Paradigm shift of employee communication: The effect of management communication on trusting relationships

Even though normative contention suggests that a favorable organizational climate leads to efficient job performance, empirical research has not addressed the trusting relationship as a variable mediating organizational climate and job satisfaction or performance.Supportive oral communication relates positively to individuals’ perceptions of management's supportiveness and friendliness. Perceived support creates trust that the organization will fulfill its exchange obligations by rewarding employee efforts. The survey results indicated that trusting relationship was positively related to measures of communication management, suggesting that those employees receiving positive communication are more likely to be motivated to form trusting relationships with the management level.     

Employee perceptions of ethical listening in U.S. organizations

Through a national online survey with 300 U.S. employees, this study revealed that nonmanagers and women are not satisfied with their organization’s listening efforts. Using the lens of employee-organization relationship theory, problematic issues were identified related to transparency, communication climate, and employee silence. Some of the barriers to effective listening were limited ability to share insights from listening with supervisors and other employees, poor or absent training for collecting and analyzing intelligence that can be gained from listening, and employees who were unwilling to speak up due to perceptions that management was not sincerely interested in what they have to say. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Organizational resilience and employee work-role performance after a crisis situation: exploring the effects of organizational resilience on internal crisis communication

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to explore the positive outcomes of organizational resilience to see how resilient employees can support an organization by adapting to and initiating changes during the recovery process following a crisis. This study focuses on organizational resilience generated by employees, as a resilient system, through their psychological ability and positive communication behaviors. Resilient employees can help their organization bounce back to normal functioning following a crisis. A nationwide survey (N = 830) was conducted among full-time employees in the U.S. to examine the positive effect of organizational resilience on employee work-role performance. The results indicate that organizational resilience was positively and significantly associated with: employees’ intentions for proficiency, adaptivity and proactivity of organizational members, thus contributing to organizational effectiveness after a crisis situation.     

Employee communication,job engagement,and organizational commitment: A study of members of the Millennial Generation

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between job engagement and two key components of employee-organization relationships (EOR). Findings from a survey of members of the Millennial Generation (N = 539) in the United States indicate that job engagement mediates the relationship between employee communication and organizational commitment. It is concluded that when employees are engaged in their work, their commitment to the organization is strengthened and the likelihood of them leaving the organization decreases. Furthermore, an argument is made in light of the study’s findings that engagement and commitment work in concert to strengthen EORs overall. To foster engagement, organizations should remove obstacles to internal information flow and provide ongoing feedback to employees about individual and organizational issues.     

Culture and internal communication in Chile: Linking ethical organizational culture,transparent communication,and employee advocacy

The current study examines how an ethical organizational culture relates with employee advocacy behaviors through the mediating role of transparent communication and perceived relationship investment. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, the study’s results indicated that an ethical organizational culture plays a critical role in nurturing transparent communication and perceived relationship investment, which in turn, cultivate employee advocacy behaviors. Additionally, the impact of transparent communication on employee advocacy is partially mediated by perceived relationship investment. Relevant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The Influence of Perceived Supervisor Listening Behavior on Employee Commitment

This study seeks to examine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment in an organization. Research suggests that in today's organizations managers spend the largest percentage of their time listening, followed by speaking, reading, and writing. Although training addresses speaking and public presentations, interpreting technical reports, and instruction in technical writing, little has been done to either research or train listening skills.

Listening research has primarily focused on listening measurements and assessment (see Rhodes, Watson & Barker, 1990), and identification of specific behaviors associated with listening (see Lobdell & Gluc, 1990). Few studies have examined listening in the organizational setting (see Husband, Cooper, & Monsour, 1988; Husband, Schenck, & Cooper, 1988). A study by Husband, Cooper, and Monsour (1988), explored the initial question of supervisor's perceptions of their own listening behaviors in organizations. Further research by Husband, Schenck, and Cooper (1988) suggests that the subordinate's perception of supervisory listening may be different than the supervisor's actual listening behavior or the supervisor's perception of their own listening behavior. They found that subordinates did not feel at ease when communicating with their supervisors, and that the subordinates perceived that their supervisors were unwilling to listen to them.

As Husband, et al. (1988) suggests, there could be many starting points at which to address organizational listening. Based on some of the findings in their research, supervisor-subordinate listening seems to offer a logical beginning. The supervisor-subordinate relationship represents an essential link in the organizational structure (see Jablin, 1979). Given their argument, if subordinates differ in their perceptions of supervisory listening behavior, and perceive their supervisor's listening negatively, there may be a direct influence on their commitment to their jobs or the organization as a whole. This study attempts to determine the influence of perceived supervisor listening on employee commitment to the organization.

The respondents were 225 occupational employees and 53 managerial employees in a large southwestern utility company. The survey was a 69 item organizational listening questionnaire developed by Arnold (1989). The questionnaire was broken down into four dimensions: (1) feelings about the organization, (2) perception of relationship with supervisor, (3) perception of own communication behavior, and (4) organizational listening behaviors.     

Navigating change in the era of COVID-19: The role of top leaders’ charismatic rhetoric and employees’ organizational identification

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had tremendous and swift effects on organizational change. This study examined how organizations can leverage leadership and employee resources to facilitate positive change outcomes. Drawing from the self-concept based motivational theory of charismatic leadership and substitutes for leadership theory, the current study proposed a theoretical model connecting top leaders’ charismatic rhetoric, employees’ affective commitment to change, and employees’ turnover intention. Furthermore, the study investigated contingencies that may modify the relationship between leadership communication and followers’ outcomes. Results from an online panel of 417 U.S. employees showed that top leaders’ use of charismatic rhetoric during change led to followers’ affective commitment to change, which decreased their turnover intention. Furthermore, employees’ organizational identification moderated this relationship. When employees have low identification with their organizations, top leaders’ charismatic rhetoric to address the immediate change is more needed.     

“Vision,passion, and care:” The impact of charismatic executive leadership communication on employee trust and support for organizational change

This study explored how charismatic executive leadership communication during change influences employees’ attitudinal and behavioral reaction toward change. Specifically, it proposed and tested a conceptual model that links charismatic executive leadership communication during change, characterized by envisioning, energizing, and enabling behaviors, employee organizational trust during change, and employees’ openness to change and behavioral support for change (i.e., cooperation and championing). Through an online survey of 439 employees who had experienced a company-wide organizational change in the past two years in the United States, results showed that charismatic executive leadership communication during change positively influenced employee organizational trust, openness to change, and behavioral support for change. Employee trust toward the organization during change positively influenced employee openness to change, which in turn, contributed to employee behavioral support for change. Employee trust was revealed as a partial mediator for the positive impact of charismatic executive leadership communication during change on employee openness to change and behavioral support for change. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and internal CSR communication in predicting employee engagement: Perspectives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

This study examined relationships among employees’ perception of CSR, three models of internal CSR communication and employee engagement. The findings, based on 516 valid survey responses from employees across different sectors in the United Arab Emirates, revealed that internal communication of CSR, both one-way and two-way symmetrical, predicted employee perceptions of CSR, with two-way asymmetrical communication being a negative predictor; perceptions of CSR predicted employee engagement; social and sustainable dimensions of CSR most strongly predicted social and affective dimensions of employee engagement; and both two-way symmetrical communication of CSR and employee perceptions of CSR strongly predicted employee engagement. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Organizational climate and child welfare workers' degree of intent to leave the job: Evidence from New York

With increasingly unstable workforce in child welfare agencies, it is critical to understand what organizational factors lead to intent to leave the job based on job search behaviors. Using recent survey data collected among 359 child welfare workers from eight agencies in New York State during 2009–2011 and a Structural Equation Model (SEM) method, this study examines the relationship between employee perceptions of organizational climate and the degree of intent to leave the job (thinking, looking and taking actions related to a new job). Fifty-seven percent (n = 205) reported that they had considered looking for a new job in the past year. Bivariate analyses indicated that there were significant differences between those who looked for a job and those who did not look for a job in the past year. SEM analysis revealed that four organizational climate factors were predictive of decreasing the degree of intent to leave the job: Perceptions on organizational justice was most predictive factor for thinking of a new job followed by organizational support, work overload and job importance. The findings of this study help us understand the employee perceptions of different organizational factors that impact employee turnover especially from the time an employee thinks of leaving the job to actually taking concrete actions related to a new job.     

Turning bad into good: How resilience resources protect organizations from demanding work environments

An organization’s survival and its performance are often connected to employees’ well-being, which in intensive work conditions can be compromised by employee exhaustion. To date, the last economic crisis has forced several companies to downsize and leave the remaining employees facing higher job demands and vulnerability toward job exhaustion. The present study investigates whether resilience together with other personal resources can function as a psychological shield through a mediation and/or moderation process that mitigate the emergence of burnout. Based on a sample of employees from three different Italian companies (N?=?208), our results confirmed that “resilience resources” (i.e., resilience, self-efficacy, self-regulation) mediated the relationship between job demands, exhaustion, and task performance (i.e., energetic process). These results suggest that organizational environments characterized by challenging demands are likely to foster the development of resilience resources to cope with the emergence of potentially harming processes.     

Unpack the relational and behavioral outcomes of internal CSR: Highlighting dialogic communication and managerial facilitation

This study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and management contributes to internal public relationship building and employees’ megaphoning behaviors. Specifically, it investigates how organization-public dialogic communication (OPDC) about CSR and organizational leaders’ facilitation behaviors for employees’ CSR engagement influence employees’ perceptions of two distinct types of organization-public relationships: communal and exchange relationships. Structural equation modeling results of 660 online survey responses suggest that OPDC has a positive association with communal relationships and negative association with exchange relationships. Facilitation behavior positively contributes to exchange relationships. Both communal and exchange relationships are positively associated with employees’ positive megaphoning. Yet, negative megaphoning is negatively linked with communal relationships and positively linked with exchange relationships. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on internal CSR communication and management. More importantly, it uncovers the nuanced effects of CSR on employee-organization communal and exchange relationship building.     

De-motivating employees’ negative communication behaviors on anonymous social media: The role of public relations

This study focuses on employees’ negative communication behaviors on anonymous social media and explores the effects of organizational antecedents on reducing their motives. Specifically, the effects of organizations’ symmetrical communication and organization-employee relationship (OER) on individuals’ social media usage motives (e.g., vent negative feelings, warn others) and negative behavioral intentions are examined. Results of an online survey of full-time employees in the United States show that the effects of OER on employees’ negative communication behavior intentions are mediated by their social media motives. Symmetrical communication had a large positive effect on OER, which in turn decreased their motives to share negative contents on anonymous social media. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and employee behaviors are discussed.     

Engaged at work? An employee engagement model in public relations

ABSTRACT

Engagement has emerged as an important concept in public relations scholarship. Yet a theoretically informed model with a clear and coherent explication of the construct is still lacking. By situating our study in the internal organizational context, we provided an updated conceptualization and operationalization of employee engagement, proposing a strategy-engagement-behavior three-step employee engagement model. Results from an employee survey (n = 568) supported our conceptual model, showing that organizational engagement strategies positively predicted employee engagement, which in turn accounted for employees’ positive and negative messaging behavior, as well as their contextual performance behavior. After controlling for significant demographic variables such as gender, age, organizational size, number of subordinates, and level of management position, we identified a complete mediation effect of employee engagement in our two-step structural equation modeling analysis.     

Leadership Style in Relation to Organizational Change and Organizational Creativity: Perceptions from Nonprofit Organizational Members

As the environment within which organizations act continues to change and becomes increasingly competitive, maintaining an organizational climate that supports change and encourages creativity is a key objective for organizational leaders. This article examines the relationship between leadership style (transformational, transactional, laissez‐faire) and members' perceptions of the psychological climate for organizational change readiness and psychological climate for organizational creativity. Results indicate that transformational leaders have a direct positive relationship with psychological climate for organizational change readiness and organizational creativity, while laissez‐faire leaders have a negative relationship.     

Inclusion and commitment as key pathways between leadership and nonprofit performance

Given the projected growth of workforce diversity in the United States and the fact that heterogeneous workforces result in both positive (increased retention and performance) and negative (increased conflict and turnover) organizational outcomes, nonprofit leaders are faced with the challenge of effectively managing their workforces. Findings ways to ensure positive workplace outcomes, such as employee commitment (an emotional attachment to the organization) and performance, is especially critical for the overall functioning of nonprofit organizations. Using longitudinal multilevel path analyses, this study examined whether transformational leadership influenced work group performance through both creating a climate for inclusion and increasing employee affective commitment in a diverse nonprofit health care organization. Results indicate that transformational leaders help increase perceptions of inclusion, which improves employee commitment to the organization, and ultimately enhances perceived work group performance. This suggests inclusion and affective commitment as key factors for how leaders can increase nonprofit performance.     

Is labor-management climate important? some Canadian evidence

I investigate the relationship between labor-management climate and perceptions of productivity, product!service quality, and customer!client satisfaction using a regional and national sample of Canadian organizations and a regional sample of local unions. Overall, the ordered probit results reveal a strong relationship between labor-management climate and measures of organizational performance with a more positive labor-management climate associated with more favorable scores on the performance variables. This study was funded by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada/Saint Mary’s University Matching Grants Fund.     

Organizational and health performance in small enterprises in Norway and Sweden

This article focuses on relationships between organizational factors such as leadership, learning, psychosocial work environment and quality aspects as they relate to organizational and health performance outcomes in 42 small enterprises in Norway and Sweden. A rather explorative analysis model was created using indicators that were based on theoretical concepts from a literature review and questionnaire data, concerning 988 employees and leaders. These indicators were then used for correlation analysis. The enterprise is the unit of analysis. Some strong links between organizational factors and organizational and health performance were found. There was also a strong relation between health performance and sickness absence. Using structural analyses, a structure containing six general components, and strong interrelationships between some indicators of organizational performance and health performance were found. It was also possible to position the enterprises according to two general dimensions. As a general guideline for action, the results tend to support the perspective that positive organizational development is related to health performance and a lowering of absence due to sickness. The findings support the strategies of practitioners who use a concept-driven or holistic approach that integrates several facets of workplace development.     

The Impact of Organizational Structure and Supervisory Listening Indicators on Subordinate Support,Trust, Intrinsic Motivation,and Performance

A field study of a tool manufacturing organization examined the impact of supervisory listening indicators on subordinate perceptions of support, trust, and intrinsic motivation and on subordinate performance (productivity and absenteeism). The moderating impact of organizational structure was also investigated. The results indicated that the impact of supervisory listening indicators was very different dependent upon whether the structure of the organizational work group was more mechanistic or more organic. Within the more organic portions of the organization, supportive listening indicators were positively related to production and negatively related to absenteeism. The opposite occurred within the mechanistic levels. At all levels, perceived listening increased supportiveness, trust, and intrinsic motivation, although listening for accuracy had the strongest impact.     

Organizational Values and Their Relation to Organizational Performance Outcomes

The communication of organizational values and their relation to employee outcomes is evaluated between two departments within a Health Care Organization. Organizational values that are congruent with employees' values have been shown to increase employee satisfaction, commitment, and performance outcomes. This article discusses how values are defined and different ways that values can be communicated to acquire improved organizational outcomes. Past research on values within organizations is reviewed.

Questions from the Organizational Culture Survey and the Communication Satisfaction Questionnaire are combined to measure employee satisfaction, morale, and perceived involvement in decision making. The organization provided data on employee absenteeism, turnover, and performance ratings. An analysis of the results indicates employees in departments that have clearly defined and communicated organizational values perceive they are more involved in the organization and more participatory in decision making. Implications of the results for organizations are detailed.