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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of ethical leadership on surface acting, positive mood and affective commitment via the mediating effect of employee frustration. The authors also explored the moderating role of humor on the relationship between ethical leadership and frustration as well as its moderating effect on the mediational chain.

Data were collected in two separate surveys from 156 individuals working fulltime; data collections were separated by six weeks to reduce common method variance. The measurement model was confirmed before the authors tested the moderated mediation model.

Ethical leadership was negatively related to employee frustration, and frustration mediated the relationships between ethical leadership and surface acting and positive mood but not affective commitment. Humor moderated the relationship between ethical leadership and frustration such that when humor was low, the relationship was stronger.

Interestingly, the authors failed to find a significant effect for any of the relationships between ethical leadership and affective commitment. Ethical leaders can enhance positive mood and reduce surface acting among employees by reducing frustration. Humor may be more important under conditions of unethical leadership but may be distracting under ethical leadership.

This study demonstrates how frustration acts as a mediator and humor serves as a moderator in the unethical behavior-outcomes relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore surface acting as a mediator in the relationships between perceptions of organizational politics and personality, with stress, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction.

Data were obtained via survey from 276 working adults, and responses were subjected to structural equation modeling to confirm the measurement model and test hypotheses.

Surface acting was found to mediate the relationships between perceptions of organizational politics and intent to turnover and satisfaction, and between proactive personality and intent to turnover and satisfaction. No mediating effect for surface acting was found between agreeableness and the outcomes.

Individual differences and situational contingencies do affect surface acting in the workplace, and individual work-related outcomes. Managers need to be aware of personality characteristics and situational contexts that impact surface acting in organizations to help understand the effects of potential divergent attitudes and behaviors on employee outcomes.

Previous research examining surface acting assessed behavior in light of employee-customer interactions. This research extends the study of surface acting by examining the mediating role of surface acting among new predictors including organizational politics, proactive personality, and agreeableness with stress, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of procedural justice, training opportunities and innovation on job satisfaction and affiliation commitment via the mediating effect of organizational identification. The authors also explored the moderating role of satisfaction with supervisor on the relationship between the antecedents and organizational identification as well as its moderating effect on the mediational chain.

The authors used structural equation modeling techniques, using MPLUS 7.4, to analyze data collected from 247 full-time employees who were recruited by undergraduate students attending a private university in the Southeast region of the USA.

Results demonstrated that the indirect effects for procedural justice and training opportunities as predictors were significant, while none of the paths for innovation as a predictor were significant. Satisfaction with supervisor moderated the relationships between procedural justice and organizational identification and innovation and organizational identification.

This research expands the nomological network concerning antecedents and consequences of organizational identification. It also explores the role of satisfaction with one’s supervisor, as this can affect identification with the organization. This research provides support for the notion that stronger employee–organization relationships lead to positive individual and organizational outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how employees’ perceptions of their supervisor’s use of four types of humour relate to employee job satisfaction, organisational pride, organisational commitment and self-esteem. Supervisor favourability is also examined as a mediating variable in these relationships.

An online survey of 216 working individuals provided data on the effect of supervisor use of humour on employee attitudes.

Perceptions of positive forms of humour (affiliative and self-enhancing) positively related to employee various attitudes, while aggressive humour was negatively associated with those attitudes. Results also support the intervening role of supervisor favourability in the relationship between supervisors’ positive use of humour and employees’ job satisfaction, affective commitment and organisational pride.

Studies of the effects of workplace humour can benefit from using more fine-grained operationalisation of positive and negative humour. Research can also benefit from considerations of intervening mechanisms to the humour–work outcome relationship.

The results underscore the benefits of affiliative and self-enhancing humour on employee attitudes in the workplace. While negative humour can have an undesirable effect, there may be circumstances under which self-defeating humour is not negatively received.

This paper fulfils an identified need to better understand supervisors’ use of different, more discriminating forms of humour on employee attitudes.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of “overtime norms” as a mediator between performance-driven work climates and employee burnout. This study also examines in-role performance and work engagement as moderators between high-performance climates and burnout.

A snowball sample of 214 full-time working adults from the United States participated via an online survey. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS and conditional process analysis.

Results from conditional process analyses suggest (1) performance-driven climates are positively related to burnout, (2) overtime norms mediate the relationship between performance-driven climates and burnout, and (3) in-role performance and work engagement moderate that relationship such that highly competent and engaged employees are less prone to stress and burnout.

These results highlight the dangers of performance-driven work climates on employee well-being. Trends toward extended work hours which can be exacerbated by technological advancements inevitably come at a cost. Managers and organizations should be careful not to prioritize work life over non-work life.

This study contributes to the literature by identifying overtime norms as a mediator in the performance-driven work climate–burnout relationship. This study also identifies in-role performance and work engagement as resources that can reduce burnout.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of four impression management (IM) tactics as mediators to help job incumbents manage the impressions others have regarding the spillover of the incumbent’s family domain onto the work domain.

The authors examined the data from 296 matched job incumbents and coworkers. The authors tested a structural equation model and alternative models to find the best fit and subsequently tested both direct and indirect effects.

The authors found that family-to-work conflict related to job-focused and supervisor-focused IM behaviors, and family-to-work enrichment related to self-focused, coworker-focused and supervisor-focused IM behaviors. Supervisor-focused IM served as a mediator to the job incumbent’s attitude (job satisfaction) while job-focused, self-focused and coworker-focused IM served as mediators to the job incumbent’s behavior (job performance).

The research is important in that just as employees do not “leave work at the office,” they also do not “leave family at home.” Instead, experiences in the two domains affect one another in ways that are beneficial and harmful. Understanding the role that IM plays in this process adds insight into the spillover of family onto work.

The authors extend both the work-family and IM literatures by looking at potential family domain antecedents to engaging in IM behaviors and their impact on work life.

Acts of interpersonal influence are observed throughout organizations, and most typically, in direct supervisor–subordinate relationships. However, researchers have focused less on subordinates bypassing the chain of command and targeting their supervisor's supervisor with influence attempts. We conceptualize a new term, “leapfrogging,” as subordinates' attempts to influence and manage the impressions of their supervisor's supervisor. Here we focus on influencing the target's perception of likability (the focus of ingratiation) and competence (the focus of self-promotion). This study focuses on its personal and situational antecedents.

Given the central role of social exchange and psychological processes within this phenomenon, we build on a social exchange and a social cognition approach. Using a sample of 131 university support personnel service employees, hierarchical regression is used to test the hypotheses.

The following antecedents of leapfrogging are hypothesized and tested: the subordinate personal characteristics of Machiavellianism, need for achievement, and fear of negative evaluation, and the situational/relational characteristic of leader–member exchange (LMX). Of these potential antecedents, subordinate Machiavellianism and LMX were the strongest predictors, and subordinates' need for achievement and fear of negative evaluation were moderate predictors.

Leapfrogging occurs when actors are frustrated with their current situation and desire change. However, influence tactics aimed at a subordinate's supervisor's supervisor may further strain a low-quality leader–subordinate relationship. As actors become increasingly dissatisfied and leave, this may result in increased organizational costs related to the loss of experienced employees and the hiring and training of new ones.

Most upward influence research has largely ignored subordinate influence attempts that go outside of the normal chain of command and target their boss's boss. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by examining leapfrog behaviors. Although acknowledged in a limited manner as a legitimate organizational behavior, this topic has received virtually no empirical attention.

Abusive supervision research has clearly demonstrated its many negative effects. The present study uses social learning theory to shed light on mechanisms that could potentially alter the negative effect of abusive supervision.

Using a sample of 162 full-time employees, we identify and test two potential variables that we believe may moderate, or soften, the trickle-down negative effects of abusive supervision.

Results demonstrates that coworker support moderates the positive relationship between abusive supervision and coworker incivility such that this relationship is weaker when coworker support is high. In addition, we found that work engagement moderates the positive relationship between coworker incivility and turnover intentions such that this relationship is weaker when engagement is high. Next, we found that coworker incivility mediates the positive relationship between abusive supervision and turnover intentions and that this indirect effect is moderated by both coworker support and work engagement.

We combined three theoretical explanations, social learning theory, contagion effect and the trickle-down perspective, to theoretically argue not only how (through coworker incivility) but when (when coworker support and work engagement are low) abusive supervision impacts turnover intentions. In addition, we extended the research on work engagement by positioning it as a boundary condition. We found that when individuals are engaged in their work, the environment in which they work matters less (because the work matters more).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of mindfulness as a predictor of the two components of regulatory focus theory (RFT): promotion and prevention focus. It further examines promotion focus and prevention focus as mediators of the mindfulness-job satisfaction and mindfulness-turnover intentions relationships. Finally, job satisfaction is also examined as a mediator of the mindfulness-turnover intentions relationship.

The model was tested using data collected via a snowball approach. Online surveys were distributed to undergraduate students enrolled in a business course. Students were then given the opportunity to earn extra credit by sending the survey to potential respondents. The relationships were tested using structural equation modeling.

Support was found for four of the six hypotheses. Prevention focus did not negatively mediate the relationship between mindfulness and job satisfaction as well as the relationship between mindfulness and turnover intentions.

One limitations of this research is the placement of mindfulness as an antecedent to promotion and prevention focus. Another plausible alternative is to consider mindfulness as a consequence. An additional limitation is the use of a snowball sampling technique. Future research should examine these findings using employees of a single organization.

This research theoretically and empirically links RFT and mindfulness. This study also adds to the limited research empirically linking RFT and turnover intentions, both directly and indirectly via job satisfaction. Finally, this research extends previous research that established the positive relationship between mindfulness and job satisfaction by examining the mindfulness-job satisfaction-turnover intentions relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an examination of the relative impact of mentoring, supervisor support, and perceived organizational support on organizational commitment and job search behavior.

In total, 346 employees of a US manufacturing facility were surveyed.

Ordinary least squared regression model revealed that perceived organizational support was a stronger predictor of organizational commitment and job search behavior than was mentoring and supervisor support.

The main implication of this study for leadership theorists is that while mentors and supervisors can be effective in endearing the employee to the organization, the perception of organizational support might be more important. The main limitation of this study is that the findings are derived from a single manufacturing organization.

The results from this study suggest that organizational leaders must adequately address organizational‐supported programs including fair operating procedures, rewards, and job conditions. These programs underlie perceived organizational support.

This paper contributes to the literature by providing a concurrent and comparative examination of the effects of mentoring, supervisor support, and perceived organizational support on organizational commitment and job search behavior.