Purpose This study examines how group-level contextual factors influence middle managers' intentions to involve senior managers in the issue-selling process formally. It focuses on the effects of tenure diversity and interpersonal relationship quality within workgroups. Design/methodology/approach A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design was conducted with 208 Master of Business Administration (MBA) students who also held managerial roles in practice. The study manipulated tenure diversity and relationship quality and examined their joint effects on the willingness to formally involve senior managers. Findings Results show that strong interpersonal relationships in groups with high tenure diversity reduced managers' willingness to formally involve senior managers. This finding highlights a complex interplay between diversity and relational dynamics in shaping formal issue-selling intentions. Practical implications Organizations should consider both diversity configurations and relational environments when fostering proactive upward communication. Human resources practitioners must actively design structured communication practices to support middle managers. Social implications Strong social ties within diverse teams may encourage reliance on informal networks over formal mechanisms. This dynamic reshapes how strategic issues gain attention within organizational hierarchies. Originality/value This study contributes to the issue-selling and diversity literature. It reveals that strong interpersonal relationships can sometimes hinder formal issue-selling motivations. This challenges assumptions about the universally positive role of relational quality.
Purpose Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this research proposed a moderated mediation model to examine the effect of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG) on Chinese employees' voice behavior, with perceived job control as the mediator and subordinate gender as the moderator. Design/methodology/approach Using a time-lagged research design, this study collected two waves of survey data from 312 employees across four companies in the financial services industry. Findings The findings revealed that SSG positively influenced voice behavior. Furthermore, perceived job control, as a job resource, mediated the relationship between SSG and voice behavior. Additionally, subordinate gender moderated both the relationship between SSG and perceived job control, and the indirect effect of SSG on voice behavior through perceived job control. Originality/value This study is the first to apply the JD-R model to explain the impact of supervisor–subordinate relationships on voice behavior and its underlying mechanisms. It extends the JD-R model by innovatively conceptualizing supervisor–subordinate relationships as personal resources.
Purpose The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between HCWS and innovative work behavior (IWB). For this purpose, we propose a model that examines the interaction between high-commitment work systems (HCWS) and IWBs, with a particular focus on how ambidextrous learning mediates this relationship. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional, non-experimental study was conducted using data from 188 medium and large firms in Ecuador, selected from a national ranking of top-performing companies. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings Contrary to expectations, the direct effect of HCWS on IWB was not statistically significant. However, ambidextrous learning fully mediated this relationship, indicating that HCWS foster innovative behaviors primarily through the development of both exploitative and explorative learning capabilities. Originality/value This study contributes to the HRM and innovation literature by opening the “black box” linking HCWS to IWB. It identifies ambidextrous learning as the key mediating mechanism through which commitment-oriented HR systems translate into employee innovation. By testing this model in an underrepresented Latin American context and demonstrating the robustness of the findings, the study offers valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners seeking to enhance innovation by designing HR systems that activate ambidextrous learning.
Purpose Drawing on Stress and Coping Theory, this study investigates how culture shock acts as a chronic stressor impairing expatriate work performance and examines the divergent moderating roles of conscientiousness and neuroticism. Consistent with the measure employed, the focal stressor is specified as interpersonal culture shock. Design/methodology/approach Utilizing a time-lagged survey design, data were collected from 228 corporate expatriates across two measurement occasions. Hypotheses were tested with moderated regression using mean-centered interaction terms, followed by simple slope analysis at ±1 standard deviation (SD) of each moderator. Findings Interpersonal culture shock was negatively associated with work performance (β = −0.39, p < 0.01). Conscientiousness attenuated this negative association (β = 0.16, p < 0.01; simple slopes −0.23 at +1 SD versus −0.55 at −1 SD), whereas neuroticism amplified it (β = −0.12, p < 0.05; simple slopes −0.51 at +1 SD versus −0.27 at −1 SD). The results are consistent with a “shield-and-amplifier” pattern in which the same stressor translates into markedly different performance costs depending on the expatriate’s trait profile. Research limitations/implications The data are self-reported and drawn from a convenience sample, so the findings are associational rather than causal. Replication with supervisor-rated performance and probability-based sampling would strengthen confidence in the results. Practical implications The results suggest that uniform expatriate support models may be sub-optimal, and that trait information could usefully inform how, rather than whether. Organizations allocate psychological support and adjustment resources. Given the design, these are offered as directions for practice to test rather than as validated prescriptions. Originality/value The study contributes by disaggregating culture shock and locating personality as a boundary condition on the stressor–performance link rather than as a main-effect predictor, and by testing two traits with opposing signs within a single model.
Purpose This study analyzed several specific features of informal leadership, including informal leadership of managers, and also considered: (1) direct and indirect connections of informal leadership of managers with group social and performance effectiveness and (2) the role the manager's inclusion in an informal subgroup plays in the association between informal leadership and group effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach Forty-nine work groups (encompassing a total of 290 employees) from five participating organizations. A formal algorithm for identifying informal subgroups and three questionnaires were used to measure, respectively, informal leadership, and two types of group effectiveness. Findings Informal subgroups were found in 47 of the 49 work groups; their total number was 67. It was found that the manager's informal leadership is positively and more strongly associated with group social effectiveness than with group performance effectiveness. Furthermore, the relationship between the managers' informal leadership and group performance effectiveness was mediated by group social effectiveness and moderated by managers' inclusion in informal subgroups. Research limitations/implications The analysis of two variables – informal leadership of managers and their involvement in an informal subgroup – opens a new direction for studying the attitudes, behavior and influence of managers in a group context. The article concludes by presenting both theoretical and practical implications of its main findings. Originality/value For the first time, the role that informal leadership of managers and their involvement in an informal subgroup plays in two types of group effectiveness is addressed.
