This research addresses the role of organizational language in the establishment of legitimacy from the perspective of New Institutional Theory. Several conceptual and methodical contributions have been made. First, by pairing cultural-cognitive legitimacy with phenomenological institutionalism and socio-political legitimacy with social organizational institutionalism, we have proposed a new way of classifying legitimacy. Second, we made connections between language strategies of organizations and cultural-cognitive and socio-political legitimacy. Finally, by re-categorizing language strategies aimed at legitimacy, we have provided a framework that is applicable in studying the relationship between different language strategies and legitimacy. Using this framework, we conducted an empirical study in which we analyzed the press releases of five major Turkish business groups. It was found that their language strategies were generally similar and mostly aimed at socio-political legitimacy.

The experience of working from home changed drastically with the arrival of COVID-19. Compared to pre-pandemic experiences, key differences included the vast number of people involved, its involuntary nature, the suddenness of its implementation, its lengthy duration, and the presence of others at home. The demands of this form of remote work during lockdown have partly been mitigated by the resources employees have accessed. This study aimed to investigate the factors impacting employee performance and wellbeing while compulsorily working from home during New Zealand's first nationwide lockdown. We analyzed qualitative data gathered from employees in two organizations. The resulting aggregate dimensions across both demands and resources include organizational factors, furniture and technology factors, and individual factors. Given the ongoing nature of COVID-19 we identify new research directions for investigating remote work, and practical implications focusing on suitable home furniture and technology, plans for future remote work, and supporting employees.

Supervisory mentoring represents a type of social dilemma called a delayed social fence. This study adopts a social dilemma perspective to examine how the three types of psychological contracts (balanced, relational, and transactional) perceived by supervisors differently influence their mentoring. Drawn on social dilemma perspective, we proposed that supervisory mentoring would be more likely to occur when supervisors perceived benefit return from their mentoring provision in a timely manner. The results obtained from a sample of 596 supervisor–subordinate matched data from the self-reported questionnaires completed by 225 sales agent teams in the insurance industry in Taiwan support our predictions. Consistent with the social dilemma perspective, supervisory mentoring is more likely among subordinates whose supervisors perceived balanced psychological contract, while supervisory mentoring is less likely among subordinates whose supervisors perceived transactional psychological contract. Furthermore, we found that supervisory mentoring is positively related to subordinate performance. Our mentor-centric multilevel framework helps identify the social dilemma nature underlying mentoring provision, and verify the positive influence of mentoring on protégé performance.

Based on the fundamental principles of social identity theory, this study examines how inclusive leadership can help build employees' organizational identification, stimulate leader-directed helping behavior, and improve task performance by facilitating insider status and relational coordination. Furthermore, we explored how these relationships are conditional on the synergy diversity climate in a moderated mediation model. We collected temporally segregated data (n = 300) from employees in diverse workforces at three time intervals with a 2-week gap between intervals. The results support the indirect effects of inclusive leadership on employee outcomes through the development of perceived insider status and relational coordination. Additionally, these indirect effects are more pronounced at higher levels of a synergy diversity climate. In conclusion, our study offers critical insights into the diversity and leadership literature by answering why and under what conditions an inclusive leader can generate favorable employee outcomes.

While individuals’ proactive career behaviors (PCBs) are critical to sustainable career outcomes, knowledge of how and when PCBs translate into these outcomes is limited. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and the socially embedded model of thriving, this study examines the psychological process through which PCBs translate into two sustainable career outcomes (i.e., subjective career success and perceived employability). Based on data collected from 228 participants in a Chinese company, our findings reveal that PCBs positively predict subjective career success and perceived employability by fostering thriving at work. Furthermore, the indirect association between PCBs and perceived employability via thriving at work is strengthened when participants’ perception of humble leadership is high. This study extends our knowledge by identifying a psychological mechanism that explains how employees’ PCBs translate into sustainable career outcomes and enriches our understanding of the boundary conditions of PCBs by identifying humble leadership as an important factor.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the influencing mechanism of shared leadership (SL) on taking charge behavior (TCB) based on cognitive–affective system theory. Specifically, the current study intends to build a model of perceived insider status and emotional intelligence that mediate the relationship between SL and TCB from a dual cognitive–affective perspective. Further, given the nature of SL that develops through social interactions, we propose and examine the moderating role of social media use in the relationship between SL and TCB. We used multilevel and multi-sourced data to test the theoretical model and used a social network approach to measure SL in teams. Our findings provide a significant contribution to the literature in that this paper shows perceived insider status and emotional intelligence as a crucial dual mediating mechanism through which SL influences TCB and affords fresh thoughts for IT-related contextual conditions.

We present and test a model examining the role of organizational and psychological resources that enable employees’ high-quality service provision in public safety jobs. Through a two-study design conceptualized in the principle of reciprocity of social exchange theory, we recruited 120 firefighters and 119 police officers and found that service quality was positively associated with their trust in the administration, training, and staffing sufficiency. We also found that police officers’ prosocial motivation, as a psychological resource, amplifies the relationship between trust in administration and service quality. The beneficial role of prosocial motivation in police officers’ service quality appears to counter recent research suggesting that prosocial motivation has a dark side in demanding contexts. Our findings contribute to and highlight essential connections between distinct resources that positively impact the service quality of firefighters and police officers in dangerous and emotionally demanding job roles.

The purpose of this paper is to (a) develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between person–environment (PE) fit and employee engagement by shedding light on their intervening mechanisms; (b) represent how different types of PE fit and employee engagement interact; and (c) establish a comprehensive theoretical framework to guide future research based on the empirically examined constructs and their relationships. An integrative literature review of 51 empirical papers which analyzed the relationship between PE fit and employee engagement suggests that the antecedents of the relationship exist at the organizational, group, and individual levels and can be conceptualized as socialization, relationship building, and personal character, respectively; values–supplies fit, needs–supplies fit, and demands–abilities fit act as intervening mechanisms in the relationship; the relationship is temporal, reciprocal, and facilitated by human agency; and various outcomes result from the relationship. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed.

Many professional managers are driven to achieve the bottom line to secure income, honor, and standing in the workplace. Drawing on social information processing theory, we propose that supervisor bottom-line mentality in the workplace has a dysfunctional effect on organizations. Specifically, supervisor bottom-line mentality will hinder subordinates’ perception of the meaning of work, which eventuates high employee withdrawal (turnover intention and work withdrawal behavior). We also verified that amoral management weakens the negative relationship between supervisor bottom-line mentality and meaning of work in the first-stage moderated mediation model. Additionally, the strength of the indirect effects of supervisor bottom-line mentality on turnover intention and work withdrawal behavior is weaker (stronger) when supervisors’ amoral management is high (low). Our hypothesized moderated mediation model is supported by 301 data points generated by a three-stage full-time staff member. Furthermore, we put forward important theoretical and practical implications according to the research.

While unethical acts are common in the business world, we know little about how employees react when they observe coworkers caught engaging in unethical behavior. This is both theoretically and practically relevant, given that many supervisors take unethical behavior in the workplace very seriously. Drawing on appraisal theory, we argue that observing a coworker caught engaging in unethical behavior elicits feelings of schadenfreude. Then, this positive feeling spills over to a separate task and enhances performance. Finally, we suggest that trait empathy can weaken this effect because individuals with high trait empathy are more likely to understand the motivations of the person caught. Across two studies, our results showed that perpetrators getting caught increased schadenfreude among observers, which then increased their subsequent task performance. However, trait empathy did not significantly affect these results. Our work contributes to the literature on unethical behavior and emotions in the workplace.

Leadership emergence is fraught with pervasive gender stereotypes, and women remain underrepresented in senior leadership roles, particularly in healthcare organisations. We apply ecological systems theory to explain how environmental factors enable or inhibit women’s leadership emergence in healthcare settings. We interviewed 17 senior female leaders in the Australian healthcare sector to explore how gender-related perceptions affected their leadership journeys. Five themes emerged that challenge existing narratives: men supported women’s advancement; women impeded other women’s progress; vulnerability was a leadership strength; ambitious women were ostracised; and women were ‘given’ leadership opportunities rather than actively pursuing them. By situating these findings within the ecological systems theory framework, we highlight the interplay of individual and contextual influences across ecosystem levels. Our study offers a novel perspective on gender stereotypes in leadership emergence, advancing ecological systems theory by extending it into a new field. We provide recommendations at individual, organisational, community, and societal levels to empower women leaders.

This paper examines how national culture informs the sourcing of management knowledge through external consultancy. First, it hypothesises and compares the relationship between quantitative measures of Hofstede's cultural indices with adjusted expenditure on consulting in nine countries. Two cultural indices are found to correlate with consulting use – power distance (negatively) and individualism (positively). However, the disparity between our findings and prior research suggests limitations of generalisation in studies solely employing quantitative cultural indices to understand the purchasing of business knowledge. We therefore propose the use of supplementary, qualitative data with sensitivity to local contexts and briefly apply this by using secondary sources to provide historical narratives for two countries – the UK and Japan. Overall, we find and tentatively explain significant statistical relationships between Hofstede's cultural indices and adjusted expenditure on consultancy. We then draw attention to wider implications for consulting research and for practitioners involved in this context.

Technology that develops rapidly has profoundly affected the business field and reshaped some behaviours of corporations, and the discussion on startup risk-taking behaviour in the new era is still insufficient. Based on social network theory and social capital theory, this article studies how social networks and entrepreneurial ecosystems support startup risk-taking behaviour. This article cuts into this issue through the perspective of coopetition. Based on 737 responses, this article employs regression and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to explore the relationships between networks, ecosystem coopetition, and risk-taking behaviour. Results indicate that networks and coopetition may stimulate startup risk-taking behaviour, and coopetition may weaken the impacts of networks. There are replacement effects between different characteristics of networks, and there are several configurations, which may lead to high-level risk-taking. This article may help us understand startup risk-taking behaviour in the digital era and the positive impacts of ecosystems.

Until now the research has mainly examined visible abusive supervision, like aggression and violence, but it’s unclear how subtle forms, such as gaslighting, impact victims. Gaslighting, an emotionally and psychologically manipulative form of abuse, is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in contemporary times. Based on the conservation of resources theory, we examined how supervisory gaslighting affects job embeddedness directly and indirectly through work motivation. We also explored how coworker support moderates the gaslighting-work motivation link. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the two-wave time-lagged data from 337 Chinese hotel employees. The results show the negative direct and indirect effects of gaslighting, and coworker support moderates the negative link between gaslighting and work motivation. Hotel organizations should exercise caution when hiring supervisors to prevent gaslighting, which can undermine employee motivation and job embeddedness. This study also recommends raising awareness among employees to speak out against supervisors’ gaslighting behavior.

Research in digital transformation has focused on the challenges, determinants, or influencing resources, tools, and capabilities that enhance successful performance, innovation, competitive advantage, and internationalization. This paper discusses the process of digital transformation in the context of the footwear industry in Portugal, which is an interesting cluster of small and medium enterprises with a reported turnaround from traditional manufacturing targeting the domestic market to an innovative industry highly focused on export. The authors analyzed five important footwear companies ‘Made in Portugal’. The results show different stages of digital transformation, different levels of digital leadership, and different digital capabilities. The heterogeneous stage of digital maturity found has implications in the desired common positioning of the clustering-based brand ‘Portuguese Shoes’. The paper offers guidance for companies to align with the digital transformation requirements and respond to the global digital challenges, which can be transferred to other clustering industries and geographies.

Music entrepreneurs are by nature intrinsically involved in the music industry due to lifestyle and business reasons. This study investigates the use of lifestyle entrepreneurship behaviours by taking a gender perspective about how music entrepreneurs develop commercial activities. This includes focusing on how international relationships relate to meaningful music entrepreneurial experience based on the use of social capital. Drawing on interview data from 12 female music entrepreneurs the findings highlight lifestyle identification responses to entrepreneurship as central constituents. Moreover, the study shows how female music entrepreneurs tap into their lifestyle connections based on their gender and social interests. The article contributes to the development of the music, gender, lifestyle, and digital entrepreneurship work by identifying a more interdisciplinary perspective. The practical implications for the music industry evolve around helping more female entrepreneurs break into the sector by harnessing their creative potential.

Drawing on resource-based and agency theories, this study examines the effects of business concentration and ownership structure on business group performance. On the basis of panel data (2004–2018) from the top 100 Taiwanese business groups investing globally, this study finds an S-shaped relationship between business concentration and business group performance with the interaction of advantages and costs at different levels. Performance increases when there is little business concentration, decreases when there is a moderate amount and increases again when there is a high level of business concentration. In addition, this study hypothesizes that ownership structure has a different moderating effect on this relationship. The family business group has a positive moderating effect; however, outsider direct and manager ownership have no significant moderating role. These findings have important theoretical and managerial implications for business groups.

Decades of ambidexterity research have gained huge scholarly attention from diverse research areas like marketing, organizational learning, innovation management, supply chain management, strategy, and entrepreneurship. However, it has been observed that past studies do not provide a quantitative assessment of ambidexterity determinants applicable to small and medium firms. In response, this study attempts to address this gap by providing an extensive list of eight determinants that are significantly related to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) ambidexterity. We employed Random effects meta-analytical procedure to examine the combined effect sizes of each determinant. The analysis was based on 37 empirical publications from 2004 to 2021, involving 8422 SME observations and 48 correlations. The findings of the meta-analysis revealed that all the considered determinants such as Knowledge management, Entrepreneurial orientation, Formalization, Market orientation, Networking, Technological capability, Organization context, and Environmental dynamism are heterogeneous, and they all exert a significant positive impact on ambidexterity.

Human resource (HR) flexibility emerges as the most critical source of flexibility for professional services firms (PSFs), given that the success of these companies depends on the knowledge, expertise and behaviors of their employees. Nonetheless, few empirical studies have analyzed the extent to which the characteristics of the workforce explain the results of this type of firm. This study attempts to advance in this line of research by analyzing the influence of HR resource flexibility dimensions (skill flexibility – SF and behavior flexibility – BF) on PSF performance. It also examines whether HR coordination flexibility (CF) strengthens the effect of SF and BF on performance. Matched data from 97 general managers and 291 professionals in a sample of Spanish PSFs is used to test the hypotheses through structural equation modeling methodology. The study demonstrates that employee BF has a significant effect on the development of new services in PSFs. The moderation model shows that HR CF increases the influence of BF on the development of new services. Contrary to what was expected, no significant relationship between SF and PSF performance was found.

Middle-managers' innovative behaviours are considered an essential determinant of firm-level innovativeness. While prior research has traditionally focused on the contextual determinants of middle-managers' innovative work behaviour (IWB), research regarding individual-level determinants continues to remain scant. Particularly lacking is research which explores how middle-managers' ownership feelings influence their IWB. This study investigates whether middle-managers' affective commitment mediates the relationship between their psychological ownership and their IWB. Data are collected from 110 middle-managers – supervisor dyads in a large Malaysian IT organisation. Findings from this study contribute to enhancing our understanding of the individual-level determinants of middle-managers' IWB.