Hierarchical rank and principled dissent: How holding higher rank suppresses objection to unethical practices

The mental health of non-commissioned soldiers deployed to Boko-Haram zones in Nigeria: Examining the roles of rank and other armed service characteristics

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This study examined the roles of rank and its interaction with armed service characteristics, including combat exposure, frequency of deployments, and length of service on psychological distress among non-commissioned military officers (NCOs).

METHODS

A cross-sectional sample of 256 NCOs (Meanage = 34.10 ± 7.33) of the Nigerian Army deployed to fight Boko Haram in North-East, Nigeria, participated in the study. Data were collected using self-report instruments and analyzed using multiple linear regression.

RESULTS

The ranks of corporal and lance corporal/private (LCP) were associated with greater psychological distress than the sergeants. However, corporals had higher psychological distress than sergeants and LCPs. Rank accounted for almost twice the variances in psychological distress more than other service characteristics. LCPs had adverse mental health at increased service length than sergeants and corporals. Also, LCPs were more vulnerable to stress at higher combat experience than the corporals.

CONCLUSION

Other factors may be inherent in rank effect on psychological distress beyond combat experience, deployments, and service length. Nevertheless, these service characteristics are important in the rank effect on psychological distress. Identifying relevant combat-related structural problems may additionally explain the association of rank with psychological distress beyond combat experience, deployments, and service length among NCOs.

Are many sex/gender differences really power differences?

This research addresses the long-standing debate about the determinants of sex/gender differences. Evolutionary theorists trace many sex/gender differences back to natural selection and sex-specific adaptations. Sociocultural and biosocial theorists, in contrast, emphasize how societal roles and social power contribute to sex/gender differences beyond any biological distinctions. By connecting two empirical advances over the past two decades-6-fold increases in sex/gender difference meta-analyses and in experiments conducted on the psychological effects of power-the current research offers a novel empirical examination of whether power differences play an explanatory role in sex/gender differences. Our analyses assessed whether experimental manipulations of power and sex/gender differences produce similar psychological and behavioral effects. We first identified 59 findings from published experiments on power. We then conducted a P-curve of the experimental power literature and established that it contained evidential value. We next subsumed these effects of power into 11 broad categories and compared them to 102 similar meta-analytic sex/gender differences. We found that high-power individuals and men generally display higher agency, lower communion, more positive self-evaluations, and similar cognitive processes. Overall, 71% (72/102) of the sex/gender differences were consistent with the effects of experimental power differences, whereas only 8% (8/102) were opposite, representing a 9:1 ratio of consistent-to-inconsistent effects. We also tested for discriminant validity by analyzing whether power corresponds more strongly to sex/gender differences than extraversion: although extraversion correlates with power, it has different relationships with sex/gender differences. These results offer novel evidence that many sex/gender differences may be explained, in part, by power differences.

Distrust as a form of inequality

Navigating social hierarchies is a ubiquitous aspect of human life. Social status shapes our thoughts, feelings, and actions toward others in various ways. However, it remains unclear how trust is conferred within hierarchies and how status-related cues are used when resources are on the line. This research fills this knowledge gap by examining how ascribed, consensus-based status appearance, and perceived status appearance impact investment decisions for high- and low-status partners during a Trust Game. In a series of pre-registered experiments, we examined the degree to which participants trusted unfamiliar others with financial investments when the only available information about that person was their socioeconomic status (SES). In Study 1, SES was ascribed. Studies 2 and 3 conveyed SES with visual antecedents (clothing). Across all three experiments, participants trusted high SES partners more than low SES partners. In addition, subjective perceptions of status based on visual cues were a stronger predictor of trust than consensus-based status judgments. This work highlights a high status-trust bias for decisions where an individual's money is on the line. In addition, high-status trust bias may occur simply because of an individual's subjective assumptions about another's rank.

How Does Hierarchy Steepness Affect Coordination in Project-Based Organizations? A Social Network Analysis

This study aims to reveal the impacts of hierarchy steepness on intraorganizational coordination in project-based organizations (PBOs) at both organizational and individual levels. We discovered that hierarchy steepness has a positive correlation with organizational coordination intensity but a negative correlation with an individual’s coordination power. A steeper hierarchy is beneficial for intraorganizational coordination so, averagely, an individual’s coordination power weakens in well-coordinated organizations. The findings refuted previous arguments that took hierarchy as an obstacle to coordination and proved the functionality of a steeper hierarchy. They suggest PBOs steepen the hierarchical structure to improve intraorganizational coordination.

Gender similarities and differences in dishonesty

We review the evidence linking gender to dishonesty and conclude that men are often more dishonest than women, especially in competitive settings where lies advance self-interest. However, gender differences in dishonesty are often small and mutable across situations. We propose that attending to self-regulatory constructs such as moral identity might help researchers move beyond the evolutionary-cultural debates over the origin of gender differences toward identifying factors that promote honesty from both genders.

Concerted Collusion: Studying Multiagency Institutional Cover-Up

Many important organizational events do not lend themselves easily to experimental manipulation, and thus, one can only study them retrospectively by combining the investigative tools provided by both the social sciences and humanities. A cover-up, meaning an attempt to prevent the public from discovering information about a serious crime or mistake, is such a phenomenon. The objective of the present paper is to develop an initial taxonomy of how organizational researchers can study what happens when multiple organizations and institutions conspire to cover-up the causes of a tragedy. For this purpose, the 1989 United Kingdom Hillsborough tragedy and the 27 year cover-up will be analyzed. Hillsborough is the best (and worst) example of a cover-up, in that the objective facts were known from early on but the subjective elements (i.e., attitudes, bias, and collusion) resulted in a 27 year search for justice for the victims. It deserves special attention as an example of multiagency institutional cover-up, in that the range and diversity of institutional actors pitted against the victims grossly outweighed them in terms of material resources, social power (in terms of social class differences), and the ability to control the narrative of the tragedy. Using a thematic analysis approach, five main themes were identified as: (1) Unwilling, but compliant, participants who are unlikely to be whistleblowers, (2) Suppressing/withholding important information, (3) Proactively engaging the support of related actors/institutions that helps create a critical mass, (4) Owning the narrative, and (5) Moral disengagement.

Experiencing tensions, regulatory focus and employee creativity: the moderating role of hierarchical level

Purpose

This study aims to explore how employees respond to tensions in groups and whether experiencing tensions could spur on their creativity (including radical and incremental creativity). Through integrating the literature on tension and regulatory focus theory, this study develops a model depicting the process from experiencing tensions to creativity via regulatory foci. This study further investigates the moderating effect of employees’ hierarchical level on these processes.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-wave survey was conducted with a sample of 375 employees in China. MPLUS was used to examine the moderated mediation model.

Findings

The results show that experiencing tensions can simultaneously activate employees’ prevention focus and promotion focus, both of which in turn influence radical and incremental creativity. Specifically, prevention focus mediates the negative relationship between experiencing tensions and the two aforementioned types of creativity, and promotion focus mediates the positive relationship between experiencing tensions and radical creativity. Employees’ hierarchical level significantly buffers the link between experiencing tensions and prevention focus.

Practical implications

Organizations should optimize their work design to simplify the role demand of employees in the early stages of their careers. Top-tier employees should be encouraged and empowered to think and act with a paradoxical approach, which can drive them to generate more creative outcomes. Besides, when aiming to discover radical ideas, managers should emphatically cultivate employees’ promotion focus.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on tension through revealing and testing the dual paths resulted by employees’ experiencing tensions. It also advances current research by contrasting the effects of experiencing tensions on different types of creativity.

A sustainable Model for effective Employee Relations in Contemporary Organization

Employee relation has emerged as a major point of concern for human resource practitioners. This paper investigated all the possible variables affecting employee relations in the organization through an extensive literature review. A review framework was adopted to fulfill the research objectives of the proposed study. The implications of mediating and moderating variables will be helpful for the manager in building the values and culture by developing the relation of employer-employer. Previous studies have found occasional constructs on the employee relation for a sustainable organization. These study insights on the important variables which will be helping in building a strong relationship with employee and employer for sustainable growth. This study focuses on the variables of employee relation which gives strength to employee-employer relations in line with sustainability.

A Tale of Two Hierarchies: Interactive Effects of Power Differentiation and Status Differentiation on Team Performance

Scholars have long wrestled with whether hierarchical differentiation is functional or dysfunctional for teams. Building on emerging research that emphasizes the distinction between power (i.e., control over resources) and status (i.e., respect from others), we aim to help reconcile the functional and dysfunctional accounts of hierarchy by examining the effects of power differentiation on team performance, contingent on status differentiation. We theorize that power differentiation is dysfunctional for teams with high status differentiation by increasing knowledge hiding, which undermines team performance. In contrast, we predict that power differentiation is functional for teams with low status differentiation by decreasing knowledge hiding, which improves team performance. In a field study, we found that power differentiation harmed team performance via knowledge hiding in teams with high status differentiation, but power differentiation had no effect on knowledge hiding or performance in teams with low status differentiation. In an experiment, we again found that power differentiation harmed team performance by increasing knowledge hiding in teams with high status differentiation. However, power differentiation improved team performance by decreasing knowledge hiding in teams with status equality. Finally, in a third study, we confirm the role of status differentiation in making team climates more competitive and examine the effect of power-status alignment within teams, finding that misalignment exacerbates the dysfunctional effects of power differentiation in teams with high status differentiation. By examining how power and status hierarchies operate in tandem, this work underscores the need to take a more nuanced approach to studying hierarchy in teams.

The Possession of High Status Strengthens the Status Motive

The current research tested whether the possession of high status, compared with the possession of low status, makes individuals desire having high status even more. Five studies (total N = 6,426), four of which were preregistered, supported this hypothesis. Individuals with higher status in their social groups or who were randomly assigned to a high-status condition were more motivated to have high status than were individuals with low status. Furthermore, upper-class individuals had a stronger status motive than working-class individuals, in part, due to their high status. High-status individuals had a stronger status motive, in part, because they were more confident in their ability to achieve (or retain) high status, but not because of other possible mechanisms (e.g., task self-efficacy). These findings provide a possible explanation for why status hierarchies are so stable and why inequality rises in social collectives over time.

Cultural dimensions as correlates of favoritism and the mediating role of trust

Purpose

This study sought to examine the relation of cultural practices and values with favoritism and nepotism/cronyism. Additionally, this study's purpose was also to examine how trust mediates the relation between culture and favoritism.

Design/methodology/approach

Correlations were used for exploratory investigation into the bivariate relations between culture and favoritism and nepotism/cronyism across 97 cultures. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were then conducted to examine the cultural correlates of favoritism and nepotism/cronyism holding all other variables constant. Lastly, partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating role of societal levels of trust.

Findings

Bivariate correlations showed that collectivism, familism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance are positive correlates of both favoritism and nepotism/cronyism. Institutional collectivism, future orientation and trust, on the other hand, were negative correlates of favoritism and nepotism/cronyism. Uncertainty avoidance and trust were key correlates of favoritism while familism and future orientation were key correlates of nepotism/cronyism. Trust fully mediated the relation between culture and favoritism but did not mediate the relation between culture and nepotism/cronyism.

Originality/value

This study adds to the current body of literature on culture and favoritism. Notably, the findings regarding different key cultural correlates with respect to favoritism and nepotism/cronyism provide valuable implications for expanding our understanding of the psychological and social nuances of favoritism. Specifically, favoritism in transactions and interactions with those not bound by social commitment relationships may be explained by beliefs while interactions with those with social relationships (e.g., family and friends) may be explained by preferences.

Toward a Better Understanding of Behavioral Ethics in the Workplace

The emerging field of behavioral ethics has attracted much attention from scholars across a range of different disciplines, including social psychology, management, behavioral economics, and law. However, how behavioral ethics is situated in relation to more traditional work on business ethics within organizational behavior (OB) has not really been discussed yet. Our primary objective is to bridge the different literatures on ethics within the broad field of OB, and we suggest a full-fledged approach that we refer to as behavioral business ethics. To do so, we review the foundations and research foci of business ethics and behavioral ethics. We structure our review on three levels: the intrapersonal level, interpersonal level, and organizational level. For each level, we provide relevant research examples and outline where more research efforts are needed. We conclude by recommending future research opportunities relevant to behavioral business ethics and discuss its practical implications.

Power's mission: impact and the quest for goal achievement

This article discusses evidence linking power to purpose: that of having an impact in the social environment and carrying out individual or collective aims and desires. First, it highlights the role of goals during the emergence and the exercise of power. Accordingly, it suggests that typical power's mission is to strive for social or personal objectives in social contexts. This includes social influence goals, organizational or personal agendas. Secondly, the article describes how power affects goal-related strategies and cognitive inclinations. Evidence suggests that power triggers prioritization and facilitates the pursuit of any salient goals, filtered by personal values and inclinations of the powerholder. Thirdly, the article examines powerholders' effectiveness of goal pursuit, including their performance on tangible social tasks. Finally, the article ends with a discussion on non-intended consequences of the power-goal links in particular in the social domain.

Power, approach, and inhibition: empirical advances of a theory

The approach-inhibition theory of power proposed that elevated power (which relates to increased rewards and freedom) activates approach-related tendencies, whereas reduced power (which relates to increased threat, punishment, and social constraint) activates inhibition-related tendencies Keltner et al. (2003). In the current article, we review the empirical advances - over the past 16 years - regarding four main propositions of the approach-inhibition theory of power: (a) positive affect versus negative affect, (b) attention to rewards versus attention to threats, (c) automatic cognition versus systematic/controlled cognition, and (d) disinhibited and state/trait driven behavior versus inhibited and situationally constrained behavior. By revealing robust empirical support for, and imaginative extensions of, the four propositions, this review invites future studies of power to further build upon and revise the early claims of approach-inhibition theory.

Power and leadership

Social collectives often grant power to leaders so they can facilitate collective performance. At present, there is no comprehensive overview of how power influences the effectiveness of different influence mechanisms leaders use to achieve this goal. To help develop such an overview, I review recent research on the positive and negative effects of power on some of these influence mechanisms: leaders' punishment of norm transgressions, concern for followers, and procedural fairness enactment. I also highlight the role of individual differences and contextual factors in these processes. I end by discussing implications and future research directions.

Between a Rock and Hard Place: Combined Effects of Authentic Leadership, Organizational Identification, and Team Prototypicality on Managerial Prohibitive Voice

Managers are installed by the organization's stakeholders and shareholders to increase the organization's value; at the same time, they depend on their subordinates' acceptance to fulfill this leadership role. If the interest of the organization collides with the interest of their team, some managers act in the interest of their followers accepting potential disadvantages for their organizations and/or external stakeholders. In two experimental studies comprised mainly of German (N = 111) and US (N = 323) managers, we examined combined effects of authentic leadership, organizational identification, and self-perceived team prototypicality on managerial integrity operationalized as expressing work-related concerns to prevent organizations from harm (i.e., managerial voice). Our results show direct effects of authentic leadership and organizational identification on voice behavior across both studies. Furthermore, organizational identification increased voice for managers' low in authentic leadership pointing at a compensation effect. Finally, leader team prototypicality decreased the effect of identification on voice for managers high in authentic leadership but increased voice for managers low in authentic leadership, but only if these managers identified with their organization. In sum, our findings complement prior research that focused mainly on safety and instrumentality concerns by emphasizing the relevance of self-related antecedents of managerial voice.

Sexual Harassment in Academia: Ethical Climates and Bounded Ethicality

This article reviews research on sexual harassment, particularly that pertaining to academia, to understand its underlying causes. Arguing that sexual harassment is an ethical issue, we draw on the field of behavioral ethics to structure our review. We first review ethical climate antecedents at the individual, leader, organizational, and environmental levels and examine their effects on both the occurrence of and responses to sexually harassing behaviors. This discussion is followed by an exploration of research that speaks to the cognitive processes of bounded ethicality—including ethical fading, motivated blindness, and the slippery slope—and their role in facilitating and perpetuating sexual harassment. We conclude by highlighting the value to be gained from integrating research on sexual harassment with research on behavioral ethics and identifying several practical steps that can be taken to curb sexual harassment in academia.