Florian Offergelt and Laura Venz
Knowledge hiding, intentionally withholding work-relevant information, is detrimental to organizations, yet practiced by supervisors and employees. Based on social learning and…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge hiding, intentionally withholding work-relevant information, is detrimental to organizations, yet practiced by supervisors and employees. Based on social learning and social exchange theories, this study aims to uncover the effects of supervisor knowledge hiding, abusive supervision and employee political skill on employee knowledge hiding behaviors, namely, evasive hiding, playing dumb and rationalized hiding. We compare the two destructive supervisor behaviors in their predictive values toward employee knowledge hiding and examine the role of employee political skill in mitigating their effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on survey data collected from 598 German-speaking employees, we used path analysis to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The two destructive supervisor behaviors and employee political skill predicted employee evasive hiding and playing dumb; supervisor knowledge hiding additionally predicted employee rationalized hiding. The predictive value of supervisor knowledge hiding was 2.5 times larger than that of abusive supervision and political skill. The effects of destructive supervisor behaviors were weaker for more politically skilled employees.
Originality/value
We examine two destructive supervisor behaviors conjointly and show the differences between them regarding their predictive value toward employee knowledge hiding. Furthermore, we investigate the role of political skill in knowledge hiding.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between humorous leadership and innovative behavior and the moderator effects of creative requirement and perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between humorous leadership and innovative behavior and the moderator effects of creative requirement and perceived innovation climate, beyond transformational leadership, and leader-member exchange (LMX).
Design/methodology/approach
Questionnaire data were collected from 150 employees of various organizations in Germany.
Findings
Employees whose leader used humor more frequently reported to be more innovative, when the employees perceived their tasks to require creativity and innovation. Perceived innovation climate did not moderate the relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Different humor styles rather than just positive humor should be investigated in the future. Future research should incorporate multi-level designs and objective data on innovative behavior.
Practical implications
Humorous leadership is an important element of innovation-relevant leadership behavior. Its use may be integrated in broader leadership development approaches.
Originality/value
The study contributes to knowledge on humorous leadership and its relationship to organizational behavior. It enhances theoretical developments by considering the employees’ task and perceived innovation climate as moderator variables. It helps establish humor as a leadership tool beyond constructs such as LMX or transformational leadership.
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Ferdinando Paolo Santarpia, Valentina Sommovigo, Sara Brecciaroli, Chiara Consiglio and Laura Borgogni
By integrating the conservation of resources and the emotion-as-social-information theories, this study aims to question whether the leader’s effort to calm down when team members…
Abstract
Purpose
By integrating the conservation of resources and the emotion-as-social-information theories, this study aims to question whether the leader’s effort to calm down when team members perceive intra-team conflict (ITC) may have a counterproductive effect on their interpersonal functioning. Specifically, the authors investigated whether team members with higher individual perceptions of ITC would be more likely to experience interpersonal strain (ISW) when their team leaders downregulate or suppress their emotional responses (i.e. high interpersonal modulation of emotional responses [MER]). A further objective of the study was to examine whether this exacerbating effect would be conditional on the leader’s sex.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 236 white collars nested in 48 teams (Msize = 6.23; SDsize = 2.69) and their respective team leaders (56.7% men) of a large organization providing financial services.
Findings
Multilevel model results showed that team members confronted with higher ITC experienced higher ISW levels, especially when the leader’s interpersonal modulation of team members’ emotional responses was high (vs low). This effect was stronger when the interpersonal modulation was enacted by women (vs men) team leaders.
Originality/value
This study moves an important step forward in the conflict and ISW literature, as it is the first to identify a leader’s MER and sex as key boundary conditions under which ITC is related to team members’ ISW. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
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Barbara Barabaschi, Laura Barbieri, Franca Cantoni, Silvia Platoni and Roberta Virtuani
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how remote working has been carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in Italian SMEs, representing at the same time an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how remote working has been carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in Italian SMEs, representing at the same time an organizational challenge and an excellent opportunity for individual and organizational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper involved 60 Italian SMEs of various sectors and 330 employees: 217 clerks (average age 42) and 113 managers (average age 48) belonging to different functional units and with a different education backgrounds. Two different questionnaires, one addressed to clerks and one to managers/executives who coordinate the remote working activity, were prepared and sent. This paper investigates the issues of perceived productivity, technological preparation, coordination, programming and control with specific attention to how the participants faced the remote working experience from the learning point of view.
Findings
Before the pandemic, Italian SMEs did not feel the necessity to adopt a structured policy on remote working. The COVID-19 emergency has forced them to consider that working remotely is possible and can produce benefits and positive results for what they learned in terms of autonomy, motivation and trust, to the detriment of physical presence, which is not as fundamental to ensure productivity.
Originality/value
While large, formalized and structured companies encountered modest difficulties being already technologically and culturally prepared for remote working, the big challenge was that of SMEs, who found themselves obliged to adopt it. This paper examines how Italian SMEs lived and evaluated the switch to a new work organization and turned it into an occasion for workplace learning.