When opposites attract: a multi-sample demonstration of complementary person-team fit on extraversion

Congruence in Perceived Employee–Peer Overqualification and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Abstract. Drawing on equity theory and person–group fit theory, we examined the association between (in)congruence in employee and peer overqualification and perceived insider status. We further proposed that perceived insider status is related to employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The results of multilevel polynomial regressions using data collected with 211 employees from 55 teams supported the hypothesized congruence effect. Specifically, employees’ perceived insider status was greater, and their OCB was maximized, when employees and their peers had congruent perceptions of their overqualification levels. Furthermore, when both employees and their peers perceived their overqualification levels as low, perceived insider status and OCB were higher than when both perceived their overqualification levels as high. These findings highlight the pivotal role of congruence between employee and peer perceptions of overqualification at work.

Predicting Perceptions of Team Process Using Optimal Distinctiveness Theory

There are conflicting findings in team diversity research on whether it is better for an individual on a team to be similar to or different from the rest of the team. This lab study with undergraduates completing a critical thinking and decision-making task uses optimal distinctiveness theory to examine the idea that finding a balance between these two states for team member personality will result in positive perceptions of team process. Our results supported this such that participants had the most positive perceptions of team process when optimally distinct from the rest of the team in terms of personality.

The Effect of Person-Team Conscientiousness Fit on Knowledge Sharing: The Moderating Role of Internal Team Environment

Drawing on studies of person-team fit and theory of team-member exchange, we examined the effect of fit versus misfit between a team member’s conscientiousness and his/her team’s composition of conscientiousness on the member’s knowledge sharing. We hypothesized that person-team conscientiousness fit would lead to more knowledge sharing because a member who fits his/her team with respect to conscientiousness tends to have similar achievement striving with the team and low exchange cost. Using the method of polynomial regression in two studies in different regions and research settings, we obtained consistent results that person-team conscientiousness fit is positively associated with a team member’s knowledge sharing. We further found that internal team environment moderates the relationship between person-team conscientiousness fit and knowledge sharing such that it makes the relationship weaker. Our study demonstrated that to better understand the effect of personality on knowledge sharing in teams, it is beneficial to simultaneously consider the interplay among member personality, team personality, and team contexts.

The effect of corporate social responsibility on employee advocacy behaviors: a perspective of conservation of resources

Purpose

Despite past studies revealed the positive effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer advocacy behavior, little research has paid attention to employee advocacy behavior. This research aims to examine the relationship between CSR and employee advocacy behavior, the mediating role of meaningful work as well as the moderating effect of person–supervisor fit on CSR perception – meaningful work relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used 263 employee samples to examine the relationship between CSR and employee advocacy behavior and its influence mechanism. Hierarchical regression analyses and bootstrap approach were applied to analyze the data.

Findings

The results show that CSR perception is positively related to employee advocacy behavior, meaningful work mediates the link between CSR perception and employee advocacy behavior, and the strength of the relationship between CSR perception and meaningful work depends on person–supervisor fit.

Research limitations

This study only investigated the effect of perceived CSR on employee advocacy behavior, future studies should explore the alternative mediation mechanism through which external/internal CSR perception or different CSR dimensions influence employee advocacy behavior.

Practical implications

This study has practical implications for organizational managers. First, firms should undertake CSR practices and make employee interpret them in a right way. Second, meaningful work is of significance for employees and training and development, challenging jobs and job rotation are conducive to create a sense of meaning in employees’ work.

Originality/value

This study discussed how and when CSR influences employee advocacy in the Chinese context.

Transformational Leadership and Perceived Overqualification: A Career Development Perspective

Drawing on social information processing theory and a career development perspective, we examined the effect of transformational leadership on the perceived overqualification via career growth opportunities, and how the supervisor–subordinate guanxi moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and perceived overqualification. We tested this proposal using three waves of lagged data collected from 351 company employees in the Yangtze River Delta region in China. The results revealed that transformational leadership had an indirect effect on perceived overqualification through career growth opportunities, and supervisor–subordinate guanxi moderated the positive association between transformational leadership and career growth opportunities. In addition, the mediating effect of transformational leadership on perceived overqualification through career growth opportunities was stronger when the level of supervisor–subordinate guanxi was high and weaker when it was low. The findings have theoretical and practical implications for reducing employees’ perceptions of overqualification in the organizational context.

Personality traits and bricolage as drivers of sustainable social responsibility in family SMEs: A COVID‐19 perspective

Motivated by the social and environmental challenges resulting from the COVID‐19 pandemic, this research examines the influence of the “big five” personality traits; extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism on sustainable social responsibility with a mediating role of bricolage. We collected empirical evidence from 245 family‐owned SMEs. The results indicate that the personality traits do not directly influence sustainable social responsibility, although the traits (except extroversion) influence bricolage. Moreover, we found that open, conscious, and agreeable personalities indirectly contribute to sustainable social responsibility, with bricolage as a mediator. Our findings encourage enterprises to focus on those personality traits during crises (especially COVID‐19) that empower people to effectively manage existing resources (e.g., bricolage) and protect their stakeholders. Family‐owned SMEs need to assign resource utilization tasks to family members having personalities of openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism because these kinds of people have high capacities for bricolage.

How Approaches to Animal Swarm Intelligence Can Improve the Study of Collective Intelligence in Human Teams

Researchers of team behavior have long been interested in the essential components of effective teamwork. Much existing research focuses on examining correlations between team member traits, team processes, and team outcomes, such as collective intelligence or team performance. However, these approaches are insufficient for providing insight into the dynamic, causal mechanisms through which the components of teamwork interact with one another and impact the emergence of team outcomes. Advances in the field of animal behavior have enabled a precise understanding of the behavioral mechanisms that enable groups to perform feats that surpass the capabilities of the individuals that comprise them. In this manuscript, we highlight how studies of animal swarm intelligence can inform research on collective intelligence in human teams. By improving the ability to obtain precise, time-varying measurements of team behaviors and outcomes and building upon approaches used in studies of swarm intelligence to analyze and model individual and group-level behaviors, researchers can gain insight into the mechanisms underlying the emergence of collective intelligence. Such understanding could inspire targeted interventions to improve team effectiveness and support the development of a comparative framework of group-level intelligence in animal and human groups.

Examining the role of value congruence, professional identity, and managerial job engagement in the budgetary participation-performance link

BACKGROUND

In health care, important phenomena of perceived incompatibility between professional and managerial values have emerged as consequences of New Public Management reforms. Although there is a growing evidence on the variation in the enactment of hybrid roles by medical managers, existing research in health care management is mostly descriptive with little emphasis on the conditions under which hybrid roles are enacted and, importantly, on the effects of this variation on performance.

PURPOSE

In this article, we seek to fill this research gap by empirically examining (a) whether budgetary participation aligns professional and organizational values, (b) the impact of this alignment on employees' work-related feelings and managerial performance, and (c) the effect of professional identity on value congruence.

METHODOLOGY

Data were collected by a survey conducted in an Italian hospital, and partial least square was used to test the relationships among variables.

RESULTS

Overall, results show that (a) high involvement in budgeting is instrumental in facilitating medical managers' value congruence, and this, in turn, positively effects managerial job engagement; (b) the effect of budgetary participation on value congruence depends on the extent of professional identity; and (c) as a result of enhanced value congruence and managerial job engagement, employees tend to deliver superior role performance.

PRACTICE IMPLICATION

Findings of this study provide some guidance for managers on how organizations can take steps to guarantee effective support to hybrid professionals.

Person-Environment Fit and Employee Creativity: The Moderating Role of Multicultural Experience

Previous research has demonstrated the positive effects of congruent personal and environmental characteristics on creativity. None of them, however, has tested the formal theory of person-environment fit for predicting creativity in the context of multicultural experiences. This study examined the effects of two versions of person-environment fit (Demands-abilities fit and Needs-supplies fit) on employee creativity in China, taking into account the moderating role of multicultural experiences. The results, based on the data of East Asian Social Survey in the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2015, showed employees with demands-abilities fit have lower creativity than those with demands-abilities misfit; nevertheless, the demands-abilities fit creates a growing impact on employee creativity with increasing multicultural experience. Additionally, the higher the needs-supplies fit, the stronger the employee creativity; and, the needs-supplies fit creates a growing impact on employee creativity with increasing multicultural experience. It shows that different versions of person–environment fit have different effects on employee creativity and multicultural experience moderated the effects of person-environment fit on employee creativity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

A transparent legal system of indicators as the indicator of personal fit

Purpose

Fit and misfit (F&M) affect thoughts, actions and implementation. Both concepts are unknown in the law or in the public administration; so, this paper aims to demonstrate how these concepts can be addressed from the legal point of view.

Design/methodology/approach

F&M have not yet been addressed from a legal point of view. To determine a connection between them, the rule of law, F&M is compared with the indexes of happiness and life satisfaction. The claim that F&M can be more objectively stated in regulation that must be based on public participation is tested with Google Trends. Google Trends gave data on the searched notions (regulation, participation, organisation and misfit), for which statistical calculations are made to establish relations between them.

Findings

F&M are an intangible capital with which the rule of law is tightly connected. Citizens are happy and satisfied in countries with a high rank on the rule of law and vice versa. Correlations are positive for the misfit and regulation, participation and organisation, regulation and organisation and regulation and participation, while those for misfit and organisation are low. Google search therefore denies the strongest connection between misfit and organisation that is in the centre of F&M literature.

Originality/value

F&M have not yet been addressed from a legal point of view, although they have a lot of similarity if not the same. Based on this predisposition, this paper refutes some “romantic” ideas about person–environment and person–organisation fit, and it gives opposite arguments from the public law point of view. The paper tries to point to optimal specificity for fit in a legal environment based on proposed indicators and gives directions for further research.

One Big Happy Family? Unraveling the Relationship between Shared Perceptions of Team Psychological Contracts, Person-Team Fit and Team Performance

With the knowledge that team work is not always associated with high(er) performance, we draw from the Multi-Level Theory of Psychological Contracts, Person-Environment Fit Theory, and Optimal Distinctiveness Theory to study shared perceptions of psychological contract (PC) breach in relation to shared perceptions of complementary and supplementary fit to explain why some teams perform better than other teams. We collected three repeated survey measures in a sample of 128 respondents across 46 teams. After having made sure that we met all statistical criteria, we aggregated our focal variables to the team-level and analyzed our data by means of a longitudinal three-wave autoregressive moderated-mediation model in which each relationship was one-time lag apart. We found that shared perceptions of PC breach were directly negatively related to team output and negatively related to perceived team member effectiveness through a decrease in shared perceptions of supplementary fit. However, we also demonstrated a beneficial process in that shared perceptions of PC breach were positively related to shared perceptions of complementary fit, which in turn were positively related to team output. Moreover, best team output appeared in teams that could combine high shared perceptions of complementary fit with modest to high shared perceptions of supplementary fit. Overall, our findings seem to indicate that in terms of team output there may be a bright side to perceptions of PC breach and that perceived person-team fit may play an important role in this process.

Can Misfit Be a Motivator of Helping and Voice Behaviors? Role of Leader–Follower Complementary Fit in Helping and Voice Behaviors

This study explores the role of leader–follower complementary fit in predicting followers’ helping and voice behaviors. We collected survey-based data from 645 employees in 119 South Korean teams and performed cross-level polynomial regression analyses and response surface tests. The cross-level polynomial regression analyses and post hoc analyses generally endorsed complementary fit effects, such that the levels of helping and voice behaviors were higher when promotion-focused followers interacted with less transformational leaders and when less promotion-focused followers interacted with transformational leaders. On the contrary, we detected a supplementary fit effect for prevention focus. More precisely, followers’ helping behavior was more pronounced when their prevention focus was similar to the level of transactional leadership than where there was a mismatch between the two. These findings provide a nuanced perspective for understanding the differential roles of complementary and supplementary fit between transformational and transactional leadership and follower regulatory focus in predicting helping and voice behaviors.

Uncovering cognitive and affective sources of satisfaction homogeneity in work teams

Shared satisfaction in teams is crucial for team functioning and performance. However, it is still unclear how and why team members’ job satisfaction transforms into a shared team property. Based on affective events theory, I test hypotheses about situational, dispositional, and social antecedents of satisfaction homogeneity with a comprehensive model. Path analyses based on data from 415 team members working in 110 teams suggest that job satisfaction homogeneity primarily depends on characteristics of the working environment. Experiencing similar affective job events increased the likelihood of shared satisfaction by inducing shared affect. Team members’ personality traits (core self-evaluations) had indirect and small effects on satisfaction homogeneity. Unlike earlier studies, there was no evidence that social interaction leads to agreement in job satisfaction. Additionally, I partly replicated the finding that satisfaction homogeneity moderates the team-level satisfaction–team performance relationship.

Deviance, Self-Typicality, and Group Cohesion

This study investigated the effect of a single work group deviant on other group members' perceptions of the deviant, and their perceptions of the cohesiveness of the group as a whole. Group members, particularly those high in perceived self-typicality, were expected to downgrade the deviant, and view groups containing a deviant as less cohesive. Undergraduate management students were placed in a simulated organizational context in which deviance was manipulated so that the participant's work group contained either a single negative deviant or no deviant. Results showed that the deviant colleague was judged less favorably than the normative colleague, particularly by those high in perceived self-typicality. Groups that contained a deviant were perceived as having lower levels of task cohesion, but ratings of social cohesion varied depending on perceivers' self-typicality. The findings suggest that as well as attracting negative evaluations, deviant group members can adversely affect group cohesion.

Birds of a Feather can Butt Heads: When Machiavellian Employees Work with Machiavellian Leaders

Machiavellians are manipulative and deceitful individuals willing to utilize any strategy or behavior needed to attain their goals. This study explores what occurs when Machiavellian employees have a Machiavellian leader with the same negative, manipulative disposition. We argue that Machiavellian employees have a negative worldview and are likely to trust their leaders less. This reduced trust likely results in these employees experiencing higher stress and engaging in more unethical behavior. In addition, we expect these negative relationships to be exacerbated when such followers experience Machiavellian leadership. Thus, we test a moderated mediation model assessing whether Machiavellianism affects employees and whether combining Machiavellian leaders and Machiavellian employees is toxic in the sense of exacerbating the negative impact of Machiavellianism on employee trust. Results do not support the proposed conditional indirect effect of trust for either stress or unethical behavior. Instead, we find a conditional direct effect of employee Machiavellianism on both trust and stress: When Machiavellian employees have Machiavellian leaders, their trust in their leader significantly decreases, and their level of stress significantly increases. We also find support for an unconditional indirect effect of trust for employee stress (but not for unethical work behaviors), Machiavellianism in employees relates to stress via lowered trust in the leader. For unethical behavior, we only find a main effect of employee Machiavellianism.

Creating Inclusive Teams Through Perceptions of Supplementary and Complementary Person–Team Fit

Using a multi-wave, multi-level design, this study unravels the impact of subjective (dis)similarities in teams on team effectiveness. Based on optimal distinctiveness theory and the social inclusion model, we assume combined effects of individual and shared perceptions of supplementary and complementary person–team fit on affective and performance-based outcomes. Furthermore, at the team level, we expect this relationship to be mediated by team cohesion. In a sample of 121 participants (across 30 teams), we found that teams in which members share perceptions of high supplementary as well as high complementary fit outperform those in which they do not. In addition, members of such teams report higher levels of team satisfaction and viability. Both of these occur through positive effects on the cohesion within the team. Thereby, our results support the central tenet of the social inclusion model. At the individual level, this enhancing effect of the interaction was not supported, providing additional evidence for considering perceived person–team fit as a collective construct.

The linkage between work-related factors, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment: Insights from public health professionals

Orientation: The public health sector in South Africa faces a number of human resource– related inundations. Solving these challenges requires the provision of empirically derived information on these matters.Research purpose: This study investigated the relationship between three work-related factors, person-environment fit, work-family balance and perceived job security, and employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. A conceptual framework that links these factors is proposed and tested.Motivation for the study: The prevalence of employee-related challenges involving public health professionals, as evidenced through industrial action and high labour turnover, amongst others, demands further research in order to generate appropriate solutions.Research approach, design and method: A quantitative design using the survey approach was adopted. A six-section questionnaire was administered to a stratified sample of 287 professionals in three public health institutions in Gauteng, South Africa. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis and regression analysis.Main findings: Job security and person-environment fit both positively correlated with and predicted employee satisfaction. The association between work-family balance and employee satisfaction was weak and showed no significant predictive validity. Employee satisfaction was strongly correlated to and predicted organisational commitment.Practical/managerial implications: The findings of the current study may be used by managers in public health institutions to improve the level of organisational commitment amongst professionals in the sector, thus preventing further employee-related challenges that negatively affect the provision of outstanding public health services.Contribution: The study provides current evidence on how both work-related and humanrelated factors could contribute to the prosperity of the public health sector, both at micro and macro levels. The study also provides updated insights into the interplay between these factors in the context of South Africa, thereby addressing a research gap in this subject.

Leadership as an emergent group process: A social network study of personality and leadership

A longitudinal study was conducted on the social network of a leaderless group to explore how Big Five personality traits affect leadership emergence, in the form of receiver ties (being nominated as a leader), sender ties (nominating others as leaders), and similarity effects (nominating similar/different others as leaders). Forty one students on a 3-month study abroad program participated in intensive group work, and their perceptions of emergent task- and relationship-oriented leadership within these groups were assessed three times across the life cycle of the group. Results indicated that individuals scoring higher on extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness were nominated more as task- and relationship-oriented leaders, whereas those who were more agreeable were more likely to emerge as relationship-oriented leaders. In terms of emergent followership, group members who were more agreeable and neurotic (and less open to experience) were less likely to follow relationship-oriented leaders, whereas more conscientious individuals were more likely to follow task-oriented leaders. With respect to the effects of complementarity and similarity, both task- and relationship-oriented leader nominations were based on dissimilar levels of agreeableness between leaders and followers, whereas nominated relationship-based leaders tended to have similar levels of openness to experience to followers. Implications of these results are discussed.

The general environment fit scale: a factor analysis and test of convergent construct validity

Person-environment fit (P-E fit) was initially espoused as an important construct in the field of community psychology; however, most of the theoretical and empirical development of the construct has been conducted by the industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists and business management fields. In the current study, the GEFS-a P-E fit measure that was developed from organizational perspectives on fit-was administered to 246 attendees of an annual convention for residents and alumni of Oxford House, a network of over 1,400 mutual-help addiction recovery homes. The authors conducted confirmatory factor and convergent construct validity analyses with the GEFS. The results suggested that the theoretical factor structure of the measure adequately fit the data and provided limited support for the measure's validity. Sufficient supply of resident needs by the Oxford House and similarity between residents and their housemates predicted satisfaction with the recovery home, but only perceived similarity to housemates predicted how long residents intended to stay in the Oxford Houses.

Where Is Social Structure in Personality Research?

For decades, feminist scholars have argued that to understand a person’s behavior, one must understand not only that individual but also the social structure in which she or he is embedded. Has psychology heeded these calls? The authors investigated this question using the subfield of personality as an exemplar. Based on a systematic analysis of publication trends in nine prominent journals, the authors found that social-structural analyses rarely appear in highly cited journals specifically devoted to personality research. Instead, these analyses appear in journals that focus on certain social structures (gender and race/ethnicity), while still neglecting others (social class and sexual orientation). To illustrate how greater attention to social structure can advance the scientific understanding of individuals, the authors then identified specific research programs that look closely at both personality and structure. The article concludes with specific recommendations for research and teaching in personality psychology, gender and race psychology, and beyond.

Collective Personality Effects on Group Citizenship Behavior

This study examines the interaction of collective personality (i.e., the Big Five traits) and national diversity on group interpersonal citizenship behavior. Groups composed of diverse nationalities are theorized to manifest fewer initial shared understandings, enabling them to obtain more benefits than homogeneous groups from collective personality traits that promote better quality relationships. In a study of university students assigned to 15 nationally homogeneous groups ( n = 61) and 20 nationally heterogeneous groups ( n = 79), groups scoring higher on openness to experience, agreeableness, or extraversion show more interpersonal citizenship behavior. The effects of openness to experience, agreeableness, and extraversion are enhanced for nationally diverse teams. Moreover, neuroticism had no direct effect on interpersonal citizenship behavior; its interaction with national diversity yielded reversed effects. Neuroticism was negatively related to citizenship behavior in diverse groups and positively related to it in homogeneous groups. Theoretical and practical implications are developed for small group situations where diversity issues may threaten relationship quality.

Frogs and Ponds

Regulatory mode is a psychological construct pertaining to the self-regulatory orientation of individuals or teams engaged in goal pursuit. Locomotion, the desire for continuous progress or movement in goal pursuit, and assessment, the desire to critically evaluate and compare goals and means, are orthogonal regulatory modes. However, they are also complementary, in that both locomotion and assessment are necessary for effectual goal pursuit. In the present research, the authors sought to demonstrate that multilevel regulatory mode complementarity can positively affect individual-level performance on goal-relevant tasks. The authors recruited 289 employees (177 men, 112 women) from preexisting work teams in workplace organizations in Italy and obtained (a) employees’ individual-level scores on the Regulatory Mode Scale and (b) supervisor ratings of each employee’s work performance. The results supported the multilevel complementarity hypothesis for regulatory mode. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed.