organizational culture’s role in predicting firm performance. However, the authors concluded that more work is needed regarding the CVF’s nomological validity—as researchers and practitioners look to “tried and true” methods of defining organizational culture, they must also be careful to not ignore both the role of culture in organizational functioning or the theoretical foundations of their taxonomies.

Hartnell, C.A., Ou, A.Y., & Kinicki, A. (2011). Organizational culture and organizational
effectiveness: A meta-analytic investigation of the competing values framework’s
theoretical suppositions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 677-694.

human resource management,organizational industrial psychology, organizational management

Do Organizations Ask What They Shouldn’t Ask in Job Applications?

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Topic: Fairness, Recruiting
Publication: International Journal of Selection and Assessment (DEC 2010)
Article: Science-practice gap in e-recruitment
Authors: A.L. Garcia-Izquierdo, H. Aguinis, and P.J. Ramos-Villagrasa
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

The gap between the science of HR and its practice in actual organizations is well known.  Sometimes, the practice of HR outpaces the research (e.g., organizations implement systems that are “hot” in the popular press, but not well understood or under researched), while in other cases, the practice of HR lags well behind the research…and sometimes even the law!

In a recent study, Garcia-Izquierdo et al. (2010) analyzed online job applications of over 60 publicly traded organizations – first in Spain in 2005, and again in 2009.  According to the authors, Spain provides a natural setting to study the science-practice gap in IO psychology because employment legislation regarding Equal Employment Opportunity is still ongoing (unlike in the U.S.).  Specifically, these dates were chosen due to recent legislation changes in 2007 (e.g., an Act prohibiting sex-based discrimination).  

Common information that was required of job applicants included age or date of birth, nationality, gender, marital status and place of birth.  About 20% of companies in 2005 even asked job applicants for personal photographs (this increased to 25% in 2009).  Overall, the percentages of companies asking applicants for such information did not change significantly from 2005 to 2009. 

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Exhausted Employees? They May be Reacting to Your Goal-Oriented Leadership

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Topic: Employee Satisfaction, Culture, Personality
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology (NOV 2010)
Article: The Downside of Goal-Focused Leadership: The Role of Personality in Subordinate Exhaustion
Authors: S.J. Perry, L.A. Witt, L.M. Penney, and L. Atwater
Reviewed By: Mary Alice Crowe-Taylor

The heart of goal-focused leadership (GFL) is to elicit goal-oriented behavior from employees by emphasizing goal achievement. In theory, GFL should contribute to employee’s resources for handling stress at work by clarifying goals, suggesting ways to achieve goals, structuring tasks and verifying attainment. However, depending on the employee’s personality, this emphasis on goal achievement may or may not be perceived as supportive.

In employees who are less conscientious (less achievement oriented), can GFL cause exhaustion? Yes, if these employees also have low emotional stability. That is, if they are more often distracted by worry and are prone to pessimism. Inherently, these employees have the least “resources” to assist them, and goal-focused leadership may produce exhaustion, through an inability to cope with the stress demands.

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Maximizing the Benefits of Autonomy in Teams

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Topic: Job Design, Teams, Performance
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior
Article: The impact of autonomy and task uncertainty on team performance: A longitudinal field study (FEB 2010)
Author: J. L. Cordery, D. Morrison, B. M. Wright, & T. D. Wall
Reviewed by: Sarah Teague

Modern jobs are becoming more interconnected every year. Where once we worked alone in our cubicles, we are now more likely to be part of a team collectively working toward some common goal. Additionally, the nature of work is increasingly reliant on employees’ ability to adapt to new and challenging situations. As such, much effort has gone (and continues to go) into the study of team effectiveness. Giving teams autonomy (freedom over the process through which they achieve their goal) is argued to be key in maximizing performance. However, results in the current literature have been mixed. Mixed results typically indicate the presence of some third important moderating variable that helps to explain why the relationship is different across time, people, or situations.

Accordingly, the current study sought to clarify the conditions under which team autonomy will lead to greater increases in performance. The authors identified task uncertainty (“the degree to which it is possible for a team to predict which tasks must be executed, when, how, and to whom) as a potential moderator and proposed three hypotheses. First, increased autonomy will be related to increased performance. Second, higher levels of task uncertainty will be related to decreased performance.

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Managing Assessors’ Workloads in Assessment Centers

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Topic: Assessment, Staffing
Publication: International Journal of Selection and Assessment (SEP 2010)
Article: Do assessors have too much on their plates? The effects of simultaneously rating multiple assessment center candidates on rating quality
Authors: K.G. Melchers, M. Kleinmann, and M.A. Prinz
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

Assessment centers (ACs) usually consist of several job-related exercises that tap competencies necessary for the job.  ACs are most often used by organizations to select, promote and develop their employees.  Like many employee selection and assessment methods (e.g., interviews), ACs require a scorer or assessor to provide an evaluation of candidates’ performance.  But here’s where it gets tricky.

In two studies, Melchers et al. found that assessor ratings of candidates decrease in accuracy as the number of candidates they assess simultaneously increases.  While this finding may seem like a “no-brainer”, meta-analytic research (Woehr & Authur, 2003) has demonstrated that ACs with higher candidate-to-assessor ratios (i.e., fewer assessors evaluating more candidates) tend to be more valid than ACs with lower candidate-to-assessor ratios.  However, as Melchers et al. point out, the candidate-to-assessor ratio in an AC is not the issue here, its how many candidates an assessor must observe and evaluate simultaneously that apparently decreases rating accuracy.

Unfortunately, Melchers et al. do not provide specific recommendations for the ideal number of candidates assessors should be assigned to assess simultaneously in an AC exercise. 

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How Important are First Impressions at the Job Interviews?

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Topic: Interviewing, Recruiting, Staffing
Publication: Journal of Applied Psychology (AUG 2010)
Article: Initial Evaluations in the Interview: Relationships with Subsequent Interviewer Evaluations and Employment Offers
Authors: M.R. Barrick, B.W. Swider, and G.L. Stewart
Reviewed By: Allison B. Siminovsky

The answer:  Very!  And in today’s increasingly competitive job market, candidates are constantly trying to make themselves stand out as being the best of the bunch.  Considering the challenge in answering interview questions well, it’s easy for a candidate to forget about the impression that he or she makes during the first few minutes of small talk with the interviewer.  However, this seemingly idle chat might have more of an effect on employment decisions than one might think. 

In a recent study, Barrick, Swider, and Stewart (2010) examine whether the first impressions that interviewers get while exchanging pleasantries with candidates have any relationship with the likelihood of being called back to a second interview or later receiving a job offer.  The researchers found that interviewers’ initial impressions of candidate competence, perceived similarity to the candidate, and the degree to which they find the candidate likable are predictive of future employment outcomes.  As likability and similarity may not be not job-related, it is clear that factors other than competence weigh into whether a candidate gets called back for a second interview — or even gets a job offer.

With this information in mind, should interviewers be barred from chatting with job candidates about life, the weather, and yesterday’s big game?  No, according to the researchers. 

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How Might Trainers Be Contributing to the Transfer Problem?

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Topic: Training
Publication: Human Resource Management (JUL/AUG 2010)
Article: A missing link in the transfer problem? Examining how trainers learn about training transfer
Authors: H.M. Hutchins, L.A. Burke, and A.M. Berthelsen
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

There are many reasons why employees often don’t transfer their training to the job.  At a high level, these reasons can include personal attributes of learners, characteristics of the work environment, and the level of supervisory support.  Hutchins et al. note, however, that trainers themselves play an important role in determining if employees transfer what they learn on the job.  These authors speculate that the ways trainers learn about transfer may be a possible contributor to the transfer problem? 

Hutchins et al. surveyed 139 members of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) about their preferred methods of learning about training transfer.  According to their results, training practitioners tend to use informal methods to learn about training transfer (e.g., learn through experience on the job, talk with other training professionals, search relevant websites, etc.).  A relatively smaller percentage of professional trainers reported using more formal approaches such as attending conferences and practice-based and academic courses.  However, the practitioners surveyed reported preferring more formal approaches due partly to their credibility.

Training practitioners also reported learning about training practices by reading the practitioner-based training publications such as Training and Training and Development (T+D). 

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Transformational Leadership and Innovative Behavior

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Topic:  Leadership, Creativity
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior
Article: Transformational and transactional leadership and innovative behavior: The moderating role of psychological empowerment (MAY 2010)
Author: A. Nederveen Pieterse, D. van Knippenberg, M. Schippers, & D. Stam
Reviewed by: Sarah Teague

In recent years, the role of creativity and innovation in the workplace has grown exponentially. Being innovative is often considered a competitive advantage in terms of both product outcomes (e.g. new designs) and people processes (e.g. employee recruitment). It has been argued that innovative behavior is more contingent on motivation rather than ability (Amabile, 1988). Assuming this is the case, leadership should play a pivotal role in fostering innovation. In particular, two types of leadership come into play.

Transformational leadership is conceptualized as influencing followers to “rise above their self-interest” and focus their efforts on higher-level goals (i.g. group- or organization-level). A great deal of the current literature posits that transformational leadership should have a profound impact on innovation. Alternately, transactional leadership centers on clarifying expectations and monitoring follower performance, and this style is generally thought to seriously detract from innovation. However, empirical inconsistencies suggested a need to investigate potential boundary conditions. To this end, the authors of the present study were interested in psychological empowerment (PE; i.e. “active orientation towards a work goal” that encompasses self-efficacy). They propose that PE is relevant, because it gives people a feeling of capability; the “can-do” aspect of behavioral intent.

Accordingly, the current study sought to investigate the impact of psychological empowerment on the relationship between these two different types of leadership (transformational and transactional) on employee innovation. The authors predicted a main effect for transactional leadership on employee innovation but no effect for transformational. Additionally, they predicted that psychological empowerment (PE) would moderate the relationship between leadership style and innovation.

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If You Want to Prevent Exhaustion … Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

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Topic:  Stress, Burnout, Performance, Fairness, Compensation
Publication: Journal of Organizational Behavior
Article: Emotional exhaustion and job performance: The moderating role of distributive justice and positive affect (AUG 2010)
Author: O. Janssen, C. K. Lam, & X. Huang
Reviewed by: Sarah Teague

Sometimes work is just exhausting; emotionally exhausting to be specific. Emotional exhaustion (EE) refers to feeling overwhelmed or drained at work. Not surprisingly, recent research has linked EE to decrements in performance through the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. COR theory suggests that EE impairs performance because employees feel that they do not have the adequate resources to meet the current job demands, but is this always the case? When an employee begins to feel depleted, do they automatically attribute it to lack of personal resources? The authors of the current article suggest not.

The current study used COR and justice attributions (i.e. internal vs. external explanation for an event) to further explain how emotional exhaustion impacts job performance. Specifically, the authors proposed that emotional exhaustion will have a greater negative impact on performance when perceived distributive justice (DJ; adequate compensation for effort expended) is high. They reason that when DJ is high, employees attribute their depletion to personal inadequacies (internal) rather than poor compensation (external).

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In the Eye of the Follower: Leaders vs. Narcissists

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Topic: Leadership
Publication: Personnel Psychology (FALL 2010)
Article: Visionary communication qualities as mediators of the relationship between narcissism and attributes of leader charisma
Authors: B. M. Galvin, D. A. Waldman, P. Balthazrd
Reviewed By: Lauren Wood

The relationship between leadership and narcissism has received much attention in the academic literature recently. Because narcissists share a variety of characteristics with charismatic leaders, some researchers question whether narcissistic leadership is really all that bad. Charismatic leaders are seen by followers as confident, energizing, and determined. And, apart from their self-centered perspective, narcissists are also regarded as confident, inspirational, and driven.  So are narcissistic traits necessarily detrimental to leaders?

The current study addresses this question by assessing two important communication aspects of leader effectiveness: the visionary focus (personalized vs. socialized – is it about us, or about me?) and degree of boldness in each vision statement. The results reveal that leaders who communicate socialized (group-oriented) and bold visionary statements were more likely to be viewed by followers as effective and charismatic. Narcissistic leaders, although more personalized (self-oriented) in their focus – a quality that is negativity linked to effectiveness – tend to also display bold visionary statements, leading to increased perceived effectiveness by followers.

The results suggest that narcissism may hinder as well as help follower perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness.

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