Impact of Co-Worker Ostracism on Organizational Citizenship Behavior Through Employee Self-Identity: The Moderating Role of Ethical Leadership

Purpose

Positive interpersonal interactions are indispensable for employees to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that benefits teamwork; however, co-worker ostracism triggers interpersonal isolation, inhibiting OCB. This research aims to leverage the intervention of ethical leadership in the ostracism-OCB relationship to moderate the harmful ostracism and promote ostracized employees' OCB through employee self-identity.

Methods

This research chose 122 MBA to participate in Study 1's scenario experiment to verify the causality between variables. Study 2 used 295 valid questionnaires from full-time employees to generalize the experimental results to field settings and compensate for external validity. Two studies used Hayes's conditional process model to test the conditional direct and indirect relationships.

Findings

This research revealed that high levels of ethical leadership effectively transitioned the harmful ostracism and promoted ostracized employees' OCB by satisfying ostracized employees' needs for identity recognition. Accordingly, the direct and indirect effects of co-worker ostracism on OCB through employee self-identity would be positive at high levels of ethical leadership, but negative at low levels.

Originality

This research first introduces an identity perspective on ethical leadership in moderating the ostracism-OCB relationship. Based on the social identity theory of leadership, this research fills the gap in ostracism and OCB research calling for leadership interventions. It extends a novel insight into inspiring ostracized employees' participation in OCB through employee self-identity.

Practical Implications

This research provides the managerial applications of ethical leadership for China organizations to reduce inadvertent inactions, accept employees' identities, and value interpersonal communication for effectively transitioning harmful ostracism.

Building Work Engagement in Organizations: A Longitudinal Study Combining Social Exchange and Social Identity Theories

Starting from the insights of social identity theory and social exchange theory, the present study aimed to understand how social support and organizational identification relate to work engagement. Moreover, it sought to verify if social support and organizational identification interact with each other to explain work engagement three months later. A longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of 150 employees, in which organizational identification, social support, and work engagement were measured through a questionnaire. The results show that when employees can count on their supervisors' and colleagues' support, they will be more engaged in their work. In addition, when an employee strongly identifies with their organization, the employee's evaluation of the social support received from colleagues and supervisors becomes less critical in determining their work engagement. These results confirm our hypotheses and extend the findings of previous research on withdrawal behaviors. From a practical point of view, it seems important for organizations to invest in increasing identification, as well as in building a high-quality social exchange relationship, especially when levels of organizational identification are low or decreasing.

Change in measures of moral function following acute bouts of Marine Corps Martial Arts Training

The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) was developed to prepare Marines for complex battlefield situations that include hand-to-hand combat and ethical decision making. The objective of this study was to quantify changes in ethical decision-making following MCMAP training. Fifty-five, active duty, newly enlisted U.S. Marines (Males: n = 37; age = 19 ± 1 years; height = 176 ± 7 cm; mass = 74 ± 7 kg; Females: n = 18; age = 20 ± 2 years; height = 164 ± 6 cm; mass = 61 ± 6 kg) volunteered for this investigation and were assessed three times over 6 weeks, with 3 weeks between each visit, using serial blood samples for cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine collected before training and during recovery [Immediate Post (IP), 15, 30, 45 and 60 min]. The Moral Functioning Continuum was used to quantify moral function before training, IP, 30, and 60 min post. Moral intention exhibited an acute response to training with significantly impaired decision making immediately post training. Moreover, both moral intention and moral judgement worsened over the visits suggesting a chronic impairment related to time in training suggesting a functional change in ethical decision-making following acute bouts of MCMAP.

Moderated-mediation between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: the role of psychological empowerment and high performance managerial practices

Purpose

This study aims to examine moderated-mediation between ethical leadership (EL) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Specifically, a moderating effect of high performance managerial practices (HPMPs) on the indirect effect of EL on OCB through employees’ psychological empowerment (PE) was tested.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 267 bank employees including subordinates and their supervisors. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

The results indicate that PE mediates the relationship between EL and OCB, and HPMPs enhance OCB by increasing the effect of EL on employees’ PE.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to human resource management and leadership literature by explaining the moderated-mediation mechanisms between EL and OCB. The findings help to understand how HPMPs enhance employees’ OCB by strengthening the effect of EL on PE. Limitations are related to external validity and cross-sectional nature of data.

Practical implications

Organizations’ use of HPMPs makes ethical leaders more effective in enhancing employees’ PE and, subsequently, their OCB.

Originality/value

Previous research lacks evidence on the indirect effect of EL on employee OCB through PE. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has examined the moderating effect of HPMPs on the abovementioned indirect relationship. This study has addressed the abovementioned research gap.

Enhancing and Extending the Meta-Analytic Comparison of Newer Genre Leadership Forms

Interest in leadership research is growing, however, the rate of leadership learning is slowing down due to the proliferation of new leadership constructs. The objective of the present meta-analysis is to address the significant shortcomings in prior meta-analytic research on newer genre leadership forms by (a) utilizing a substantially greater number of studies and observations than in previous meta-analyses and (b) examining the meta-analytic correlations among the newer genre leadership forms. The results of the present study indicate that the newer genre leadership forms overlap to a greater degree than previously reported, while at the same time accounting for some degree of unique variance in the literature's most studied outcome variables; estimates of the relative contribution of each leadership form to the outcomes are provided, providing new insights into the distinctiveness of each leadership form. The findings suggest that pursuing an integrated theory and measure of newer genre leadership forms is a desirable future step for leadership research.