http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/713 2013-06-15T13:49:51Z 2013-06-15T13:49:51Z Zhu, Yue (朱玥) http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6981 2013-06-13T02:38:09Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Why, how, and when is trust central to transformational leadership? : a social exchange perspective Authors: Zhu, Yue (朱玥) Abstract: Recognizing the central role of trust in transformational leadership processes, previous research has examined it as an intervening variable in the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' work outcomes. However, a limited number of studies have taken into account its multidimensional nature in terms of cognition-based trust and affect-based trust (McAllister, 1995). The cognitive and affective components of trust have been demonstrated to represent different psychological processes (Lau & Cobb, 2010). To better understand transformational leadership processes, this study proposed and examined a model in which cognition-based trust and affect-based trust mediate the relationships between transformational leadership and followers' extra-role behaviors (helping behavior and knowledge sharing) and work attitudes (job satisfaction and affective commitment). Additionally, using procedural justice and other orientation as moderators, the boundary conditions of each of the links in the conceptual model were specified and tested. Procedural justice is an important issue in the leadership literature (Colquitt & Greenberg, 2003), but it has been underexplored as a factor of organizational context in transformational leadership research (Porter & McLaughlin, 2006). Procedural justice was thus proposed as a moderator of the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' trust in the leader. Furthermore, other orientation - as an important work motive that has a substantial influence on employees' extra-role behaviors (Grant & Berg, 2011) - was proposed as a moderator of the relationships between cognition-based trust and affect-based trust and extra-role behaviors. Survey questionnaires were distributed among sales employees of four private retail companies and servicing employees of five private manufacturing companies located in a major city in southeast China. The final sample consisted of 140 sales employees and 63 supervisors in the retail industry, and 208 service employees and 63 supervisors in the manufacturing industry. Response rate was 69.6%. Data from the two subsamples were combined after testing for measurement equivalence. Mediation hypotheses were tested using a series of regression analysis. The results showed that affect-based trust mediated the relationships between transformational leadership and followers' helping behavior and knowledge sharing; meanwhile, cognition-based trust did not have mediating effects on these relationships. Affect-based trust partially mediated the relationships between transformational leadership and followers' job satisfaction and affective commitment, whereas cognition-based trust partially mediated only the affective commitment. Results obtained from the moderated regression analysis showed that transformational leadership was more strongly related to both cognition-based trust and affect-based trust when followers perceived low levels of procedural justice. In addition, other orientation had differential moderating effects on the relationships between cognition-based trust and affect-based trust and extra-role behaviors. Affect-based trust was more strongly related to extra-role behaviors among followers with high other orientation, whereas cognition-based trust was more strongly related to extra-role behaviors among followers with low other orientation. Further moderated mediation analysis indicated that affect-based trust mediated the relationships between transformational leadership and followers' extra-role behaviors only among employees with high other orientation, whereas cognition-based trust mediated these relationships only for those with low other orientation. Overall, results point to the distinct mediating roles of affect-based trust and cognition-based trust in transformational leadership processes. Implications for the theory and practice of leadership are also discussed. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD57.7 .Z535 2012; xi, 156 leaves : ill. 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-149)

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Huo, Yuanyuan (霍苑渊) http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6980 2013-06-13T02:38:06Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Effects of supervisors' aggressive humor on employee strain and addictive behaviors Authors: Huo, Yuanyuan (霍苑渊) Abstract: The prior literature on humor primarily documents its positive effects on employees' attitudes and behaviors, such as enhanced employee commitment and group cohesiveness. Although the increasing research on aggressive humor suggests some conflicting viewpoints, relevant empirical research is still in its infancy. In seeking to capture the full picture of the effectiveness of humor, an examination of the inappropriate use of humor should be equally important as an examination of its positive side because we can learn as much from the failure of humor as from its effective use. Constraining our knowledge to the positive side and ignoring the dark side will lead to an incomplete understanding of humor and limit the development of humor research. This dissertation proposes a model based on social comparison theory and attribution theory to examine the influence of supervisors' aggressive humor on employees' strain and addictive behaviors. Specifically, I propose that supervisors' use of aggressive humor with focal employees relates positively to employee strain, while supervisors' use of aggressive humor with the peers of focal employees attenuates this positive effect. Employee strain, in turn, induces addictive behaviors, including Internet addiction, problem drinking, and problem smoking. The research model was tested using a two-wave study with 243 frontline employees from four manufacturing companies of a group corporation in China and their spouses. I also tested the model using all of the self-rated measures with 311 employees. The results showed that supervisors' use of aggressive humor with employees related positively to employees' strain. This positive association became stronger when the supervisors did not use aggressive humor with the peers of the focal employees. Focal employees' strain mediated the interactive effects of supervisors' use of aggressive humor with the focal employees and with peers on focal employees' addictive behaviors (e.g., problematic use of Internet, alcohol, and tobacco). As well as having practical implications for managers and organizations in relation to using humor appropriately, this study offers theoretical insights for research into humor, leadership, and addictive behaviors. This dissertation (1) identifies supervisors' aggressive humor as an important and salient workplace stressor; (2) investigates both the proximal and distal consequences of supervisors' use of aggressive humor for employees; (3) explores the antecedents of a new pervasive behavior, namely Internet addiction; and (4) contributes to the social comparison and attribution literature by including the potential buffering effect of the similar treatment being received by peers in the same group. Notes: CityU Call Number: HF5549 .H879 2012; v, 145 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-134)

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Hui, Tak Yin (許德賢) http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6979 2013-06-13T02:38:04Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Adaptation and affect : how employees' adaptive behavior and job-related emotions influence the relationship between leader behaviors and employee work outcomes Authors: Hui, Tak Yin (許德賢) Abstract: Based on Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory, this dissertation examined the contextual effects of leaders' coaching style on followers' adaptation and specific emotions, and, in turn, their relationships with individual work outcomes. This two-part (i.e. two-study) doctoral thesis addressed largely unexplored contextual antecedents of individual adaptation. Specifically, I proposed that two styles of coaching, guidance and facilitation, have differentiating effects on individual adaptation, job related feelings of anxiety, and employee emotions (e.g. cheerfulness, dejection). I also explored learning-self efficacy as a mediator of the relationships between employee emotions and both task performance and adaptive task performance; and adaptive behavior and job-related feelings of anxiety as mediators of the relationships between coaching style and work outcomes (i.e. task performance, creativity, emotional exhaustion). Study 1 is a field study with 371 employees and 49 immediate supervisors. Here I tested a model in which individual adaptive behavior and job-related feelings of anxiety mediate the relationships between supervisor's coaching style and three individual work outcomes, emotional exhaustion, task performance and creativity. Two coaching styles (guidance and facilitation coaching) were significantly related to both adaptive behavior and job-related feelings of anxiety, but in opposite directions. Moreover, there were contrasting effects of adaptive behavior and job-related feelings of anxiety on emotional exhaustion, task performance and creativity. In Study 2, I examined the main effects of leaders' on-the-job coaching behavior on employees' task and adaptive performance, as well as the moderating effect of task-related expertise and the mediating effects of learning self-efficacy and specific emotions. This experimental study involved two conditions (i.e., guidance versus facilitation coaching) and 209 participants who were coached on how to effectively use a spreadsheet program (Excel 2010) on a personal computer to perform data searching and analysis work in a simulated office environment. Task and adaptive task performance were measured by assessing individual performance on a complex Excel task (task performance) and a complex PowerPoint task (adaptive task performance) after the coaching sessions. Surprisingly, guidance coaching led to better performance than did facilitation coaching on both similar and adaptive tasks. Learning self-efficacy and two types of emotions, (cheerfulness and dejection) mediated these relationships. Furthermore, moderated mediation models with task-related expertise as moderator were also tested. Task-related expertise moderated the mediating effect of learning self-efficacy on the relationship between coaching style and the two outcomes of coaching. The theoretical and practical implications for individual adaptation are then discussed. Notes: CityU Call Number: HF5549.5.C53 H848 2012; viii, 230 leaves : ill. (some col.) 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-142)

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z Law, Kuok Kei ( 羅國基) http://dspace.cityu.edu.hk:80/handle/2031/6494 2012-08-07T07:42:55Z 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: An integrative management model of knowledge sharing : case studies of knowledge-based SMEs in Hong Kong Authors: Law, Kuok Kei ( 羅國基) Abstract: This dissertation provides an answer to the long-lasting question of "how to enhance knowledge sharing within organizations". As knowledge has become the major, if not only, production factor in the modern knowledge economy, the sharing and application of it throughout the organization is critical to the development of competitive advantage. However, the sharing of knowledge among organizational members is often 'sticky'. This stickiness is mainly caused by people's reluctance to disclose and share what they know. The notion of knowledge sharing dilemma is an important theoretical underpinning to understand people's reluctance. In such a dilemma situation, on the one hand, people are concerned with the potential costs and losses of knowledge sharing, but on the other hand, people need to share their knowledge in order to reveal their intellectual values and obtain rewards. Therefore, from the management's point of view, the critical issue to foster knowledge sharing is to lead the workers out of the knowledge sharing dilemma. Managerial interventions/governance are needed to achieve such directing effort. However, the extant literature has largely undermined this management perspective. Past studies have mostly focused on identifying the antecedents to knowledge sharing, that is, concentrating on the examination of the 'what' aspect. There is no concrete theoretical model explaining 'how' to foster knowledge sharing from the managerial perspective. Another major problem in the current literature is that researchers tend to emphasize the role of motivation in enhancing knowledge sharing behaviors but downplay the role of managerial controls, assuming that control mechanisms are contradictory to the discretional nature of knowledge sharing. However, extensive reviews of the underlying nature of the motivation and control mechanisms as well as the empirical evidences gathered from case studies here suggested that both types of mechanisms are actually complimenting the effects of one another. The simultaneous implementation of these two mechanisms indeed creates a synergy for fostering knowledge sharing behaviors of workers. The empirical context of the study involves six knowledge-intensive SMEs in Hong Kong. The six SMEs compose the case study observations that were based upon to develop an integrative management model for fostering knowledge sharing. The types of managerial practices employed in the SMEs, the rationales behind those managerial practices, as well as their effectiveness are analyzed. Overall, evidences from the case studies suggest that three types of managerial interventions are needed to foster knowledge sharing - initiating interventions, reinforcing interventions, aligning interventions. The integrative management model identifies the roles of the three types of managerial interventions in fostering knowledge sharing. It describes how these managerial interventions create extrinsic drives to the workers to engage in knowledge sharing and how the knowledge sharing behavior initially shaped by extrinsic drives will gradually be internalized as an intrinsic value of the workers. The integrative management model advances the extant literature in three ways. First, it offers concrete theoretical and practical guidance to both researchers and managers on how to embed knowledge sharing behaviors within KIFs. Second, it bridges the different theoretical viewpoints toward the managing of knowledge and knowledge sharing, namely the motivation perspective and control perspective. Third, it describes the processes how the fostering effect is achieved from the intended managerial efforts. Moreover, the model offers implications for various research opportunities. In conclusion, this dissertation builds a concrete theoretical foundation for the investigation of enhancing knowledge sharing and makes a theoretical contribution to the extant literature. Notes: CityU Call Number: HD30.2 .L386 2011; viii, 190 leaves 30 cm.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-185)

2011-01-01T00:00:00Z