When are clients helpful? Capitalising on client involvement in professional service delivery.

Professional service firms apply specialist knowledge to create customised solutions to client problems. In their work, teams of professionals undertake projects in which clients may be closely involved in co-creating solutions. However, we know little about the conditions under which client involvement contributes to better performance. We examine the direct and conditional contribution client involvement can make to project success and propose team bonding capital as a moderator. We conduct multi-level analysis of data from 58 project managers and 171 consultants nested in project teams. We find a positive impact of client involvement on both team performance and team member idea creativity. Team bonding capital moderates the relationships client involvement has with both team performance and individual member idea creativity, where the impact of client involvement is greater when team bonding capital is high. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Perceived evidence use: Measurement and construct validation of managerial evidence use as perceived by subordinates.

Despite the promise of evidence-based management as a practice for improving decisions and their outcomes in organizations, little empirical study exists on the effects of evidence use in the workplace. The present research develops a scale to assess subordinate perceptions of managerial evidence use in decision making and provides empirical evidence of the relationships this measure has with established workplace and organizational phenomena. First, scale development studies in four samples, including a field site and MBA courses with students employed full time, show that perceived evidence use can be measured reliably and is distinct from other leadership measures. Second, a cross-sectional study of 308 employees in 18 aged care homes demonstrates a positive relationship between employee perceptions of managerial evidence use and commonly used measures of leader member exchange, trust in supervisor, work-based learning, and organizational performance ratings, and a negative relationship with employee distress. These results suggest implications for leadership and management practices in contemporary, information-rich environments and novel insights into how employees can be affected by managerial evidence use.

Creating Positive Work Experiences Through Task Self-Redesign.

Complementing the traditional focus in work design on "top-down" organizational interventions, research into proactive work behavior suggests that "bottom-up" processes, based on the "micro-emancipatory" actions employees engage in, create more rewarding and meaningful work experiences. Based on current theorizing, this study tests a tripartite model of task self-redesign and positive work-related states of meaning, affective commitment, and work-home enrichment. The interactive effects of three modes of task influence are postulated: (a) the active use of existing potentials for task autonomy; (b) job crafting, as unauthorized and self-organized modifications of task features; (c) the individual renegotiation of tasks through idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) with superiors. Survey data from an occupationally heterogeneous convenience sample of N = 279 German-speaking employees were analyzed, using confirmatory factor analysis and moderated linear regression. The regression results confirmed that task i-deals consistently related to positive experiences, whereas autonomy only related to one, and task crafting had no significant main effect. A significant two-way interaction between i-deals and crafting was found only in relation to affective commitment. Supporting the suggested tripartite model, significant (synergistic) three-way interactions explained the additional variance in all three examined outcomes. These results offer some preliminary insights into the interplay of organizationally designed, individually crafted, and interpersonally negotiated work activities. Task autonomy, task-directed job crafting, and task i-deals appear to fulfill complementary roles in the self-directed creation of positive work experiences. Methodological limitations and further research needs are discussed.

PROTOCOL: Does executive compensation predict publicly traded firms' financial performance or inaccurate financial reporting?

This is the protocol for a Campbell review. The objectives are as follows: One goal of this systematic review is to identify whether incentive terms in CEO contracts predict firm financial performance over time; a second goal is to identify whether incentive terms in CEO contracts predict subsequent inaccurate financial reporting as manifest in restatement of accounting data due to errors or other distortions in reporting financial information.

Managerial attitudes and perceived barriers regarding evidence-based practice: An international survey.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in management is still in its infancy. Several studies suggest that managers in businesses and other organizations do not consult the scientific evidence when making decisions. To facilitate its uptake, we need to better understand practitioner attitudes and perceived barriers related to EBP. In medicine and nursing, an abundance of research exists on this subject, although such studies are rare in management. To address this gap, we surveyed 2,789 management practitioners in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Our findings indicate that most managers we studied have positive attitudes towards EBP. However, lack of time and a limited understanding of scientific research are perceived as major barriers to the uptake and implementation of EBP in management. Studies in other professions where EBP is far more established also report similar barriers. We discuss the implications of our findings for practice, education and research, providing suggestions to enhance use of EBP in management practice.

Evidence-Based Practice: The Psychology of EBP Implementation.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an approach used in numerous professions that focuses attention on evidence quality in decision making and action. We review research on EBP implementation, identifying critical underlying psychological factors facilitating and impeding its use. In describing EBP and the forms of evidence it employs, we highlight the challenges individuals face in appraising evidence quality, particularly that of their personal experience. We next describe critical EBP competencies and the challenges underlying their acquisition: foundational competencies of critical thinking and domain knowledge, and functional competencies such as question formulation, evidence search and appraisal, and outcome evaluation. We then review research on EBP implementation across diverse fields from medicine to management and organize findings around three key contributors to EBP: practitioner ability, motivation, and opportunity to practice (AMO). Throughout, important links between psychology and EBP are highlighted, along with the contributions psychological research can make to further EBP development and implementation.

Employee-oriented leadership and quality of working life: mediating roles of idiosyncratic deals.

Leader consideration has long been suggested to be conducive to quality of working life experienced by employees. The present study links this classic leadership dimension with more recent research on idiosyncratic deals, referring to personalized conditions workers negotiate in their employment relationships. A two-wave survey study (N = 159/142) among German hospital physicians suggests that authorizing idiosyncratic deals is a manifestation of employee-oriented leader behavior. Consideration had consistent positive effects on idiosyncratic deals regarding both professional development and working time flexibility. These two types had differential effects on two indicators of the quality of working life. Development related positively to work engagement, flexibility related negatively to work-family conflict. Cross-lagged correlations supported the proposed direction of influence between consideration and idiosyncratic deals in a subsample of repeating responders (n=91). The relation between development and engagement appeared to be reciprocal. Longitudinal results for the association between flexibility and work-family conflict were inconclusive.

Idiosyncratic deals: coworkers as interested third parties.

Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals for short) are personalized employment arrangements negotiated between individual workers and employers and intended to benefit them both (D. M. Rousseau, 2005). Coworkers' acceptance of another's i-deal can ultimately impact its overall effectiveness for the organization. By using a network approach to the study of work group dynamics, this research addresses the contributions coworker relationships with both the i-dealer and their employer make to coworker's willingness to accept a peer's i-deal. In a study of 65 employees in 20 research and development groups, coworker acceptance of i-deals is greater for group members who are their close personal friends than for members who are not. The coworkers' social exchange relationship with their employers is positively related to acceptance, while economic exchange is negatively related. Coworkers' belief in the likelihood of obtaining comparable future opportunity is positively related to their acceptance of another's i-deal. Results suggest that the relationship of both economic and social exchange with acceptance is likely to be mediated by beliefs regarding comparable future opportunity. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Creating flexible work arrangements through idiosyncratic deals.

A survey of 887 employees in a German government agency assessed the antecedents and consequences of idiosyncratic arrangements individual workers negotiated with their supervisors. Work arrangements promoting the individualization of employment conditions, such as part-time work and telecommuting, were positively related to the negotiation of idiosyncratic deals ("i-deals"). Worker personal initiative also had a positive effect on i-deal negotiation. Two types of i-deals were studied: flexibility in hours of work and developmental opportunities. Flexibility i-deals were negatively related and developmental i-deals positively related to work-family conflict and working unpaid overtime. Developmental i-deals were also positively related to increased performance expectations and affective organizational commitment, while flexibility i-deals were unrelated to either.

Psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior in China: investigating generalizability and instrumentality.

This study examined the generalizability of psychological contract forms observed in the West (D. M. Rousseau, 2000) to China. Using 2 independent samples, results confirmed the generalizability of 3 psychological contract forms: transactional, relational, and balanced. This study also examined the nature of relationships of psychological contracts with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In particular, this study explored the role of instrumentality as a mediating psychological process. The authors found evidence that instrumentality mediates the relationship of relational and balanced forms with OCB; however, the transactional contract form is directly related to OCB. The authors discuss the implications of these results for the meaning of psychological contracts and OCB in China and raise issues for future research.

Mutuality and reciprocity in the psychological contracts of employees and employers.

The authors assessed the joint perceptions of the employee and his or her employer to examine mutuality and reciprocity in the employment relationship. Paired psychological contract reports were obtained from 80 employee-employer dyads in 16 university-based research centers. On the basis of in-depth study of the research setting, research directors were identified as primary agents for the university (employer) in shaping the terms of employment of staff scientists (employees). By assessing the extent of consistency between employee and employer beliefs regarding their exchange agreement, the present study mapped the variation and consequences of mutuality and reciprocity in psychological contracts. Results indicate that both mutuality and reciprocity are positively related to archival indicators of research productivity and career advancement, in addition to self-reported measures of Met Expectations and intention to continue working with the employer. Implications for psychological contract theory are presented.