Customer service providers' attitudes relating to customer service and customer satisfaction in the customer-server exchange.

The authors proposed and tested a model describing the relationship between customer service providers' perceptions and attitudes toward their service-related duties and their customers' perceptions of satisfaction with their service experiences. Results indicated that the perception of having standards for service delivery in an organization is strongly related to line-level employees' perceptions of support from coworkers and supervisors. Perceived support from coworker, was significantly related to service providers' customer orientation, whereas perceived support from supervisors showed a weaker relationship to a customer orientation. Ultimately, service providers' customer orientation was strongly related to customers' satisfaction with service. Finally, a set of post hoc analyses indicated that coworker and supervisory support explained a greater proportion of incremental variance in the model than did perceived organizational support alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Regulatory focus as a mediator of the influence of initiating structure and servant leadership on employee behavior.

In this research, the authors test a model in which the regulatory focus of employees at work mediates the influence of leadership on employee behavior. In a nationally representative sample of 250 workers who responded over 2 time periods, prevention focus mediated the relationship of initiating structure to in-role performance and deviant behavior, whereas promotion focus mediated the relationship of servant leadership to helping and creative behavior. The results indicate that even though initiating structure and servant leadership share some variance in explaining other variables, each leadership style incrementally predicts disparate outcomes after controlling for the other style and dispositional tendencies. A new regulatory focus scale, the Work Regulatory Focus (WRF) Scale, also was developed and initially validated for this study. Implications for the results and the WRF Scale are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reacting to and recovering from a stressful situation: The negative affectivity-physiological arousal relationship.

Although it is one of the most widely researched personality correlates of psychological reactions, the relationship between negative affectivity (NA) and physiological arousal has received little attention. This study examined the associations between NA and physiological outcomes of heart rate, skin temperature, and muscle tension. The authors hypothesized that when individuals are in a stressful situation, persons high in NA experience more heightened physiological arousal than those low in NA. After personality and demographic data were collected, 230 individuals participated in a stressful intervention. Individuals high in NA experienced a significantly greater rate of increase in electromyogram during the stress intervention and a lesser rate of decrease in electromyogram after the stressful event than those low in NA. In regard to skin temperature, those high in NA did not recover from the stress intervention as well as those low in NA. Negative affectivity was not related to heart rate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of organizational politics as a moderator of the relationship between consciousness and job performance.

Meta-analytic studies of the relationships between the five-factor model of personality constructs and job performance indicate that conscientiousness has been the most consistent predictor. Recent research has sought to identify situational factors that may explain additional variance beyond what has been reported by simple bivariate relationships. The authors hypothesized that perceptions of organizational politics would moderate the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance. Data collected from 234 male and 579 female workers in 4 organizations indicated that conscientiousness was related to job performance among workers perceiving average to high levels of organizational politics but unrelated to performance among workers perceiving low levels of organizational politics. Moreover, perceptions of organizational politics were negatively related to job performance only among workers of average to low levels of conscientiousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of political skill on impression management effectiveness.

In this study, the authors investigated the effect of an individual's political skill on the relationships between 5 different impression management tactics (intimidation, exemplification, ingratiation, selfpromotion, and supplication) and supervisor evaluations of performance. To test these relationships, the authors used a matched sample of 173 supervisor-subordinate dyads who worked full time in a state agency. Findings showed that individuals who used high levels of any of the tactics and who were politically skilled achieved more desirable supervisor ratings than did those who used the tactics but were not politically skilled. Opposite results were found when impression management usage was low. That is, individuals who were not politically skilled created a more desirable image in their supervisors' eyes than did their politically skilled counterparts when they did not use these tactics. Practical and research implications for the findings as well as directions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fostering good citizenship through ethical leadership: Exploring the moderating role of gender and organizational politics.

Considering the implications of social exchange theory as a context for social role behavior, we tested relations between ethical leadership and both person- and task-focused organizational citizenship behavior and examined the roles played by employee gender and politics perceptions. Although social exchange theory predicts that ethical leadership is positively associated with citizenship, social role theory predicts that the nature of this relationship may vary on the basis of gender and politics perceptions. Results from data collected from 288 supervisor–subordinate dyads indicate that the pattern of male versus female employees' citizenship associated with ethical leadership depends significantly on their perceptions of politics. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theoretical and methodological considerations in the age-job satisfaction relationship.

Research investigating the form and magnitude of the relationship between age and job satisfaction has produced mixed and generally inconclusive results. Potential explanations for such results relate to the largely atheoretical nature of research in this area as well as the inconsistent application of proper statistical and methodological controls. Our study addresses both areas of concern in an effort to permit more accurate and informed interpretations of both the form and magnitude of the age–job satisfaction relationship. We conducted hierarchical polynomial regression analyses, controlling for three different tenure measures, to examine several forms of the age–job satisfaction relationship for an all-female sample of registered nurses (N?=?81). Results supported both a U-shaped and a linear relationship between age and job satisfaction. Implications for both theory and research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supporting Hypermedia Services in the User Interface

This paper presents an architecture for developing hypermedia systems in which hypermedia services are provided primarily through the interface and hypermedia components of an application. The architecture relieves the application component and its developers from the issues associated with hypermedia. It also allows a common hypermedia engine and interface to be used in multiple applications to present a consistent view of a hypermedia model. A prototype of the architecture is presented with examples of the hypermedia facilities which can be provided. The discussion associated with the prototype demonstrates that many of the common features of pure hypermedia systems can be supported. Limitations and future research issues also are discussed.     

Core self-evaluations and job performance: The role of the perceived work environment.

Using trait activation theory as a framework, the authors examined the moderating role of two situational variables—perceptions of organizational politics and perceptions of leader effectiveness—on the relationship between core self-evaluations and job performance. Results from two samples (N = 137 and N = 226) indicate that employee perceptions of their work environment moderated the relationship between their core self-evaluations and supervisor ratings of their performance. In particular, those with higher core self-evaluations received higher performance ratings in environments perceived as favorable than in environments perceived as unfavorable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work-family enrichment and job performance: A constructive replication of affective events theory.

Based on affective events theory (AET), we hypothesize a four-step model of the mediating mechanisms of positive mood and job satisfaction in the relationship between work-family enrichment and job performance. We test this model for both directions of enrichment (work-to-family and family-to-work). We used two samples to test the model using structural equation modeling. Results from Study 1, which included 240 full-time employees, were replicated in Study 2, which included 189 matched subordinate-supervisor dyads. For the work-to-family direction, results from both samples support our conceptual model and indicate mediation of the enrichment-performance relationship for the work-to-family direction of enrichment. For the family-to-work direction, results from the first sample support our conceptual model but results from the second sample do not. Our findings help elucidate mixed findings in the enrichment and job performance literatures and contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms linking these concepts. We conclude with a discussion of the practical and theoretical implications of our findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)