Browsing by Author "Smith, D. Brent"

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    Antecedents of Expatriates’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Expatriate Adjustment and Job Attitudes as Mediators and Cultural Similarity as the Moderator
    (2014-04-21) Ercan, Seydahmet; Oswald, Frederick L.; Beier, Margaret E.; Smith, D. Brent; Villado, Anton J.
    Expatriates are important parts of transnational companies’ (TNC) foreign subsidiary staffing programs because TNCs heavily rely on expatriates to achieve coordination/control and knowledge transfer in their subsidiaries (Boyacigiller, 1990; Tan & Mahoney, 2006). Thus, expatriates’ job performance is an important factor directly contributing to the success of a subsidiary. Although research has focused on the effects of various dispositional and situational characteristics, job attitudes, and cross-cultural adjustment on expatriates’ task performance (e.g., managerial behaviors, Black & Porter, 1991; the Big Five, Dalton & Wilson, 2000), it underexplored the effects of these variables on expatriates’ OCB performance. Therefore, I aimed to fill this research gap by exploring the effects of various distal (e.g., Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, POS) and proximal (e.g., job satisfaction, work adjustment, organizational commitment) antecedents on expatriates’ OCB performance. In addition, I investigated the possible mediating effects of expatriate adjustment and job attitudes and moderating effect of perceived similarity of host-county culture (i.e., cultural novelty) on the relationship between expatriates’ OCB performance and its antecedents. In the pilot study, I constructed the Cross-Cultural Work Similarity Scale, which measures the novelty of host-company work settings. In the main study, I explored the direct and indirect (through expatriate adjustment and job attitudes) effects of distal predictors on expatriates’ self- and coworker-rated OCBI (organizational citizenship behavior directed at individuals) and OCBO (organizational citizenship behavior directed at the organization) performance. First, the results showed that Agreeableness and collectivity orientation were important predictors of self-rated OCBI, whereas Conscientiousness was of self-rated OCBO; and interaction adjustment, host country language skills, and Agreeableness were important predictors of coworker-rated OCBI and Conscientiousness was of coworker-rated OCBO performance. Second, mediation analyses based on coworker-rated OCB data and isolated mediation analyses based on self-rated OCB data supported the partial mediation effects of expatriate adjustment. Third, the results did not support the possible moderating effect of cultural novelty. These findings highlighted the relative importance of dispositional characteristics (e.g., Agreeableness, Conscientiousness) and expatriate adjustment in predicting expatriates’ OCB performance. Furthermore, the result supported Ilies, Fulmer, Spitzmuller, and Johnson’s (2009) findings regarding the differential validity of personality predictors of OCBI and OCBO performance.
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    Personality, Emotional Intelligence, and Skill in Service Encounters: Exploring the Role of Prosocial Knowledge as a Mediator
    (2013-09-19) Martin, Michelle; Motowidlo, Stephan J.; Oswald, Frederick L.; Beier, Margaret E.; Smith, D. Brent
    Emotional intelligence has become a very popular topic in organizational research (Joseph & Newman, 2010; Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade, 2008), partly as a response to contentions that emotional intelligence predicts job performance as robustly as cognitive ability does (Goleman, 1995). The majority of previous research on the relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance has examined emotional intelligence as an individual difference construct that acts as a direct determinant of job performance (e.g. Carmeli & Josman, 2006). However, research has suggested job-relevant knowledge and skill are direct determinants of job performance and that individual differences in abilities and traits are antecedents of job knowledge (Campbell, Gasser, & Oswald, 1996; Motowidlo, Borman, & Schmit, 1997). Consequently, according to this rationale, emotional intelligence may only affect job performance through its effect on knowledge. This investigation examined whether prosocial knowledge mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and prosocial skill in role-play simulations of service encounters in medicine using a sample of 199 undergraduate students. Secondary purposes were to replicate results from earlier work demonstrating personality traits affect skill primarily through their effects on knowledge and to explore the construct and predictive validity of job knowledge further. Individual tests of hypotheses were conducted and the overall pattern of relations among study variables is summarized by a path analytic model. Analyses revealed that prosocial knowledge measured by a single-response situational judgment test mediated the effects of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotion management on prosocial skill displayed in role-play simulations. Emotion understanding was causally related to emotion management as theorized by hierarchical models of emotional intelligence (Joseph & Newman, 2010), but unexpectedly, emotional stability was not. Results clarify the role of emotional intelligence as a distal antecedent of job performance rather than a more proximal performance determinant.
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    Personality, Interpersonal Skills, and Students' Job Search Behaviors
    (2014-10-13) McAbee, Samuel Thomas; Oswald, Frederick L.; Beier, Margaret E.; Smith, D. Brent; Cornwell, John M.
    The ways that people identify and pursue employment opportunities represents an important aspect of organizational life, and students’ who are entering the job market for the first time have a vested interest in their own job search, as the activities they engage in during the search process have direct implications for their future career success. Building from socio-cognitive and self-regulatory theories of job search and career choice (e.g., Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz, 2001; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994), the present dissertation examined the role of Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, proactive personality, and political skill for predicting students’ preparatory, active, and networking job search behaviors. These distal characteristics were posited to influence students’ job search behaviors through two mediating mechanisms: job search self-efficacy and job search clarity. In addition, recent research suggests that the same personality trait might simultaneously influence the job search process in both positive and negative ways depending on the mediating mechanisms examined (Zimmerman, Boswell, Shipp, Dunford, & Boudreau, 2012). The present dissertation offers an alternative, yet complimentary explanation for these opposing effects, where narrower traits within a broad personality domain might demonstrate distinctive relationships with various aspects of the job search process. To this end, the present dissertation examined the role of six meso-level aspects for the Big Five personality traits of Conscientiousness (i.e., Industriousness and Orderliness), Extraversion (i.e., Enthusiasm and Assertiveness), and Neuroticism (i.e., Volatility and Withdrawal; see DeYoung, Quilty, & Petersen, 2007) for predicting students’ job search behaviors. Findings for a sample of 280 graduating seniors revealed that Extraversion, proactive personality, and political skill positively predicted a variety of job search behaviors, whereas Conscientiousness was not related to these behaviors. Contrary to expectations, Neuroticism was positively related to students’ preparatory search behaviors. Job search self-efficacy and job search clarity did not meaningfully mediate the relations between students’ distal characteristics and their engagement in job search. A number of interesting relationships were identified for the meso-level personality aspects, where some aspects within a broad personality domain were meaningfully related to the job search process, while others were not. Considerations and directions for future research are discussed.
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    The effects of leader negative emotions on evaluations of leadership: The role of anger and sadness
    (2005) Madera, Juan M.; Smith, D. Brent
    While existing literature on leadership articulates the importance of leader emotion, there has been little attention to the potential roles of more specific emotions. The current paper examined the effect of leader emotion on evaluations of leadership in the context of a product recall. In particular, this research examined how the expression of anger and sadness influences how effective a leader is perceived to be in times of crises. This was done by manipulating the emotion of the leader, as well as the response of the leader. The results revealed that a leader expressing either sadness or anger/sadness was evaluated more favorably than a leader expressing anger. Furthermore, a leader accepting responsibility for the crisis was evaluated more favorably than a leader not accepting responsibility.
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    The Influence of Employee Inkings on Consumer Behavior: Booed, Eschewed, and Tattooed
    (2013-09-16) Ruggs, Enrica; Hebl, Michelle R.; Beier, Margaret E.; Oswald, Frederick L.; Smith, D. Brent
    One trend that is becoming overwhelmingly popular in mainstream America, particularly among the youth (prior to and as they enter the workforce) is getting tattoos (Armstrong, Owen, Roberts, & Koch, 2002; Chivers, 2002; Laumann & Derick, 2006), yet there is little empirical evidence on the impact of having tattoos in an employment context. The current dissertation sought to understand this impact by examining the influence of employee tattoos on customers’ stereotypical perceptions, attitudes toward the employee, organization, and products, and behavior toward the employee and organization across two studies. In the first study, customers viewed a marketing video in which the employee either had a visible tattoo or not. Customers reported more stereotypical perceptions of tattooed (versus nontattooed) employees, such that they perceived the tattooed employee as possessing more artistic traits, having a less favorable appearance, and being risker. Stereotypical perceptions of artistic traits were the strongest, and these perceptions mediated the relation between tattoo presence and evaluations of the employee, organization, and product. In a second field study, employees (who either had a tattoo or not) sold restaurant cards to customers at a convention to raise money for a charity organization. Results showed that customers engaged in more avoidance behaviors with tattooed (versus) nontattooed employees; however, there were no significant differences in purchasing behavior based on tattoo presence. The results of both studies provide insight into a mechanism for how tattoo presence impacts customers’ reactions to employees, organizations, and products. Implications and future research ideas are discussed.
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    Training Interpersonal Skills for Interviews: The Value of Behavioral Models and the Role of Personality
    (2012-09-05) Crook, Amy; Beier, Margaret E.; Motowidlo, Stephen J.; Villado, Anton J.; Smith, D. Brent
    Training for interpersonal skills is used widely in organizations but few empirical studies have measured its effectiveness in creating behavioral change. Though the impact of individual differences on training for technical skills has been examined extensively, prior studies in interpersonal skills training have not investigated personal characteristics to determine antecedents of interpersonal knowledge and predictors of learning. The current investigation applies social learning theory to the development of interpersonal skills training for job interviewing and examines the role of personality on training outcomes. In Study 1, I analyzed the interpersonal skills relevant to interviewing for a job and developed a measure of interpersonal interview knowledge. In Study 2, I investigated two formats for training interpersonal skills for interviews. One format used general rules for behavior to teach interpersonal skills for interviews while the other format used a combination of rules and examples of real interview behaviors modeled by actors. The primary aim of Study 2 was to examine the relationships between personality, training format, training’s fit with self-concept, knowledge, and interview performance. Training format did not impact interpersonal interview knowledge but did influence satisfaction with the training. Surprisingly, cognitive ability was not related to interview knowledge before or after training. Agreeableness and conscientiousness were positively related interpersonal interview knowledge. Interpersonal interview knowledge and conscientiousness positively predicted interview performance. Agreeableness, however, was negatively related to interview performance. These findings begin to answer questions about how individual differences can impact the effectiveness of interpersonal skills training in terms of both knowledge development and transfer of skills to job-related contexts.