The multiple ways of behaving creatively in the workplace: A typology and model

Evidence in the literature suggests that employees can engage in other types of creative behavior at work beyond producing something new and useful for their organization. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of these “atypical” creative behaviors. We conceptualize a typology that encompasses both the commonly studied form of employee creativity (conventional steward‐type) and three other types of employee creativity that have not been previously theorized (critical steward‐type, cunning agent‐type, and innocent agent‐type). We then advance a conceptual model to identify situations that may lead employees to use their creative potential one way versus another. Further, we examine the different implications of these creative behaviors for the organization, employee, and society. Our conceptual framework provides a broader perspective of workplace creativity in which a wider range of behaviors, mechanisms, and outcomes must be considered. It provides new directions for future research as well as implications for managing creativity in different organizational and cultural contexts.     

Daily shifts in regulatory focus: The influence of work events and implications for employee well‐being

Although theory suggests that regulatory focus fluctuates within person and such fluctuations impact employee well‐being, there is little empirical investigation of such propositions. These are important research questions to address because work events may elicit within‐person fluctuations in regulatory focus, which can then affect well‐being. The primary purpose of this study is to examine specific predictors of daily regulatory focus at work and the foci's impact on employee well‐being at work and home as indicated by mood and psychosomatic complaints, respectively. We present and test an overarching theoretical framework that integrates conservation of resources theory, the cognitive‐affective processing system framework, and regulatory focus theory to delineate why and when work events affect regulatory focus and how the foci affect well‐being. Consistent with our expectations, we found that positive work events positively predicted daily promotion focus, but this effect was weaker when employees had high‐quality relationships with leaders. Furthermore, daily regulatory focus was associated with employee well‐being (mood and psychosomatic complaints) such that (i) promotion focus improved well‐being; (ii) prevention focus reduced well‐being; and (iii) the effects of promotion focus on well‐being were strongest when prevention focus was low. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and offer directions for future research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Care and career: A family identity‐based typology of dual‐earner couples

The rise of dual‐earner couples challenges traditional gender stereotypes of women as “caregivers” and men as “breadwinners” and significantly impacts the ways in which partners define their roles as family members. The way in which individuals construe their family identities has implications not only for the decisions they make at home but also decisions in the workplace. In this paper, we propose an updated understanding of the different ways in which men and women can construe their family identity—specifically, in terms of care and/or career. Based upon this nuanced understanding of family identity, we outline five dual‐earner couple types—traditional, non‐traditional, family first, outsourced, and egalitarian—that stem from distinct combinations of partners' family identities. We also outline an agenda for theory and research that challenges scholars to further explore our proposed construals of family identity, work–family decisions at the couple level of analysis, and the interplay between family identity and social context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Proactive and reactive helping: Contrasting the positive consequences of different forms of helping

Research on helping has identified positive consequences of helping for the helper, beneficiary, group, and organization. Recent research, however, raises concerns about contingencies that influence the outcomes of helping and suggests the need for a more nuanced perspective on the positive outcomes of helping. In this paper, we develop a novel theoretical perspective to address these contingencies by differentiating between proactive helping and reactive helping. Drawing from the two main theoretical frameworks, which have been used as the basis for studying helping—social exchange theory and functional motives theory—we discuss differences in the positive consequences of reactive and proactive helping for helpers, dyads, groups, and organizations. We submit that reactive helping facilitates heedful relationships, such that it creates and perpetuates social exchange norms that benefit others in the group. Conversely, we posit that proactive helping is often based on fulfilling personal needs, such that it benefits the self in terms of reputational benefits, well‐being, favorable self‐evaluations, need satisfaction, and self‐development. We discuss theoretical implications of this framework for future research on the positive consequences of helping. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How transformational leadership influences follower helping behavior: The role of trust and prosocial motivation

We proposed and tested a moderated mediation model that jointly examines affect‐based and cognition‐based trust as the mediators and prosocial motivation as the moderator in relationships between transformational leadership and followers’ helping behavior towards coworkers. Data were collected from 348 sales and servicing employees and their supervisors in four private retail companies and five private manufacturing companies located in Southeast China. The results showed that both affect‐based trust and cognition‐based trust mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ helping behavior towards coworkers. Furthermore, moderated mediation analyses showed that affect‐based trust mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and followers’ helping behavior towards coworkers only among employees with high prosocial motivation, whereas cognition‐based trust mediated this relationship among only those with low prosocial motivation. Implications for the theory and practice of leadership are then discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Occupational boundary play: Crafting a sense of identity legitimacy in an emerging occupation

In emerging occupations, individuals are given very little prepackaged identity “content”—for example, occupational values, legitimating ideologies, clear goals, tasks, and/or routines—to help them build their individual-level occupational identities. By contrast, individuals in well-established occupations (e.g., professions) are given ample identity content, and prior identity research has examined identity work processes almost exclusively in the context of such occupations. Consequently, prior theory assumes that identity work is mostly a matter of tailoring prepackaged identity content to fit one's individual-level preferences and objectives. Prior theory is therefore of limited use in emerging occupations, where the key identity problem is not one of tailoring identity content effectively but creating an identity in the first place—more specifically, an identity whose existence feels justified and valid. Thus, in this paper, we ask: how do individuals in emerging occupations construct an internal sense that “who they are” is necessary, desirable, and appropriate (i.e., legitimate) within the broader occupational landscape? On the basis of a grounded theory study of health coaches, we suggest that individuals in such circumstances can craft this sense of “identity legitimacy” via a sensemaking process we call occupational boundary play. This process consists of both “occupational boundary setting” and “occupational boundary blurring,” the former providing for individuals a sense of identity novelty and the latter providing a sense of identity familiarity. Taken together, this subjective experience of both novelty and familiarity provides for individuals the sense that “who they are” is legitimate within the broader occupational landscape.     

Multifoci effects of injustice on counterproductive work behaviors and the moderating roles of symbolization and victim sensitivity

Past research suggests that employees, in response to workplace experiences, selectively engage in targeted counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Taking a retributive justice and target similarity perspective, we predict that employee perceptions of unfairness from the organization uniquely predict CWB specifically targeted at the organization whereas employee perceptions of supervisory unfairness uniquely predict CWB specifically targeted at the supervisor. We further hypothesized that moral identity‐symbolization would strengthen these target‐similar relationships. Finally, drawing from the sensitivity to mean intentions model, we hypothesized that victim sensitivity would not only strengthen these target‐similar relationships but also lead to cross‐foci effects of multifoci fairness perceptions on targets of CWB. Results from 3 field studies of full‐time employees provided support for most of our hypothesized relationships.     

Relationships between psychological climate perceptions and work outcomes: a meta‐analytic review

In this study, meta‐analytic procedures were used to examine the relationships between individual‐level (psychological) climate perceptions and work outcomes such as employee attitudes, psychological well‐being, motivation, and performance. Our review of the literature generated 121 independent samples in which climate perceptions were measured and analyzed at the individual level. These studies document considerable confusion regarding the constructs of psychological climate, organizational climate, and organizational culture and reveal a need for researchers to use terminology that is consistent with their level of measurement, theory, and analysis. Our meta‐analytic findings indicate that psychological climate, operationalized as individuals' perceptions of their work environment, does have significant relationships with individuals' work attitudes, motivation, and performance. Structural equation modeling analyses of the meta‐analytic correlation matrix indicated that the relationships of psychological climate with employee motivation and performance are fully mediated by employees' work attitudes. We also found that the James and James ( 1989 ) PC_g model could be extended to predict the impact of work environment perceptions on employee attitudes, motivation, and performance. Despite the number of published individual‐level climate studies that we found, there is a need for more research using standardized measures so as to enable analyses of the organizational and contextual factors that might moderate the effects of psychological climate perceptions. Finally, we argue for a molar theory of psychological climate that is rooted in the psychological processes by which individuals make meaning or their work experiences. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ripple effect: A spillover model of the detrimental impact of work–family conflict on job success

Exploring the role of both the employee and supervisor, we tested a model of how cognition‐based work‐to‐family conflict manifests itself in the workplace, impacting employee job success. Based on conservation of resources theory and the concept of loss spirals, we hypothesized that when an employee's work interferes with family demands, the resulting work‐to‐family conflict spills over to the work domain via employee emotional exhaustion. We further argued that the behavioral manifestation of employee emotional exhaustion in the workplace is low employee engagement, as assessed by the supervisor. Drawing on signaling theory, we proposed that supervisor assessments of employee engagement are related to promotability, performance ratings, and salary. Work scheduling autonomy, as a boundary condition, is examined as a resource that attenuates these relationships. Data collected from 192 employee–supervisor dyads of a Fortune 1000 company, as well as performance ratings and salary obtained from company records 9 months later, indicated support for our conceptual model. Future research examining employee work–family conflict and job outcomes is discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recovery from work‐related effort: A meta‐analysis

This meta‐analytic study examines the antecedents and outcomes of four recovery experiences: psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control. Using 299 effect sizes from 54 independent samples (N = 26,592), we extend theory by integrating recovery experiences into the challenge–hindrance framework, creating a more comprehensive understanding of how both after‐work recovery and work characteristics collectively relate to well‐being. The results of meta‐analytic path estimates indicate that challenge demands have stronger negative relationships with psychological detachment, relaxation, and control recovery experiences than hindrance demands, and job resources have positive relationships with relaxation, mastery, and control recovery experiences. Psychological detachment after work has a stronger negative relationship with fatigue than relaxation or control experiences, whereas control experiences after work have a stronger positive relationship with vigor than detachment or relaxation experiences. Additionally, a temporally driven model with recovery experiences as a partial mediator explains up to 62% more variance in outcomes (ΔR² = .12) beyond work characteristics models, implying that both work characteristics and after‐work recovery play an important role in determining employee well‐being.     

Long work hours: a social identity perspective on meta‐analysis data

The current study utilizes social identity theory to investigate employees' work hours. Specifically, we use meta‐analysis to examine the relationships between hours worked and indicators of organizational identity (e.g., organizational support and tenure), occupational identity (e.g., human capital investments and work centrality), and family identity (e.g., family responsibilities and family satisfaction). The meta‐analysis also allowed us to explore other important correlates of hours worked (e.g., situational demands, job performance, mental health, and physical health), moderating variables (e.g., age, gender, and job complexity), and curvilinear relationships of work hours to social identity indicators. Overall, we found that occupational factors and situational demands had the strongest relationships with hours worked, hours worked were negatively associated with measures of employee well‐being, gender had several significant moderating effects, and there were curvilinear relationships between hours worked and well‐being and work–family conflict variables. The article concludes with directions for future theoretical and empirical research. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The bright side of emotional labor

Emotional labor (expressing emotions as part of one's job duties, as in “service with a smile”) can be beneficial for employees, organizations, and customers. Meta‐analytical summaries reveal that deep acting (summoning up the appropriate feelings one wants to display) generally has positive outcomes. Unlike surface acting (faking emotions), deep acting does not harm employee well‐being, and deep acting is positively related with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, and customer satisfaction. Emerging research also suggests that a third form of emotional labor, natural and genuine emotional labor, is a frequently used emotional labor strategy that has positive effects for both employees and customers. We examine how identity processes shape how employees experience emotional labor, and we maintain that when employees identify with their roles, emotional labor augments and affirms their identity. Person‐job fit is an important moderator that influences whether emotional labor enhances or hinders employee well‐being. Emotional labor may also have positive outcomes when organizations grant more autonomy and adopt positive display rules that call for the expression of positive emotions. Recent research also indicates that emotional labor strategies may improve leadership effectiveness. Research opportunities on the bright side of emotional labor are abundant. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can dissimilarity lead to positive outcomes? The influence of open versus closed minds

Social identity theory and self‐categorization theory have usually been interpreted to suggest that demographic dissimilarity will negatively influence employee outcomes. However, inconsistent with this interpretation, positive and neutral relationships between demographic dissimilarity and employee outcomes have also been documented in some instances for women and minority employees. It is argued here that the influence of demographic dissimilarity on the attitudes of women and minority employees is moderated by their level of dogmatism, which influences whether they view sex‐ and race‐based status hierarchies in organizations as legitimate. Data from a survey shows that the influence of demographic dissimilarity on the organization‐based self‐esteem of employees, their level of trust in their peers and their attraction towards their peers is positive for individuals with higher level of dogmatism and negative for individuals with lower level of dogmatism. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shared aggression concerns and organizational outcomes: The moderating role of resource constraints

Most research on workplace aggression focuses on the antecedents and consequences of aggression for individual workers. The current study examines how shared workplace aggression concerns relate to internal and external organizational outcomes. Drawing on the work stress, social identity, and social contagion literatures, we propose relationships between unit‐level aggression concerns and unit‐level measures of performance and employee attitudes in a public school sample (2989 employees; 163 schools). We also propose that these relationships differ depending on the resource context of the school. Consistent with our expectations, schools in which teachers had strong shared concerns about aggression also had poorer shared job attitudes and poorer student outcomes, as indicated by average standardized test scores at the school. The impact of shared concerns about aggression on school‐level standardized test scores was stronger for resource‐rich schools than for schools with fewer resources. The current study contributes to organizational research as it establishes that workplace aggression concerns have adverse consequences for the whole organization, not only for the individuals experiencing the events. Our findings demonstrate that employees' shared concerns about aggression have an impact on organizational outcomes and suggest a prevention‐focused approach to workplace aggression. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The importance of group‐focused transformational leadership and felt obligation for helping and group performance

Leaders face a challenge to simultaneously motivate workgroups and the individuals within them. Recent criticisms highlight the need to deconstruct broad leadership constructs to offer better theoretical insight into the effects of specific leadership behaviors on groups versus individuals. We address this call by exploring the effects of group‐focused and individual‐focused aspects of transformational leadership. Applying social identity theory, we theorize that group‐focused transformational leadership is key to fostering felt obligation, motivating helping behavior, and enhancing group performance, whereas individual‐focused leadership may only foster helping when individuals also feel a sense of obligation toward their workgroup. In a field study of 260 employees reporting to 36 supervisors in a skilled trade company, we find support for these predictions using multilevel structural equation modeling and multilevel mixed effects modeling. Thus, group‐focused (vs. individual‐focused) transformational leadership and subsequent felt obligation are important antecedents for encouraging helping and, in turn, workgroup performance.     

Intra‐individual variability in job complexity over time: Examining the effect of job complexity trajectory on employee job strain

Drawing on gestalt characteristics theory, we advance the literature on the effect of job complexity on employee well‐being by considering intra‐individual variability of job complexity over time. Specifically, we examine how the trend, or trajectory, of job complexity over time can explain unique variance of employee job strain. Across two longitudinal data sets, we consistently find that, with the average level of job complexity during a given period held constant, a positive job complexity trajectory (i.e., an increasing trend in complexity) is associated with higher employee job strain. Based on job‐demand‐control theory and the exposure‐reactivity model, we further establish that job autonomy and employee emotional stability jointly moderate the relationship between job complexity trajectory and employee job strain. Specifically, for employees with high emotional stability, job autonomy mitigates the job strain brought by positive job complexity trajectory, whereas for employees with low emotional stability, job autonomy does not help to reduce the adverse effect of the increasing trend. These findings not only contribute to extend the understanding of the job complexity – strain relationship, but also suggest a promising, dynamic avenue to study the effects of work characteristics on employee well‐being as well as other outcomes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining the influence of climate,supervisor guidance,and behavioral integrity on work–family conflict: A demands and resources approach

In this study, we assess a multilevel approach to work interference with family (WIF) by examining the influence of unit‐level work–family climate, as well as the importance of supervisors' spoken guidance and their behavioral integrity in helping employees process social information about work–family issues. We propose that there are two important ways in which supervisors may influence their subordinates' WIF—through their spoken guidance regarding managing work–family conflict and through their behavioral integrity—employee perceptions of the degree to which supervisors' spoken work–family guidance aligns with their behaviors to help employees manage work and family on the job. Results from a sample of 628 employees of a health system, using path analytic tests of moderated mediation, provide support for the mediated effect of family‐supportive climate on employee work–family conflict (through supervisory work–family guidance) and for a second‐stage moderation in which the effect of guidance on WIF is stronger (weaker) when employees perceive high (low) levels of supervisor work–family behavioral integrity. We discuss the implications of these findings for the study of family‐supportive work environments and work–family conflict. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are also presented. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A process model of employee engagement: The learning climate and its relationship with extra‐role performance behaviors

Employee engagement has recently been introduced as a concept advantageous to organizations. However, little is known about the value of employee engagement in explaining work performance behaviors compared with similar concepts. The learning climate, defined as the organization's beneficial activities in helping employees create, acquire, and transfer knowledge, has also been proposed as an antecedent of employee engagement. Using data from a sample of 625 employees and their supervisors in various occupations and organizations throughout Israel, we investigated employee engagement as a key mechanism for explaining the relationship between perceptions of the organization's learning climate and employees' proactivity, knowledge sharing, creativity, and adaptivity. We also tested whether employee engagement explained the relationship more thoroughly than similar concepts such as job satisfaction and job involvement. Multilevel regression analyses supported our hypotheses that employee engagement mediates the relationship between the perceived learning climate and these extra‐role behaviors. Moreover, engagement provides a more thorough explanation than job satisfaction or job involvement for these relationships. The implications for organizational theory, research, and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How does the social context fuel the proactive fire? A multilevel review and theoretical synthesis

The role of social context (e.g., leadership, team climate, and organizational support) in shaping employee proactive behavior has received considerable attention and has been investigated across multiple forms of proactive behavior. However, the research has not been well integrated. In this review, we adopt a multilevel approach to synthesize what is known about how social context factors influence employees' proactive behavior, as well as what mechanisms underpin these effects. Our analyses show that leader‐, team‐, and organization‐related social context factors mainly influence employee proactivity through shaping “reason to,” “can do,” and “energized to” states (i.e., proactive motivational states) via individual‐, team‐, and cross‐level processes. That has been most frequently investigated is the effect of the discretionary social context, particularly leadership, on proactive behavior. We also review the interaction effects between social context factors and other factors on employee proactive behavior and found inconsistent support for the motivational‐fit perspective that stimuli with the same directions enhance each other's effect. We offer a research agenda to advance theoretical insights on this important topic.     

Perceived prosocial impact,perceived situational constraints,and proactive work behavior: Looking at two distinct affective pathways

This paper examines the role of affect as a linking mechanism between experiences at work (perceived prosocial impact and situational constraints) and two distinct components of proactive work behavior (issue identification and implementation). Based on a dual‐tuning perspective, we argue that both positive affect and negative affect can be beneficial for proactive work behavior. Multi‐level path analysis using daily‐survey data from 153 employees showed that perceived prosocial impact predicted positive affect and that situational constraints as a typical hindrance stressor predicted negative affect. Negative affect, in turn, predicted issue identification, and positive affect predicted implementation. Overall, our study suggests that both positive and negative affects can be valuable in the organizational context by contributing to distinct components of proactive behavior. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.