A regulatory focus theory perspective on the dynamics between action and power.

Building on the strong consensus that the experience of power motivates individuals to take action, prior research postulates a positively reinforcing cycle wherein taking action leads to power, which in turn leads to subsequent actions. Applying regulatory focus theory, we differentiate between promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented actions to develop a within-person theory of when and why promotion-oriented and prevention-oriented actions should relate to power, and vice-versa. Across two studies, we find that when employees engaged in promotive voice behaviors, they were more likely to experience a sense of power; this effect was amplified for employees with trait promotion focus. When employees engaged in prohibitive voice behaviors, employees with trait prevention focus were less likely to experience a sense of power. The experience of power subsequently motivated employees to engage in promotive voice behaviors, but not prohibitive voice behaviors. By elucidating the differences between promotion and prevention pathways of action and power, our research challenges the notion that action and power positively reinforce each other. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Distances and directions: An emotional journey into the recovery process.

Positive emotions stemming from leisure activities are often promoted as a way to achieve a state of recovery, in particular by counteracting negative emotions experienced throughout the workday. Yet the recovery literature frequently takes an undifferentiated view of both the positive emotions employees experience as well as the negative emotions employees are recovering from. This implicitly assumes that all positive emotions are equally effective in facilitating recovery from all negative emotions. Drawing from theory treating emotional movements as a metaphorical journey, we develop a framework for understanding recovery that highlights the importance of the distance and direction that individuals "travel" when moving from negative emotions to positive emotions during the recovery process. We argue that the negative emotions that people start with from work-that is, their emotional origin-as well as the positive emotions that people end with following leisure activities-that is, their emotional destination-jointly influence the state of being recovered. Across two studies using experience-sampling methodologies, we find that "shorter" journeys consisting of emotional destinations that match the activation level of emotional origins (e.g., experiencing high activation positive emotion [HAP] to counter high activation negative emotion) are effective in promoting recovery, while "longer" journeys consisting of mismatches (e.g., experiencing HAP to counter low activation negative emotion) are ineffective for recovery. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of leader depletion on leader performance: the mediating role of leaders' trust beliefs and employees' citizenship behaviors.

The leadership role can be demanding and depleting. Using self-regulation and social exchange theory as a framework, we developed a three-step sequential mediation model that explains how feelings of depletion can degrade leaders' own performance level, via the reciprocating behavior of their employees. Specifically, we hypothesized that leader depletion is negatively related to their trust beliefs. This lack of trust is expected to be reciprocated by employees in such a way that they display less citizenship behaviors towards their leader. These lowered citizenship behaviors are, in turn, predicted to negatively impact leader performance. Additionally, we hypothesized that these negative effects of feeling depleted are more pronounced for leaders who believe that their willpower is limited. Studies 1 and 2 illustrated that leader depletion indirectly influences their own performance level through leaders' trust beliefs and employees' leader-directed citizenship behaviors. Study 3 extended these findings from the inter-individual to the intra-individual level, and demonstrated the predicted moderating role of belief in limited willpower. Together, our studies provide new and useful insights in the broader, more distal implications of leader depletion, which have not yet been considered in existing self-regulation models.

Seeing from a short-term perspective: When and why daily abusive supervisor behavior yields functional and dysfunctional consequences.

Although destructive consequences for subordinates have featured prominently in the abusive supervision literature, scholars have insinuated that supervisory abuse may temporarily yield functional results. Drawing from research on motive attribution tendencies that underlie abusive supervision and the control perspective of repetitive thought, we develop and test a multilevel theory that delineates both functional and dysfunctional subordinate responses to daily abusive supervisor behavior. We posit that when subordinates generally attribute abusive supervision to performance promotion motives, abusive supervisor behavior during the day leads to task reflexivity that night, translating into within-subordinate increases in next-day task performance. In contrast, when subordinates generally attribute abusive supervision to injury initiation motives, abusive supervisor behavior during the day instead leads to rumination that night, resulting in within-subordinate increases in next-day leader-directed deviance. Results from 2 experience-sampling studies provide support for these predictions. By providing a more fine-grained understanding of both the adaptive and maladaptive consequences of daily abusive supervisor behavior, our research, together with prior studies, suggests that the short-lived instrumental outcomes of abusive supervisor behavior carry a substantial price, despite managers' illusion that acting in an abusive manner could be a feasible influence tactic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

To thine own (empowered) self be true: Aligning social hierarchy motivation and leader behavior.

Research to date has advanced opposing viewpoints on whether leaders who are psychologically empowered support the autonomy of their subordinates or engage in controlling leader behaviors. Our integration of research on empowerment and social hierarchy suggests that leaders' feelings of empowerment can promote autonomy-supporting and/or controlling leader behaviors, contingent on the leaders' prestige and dominance motivations, respectively. Our findings demonstrate that, among leaders high (vs. low) in prestige motivation, psychological empowerment is positively related to autonomy-supporting leader behaviors because these leaders prefer to influence others by earning their freely conferred respect and deference. In contrast, among leaders high (vs. low) in dominance motivation, psychological empowerment is positively related to controlling leader behaviors because these leaders prefer to influence others using authority and control. Three empirical studies support our theoretical model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Positive family events facilitate effective leader behaviors at work: A within-individual investigation of family-work enrichment.

Challenges related to managing work and family demands have become more and more pressing, particularly for those with high work demands, such as those in managerial and leadership roles. While existing research has focused on how family demands may negatively affect employee functioning at work, less attention has focused on characterizing the process through which individuals can benefit from their family lives. Drawing from self-determination theory, we develop a family-to-work enrichment framework to illustrate how leaders' positive experiences and motivational gains from home may transfer to work. We conducted two experience sampling studies to examine our family-work enrichment framework. Our results show that daily positive family events are positively predictive of consideration and transformational leadership behaviors at work through family need satisfaction and prosocial motivation. Our results further demonstrate that positive family events are more beneficial for leaders who view their family role as important and central (Study 2). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The benefits of receiving gratitude for helpers: A daily investigation of proactive and reactive helping at work.

Although gratitude is a key phenomenon that bridges helping with its outcomes, how and why helping relates to receipt of gratitude and its relation with helper's eudaimonic well-being have unfortunately been overlooked in organizational research. The purpose of this study is to unravel how helpers successfully connect to others and their work via receipt of gratitude. To do so, we distinguish different circumstances of helping-reactive helping (i.e., providing help when requested) versus proactive helping (i.e., providing help without being asked)-and examine their unique effect on the gratitude received by helpers, which, in turn, has downstream implications for helpers' perceived prosocial impact and work engagement the following day. Using daily experience sampling (Study 1) and critical incident (Study 2) methods, we found that reactive helping is more likely to be linked to receipt of gratitude than proactive helping. Receipt of gratitude, in turn, is associated with increases in perceived prosocial impact and work engagement the following day. Our study contributes to the helping literature by identifying receipt of gratitude as a novel mechanism that links helping to helper well-being, by distinguishing proactive and reactive helping, and by highlighting eudaimonic well-being as an outcome of helping for helpers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Wearable bluetooth sensors for capturing relational variables and temporal variability in relationships: A construct validation study.

The advent of wearable sensor technologies has the potential to transform organizational research by offering the unprecedented opportunity to collect continuous, objective, highly granular data over extended time periods. Recent evidence has demonstrated the potential utility of Bluetooth-enabled sensors, specifically, in identifying emergent networks via colocation signals in highly controlled contexts with known distances and groups. Although there is proof of concept that wearable Bluetooth sensors may be able to contribute to organizational research in highly controlled contexts, to date there has been no explicit psychometric construct validation effort dedicated to these sensors in field settings. Thus, the two studies described here represent the first attempt to formally evaluate longitudinal Bluetooth data streams generated in field settings, testing their ability to (a) show convergent validity with respect to traditional self-reports of relational data; (b) display discriminant validity with respect to qualitative differences in the nature of alternative relationships (i.e., advice vs. friendship); (c) document predictive validity with respect to performance; (d) decompose variance in network-related measures into meaningful within- and between-unit variability over time; and (e) complement retrospective self-reports of time spent with different groups where there is a "ground truth" criterion. Our results provide insights into the validity of Bluetooth signals with respect to capturing variables traditionally studied in organizational science and highlight how the continuous data collection capabilities made possible by wearable sensors can advance research far beyond that of the static perspectives imposed by traditional data collection strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Boxed in by your inbox: Implications of daily e-mail demands for managers' leadership behaviors.

Over the past 30 years, the nature of communication at work has changed. Leaders in particular rely increasingly on e-mail to communicate with their superiors and subordinates. However, researchers and practitioners alike suggest that people frequently report feeling overloaded by the e-mail demands they experience at work. In the current study, we develop a self-regulatory framework that articulates how leaders' day-to-day e-mail demands relate to a perceived lack of goal progress, which has a negative impact on their subsequent enactment of routine (i.e., initiating structure) and exemplary (i.e., transformational) leadership behaviors. We further theorize how two cross-level moderators-centrality of e-mail to one's job and trait self-control-impact these relations. In an experience sampling study of 48 managers across 10 consecutive workdays, our results illustrate that e-mail demands are associated with a lack of perceived goal progress, to which leaders respond by reducing their initiating structure and transformational behaviors. The relation of e-mail demands with leader goal progress was strongest when e-mail was perceived as less central to performing one's job, and the relations of low goal progress with leadership behaviors were strongest for leaders low in trait self-control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).