Is it just me or am I the people's choice? The stress and performance implications of (in)congruence between self- and other-identification as a leader or follower.

Identifying oneself and being identified by others as a leader (vs. a follower) is a critical aspect of informal leadership. But what happens when an organizational member's personal leader identity differs from how others identify them? Grounded in stress appraisal theory, this study explores the individual-level implications of (in)congruence between self- and other-identification as a leader or follower. We develop a conceptual model that explains how different forms of leader identity (in)congruence generate stress appraisals that influence the focal individual's in-role performance. We then describe two complementary studies testing the model. Study 1 is a multiwave, multisource field study of 226 coworker dyads. Study 2 is a controlled experiment with 648 full-time employees that assesses the causal relationship between different forms of leader identity (in)congruence and stress appraisals, as well as the generalizability of our findings to other-identification by an entire team. Across both studies, we find that identity incongruence (particularly when the focal individual identifies as a leader but others identify them as a follower) prompts hindrance stress appraisals that reduce in-role performance. In contrast, identity congruence (particularly congruence in identification as a leader) encourages challenge stress appraisals that enhance in-role performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Taking engagement to task: The nature and functioning of task engagement across transitions.

Engagement is widely viewed as a motivational state that captures the degree to which individuals apply their physical, cognitive, and emotional energies to their jobs, and ultimately improves job performance. However, this job-level view overlooks the possibility that engagement may vary across the different tasks within a job and that engagement in one task may influence engagement and performance in a subsequent task. In this article, we develop and test hypotheses based on a task-level view of engagement and the general notion that there is "residual engagement" from a task that carries forward to a subsequent task. We propose that although task engagement (engagement in a specific task that comprises a broader role) positively spills over to influence task engagement and performance in a subsequent task, in part because of the transmission of positive affect, task engagement simultaneously engenders attention residue, which in turn impedes subsequent task engagement and performance. These predictions were supported in a study of 477 task transitions made by 20 crew members aboard The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Human Exploration Research Analog (Study 1) and in a laboratory study of 346 participants who transitioned between a firefighting task and an assembly task (Study 2). Our investigation explains how engagement flows across tasks, illuminates a negative implication of engagement that has been masked by the predominant job-level perspective, and identifies completeness as a task attribute that reduces this negative consequence of engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Deviance and exit: The organizational costs of job insecurity and moral disengagement.

This study examines why and when employees might respond to job insecurity by engaging in workplace deviance and developing intentions to leave-2 activities that are costly for organizations. Drawing on social exchange theory and the theory of moral disengagement, we propose that job insecurity increases workplace deviance and intentions to leave by encouraging employees to morally disengage. We further propose that the strength of the positive association between job insecurity, moral disengagement, and these outcomes is contingent upon 2 aspects of the situation-employees' perceived employment opportunities outside the organization and the quality of the exchange relationship they have developed with their supervisors (leader-member exchange, or LMX). Two time-lagged studies of Chinese workers provide support for the hypothesized 1st-stage moderated mediation model. Specifically, the indirect effect of job insecurity on organizational and interpersonal deviance and intentions to leave via moral disengagement was positive and significant when individuals had more employment opportunities or when LMX was lower but not when they had fewer employment opportunities or when LMX was higher. (PsycINFO Database Record

When are do-gooders treated badly? Legitimate power, role expectations, and reactions to moral objection in organizations.

Organization members who engage in "moral objection" by taking a principled stand against ethically questionable activities help to prevent such activities from persisting. Unfortunately, research suggests that they also may be perceived as less warm (i.e., pleasant, nice) than members who comply with ethically questionable procedures. In this article, we draw on role theory to explore how legitimate power influences observers' responses to moral objection. We argue that individuals expect those high in legitimate power to engage in moral objection, but expect those low in legitimate power to comply with ethically questionable practices. We further propose that these contrasting role expectations influence the extent to which moral objectors are perceived as warm and subjected to social sanctions (i.e., insults, pressure, unfriendly behavior). We test our predictions with 3 experiments. Study 1, which draws on participants' prior workplace experiences, supports the first section of our mediated moderation model in which the negative association between an actor's moral objection (vs. compliance) and observers' warmth perceptions is weaker when the actor is high rather than low in legitimate power and this effect is mediated by observers' met role expectations. Study 2, an online experiment featuring a biased hiring task, reveals that the warmth perceptions fostered by the Behavior × Legitimate Power interaction influence observers' social sanctioning intentions. Finally, Study 3, a laboratory experiment which exposes participants to unethical behavior in a virtual team task, replicates Study 2's findings and extends the results to actual as well as intended social sanctions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Developing leaders via experience: the role of developmental challenge, learning orientation, and feedback availability.

Prior research offers limited insight into the types of work experiences that promote leadership skill development and the ways that the person and context shape the developmental value of these experiences. In this article, the authors develop a series of hypotheses linking leadership skill development to features of the experience (developmental challenge), person (learning orientation), and context (feedback availability). Based on 225 on-the-job experiences across 60 managers, their results demonstrate that the relationship between developmental challenge and leadership skill development exhibits a pattern of diminishing returns. However, access to feedback can offset the diminishing returns associated with high levels of developmental challenge.