We present and test a self-consistency theory framework for gossip: that perceived negative workplace gossip influences our self-perceptions and, in turn, this influences our behaviors. Using supervisor-subordinate dyadic time-lagged data (n = 403), we demonstrated that perceived negative workplace gossip adversely influenced target employees’ organization-based self-esteem, which, in turn, influenced their citizenship behavior directed at the organization and at its members. Moreover, by integrating victimization theory into our framework, we further demonstrated that negative affectivity, an individual’s dispositional tendency, not only moderated the self-consistency process but also predicted perceived negative workplace gossip. Our study therefore shifts attention to the target of negative workplace gossip and in doing so offers a promising new direction for future research. Implications to theory and practice are discussed.

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There has long been interest in how leaders influence the unethical behavior of those who they lead. However, research in this area has tended to focus on leaders' direct influence over subordinate behavior, such as through role modeling or eliciting positive social exchange. We extend this research by examining how ethical leaders affect how employees construe morally problematic decisions, ultimately influencing their behavior. Across four studies, diverse in methods (lab and field) and national context (the United States and China), we find that ethical leadership decreases employees' propensity to morally disengage, with ultimate effects on employees' unethical decisions and deviant behavior. Further, employee moral identity moderates this mediated effect. However, the form of this moderation is not consistent. In Studies 2 and 4, we find that ethical leaders have the largest positive influence over individuals with a weak moral identity (providing a "saving grace"), whereas in Study 3, we find that ethical leaders have the largest positive influence over individuals with a strong moral identity (catalyzing a "virtuous synergy"). We use these findings to speculate about when ethical leaders might function as a "saving grace" versus a "virtuous synergy." Together, our results suggest that employee misconduct stems from a complex interaction between employees, their leaders, and the context in which this relationship takes place, specifically via leaders' influence over employees' moral cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record

This study empirically investigated culture's consequences on the major purposes and practices of performance appraisal using a sample (n = 1749) drawn from the banking industry in seven countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. We found that the effects and predictive capability of assertiveness, uncertainty avoidance, in-group collectivism, and power distance should not be overstated nor are they straightforward. Organizations must be cognizant of the potential influence that a range of other organizational, institutional, and economic factors may wield on appraisal. These findings hold significant implications for the theoretical underpinnings of appraisal, a management tool largely rooted in US equity, expectancy, and procedural justice values and traditions. They also offer important lessons for practice. Not only is the transferability of appraisal and its operationalization affected by interactions with divergent cultures and contextual settings, but new hybrid appraisal architectures are emerging that necessitate further research. Copyright (c) 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.

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This study examines the role of political skill in the development and utilization of network resources at the individual level. Drawing on the behavioural and network perspectives as well as political skill literature, we propose that political skill increases one's network resources (developing network), which will benefit his/her performance and career success. Moreover, political skill is hypothesized to strengthen the relationships between network resources and performance and career outcomes (utilizing network). A two-wave study on a sample of 281 supervisor-subordinate dyads from six electronic firms in China confirms our hypotheses. Our examination of the dual role of political skill facilitates a better understanding of the networking process from the perspective of individual skill/behaviour, thus enriching the behavioural theory and network literature. Implications are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.

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