What do I expect when stating that “I am going to be a teacher”? Social roles, including professional roles, often become part of people's identity and thus, of the self. As people typically strive for maintaining a positive sense of self, threats to one's role identity are likely to induce stress. In line with these considerations, Semmer et al. recently (e.g., Semmer et al., 2007, 2015) introduced “illegitimate tasks” as a new concept of stressors. Illegitimate tasks, which are defined as unnecessary or unreasonable tasks, threaten the self because they signal a lack of appreciation regarding one's professional role. Teacher training is a phase of role transition in which the occurrence of illegitimate tasks becomes likely. A holistic understanding of these tasks, however, has been missing up to now. Is there already a professional role identity during teacher training that is vulnerable to threats like the illegitimacy of tasks? What are typical illegitimate tasks in the context of teacher training? In order to close this research gap, 39 situations taken from 16 interviews with teaching trainees were analyzed in the present study on the basis of qualitative content analysis. Seminars and standing in to hold lessons for other teachers were identified as most prevalent illegitimate tasks. More specifically, unnecessary tasks could be classified as sub challenging, inefficient and lacking in organization (e.g., writing reports about workshops no one will ever read). Unreasonable tasks appeared overextending, fell outside responsibility, and lacked supervisory support. Training interventions focusing upon task design and supervisory behavior are suggested for improvement.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine whether managers who are not in top management perceive change-related voice from their work group as support and whether this perception is an explaining mechanism that can predict the managers' behavioral support for change. Such voice can be a valuable asset for managers during change.Design/methodology/approachLower and middle managers' perceptions of subordinates' support is investigated as mediator in the relationship between group change-related voice and managers' behavioral support for change. Seventy managers who were experiencing organizational change completed a survey at two points in time. Data were analyzed using regression analyses and the bootstrapping approach.FindingsManagers perceive promotive but not prohibitive group change-related voice as support. Perceived subordinate support serves as explaining mechanism in the relationship between promotive group change-related voice and managers' championing behavior.Practical implicationsThe study's results have practical implications, as insights are gained into how managers react to upward communication from the work group and how such communication influences managers' reaction to change. These insights can be used to facilitate effective participation during change, as it creates sensitivity to managers as recipients of change.Originality/valueResearch on how managers react to change-related ideas and concerns is scarce. The study extends current research on organizational change by investigating the impact of subordinates' communications on managers' reaction to change. Research on voice is enriched by focusing on the voice-receiving process.
Studies on the effects of communication strategies applied by top management during organizational change are scarce. While first research indicates that a participatory communication strategy is more effective in evoking employees’ commitment to change than a programmatic change communication strategy, how this effect occurs remains unclear. The present study addresses this gap by investigating perceived procedural fairness as mediating and past change experience as moderating factor in the relationship between communication strategy and commitment to change. Results of the quasi-experimental study indicate that participatory change communication strengthens fairness perceptions more than programmatic change communication does. Results indicate that perceived procedural fairness explains the effect of change communication strategy on commitment to change. No moderating but a direct effect of past change experiences was found. Results show the potential of participatory change communication, and the importance of procedural fairness early in change, which are valuable insights for managers who initiate change.
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