Does IT team climate matter? An empirical study of the impact of co-workers and the Confucian work ethic on deviance behavior

Exploring the team dynamic learning process in software process tailoring performance

Purpose

Software process tailoring (SPT) is a knowledge- and learning-intensive activity in which a software project team customizes its software development processes to accommodate project particularities. Because SPT critically influences how a project is conducted, SPT performance should be investigated, but the extant literature lacks investigations into how team knowledge mechanisms and team environments contribute to SPT performance. To fill this gap, this study looks into a team's absorptive capacity (AC) and combines a transactive memory system (TMS) and team climate inventory (TCI) to develop a theoretical research model to facilitate the understanding of SPT performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a conceptual study that uses the propositional methodology with a focused review of existing literature pertaining to SPT, AC, TMS and TCI to develop a theoretical model to foster SPT performance. Because this study is conceptually established, further empirical research and studies are also suggested.

Findings

The proposed model provides guidance for firms conducting SPT. It also contributes to future research aiming to empirically understand the mechanisms behind the identified team-based knowledge and environmental enablers in the dynamic team learning process that lead to superior SPT performance.

Originality/value

The proposed model provides a fresh look at the dynamic capabilities theory in SPT and innovatively identifies a team's dynamic learning process to show how a team can conduct effective SPT through AC and facilitated by TMS. Environmental climates characterized by vision, participative safety, task orientation and support for innovation act as positive moderators in promoting the team dynamic learning process.

Contextual Undertow of Workplace Deviance by and Within Units: A Systematic Review

Within the constellation of employee misconduct, workplace deviance possesses the somewhat distinctive feature of violating organizational norms. Yet, the burgeoning research examining the social context surrounding workplace deviance typically fails to properly account for it. Interdisciplinary research has demonstrated that within organizations (a) multiple reference groups provide descriptive and injunctive norms about (in)appropriate behavior; (b) even when embedded within the organizational hierarchy, norms are not necessarily consistent across these groups; and (c) the immediate reference group often exerts a crucial influence. Against this background, we discuss prevalent conceptualizations of workplace deviance and systematically review the literature from 1995 to 2017. We present our findings according to external and organizational, leadership, and intraunit antecedents of workplace deviance by and within units, distinguishing, in particular, unit composition, processes and emergent states, climates, and norms. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and methodological avenues for future research.

The Relationship between Job Demands and Employees' Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Mediating Effect of Psychological Detachment and Job Anxiety

This study aims to explore the relation between job demands and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). A cross-sectional sample of 439 coal miners completed a self-report questionnaire that assessed their job demands, psychological detachment, job anxiety, and CWBs in a Chinese context. The conceptual model, based on the stressor-detachment model, was examined using structural equation modeling. The results suggest that psychological detachment mediates not only the relation between job demands and job anxiety but also that between job demands and CWBs. Furthermore, the relation between job demands and CWBs is sequentially mediated by psychological detachment and job anxiety. Our findings validate the effectiveness of the stressor-detachment model. Moreover, we demonstrate that the underlying mechanism of the relation between job demands and CWBs can be explained by psychological detachment and job anxiety.

The Relationship between Authoritarian Leadership and Employees' Deviant Workplace Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Psychological Contract Violation and Organizational Cynicism

This study investigated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employees’ deviant workplace behaviors (DWB), as well as the mediating effects of psychological contract violation and organizational cynicism. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 391 manufacturing workers in a northern city of China. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the theory-driven models. The results showed that the relationship between authoritarian leadership and employees’ DWB was mediated by organizational cynicism. Moreover, this relationship was also sequentially mediated by psychological contract violation and organizational cynicism. This research unveiled psychological contract violation and organizational cynicism as underlying mechanism that explained the link between authoritarian leadership and employees’ DWB.