Leading with purpose: Unraveling the impact of responsible leadership on employee green behavior in the workplace

Although sustainability has been a priority for organizations, there is still a lack of research on how leaders with a stakeholder perspective can motivate employees to adopt green behavior for sustainability in a complex and changing environment. This paper introduced social cognitive theory to describe two mechanisms by which responsible leadership predicts employee green behavior. Our research considers felt obligation for constructive change and stakeholder value as mediations with cognitive perspective in this process. Additionally, we consider the moderating effects of positive emotion and the superior-subordinate relationship. Our model received support from the investigation and research. By emphasizing the significance of perceived responsible leadership and proposing a new way of perceiving employee green behavior that ensures guidance from responsible leadership along the cognition perspective, the present research contributes to our understanding of the incentive effect of responsible leadership on employee green behavior.

Distinct neural dynamics of the observed ostracism effect in decision-making under risk and ambiguity

Observational ostracism, as a form of social exclusion, can significantly affect human behavior. However, the effects of observed ostracism on risky and ambiguous decision-making and the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. This event-related potential study investigated these issues by involving participants in a wheel-of- fortune task, considering observed ostracism and inclusion contexts. The results showed that the cue-P3 component was more enhanced during the choice phase for risky decisions than for ambiguous decisions in the observed inclusion contexts but not in the observed ostracism contexts. During the outcome evaluation phase, feedback-related negativity amplitudes following both risky and ambiguous decisions were higher in the no-gain condition than in the gain condition in the observed inclusion context. In contrast, this effect was only observed following risky decisions in the observed ostracism context. The feedback-P3 component did not exhibit an observed ostracism effect in risky and ambiguous decision-making tasks. Risk levels further modulated the cue-P3 and feedback-related negativity components, while ambiguity levels further modulated the feedback-P3 components. These findings demonstrate a neural dissociation between risk and ambiguity decision-making during observed ostracism that unfolds from the choice phase to the outcome evaluation phase.

Active vs. computer-based passive decision-making leads to discrepancies in outcome evaluation: evidence from self-reported emotional experience and brain activity

People prefer active decision-making and induce greater emotional feelings than computer-based passive mode, yet the modulation of decision-making mode on outcome evaluation remains unknown. The present study adopted event-related potentials to investigate the discrepancies in active and computer-based passive mode on outcome evaluation using a card gambling task. The subjective rating results showed that active mode elicited more cognitive effort and stronger emotional feelings than passive mode. For received outcomes, we observed no significant Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) effect on difference waveshapes (d-FRN) between the 2 modes, but active decision-making elicited larger P300 amplitudes than the passive mode. For unchosen card outcomes, the results revealed larger d-FRN amplitudes of relative valences (Superior - Inferior) in responses to negative feedback in active mode than in passive mode. The averaged P300 results revealed an interplay among outcome feedback, decision-making mode, and relative valence, and the average P300 amplitude elicited by the received loss outcome in the active mode partially mediated the relationship between subjective cognitive effort and negative emotion ratings on loss. Our findings indicate discrepancies between active and computer-based passive modes, and cognitive effort and emotional experience involved in outcome evaluation.

Expected Valence Predicts Choice in a Recurrent Decision Task

There is empirical evidence that expected yet not current affect predicts decisions. However, common research designs in affective decision-making show consistent methodological problems (e.g., conceptualization of different emotion concepts; measuring only emotional valence, but not arousal). We developed a gambling task that systematically varied learning experience, average feedback balance and feedback consistency. In Experiment 1 we studied whether predecisional current affect or expected affect predict recurrent gambling responses. Furthermore, we exploratively examined how affective information is represented on a neuronal level in Experiment 2. Expected and current valence and arousal ratings as well as Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) responses were analyzed using a within-subject design. We used a generalized mixed effect model to predict gambling responses with the different affect variables. Results suggest a guiding function of expected valence for decisions. In the anticipation period, we found activity in brain areas previously associated with valence-general processing (e.g., anterior cingulate cortex, nucleus accumbens, thalamus) mostly independent of contextual factors. These findings are discussed in the context of the idea of a valence-general affective work-space, a goal-directed account of emotions, and the hypothesis that current affect might be used to form expectations of future outcomes. In conclusion, expected valence seems to be the best predictor of recurrent decisions in gambling tasks.