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Focusing on management training, the purpose of this paper is to establish whether identical elements in a training program (i.e. aspects resembling participants' work situation) can improve training transfer and whether they do so beyond the contribution of two well‐established predictors – motivation to learn and expected utility. In an effort to establish mechanisms connecting identical elements with training transfer, the authors aim to propose and test motivation to transfer as a mediator.

Data were collected online from 595 managers who participated in a management training program. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model.

Identical elements, expected utility and motivation to learn, each had a unique contribution to the prediction of training transfer. Whereas motivation to learn partially mediated these relationships, identical elements and expected utility also showed direct associations with training transfer.

Identical elements represent a relevant predictor of training transfer. In future research, a longitudinal analysis from different perspectives would be useful to better understand the process of training transfer.

Participants may profit more from management training programs when the training better resembles participants' work situation. Organisations and trainers should therefore apply the concept of identical elements in their training, to increase its value and impact.

This study contributes to the training literature by showing the relevance of identical elements for transfer, over and above established predictors.

The purpose of this study is to test a model connecting Chinese employees’ positive and negative affect and creative self-efficacy with supervisor-rated creative performance in Chinese business. Building on the cognitive tuning theory, this paper answers several calls for research to examine the joint effects of positive and negative affects on creative performance in the China business environment.

The participants were drawn from one of the largest petrochemical companies in China. We drew 459 leader-subordinate dyads across different jobs situated in multiple divisions to complete our surveys. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses.

The findings suggest that creative self-efficacy has a positive influence on creative performance during low PA scenarios. The authors also demonstrated that for employees in China, creative self-efficacy has a positive influence on creativity when employees experience both low levels of positive affect and high levels of negative affect.

As the findings suggest, Chinese employees who experience positive affect may engage in heuristic, top-down cognitive processes. Furthermore, findings from the present study also serve to extend the scope of the cognitive tuning model by testing the informational roles of positive and negative affects in self-regulatory processes rather than focusing directly on the main effects of employee affect. An important finding in this study is the three-way interaction indicating that individuals experiencing low positive affect and high negative affect will see a strong connection between creative self-efficacy and creative performance.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a personal reflection on the Romanian post‐communist transition, using an organization theory‐based analytic framework combined with the author's personal experience.

The paper is based on the authors' experience in Romania during the transition (policy implementation, evaluation projects, and research). The experience is captured using concepts from institutional, organizational change, and critical theories.

Transition economies offer unique settings for building theory that describes the dynamic events situated at the boundary between institutions and organizations. Although this potential has yet to be realized, knowledge can be captured by using less conventional research designs, a critical perspective, and creative concepts and approaches.

The paper has potential implications for researchers conducting studies in transition economies, or in otherwise dynamic environments. The author provides several examples that are not well explained by existing frameworks and models, and offers suggestions for possible designs that might be more appropriate in transition settings.

Both autochthonous and foreign practitioners might find the examples and the analytic framework informative and applicable to the problems they are faced with in transition economies.

The paper combines conventional and critical theory‐based approaches to the study of the Romanian transition. Authors interested in research at the institution – organization boundary can consider some of the suggested for formalizing their research.

The purpose of this paper is to expand existing tests of what drives training transfer, by including support originating from three sources, i.e. one's coworkers, supervisor, and organization.

The results are based on a sample of trainees attending professional development programs in one organization in the USA.

Coworkers emerge as important, yet neglected, resources employees can draw on as support for both maintaining skills and transferring them to a workplace setting.

If the results are supported in other studies, more attention should be given to coworker support interventions.

The study provides a first test of the extent to which support originating from three different sources (i.e. coworkers, supervisor, and organization) is related to maintaining and transferring skills acquired during training.

The purpose of this paper is to posit and empirically demonstrate that positive and negative leader behaviors have a linear relationship with subordinate outcomes. The authors challenge this notion, and test a model where leader positive and negative behaviors have a curvilinear relationship (inverse-U shaped) with subordinate job satisfaction.

Cross-sectional design, based on a sample of 131 employees working across organizations and industries in the USA. Subordinates provided information on all study measures.

The authors show that higher levels of positive and negative behaviors from the leader will not generate a corresponding linear increase in employees’ satisfaction. Instead, the relationship is non-linear, with diminishing returns in subordinate job satisfaction for positive leader behaviors and higher ones for negative leader behaviors. In addition, subordinates with high levels of hardiness are more satisfied with positive leader behaviors, and report less dissatisfaction with negative leader behaviors.

Limitations are cross-sectional design, self-reported data, measurement of a limited number of leader behaviors as representative of leader positive and negative behaviors, and focus on only one dependent construct (subordinate job satisfaction).

Above a certain point, leaders’ positive behaviors have limited effect on increasing subordinates’ job satisfaction. Likewise, leaders’ negative behaviors decrease subordinates’ job satisfaction only above specific levels of leader behaviors.

The authors challenge this notion of linearity by theorizing and demonstrating that subordinates’ job satisfaction is influenced by leader positive and negative behaviors in non-linear relationship characterized by an inverse-U-shaped and a specific increase and decrease pattern.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the additive and joint effects of trainer directiveness and trainees’ learning goal orientation on training satisfaction and transfer.

Survey responses from a sample (N = 243) of undergraduate business students enrolled at a large US university were examined.

Trainer directiveness and trainee learning goal orientations each additively predicted training satisfaction and transfer over and above one another and study controls. Further, trainer directiveness and trainee learning goal orientation jointly predicted satisfaction and transfer, such that the positive relationship between trainer directiveness and both outcomes was accentuated (more positive) when learning goal orientations were high (compared to low).

This study suggests that scholars and practitioners need to be mindful of both trainer and trainee characteristics when evaluating potential training programs. In addition to selecting competent trainers, organizations might be well-served to encourage trainers to use a directive style. Further, organizations might be able to boost the positive effects of trainer directiveness on trainee satisfaction and transfer by priming (or selecting on) trainee learning goal orientations.

With few exceptions, prior research has devoted comparatively little attention toward understanding how trainer characteristics influence training outcomes. Of this research, even less considers possible interactions between trainer and trainee characteristics. The present study provides an initial step toward addressing these gaps by examining the additive and joint influences of trainer directiveness and trainee learning goal orientations. Results support that additional variance in training satisfaction and transfer can be explained by considering both trainer and trainee characteristics in tandem.

Metacognition – or learning how to learn – is an important competence in business and academic settings. The purpose of this paper is to examine individual difference predictors of metacognition, including two traditional (general mental ability (GMA), five-factor model (FFM) personality traits) ones, and a novel one, individual authenticity.

Volunteers (n=243) were asked to rate the extent to which they agreed with the respective statements on a seven-point Likert-type scale for GMA, FFM personality traits, and authenticity measures. Data were collected at different points in time to introduce psychological separation among the study measures.

The authors found that while metacognition is not predicted by GMA, it is positively predicted by two of the five-factor model personality traits, conscientiousness, and extraversion. More importantly, the authors examined that individuals’ authenticity – in the form of (low) self-alienation – will enhance metacognition, over-and-above the previously mentioned predictors.

The authors attempt to broaden the understanding of authenticity and its relationship with another important outcome construct, metacognition along with GMA and personality traits, in academic settings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore individual and contextual predictors of emotional support potential in training.

Relative weight analysis was used to assess the importance of individual (trainee regulatory focus) and contextual (trainer competence) predictors of emotional support potential in training.

Individual differences in self‐regulation including promotion and prevention focus explained emotional support potential to a greater extent than did trainer competence.

For future research, further testing the current propositions can emphasize broader contextual predictors (e.g. support from trainees' social context).

A number of studies have indicated that social aspects of training are important; however, no one has yet examined predictors of emotional support. Consequently, understanding an individual's regulatory focus and personality can be an important way to improve emotional support potential.

This is the first study to examine predictors of emotional support potential in a training context and links trainee regulatory focus to this outcome.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which employees' perceptions of alienation (personal and social) are related to positive (career satisfaction) and negative (careerist orientation) career‐related outcomes and to examine the mediating role of career satisfaction.

The paper used a cross‐sectional design, with questionnaires administered to 165 employees working in organizations in the USA to test the relationship between alienation and careerism through career satisfaction.

Alienation was found to be a positive predictor of employee careerism, and a negative predictor of their career satisfaction. The data were consistent with a model positioning career satisfaction as a mediator of the alienation to careerism relationship.

Future research should examine the relationship between alienation and career outcomes in other organizations and job families, to enhance generalizability. Data should be also collected longitudinally, to extend the current cross‐sectional design.

Understanding the empirical link between alienation and career outcomes can provide useful information to reduce negative career outcomes.

The findings point toward a positive relationship between employee alienation and their careerism. In doing so, the paper adds to a body of work where careerism was connected with structural rather than individual predictors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which leader behaviors (authentic, directive, and transactional) predict subordinates' conceptualization of exchanges with their organization (i.e. social and economic exchanges).

Data were collected from 165 employees in various organizations within the USA using questionnaires.

Results showed that authentic leadership was positively related to social exchanges. Further, directive leadership was positively related to economic exchanges. Contrary to the authors' prediction that transactional leadership would be a positive predictor of economic exchanges, transactional leader behaviors predicted both social exchanges (positive relationship) and economic exchanges (negative relationship). Several of the relationships between leader behaviors and follower exchange relationships were mediated by employee attitudes (i.e. job satisfaction) and beliefs (i.e. exchange ideology).

Further research is necessary to elucidate the reasons why leader transactional behaviors drive social exchanges, and through what mechanisms.

Organizations and practitioners can use these finding to select leaders who foster desired employee behaviors. Coaching or training efforts to develop authentic leaders may also be beneficial. Organizations and practitioners may benefit by implementing leadership training initiatives that develop managers' authentic leadership.

The paper's results position authentic and directive leader behaviors as positive and negative predictors of social and economic exchanges, respectively. It also identifies mechanisms through which leader behaviors influence employees' perceptions of exchanges.