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Research on perceptions of organizational politics has mostly explored the negative aspects and detrimental outcomes for organizations and employees. Responding to recent calls in the literature for a more balanced treatment, we expand on how positive and negative organizational politics perceptions are perceived as stressors and affect employee outcomes through their influence on the social environment. We propose that employees appraise positive and negative organization politics perceptions as either challenge or hindrance stressors, to which they respond with engagement and disengagement as problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. Specifically, employees who appraise the negative politics perceptions as a hindrance, use both problem- and emotion-focused coping, which entails one of three strategies: (1) decreasing their engagement, (2) narrowing the focus of their engagement, or (3) disengaging. Although these strategies result in negative outcomes for the organization, employees’ coping leads to their positive well-being. In contrast, employees appraising positive politics perceptions as a challenge stressor use problem-focused coping, which involves increasing their engagement to reap the perceived benefits of a positive political environment. Yet, positive politics perceptions may also be appraised as a hindrance stressor in certain situations, and, therefore lead employees to apply emotion-focused coping wherein they use a disengagement strategy. By disengaging, they deal with the negative effects of politics perceptions, resulting in positive well-being. Thus, our framework suggests an unexpected twist to the stress process of politics perceptions as a strain-provoking component of employee work environments.

This article aims to examine the criterion‐related validity of two sets of commonly used measures of organizational justice.

Regression‐based dominance analysis is used on self‐report data provided by 214 working college students.

The three‐dimension measure of organizational justice by Moorman was compared to the four‐dimension measure of Colquitt in the prediction of Colquitt's own outcomes. Results suggest that Moorman's measures may dominate Colquitt's measures on some outcomes.

Practitioners are urged to give renewed consideration to Moorman's scales when predicting outcomes, as it appears that this three‐factor measure of organizational justice may outperform the four‐factor measure in some instances.

Organizations may find Moorman's parsimonious representation of justice more useful than Colquitt's version for explaining the nuances of perceptual differences regarding fairness and justice in the workplace.

This study is, to the authors' knowledge, the first to compare Colquitt's measures of justice with Moorman's measures on a subscale‐by‐subscale basis.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of dispute systems for academic employees and to propose a procedure of voluntary binding arbitration, which would improve governance, promote organizational justice, and reduce litigation.

It is argued that the rationale for arbitration in the educational sphere is even more compelling than in the nonunion industrial workplace because higher education is premised on the concept of shared governance between faculty and administrators. Colleges and universities confront an environment of declining resources, escalating costs, and a consumerist view of education where relations between members of the educational community increasingly resemble market transactions rather than cooperative endeavors.

Given those trends, faculty would benefit from a system of conflict resolution that serves to safeguard professional standards, ensure organizational justice, and provide an effective workplace voice.

As a research agenda, future studies could examine these assumptions by empirically testing and evaluating the contribution and benefit of arbitration in higher education.

Binding arbitration offers a viable means of protecting the interests of faculty and institutions.

This paper offers a case for implementing organizational justice principles in higher education and will be of interest to those in that field.

Perceived organizational support is considered a resource capable of positively influencing performance by reducing stressors and encouraging commitment. However, only a modest relationship has been shown between support and performance, suggesting that moderators affect this relationship. To date, no research has examined moderators that might serve to predict non‐linear support‐performance relational forms. The purpose of this research is to examine how cynicism moderates the relationship between support and performance in a non‐linear form.

In study 1, 256 full‐time employees from a variety of industries and jobs completed surveys. In study 2, 143 full‐time state employees participated.

Those reporting high cynicism actually construe levels of support negatively. Specifically, performance for cynics was highest when perceived support was at moderate levels only. Conversely, performance for cynics was lowest when perceived support was either high or low.

A limitation of our studies was the use of survey methodology for data collection. Tests of multicollinearity suggest, however, that this did not result in method bias. Future research should consider other potential non‐linear relationships with organizational support to determine when support is not perceived favorably. Additionally, it may be informative to expand the scope of research on cynicism to include sources (e.g. decision makers, legal system) and an examination of the creation of cynical climates (e.g. frequent layoffs).

Recognizing that not all employees (specifically those who are cynical) will perceive support efforts as positive, managers can limit potential negative reactions to support efforts by clarifying their intentions and those of the organization. An increased awareness of possible aversive reactions to what is intended to be supportive, allows managers to better understand and react to cynical employees' behavior.

This study is a first to examine the non‐linear relationship between organizational support and performance as moderated by employee cynicism.

Proactive firms recognize that environmental and social issues are sources of competitive advantages, but whatever the motivation, organizations face challenges when implementing sustainable practices. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), sustainable practices have stemmed from multinational corporations (MNC), but SMEs cannot adopt sustainable practices from the knowledge and experiences of large corporations because the two entities differ critically. This study introduces an integrated model of employee adoption of sustainable practices in SMEs. It is based on five behaviors to select practical areas to which SMEs can make internal changes to achieve sustainable practices and the benefits gained from them. The theory of planned behavior is used to extend employee adoption of sustainable practices to SMEs.

Researchers have explored contextual antecedents influencing engagement at work; yet, theory and empirical evidence suggest some individuals are more or less engaged than others. Using a relational framework based on attachment theory, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that relational models influence engagement through their influence on psychological availability and psychological safety. Study 1 examined whether attachment influences variability in engagement. Study 2 examined whether these effects could be replicated, and whether attachment influences engagement via individuals’ psychological availability and safety.

Two field studies using online self-report surveys (Study 1 n=203; Study 2 n=709).

Attachment-avoidance and attachment-anxiety were independently associated with lower levels of engagement, and psychological conditions mediated these relationships.

Relational models explain predictable variability in engagement. Employees’ ability to engage may be constrained or facilitated by their stable relational models of attachment.

The study is one of the few examining individual differences in engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational identification as an underlying mechanism for how perceptions of interpersonal leadership are related to employee engagement, and its relationship with commitment and job tension.

A sample of 451 full-time employees at an international firm completed a web-based survey.

Organizational identification mediated the relationship between perceived interpersonal leadership and engagement, which mediated the relationship between perceived interpersonal leadership and commitment. Engagement mediated the relationship between identification and job tension.

Limitations include cross-sectional data. Strengths include a large field sample. Implication is that leaders who encourage employees’ identification with the organization may also encourage their engagement.

Interpersonal leadership characteristics can be developed, and are positively related to employees’ identification, commitment, and engagement, which are negatively related to job tension.

Interpersonal leaders are positively associated with employees’ engagement; high engagement has been related to positive employee health and well-being. A healthy workforce translates into a healthy society.

This study is one of the few to examine the underlying mechanisms through which leadership relates to engagement.