Cara-Lynn Scheuer and Catherine Loughlin
Acknowledging that only examining the main effects of diversity may be limiting, the authors explore integrating van Knippenberg et al.'s (2004) categorization–elaboration model…
Abstract
Purpose
Acknowledging that only examining the main effects of diversity may be limiting, the authors explore integrating van Knippenberg et al.'s (2004) categorization–elaboration model (CEM) of workgroup diversity as a linchpin in the relationship between empowering leadership and performance in age-diverse work groups. While prior research has focused almost exclusively on the impact of transformational leadership in diverse contexts, few studies have found the positive effects of transformational leadership to be diminished in certain age-diverse contexts. Consequently, the authors investigate whether empowering leadership may be a better approach in this context due to its emphasis on accommodating and participative behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey data gathered from work group members across a wide array of industries (N = 214), the authors test for the moderating effects of empowering leadership on the relationship between age diversity and work group performance and its indirect relationship via information elaboration (while controlling for transformational leadership).
Findings
Empowering leadership positively moderated the direct relationship between age diversity and work group performance and the indirect relationship via information elaboration, whereas transformational leadership had the opposite effect. “Coaching” and “showing concern/interacting with the team” drove the positive effects of empowering leadership, and “personal recognition” and “intellectual stimulation” predicted the negative effects of transformational leadership.
Practical implications
This research offers insights into how managers can lead age-diverse work groups more effectively (i.e. by utilizing an empowering as opposed to a transformational leadership approach, with a particular emphasis on “coaching” and “showing concern/interacting with the team” behaviors).
Originality/value
The study identifies an “alternative” moderating contingency to the age diversity–performance relationship (empowering leadership).
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Cara-Lynn Scheuer and Catherine Loughlin
The purpose of this paper is to help organizations capitalize on the potential advantages of age diversity by offering insight into two new moderators in the age diversity, work…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to help organizations capitalize on the potential advantages of age diversity by offering insight into two new moderators in the age diversity, work group performance relationship – status congruity and cognition-based trust.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors surveyed 197 employees and 56 supervisors across 59 work groups to test for the moderating effects of status congruity and cognition-based trust on the age diversity, work group performance relationship.
Findings
The results demonstrated, on the one hand, that under conditions of status congruity (i.e. when there were high levels of perceived status legitimacy and veridicality) and/or when perceptions of cognition-based trust were high within the group, the relationship between age diversity and work group performance was positive. On the other hand, under conditions of status incongruity and/or low levels of cognition-based trust, this relationship was negative.
Research limitations/implications
The findings contribute to the literature by being the first to provide empirical evidence for the theorized effects of status on the performance of age-diverse work groups and also by demonstrating the effects of cognition-based trust in a new context – age-diverse work groups.
Practical implications
Arising from the study’s findings are several strategies, which are expected to help organizations enhance perceptions of status congruity and/or trust and ultimately the performance of their age-diverse work groups.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to empirically demonstrate the moderating effects of status congruity and cognition-based trust on the age diversity, work group performance relationship. The study also establishes important distinctions between the effects of objective status differences vs status perceptions.
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Cara-Lynn Scheuer, Catherine Loughlin, Dianne Ford and Dennis Edwards
Successful knowledge transfer (KT) between younger and older workers (YW and OW, respectively) is critical for organizational success, especially in light of the recent surge in…
Abstract
Purpose
Successful knowledge transfer (KT) between younger and older workers (YW and OW, respectively) is critical for organizational success, especially in light of the recent surge in employment volatility among the youngest and oldest segments of the workforce. Yet, practitioners and scholars alike continue to struggle with knowing how best to facilitate these exchanges. The qualitative study offers insight into this phenomenon by exploring how KT unfolds in YW/OW dyads.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors performed a reflexive thematic analysis of semistructured interviews with two samples of blue- and white-collar younger/older workers from the USA (N = 40), whereby the authors interpreted the “lived experiences” of these workers when engaged in interdependent tasks.
Findings
The analysis, informed by social exchange theory and exchange theories of aging, led to the development of the knowledge transfer process model in younger/older worker dyads (KT-YOD). The model illustrates that, through different combinations of competence and humility, KT success is experienced either directly (by workers weighing the perceived benefits versus costs of KT) and/or indirectly (through different bases of trust/distrust perceived within their dyads). Further, humility in dyads appears to be necessary for KT success, while competence was insufficient for realizing KT success, independently.
Originality/value
In exposing new inner workings of the KT process in YW/OW dyads, the study introduces the importance of humility and brings scholars and organizations a step closer toward realizing the benefits of age diversity in their workplaces.
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Catherine Loughlin, Kara Arnold and Janet Bell Crawford
– This study aims to test how senior leaders recognize and reward the same leadership behavior in male and female managers.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test how senior leaders recognize and reward the same leadership behavior in male and female managers.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 120 senior government leaders evaluated simulated performance reviews wherein only manager ' s sex and engagement in individually considerate transformational leadership behavior varied.
Findings
Senior leaders (of both sexes) penalized male and female managers for failing to engage in individually considerate transformational leadership behavior (i.e. rating them as significantly less competent and civil, and recommending them for significantly fewer rewards such as salary and promotion) compared to control groups. However, only male managers benefited (in terms of competence ratings, recognition and reward) from being rated high on this behavior.
Practical implications
Findings support arguments in the literature for a “feminization” of leadership, whereby both male and female managers are now penalized for not engaging in individually considerate leadership behavior. However, they also question the extent to which women will get credit for engaging in some of the same transformational leadership behaviors as men.
Originality/value
Researchers and practitioners often collapse across components of the Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) in measuring transformational leadership behavior. This may obfuscate some of the components being aligned with sex role stereotypes, and therefore unlikely to be rewarded in certain candidates. If the present findings are confirmed by future research, there may be reason to question how the MLQ is being used in research and practice on transformational leadership behavior.
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Shubhangi Gautam and Pardeep Kumar
Purpose – This study aims to investigate how behavioural biases affect cryptocurrency investment choices. The study also evaluates how risk tolerance mediates the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to investigate how behavioural biases affect cryptocurrency investment choices. The study also evaluates how risk tolerance mediates the relationship between behavioural biases and investment decision-making.
Need for the Study – The study is required to refine research methods and to ensure the reliability and validity of findings on behavioural biases in cryptocurrency investment decision-making.
Methodology – This pilot study involved responses from individuals in India’s western and northern regions who either invested in cryptocurrencies or had adequate knowledge of such investments. To assess the normality, validity, and reliability of the questionnaire data, a sample of 51 individuals was analysed using SPSS software.
Findings – The results of this study validate the reliability of the questionnaire in conducting pilot research by attaining high reliability with high coefficients of measures and reasonable normality.
Originality/value – The study confirmed the tool’s efficiency to analyse various specific antecedents influencing investing choices.
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Michael Hahn and Thorsten Semrau
This study aims to extend our knowledge of how leadership shapes the consequences of team age diversity. Specifically, we adopt a relational perspective on leadership to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to extend our knowledge of how leadership shapes the consequences of team age diversity. Specifically, we adopt a relational perspective on leadership to examine how two distinct aspects of LMX composition among team leaders and their team members—i.e. team LMX quality and team LMX differentiation—affect the link between age diversity and team performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses are tested via ordinary least squares regression and data for 64 work teams at a major hospital, which were provided by 526 team members and their respective team leaders.
Findings
Results reveal that team LMX quality and LMX differentiation both qualify the performance implications of team age diversity. While team LMX quality has a positive moderating effect, the moderating influence of team LMX differentiation is negative.
Practical implications
To reap the performance potential of age diversity, leaders need to serve as role models by investing in high-quality relationships with all their team members. When leading age-homogenous teams, leaders may consider differentiating their LMX relationships.
Originality/value
The present study contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between leadership and age diversity and helps to extend our knowledge of LMX as a team-level phenomenon.
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Lisseth Vasquez-Peñaloza, Maria Jesus Sánchez-Expósito and Laura Gomez-Ruiz
This study aims to explore the influence of management control on the performance of teams with surface levels of social diversity.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the influence of management control on the performance of teams with surface levels of social diversity.
Design/methodology/approach
Under the categorization-elaboration model perspective, an integrative literature review was conducted. Selecting articles published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases until 2023 and with the terms about gender diversity, age diversity, racial diversity and team performance, obtaining 122 documents. Results were analyzed in a matrix under the criteria of social diversity as a principal variable and examined the effects on team performance. Subsequently, it is synthesized according to the social diversity dimension and then integrated into an analysis with conceptual perspectives from management control systems.
Findings
The main negative effects of surface-level social diversity on team performance arise from stereotypical perceptions and social biases about differences in gender, age and race, affecting team members’ interactions. This scenario is related to the causes of the need for management control in the absence of direction, motivation problems and personal limitations, so control systems associated with possible solutions to improve group performance are proposed.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this work opens the discussion on the influence of management control on the performance of teams with social diversity. Demographic changes require new perspectives for team management, from management control providing a way to guide socially diverse team behaviors to desired team performance.
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Gerry Larsson, Malin Mattson Molnar, Helena Tinnerholm Ljungberg and Christina Björklund
The study represents a theory-based leadership approach in exploring the subordinate's perceptions of leadership behaviors in relation to age, gender and type of work environment…
Abstract
Purpose
The study represents a theory-based leadership approach in exploring the subordinate's perceptions of leadership behaviors in relation to age, gender and type of work environment. The aim was (1) to compare subordinates' ratings of their respective leaders' leadership behaviors based on of the leaders' age and gender, controlling for type of work environment and (2) to analyze the relationship between the subordinates' ratings of their leaders' leadership behaviors and their ratings of the outcome of these leadership behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using the Developmental Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ) from a sample of Swedish leadership course participants (n = 10,869) and their respective subordinates (n = 97,943). The DLQ measures leadership behaviors designed to reflect the following leadership styles: developmental leadership, conventional-positive leadership, conventional-negative leadership and destructive leadership.
Findings
Results showed that older leaders (51 years or older) were rated less favorably than younger (29 years or younger) and mid-aged leaders. Female leaders received more positive ratings than male leaders. A 3-way analysis-of-variance showed strong main effects for age, gender, and type of work environment and no significant interaction effects. A significant model with high equivalents of R2 coefficients (Cox and Snell, 1989; Nagelkerke, 1991) was obtained in a logistic regression analysis. Developmental leadership and conventional-positive leadership made significant positive contributions to the subordinates' ratings of the outcome of their leaders' leadership behaviors. Destructive leadership behaviors contributed negatively to the outcome ratings.
Research limitations/implications
Weaknesses include the cross-sectional study design. The large sample size is a strength, and the results have novel implications for leadership theory related to subordinates' view on leadership.
Practical implications
Counter-stereotype age and gender findings may have implications for organizational decisions and processes regarding selection of managers. Development programs are suggested for all categories but for older, male leaders with a focus on reducing their use of leadership behaviors perceived negatively by their subordinates, whereas younger female leaders should be encouraged to continue to develop their positive leadership behaviors.
Originality/value
The theory-based approach on subordinates' perceptions of leadership behaviors with a simultaneous focus on age, gender and type of work environment, based on a large-scale data set, is new.
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This study aims to expand the theory of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) to include “exterior” behaviours. By advancing the work of Blake and Mouton (1964) and remapping…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to expand the theory of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) to include “exterior” behaviours. By advancing the work of Blake and Mouton (1964) and remapping the performance/OCB dimensions offered in the historical literature, a new holistic model of organisational performance is proposed. As a further step, a decision-making tool is proposed for managerial decision-making and to help predict employee performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a critical review and conceptual approach to explore historical OCB theories and task performance (TP) taxonomies. It then used Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid to construct a contemporary conceptual tool for managerial decision-making.
Findings
Despite the performance literature not lacking in quantity, a few of such research have led to a pragmatic managerial tool. The review reveals several confusions regarding the accurate classification of what actually constitutes OCB and what constitutes TP – this gap is filled by the introduction of the OCB model for managerial decision-making (OMMD).
Research limitations/implications
The current work expands our thinking on OCBs that can occur outside the organisation. These exterior behaviours can influence the organisation’s performance and must be managed just like any other performance metric. The OMMD, primarily based on OCB and TP, provides an initial framework for exploring different typologies of employees. Despite being based on several cogent performance literatures, the proposals have not been tested empirically.
Practical implications
Like the Blake and Mouton model, the new OMMD can be useful in estimating the proportions of employee OCBs and TP.
Social implications
Culture and social exchange theory can be seen as playing a role in separating TP from OCB.
Originality/value
This study extends the work of Bateman and Organ (1983) by suggesting that some work behaviours can occur outside the organisation. Besides, a decision-making proposal is offered based on the managerial grid framework (Blake and Mouton, 1964).
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Sweta Sinha and Shivendra Kumar Pandey
The present study aims to examine the moderation of the employee's age on the manifestation of “experience of hurt” to “commitment to future conflict” among the three intra-cohort…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to examine the moderation of the employee's age on the manifestation of “experience of hurt” to “commitment to future conflict” among the three intra-cohort segments of millennials. The study also examines the mediation of “perception of duplicitous organization” between hurt and “commitment to future conflict.”
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-sectional data was collected using survey method and analyzed by structural equation modelling on SPSS AMOS 25 software.
Findings
The results are based on single-source cross-sectional data. The result indicates that “perception of duplicitous organization” is positively impacted by the experience of hurt at the workplace. It also acts as a mediator between hurt and “commitment to future conflict”. There is significant moderation of age for all the relationships in the model. For instance, age moderates both the paths of hurt resulting in “perception of duplicitous organization” and aggressiveness, where the group of young employees have significantly higher path coefficients.
Practical implications
The managers need to be more considerate and interact frequently with the younger employees as they are more prone to develop aggression and are impressionable to form a “perception of duplicitous organization” after an experience of hurt. The manager needs to establish a high-quality relationship and a positive image of the organization with subordinates to prevent the manifestation of hurt to a “commitment to future conflict”.
Originality/value
To the best of the knowledge of the authors, this study is the first of its kind to study the moderation of age within the larger cohort of millennials.