2010- Working Papers: Organizational Behavior and Human Resources

Several psychological theories suggest that consistency is important for employee well-being. However, the dynamic, intra-individual nature of this link remains poorly understood.  This study tests both the between- and the within-individual well-being implications of being consistent with one's trait extraversion, both at home and at work. Instead of the traditional monolithic approach, we propose a multi-faceted approach to consistency, focusing on trait-specific consistency (i.e., extraversion). We hypothesized that: (a) Individuals whose work or home average extraversion level is consistent with their general extraversion will enjoy greater levels of trait-like well-being, and (b) Individuals will experience greater levels of transient well-being at times when their state extraversion is consistent with their trait levels. In an experience sampling study of 84 fully employed married adults, we repeatedly assessed individuals’ transient well-being, as well as their state extraversion levels. Our consistency hypothesis was largely supported across domains and roles of analysis. Between-individual analyses further suggested introverts’ (compared to extraverts’) well-being levels are positively affected by consistency. Within-individual level analyses also suggested that while extroverts’ well-being increases when acting extraverted at work, introverts’ well-being levels are not affected by acting consistent. We hope our findings stimulate additional intra-individual research investigating consistency–employee well-being links.

We study the effect of intelligence and personality on career success by examining temporal changes in their validities, viewing increasing validity over time as indicative for the impact of an individual characteristic on gravitational processes and therefore on career success. The main finding of two studies is that the validity of intelligence clearly increases over time whereas the validity of personality tends to be stable. We also find that a pattern of increasing validity with regard to personality may result from lack of control for intelligence.

Scholars have generally failed to systematically analyze the important contribution of the subjective aspects of time in the area of work stress.  In this paper, we analyze how cultural, organizational and individual factors influence the perception of subjective time, which in turn affects the experience of stress.  In addition, we examine the reciprocal relationship between subjective time and stress accounting for reciprocal and spiraling effects over time.  By explicitly considering the role of subjective time in stress research, we develop several propositions and discuss recommendations for future research.  We then discuss implications for organizational practice in reducing stress, revolving around the manipulation and experience of time. 

This article investigated how the provision of one-sided arguments that justified the first offer in a negotiation affected the behavior of the parties. It was demonstrated that adding one-sided justifying arguments to first offers was not beneficial to the negotiator who offered first. In a series of four experiments we showed that both counteroffers and settlement prices were less beneficial to negotiators who made the first offer when they added one-sided justifying arguments. The addition of a one-sided argument to a first offer was likely to cause the responding party to search for counterarguments and this, in turn, led him or her to devaluate the negotiated asset.