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1 – 10 of over 16000Xuemei Liu, Zhiwei Zhu, Zheng Liu and Chunyan Fu
This study, based on construal level theory, aims to examine the influential mechanism of leader empowerment behaviour on employee creativity. Specifically, it examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study, based on construal level theory, aims to examine the influential mechanism of leader empowerment behaviour on employee creativity. Specifically, it examines the mediating role of cognitive flexibility between leader empowerment behaviour and employee creativity, along with the moderating effect of consideration of future consequences (CFC) on this linkage.
Design/methodology/approach
A two time-point survey study (n = 214) was conducted to collect information from leaders and employees in terms of mutual evaluation in several Chinese industries. To effectively avoid common source bias, this survey was conducted through pairing leaders and employees. During the survey, the supervisors and subordinates were double-blinded. Correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Firstly, leader empowerment behaviour can significantly predict employee creativity. Second, cognitive flexibility plays a partial mediating role in the linkage between leader empowerment behaviour and employee creativity. Thirdly, CFC moderates the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and cognitive flexibility. The mediating role of cognitive flexibility underlies the overall moderating effect of CFC on the relationship between leader empowerment behaviour and employee creativity.
Research limitations/implications
We used construal level theory to explain the influence of the mechanism of leader empowerment behaviour on employee creativity. In this manner, this study bridges the gap between theory and practice, as well as enriching the research on leader empowerment behaviour and employee creativity, especially in the Chinese context. Moreover, our study has several practical managerial implications, based on the importance of employee creativity. It inspires the implementation of leader empowerment behaviour, cultivation of employee creativity and introduction of several procedures.
Originality/value
This paper discusses the influential mechanism of leader empowerment behaviour on employee creativity from a new perspective and explains the process of encouraging employee creativity through information-processing methods. It mainly highlights the application of construal level theory to discuss employee creativity and develops a new research frame for employee creativity. Leaders can raise employee creativity through leader empowerment behaviour.
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Rosa Angela Fabio, Sonia Esposito, Cristina Carrozza, Gaetana Pino and Tindara Caprì
Various studies have examined the role of executive functions in autism, but there is a lack of research in the current literature on cognitive flexibility in autism spectrum…
Abstract
Purpose
Various studies have examined the role of executive functions in autism, but there is a lack of research in the current literature on cognitive flexibility in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether cognitive flexibility deficits could be related to facial emotion recognition deficits in ASD.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 20 children with ASD and 20 typically developing children, matched for intelligence quotient and gender, were examined both in facial emotion recognition tasks and in cognitive flexibility tasks through the dimensional change card sorting task.
Findings
Despite cognitive flexibility not being a core deficit in ASD, impaired cognitive flexibility is evident in the present research. Results show that cognitive flexibility is related to facial emotion recognition and support the hypothesis of an executive specific deficit in children with autism.
Research limitations/implications
One of the limit is the use of just one cognitive test to measure cognitive flexibility and facial recognition. This could be important to be taken into account in the new research. By increasing the number of common variables assessing cognitive flexibility, this will allow for a better comparison between studies to characterize impairment in cognitive flexibility in ASD.
Practical implications
Investigating impairment in cognitive flexibility may help to plan training intervention based on the induction of flexibility.
Social implications
If the authors implement cognitive flexibility people with ASD can have also an effect on their social behavior and overcome the typical and repetitive behaviors that are the hallmark of ASD.
Originality/value
The originality is to relate cognitive flexibility deficits to facial emotion.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cognitive diversity and structural empowerment on strategic flexibility in the context of business performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of cognitive diversity and structural empowerment on strategic flexibility in the context of business performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to statistically test the data that were collected from health-care organizations located in the USA.
Findings
SEM reveals the positive main effect of cognitive diversity on strategic flexibility, the moderating effect of structural empowerment on the effect of cognitive diversity on strategic flexibility and performance and the mediating effect of strategic flexibility on the joint effect of cognitive diversity and structural empowerment on business performance.
Originality/value
The study reveals that diversity in cognitive resources and workplace empowerment can jointly support business performance via strategic flexibility. The paper explains that this positive effect can take place because the two factors jointly enable business organizations to find better internal applications for new relevant information, thus allowing firms to quickly reorganize their internal resources in a way that leads to better performance.
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Ian A. Combe and Gordon E. Greenley
Different forms of strategic flexibility allow for reactive adaptation to different changing environments and the proactive driving of change. It is therefore becoming…
Abstract
Different forms of strategic flexibility allow for reactive adaptation to different changing environments and the proactive driving of change. It is therefore becoming increasingly important for decision makers to not only possess marketing capabilities, but also the capabilities for strategic flexibility in its various forms. However, our knowledge of the relationships between decision makers' different ways of thinking and their capabilities for strategic flexibility is limited. This limitation is constraining research and understanding. In this article we develop a theoretical cognitive content framework that postulates relationships between different ways of thinking about strategy and different information‐processing demands. We then outline how the contrasting beliefs of decision makers may influence their capabilities to generate different hybrid forms of strategic flexibility at the cognitive level. Theoretically, the framework is embedded in resource‐based theory, personal construct theory and schema theory. The implications for research and theory are discussed.
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Basheer M. Al-Ghazali and Bilal Afsar
The effect of task conflict on innovative work behavior has yielded inconsistent results pointing to the need to examine the conditions under which task conflict is helpful for…
Abstract
Purpose
The effect of task conflict on innovative work behavior has yielded inconsistent results pointing to the need to examine the conditions under which task conflict is helpful for employees’ innovative work behavior. This study aims to develop a comprehensive model linking task conflict and innovative work behavior through constructive conflict, positive conflict value, cognitive flexibility and psychological safety.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 316 supervisor–subordinate dyads working in software development and high-technology companies located in Saudi Arabia. The research model was tested using partial least squares approach.
Findings
Results show that constructive conflict mediates the relationship between task conflict and innovative work behavior. Moreover, positive conflict value and cognitive flexibility mediate the effect of constructive conflict on innovative work behavior. Finally, psychological safety positively moderates the effect of positive conflict value and cognitive flexibility on innovative work behavior.
Originality/value
This study suggests that constructive conflict, cognitive flexibility, positive conflict value and psychological safety are important mechanisms that explain the link between task conflict and innovative work behavior.
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Cardy Moten, Quinn Kennedy, Jonathan Alt and Peter Nesbitt
Current Army doctrine stresses a need for military leaders to have the capability to make flexible and adaptive decisions based on a future unknown environment, location and…
Abstract
Purpose
Current Army doctrine stresses a need for military leaders to have the capability to make flexible and adaptive decisions based on a future unknown environment, location and enemy. To assess a military decision maker’s ability in this context, this paper aims to modify the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test which assesses cognitive flexibility, into a military relevant map task. Thirty-four military officers from all service branches completed the map task.
Design/methodology/approach
The purpose of this study was to modify a current psychological task that measures cognitive flexibility into a military relevant task that includes the challenge of overcoming experiential bias, and understand underlying causes of individual variability in the decision-making and cognitive flexibility behavior of active duty military officers on this task.
Findings
Results indicated that non-perseverative errors were a strong predictor of cognitive flexibility performance on the map task. Decomposition of non-perseverative error into efficient errors and random errors revealed that participants who did not complete the map task changed their sorting strategy too soon within a series, resulting in a high quantity of random errors.
Originality/value
This study serves as the first step in customizing cognitive psychological tests for a military purpose and understanding why some military participants show poor cognitive flexibility.
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Fei Kang, Jiyu Li, Han Zhang and Ying Zhang
Despite the increasingly growing empirical research on leader humor, the critical issue of how and when leader humor affects newcomer adjustment was largely overlooked. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the increasingly growing empirical research on leader humor, the critical issue of how and when leader humor affects newcomer adjustment was largely overlooked. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between leader humor and newcomer adjustment. Based on social information processing theory, the authors identify newcomers' role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) as the mediator and suggest that newcomers' cognitive flexibility moderates the effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from a 2-wave sample of 195 newcomers. The authors utilized the PROCESS procedure developed by Hayes to assess the hypothesized moderated mediation model.
Findings
The findings showed that leader humor could boost newcomers' RBSE which, in turn, was beneficial to newcomer adjustment. Besides, newcomers' cognitive flexibility plays a moderating role in the relationship between leader humor and newcomers' RBSE.
Research limitations/implications
This study utilized a cross-sectional research design, making the design difficult to obtain causal conclusions. Moreover, the data were all based on self-reports from newcomers, which may raise a concern of common method bias.
Originality/value
This paper extends the literature on leader humor and newcomer adjustment by treating RBSE as the mediator and newcomers' cognitive flexibility as the moderator. This study is one of several empirical studies to test the link between leader humor and newcomer adjustment.
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Agnieszka Wojtczuk-Turek and Dariusz Turek
The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the manner in which HR system’s flexibility, in combination with employees’ individual flexibility (IF) and their positive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the manner in which HR system’s flexibility, in combination with employees’ individual flexibility (IF) and their positive character traits, such as: optimism, hope, resistance or self-efficacy (which comprise psychological capital (PsychCap)), allow to predict employees’ readiness to display innovative behaviors in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research methodology was adopted which resulted in the development of a both self-administered online survey instrument (n=166) and employees students in the postgraduate program at the Warsaw School of Economics (n=70). Using a national database of service companies, a random sample of 700 e-mail addresses was generated and respondents were invited to participate in the online survey. This resulted in the completion of 166 online surveys, representing a response rate of 26 percent. The second group of respondents consisted of 70 employees from different organizations in Poland.
Findings
On the basis of the analyses it was shown that HR flexibility (HRF) and IF are a generally weak predictor of innovative behaviors. However, in a situation when PsychCap is set to be a mediator, these variables allow to predict innovative work behavior.
Originality/value
Research on the relation of HRF to innovative behaviors has not been sufficiently clarified so far. The achieved results shed new light on the relations of these two variables and indicate that HRF does not translate directly into behaviors of the personnel. However, it should be noted that the relationship of these variables are of indirect nature.
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Brian George Nagy and K. Michele Kacmar
The purpose of this study is to test the effects of cognitive legitimacy and the assets of newness in the new venture context. The authors wish to provide evidence related to how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to test the effects of cognitive legitimacy and the assets of newness in the new venture context. The authors wish to provide evidence related to how best to market and manage some of the assets and liabilities of newness.
Design/methodology/approach
236 customers of three recently opened retailing businesses were surveyed to investigate the relationships among organizational energy, organizational flexibility, cognitive legitimacy, and customer satisfaction. A mediation model including all four variables is developed and tested in the paper.
Findings
Evidence is presented suggesting cognitive legitimacy plays a significant mediating role in both the positive relationship between organizational energy and customer satisfaction, and the positive relationship between organizational flexibility and customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The paper offers thoughts regarding the theoretical implications of the study, as well as future research opportunities related to future marketing and entrepreneurship studies.
Practical implications
Entrepreneurs are informed how to further market and manage the characteristics that mark their new ventures.
Originality/value
The study is the first to link the assets of newness, cognitive legitimacy, and customer satisfaction. Given the importance of customer perceptions in the new venture context, the manuscript offers insight into how to possibly increase customer satisfaction by managing the perceptions of customers related to newness.
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Tilottama G. Chowdhury and Feisal Murshed
This paper proposes that categorization flexibility, operationalized as the cognitive capacity that cross-categorizes products in multiple situational categories across multiple…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes that categorization flexibility, operationalized as the cognitive capacity that cross-categorizes products in multiple situational categories across multiple domains, might favorably influence a consumer’s evaluation of unconventional options.
Design/methodology/approach
Experimental research design is used to test the theory. An exploratory study first establishes the effect of categorization flexibility in a non-food domain. Study 1 documents the moderating role of decision domain, showing that the effect works only under low- (vs high-) consequence domain. Studies 2A and 2B further refine the notion by showing that individuals can be primed in a relatively higher categorization flexibility frame of mind. Study 3 demonstrates the interactive effect of categorization flexibility and adventure priming in a high-consequence domain. Study 4 integrates the interactive effects of decisions with low- vs high-consequence, adventure priming and categorization flexibility within a single decision domain of high consequence.
Findings
Consumers with higher- (vs lower-) categorization flexibility tend to opt for unconventional choices when the decision domain entails low consequences, whereas such a result does not hold under decision domain of high consequences. The categorization flexibility effects in case of low-consequence decision domain holds true even when consumers are primed to be categorization flexible. Furthermore, with additional adventure priming, consumers show an increased preference for unconventional options even under a decision domain with high consequence.
Research limitations/implications
This study could not examine real purchase behavior as results are based on cross-sectional, behavioral intention data. In addition, it did not examine the underlying reason for presence of cross-domain categorization flexibility index.
Practical implications
The results suggest that stimuli may be tailored to consumers in ways that increase the salience and the perceived attractiveness of unconventional choices. Further, data reinforce the notion of cross-categorical interrelations among different domains, which could be leveraged by marketers.
Originality/value
This study represents the first documentation of the potential ways by which unconventional product choice might be a function of individuals’ categorization flexibility level across different types of decision domains. The findings yield implications that are novel to both categorization and consumer decision-making literature.
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