Bridging the Border between Work and Family: The Effects of Supervisor‐Employee Similarity*

We examine the relationship between supervisor‐employee race/ethnicity, gender, and caregiving similarity and employees’ perceptions that supervisors provide support for bridging the border between work and family life. Employees report greater net perceived supervisor interactional support, but not instrumental support, when the immediate supervisor is the same race/ethnicity or the same gender as the employee, but not when they have similar caregiving responsibilities. Having a supervisor of the same gender is more salient for women and race/ethnic similarity is more salient for men. We also find patterns of difference in the relative salience of gender and race/ethnic similarity within race/ethnic/gender groups.     

Supervisor humor styles and employee advocacy: A serial mediation model

This study examines how supervisor humor styles influence employee advocacy by building the linkage between affiliative humor, aggressive humor, supervisor authenticity, employee-organization relationships, and employee advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, the study’s results indicated that the relationship between supervisor humor style and employee advocacy is fully mediated by supervisor authenticity and employee-organization relationships. Significant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The association between job insecurity and engagement of employees at work

This study examined the association between employees’ perceived job insecurity and employee engagement. Using Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index (2008–2014) data, we applied logistic regressions to examine the association between job insecurity and engagement, controlling for covariates. The job insecurity variable was also interacted with the supervisor support variable. We found that perceived job insecurity was associated with reduced engagement and that this may be moderated by supervisor support. This is the first study using nationally representative data to examine the role of supervisor support in mitigating the negative impact of job insecurity on engagement.     

Voicing by Adapting and Innovating Employees: An Empirical Study on How Personality and Environment Interact to Affect Voice Behavior

This article reports two studies exploring howcognitive style preferences for adaption innovationaffect the likelihood that employees will voice ideasfor organizational change toward their supervisors. As hypothesized, Study 1 demonstrates thatinnovatively compared to adaptively predisposed policeofficers are less likely to voice conventional ideas andmore likely to voice novel ideas for solvingwork-related problems. Besides a replication of thesefindings, Study 2 shows how work satisfaction and thequality of the supervisor as voice manager shape theimpact of adaption innovation on employee likelihood to voice. That is, compared to innovators,adaptors are more likely to voice conventional ideaswhen they are dissatisfied rather than satisfied withwork and perceive their supervisors as effective rather than ineffective voice managers. On the otherhand, innovators compared to adaptors report greaterlikelihood to voice novel ideas when they are satisfiedrather than dissatisfied with work and perceive their supervisors as effective rather thanineffective voice managers. Theoretical and practicalimplications of the findings are discussed.     

The Role of Supervisory Referral in Employee Assistance Programs

Abstract

A growing number of organizations offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to help employees with their personal problems. Many organizations rely on their supervisors to help identify and refer troubled employees to the EAP for assistance, yet very little conclusive evidence exists regarding the factors that influence whether or not supervisors identify and intervene with troubled employees. A previous review of the literature (Nord & Littrell, 1989) found that the following variables were consistently related to referral: (a) degree of management support for the EAP, (b) gender of supervisor, (c) gender of subordinate, (d) existence of a supervisor network, (e) occupational category of the employees supervised, (f) social distance between supervisor and troubled employee, (g) supervisors' attitude toward their role in referral, and (h) supervisor knowledge of the EAP. However, results of some of the studies reviewed for the current paper were inconsistent with Nord and Littrell's (1989) findings. Additional research is needed in this area, including research on the effectiveness of EAP supervisory training, in order to provide guidelines for the administration of effective EAP programs.     

Building cultural intelligence through supervisor support: Social exchange and subjective career success as mediators and organisational support as a moderator

This study offers a new perspective on how organisational factors influence migrant workers' cultural intelligence (CQ) by examining a moderated mediation model of the mechanism underlying the relationship between perceived supervisor support and CQ. We tested our model using a survey on a sample of 462 migrants. We found that employees' social exchange and subjective career success mediated the relationship between their perceptions of supervisor support and CQ. Furthermore, perceived organisational support moderated the social exchange–CQ relationship, and this relationship was stronger among workers with perceived high organisational support than for those with perceptions of low support. We also found that the indirect effect of employees' perceived supervisor support on CQ via social exchange was stronger for those with perceived high organisational support than for those with perceptions of low support. This study contributes to a better understanding of factors that foster migrant workers' abilities to navigate diverse workplaces.     

Social exchange and common agency in organizations

We study the relation between formal incentives and social exchange in organizations where employees work for several managers and reciprocate a manager’s attention with higher effort. To this end we develop a common agency model with two-sided moral hazard. We show that when management attention is not contractible, the first-best can only be achieved by granting autonomy to employees together with incentive pay for both managers and employees. When neither attention nor effort are contractible, an ‘attention race’ arises, as each manager tries to sway the employee’s effort his way. While this may result in too much social exchange, the attention race may also be a blessing because it alleviates managers’ moral-hazard problem in attention provision. Lastly, we show how organizational structure can be used to motivate managers and employees in the absence of formal incentives.     

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.     

Lack of consensus in supervision

This study describes what occurs when trainees and supervisors encounter a lack of consensus in supervision. We identified 120 episodes indicating a lack of consensus between a supervisor and a trainee during 23 hr of supervision. Qualitative analysis of the episodes described 10 supervisor responses, characterized as influence and evaluation, and eight trainee responses, characterized as cooperation and deference. The pattern of supervisor-trainee interaction was characterized by negotiation and collaboration. Supervisors and trainees collaborate to produce a presentation of the trainee as a competent clinician and a cooperative trainee. Supervisors identify deficiencies and offer requests in a subtle manner that appears open to modification, thus cooperating with the trainee's competent and cooperative image.     

Resistance and Cooperation: A Response to Conflict Over Job Performance

Research literature on job performance from bothmanagement oriented and industrial relations/sociologyof work models is synthesized to produce a morecomprehensive understanding of how supervisors manage employee performance problems. Two assumptionsare derived from the synthesis: (1) employees are activein accepting and resisting definitions of performanceissues made by supervisor; (2) informal interactions regarding the interpretation of performanceissues are pivotal in understanding how performanceproblems are resolved. In a study of university librarysupervisors we focus on the informal exchanges and characterize them as negotiations over thedefinition of job performance. We report results from aqualitative study of supervisors' interactions withemployees identified as having performance problems. Three types of interactions in informalnegotiations are found. We label the supervisors'interpretations of their interactions with employees asconformist, confrontational, or rebellious, designating how supervisors enact their role as agents ofthe organization.     

Do people reason when they accept tricky offers? A case of approach and avoidance motivated reasoning

Tricky or deceptive sales offers are often accepted by people. But how do we explain the acceptance of such disadvantageous offers? We propose that buyers represent offers in terms of costs and benefits in a conditional goal-related mental rule along the lines of “if a cost is paid, a benefit is obtained”. This representation would be influenced by BAS (approach) and BIS (avoidance) motivational systems. Behavioural approach system (BAS) would trigger seeking evidence confirming the offer and would lead us to accept it. Behavioural inhibition system (BIS), on the contrary, seeks disconfirming evidence, leading to rejection of the offer. Activation of approach and avoidance motivation would be influenced by internal variables and the context. We carried out three experiments where participants were told to check if a deceptive conditional offer was a cheat in a thematic Wason Selection Task. Experiment 1 showed that participants preferred confirmatory selection when the benefit was linked to a human need. In Experiment 2, warning information indicating cheating was introduced, while in Experiment 3 information about product alternatives was added to the instructions. We found a weakening of confirmatory card selection in Experiment 2, and a clear preference towards falsifying selection in Experiment 3. These results support the role of approach and avoidance motivated reasoning in buying/selling exchanges. Implications of these results are discussed in comparison with cheater detection algorithm and conformation bias predictions.     

An exploration of social support as a factor in the return-to-work process

Despite evidence that inter-personal relationships are important in human resource management, little is understood about the nature of workplace social support in a disability context, or what features of support are important to the success of return-to-work programs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore workplace disability support from worker and supervisory perspectives and to identify salient features for work re-entry. A total of 8 supervisors and 18 previously injured workers from a range of work units in a Canadian municipality were interviewed, and their views concerning supportive and unsupportive behaviours in work-re-entry situations were recorded and analyzed. A full range of social support dimensions were reported to be relevant, and were seen as arising from a variety of sources (e.g. supervisor, co-workers, disability manager, work unit, and outside of work). Respondents identified trust, communication and knowledge of disability as key precursors to a successful return-to-work process. Future research should explore the specific contributions of support to work rehabilitation outcomes as well as interventions to enhance available supports.     

Public relations and zones of engagement: Employees’ lived experiences and the fundamental nature of employee engagement

While employee engagement has been primarily explored within the business, human resources and management disciplines, public relations research has more recently taken an interest in furthering its understanding and acknowledging how public relations can serve an organization’s internal communication as a foundational component of the field. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how public relations can serve an organization’s internal communication by better understanding how employees perceive and experience engagement. Following a phenomenological methodology (n?=?32), this study utilized zones of meaning as a conceptual foundation (not a literal interpretation) to examine the process related to the complex, shifting and shared meaning of zones of engagement and how zones of meaning are products as well as drivers of engagement, which offer a new way to conceptualize employee engagement in public relations, shifting to a deeper comprehension and understanding. The findings show that employee experiences align more to Kahn’s (1990) initial personal engagement model than other public relations models. The psychological conditions of meaningfulness and safety from the original employee engagement model emerged as important factors in defining the employees’ shared-meaning lived experiences. In addition, this study offers a new definition of disengagement, which is similar but unique to the scholarship on negative engagement. The findings provide a framework for public relations scholars who work to further refine the understanding of employee engagement and for practitioners who develop public relations strategies for internal audiences, and advances the conceptual foundation of zones of meaning in public relations scholarship.     

On Parallel Process in Social Work Supervision

The recognition and study of parallel process in social work supervision offers both the social work supervisor and supervisee a rich learning opportunity at the moment when an impasse seems unworkable. The parallel process is an unconscious replication in the supervisory session of therapeutic difficulties which a supervisee has with a client. This replication may originate with the supervisor unwittingly modeling behavior that is then taken by the social worker into the therapeutic interaction with the client. This paper reviews the need for social workers to grasp the dynamics of the parallel process, discusses the literature for the historical development of the phenomenon, addresses supervisory methods that will uncover the process, and illustrates the supervisor's stages of exploration and modeling in addressing the parallel process.     

Beyond Neighborhoods and Crime: Expanding the Scope of Social Disorganization to Explain Occupational Deviance

This article proposes a structural explanation for the occupational deviance dimension of white collar crime. The systemic model of social disorganization theory is used as a framework for understanding organizational conditions that produce high rates of occupational deviance. The model of workplace disorganization proposed here posits parallel mechanisms can be found in communities as well as organizations. Marginalized workplaces, employee turnover, and employee heterogeneity are antecedent factors that discourage employee network formation and collective action against deviance. By refocusing on organizational factors, we offer a broader understanding of occupational deviance, one that can predict and explain the workplace conditions under which counterproductive behaviors occur.     

A framework for providing telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation: some considerations on a comparative case study

Telecommuting, whether full time, part time, or over short periods when the need arises, can be an important accommodation for employees with disabilities. Indeed, telecommuting may be the only form of accommodation that offers employees whose disabilities fluctuate a means to stay consistently and gainfully employed. This article describes one employer's experience in considering a request for telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation for a particular employee. Drawing on real-life examples, both positive and negative, this article provides a win/win framework for decision-making that can help employers evaluate the use of telecommuting as a possible accommodation and facilitates open and ongoing communication between employer and employee.     

The Missing Link: The Public Relations Manager Role as Mediator of Organizational Environments and Power Consequences for the Function

We argue that the public relations manager role provides the "missing link" between environmental challenges and the consequences for the public relations function. Conceptualizing the manager role in terms of organizational power, the concept provides linkages between the environmental-imperative and the power-control perspectives. The model posits that environmental challenges to the organization, in part, determine the role enacted by the top public relations practitioner. This role enactment, in turn, increases the function's capacity to maintain the integrity of its domain. Using a sample of 262 public relations practitioners in the United States, we tested the relationships just stated. Findings indicate that the range of publics and changeability of publics (environmental variables) are positively related to the manager role. The manager role is negatively related to marketing involvement in public relations activities and to the assignment of individuals from outside public relations to head the public relations unit.     

Buying Time in a Retirement System

Abstract

Many defined benefit plans offer the employee the option of buying additional time in the retirement plan when they retire. This paper looks at that decision and develops a methodology for analyzing the prudence of that investment decision.     

Reference dependent prices in bargaining: An experimental examination of precise first offers

Evidence from psychology and marketing suggests that those who make a “precise” first offer in bargaining get a better deal than those who make a “round” first offer. We report on a series of experiments designed to test for and improve our understanding of the “precise first offer” (PFO) effect in bargaining and whether it likely reflects rational optimizing or equilibrium behavior. Our experiment varies whether decisions are incentivized and whether the PFO effect can emerge as an equilibrium of a cheap-talk signaling game. We find evidence of a PFO effect when subjects read a vignette and make unincentivized individual decisions. When monetary incentives are added to the vignette, we still find the PFO effect, but it is not robust. In a bilateral bargaining situation with a cheap-talk equilibrium, we can not find the PFO effect, which is inconsistent with the equilibrium predictions. Moreover, the PFO effect reemerges in a setting in which initial offers are generated by a random device and thus provides a strong refutation of the signaling model. Our evidence suggests that optimizing and equilibrium accounts of the PFO effect are inadequate. Understanding initial offers as reference points, which subtly change perceptions about the kinds of acceptable counteroffers, provides a plausible account of a new finding on which prior explanations are silent: precise offers induce more precise counteroffers.     

Promoting Employee Assistance Program Services to Employees

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine the use of various types of employee assistance promotional tools, including the types of promotion used and their relationship to program type (internal or external), program utilization, and promotional budget.

Our study suggests that a variety of tools are used by both internal and external EAPs. Employee and supervisor training is the most popular form of program promotion. Statistically significant relationships were found between program utilization rates and several types of promotional activities. Our research suggests that promotional materials affect EAP utilization rates, and consequently, the interaction between promotional activities and/or promotional materials and EAP utilization deserves additional research.