The Criterion Problem in Cross-Cultural Performance Research

The criterion problem is a serious conceptual and methodological challenge that has confronted investigators and managers in the organizational sciences for over 100 years. This paper is an introduction to the criterion problem and some of the complex, multifaceted issues it encompasses. It defines and discusses important concepts (e.g. the problem itself, conceptual criteria, operational criteria). It explores broad dilemmas that afflict all types of criteria and narrower dilemmas that are more individually relevant to criteria traditionally considered objective or subjective. It concludes by examining prospects for the criterion problem both in general and within cross-cultural management.

The Effects of Leaders' Prosocial Orientation on Employees' Organizational Citizenship Behavior - The Roles of Affective Commitment and Workplace Ostracism

PURPOSE

According to leadership trait theory, leaders' personality traits are stable factors in organizational situations and exert significant effects on employees' organizational behaviors. However, studies related to this topic are very limited. In this study, from the leadership trait perspective and based on social identity theory and social exchange theory, the influencing mechanisms of leaders' prosocial tendencies on affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors are investigated. Specifically, leadership prosocial tendency, affective commitment and workplace ostracism are selected as the independent variable, mediating variable and moderating variable, respectively.

METHODS

The data collection is conducted in two stages in which the leader-employee pairing method is adopted. Ultimately, 347 valid questionnaires are collected from 73 teams. Later, the hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap methods are used to test the study's hypotheses.

RESULTS

Leadership prosocial tendencies have significant positive effects on affective commitment (β = 0.282, p < 0.001), affiliation-oriented (β = 0.648, p < 0.001) and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.521, p < 0.001). There is a significant positive effect of affective commitment on affiliation-oriented (β = 0.103, p < 0.05) and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.122, p < 0.05). At the same time, the influence of leadership prosocial tendencies on affiliation-oriented (β = 0.619, p < 0.001) and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (β = 0.487, p < 0.001) remains significant. In other words, affective commitment partially mediates the relationships between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affiliation-oriented, challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Workplace ostracism plays a negative moderating role between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affective commitment (β = -0.098, p < 0.05). Furthermore, workplace ostracism can also mediate the mediating role of affective commitment with 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals [-0.146, -0.017] and [-0.114, -0.003].

CONCLUSION

The results show that leaders' prosocial tendencies have significant positive effects on both affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Affective commitment partially mediates the relationships between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affiliation-oriented and challenge-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Workplace ostracism significantly negatively moderates the relationship between leaders' prosocial tendencies and affective commitment. Moreover, the study verifies that the mediating effect of workplace ostracism on affective commitment has a significant moderating effect.

Transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour: the role of job autonomy and supportive management

Purpose

This study aims to examine the relationship between transformational leadership, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), job autonomy and supportive management with job autonomy and supportive management as mediating variables.

Design/methodology/approach

Primary data was collected through a survey of employees from business organizations in India. Data from 422 valid responses were analysed using structural equation modelling. Confirmatory factor analysis was run for assessment of the measurement model. Then the mediation effects of job autonomy and supportive management were tested for the hypothesized model.

Findings

Findings of the analyses indicate that transformational leadership directly and positively influences OCB, job autonomy and supportive management. Job autonomy and supportive management directly and positively influence OCB and mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB partially.

Originality/value

Contribution of the study comes from advancement of literature by supporting the mediating effects of job autonomy and supportive management in the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. Thus, the study provides a basis for the mechanism of how transformational leadership is related to OCB.

The lacuna model: A new approach to cross-cultural management research

This paper presents the lacuna model—an innovative investigational tool for the study of cross-cultural differences in a broader context. Originally developed and still widely used as a linguistic instrument, the lacuna theory also applies to empirical investigations in the field of cross-cultural management. Using several examples from the business world to illustrate the taxonomy, the authors demonstrate how lacuna analysis can be carried out. By comparing the lacuna model with Hofstede’s framework, the paper presents the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and concludes with a discussion of the potential offered by the lacuna model for cross-cultural management research and suggestions for its further development.

Motivating toward organizational commitment: A cross-comparative perspective

This article investigates how factors that contribute to the development of organizational commitment can be adjusted to take account of cultural diversity among employees, by taking the mediating effects of motivational processes and leadership into account. Survey data were obtained from two similar organizations in two different cultural contexts—Australia and Iran. The findings showed that both intrinsic and identified motivations and leadership are critical to the development of desirable organizational commitment. The introjected form of motivation was found to be the factor that mediates variances in employee commitment between the two cultural contexts. The current study explains this mediation role by referring to the different degrees to which conformity is salient across the two contexts, thereby providing managers, who are working in culturally diverse contexts, a means of understanding how and why different motivational techniques are more or less likely to contribute to the development of organizational commitment. Furthermore, the present study contributes to the existing literature on organizational commitment by comparing and contrasting the nature and prominence of employee commitment profiles in two different cultural contexts.