2020 - Working Papers: Organizational Behavior and Human Resources
Is student loan debt good or bad for full-time employment upon graduation from college?, Forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology, 56 pp.
A. Froidevaux, J. Koopmann, M. Wang and P. Bamberger
(Working Paper no. 1/2020)
Research no. 09120100
Student loan debt represents an important phenomenon in the United States, as around 61% of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with a debt of over $28,100. Although studies emphasize that holding student loan debt delays the transition to adulthood in terms of marriage and home ownership, little is known about its impact on employment and this limited research offers, at best, equivocal evidence. The current study draws from Conservation of Resources theory to argue that student loan debt acts as a major financial stressor for new labor market entrants during job search. Using archival data from 1,248 graduating seniors from four geographically diverse universities in the United States collected in the context of a prospective study design, we found evidence for two countervailing mechanisms through which student loan debt may influence full-time employment upon graduation. On the one hand, college students who had student loan debt were more likely to experience financial strain, and subsequently more job search strain, which was negatively related to college seniors' odds of securing full-time employment upon graduation. On the other hand, this financial strain was also positively related to students' work hours while in the last semester of college, which was positively related to their odds of securing full-time employment upon graduation. Further mediation tests revealed that only the three-stage indirect effect through job search strain (i.e., student loan debt → financial strain → job search strain → full-time employment) was statistically significant. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Give a rod, not a fish: The impact of help type on power affordance at work, 36 pp.
L. Chernyak-Hai, I. SimanTov-Nachlieli, D. Heller
(Working Paper no. 2/2020)
Research no. 01070100
We examine the differential impact of two types of helping behaviors– autonomy and dependency (giving a person in need a rod or a fish, respectively), on power affordance to the helper. In four studies – one correlational and three experimental – conducted on 1,709 Israeli employees, we found that autonomy- )vs. dependency-) helping enhances power affordance to the helper for distinct focal parties – help recipients (Studies 1 and 2) and observers witnessing help giving, but not directly benefiting from it (Studies 3 and 4). Study 1, a correlational field study conducted on employees recalling an event in which a colleague helped them, revealed that greater perceptions of autonomy-oriented helping (i.e., providing more tools) were associated with enhanced power affordance. Study 2, involving a workplace role-playing experimental design, established the causality of the effect and further illuminated its underlying mechanism. Specifically, help recipients, randomly assigned to receive either autonomy- or dependency-helping scenario, afforded more power to the helper in the autonomy- (vs. dependency-) helping condition and this effect was mediated by greater trust in the helper's benevolence. Study 3, an experiment using an online team-based simulation context, replicated these effects among observers. Finally, Study 4, using a "moderation-of-process" experimental design, found that the benefit of autonomy- (vs. dependency-) helping through perceived helper's benevolence-based trustworthiness was attenuated once incentives for help were present rather than absent. Theoretical and practical implications of this virtuous, prestige-based path to power – through providing peers rods rather than fish, are discussed.
"To thine own self be true!": Ascending the organizational hierarchy through authenticity and morality, 40 pp.
D. Heller
(Working Paper no. 3/2020)
Research no. 01090100
We propose that authenticity–the degree to which individuals connect with and act upon their true selves–leads perceivers to voluntarily accord targets more workplace power. Across five experiments (total N=1,977), participants afforded more power to authentic versus inauthentic targets (Experiments 1-5). Experiment 2 revealed that authenticity and inauthenticity both drive this effect, with the latter being a stronger driver. Furthermore, Experiments 3 and 4 showed–using both measurement-of-mediation and moderation-of-process designs–that moral reputation accounts for the authenticity-to-power affordance effect. Finally, our results held for individuals with either high or low initial power levels (Experiment 3), for a leadership support outcome (Experiments 4-5) and in a vivid, virtual team context varying in personal stakes (Experiment 5). Overall, we demonstrate authenticity, and its derivative moral reputation, as a novel path to being afforded workplace power, benefiting even those with initially limited resources.
Social support as a source of vitality among college students: The moderating role of social self‐efficacy. Forthcoming in The Psychology in the Schools, 13 pp.
A. Carmeli, A. C. Peng, J. M. Schaubroeck and I. Amir
(Working Paper no. 6/2020)
Whereas social support contributes to individual vitality and academic performance, the theoretical process through which social support promotes performance, and for whom it is most beneficial in this respect, remain open questions. We developed a conceptual model in which social support influences academic performance by promoting vitality, particularly among individuals who are low on social self‐efficacy (SSE). Social support has a positive effect on university students' academic performance, which is largely explained by its relationship with reported vitality among students with relatively low levels of SSE but not among students with higher SSE. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for the existing literature on social support and vitality in academic settings.
How does an emotional culture of joy cultivate team resilience? A sociocognitive perspective. Forthcoming in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19 pp.
S. Hartmann, M. Weiss, M. Hoeg and A. Carmeli
(Working Paper no. 8/2020)
The complex nature of work tasks leads many organizations to organize work around teams, which must develop the capacity to cope with and adapt to a variety of adverse situations. However, our knowledge and understanding of what enables and inhibits the development of resilient teams, that is, change in teams' resilience capacity, have yet to be fully developed. Drawing on the build hypothesis of broaden-and-build theory, we explore the dynamic emotional, social, and cognitive elements that underlie change in team resilience capacity. We posit that a change in a team's emotional culture of joy predicts change in team resilience capacity through both social and cognitive mechanisms (i.e., change in mutuality and change in reflexivity). The results from a two-wave study involving 91 teams (comprising 1291 individual responses) indicate that the positive relationship between change in the emotional culture of joy and change in team resilience capacity is mediated by change in mutuality and change in reflexivity. This research advances the emerging literature on team resilience by theoretically delineating the underlying affective, social, and cognitive collective mechanisms that lead to within-team variability in team resilience capacity.
