Gender conflict and worldview defence

High-quality relationships as antecedents of OCB: roles of identity freedom and gender

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to expand the criterion domain of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), by examining the relationship between high-quality relationships (HQRs) and OCBs, with identity freedom as a mediator. In addition, the study also tries to highlight the role of gender as a moderator, whereby female (vs male) employees deferentially evaluate the importance of HQRs while engaging in OCBs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted survey research by collecting data from 160 working adults and performed both basic mediation and mediated-moderated regression analysis with bootstrapping to determine the authors’ findings.

Findings

Results of the study establish HQRs as important antecedents of employee citizenship behaviors, clarify the role of identity freedom as an important underlying psychological mechanism that mediates the relationship between HQRs and OCBs and position gender as an important boundary condition in the relationship between HQR and identity freedom, whereby female employees are more likely to enjoy identity freedom in the presence of HQRs, as opposed to males.

Research limitations/implications

The present study illustrates the importance of HQRs and identity freedom as precursors of OCBs and in doing so expands the nomological net of OCBs, especially with respect to the antecedents of OCBs. The study also expands the scope of social identity theory by highlighting, in addition to social identity, the importance of identity expression.

Practical implications

This study provides guidance to organizational practitioners to focus on building HQRs at work as HQRs, by making employees feel safe, pave the way for OCBs. In addition, the study also highlights the importance of gender as a moderator, whereby employees with different gender affiliations react differently to organizational contexts.

Originality/value

Very little research has examined the relationship between HQRs and OCB. Antecedents of OCBs have been grouped into four categories: individual (or employee) characteristics, task characteristics, organizational characteristics and leadership behaviors. Clearly, the role played by the quality of interpersonal relationships in fostering OCBs has not been fully examined. By highlighting HQRs and identity freedom as antecedents of OCBs, the study informs the OCB literature by introducing interpersonal-relational and attitudinal elements as criterions of OCBs.

Oh, the places you’ll go!

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore pre-employment college graduates’ relocation tendencies based on a research framework built upon gender and cultural theories.

Design/methodology/approach

Relocation decisions were analyzed based on 208 college graduates enrolled in public universities in Texas, USA.

Findings

The relocation decision-making by college graduates differ from that for corporate employees described in previous research. First, the willingness to relocate increases as the college graduates mature. Second, gender difference in the willingness to relocate is non-significant because of the same expected norms for both genders. Instead, psychological gender affiliation, such as self-perceived masculinity, makes a difference in relocation decisions. Third, family-related variables, such as marital status and parenthood, do not influence college graduates’ relocation decisions. Last, cultural groups do not exhibit any overall significant differences.

Research limitations/implications

The findings provide new and complementary knowledge over previous relocation studies.

Practical implications

The findings enhance the understanding of career choices made by college graduates in their early career, offering valuable managerial implications in crafting staffing strategies and improving human resource management for organizations in today’s fast-changing, vibrant multi-cultural environment.

Originality/value

The study is focused on pre-employment relocation decision-making by college graduates from different demographic backgrounds. The study fills a major research void in relocation studies by clarifying the relocation patterns of new employees graduating from college.

Aspects of Love: The Effect of Mortality Salience and Attachment Style on Romantic Beliefs

Two studies are reported which explore romance as a means of terror management for participants with secure and insecure attachment styles. Mikulincer and Florian (2000) have shown that while mortality salience increases the desire for intimacy in securely attached individuals, the insecurely attached use cultural world views rather than close relationships to cope with fear of death. Study 1 used the romantic belief scale to compare the effects of attachment style and mortality salience on the cultural aspects of close relationships and showed that the only the insecurely attached were more romantic following mortality salience. Study 2 replicated this effect and demonstrated that this difference was not simply due to lower self-esteem in the insecurely attached. The additional inclusion of the Relationship assessment questionnaire failed to provide any evidence that the securely attached were affected by the mortality salience manipulation, even on a more interpersonal measure.

The effect of mortality salience on implicit bias

Previous research in terror management theory has shown that when individuals are reminded of their mortality, negative evaluations of out-group members increase. This previous research has used a variety of methods to investigate the change in attitudes toward out-group members. These methods generally permit participants time to consciously reflect during responding In the present study, the authors hypothesized that reminding individuals of their mortality would increase implicit bias toward out-group members when measured with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). In the experiment, White participants were randomly assigned to complete a written essay about imagining their own death (i.e., mortality salience condition) or an essay regarding an upcoming exam (i.e., control condition), and then participants completed an evaluative IAT. The results revealed that participants who had been reminded of their mortality took longer to associate names of Black individuals with positive words when compared to a control group. The implications of these findings are considered.

The effects of death reminders on sex differences in prejudice toward gay men and lesbians

Terror management research shows that death reminders (mortality salience) increase prejudice toward worldview violators. Two studies investigated whether death reminders exacerbated differences in heterosexual men's and women's reports of sexual prejudice (negative attitudes based on sexual orientation). Results showed that following death reminders, sex differences in anti-gay discrimination and affective prejudice toward gay men (but not toward lesbians) were larger, and that these increased sex differences were mediated by gender role beliefs. The current studies suggest that researchers may attenuate the effects of death reminders by lessening the perceived worldview violation in addition to alleviating the existential terror of death.

Two decades of terror management theory: a meta-analysis of mortality salience research

A meta-analysis was conducted on empirical trials investigating the mortality salience (MS) hypothesis of terror management theory (TMT). TMT postulates that investment in cultural worldviews and self-esteem serves to buffer the potential for death anxiety; the MS hypothesis states that, as a consequence, accessibility of death-related thought (MS) should instigate increased worldview and self-esteem defense and striving. Overall, 164 articles with 277 experiments were included. MS yielded moderate effects (r = .35) on a range of worldview- and self-esteem-related dependent variables (DVs), with effects increased for experiments using (a) American participants, (b) college students, (c) a longer delay between MS and the DV, and (d) people-related attitudes as the DV. Gender and self-esteem may moderate MS effects differently than previously thought. Results are compared to other reviews and examined with regard to alternative explanations of TMT. Finally, suggestions for future research are offered.