Relationships Between Organizational Commitment and Its Antecedents: Employee Self-Concept Matters

Can authentic leaders reduce the spread of negative workplace gossip? The roles of subordinates' perceived procedural justice and interactional justice

Many studies suggest that leaders should discourage or prevent the spread of negative workplace gossip (NWG), but yet little is understood about the relationship between leaders and their subordinates' NWG. This study interprets the linkage between authentic leadership and two types of NWG via individuals' perceptions of justice based on fairness heuristic and justice views. The data were collected in a three-stage process from a large information technology corporation in China. The findings revealed that interactional justice mediated authentic leadership and NWG's relationship with supervisors and the relationship between authentic leadership and NWG about coworkers. The procedural justice mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and NWG about supervisors, while it didn't mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and NWG about coworkers. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Work and well-being: collective and individual self-concept, job commitment, citizenship behavior, and autonomy as predictors of overall life satisfaction

A job may contribute to overall life satisfaction (LS) when it meets basic psychological needs. This study examined aspects of one's work (organizational commitment, citizenship behavior and autonomy), and individual differences in self-concept (collective versus individual), as predictors of overall LS. 295 employees working at a variety of jobs completed questionnaires online. Results showed that higher collective self-concept predicted greater LS; this was partially mediated by affective job commitment, work autonomy and altruistic citizenship behaviors, all of which also independently predicted greater LS. Higher individual self-concept was also a significant predictor of LS, partially mediated by compliance citizenship behaviors. These results suggest that when work fulfills a need for connectedness (i.e., for people with a collective self-concept), autonomy, and when we feel emotionally committed to our job, and go beyond what it requires, our overall LS is higher. These results clarify some positive ways that our work contributes to overall LS, but important questions remain for future research.

Laissez-Faire Leadership and Affective Commitment: the Roles of Leader-Member Exchange and Subordinate Relational Self-concept

Although the detrimental effects of laissez-faire leadership are well documented, research on the underlying mechanisms and the boundary conditions associated with these effects remains scarce. Using the identity orientation framework and social exchange theory, we propose that employees with stronger relational self-concepts are more likely to be affected by laissez-faire leadership. As these employees define themselves through dyadic relationships, they may react more negatively to laissez-faire leadership by diminishing their contributions to mutual goals and reducing their affective organizational commitment. These predictions were tested within a three-wave longitudinal study through structural equations modeling analyses with full information maximum likelihood estimation on a sample of employees from multiple organizations (N = 449). As predicted, the relational self-concept was associated with a stronger negative effect of laissez-faire leadership on the contribution dimension of leader-member exchange and a stronger negative indirect effect on affective organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the mechanisms related to laissez-faire leadership are discussed.

Social Comparisons, Self-Conceptions, and Attributions: Assessing the Self-Related Contingencies in Leader-Member Exchange Relationships

Research on leader-member exchange (LMX) has demonstrated that, in addition to the value of LMX as an indicator of quality relationships with leaders, employees also evaluate how their relationship with the leader compares to other employees' relationship with the leader. This finding led to the emergence of LMX social comparison (LMXSC). This study examines how LMX vs. LMXSC relates to work outcomes and considers the employee and perceived supervisor self-concept levels as moderators. We posit that LMX predicts work performance through increased organizational commitment. We further suggest that the relational and collective levels of the self-concept act as contingencies of the relationships among LMX, LMXSC, commitment, and performance. A sample of 250 employee-supervisor dyads was used to test the hypotheses. LMX predicted commitment and, indirectly, performance. The employee and perceived supervisor relational self-concepts acted as moderators of LMXSC, and the perceived supervisor collective self-concept acted as a moderator of LMX and LMXSC. However, not all moderation hypotheses were supported. Unexpected moderating effects involving the employee and perceived supervisor individual self-concepts, as well as main effects, were also uncovered. This study helps differentiate LMX from LMXSC and understand the role of self-conceptions, including self-conceptions attributed by employees to the leader, in leader-member relationships.

Examining the Unique Mediators That Underlie the Effects of Different Dimensions of Transformational Leadership

Although transformational leadership has been found to relate favorably to various work outcomes, past research has predominantly focused on overall transformational leadership rather than its dimensions. We addressed this shortcoming by examining how two dimensions of transformational leadership—providing support and emphasizing group goals—relate to follower organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intentions via leader–member exchange and employee commitment. Survey data were collected from 107 triads (employees, supervisors, and coworkers) employed in various organizations and industries. We supported our theoretical model in which the relation of providing support with organizational citizenship behavior is mediated by leader–member exchange and supervisor commitment, whereas the relationship of emphasizing group goals with turnover intentions is mediated by organizational commitment. These findings indicate that the dimensions of transformational leadership operate through unique channels. One implication for leadership development is that, depending on what outcome is desired (e.g., strengthening commitment to the leader vs. the organization), training can be tailored to target the most relevant dimension (e.g., providing support is more important for cultivating commitment to the leader vs. the organization). We discuss these and other implications of our findings.