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Multilevel approaches are generally well suited to group communication because what people say and do in groups is a function of intra- and trans-individual mechanisms. This chapter first provides a brief overview of group research as a multilevel problem and then describes more modern approaches to modeling nested data using latent variable models, including multilevel structural equation modeling and latent class analysis. The chapter concludes by addressing conceptual opportunities provided by multilevel latent modeling approaches to group communication.

The purpose of this paper is to address the statistical issues associated with the hierarchically structured data in previous studies that focused on servant leadership. To resolve these issues, multilevel modeling methods were applied to re-visit the construct validity of the servant leadership questionnaire developed by Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) and investigate the relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction under a multilevel framework.

The survey data was obtained from a sample of 2,089 teachers from 117 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. The analyses were conducted using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MLCFA) and multilevel structural equation modeling (MLSEM).

The results revealed the significant and non-trivial variances that were explained at the organization level in the items measuring servant leadership, which justified the use of MLCFA and MLSEM. The results of MLCFA provided empirical support for the multidimensional construct as well as the second-order factorial structure of servant leadership measures at both the individual and organization levels. In addition, the positive relationships between servant leadership and the followers’ job satisfaction were found to vary at different levels.

This study reiterates the importance of using appropriate methods to capture a solid definition of the construct of servant leadership and provides new insights into the conceptual framework of servant leadership as well as the effects of servant leadership on individual and organizational outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to develop the concept of a high performance alliance macro-culture as a multilevel construct reflective of resilient collaborative systems of exchange within strategic alliances and explores the distinct capabilities of this multilevel approach in predicting alliance outcomes.

The hypotheses developed in this study are tested using primary data collected from 650 members of 15 non-profit organizations in two multi-organizational collaborative networks. Considering the multilevel nature of the study the structural hypotheses are tested using a multilevel confirmatory factor analysis and the predictive hypotheses are tested using multilevel structural equation modeling.

All but one structural hypothesis are supported and all predictive hypotheses are supported suggesting that a multilevel macro-cultural conceptualization is effective in exploring the relationship between collaborative exchange systems and their outcomes.

Limitations stem from the generalizability of the data collected as the alliances formed by non-profit firms may not be wholly reflective of the alliance structures and goals of other firm types.

This study primarily contributes to multilevel study of strategic alliances and the study of collaborative norms and structures of allied groupings. The results of this study lend support to the importance of taking a network governance perspective and illustrate the limitations of traditional single-level approaches when studying interfirm collaborative networks and structural resilience therein.

In this chapter, the authors consider the role of time for research in occupational stress and well-being. First, temporal issues in studying occupational health longitudinally, focusing in particular on the role of time lags and their implications for observed results (e.g., effect detectability), analyses (e.g., handling unequal durations between measurement occasions), and interpretation (e.g., result generalizability, theoretical revision) were discussed. Then, time-based assumptions when modeling lagged effects in occupational health research, providing a focused review of how research has handled (or ignored) these assumptions in the past, and the relative benefits and drawbacks of these approaches were discussed. Finally, recommendations for readers, an accessible tutorial (including example data and code), and discussion of a new structural equation modeling technique, continuous time structural equation modeling, that can “handle” time in longitudinal studies of occupational health were provided.

Alongside structural equation modeling (SEM), the complementary technique of partial least squares (PLS) path modeling helps researchers understand relations among sets of observed variables. Like SEM, PLS began with an assumption of homogeneity – one population and one model – but has developed techniques for modeling data from heterogeneous populations, consistent with a marketing emphasis on segmentation. Heterogeneity can be expressed through interactions and nonlinear terms. Additionally, researchers can use multiple group analysis and latent class methods. This chapter reviews these techniques for modeling heterogeneous data in PLS, and illustrates key developments in finite mixture modeling in PLS using the SmartPLS 2.0 package.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how to raise organizational performance in public sector organizations through human resource management. Specifically, this paper aims to investigate the link between structural empowerment and organizational performance, and the mediating role of the psychological empowerment of employees.

The authors apply multilevel structural equation modeling using a sample of 103 local governments’ managers and 461 employees from Spain.

The results show that structural empowerment is positively associated with organizational performance. Surprisingly, this relationship is not mediated by psychological empowerment, although it is a powerful antecedent of organizational performance.

In the context of new public management, structural empowerment emerges as a useful component of human resource management for improving organizational performance in public sector organizations. Nevertheless, scant research has combined structural empowerment practices and employees’ feelings of empowerment, which would create a global view to shed light on their role to increase organizational performance. Therefore, this paper examines the mediating function of psychological empowerment (individual level) in the structural empowerment–organizational performance link (organizational level) in the context of public sector organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical and empirical comparison of four major national cultural value models for perceived corporate reputation (CR) of multinational corporations (MNCs) across nations: Hofstede, Schwartz, the GLOBE study and Inglehart.

Two consumer surveys on an MNC and on competitors in 25 countries in the year 2015 (n=20,288 and 25,397) were used for the first time to compare the roles of the cultural value models as antecedents of CR, using multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM), which disentangles the explained variances on the country level and on the individual level.

National culture is strongly attributed to individual CR perceptions of MNCs across nations. However, the four conceptual cultural value models explain the variance differently (46.2–84.6 percent) as do particular cultural value dimensions within each model. The results are stable for both surveys.

Novel insights into the roles of cultural value models are provided for international business research. For MNCs aiming to use their CR to attract target groups in foreign countries, this study identifies the most influential cultural value model and particular dimensions.

This study contributes to cultural research by deepening the understanding of the various cultural value models and their importance for MNCs. Moreover, the authors add to the CR research by providing new insights into perception differences and using the still novel MSEM.

It is commonly observed in trainings that all trainees do not get satisfied with the performance of the trainer. The usual way to increase the satisfaction of trainees is a stress on improving task communication of the trainer. It is based on the assumption that effective task communication essentially fosters training effectiveness. This study aims to provide preliminary evidence that effective task communication can also obstruct training effectiveness besides promoting it. To achieve this objective, the authors hypothesized a dual-process model of training effectiveness based on uncertainty reduction theory.

This was a field study in which the authors collected time-lagged data from seven trainings. The trainings were designed to impart technical knowledge of multilevel analyses to professional social science researchers. Confirmatory factor analysis for ordinal indicators was used to test the measurement properties of the model and scales. Structural equation modeling for ordinal indicators was used to test hypotheses.

This study provided evidence of an overall positive effect of the trainer’s task communication on the trainee’s communication satisfaction. A complex mediation analysis also revealed the existence of two opposite psychological processes. While the first process transmitted the positive effect of task communication to communication satisfaction, the other process diminished this positive effect. Implications for the theory and practice of training are discussed.

Training scholars and practitioners universally believe that an effective task communication of trainers essentially promotes training effectiveness. This study has provided empirical evidence that this assumption is an incomplete picture of a complex reality that requires further investigation.

The current study, which is based on social learning theory and social cognitive theory, intends to investigate the impact of entrepreneurial leadership on employee creativity at both the individual and team levels. In particular, the authors predict a mediating mechanism at both levels: employees’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Further, the authors consider whether the climate of support for innovation is a contextual element affecting the relationship between employees’ perceptions of entrepreneurial leadership and their own entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The research hypotheses were tested using multilevel structural equation modeling on 191 employees nested in 49 entrepreneurial ventures in China.

The results indicated that entrepreneurial leadership positively correlates with employee creativity at individual level. Moreover, this study found that individual followers’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy partially mediates the association between individual perceptions of entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity, whereas team members’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy fully mediates the association between team members’ perceptions of supervisors’ entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity. Further, this research demonstrates the role of team-level climate of support for innovation as a boundary condition that strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

Considering entrepreneurial self-efficacy to be a type of entrepreneurial context-specific self-efficacy, this study presents one of the first empirical examples of the mediating function of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the association between entrepreneurial leadership and employee creativity. Additionally, this research demonstrates the role of team-level climate of support for innovation as a boundary condition that strengthens the effect of entrepreneurial leadership on individual entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Further, this study provides a methodological contribution by simultaneously assessing all three variables of the mediation process at the individual and team levels: entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and employee creativity.

The relationship between core self-evaluations (CSEs) and organizational performance is yet to be explained. The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of work-family enrichment (WFE), family-work enrichment (FWE) and work-family balance (WFB) in the relationship between CSE and organizational performance.

Data were obtained from a sample of 2,312 employees working within 188 public and private organizations operating in the current context of the post-2008 economic and financial crises that lasted until up to 2019 in Greece. Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) analyses were used due to the nested nature of data.

The results showed that (1) WFE and WFB serially and positively mediate the relationship between CSE and organizational performance; (2) FWE and WFB serially and positively mediate the relationship between CSE and organizational performance; (3) the constructs of the operating framework depend on factors such as gender, working hours, level of education and position of employees in the organizational hierarchy.

Data were collected at a short period in 2019, thus, restricting dynamic causal inferences into instant changes. The findings suggest that organizations will benefit from developing WFB policies and practices that can improve organizational performance.

Only a handful of studies have previously examined the relations between CSEs, WFE, WFB and organizational performance in an economic and financial crises environment.