Against what model? Evaluating women as leaders in the pandemic era

Women at work have long accepted how societal norms and cultural expectations impacted their at‐work behaviour. Despite the fact that no one model has ever universally established a benchmark for women’s leadership, women attempted to become what they perceived others wanted them to be. Between aspiring to achieve ideal worker status and enacting a style somewhere between the stereotypical connotations of agentic and communal behaviours, women leaders expended a great deal of emotional labour to find the perfect balance. Today, the COVID‐19 pandemic has created a new, potentially untenable, challenge: to identify what working women are evaluated against to achieve excellence. This article shares a perspective of how women leaders have been evaluated during tumultuous times using historical research and examples. Based upon our findings, it appears that the communal leadership style most women are thought to naturally display may be an advantage.     

Monetary incentives,motivational orientation and affective commitment in contact centers. A multilevel mediation model

High quality contact and customer relationships are key services for all types of firms. To achieve this high quality performance standard, companies need highly motivated and committed employees, and human resources managers are responsible for designing and implementing practices capable of satisfying both economic exchanges and social exchanges in employee-organization relationships. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between monetary incentive expectation and affective commitment, in addition to the mediating role of motivation orientation in this relationship, in contact center employees. In particular, based on the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964), the social exchange model of Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005), and the self-determination theory (Deci, Olafsen, & Ryan, 2017), our study adopts a multilevel perspective to examine these relationships in a sample of 2367 contact center employees from 297 teams (3 or more members). The results showed that the level of performance-contingent rewards (team-level) guides the team’s autonomous motivation (team-level), which, in turn, fosters employees’ affective commitment (individual-level). The results have practical implications for human resource managers and for interventions aimed to promote contact center employees’ affective commitment, taking performance-contingent rewards into account.     

Within‐ and between‐individual variation in fathers’ emotional expressivity in Chinese families: Contributions of children’s emotional expressivity and fathers’ emotion‐related beliefs and perceptions

Parental emotion socialization is a dynamic process encompassing moment‐to‐moment fluctuations in parents’ emotional displays and responsiveness. This study attempted to examine the within‐ and between‐individual variation in fathers’ emotional expressivity during a real‐time father–child interaction in Chinese families. Eighty‐five children (M_age = 7.58 years, SD = 0.50 years, 47.1% boys) from east China and their biological fathers participated in the study. Fathers’ and children’s emotional expressivity were observed during a problem‐solving interaction task. Fathers’ beliefs about children’s negative emotions and fathers’ perceptions of their children’s emotion regulation ability were assessed via self‐report questionnaires. Results showed that (1) At the within‐individual level, fathers’ and children’s emotional expressivity covariated with each other in concurrent intervals when controlling for their emotional expressivity in previous intervals; fathers’ emotional expressivity gradually became less positive over time whereas children’s emotional expressivity did not change significantly over time; (2) At the between‐individual level, fathers’ perceptions of children’s emotion regulation accounted for the between‐individual variance in the dynamics of fathers’ emotional expressivity. These findings chart the dynamics of paternal emotion expressivity during father–child interactions and shed light on the relevant roles of children’s emotional expressivity and fathers’ emotion‐related beliefs and perceptions.     

Initiating structure leadership and employee behaviors: The role of perceived organizational support,affective commitment and leader–member exchange

The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) and affective organizational commitment (AOC) in the relationship between initiating structure (ISL) and employee behaviors. In addition, we also analyzed the moderator role of leader–member exchange in this relationship along three dimensions (affect, loyalty and professional respect). We conducted a survey-based study of 484 employees of a retail business and the results of the multiple regression analyses indicate that POS and AOC act as mediators in the relationship between ISL and two employee behaviors (extra-role organizational citizenship behaviors and turnover). Further, our results support the moderator effect of professional respect in the positive relationship between ISL and POS. This study makes an interesting contribution to the literature on ISL and its effects by construing POS as a consequence of this leadership style, and by adding professional respect among the possible moderators. Research avenues, limitations, and the practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

Southern Romance: Relationship Quality,Consensus, and Context among Cohabiting Couples in the Gulf States

Abstract

Relationships are significantly stressed in the Southeastern United States. Of the six states in the Gulf region (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas), four are in the top-third of the nation's highest divorce rates. Threats to relationship household stability cause a myriad of social problems and public expenses of approximately $24 billion in increased spending in benefit programs to offset family hardship following divorce and relationship dissolution. This study analyzed associations between relationship quality and satisfaction, consensus, and a series of contextual variables among three types of cohabiting homeowners across the Gulf States (unmarried, married, and married with additional family members), surveying variables of interest. Findings indicated that dyadic couple relationships in this sample are generally distressed relative to other states and that significant negativity is present, but that a large portion of the variance in relationship quality is consistently predicted by certain factors. Using an instrument of increased sensitivity, these factors (consensus, negative interaction, household composition, etc.) have been parsed into specific components (types of consensus, types of interaction, etc.) for improved individual analysis. Specific relationship problem areas are outlined, clarified, and discussed.     

Enhancing organisational commitment through task significance: the moderating role of openness to experience

Researchers have extensively explored the factors influencing employees’ organisational commitment. However, few studies make an explicit distinction between different commitment types when exploring its determinants, and the scholarly attention to individual differences is also limited. In this paper, we confirm that developing managerial interventions to enhance task significance can be useful to promote organisational commitment, but this relationship is contingent on the commitment type and the employees’ openness to experience. We focus on two forms of organisational commitment: affective and continuance commitment. Our study shows that task significance is a better predictor of affective commitment than continuance commitment. We also find that increasing task significance is particularly good to promote more continuance commitment among employees with low levels of openness to experience. Based on data gathered from a sample of 403 employees working in Spanish firms, we find support for these ideas and develop practical implications.     

The emotional costs of computers: an expectancy-value theory analysis of predominantly low-socioeconomic status minority students’ STEM attitudes

There is a strong push to increase American students’ interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) careers. However, minority and female students remain underrepresented in the STEM fields. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to examine the potential factors that both incite and dissuade STEM interest. We apply Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) to examine STEM attitudes of predominantly low-socioeconomic status minority elementary school students over the course of a computing intervention. Furthermore, we integrate the digital inequality mental access conceptualization of ‘emotional costs’ into the EVT model in order to predict students’ negative STEM attitudes. Data are from a large-scale computing intervention that took place in a primarily minority, high poverty, urban elementary school district located in the southeastern USA. Results indicate that positive expectancies for success and subjective task values predict students’ positive STEM attitudes. Emotional costs toward technology primarily predict negative STEM attitudes. Students’ expectancies/values and emotional costs may have a ‘push-and-pull’ effect on the formation of STEM attitudes. This study successfully links digital disparities to STEM disparities by integrating the digital inequality concept of emotional costs. Practically, we conclude that future computing interventions should increase students’ academic-related expectancies and values while also minimizing their emotional costs in order to address both digital and STEM inequalities. Theoretically, we conclude that broad conceptualizations of emotional costs should be included in future studies to help explain negative attitudes/motivations toward STEM-related topics.     

Cultural socialization of toddlers in emotionally charged situations

This study examined mothers’ responses to foster emotional competence from a cultural perspective. Fifty‐one European American, 52 Turkish, and 40 Romanian mothers of 2‐year‐old children provided open‐ended responses to vignettes of anger‐, sadness‐, fear‐, and happiness‐eliciting situations. Mothers’ responses were compared between the family models of independence (United States) and psychological interdependence (Turkey, Romania) to understand cultural variations. To anger, all mothers endorsed problem‐focused responses that emphasized teaching coping skills at similar rates, suggestive of an autonomy‐orientation. European American mothers also endorsed behaviorally oriented discipline to cope with anger independently more than Turks and Romanians, who endorsed reasoning and comforting responses more, reflecting a relatedness emphasis. To sadness, problem‐focused and comforting responses did not reveal cultural differences. Expected differences in reasoning and dismissive responses were partly supported. To fear, comforting was the dominant response, with the highest rate reported by European Americans. Turkish and Romanian mothers’ relative emphasis on reasoning was characteristic of their family model. In happy situations, European American mothers validated toddlers’ happiness most often, whereas Turkish mothers reported the escalation of happiness most often. Despite sharing the psychological interdependence model, differences in some responses to sadness, fear, and happiness were noted between Turkish and Romanian mothers.     

Measuring emotional intelligence in Moroccan Arabic: the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale / Medidas de la inteligencia emocional en árabe marroquí: la escala de inteligencia emocional de Wong y Law

Emotional intelligence is a widespread concept that has been analysed in different countries. However, it has been barely measured in African-Arab societies’ cultures due to their scarce tradition in validating instruments. In Morocco, the mere translation of instruments is a common practice that should be avoided to incorporate cultural and linguistic singularities. Thus, the aim of our study was to culturally adapt the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale to Morocco. This version could be widely used in other Arab North African countries and among immigrants in hosting countries. Two hundred and seventy-three Arab undergraduates (178 women and 95 men; age M = 22.17, SD = 4.09) from Morocco completed a questionnaire adapted to their culture following the back translation method. To determine construct validity, data were analysed by means of confirmatory factor analysis. The final scale resulted in a second-order factorial model with four first-order factors compounded by 16 items. This structure supports the original for Moroccan Arabic and other countries in which Arabic is spoken. Likewise, the results confirm an adequate criterion validity of the instrument.     

战略规划流程、绩效指标因果联系与预算目标承诺:一项调查研究

基于战略目标、衡量指标、目标值、行动方案和预算的排序捕捉企业战略规划流程上的差异,使用250份问卷量表捕捉企业绩效指标因果联系的强度,运用结构方程模型研究了战略规划流程和绩效指标因果联系与预算目标承诺的关系。研究发现:(1)企业的战略规划流程与依次进行战略目标制定、衡量指标设计、目标值设定、行动方案制定和预算编制的标准流程越吻合,管理者的预算目标承诺越高;(2)企业选用的绩效指标之间因果联系越强,管理者的预算目标承诺越高;(3)战略规划流程与标准流程的一致性程度能够加强绩效指标的因果联系。这意味着,标准的战略规划流程有助于提升管理者对预算目标的投入;当管理者能够充分地认识到绩效指标之间的因果联系时,他们也会更加致力于实现预算目标。因此,通过设定合理的战略规划流程,构建具有因果联系的绩效指标体系,能够使企业内管理者和员工更愿意接受预算目标并为之付出努力。