Chapter 3 Positive work relationships, vitality, and job performance

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) perspectives define interpersonal work experiences such as positive work relationships and high-quality connections by the mutual growth and empowerment experienced by relationship or connection partners. Listening has been implicated as a key mechanism for building such positive interpersonal work experiences, but it is unclear how listening spurs on mutual, rather than one-sided growth, in relationship and connection partners. In this paper, we argue that management education currently focuses on the intrapersonal capability of listeners to execute key verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Less emphasis is placed on the mutual experience co-created between speaker and listener and, thus, on the potential for mutual growth and empowerment. We articulate what “being relational” in the listening experience means, and use experiential learning theory to articulate how educators might create learning spaces for “being relational” through conversations between listener and speaker. Throughout the paper we contend with issues of individual and structural power asymmetries inherent in understanding listening as a relational process.

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Exploring the Relationship between Commitment Profiles and Work Attitudes, Employee Withdrawal, and Job Performance

Public Personnel Management ◽

10.1177/009102600002900305 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 353-366 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Mark Somers ◽

Dee Birnbaum

Keyword(s):

Organizational Commitment ◽

Job Performance ◽

Job Search ◽

Affective Commitment ◽

Management Practice ◽

Career Commitment ◽

Work Attitudes ◽

Continuance Commitment ◽

The Relationship ◽

Positive Work

Four commitment profiles, based on levels of commitment to the organization and the career, were used to explore the relationship between distinct patterns of commitment and work-related outcomes with a sample of professional hospital employees. As two distinct forms of organizational commitment have been identified affective and continuance commitment separate profiles were constructed for each type of organizational commitment in conjunction with career commitment. Results for profiles based on affective commitment were consistent with prior research findings, in that employees committed to both their organization and their career exhibited the most positive work attitudes and the strongest intention to remain with the organization. Unexpectedly, the dually committed also had the strongest intensity of job search behavior, but these efforts did not translate into higher incidences of turnover. No differences were observed across commitment profiles with respect to job performance. The synergistic effect between affective and career commitment was not observed for profiles based on continuance commitment to the organization. Employees committed only to their careers exhibited more positive work outcomes than did those committed only to their organizations. The implications of these findings for management practice were discussed.

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Principals and stress: Few coping strategies for abundant stressors

Educational Management Administration & Leadership ◽

10.1177/1741143218817562 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 440-458 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Julia Mahfouz

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Qualitative Study ◽

Job Performance ◽

Coping Strategies ◽

School Administrators ◽

Job Demands ◽

Work Relationships ◽

Social Emotional ◽

Emotional Skills

Various job demands continue to be very stressing and exhausting for school administrators who have to work under unprecedented pressure. This qualitative study explores the various stressors school administrators experience and the coping strategies they utilize to manage their stress. Findings show that the various stressors experienced by the school administrators do affect their job performance and their own wellbeing. Principals mentioned three main types of stressors related to work, relationships and time. They also experienced some unpleasant feelings in response to these stressors such as guilt, a sense of unfairness, loneliness, or disappointment. However, their coping strategies comprised of spending time with loved ones and having an outlet outside work. Implications for social emotional skills-based professional development programmes for school administrators are discussed.

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Exploring the relationships between compassion at work, the evaluative perspective of positive work-related identity, service employee creativity, and job performance

Journal of Services Marketing ◽

10.1108/jsm-05-2014-0180 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 103-114 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Won-Moo Hur ◽

Taewon Moon ◽

Seung-Yoon Rhee

Keyword(s):

Job Performance ◽

Service Marketing ◽

Common Method ◽

Content Type ◽

Service Employees ◽

Work Related ◽

Compassion At Work ◽

The Relationship ◽

Related Identity ◽

Positive Work

Purpose This study examines whether compassion at work increases service employees’ job performance. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to show the mechanism through which experienced compassion in an organization affects the job performance of service employees. Design/methodology/approach The employees from a department store in South Korea were surveyed using a self-administered instrument for data collection. Out of 550 questionnaires, a total of 309 usable questionnaires were obtained after list-wise deletion, for a 61.6 per cent response rate. Findings The results of this study suggest that the evaluative perspective of positive work-related identity mediates the relationship between compassion at work and service employees’ job performance. In addition, the findings of this study demonstrate that there is significant mediating effect of service employee creativity on the relationship between compassion at work and job performance. Furthermore, the relationship between compassion at work and job performance was sequentially mediated by the evaluative perspective of positive work-related identity and the creativity of service employees. Research limitations/implications The common method variance in the self-reported variables imposes a need for caution in the interpretation of the findings. Future studies could avoid the problem of common method bias by, for example, using supervisor ratings of creativity and job performance. On the other hand, this study will add to the growing body of research on service marketing by highlighting the role of compassion at work to enhance service employees’ job performance. Practical implications This study offers new insight for practitioners (i.e. CEOs, top management teams, employees) by suggesting that they may promote service employees’ job performance if they pay more attention to compassionate acts in service marketing. Originality/value As services are becoming more important and harder to sell simultaneously, this study provides a new perspective to improve service employees’ job performance by examining its link with compassion at work.

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Person–Organization Fit and Friendship From Coworkers: Effects on Feeling Self-Verified and Employee Outcomes

Group & Organization Management ◽

10.1177/1059601117726632 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 44 (4) ◽

pp. 777-806 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tae-Yeol Kim ◽

Xiaowan Lin ◽

Sang-Pyo Kim

Keyword(s):

Job Performance ◽

Organizational Citizenship ◽

Positive Relationship ◽

Organizational Citizenship Behaviors ◽

Work Behaviors ◽

Citizenship Behaviors ◽

Employee Outcomes ◽

Person Organization Fit ◽

The Relationship ◽

Positive Work

This study examined how person–organization fit and friendship from coworkers combine to affect people’s self-verification, and how self-verification ultimately relates to employee outcomes (job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors). Based on a sample of 117 employee–supervisor pairs, multilevel analyses revealed a positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of person–organization fit and self-verification, and also showed that the relationship was facilitated by friendship from coworkers. Specifically, person–organization fit and self-verification perceptions were positively related when friendship from coworkers was high, but nonsignificant when friendship from coworkers was low. In addition, employees’ self-verification perceptions were positively and significantly associated with job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Our research suggests that enhancing person–organization fit and promoting friendship from coworkers in the workplace organizations can satisfy the basic human impulse to feel self-verified, and thus enhance employees’ positive work behaviors.

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Compassion and Job Performance: Dual-Paths through Positive Work-Related Identity, Collective Self Esteem, and Positive Psychological Capital

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11236766 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (23) ◽

pp. 6766 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ko ◽

Choi

Keyword(s):

Job Performance ◽

Positive Relationship ◽

Psychological Capital ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Positive Psychological Capital ◽

Work Related ◽

Collective Self ◽

Collective Self Esteem ◽

Related Identity ◽

Positive Work

The purpose of this study is to examine the unexplored mechanisms through which employee job performance is affected by compassion experienced at work. While the relationship between compassion and job performance is relatively well established in the literature, our knowledge of the actual mechanisms underlying this relationship is still in a nascent state. In this study, we propose two paths through which increased job performance results from workplace compassion. Our empirical results, obtained through 360 full-time employees including 182 males and 178 females working in South Korea, provide support for the serial double mediation effects of positive work-related identity and collective self-esteem in the positive relationship between compassion experienced at work and job performance. In addition, the positive relationship between workplace compassion and job performance is mediated by positive psychological capital.

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