Out of sight and out of mind? Networking strategies for enhancing inclusion in multinational organizations.

How can employees of multinational corporations (MNCs) who are dispersed in various locations around the globe feel included? Integrating social capital theory and the MNC literature regarding resource and status differences between employees located in headquarter (HQ) versus non-HQ (i.e., subsidiary) country locations, we examined the role of the focal employee's professional advice ties and specifically their centrality as a source of advice to HQ contacts in enhancing inclusion. Moreover, we assessed the efficacy of two agentic strategies (i.e., cross-border work and access to well-connected site leaders) in facilitating the formation of inclusion-enhancing professional advice ties and whether their impact depends additionally on the focal employee's location inside or outside HQ country locations. Testing our predictions in a sample of 362 MNC employees dispersed across 33 sites, our findings showed that being central as a source of professional advice to HQ contacts enhanced employees' perceived inclusion. We also found that although employees in non-HQ countries suffered a "geographic disadvantage" in building professional advice ties to HQ contacts, these employees gained centrality as a source of professional advice to HQ contacts when they engaged in work that required cross-border interactions, especially when they also had site leaders who were well-connected. For employees located inside HQ countries, their professional advice ties to other HQ contacts were facilitated by having well-connected site leaders. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings and provide practical recommendations for enhancing the inclusion of MNC employees based on whether they are located inside or outside of HQ countries. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Culture and teams.

We first review research on culture effects in teams, illustrating that mean levels of team cultural values have main (i.e. direct) effects, indirect effects (i.e. mediated by intervening variables), and moderating influences on team processes and outcomes. Variance in team cultural values or on country of origin (i.e. nationality diversity) also has main effects on team functioning, and we highlight contextual variables that strengthen or weaken these main effects. We next review research examining the effect of variance in team cultural values on global virtual teams, specifically. Finally, we review research on how cultural values shape employees' receptivity to empowering leadership behavior in teams. We conclude by discussing critical areas for future research.

When are transgressing leaders punitively judged? An empirical test.

Using Hollander's (1958) idiosyncrasy credit theory of leadership as the theoretical backdrop, we examined when and why organizational leaders escape punitive evaluation for their organizational transgressions. In a sample of 162 full-time employees, we found that leaders who were perceived to be more able and inspirationally motivating were less punitively evaluated by employees for leader transgressions. These effects were mediated by the leaders' LMX (leader-member exchange) with their employees. Moreover, the tendency of leaders with higher LMX to escape punitive evaluations for their transgressions was stronger when those leaders were more valued within the organization. Finally, employees who punitively evaluated their leaders were more likely to have turnover intentions and to psychologically withdraw from their organization. Theoretical and practical implications associated with relatively understudied leader-transgression dynamics are discussed.

Motivating and demotivating forces in teams: cross-level influences of empowering leadership and relationship conflict.

Using cross-cultural laboratory and field studies with samples of leaders, employees, and students from the United States and the People's Republic of China, we examined how team-level stimuli, including empowering leadership and relationship conflict, combine to influence individual members' motivational states of psychological empowerment and affective commitment. As predicted, we found that these motivational states are individually and jointly influenced by teams' level of empowering leadership and relationship conflict and that these motivational states mediate the relationships between team stimuli and team members' innovative and teamwork behaviors and turnover intentions. In addition, results held despite controlling for team members' nationality and collectivism. We discuss contributions of our study to the team motivation, conflict, and stress literatures.