Different relationships for coping with ambiguity and uncertainty in organizations

Saint‐Charles, Johanne; Mongeau, Pierre

doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2008.09.001

Cited by 65 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Organizational activities may exhibit varying degrees of complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity (March & Simon, ; Saint‐Charles & Mongeau, ; Stinchcombe, ). Knowledge‐sharing behaviors are characterized by a high degree of ambiguity because of the intangible nature of knowledge, the difficulty of assessing what exactly is being shared in terms of a well‐defined measurement standard, the inherent condition of the asymmetric information that is obtained through knowledge‐sharing relations, and the difficulty of defining meaningful performance standards for knowledge‐sharing efforts.…”

Section: Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Complementary HRM Practices Impact Performance: The Case of Rewards, Job Design, and Work Climate in a Knowledge‐Sharing Context

Foss

Pedersen

Fosgaard

et al. 2014

Human Resource Management

136

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The strategic HRM literature suggests that HRM infl uences employees in combinations of practices that "fi t" each other rather than as stand-alone practices; however, it pays little attention to the underlying individual-level mechanisms. In contrast, the HRM literature on knowledge sharing examines the infl uence of single practices on individual-level knowledge sharing, but fails to include the infl uence of combinations of practices. We link the idea of fi t between practices to employee motivation for knowledge sharing by arguing that rewards may be ambiguous and diffi cult to interpret, but that such ambiguity may be reduced if rewards are combined with other aligned HRM practices, notably job design and work climate. Thus, fi t is established through the ambiguity-reducing effect of combining specifi c HRM practices. Accordingly, we test for complementarities among rewards, job design, and work climate in the form of a three-way interaction among these variables with respect to their impact on knowledge-sharing motivation. Our analysis of 1,523 employees in fi ve knowledge-intensive fi rms shows that employees who are exposed to knowledge-sharing rewards experience higher levels of autonomous motivation to share when they are simultaneously exposed to a noncontrolling job design and work climate that support knowledge sharing.

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Section: Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Complementary HRM Practices Impact Performance: The Case of Rewards, Job Design, and Work Climate in a Knowledge‐Sharing Context

Foss

Pedersen

Fosgaard

et al. 2014

Human Resource Management

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Scholars across disciplines have studied expressive relationships and usefully contrasted them to interactions that are instrumental in nature (Price and Arnould 1999;Saint-Charles and Mongeau 2009). We question whether and how buyers can experience expressive relationships with suppliers that reflect an intrinsic, voluntary, genuine, and emotional nature and thus transcend everyday agentic concerns.…”

Section: Expressive Relationships and Their Prospects In Commercial Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawn fromAron and McLaughlin-Volpe 2001;Baumeister and Leary 1995;Giddens 1991;Kelley et al 1983;Reis and Patrick 1996;Saint-Charles and Mongeau 2009;Turner 1969; and related literature. Emic meanings are drawn from accounts of: 2 Drew, Hunter, Isabel,Kurt, Miguel, Rachel, Wes, and others; 3 Craig, Don, Hank, Isabel, Joe, Martin, Nick, Ron, Ted, and others; 4 Alex, Don, Doug, Drew, Lee, Les, Hank, Martin, Miles, and others.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unpacking What a “Relationship” Means to Commercial Buyers: How the Relationship Metaphor Creates Tension and Obscures Experience

Blocker¹,

Houston²,

Flint³

2012

J Consum Res

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Scholars apply the relationship metaphor as a default conceptual lens to understand commercial interactions. Yet whereas the relationship paradigm sheds light on how the socially embedded structure of these interactions impacts their outcomes, the relationship metaphor can also obscure scholarly understanding of business buyers' experiences. Results of an interpretive study drawing on depth interviews demonstrate that buyers' colloquial use of "relationship" language is ubiquitous. However, buyers' narratives reveal instrumentally saturated emic meanings and felt tensions for the notion of expressive relationships with suppliers, which manifest deep conceptual friction with the constellation of etic relationship properties and constructs used by scholars to explain business interactions. Using Bauman's sociological commentary on liquid modernity, analyses indicate that framing these interactions as "connections" is a more theoretically congruent lens for viewing buyers' experiences. Implications for understanding buyers' desire for relational bonds and recasting ironic "dark side" research findings offer challenges for relationship marketing research.If relational terms are being applied in a metaphorical sense, then at what point does the relationship "model" break-down? Alternatively, if respondents use relational terms simply in a non-thinking, imprecise manner, how can researchers measure relational phenomena which might not be relational? (Iacobucci and Ostrom 1996, 70) Christopher P. Blocker is assistant professor of marketing, Hankamer T he relationship metaphor is a dominant lens for viewing commercial interactions between buyers and sellers in consumer and business-to-business (B2B) contexts. Scholars consider relationships an essential structure of marketplace exchange, suggesting that one cannot view commercial interactions as anything but relational (Vargo and Lusch 2004). Typical uses of "relationship" connote personal bonds, mutual self-disclosure, and intimacy, which consumer researchers use to investigate how people consume brands, products, and services, as well as how their commercial interactions might serve social and psychological needs and self-identity projects (Fournier 1998;Price and Arnould 1999;Yim, Tse, and Chan 2008).The relationship metaphor is also a long-standing frame for business buyers' commercial interactions with suppliers, which can be frequent, prolonged, and go beyond "office walls" (Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987;Geiger and Turley 2005). Scholars show how workplace interactions can reinforce self-identity projects (Ibarra 1999;Tian and Belk 2005) and promote emotional and physiological benefits (Heaphy and Dutton 2008;Spreitzer et al. 2005). These findings suggest that, similar to

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“…A person could have been nominated in either the discussion or advice network to be included in the combined network. We measured both advice and discussion networks in order to capture two components of interpersonal influence thought to be important, expertise and trust (Saint-Charles & Mongeau, 2009). We measured relationships outside of sessions in order to capture stronger personal ties, rather than the weaker associations artificially created in a structured classroom setting, where all participants are required to interact with each other.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we hypothesized that individuals, who nominate more discussion and/or advice partners as measured by a social network name generator, will also report feeling greater group cohesion, as measured by a psychometric scale. We also hypothesized that the association would be stronger for discussion nominations than for advice ones because discussion (conversation) is associated with trust and comfort in contrast to advice (guidance) nominations which are instrumental (Saint-Charles & Mongeau, 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increases in Network Ties Are Associated With Increased Cohesion Among Intervention Participants

et al. 2015

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Objective Many behavior change programs are delivered in group settings to manage implementation costs and to foster support and interactions among group members to facilitate behavior change. Understanding the group dynamics that evolve in group settings (e.g., weight management, Alcoholics Anonymous) is important, yet rarely measured. This paper examined the relationship between social network ties and group cohesion in a group-based intervention to prevent obesity in children. Method The data reported are process measures from an ongoing community-based randomized controlled trial. 305 parents with a child (3-6 years) at risk of developing obesity were assigned to an intervention that taught parents healthy lifestyles. Parents met weekly for 12 weeks in small consistent groups. Two measures were collected at weeks 3 and 6: a social network survey (people in the group with whom one discusses healthy lifestyles); and the validated Perceived Cohesion Scale (Bollen & Hoyle, 1990). We used lagged random and fixed effects regression models to analyze the data. Results Cohesion increased from 6.51 to 6.71 (t=4.4, p<0.01). Network nominations tended to increase over the 3-week period in each network. In the combined discussion and advice network, the number of nominations increased from 1.76 to 1.95 (z=2.59, p<0.01). Cohesion at week 3 was the strongest predictor of cohesion at week 6 (b=0.55, p<0.01). Number of new network nominations at week 6 was positively related to cohesion at week 6 (b=0.06, p<.01). In sum, being able to name new network contacts was associated with feelings of cohesion. Conclusion This is the first study to demonstrate how network changes affect perceived group cohesion within a behavioral intervention. Given that many behavioral interventions occur in group settings, intentionally building new social networks could be promising to augment desired outcomes.

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Different relationships for coping with ambiguity and uncertainty in organizations

Cited by 65 publications

References 44 publications

Why Complementary HRM Practices Impact Performance: The Case of Rewards, Job Design, and Work Climate in a Knowledge‐Sharing Context

Why Complementary HRM Practices Impact Performance: The Case of Rewards, Job Design, and Work Climate in a Knowledge‐Sharing Context

Unpacking What a “Relationship” Means to Commercial Buyers: How the Relationship Metaphor Creates Tension and Obscures Experience

Increases in Network Ties Are Associated With Increased Cohesion Among Intervention Participants

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