Leading future orientations for current effectiveness: The role of engagement and supervisor coaching in linking future work self salience to job performance

Linking undergraduates' future work self and employability: a moderated mediation model

BACKGROUND

The career intentions of students play a crucial role in shaping the growth of the hospitality and tourism industry. Previous research underlines the significance of future work self in predicting outcomes related to one's career. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the precise ways, timing, and conditions under which the future work self of undergraduate students can enhance their employability.

METHODS

This paper aims to address the existing research gap by employing career construction theory and self-determination theory to propose a moderated mediation model-i.e., career exploration serves as a mediator and job market knowledge functions as a moderator in the relationship between future work self and employability. We conducted two independent studies (i.e., an experimental study and a time-lagged field study) to test the proposed model. Specifically, in Study 1 we employed an experimental research design to recruit 61 students majoring in tourism management to participate. They were randomly assigned to two scenarios (future work self: high vs. low), and we manipulated different levels of future work self by means of scenario descriptions. In Study 2, we used the time-lagged research design to collect data via submitting questionnaires among 253 Chinese undergraduates who majored in hospitality and tourism at a university in the middle area of China.

RESULTS

The results indicate a positive correlation between undergraduates' future work self and their employability. Furthermore, this relationship is mediated by a mediator of career exploration. It is important to note that this mediating relationship is also contingent upon the moderator variable of undergraduates' job market knowledge when considering the impact of career exploration on employability.

CONCLUSION

The findings contribute to enriching the current understanding of the positive effects of future work self on undergraduates' desirable outcomes in employability.

The impact of future work self on perceived employability and career distress

Future work self is a promising concept to understand how young people view and plan their careers in the contemporary workplace. In this study, we attempt to investigate its impacts on two career-related outcomes, namely, perceived employability and career distress. Informed by social cognitive career theory, we also explore the mediating role of career decision self-efficacy in the above relationships. Several hypotheses were developed and tested with a sample of 208 final-year undergraduate students (with a mean age of 21.5 and 145 of them are female) in China. The results of structural equation modeling and bootstrapping indicated that future work self has a positive relationship with perceived employability and a negative relationship with career distress, while these relationships are found to be mediated by career decision self-efficacy. Our study has advanced our understanding about how future work self contributes to career-related well-being among Chinese students.

Do I decide my career? Linking career stress, career exploration, and future work self to career planning or indecision

Career planning and career decision are important tasks for college students. The process may be affected by career stress, career exploration, and future work self, with some students facing career indecision. Combining both construction career and proactive motivation model, this study investigated the relationships between career stress, career exploration, future work self, career planning and career indecision among 1,012 Chinese college students using the Structure equation model (SEM) to test the proposed mediation model. Results show that career stress negatively predicts career planning, while career exploration positively predicts career planning. The mediating role of future work self has on career stress and career exploration's effects on both career planning and career indecision was verified. Moreover, the study also found future work self's positive effects on both career planning and career indecision in Chinese college students. Finally, the study's theoretical and practical significance and implications are discussed.

Does Future Work Self Benefit Everyone Equally? The Moderating Role of Organizational Support for Development

To elucidate how and why hotel employees proactively engage in career development, this study explains the indirect effect of future work self (FWS) on their proactive career behavior through career engagement. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study discusses the moderating role of organizational support for development (OSD) to highlight why OSD is important for those who have low-level FWS. Results of the 205 hotel supervisor–staff-matched data show that career engagement mediates the relationship between FWS and proactive career behavior. Furthermore, OSD can be considered a compensatory moderator that determines the indirect effect of FWS on proactive career behavior. This study provides further theoretical and practical implications.

It's not all just tit-for-tat: the impact of relational identification on subordinate's attitudes and interpersonal citizenship behavior

We explore how relational identification (RI) complements the influence of relational exchange within work role-relationships. In two temporally-lagged studies, we examine the contribution of RI, after accounting for relational exchange quality (REQ), in predicting organizationally-relevant behaviors and attitudes – namely, (1) interpersonal citizenship behaviors (ICBs; person-focused and task-focused), (2) job satisfaction, and (3) affective organizational commitment. Across samples of ‘non-professional’ (N = 152) and ‘professional’ (N = 197) employees, we found that RI (after accounting for REQ) significantly predicted outcomes. Indeed, we found RI to be the only predictor (after accounting for REQ) with affective commitment (‘non-professional’ sample only), person-focused ICBs (both samples), and task-focused ICBs (both samples). We discuss potential approaches for better specifying both identification and exchange as well as their unique and interactive effects within work role-relationships as well as managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions.

When Does the Leader's Positive Expression Get a Positive Response From Members? The Three-Way Interaction Effects of Perceived Deep/Surface Acting, Positive Affect, and Quality of Leader-Member Exchange on Work Engagement

Although researchers have argued that a leader's positive affective display effectively induces work motivation among members, it has not always resulted in desirable outcomes. This research addresses these critical issues and explains why individuals react differently, by considering the three-way interaction of the characteristics of expression, the positive affect of the members, and quality of leader-member exchange (LMX). To verify our hypotheses, 698days from 47 leaders and 146 members were collected through the Experience Sampling Method. The analysis was conducted using HLM, and the results showed that, for members with high quality LMX, the positive effect of perceived deep acting on work engagement was strengthened when positive affect was high, and the negative effect of perceived surface acting was weakened when positive affect was high. On the other hand, members with low-quality LMX showed a stronger positive effect of perceived deep acting on work engagement when positive affect was high, and the negative effect of perceived deep acting was mitigated when positive affect was low. These results demonstrate that quality of LMX serves as a context of the affective display between leaders and members, and the effect of displaying positive affect relies on members' perception of the characteristics of the expression and the affective state.

Impact of Future Work Self on Employee Workplace Wellbeing: A Self-Determination Perspective

This study examines the association between future work self and employee workplace wellbeing by proposing a moderated mediation model. On the basis of the self-determination theory, self-management is identified as the mediator, and person–organization fit is recognized as the moderator in this study. We collected two waves of data from 239 Chinese employees. The results of the analysis revealed that the future work self is related to greater employee workplace wellbeing, and self-management mediates the links between them. We also found that the person–organization fit strengthens the positive relationship between future work self and self-management, and the indirect effect of future work self on employee workplace wellbeing through self-management. The results of this study extend the antecedents of employee workplace wellbeing and highlight the importance of future work self in current work-related output.

HOW AND WHEN DOES JOB CHALLENGE PROMOTE THE INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOUR OF PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES?

Previous research is inconclusive about when and how job challenge affects innovative behaviour. To address this inconsistency, we primarily draw on the job characteristics theory (JCT) and job demands–resources model (JD–R model) to examine the effect of job challenge on intrinsic motivation and employee innovative behaviour as well as the moderating role of supervisor coaching behaviour. We employ a time-lagged research design to collect data from 318 public sector employees in the UAE. Our finding offers support for a moderated mediation model in which job challenge has a positive and significant effect on innovative behaviour. The study also shows that the association between job challenge and innovative behaviour via intrinsic motivation is stronger under high supervisor coaching behaviour. The findings provide prescriptive insights into the critical role that supervisor coaching behaviours play in clarifying when and how job challenge affects innovative behaviour and indicate relevant managerial implications aimed at encouraging innovative behaviour in the public sector.

Revisiting the Happy-Productive Worker Thesis from a Eudaimonic Perspective: A Systematic Review

The happy-productive worker thesis (HPWT) is considered the Holy Grail of management research, and it proposes caeteris paribus, happy workers show higher performance than their unhappy counterparts. However, eudaimonic well-being in the relationship between happiness and performance has been understudied. This paper provides a systematized review of empirical evidence in order to make a theoretical contribution to the happy-productive worker thesis from a eudaimonic perspective. Our review covers 105 quantitative studies and 188 relationships between eudaimonic well-being and performance. Results reveal that analyzing the eudaimonic facet of well-being provides general support for the HPWT and a much more comprehensive understanding of how it has been studied. However, some gaps and nuances are identified and discussed, opening up challenging avenues for future empirical research to clarify important questions about the relationship between happiness and performance in organizations.

Performance, Achievement, and Success in Psychological Research: Towards a More Transparent Use of the Still Ambiguous Terminology

The present study focused on the terms performance, achievement, and success that have often been used in an ambiguous manner in psychological research. The way in which the meaning of the domain-specific constructs referred to with the terms was established for measurement purposes was investigated on a sample of 262 articles that stemmed from 35 randomly selected journals covering the full range of psychological research. The operational definitions of the constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success were analysed and compared in both inter- and intra-domain fashion. Additionally, we assessed the match among the observed operational definitions and general conceptual definitions available in the extant literature. The results revealed terminology-related issues in educational and occupational research. Within these domains, lack of adherence to the multidimensionality of the constructs of academic performance, academic achievement, academic success, job performance, and career success was identified as a general issue. Further, the tendency to measure job performance via indicators based on self-rating was considered inadequate given the objective nature of the term performance. In educational research, the overlap of the academic performance, academic achievement, and academic success constructs was confirmed, resulting from the tendency to use GPA as a universal indicator of academic outcomes. Based on the present findings, we provided several recommendations in order to encourage future research towards a more transparent way of dealing with the particular constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success. We suppose the present study may help researchers in the full range of psychological disciplines to add clarity to their own research.

Future Work Self and Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role of Informal Field-Based Learning for High Innovation Performance

In today’s highly uncertain environment, the value of creativity and innovation are increasingly critical. How individuals could improve their creativity and innovation performance has become the focus of attention. Future work self as an intrinsic motivation factor plays an important role in creativity and innovation. Based on the self-consistency theory, this study integrated proactive personality and informal field-based learning (IFBL) to explore the relationship between future work self and employee creativity to increase innovation performance. It used data from 201 R&D department employees in China’s high-tech companies. The results show that future work self has a positive effect on employee creativity and that IFBL mediates the relationship between future work self and employee creativity. This process is then positively moderated by a proactive personality. This study’s results help clarify the formation mechanism of creativity from the perspective of intrinsic motivation and indicate that future work self can drive individuals’ creativity and innovation efforts, especially under the consistency of self-concept, motivation and personality. This research also emphasizes the importance of IFBL in improving individual creativity and further organizational innovation performance. Implications for theory and management to help improve creativity and innovation performance are then discussed in detail.

I See My Future!: Linking Mentoring, Future Work Selves, Achievement Orientation to Job Search Behaviors

Mentoring is related to young adults’ career planning. The present study attempts to examine whether the perception of future work selves could be a critical mediating mechanism underlying the relationship between the reception of mentoring functions and job search behaviors. Moreover, we also investigated the moderating role of achievement orientation on this relationship. We tested our hypotheses with a time-lagged research design. Results indicated that psychosocial mentoring was related to future work selves, and future work selves were associated with job search behaviors. Future work selves mediated the relationship between psychosocial mentoring and job search behaviors. Moreover, achievement orientation moderated the direct and indirect effects of psychosocial function on job search behaviors. Specifically, the aforementioned relationships were stronger when achievement orientation was high compared to when achievement orientation was low. Important theoretical and practical implications for mentoring and career research are discussed in the current study.

School Incivility and Academic Burnout: The Mediating Role of Perceived Peer Support and the Moderating Role of Future Academic Self-Salience

This study examined a mediation model about whether perceived peer support (PPS) mediates the link between school incivility and academic burnout. More importantly, we also investigated how future academic self-salience (FASS) as a trait moderates this mediated relationship. We collected data from a sample of 475 students by a two-wave survey. Results indicate that PPS mediated the relationships for school incivility with academic burnout. Moderated mediation analysis intended to further reveal that PPS mediated the relationship for only those students with high FASS while what the current findings found are the separate effects of the mediation of PPS on the relationship between school incivility and academic burnout and the moderation of FASS on the relationship between PPS and academic burnout. Therefore, the findings underscore the significance of influence from peer relationships when investigating the relationship between school incivility and academic burnout. Further evidences are needed to prove the mediated moderation role of FASS.

Coaching-Based Leadership Intervention Program: A Controlled Trial Study

In spite of the potential benefits that coaching-based leadership interventions can bring to organizations, basic questions remain about their impact on developing coaching skills and increasing psychological capital (PsyCap), work engagement and in- and extra-role performance. In a controlled trial study, 41 executives and middle managers (25 in the experimental group and 16 in the waiting-list control group) from an automotive sector company in Spain received pre-assessment feedback, a coaching-based leadership group workshop, and three individual executive coaching sessions over a period of 3 months. The intervention program used a strengths-based approach and the RE-GROW model, and it was conducted by executive coaching psychologists external to the organization. Participants (N = 41) and their supervisors (N = 41) and employees (N = 180) took part in a pre-post-follow up 360-degree assessment during the research period. Quantitative data were analyzed using Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) with a 2 × 2 design, paired-samples t-tests, and univariate analyses between groups. Results indicated that the intervention program was successful in increasing the participants' coaching-based leadership skills, PsyCap, work engagement, and in- and extra-role performance. Qualitative measures were also applied, and results from individual responses provided additional support for the study hypotheses. Regarding practical implications, the results suggest that the Coaching-based Leadership Intervention Program can be valuable as an applied positive intervention to help leaders develop coaching skills and enhance well-being and optimal functioning in organizations.

Factors affecting job performance: an integrative review of literature

Purpose

Job performance is an important variable, which primarily affects outcomes at three levels: the micro level (i.e. the individual), the meso level (i.e. the group) and the macro level (i.e. the organisation). This paper aims to identify, analyse and synthesise factors that affect job performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Through an extensive integrative review of literature, this study identifies and classifies the factors that affect job performance. A synthesised model based on the schema of demands, resources and stressors is also developed.

Findings

The demands identified are grouped into physical, cognitive and affective. Stressors adversely affecting job performance are classified at an individual level, job level and family level. Finally, resources are classified at an individual level, job level, organisational level and social level.

Research limitations/implications

This review enhances the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to job demands-resources-stressors (JD-R-S) model by identifying a separate category of variables that are neither job demands nor resources, but still impede job performance.

Practical implications

The subgroups identified under demands, resources and stressors provide insights into job performance enhancement strategies, by changing, managing or optimising them.

Originality/value

This study helps in better understanding the factors that go on to impact job performance differentially, depending on the group to which they belong. It gives a holistic picture of factors affecting job performance, thereby integrating classifying and synthesising the vast literature on the topic.

How Followers Differing in Career Motivation Gain Career Profits from Transformational Leaders: A Longitudinal Moderated Mediation Model

Although, transformational leadership is among the most thoroughly examined leadership theories, knowledge regarding its association with followers' career outcomes is still limited. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms explaining how transformational leaders affect their employees' career success are yet not well-understood. Based on theoretical assumptions about the processes involved in setting the goal of "making a career," we propose an indirect effect of transformational leadership on subjective and objective career success via development opportunities that depends on the level of career motivation of employees. We conducted a longitudinal study with two measurement occasions separated by 13 months with 320 employees of a large IT company. Respondents provided ratings online on their direct supervisor's transformational leadership, their own development opportunities, and career motivation at T1; subjective career success was rated at both time points, whereas objective indicators of career transitions were rated at T2 retrospectively. Using structural equation modeling, we tested the proposed moderated mediation model. The results indicated that transformational leadership increased subordinates' subjective career success via development opportunities. In addition, and contrary to theoretical reasoning, the indirect effect was not significant for employees with high career motivation. Thus, employees high in career motivation appeared not to benefit from the development opportunities offered by transformational leaders. The results are discussed in light of tailored leadership that takes the aspirations, and needs of followers into account.