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Subordinates' perceptions of the need‐supportive, need‐thwarting, and need‐indifferent behaviors used by their supervisors: A person‐centered investigation
Abstract
Adopting a recent tripartite operationalization of subordinates' perceptions of their supervisors' behaviors, anchored in self‐determination theory (SDT), this person‐centered study considers the co‐existence of subordinates' perceptions of their supervisors' need‐supportive, need‐thwarting, and need‐indifferent behaviors. Moreover, we also consider how these various combinations (or profiles) of perceived supervisor behaviors relate to subordinates' levels of work motivation, well‐being, attitudes, behaviors, and work–home functioning. A sample of 596 French employees ( M age = 31.22; 73.5% women) participated in this study. Our results revealed six profiles of subordinates characterized by distinct configurations of perceived need‐related behaviors from supervisors ( globally unfavorable , globally favorable and supportive , moderate‐indifferent , moderately favorable and involved , moderately unfavorable , and moderately favorable ). Consistent with our expectations, these profiles displayed well‐differentiated patterns of associations with all of the outcomes considered in this study. These findings underscored the key role of subordinates' specific perceptions of need‐supportive, need‐thwarting, and need‐indifferent behaviors, over and above their global perceptions of their supervisors' behaviors, in determining how beneficial or harmful supervisory profiles are. In particular, our results also highlighted the critical role played by need‐indifferent behaviors, which prove to be a very important, and yet typically neglected, component of subordinates' perceptions of their supervisors' behaviors.
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In this paper, we integrate displaced aggression theory with organizational dehumanization research to examine the trickle-out effects of organizational dehumanization. Specifically, we argue that supervisors who feel dehumanized by their organization will displace their aggression toward their subordinates by engaging in supervisor undermining behaviors. Undermined subordinates, in turn, will displace their own aggression toward their family members through family undermining behaviors, ultimately impairing the latter's relationship satisfaction and perceptions of emotional support. Furthermore, these mediated relationships are exacerbated when supervisors' fear of retaliation from the organization is high. We tested the research model in two independent studies using multi-source data: (1) a four-wave investigation of 184 full-time employees along with their spouses and supervisors (Study 1) and (2) 175 supervisor-subordinate-family member triads (Study 2). Results of Study 1 suggested that supervisors' perceptions of organizational dehumanization were associated with subordinates' perceptions of supervisor undermining. This, in turn, was associated with spouse-reported undermining behaviors and ultimately spouse-reported relationship satisfaction. In Study 2, we went one step further and showed that supervisors' perceptions of organizational dehumanization were serially related to family outcomes (i.e., relationship satisfaction and perceptions of emotional support) via subordinates' perceptions of supervisor undermining and family members' reports of family undermining. Further, high fear of retaliation strengthened these mediated relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Using data from 708 French-Canadian nurses, the present study relies on self-determination theory (SDT) and its proposed motivation mediation model to examine the associations between need satisfaction, work motivation, and various manifestations of psychological wellbeing (work satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intentions). To increase the precision and accuracy of these analyses, we relied on
analytic approaches that explicitly account for the dual global/specific nature of both work motivation and need satisfaction. Results revealed that nurses’ global psychological need satisfaction, and their specific autonomy and competence satisfaction, were positively associated with their global self-determined work motivation and specific intrinsic motivation. In turn, global self-determined work motivation and specific intrinsic motivation were associated with more desirable outcome levels. Nurses’ global need satisfaction and specific autonomy satisfaction were also directly associated with more desirable outcome levels. Our results provided support for a partially mediated version of SDT’s motivation mediation model.
This research addresses recent calls for an alternative integrative framework to apprehend leaders’ behaviors and examines the validity of questionnaire anchored in this theoretical approach. Building upon Self-Determination Theory, we examined a tripartite approach of supervisors’ behaviors (supportive, thwarting, and indifferent toward subordinates’ psychological needs). The psychometric properties of this Tripartite Measure of Interpersonal Behaviors-Supervisor (TMIB-S) was tested through three studies. Results from bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling supported a solution including one global factor, and three specific factors reflecting need supportive, thwarting, and indifferent behaviors. This solution was fully invariant across distinct samples of French- and English-speaking employees. Results also supported the criterion-related and discriminant validities of the TMIB-S. More specifically, results supported the added-value of the TMIB-S, when compared to well-established measures of leadership (passive leadership, abusive supervision, LMX, and transformational leadership), in predicting well- and ill-being. Results also highlighted well-differentiated effects of the different components of supervisory behaviors and showed that supervisors’ need indifferent behaviors constitute a key piece in the prediction of employees’ health-related consequences.
Motivational theories have explored both the bright and dark sides of personal and contextual factors that support or undermine, respectively, human functioning and potential. Here, I review research that has used self-determination theory as a guiding conceptual framework to study the bright and dark “colors” of motivation. I primarily focus on interpersonal styles of communication used by individuals in positions of authority and/or expertise. I explain how such communication styles can support or thwart the recipients’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. I also discuss the experiential states and consequences of feeling that one’s own psychological needs are satisfied versus frustrated. I further briefly touch upon the distinction between autonomous and controlled forms of motivation, as well as between intrinsic and extrinsic goal content. I review conceptual, methodological, and analytical issues, and provide suggestions for future research. Extending past research, I present tripartite conceptualizations and measurements of interpersonal styles and psychological needs which consider “dim light” colors of motivation, namely need indifferent interpersonal styles and experiential states of personal need unfulfillment. I discuss how these constructs could enrich our understanding of the “middle ground” of motivation and have potential relevance for intervention work that aims to address “missed opportunities” for optimal motivational functioning at the contextual and personal levels.
This research responds to calls for a more integrative approach to leadership theory by identifying subpopulations of followers who share a common set of perceptions with respect to their leader's behaviors. Six commonly researched styles were investigated: abusive supervision, transformational leadership (TFL), contingent reward (CR), passive and active management-by-exception (MBE-P and MBE-A, respectively), and laissez faire/avoidant (LF/A). Study hypotheses were tested with data from four independent samples of working adults, three from followers ( N = 855) and a validation sample of leaders ( N = 505). Using latent profile analysis, three pattern cohorts emerged across all four samples. One subpopulation of followers exhibited a constructive pattern with higher scores on TFL and CR relative to other styles. Two cohorts exhibited destructive patterns, one where the passive styles of MBE-A, MBE- P and LF/A were high relative to the other styles (passive) and one where the passive styles co-occurred with abusive supervision (passive-abusive). Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we confirmed differential associations with work-related (i.e., burnout, vigor, perceived organizational support and affective organizational commitment) and context-free (i.e., physical health and psychological well-being) outcomes. The passive-abusive pattern was devastating for physical health, yet passiveness without abuse was damaging for psychological well-being. Interestingly, we find a clear demarcation between passiveness as “benign neglect” and passiveness as an intentional and deliberate form of leadership aimed at disrupting or undermining followers—hence, the two faces of passiveness: “bad” and “ugly.” We discuss the novel insights offered by a pattern (person)-oriented analytical strategy and the broader theoretical and practical implications for leadership research.
The present study examines how the different dimensions of leader–member exchange (LMX) combine within different profiles of workers (N = 634). This research also documents the relations between LMX profiles and a series of demographic characteristics (gender, age, level of education, work schedule, organizational tenure, and tenure in the current position) and outcomes (affective commitment, well-being, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, positive and negative affect, and perceived health). Latent profile analyses (LPA) revealed six profiles of employees defined based on their global and specific (loyalty, affect, contribution, and professional respect) levels of LMX: Low Exchange, Moderate Exchange with Low Affect, Normative, Moderately Low Exchange with High Loyalty and Low Respect, Moderate Exchange with High Affect and Low Respect, and Moderate Exchange with Low Loyalty and High Respect. Results also showed the least desirable levels on all outcomes to be associated with the Low Exchange profile, with most comparisons being statistically significant. In addition, the proportion of females was higher in the Low Exchange profile than in the Moderate Exchange with High Affect and Low Respect profile, while age and organizational tenure were unrelated to the likelihood of membership in any of the profiles.
This study investigates the within-domain exacerbation phenomenon in relation to employees’ perception of their supervisors’ leadership behaviors. This phenomenon proposes that exposure to supervisors relying on a combination of destructive leadership behaviors (DLB; operationalized as petty tyranny) and constructive leadership behaviors (CLB; operationalized as transformational leadership) should have more negative consequences on followers’ levels of thriving and behavioral empowerment than exposure to supervisors relying more exclusively on DLB or CLB. This phenomenon was tested using a person-centered mixture regression approach with a sample of 2104 Canadian employees from a police organization. Three profiles of employees were identified, representing those exposed to moderately transformational (mostly CLB), destructive (mostly DLB), and inconsistent (CLB and DLB) supervisors. Members of the inconsistent profile displayed the lowest levels of thriving and behavioral empowerment, followed by members of the destructive profile, and finally by members of the moderately transformational profile. Results also suggest that the inability to determine if a supervisor is more destructive or constructive might explain the within-domain exacerbation phenomenon. Indeed, in the inconsistent profile, leadership clarification seemed beneficial for employees. Increases in DLB resulted in a matching increase in empowered behaviors centered on the group and organization, while increases in CLB resulted in increases in thriving and empowered behaviors centered on individual performance.
Crossover theory describes the transmission of stress/strains that are experienced by one person to another (Westman, Human Relations, 54, 2001, 717–752). In our article, we review the extant literature and present results from a meta-analysis—the first ever of this literature—to shed light on the magnitude of the crossover effect, the predictors and outcomes of crossover, and the psychological process underlying the crossover effect. Our meta-analysis offered evidence of crossover of the role sender’s work stressors, work attitudes, and work-to-family conflict (WFC) to the role receiver’s psychological distress, family satisfaction, and work attitudes. We also found some support for the hypothesis that the role sender’s positive social behavior mediates these effects.
This paper examines the multidimensional nature of workplace motivation and the importance of a continuum structure in self-determination theory (SDT) through application of complementary variable-and person-centered approaches. This approach is taken to simultaneously model the complexity of motivation and highlight interactions between motivational factors. Additionally, this study represents an initial test of the temporal stability of work motivation profiles. A sample of 510 full-time employees were recruited from a range of occupations. Results support the central importance of a general factor representing self-determination as the most influential factor in an employee's motivation profile. However, smaller effects associated with the motivation subscales, especially identified regulation, were also noticed. Importantly, motivation profiles were found to be highly stable over the four-month duration of this study. Results lend support to the theoretical position that while general self-determination is an essential component of motivation, it alone does not fully describe an employee's motivation.
Self-determination theory presents a multi-dimensional approach to human motivation in which motivation is driven by a range of classifiably distinct regulation styles. However, these different regulations are also considered to fall along a continuum of self-determination which implies that a global dimension reflecting the degree of self-determination present is important. The lack of explicit integration between these two aspects in the conceptualization of motivation has recently led to debates and a flux of research on the structure of motivation as defined in self-determination theory. This review comprehensively explores recent advances in this area as well as more classical approaches in order to establish an optimal and empirically supported conceptualization of motivation. A novel solution is proposed, namely a semi-radex structure of motivation, in which types of motivation are predictably ordered by degree of self-determination while also maintaining their unique contribution as distinct factors. Theoretical and practical implications for researchers who use self-determination theory are made.
The present research assessed the psychometric multidimensionality and criterion-related validity the Interpersonal Behaviours Questionnaire using the bifactor-exploratory structural equation modeling framework. Study 1 relied on a sample of 772 participants, and supported the superiority of a bifactor-ESEM representation compared to alternative representations. Ratings of need supportive and thwarting behaviors simultaneously reflected a global overarching need nurturing behaviors construct (rather than two separate need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviours), which co-existed with six specific dimensions (autonomy, competence, and relatedness need supportive and thwarting behaviors). These results were replicated in a second independent sample of 742 participants and across gender. Our findings supported the criterion-related validity of interpersonal behaviors in relation to positive affect, negative affect, and need fulfillment across samples and genders. We finally discuss the theoretical and practical implications of relying on the bifactor-ESEM framework when investigating need supportive and thwarting interpersonal behaviors.
The study of basic psychological needs has witnessed a strong revival, in part spurred by Basic Psychological Need Theory (BPNT), one of the six mini-theories within Self-Determination Theory. Empirical studies on BPNT have increased exponentially since the millennium turn, leading to refinements and extensions in theory. In this contribution we review these two decades of research in order to introduce two special issues on BPNT. We first discuss key criteria that define and identify a basic need within BPNT. We then review several need-relevant themes, highlighting advancements and trends that characterize contemporary research on BPNT. Specifically, we address potential extensions of the shortlist of basic psychological needs, the role of psychological need frustration in increasing vulnerability to maladjustment, the study of the interface between individuals’ psychological and physical needs (e.g., sleep, sex, hunger), novel insights into critical need-supportive and need-thwarting practices, and the universality (versus variability) of effects of need satisfactions and supports across demographics, psychological characteristics, and cultural contexts. We also situate each of the 19 contributions that appear in this special double-issue on BPNT within these themes, while suggesting avenues for further research on the role of basic psychological needs in motivation, adjustment, and wellness.
Surprisingly scant research has adequately examined directional influences between different perceptions of managerial leadership behaviors and different types of work motivation, and even fewer studies have examined contextual moderators of these influences. The present study investigated longitudinal and multilevel autoregressive cross-lagged relations between perceptions of transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidant leadership with autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and amotivation. Multilevel longitudinal models were estimated on data from 788 employees, nested under 108 distinct supervisors, from six Canadian organizations. Results revealed that perceptions of leadership behaviors predicted changes in motivation mostly at the collective level and that some of these relations changed as a function of whether organizations had recently faced a crisis. Collective perceptions of transformational leadership were related to increased collective autonomous and controlled motivation, while individual controlled motivation was related to increased individual perceptions of transactional leadership. In organizations facing a crisis, individual perceptions of transactional leadership were related to decreased individual controlled motivation, while collective perceptions of transactional leadership were related to increased collective autonomous motivation and decreased collective amotivation. In organizations not facing a crisis, collective perceptions of transactional leadership were related to decreased collective autonomous motivation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
We utilize the social intuitionist approach to moral judgment and moral disengagement theory to understand why and when employees sabotage customers. We contend that when customers mistreat employees (i.e., customer mistreatment), employees experience intuitive emotional reactions in the form of hostility, which automatically activates devaluation of targets, a specific facet of moral disengagement. In turn, employees become unencumbered by moral self-regulation and sabotage customers who mistreat them (i.e., customer-directed sabotage). We further argue that our serially mediated model is moderated by employees’ perceptions of the organization’s ethical climate. When ethical climates are perceived as being low, employees’ hostile reactions toward misbehaving customers produce a positive relationship with devaluation of targets, and devaluation of targets results in a positive relationship with customer-directed sabotage. These positive relationships do not hold when ethical climate is perceived as being high. We test our theoretical model using a field sample of customer service employees and an experimental study to establish causality. Our results provide general support for our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and opportunities for future research.
Notwithstanding the proliferation of servant leadership studies with over 100 articles published in the last four years alone, a lack of coherence and clarity around the construct has impeded its theory development. We provide an integrative and comprehensive review of the 285 articles on servant leadership spanning 20 years (1998–2018), and in so doing extend the field in four different ways. First, we provide a conceptual clarity of servant leadership vis-à-vis other value-based leadership approaches and offer a new definition of servant leadership. Second, we evaluate 16 existing measures of servant leadership in light of their respective rigor of scale construction and validation. Third, we map the theoretical and nomological network of servant leadership in relation to its antecedents, outcomes, moderators, mediators. We finally conclude by presenting a detailed future research agenda to bring the field forward encompassing both theoretical and empirical advancement. All in all, our review paints a holistic picture of where the literature has been and where it should go into the future.
Leader autonomy support (LAS) refers to a cluster of supervisory behaviors that are theorized to facilitate self-determined motivation in employees, potentially enabling well-being and performance. We report the results of a meta-analysis of perceived LAS in work settings, drawing from a database of 754 correlations across 72 studies (83 unique samples, N = 32,870). Results showed LAS correlated strongly and positively with autonomous work motivation, and was unrelated to controlled work motivation. Correlations became increasingly positive with the more internalized forms of work motivation described by self-determination theory. LAS was positively associated with basic needs, well-being, and positive work behaviors, and was negatively associated with distress. Correlations were not moderated by the source of LAS, country of the sample, publication status, or the operationalization of autonomy support. In addition, a meta-analytic path analysis supported motivational processes that underlie LAS and its consequences in workplaces. Overall, our findings lend support for autonomy support as a leadership approach that is consistent with self-determination and optimal functioning in work settings.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1007/s11031-018-9698-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The current study introduces an ultra-short, 3-item version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Using five national samples from Finland (N = 22,117), Japan (N = 1,968), the Netherlands (N = 38,278), Belgium/Flanders (N = 5,062), and Spain (N = 10,040) its internal consistency and factorial validity vis-à-vis validated measures of burnout, workaholism, and job boredom are demonstrated. Moreover, the UWES-3 shares 86-92% of its variance with the longer nine-item version and the pattern of correlations of both versions with 9 indicators of well-being, 8 job demands, 10 job resources, and 6 outcomes is highly similar with an average, absolute difference between correlations of only.02. Hence, it is concluded that the UWES-3 is a reliable and valid indicator of work engagement that can be used as an alternative to the longer version, for instance in national and international epidemiological surveys on employee's working conditions.
This study aims to verify Lawler's (1992, 2008) theoretical proposition that the complementariness and coherence of leadership empowerment practices (LEB) need to be jointly considered in order to adequately understand their relation with employees’ levels of behavioral empowerment. Patterns of relations among three LEB (Delegation, Coaching, and Recognition), and five indicators of behavioral empowerment were analyzed among a sample of 474 Canadian employees. Lawler's proposition was tested using a person-centered mixture regression approach. The results revealed four distinct profiles of employees. At the profile level, results reveal that the joint implementation of a similar level of LEB in a complementary manner relates to employees’ levels of behavioral empowerment. However, within each profile, a lack of coherence in the levels of implementation of the three LEB resulted in a more complex pattern of associations with employees’ levels of behavioral empowerment. Taken together, these results offer practical guidance to guide supervisors in their utilization of LEB.
This study examines organizational support theory as it extends to supervisor support by (1) testing two explanations for the relationship between supervisors’ perceived organizational support and their supportive supervision and (2) examining perceived supervisor support in relation to subordinate performance and commitment. Multisource survey data from a correctional facility, with a matched sample of 51 supervisors and 283 subordinates, were collected. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used for analysis. Supervisors were more supportive when they felt supportive treatment was preferred by the organization and less supportive when they felt obligated to help the organization. Perceived supervisor support was associated with subordinate performance and commitment at the subordinate level (i.e., among employees reporting to the same supervisor) but not at the supervisor level (i.e., across supervisor-follower groups). Employees who feel supported by their supervisor perform better and are more committed to their employer. To encourage supervisor support, organizations should both model support to supervisors and communicate the expectation for supervisor support. Supervisors who feel obligated to reciprocate to a supportive organization may be less inclined to support their subordinates. This study examines the prevailing, yet untested, mechanism (felt obligation) used to explain the relationship between supervisor’s perceptions of organizational support and their supportive supervision, as well as an alternative explanation based on social information processing. The study provides a nuanced multilevel analysis of perceived supervisor support as related to subordinate outcomes and extends previous models by including subordinate withdrawal and commitment.
Morin and Marsh (2015) proposed a methodological framework to disentangle shape and level effects in latent profile analyses. We discuss limitations of this framework (based on a logic similar to that of higher-order measurement models), and suggest that these limitations are easily solved by a more thorough examination of the variable-centered measurement models underlying profile indicators. This study presents complementary variable- and person-centered approaches aiming to assess the dimensionality of psychometric constructs. Psychometric measures often assess separate conceptually-related facets of global overarching constructs, based on the assumption that these overarching constructs exist as global entities including specificities mapped by the facets. The framework proposed here explicitly models this dimensionality in both variable- and person-centered analyses. To illustrate this revised psychometric framework, we use ratings of psychological health collected from 1,232 teachers, and show how this revised framework provides a clearer picture of teachers’ profiles of psychological health.
This paper explores the nature of workplace motivation by testing the continuum structure of motivation proposed by self-determination theory through the application of relatively new and advanced methodological techniques. Specifically, we demonstrate the usefulness of the overarching bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling framework in organizational psychology and discuss implications of such models over more traditional confirmatory factor analyses. This framework is applied to responses obtained from 1,124 Canadian employees who completed a multidimensional measure of workplace motivation. The results support a continuum of self-regulation and illustrate the importance of accounting for quality of motivation in addition to its global quantity. Indeed, the results showed that specific types of motivation explained variance in covariates over and above the variance already explained by the global quantity of self-determination. The current study further demonstrates the limitation of the comm...
The perception of a competitive climate at work creates stress, uncertainty, and a desire to outperform colleagues. In this study, we investigated whether a competitive climate is associated with increased workaholism. Furthermore, we assumed that especially employees with a future orientation and a presence of a calling will show more workaholic behaviour when a competitive climate is present. Hierarchical regression analyses among 812 employees in Germany confirmed our hypotheses: Competitive climate was positively related with workaholism and was stronger related to workaholism under conditions of high future orientation and high calling. These findings suggest that contextual factors at work and individual factors interact to form workaholism. Our results may be explained by the experience of more uncertainty in competitive work climates for individuals with high future orientation and the presence of a calling. Consequently, these employees may invest more physical and cognitive efforts into their work to cope with the competition.
Autonomy-supportive and controlling styles of teaching are usually considered to be the opposite ends of a single continuum. An alternative view, however, is that individuals can perceive both styles simultaneously, which suggests that they are different constructs (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Ryan, Bosch, & Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2011). Using cluster analysis, Study 1 (N = 160) confirmed that both teaching styles were perceived by students. Four clusters appeared depending on the student's score on the measures of autonomy and controlling styles (high autonomy-high control; low autonomy-low control; high autonomy-low control; low autonomy-high control). Participants in the high autonomy-low control cluster reported the highest self-determined motivation in their studies. Using path analysis and mediational analyses, Study 2 (N = 127) tested the independence of the two styles by studying the process through which they influenced motivation. The results showed that need satisfaction (specifically, the need for autonomy) mediated the path between perceived autonomy-supportive teacher behavior and motivation, and that need-thwarting (specifically, the need for autonomy and relatedness) mediated the path between perceived controlling teacher behavior and self-determined motivation, which in turn predicted academic performance. These results add to the existing literature supporting the independence of the two styles.
An underlying premise of the transformational–transactional leadership theory is that different forms of leadership can reside simultaneously within the same individual. This fundamental hypothesis has received scarce attention in the empirical literature. The objectives of this study are thus to examine whether leader profiles combining these leadership forms do exist and to evaluate how these profiles are associated with specific employee attitudes and behaviors. Results obtained from two different samples using cluster analyses revealed six different leader profiles (i.e., superleaders, transactors, moderate leaders, distant-visionary, distant-rewarding, and distant-punitive leaders). Our results showed that these types of leaders differ in terms of employees’ perceptions of trust, justice, and commitment, as well as supervisor-rated in-role and contextual performance. Results and implications for research and practice are discussed.
Self-determination theory proposes a multidimensional conceptualization of motivation comprising autonomous and controlled forms. Whereas autonomous motivation relates positively to individuals’ optimal functioning (e.g., well-being, performance), controlled motivation is less beneficial. To be able to use self-determination theory in the field of organizational behaviour, the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale was developed and tested using data from 3435 workers in seven languages and nine countries. Factorial analyses indicated that the 19-item scale has the same factor structure across the seven languages. Convergent and discriminant validity tests across the countries also indicate that the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness as well as the theoretically derived antecedents to work motivation (e.g., leadership and job design) are predictably related to the different forms of motivation, which in turn are predictably related to important work outcomes (e.g., well-being, commitment, performance, and turnover intentions). Implications for the development of organizational research based on self-determination theory are discussed.
Within a stressor-strain framework, the aim of this study is to examine the influence of perceived laissez-faire leadership – a type of leadership characterized by the superiors' avoidance and inaction when subordinates are experiencing a situational need for leadership – on stress in the form of experiences of role ambiguity. This was tested within a prospective 3-wave research design with time lags of 2 and 3 years respectively. A combination of 2 constructive types of leadership, initiating structure and showing consideration, was included as a control. In a sample of 1771 employees drawn from the Norwegian working population, structural equation modelling supported the hypothesis that perceived laissez-faire leadership would be positively related to experiencing role ambiguity at 3 consecutive measurement points. The findings did not support a potential reciprocal relationship between the two across time. Initiation of structure and Consideration were not related to role ambiguity, providing strong evidence of the importance of laissez-faire leadership within a stressor-strain framework. Demonstrating that laissez-faire leadership is a root source of subordinate role ambiguity underlines the importance of superiors perceiving situations and circumstances where subordinates experience a need for leadership and, accordingly, approaching this need instead of avoiding it.
This study addressed the lack, in the work context, of a comprehensive time-lagged examination of the core constructs (interpersonal behaviors, psychological need states, and motivation) underlying Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Specifically, this research relied on person-centered analyses to gain a better understanding of how the distinct components of psychological need states (satisfaction, frustration, and unfulfillment of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) combine to produce distinct profiles of employees. We also documented the stability of these profiles over time and their associations with theoretically-relevant predictors (supervisors’ supportive, thwarting, and indifferent behaviors) and outcomes (work motivation). Questionnaire surveys were completed twice over the course of three months by a sample of 590 French employees. Six profiles characterized by distinct configurations of global and specific need constructs were identified and found to be stable over time. Supervisors’ supportive, thwarting, and indifferent behaviors showed well-differentiated patterns of association with these profiles. Finally, employees’ global levels of self-determination and specific levels of motivational regulations differed as a function of profile membership. Altogether, results from this research suggest that SDT’s explanatory framework may be expanded to encompass the key role played by need indifferent behaviors and employees’ experiences of need unfulfillment.
Keywords: Interpersonal behaviors; Need indifferent behaviors; Psychological needs; Need unfulfillment; Work motivation; Self-Determination Theory.
This study relied on person-centered analyses to improve our understanding of how the four components of the work-family interface (i.e., work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, work-to-family enrichment, and family-to-work enrichment) combine within specific profiles of employees. We also documented the stability of these profiles over time and their associations with theoretically-relevant predictors and outcomes. Finally, we examined whether these associations differed as a function of working remotely or onsite. A sample of 432 workers (152 working onsite and 280 working remotely) from the United States and the United Kingdom was recruited online and completed a questionnaire twice over a three-month period. Six profiles were identified and found to be moderately to highly stable over time: High Conflict, High Enrichment, Low Conflict and Low Enrichment, Low Conflict and High Enrichment, Low Conflict and Very High Enrichment, and Very Low Conflict. These profiles differed from one another in relation to work engagement, work-family balance satisfaction, work and family performance, and work and family authenticity, suggesting that the presence or absence of conflict between the work and home domains might be key in predicting workers' functioning. Harmonious passion for work predicted membership into the most desirable profiles, whereas obsessive passion, work centrality, and job demands had mixed effects on profile membership. Working onsite acted as a buffer against the detrimental effects of hindrance demands, while bolstering the benefits of challenge demands. Conversely, working remotely acted as a double-edged sword, maximizing the benefits of challenge demands and the risks of hindrance demands.
Organizational research underpinned by self‐determination theory (SDT) has grown substantially over the past decade. However, the effectiveness of interventions designed to promote support for basic psychological needs in organizations remains ill documented. We thus report the results of a qualitative systematic review and synthesis of SDT‐informed studies of interventions to cultivate autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, and in turn, autonomous motivation in organizational contexts. Studies were included in the review if they evaluated the effect of interventions to develop autonomy‐, competence‐, or relatedness‐supportive work climates or leader behaviours. A systematic search yielded ten eligible field studies for inclusion: three randomized‐controlled trials and seven non‐randomized intervention studies (combined N = 2,337). Seven studies yielded mostly favourable effects, two yielded mixed effects, and one study showed no evidence of change post‐intervention. Substantial heterogeneity in intervention format and delivery existed across studies. Studies pointed towards possible moderators of effectiveness. Interventions were more effective at spawning change at the proximal (leader) level than at the distal (subordinate) level, though few studies tracked employees over time to comprehensively evaluate long‐term transfer. Bias assessments showed that risk of bias was moderate or high across studies. We discuss overall implications of the review and suggest several recommendations for future intervention research and practice.
Practitioner points
Interventions to help leaders to support subordinates' basic psychological needs are effective in creating change in leader behaviour.
Intervention effects for subordinate outcomes are smaller and may take time to materialize.
Interventions tend to be more effective if they are aligned with organizational strategic needs, proactively consider unique work contexts, are endorsed by senior levels of management, and give preference to pedagogy that aligns with basic needs.
Although existing studies have performed sufficient retrospective analyses of servant leadership in hospitality research, until recently, few studies have quantitatively integrated the findings of numerous studies and provided a quantitative estimate for the relationship between servant leadership and follower outcomes in the hospitality context. This meta-analysis synthesized prior studies and examined various moderators between servant leadership and follower outcomes. The strongest impact of servant leadership was on followers’ satisfaction, followed by organizational commitment, service quality, work engagement, service climate, creativity, psychological capital, OCB and performance. However, the negative relationship between servant leadership and turnover was not supported. We also examined how individualism/collectivism, long-term/short-term orientation, femininity/masculinity, data collection, the data source of study samples and measurement of servant leadership influence the relationships between servant leadership and follower outcomes. At last we provide a detailed agenda for future research.
Based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this research aimed to investigate whether employees’ psychological need states could be expanded from two (need satisfaction and frustration) to three (need satisfaction, frustration, and unfulfillment). Relying on exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and bifactor-ESEM, this research also offered to test the construct validity of the Psychological Need States at Work-Scale (PNSW-S) and to explore its criterion-related validity. Results from two studies and three distinct samples of employees (French and English speaking) provided support for the unfulfillment of the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to be modeled as a distinct need state when tested alongside the satisfaction and frustration of those three needs. Moreover, results indicated that the different need states appeared to stem from distinct experiences (perceived supervisors’ supportive and thwarting behaviors) and that these need states in turn had well-differentiated effects in terms of employee functioning (job satisfaction, job boredom, and work-related rumination). Our research therefore deepens our understanding of the nature of psychological need states in the workplace and offers a multidimensional instrument allowing to simultaneously assess not only need satisfaction and frustration, but also need unfulfillment. It also indicates that SDT’s explanatory framework may be expanded from two to three need processes to explain the effect of the socio-contextual environment on individual functioning.
This chapter focuses on Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM), incorporating bifactor‐ESEM, which represent an overarching data analytic framework in which classical exploratory factor analysis methods have been integrated into the confirmatory factor analyses (CFA)/structural equation modeling framework. It discusses limitations related to the use of CFA, as well as some myths that maintain the use of this potentially problematic approach. The chapter introduces ESEM and the accompanying notion of psychometric multidimensionality. It discusses the alternative methods that can be used to account for construct‐irrelevant and construct‐relevant forms of psychometric multidimensionality. The chapter proposes a sequence for the estimation of ESEM and bifactor‐ESEM models and guidelines related to sample size determination and power estimation, and to the choice of the estimator and rotation procedure. It presents some limitations related to current implementations of ESEM and bifactor‐ESEM and preliminary solutions to some of these limitations.
Cronbach’s alpha (α) is a widely-used measure of reliability used to quantify the amount of random measurement error that exists in a sum score or average generated by a multi-item measurement scale. Yet methodologists have warned that α is not an optimal measure of reliability relative to its more general form, McDonald’s omega ( ω). Among other reasons, that the computation of ω is not available as an option in many popular statistics programs and requires items loadings from a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) have probably hindered more widespread adoption. After a bit of discussion of α versus ω, we illustrate the computation of ω using two structural equation modeling programs (Mplus and AMOS) and the MBESS package for R. We then describe a macro for SPSS and SAS (OMEGA) that calculates ω in two ways without relying on the estimation of loadings or error variances using CFA. We show that it produces estimates of ω that are nearly identical to when using CFA-based estimates of item loadings and error variances. We also discuss the use of the OMEGA macro for certain forms of item analysis and brief form construction based on the removal of items from a longer scale.
Objectives
Various self-report measures based on Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2017) have been developed to assess athletes’ perceptions of their coaches’ need supportive and thwarting behaviors. We propose that it is also conceptually important to distinguish between coaching behaviors that thwart and those that are indifferent to athletes’ psychological needs. This distinction is useful, as we contend that athletes’ degree of need frustration, and concomitant negative outcomes, are likely to be more pronounced in a coaching environment that actively thwarts (vs. is indifferent to) athletes’ needs. In this three-study paper, we outline the conceptual rationale for, the development of, and initial validity evidence for a tripartite (need supportive, thwarting, and indifferent) measure of interpersonal behaviors of coaches (TMIB-C).
Method
In Study 1, we developed 54 candidate items and gathered evidence for their face and content validity with athletes and an expert panel. Competing factor models were tested in Study 2 to determine the best representation of the measure’s factor structure. In Study 3, we tested the replication of such models and the nomological network surrounding the identified factors.
Results
In Study 2, a 22-item, three-factor structure (supportive, thwarting, and indifferent behaviors) using exploratory structural equation modeling, demonstrated acceptable fit, good standardized factor loadings, factor correlations in the expected directions, and acceptable estimates of internal consistency. This model was replicated in Study 3. Tests of nomological networks showed that as expected, need indifference was a weaker predictor of autonomy and competence need frustration as compared to need thwarting, and the only significant predictor of irrelevant thoughts. Unexpectedly however, need indifference, when compared to need thwarting, was as good a predictor of exhaustion and a better predictor of relatedness frustration.
Conclusions
Evidence supports the TMIB-C as a parsimonious and promising measure of athletes’ perceptions of coach interpersonal behaviors. Our tripartite conceptualization and measure should be further tested in terms of its predictive utility in order to advance conceptual understanding and intervention efforts targeting interpersonal behaviors in sport, and potentially other life domains.
This paper draws from social exchange theory and social cognitive theory to explore moral disengagement as a potential mediator of the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational deviance. We also explore the moderating effect of leader-member exchange (LMX) on this mediated relationship. Results indicate that employees with abusive supervisors engaged in moral disengagement strategies and subsequently in organizational deviance behaviors. Additionally, this relationship was stronger for those higher in LMX. Important implications for management research and practice are discussed.
Research on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) typically focuses on either one type of OCB or an aggregate of multiple types of OCB. We investigate a third conceptualization of OCB by examining how employees use conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue, courtesy, and altruism in distinct combinations. In Study 1, we identify 5 profiles of citizenship in a sample of 129 workers in a medium-sized firm. Some employees used either high levels (prosocial citizens), above average levels (contributors), or low levels of all 5 OCBs (disengaged). Another profile of employees (specialists) displayed relatively high levels of civic virtue and altruism, and a final profile of employees (moderates) engaged in below-average levels of all OCBs except conscientiousness. We also found that organizational concern citizenship motives related to these profiles. In Study 2, using a more generalizable sample of over 400 employees, we replicated 4 of the 5 profiles and identified a group of employees who mainly engaged in OCBs aimed at others (good coworkers). Using data collected at 3 points in time, we also found that citizenship motives (impression management, prosocial values, and organizational concern) predicted all 5 OCB profiles and that these profiles predicted job performance ratings, workplace status, and citizenship fatigue.
Although it has long been recognized that employees' workplace affective commitment can be directed at a variety of foci, theory and research on this multifocal perspective remain underdeveloped, possibly due to the lack of a short, yet comprehensive measure. The purpose of the present study was to assess the psychometric properties of a newly developed short (24-item) version of the Workplace Affective Commitment Multidimensional Questionnaire (WACMQ-S), covering affective commitment directed at the organization, supervisor, coworkers, customers, tasks, profession, work, and career. Using two independent samples of English - (N = 676, including 648 females) and French - (N = 733, including 593 females) speaking healthcare professionals and the newly developed bifactor-ESEM framework, the present study supported the factor validity, composite reliability, test-retest reliability, linguistic invariance, and criterion-related validity (in relation to turnover intentions, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors) of the WACMQ-S ratings. The results also demonstrated the superiority of a bifactor-ESEM representation of WACMQ-S ratings, confirming the importance of taking into account employees' global levels of commitment to their work life. Finally, the results also proved to be fully generalizable to subsamples of hospital and community healthcare professionals, as well as of nurses and beneficiary attendants.
Background: According to Self-Determination Theory, teachers and sport coaches can differ in the motivating style they rely upon to motivate young people. When endorsing an autonomy-supportive motivating style, instructors try to identify, vitalize, and nurture youngsters’ inner motivational resources. In contrast, instructors with a dominant controlling motivating style rather pressure youngsters to think, feel, or behave in prescribed ways. While the dimensions of autonomy support and control can be conceptually differentiated, in reality both dimensions may co-occur to different degrees.
Purpose: The present study investigates to what extent perceived autonomy support and control can be combined and which motivating style then yields the most optimal pattern of outcomes.
Research design: Multi-Study with Cross-Sectional Design.
Findings: In two studies, conducted among elite athletes (N = 202; Mage = 15.63; SD = 1.70) and students in physical education (N = 647; Mage = 13.27; SD = 0.68) reporting on their instructor’s motivating style, cluster analyses systematically pointed towards the extraction of four motivating profiles. Two of these groups were characterized by the dominant presence of either autonomy support (i.e. high-autonomy support) or control (i.e. high control), while the two dimensions were found to be equally present in the two remaining groups (i.e. high–high or low–low). Results revealed that the high-autonomy support group showed to the most optimal pattern of outcomes (e.g. need satisfaction, autonomous motivation), while the high-control group yielded the least optimal pattern of outcomes. Results further showed that perceiving one’s instructor as high on control is detrimental (e.g. higher need frustration, amotivation) even when the instructor is additionally perceived to be autonomy-supportive. Finally, it appeared better to be relatively uninvolved than to be perceived as exclusively high on control.
Conclusions: When coaches or teachers are perceived to be high on autonomy support and low on control, this is likely to benefit youngsters’ motivation and well-being. Also, while some instructors, particularly those who are functioning in a more competitive context where pressure is considered more normative, may endorse the belief that the combination of autonomy support and control yields the most effective cocktail to motivate young people (e.g. using competitive and game-based activities to make it fun, while treating ‘the losers’ with punishments such as push-ups or humiliating comments), this perspective is not supported by the findings of the current study. Apart, from its theoretical relevance, the findings of the present study are valuable for future intervention development.
The objectives of the present studies were to design and validate the Interpersonal Behaviours Questionnaire (IBQ and IBQ-Self). The IBQ assesses perceptions of interpersonal behaviours of others according to Self-Determination Theory in the context of autonomy-supportive, competence-supportive, and relatedness-supportive behaviours , as well as autonomy-thwarting, competence-thwarting, and relatedness-thwarting behaviours, while the IBQ-Self assesses an individual's own report of these behaviours. In Study 1, participants reported on the in-terpersonal behaviours of people in their lives. Through a series of confirmatory factor analyses, a six-factor, 24-item scale structure was determined. Results supported the validity of the scale and correlation analyses suggested that the subscales were related to basic need satisfaction. In Study 2, the psychometric properties of the scale were re-evaluated and the scale was tested for gender invariance. The results suggested that the scale structure held and that it was invariant across genders. Finally, in Study 3, the psychometric properties of the IBQ-Self were evaluated using a student sample reporting on their behaviours when they interact with other people. The results supported that the IBQ-Self factor structure held and was invariant for men and women. Overall, the results of all three studies supported the validity of the IBQ and the IBQ-Self.
Procrastination at work can be defined as putting off workrelated action by engaging in nonwork-related actions during work hours. This paper (a) introduces and validates a new instrument tapping procrastination behaviours at work, (b) investigates its construct validity (Study 1), and (c) presents empirical evidence on the workplace correlates of procrastination at work, including workplace characteristics, boredom and counterproductive work behaviour in two independent samples (Study 2). Drawing on data from 384 participants and using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Study 1 revealed two subdimensions of the Procrastination at Work Scale (PAWS), namely soldiering and cyberslacking. Moreover, this study demonstrated that procrastination at work can empirically be distinguished from conceptually similar concepts such as counterproductive work behaviour, general procrastination and boredom. Study 2 further validated this instrument by examining its relations with other concepts. Structural equation analyses using data from participants from two culturally different countries (The Netherlands and Turkey, total N = 443) showed that low job demands and resources were associated with boredom and that boredom was associated with procrastination at work and counterproductive work behaviour. We conclude that the PAWS is a valid tool that can be used to assess non-work-related activity during work hours.
This series of simulation studies was designed to assess the impact of misspecifications of the latent variance–covariance matrix (i.e., ) and residual structure (i.e., ) on the accuracy of growth mixture models (GMMs) to identify the true number of latent classes present in the data. Study 1 relied on a homogenous (1-class) population model. Study 2 relied on a population model in which the latent variance–covariance matrix is constrained to be 0 Study 3 relied on a population model in which the latent variance–covariance matrix was specified as invariant across classes Finally, Study 4 relied on a more realistic specification of the latent variance–covariance matrix as different across classes In each of these studies, we assessed the class enumeration accuracy of GMMs as a function of different types of estimated model (6 models corresponding to the 3 types of population models used to simulate the data and involving the free estimation of the residual structure across latent classes or not) and 4 design conditions (within-class residual matrix, sample size, mixing ratio, class separation). Overall, our results show the advantage of relying on models involving the free estimation of the and matrices within all latent classes. However, based on the observation that inadmissible solutions occur more frequently in these models than in more parsimonious models, we propose a more comprehensive sequential strategy to the estimation of GMM.
There has been a recent increase in the application of person-centered research strategies in the investigation of workplace commitments. To date, research has focused primarily on the identification, within a population, of subgroups presenting different cross-sectional or longitudinal configurations of commitment mindsets (affective, normative, and continuance) and/or targets (e.g., organization, occupation, and supervisor), but other applications are possible. In an effort to promote a substantive methodological synergy, we begin by explaining why some aspects of commitment theory are best tested using a person-centered approach. We then summarize the results of existing research and suggest applications to other research questions. Next, we turn our attention to methodological issues, including strategies for identifying the best profile structure, testing for consistency across samples, time, culture, and so on, and incorporating other variables in the models to test theory regarding profile development, consequences, and change trajectories. We conclude with a discussion of the practical implications of taking a person-centered approach to the study of commitment as a complement to the more traditional variable-centered approach. Copyright
The popular press is often fraught with high-profile illustrations of leader unethical conduct within corporations. Leader unethical conduct is undesirable for many reasons, but in terms of managing subordinates, it is particularly problematic because leaders directly influence the ethics of their followers. Yet, we know relatively little about why leaders fail to apply ethical leadership practices. We argue that some leaders cognitively remove the personal sanctions associated with misconduct, which provides them with the “freedom” to ignore ethical shortcomings. Drawing on moral disengagement theory (Bandura 1986, 1999), we examine the relationship between supervisor moral disengagement and employee perceptions of ethical leadership. We then examine the moderating role of employee moral disengagement, such that the negative relationship between supervisor moral disengagement and employee perceptions of ethical leadership is stronger when employee moral disengagement is low versus high. Finally, we examine ethical leadership as a conditional mediator (based on employee moral disengagement) that explains that relationship between supervisor moral disengagement and employee job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results from a multi-source field survey provide general support for our theoretical model.
Résumé Ces dix dernières années, le thème des comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle a généré une grande quantité d’études empiriques. La plupart de ces recherches ont été réalisées en contexte nord-américain. Peu de recherches ont été réalisées sur des salariés français. Une étude empirique a été réalisée sur un échantillon de 292 salariés pour valider une version française des échelles de mesure des comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle élaborées par Podsakoff et MacKensie (1994). Les données montrent que les comportements de citoyenneté organisationnelle restituent une structure en quatre facteurs (p.e. : comportement d’aide, esprit d’équipe, altruisme et vertus civiques).
Abusive supervision is a dysfunctional leadership behavior that adversely affects its targets and the organization as a whole. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the present research expands our knowledge on its destructive impact. Specifically, we propose a moderated mediation model wherein abusive supervision predicts subordinate's silence behavior through emotional exhaustion, with leader–member exchange (LMX) acting as the contextual condition. Two-wave data collected from 152 employees in the service industry in Macau supported our hypothesized model. We found that abused subordinates resort to remain silent in the workplace due to their feelings of emotional exhaustion. Further, the presence of high LMX makes the adverse impact of abusive supervision even worse. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We also offer several promising directions for future research.
This research examines a condition under which supervisor undermining is related to perceptions of leader hypocrisy that then lead to employee turnover intentions. Drawing on behavioral integrity theory and arguments from the social cognition literature, the authors argue that subordinates compare supervisor undermining to an interpersonal justice expectation, as a salient social cue, to draw conclusions regarding leader hypocrisy. In turn, the cognitive conclusion that the leader is indeed a hypocrite generates uncertainty that subordinates are motivated to manage by increasing turnover intentions. The authors examine perceptions of leader hypocrisy as the mediator of their proposed theoretical model while controlling for psychological contract breach and trust in supervisor. Results from a scenario-based experiment ( N = 202) and a survey-based study ( N = 312) provide general support for the authors’ hypotheses.
Latent profile analysis (LPA) has become a popular statistical method for modeling unobserved population heterogeneity in cross-sectionally sampled data, but very few empirical studies have examined the question of how well enumeration indexes accurately identify the correct number of latent profiles present. This Monte Carlo simulation study examined the ability of several classes of enumeration indexes to correctly identify the number of latent population profiles present under 3 different research design conditions: sample size, the number of observed variables used for LPA, and the separation distance among the latent profiles measured in Mahalanobis D units. Results showed that, for the homogeneous population (i.e., the population has k = 1 latent profile) conditions, many of the enumeration indexes used in LPA were able to correctly identify the single latent profile if variances and covariances were freely estimated. However, for a heterogeneous population (i.e., the population has k = 3 distinct latent profiles), the correct identification rate for the enumeration indexes in the k = 3 latent profile conditions was typically very low. These results are compared with the previous cross-sectional mixture modeling studies, and the limitations of this study, as well as future cross-sectional mixture modeling and enumeration index research possibilities, are discussed.
This article discusses alternatives to single-step mixture modeling. A 3-step method for latent class predictor variables is studied in several different settings, including latent class analysis, latent transition analysis, and growth mixture modeling. It is explored under violations of its assumptions such as with direct effects from predictors to latent class indicators. The 3-step method is also considered for distal variables. The Lanza, Tan, and Bray (2013) method for distal variables is studied under several conditions including violations of its assumptions. Standard errors are also developed for the Lanza method because these were not given in Lanza et al. (2013).