Search results

In this chapter, we theorize that metaperceptions (beliefs about how one is viewed by others) derived from social identity categories will influence intrapersonal processing and resultant member interaction patterns in diverse work groups. In turn, such patterns of interactions will affect the quality of emergent states within diverse groups, ultimately impacting group-level outcomes. We will extend previous work in this area by examining the formation, nature, and consequences of metaperceptions in workgroups within which individuals vary with regard to social identities. In addition, we will describe the implications of metaperceptions for the effective leadership of diverse groups.

Empirical research presents conflicting findings with regards to the effectiveness of referral reward programs (RRPs) and supports two alternative and conflicting views on the effectiveness of incentivizing recommendations. They are, first, a positive effect via perceived attractiveness of the incentive, and second, a negative effect via metaperception of the recommendation. The purpose of this paper is to examine these two opposing psychological mechanisms to reconcile the conflicting findings.

The authors conducted three experiments. Study 1 tests the base model. Studies 2 and 3 add moderators to test whether each mediating variable operates exclusively on its intended relationship.

Incentive size enhanced the attractiveness of an incentive, but reduced the metaperception favorability of the recommendation. These two opposing mechanisms operated in parallel, independently and fully mediated the effects of incentive size to likelihood of making a recommendation. Thus, the net impact of incentives on recommendation behavior depended on the relative strengths of these two opposing forces.

The study recommends managers to design RRPs with incentives that recommenders perceive as highly useful (i.e. to increase attractiveness) but have a low face value (i.e. to reduce metaperception concerns) and to target RRPs to strong rather than weak ties.

Our work offers an integrated theoretical account of consumers’ responses to incentivized recommendations and provides managerially relevant guidelines for the design of effective RRPs.

As customers increasingly adopt social media as the primary channel to reach out to companies, voicing is becoming a public act. Adopting a social psychological perspective, this study aims to focus on the social dynamics that drive consumer voice on social media.

The research uses three studies. First, a list of metaperceptions about voicing behavior is compiled using the critical incident technique, and then the hypothesized effects are tested with two scenario-based experiments.

Metaperceptions mediate the relationship between social anxiety and the intention to voice on social media. Self-construal moderates the effect of metaperceptions, such that in the presence of a negative metaperception, the reluctance to post a direct complaint is attenuated under independent self-construal. Independent self-construal attenuates the positive effect of positive metaperception. An experimental comparison between social media and consumer review sites reveals that metaperceptions are only prevalent in social media and when the complainer construes him or herself as interdependent.

Since lodging a direct complaint to a service provider has been mainly conceived as a private behavior, the role of social dynamics in the context of voicing remains under-researched. Aiming to fill this gap, the present research empirically examines how the presence of a perceived audience affects voicing behavior.

This paper aims to examine the psychological consequences of a customer engagement initiative through referral reward programs (RRPs) in online versus offline environments.

The authors conducted a qualitative study followed by a scenario-based experimental study.

The authors show that recommenders’ concern about how they are viewed by recommendation recipients (i.e. their metaperception) mediates the effects of incentives on referral likelihood in both offline and online environments. However, metaperception has a stronger effect offline where recommenders show higher impression management concerns compared to online. Furthermore, tie-strength and communication environment moderate the effect of incentives on metaperception. When referrals are made to weak-ties, incentives decrease metaperception favorability offline more than online. For strong-ties, this effect is lower, and it is similar in offline and online environments.

The study focused on an online versus offline dyadic communication and did not consider the differences among social media. Furthermore, the authors did not consider how other forms of positive metaperception, like being seen as helpful or knowledgeable, could be increased in an online incentivized referral context. It is possible that a recommender thinks others see him as more helpful or knowledgeable online because a lot more useful information and other resources could be offered here compared to offline communications.

The authors recommend managers to design both online and offline RRPs that minimize metaperception concerns; target strong ties in any communication environment as metaperception concerns are low; and target weak ties online where metaperception concerns are muted.

This work is the first to examine how recommenders’ psychological responses differ offline and online.

The authors introduce a new construct, reputational self-awareness (RSA). RSA represents the congruence between how individuals think they are viewed by others (i.e. metaperceptions) versus how they are actually viewed (i.e. other ratings). The authors sought to demonstrate that RSA is a superior predictor of performance indices.

Personality self-ratings from 381 business students and their ratings by 966 others were collected via online surveys. Other raters rated self-raters' personalities as well as their task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs).

Results indicate that RSA predicts variance in performance above and beyond self-report ratings, and performance is highest when metaperceptions and other ratings of performance are aligned. These results support the use of a multi-perspective approach to personality assessment as a useful tool for coaching and career development.

The authors' results support the use of a multi-perspective approach to personality assessment as a useful tool for coaching and career development. A cross-sectional design was used in which personality and performance data were gathered from respondents, and the P 720 is a relatively new personality instrument.

RSA is a valuable tool for employee development, coaching and counseling because, as extant research and the authors' findings demonstrate, awareness of how others view and judge one, one's reputation is essential information to guide work behaviors and career success. Therefore, a key career-development goal for trainers and counselors should be to use a multi-perspective approach to maximize clients' RSA.

Use of other ratings as opposed to traditional self-rating of personality provides superior prediction of behavior and is more useful for career development.

This is the first study to demonstrate utility of RSA, i.e. that individuals who more accurately assess their personality are rated as performing better by others. The authors' results offer new insights for personality research and career development and support the use of personality assessment from multiple perspectives, thus enabling the exploration of potentially insightful research questions that cannot be examined by assessing personality from a single perspective.

Cancer-related stigma is a troubling challenge faced by working cancer survivors and organizations aiming to promote inclusive work environments. Research suggests that a harmful stereotype faced by cancer survivors is that the cancer survivors are low in competence. Leveraging the concept of the looking glass self and social cognitive theory, the authors develop a theoretical model about psychological processes through which cancer survivors' competence metaperceptions are related to work outcomes.

The authors recruited 200 working cancer survivors from online research panels and empirically test a theoretical model on how cancer survivors' metaperceptions of competence are related to the survivors' turnover intention and vigor at work. The authors additionally conducted an experimental vignette study among a sample of 133 students to examine confounds concerning causal order.

The authors found that favorable competence metaperceptions were related to decreased turnover intentions and increased vigor through cancer survivors' enhanced self-efficacy, especially for survivors high in need for emotional support.

This study suggests that inclusive organizations should pay attention to employees with cancer histories as a hidden disadvantaged group. To protect and motivate working cancer survivors, managers need to create a positive socio-cognitive working environment where cancer survivors are respected and valued.

By examining cancer survivors' metaperceptions and showing that survivors may internalize others' stereotype about individuals with a history of cancer, the authors advance the understanding about cancer survivors' return-to-work challenges.

Referral reward programs (RRPs) incentivize existing customers (inductors) to refer new customers (inductees). The effectiveness of RRPs is not well understood as previous studies either focused on referral intent and/or ignored inductee responses. However, an RRP is only effective if inductors recommend and inductees respond with buying the service. The purpose of this paper is to examine the drivers of existing customers’ successful referral behavior.

This study combines a bank’s customer relationship management (CRM) data which were used to identify successful inductors and non-inductors. Then, observed behavioral and customer background data from the CRM database (including successful referrals, deposits in euros, number of products held, relationship duration, income, age, and gender) were combined with survey data capturing attitudinal variables (i.e. perceived relationship quality, reward attractiveness, referral metaperception, opportunism, and involvement). This approach allowed for the simultaneous testing of all hypothesized drivers of successful referral behavior.

Metaperception (i.e. the process by which individuals determine the impressions other might form of them and their behavior) was the strongest and most significant driver of successful RRP participation, followed by attractiveness of the reward. That is, inductors recommended successfully when they believed that their incentivized referral did not look bad (or even looked good) and incentives were perceived as attractive. This finding is important as metaperception so far has only been examined in theoretical and experimental studies with intent as dependent variables. Second, latent class analysis (LCA) revealed that there were two segments of inductors of which one was opportunistic. Opportunism as a driver of referral behavior has not been shown in past research using more traditional analyses, whereas LCA uncovered it as a driver for one-third of all respondents.

The findings offer managers a better understanding of the key determinants of successful referral behavior with important RRP design implications that counter frequent practice (e.g. designing RRPs with high face value but then reducing its usefulness through terms and conditions). Furthermore, managers may consider segment-specific reward structures to improve the effectiveness of their RRPs.

This study is the first to examine inductor determinants of successful referral behavior and identify inductor segments.

The authors investigate the role of people-related Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, specifically metaperceptions, in hearing care students' vocational decision-making. In Italy, audiologists are health professionals and must hold a degree in hearing care. They operate according to clinical principles but must also develop marketing and commercial skills. While employers take these aspects for granted, the expectations of hearing care students often differ from reality. Thus, the authors aim to investigate the vocational expectations of hearing care students.

A survey was distributed to 600 hearing care students. Multiple regression analysis with bootstrapped confidence intervals was employed to test the hypotheses.

Students who perceived audiology as their calling were more interested in the clinical aspects than the marketing and commercial aspects of audiology. Moreover, those desiring a meaningful career path in audiology were more interested in becoming a store owner or franchisee.

Universities and recruiters should consider the influence of relevant others' metaperceptions on students' self-perceptions of their aptitudes for different careers. Universities should assist students to identify aptitudes that are relevant to career-related decision-making. In this context, people-related TQM can help students avoid incorrect aspirations and expectations.

This study is the first to investigate the role of metaperceptions from a people-related TQM perspective. Metaperceptions play a crucial role in determining the correct course of study as well as job satisfaction and expectations.

Online consumer complaint behaviour that is observable to other consumers provides the firm with an opportunity to demonstrate transparency and service quality to the public eye. The purpose of this paper is to assist practitioners with a strategy to increase perceived accommodativeness in complaint management on social media and reduce the social risk associated with online consumer complaint behaviour using a social exchange theory perspective.

Six online experiments with 1,350 US Facebook users were conducted to investigate the effect of supportive and non-supportive virtually present others, and employee intervention on a consumer’s choice to complain, likelihood to make an observable complaint (on the Facebook page) and likelihood to make a non-observable complaint (via Facebook Messenger). The mediating role of perceived accommodativeness and subsequent social risk is also examined.

Supportive comments made to the complainant by virtually present others were found to influence participants’ decision to complain, heighten participants’ likelihood to complain about the Facebook page and reduce their likelihood to complain via Facebook Messenger. This effect was reversed in the presence of non-supportive virtually present others and was explained by perceived social risk. Further, a participant’s likelihood to complain about the Facebook page was increased when an employee intervention was directed at a non-supportive comment made to a complainant, by a virtually present other. This effect was explained by the perceived accommodativeness of the employee interaction.

The findings advance research on online consumer complaint behaviour by investigating how employee intervention can be used to increase the likelihood of an observable complaint. This research is limited in that it does not incorporate individual characteristics, such as introversion/extroversion and propensity to respond to peer pressure, which may affect participant responses.

This research shows that perceptions of social risk are most effectively reduced by employee intervention directed at a non-supportive comment (made to a complainant) of a virtually present other. Consumer complaint management strategies aimed at minimising perceptions of social risk and encouraging observable online complaint behaviour are proposed.

This research extends the consumer complaint behaviour taxonomy by introducing the term “observable complaining”, that is, visible complaints made on a Facebook page, and broadens understanding of the organisation’s role in managing non-supportive virtually present others to assuage perceptions of social risk in potential complainants.

The hypermarket industry in Malaysia has created a huge momentum for modern retailing concepts. The industry has been developing impressively, and the word hypermarket seems in need of a new definition. There is an overlap of the definitions for hypermarket, supermarket and shopping mall. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to focus on recent Malaysian hypermarket retailing developments that could be used as sources for definition. A few expansion opportunities are also emphasized in this paper.

A review of the literature from various research studies in the field was made. In order to strengthen the existing findings, practical implementations on hypermarket retailing within the Malaysian market were also studied in this research. In general, this research focuses on hypermarket retailing in the Malaysian scenario.

Malaysian hypermarkets can be defined using retail developments within the industry as sources for definition works. This industry can also be expanded further through: product brand extension; service experience enhancement; self‐checkout technology; coupons promotion; online hypermarket; and one district one industry (SDSI) market intervention program.

The definition of hypermarket in this research paper is streamlined further to differentiate it from a supermarket or shopping mall. With the potential expansion opportunities, it is expected that there will be a clearer path to outgrow this industry.