Follow the Leader? The Impact of Leader Rapport Management on Social Loafing

Author(s):  
Chris Lam ◽  
Kim Sydow Campbell

To prepare students for the workforce, instructors of business, technical, and professional communication must incorporate team projects in their curriculum. However, both instructors and students have negative perceptions of team projects due to a variety of factors including team dysfunctions like social loafing. No prior study has examined the relationship between leader rapport management (LRM) and social loafing. LRM refers to the use of linguistic strategies to manage relationships between leaders and members. Therefore, we built and tested a model that examines the relationship between LRM and social loafing that is mediated by leader-member exchange and communication quality.

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Gkorezis ◽  
Eugenia Petridou ◽  
Panteleimon Xanthiakos

Purpose – Leader-member exchange (LMX) has been proposed as a core mechanism which accounts for the impact of various antecedents on employee outcomes. As such, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of LMX regarding the relationship between leader positive humor and employees’ perceptions of organizational cynicism. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 114 public employees. In order to examine the authors’ hypotheses hierarchical regression analysis was conducted. Findings – As hypothesized, results demonstrated that LMX mediates the relationship between leader positive humor and organizational cynicism. Research limitations/implications – Data were drawn from public employees and, therefore, this may constrain the generalizability of the results. Also, the cross-sectional analysis of the data cannot directly assess causality. Originality/value – This is the first empirical study to examine the mediating effect of LMX in the relationship between leader humor and employees’ perceptions of organizational cynicism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110419
Author(s):  
Gustav Verhulsdonck ◽  
Tharon Howard ◽  
Jason Tham

Technical and professional communication (TPC) and user experience (UX) design are often seen as intertwined due to being user-centered. Yet, as widening industry positions combine TPC and UX, new streams enrich our understanding. This article looks at three such streams, namely, design thinking, content strategy, and artificial intelligence to uncover specific industry practices, skills, and ways to advocate for users. These streams foster a multistage user-centered methodology focused on a continuous designing process, strategic ways for developing content across different platforms and channels, and for developing in smart contexts where agentive products act for users. In this article, we synthesize these developments and draw out how these impact TPC.


2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod Farr-Wharton ◽  
Yvonne Brunetto

AbstractThe paper used a social exchange lens to explore the impact of the quality of the relationship between supervisors and service employees on individual and organisational outcomes. The findings provide further evidence that the quality of the relationship between supervisors and service employees is a significant factor - in this case explaining almost half of the reasons as to why employees accepted or rejected organisational changes. Using the social exchange lens, the theory argues that the same characteristics evident in high quality leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships (effective levels of information, feedback and respect) are also likely to provide the ideal conditions for employees' to address their fears and answer their questions about potential organisational changes. As a result, service employees are more likely to accept the organisational changes. In addition, this study suggests that approximately half of job productivity and satisfaction is affected by the way LMX firstly affects employees' satisfaction with organisational communication processes, and secondly, their acceptance of organisational changes within SMEs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-414
Author(s):  
Godwin Y. Agboka

Understanding the law and its impact on the practice of technical communication has been an important scholarly thread in technical and professional communication (TPC) for more than two decades. Technical communicators recognize the impact of their work on stakeholders as well as the potential liability issues associated with composing technical communication documents. While this scholarship is widespread, relatively few pedagogical resources are available to prepare students for success in a litigious world or to guide instructors in teaching legal writing. This article offers a case study of a legal writing course that prepares TPC students to develop legal literacy and succeed in the workplace.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-81
Author(s):  
Jose Pius Nedumkallel ◽  
Deepak Babu ◽  
Michelle Francis

This study investigates the moderating effect of perceived risk and information diagnosticity on the relationship between brand loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) as well as viral marketing activities (VMA) in e-retailer websites. Although extant research in marketing suggests that brand loyalty leads to positive WOM, this study examines the moderating effect of the consumer's perceived risk on this relationship in the context of e-retailer websites where customers repeatedly encounter new and uncertain situations every time they visit the e-retailer. This study also examines the moderating effect of information diagnosticity on the interaction relationship stated earlier. Findings reveal that risk perception negatively moderates the impact of brand loyalty on WOM and VMA and information diagnosticity of online reviews can help reduce the negative perceptions caused by risk factors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepanjana Varshney

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social loafing behaviour, self-concept and perceived organisational politics (POP). The impact of POP and self-concept upon social loafing behaviour has been the fundamental focus of the paper. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from four companies (n = 262) that combined the responses of subordinates and supervisors. The consequent impact of self-concept factors and POP on social loafing behaviour was analysed through correlations; multiple regressions and mediation were tested using Barren–Kenny and Hayes Bootstrap methods. Findings A positively significant connection among self-concept, social loafing and POP has been found in this study. The findings show that POP significantly mediates the relationship between social loafing and self-concept. Research limitations/implications This study provides evidence of the positive relationship among POP, social loafing behaviour and self-concept. Such knowledge derived may facilitate the scientific task allocation process, feedback system, team orientation, individual differences and job choice aspects, and thus help in the essential understanding of withdrawal work behaviour and perceived organisational support variables. Practical implications Productivity and employee satisfaction are major concerns for all organisations. This research paper provides insight to the organisations and supervisors about individual loafing attitude, self-concept and organisational politics and suggests to overcome their impact and improvement in productivity and employee satisfaction. Originality/value This is a pioneer paper in the sense that previously there has been no attempt to determine the relationship between POP and social loafing behaviour. Past research has mostly been conducted in the laboratory settings or classroom contexts. The longitudinal data used in this study remove prior research drawbacks and enlighten the unexplored relationships.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenglong Peng ◽  
Bo Gao ◽  
Hongdan Zhao

Although a coaching leadership style has an inherent advantage in predicting the subordinates' career success, there is still little known about the linkage and the specific process by which coaching leadership influences career success. We examined the relationship between coaching leadership and subordinates' career success, especially the mediating role of leader–member exchange (LMX), through a survey conducted with 301 supervisor–subordinate pairs of a large state-owned enterprise in Shanghai, China. Using Hayes' PROCESS macro, we conducted a Sobel test and bootstrapping to test our hypotheses. As predicted, we found that coaching leadership was positively related to both subjective and objective career success of subordinates. In addition, LMX mediated the influence of coaching leadership on career success of subordinates. Our findings provide a new theoretical perspective for explaining the impact of coaching leadership.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 1265-1291
Author(s):  
Gerdien Regts ◽  
Eric Molleman ◽  
Hendrik Johan van de Brake

Relationships with leaders do not happen in isolation from the relationships one has with one’s peers. Therefore, we examine the influence of leader‒member exchange on follower job performance in light of the larger social networks in which followers are embedded. Testing multilevel models with data that were gathered using questionnaires from a sample of 240 nurses and 20 supervisors working at four Dutch hospitals revealed that a positive relationship exists between leader‒member exchange and follower job performance when follower workflow network centrality and/or follower friendship network centrality are high but not when they are both low. The results of this study show how the different follower relationships with the supervisor and colleagues intertwine in explaining follower job performance and suggest that the larger network in which followers are embedded within their work teams is important for explaining variations in the results regarding the relationship between leader‒member exchange and follower job performance. Our study indicates that leaders should have an eye for the network position of their followers when developing high quality leader‒member exchange relationships. For followers, a good relationship with their leader is important, but its value depends on their relationships with colleagues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-244
Author(s):  
Bekir Eşitti ◽  
Mesut Kasap

Firms take precautions with their dynamic capacities in response to rapidly changing and volatile conditions. Leader–member exchange refers to the importance of supervisors’ role in shaping employees’ work attitudes and job satisfaction. Previous researches on the relation between leader–member exchange and dynamic capabilities obtained mixed results; a call has been made for an examination of dynamic capabilities of lodging firms from the perspective of leader–member exchange. This research predicts that leader–member exchange is associated with dynamic capabilities and higher level of job satisfaction. Thus, this study examines the impact of five-star hotel employees’ leader–member exchange on the dynamic capabilities of a hospitality organization and the mediation role of job satisfaction between leader–member exchange and dynamic capabilities. Results from five hotel teams in Istanbul with 390 employees show that job satisfaction has a meaningful and positive impact on dynamic capabilities. Leader–member exchange has a statistically significant impact on dynamic capabilities and job satisfaction partially mediating the relationship between leader–member exchange and dynamic capabilities. This study also provides valuable recommendations on how to assess the service quality of lodging firms by assessing their dynamic capabilities. Specifically, Istanbul’s lodging firms should focus on job satisfaction to improve the dynamic capability of their employees.


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