Leaders’ transformational, conflict, and emotion management behaviors in culturally diverse workgroups

Diverse group effectiveness: co-occurrence of task and relationship conflict, and transformational leadership

Purpose

This study aims to develop a theoretical integrated model examining the role of the co-occurrence of task and relationship conflict (CTRC) as a mediator in the relationship between diversity and group effectiveness. The model also examines transformational leadership (TFL) as a moderator in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using a questionnaire survey from 354 faculty in 56 workgroups from three private universities in the Middle East. SEM and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the suitability of the model and its hypotheses.

Findings

The results revealed that TFL moderated diversity's direct effect on CTRC as well as the indirect effect linking diversity, CTRC, and group effectiveness. Specifically, diversity had an inverted U-shaped relationship with CTRC in groups with low TFL, but a negative linear relationship in those with high TFL.

Originality/value

The findings expand understanding of how, and under what conditions, diversity influences group effectiveness by: offering a fresh treatment of this relationship, introducing CTRC as a bivariate construct and bringing into focus the centrality of its harmful effect on this association, and highlighting the influence of TFL in ameliorating this harmful effect.

Managing Team Conscientiousness Diversity: The Role of Leader Emotion-Regulation Knowledge

Team members may vary in the degree to which they are self-motivating, diligent, and organized, but effects of such conscientiousness diversity are poorly understood. We propose that conscientiousness diversity effects depend on the team leader’s knowledge about managing negative affective responses—that is emotion regulation knowledge. Data of two time-lagged team studies show that for teams with leaders with lower emotion-regulation knowledge, conscientiousness diversity was negatively associated with team satisfaction (Study 1 and 2), team cohesion and information elaboration (Study 2), which in turn influenced team performance (Study 2). These negative relationships reversed in teams with leaders with higher emotion-regulation knowledge.

Creating Mutual Gains to Leverage a Racially Diverse Workforce: The Effects of Firm-Level Racial Diversity on Financial and Workforce Outcomes Under the Use of Broad-Based Stock Options

Despite substantial scholarly attention to workforce demographic diversity, existing research is limited in understanding whether or in what contexts firm-level racial diversity relates to performance and workforce outcomes of the firm. Drawing on social interdependence theory along with insights from social exchange and psychological ownership theories, we propose that the use of broad-based stock options granted to at least half the workforce creates the conditions supporting a positive relationship between workforce racial diversity and firm outcomes. We examine this proposition by analyzing panel data from 155 companies that applied for the “100 Best Companies to Work For” competition with responses from 109,314 employees over the five-year period from 2006 to 2010 (354 company-year observations). Findings revealed that racial diversity was positively related to subsequent firm financial performance and individual affective commitment and was not significantly associated with subsequent voluntary turnover rates, when accompanied by a firm’s adoption of broad-based stock options. However, under the nonuse of broad-based stock options, racial diversity was significantly related to higher voluntary turnover rates and lower employee affective commitment, with no financial performance gains. By documenting the beneficial effects of financial incentives in diverse workplaces, this paper extends theory asserting the value of incentives for performance.

Context and person-oriented leader in teams: a meta-analytical review

Purpose

The research studies the role of contextual moderating variables on the relationship between person-oriented leadership behaviors (POLBs) and team performance. The authors claim that the varying effect sizes between POLBs and team performance are large because of the context the team is functioning in. Therefore, based on the framework of Johns (2006), this paper aims to investigate the moderating role of the relevant demographic (leader gender), social (in-group collectivism and team size), task (skill differentiation) and methodological (common method bias and the rater of the team performance) contextual variables in the study.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors accumulated evidence from 48 independent primary studies (N team = 4,276) to run the meta-analytic analyses. The authors followed the procedures described by Schmidt and Hunter (2015). For the categorical moderators, the analyzes were aided by the Hunter–Schmidt meta-analysis programs (2.0) (Schmidt and Le, 2014), which is an interactive software using a random-effects model. In the analyzes for the continuous moderators, the authors used Lipsey and Wilson’s (2001) statistical package for the social sciences macros and run meta-regressions using a random-effects model with unrestricted maximum likelihood.

Findings

The results indicate that the relationship weakens when female leaders exhibit these behaviors and when the team size increases. On the other hand, in-group collectivism strengthens the relationship. The study also found that the common method bias and the assessment method of the team performance are significant moderators altering the relationship.

Practical implications

The study highlights the perceptual differences and biases based on leader gender. Acknowledging these biases may help practitioners to appreciate the female qualities in leadership and decrease the undervaluation of female effectiveness. To create high-performing teams, leaders in high in-group collectivist countries are expected to develop a family feeling in the team by showing their concern for personal issues and build close interpersonal relationships. Researchers should use multiple sources to assess the predictor and criterion variables and also opt for more objective assessment methods for team performance.

Originality/value

With this study, the authors follow a substantively different perspective compared to the past meta-analytic reviews on this relationship. Rather than testing the inquiry whether there is a relationship between the two variables, the authors specifically focus on the role of contextual moderating variables. Several researchers have acknowledged that contextual considerations are critical in leadership-team performance research. Nevertheless, the body of research remains to be not cohesive. Thus, the study answers a call in the leadership area for a more context-based and cohesive understanding of the effects of leadership on team performance.

Are teams experiencing relationship conflicts destined to fail

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to find ways to mitigate the negative consequences of relationship conflict under the situation that while the negative role of team relationship conflict has been underscored in prior literature, few studies try to alleviate it. With the development of positive psychology, a stream focusing on the role of emotion in conflict management emerges. First, the authors want to explore the mediating role of members’ work engagement in the association between relationship conflict and members’ job performance. Moreover, they want to explore contingent roles of perceived team leader’s emotional intelligence and members’ emotion regulation strategies (i.e. cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in moderating the effect of relationship conflict on members’ work engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a data set of 363 individuals working in 73 teams in service sectors, the authors empirically examined the cross-level model with hierarchical linear model.

Findings

Relationship conflict was negatively related to members’ job performance while members’ work engagement mediated this relationship. Moreover, perceived team leader’s emotional intelligence mitigated the negative effect of relationship conflict on members’ work engagement, while members’ expressive suppression strategy intensified the negative effect.

Originality/value

The authors address the void of the cross-level mediating process by examining the role of individual work engagement that mediates relationship conflict and individual job performance. The individual work engagement is highlighted in this study for the hope of serving as the basis of finding effective moderators to alleviate the negative relationship conflict–performance relationship by mitigating the decrease of work engagement. Moreover, the claim that the role of emotion from different status subjects varies in regulating the effect of relationship conflict contributes to the development of positive psychology by combining emotion with conflict management.

Employer–employee relations in a state-owned power sector undertaking: an analysis

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significant predictors that have an impact on cultivating an environment of positive employer–employee relations in power sector organization.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data were gathered by administering a structured questionnaire among 154 respondents (executives and non-executives) of a state-owned power sector of India. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed for statistical analysis of the data using SPSS (version 20).

Findings

The analysis used a total of 17 independent variables, and only three factors were extracted, namely organizational justice (OJ), employee empowerment (EE) and conflict management (CM), and established as the significant predictors of employee relation (ER). The proposed hypotheses were found to be statistically significant.

Practical implications

This scholarly endeavor provides plausible insights regarding the predictors vital for nurturing harmonious ER in power sector undertakings. It becomes highly imperative for both managers and academicians for developing strategies to cultivate a facilitative work environment to generate contented and competent workforce that can confront the challenging business world.

Originality/value

This work is a distinct manifestation of exhibiting quality relationships among the organizational entities by integrating the association of OJ, EE and CM for flourishing cordial employee relations (ERs) in the new perspective of power sector.

Differential Relationship of Person- and Task-Focused Leadership to Team Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis of Moderators

Building on previous findings of C. S. Burke et al. and Ceri-Booms et al., this meta-analytic review aims to investigate the moderating impact of team size, interdependence, power distance culture, effectiveness criteria, and study settings on the differential relationship of person- and task-focused leadership with team effectiveness. Based on 52 studies with 4,958 teams, results suggested that the differential effects of leadership were moderated by effectiveness criteria and the interaction between team characteristics and culture in societies. In high power distance societies, the relationship between person-focused leadership and team effectiveness was stronger in small teams that were characterized by high interdependence. In low power distance societies, the larger effect size of a person-focused leader was found in small teams, while task-focused leadership emerged as a stronger predictor of team effectiveness than person-focused leadership in large teams. Results can be used to guide leader development programs needed to enhance team effectiveness.

Emotional and cultural intelligence in diverse workplaces: getting out of the box

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how cultural intelligence (CQ) and emotional intelligence (EI) can assist with navigating the complexities associated with diversity in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper was developed through a comprehensive literature review related to the constructs of EI and CQ.

Findings

The authors focused on the conceptualization and evolution of the intelligence types as reflected in the literature, examine research that connects the intelligence types with issues of the workplace, and its contributions when used in a diverse workplace for improving organizational outcomes and access and inclusion of underrepresented cultural and social groups.

Originality/value

This paper explores the constructs of EQ and CQ and specifically the value the constructs may provide to individuals and organizations. Further, means of developing CQ and EI are discussed

Job satisfaction in the multicultural environment of multinational corporations

Purpose

– Since prior research into the effects of multiculturalism on job satisfaction in multinational corporations (MNCs) is rather scant and inconclusive, the purpose of this paper is to review the literature and explain why these results are inconsistent as well as propose a new model aimed at responding to these irregularities.

Design/methodology/approach

– In the narrative review of the prior research and the proposed model the authors discuss how multicultural settings influence job satisfaction. A Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) lens is applied to the model.

Findings

– The effect of multiculturalism on job satisfaction is inconsistent, i.e. the authors concluded that multiculturalism may be positively related to the cognitive component, yet it appears to be negatively associated with the affective one. By applying a POS lens, the proposed model broadens the view on job satisfaction and its links with multiculturalism.

Practical implications

– The authors’ model suggests that managers in MNCs should both enhance employees’ positive attitudes towards their job as well as foster positive emotions at work. They should exhibit more concern for employees’ affective states and how they affect cross-cultural interactions. Managers of MNCs need to boost thriving as it benefits both employees themselves and their organizations.

Social implications

– Since today’s societies are becoming more and more multicultural, there is a need to increase individuals’ awareness of plausible positive outcomes flowing from multiculturalism, exchange views and experience among diverse individuals and ensure the conditions in which individuals can thrive.

Originality/value

– By applying a POS lens to the analysis, the authors attempt to intertwine the positives experienced at work that appear to be associated with MNCs’ multicultural settings, namely job satisfaction and emotional balance. The results may contribute to the literature on job satisfaction in MNCs with regard to multiculturalism.

Managing conflict with emotional intelligence: abilities that make a difference

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) abilities and conflict management styles in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

– Totally, 126 participants completed a measure of EI and an assessment of conflict management styles. Regression analyses were then performed.

Findings

– Results of regression analyses indicate several significant relationships between EI abilities and participants’ conflict management styles. The EI abilities of problem solving, social responsibility, and impulse control were the most directly related to how participants managed conflict at the workplace.

Research limitations/implications

– Future research should attempt to replicate these findings in other samples. In addition, researchers should investigate other significant variables that explain people’s choices in conflict management styles.

Practical implications

– Implications of these findings suggest that for management development purposes, people should attempt to improve on the EI abilities of problem solving, social responsibility, and impulse control in order to manage workplace conflict effectively.

Originality/value

– This investigation contributes to the literature by identifying specific EI abilities, rather than a macro measure of EI, that are associated with different styles of conflict management.

Chairmen's perceptions of female board representation: a study on Nordic listed companies

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to survey chairmen's perceptions of female board representation in five Nordic countries, focussing on whether the chairman's perception of board work is related to gender diversity, and on differences between high- and low-risk firms.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors combine data from a questionnaire directed to the chairmen of the boards in Nordic listed companies with data on firm characteristics and board composition.

Findings

– The authors find that the chairmen (97.5 percent male) are significantly less satisfied with female board members as compared to male ones. The authors also find that firms with nomination committees have more gender diverse boards, as well as indications of a more positively perceived contribution of female representation in high-risk firms.

Research limitations/implications

– The study is restricted to perceptions of chairmen for listed Nordic firms. The low response rate of 20.1 percent is a severe limitation.

Practical implications

– The increasing practice of using nomination committees in the Nordic countries seems advantageous from gender balance perspective.

Originality/value

– The authors contribute to the literature on gender diversity in boards by providing results from a board intern perspective.