Psychology

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Psychology.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Expanding the Role of Power in Employees’ Interpretations of and Reactions to Leader Behaviors
(University of Waterloo, 2021-04-13) Hanig, Samuel; Brown, Douglas
Though research on the impact of leader behaviors is generally grounded in the notion that organizational leaders hold formal power over subordinate employees, this conceptualization overlooks the power that employees may experience in the workplace that does not stem from the formal organizational hierarchy. However, with a growing body of theory and research on the psychology of power and informal sources of organizational power, it is possible to broaden our understanding of the role of power in the leadership process. Across two essays, this dissertation explores how employee experiences of power shape their interpretations of and reactions to leader behaviors. Essay 1 considers the well-established connection between abusive supervision and employee supervisor-directed deviance. Though it is understood that engaging in supervisor-directed deviance is dependent on the supervisor-employee power differential, prior accounts of this reaction to abusive supervision have overlooked the role played by power embedded in employees’ informal social context. To address this gap, Essay 1 draws on power-dependence theory, the approach-inhibition theory of power, and uses a social network approach to explain the link between abusive supervision and supervisor-directed deviance. In doing so, a three-way interaction is proposed, in which the abuse-deviance relationship is impacted by two components of informal power: social network centrality and influence of subordinate employees. In particular, it is predicted that the relationship will be the strongest when subordinates have high social network centrality and high influence. This prediction was tested through the collection of full social network data, as well as employee self-report surveys. The results provide support for the notion that supervisor-directed deviance emerges most strongly as a consequence of abusive supervision for employees who wield informal power in their organization. Essay 2 concerns the construct of psychological empowerment, which is positioned in this essay as the cognitive manifestation of personal power in the workplace. While psychological empowerment is commonly framed as an outcome of leadership, Essay 2 builds on a growing body of work which demonstrates that the individual characteristics of employees can influence their ratings of leadership behaviors. A longitudinal crossed-lagged research design was employed over 9 months to determine the extent to which psychological empowerment predicts ratings of leadership, while controlling for reciprocal effects. Through an integration of psychological empowerment with the approach-inhibition theory of power, it was predicted that psychological empowerment would be positively associated with ratings of empowering leadership and negatively associated with ratings of abusive supervision. The findings support these predications and further provide evidence that the effect of psychological empowerment on ratings of empowering leadership is mediated by the experience of positive affect at work, an indicator of behavioral approach system activation. It is suggested that the findings generally support the account offered by the approach-inhibition theory of power on how psychological empowerment may impact one’s experience of leadership.
How Leader Role Identity Influences the Process of Leader Emergence: A Social Network Analysis
(University of Waterloo, 2016-09-01) Kwok, Navio; Brown, Douglas
Contemporary literature on leadership emphasizes the importance of having a leader identity in building leadership skills and functioning effectively as leaders. We build on this approach by examining and unpacking the role of leader identity in leadership emergence. Taking the perspective that leadership is a dynamic social process between group members, we propose a social network-based process model whereby leader role identity predicts network centrality, which leads to leader emergence. We test our model using a sample of 88 cadets participating in a training course on leadership development. In support of our model, cadets who possess a stronger leader identity were more likely to emerge as leaders, as rated by peers and course trainers, and these relationships were mediated by two indicators of network centrality reflecting one’s ability to broker information (i.e., betweenness centrality) and one’s popularity (i.e., indegree centrality) within one’s group. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
The Idea of a Follower: An Investigation of Implicit Followership Theories and Their Correlates
(University of Waterloo, 2022-11-28) Evans, Rochelle; Brown, Douglas; Shen, Winny
Implicit followership theories (IFTs) are our subjective assumptions, or lay beliefs, about characteristics of followers. These beliefs can exert a powerful influence on workplace relationships between leaders and followers. This dissertation examines the correlates and structure of IFTs to provide further clarification as to why people have differing views of followers and the nature of these views. In Essay 1, I seek to understand why people diverge in their follower views by drawing on self-construal and trait activation theories to examine correlates of people’s follower views. Specifically, I conduct a cross-sectional study across two samples (students and employees) to investigate how people’s self-construals are differentially related to their IFTs, and whether situational factors interact to influence these relationships. I find that trait independent and interdependent self-construal is correlated with individuals’ negative and positive follower views, respectively. Moreover, for workers, performance pressure strengthened the positive relationship between independent self-construal and anti-prototypical IFTs. Thus, Essay 1 contributes insights as to how individuals’ traits and situational contexts individually and jointly relate to beliefs about followers. In Essay 2, I focus on explicating our ideal follower prototypes themselves—which, IFT theory argues, consist of configurations or patterns of follower traits—and whether different groups hold different prototypes due in part to how they have been socialized (i.e., work and leadership experience, socio-demographic background). In particular, I use latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine ideal IFT prototypes as patterns of traits within individuals and examine whether different groups hold different prototypes. I find that students and workers hold one of two, or three, prototypes, respectively (i.e., Dutiful and Productive, Passive, or Energetic but Overconfident). I also find that differences in socialization, specifically leadership and cultural region experiences, are related to differences in which ideal follower prototypes people tend to espouse. Finally, I also examine relationships between people’s ideal follower prototypes and their leadership and followership attitudes to provide initial understanding as to how ideal follower prototypes may influence individuals’ choices around adopting leadership or followership positions. Thus, Essay 2 contributes insights as to why and how people may hold different ideal IFT prototype views, as well as how these views are related to attitudes that potentially shape the trajectory of one’s career.
A Longitudinal Investigation of Leader Development and Leadership Emergence
(University of Waterloo, 2020-08-21) Kwok, Navio; Brown, Douglas
Although it requires time to develop and emerge as leaders, there is a shortage of longitudinal research on these topics. Across two essays, this dissertation aims to address this gap in the literature. Essay 1 examines the nature and degree of leader self-view development during formal leadership training. Drawing upon theories of leader development, it is suggested that as individuals acquire new leadership skills and knowledge, their leader efficacy and identity will develop. Testing competing predictions between developmental readiness (i.e., openness to change) and developmental necessity (i.e., room to change) perspectives, Essay 1 further examines whether learning goal orientation and motivation to lead predict how much and in what ways trainees developed in their leader self-views. Cadets (N = 240) participating in a leadership development course self-reported their leader self-views throughout the program. Using latent growth models, results provide evidence that individuals’ leader efficacy and identity developed–although differently–during leadership training. Moreover, results highlight the need to consider the developmental necessity perspective when allocating leadership development opportunities. Essay 2 examines the dynamic co-occurrence of leadership and trust over time. Drawing upon social exchange theory and models of social entrainment, it is suggested that trust can facilitate the emergence of informal leadership and informal leadership can facilitate the development of trust over time. Cadets (N = 123) participating in a leadership development course provided peer ratings of trust and leadership over time. Using stochastic actor-oriented models, results provide support that, over time, individuals initially perceived as trustworthy emerge as leaders and individuals initially perceived as leaders are trusted. Moreover, being trusting of others can facilitate one’s own leadership emergence over time. Overall, results across these two essays shed light on the longitudinal processes that affect how leaders develop and emerge.
Motives and Emotions behind Destructive Leader Behaviors towards Subordinates: A Supervisor Sensemaking Perspective
(University of Waterloo, 2017-08-31) Evans, Rochelle; Brown, Douglas; Shen, Winny
Causes of destructive leader behaviors – i.e., intentional leader actions that harm organizations or their members that are normatively perceived as deviant – have been investigated extensively from followers’ perspectives, while leaders’ perspectives – particularly how they engage in sensemaking around destructive incidents – have been neglected. Theory on attributions suggests that leader and follower perspectives on destructive leader behaviors are likely to be different, with leaders (more so than followers) being likely to make external, or situational, attributions for their destructive actions. Thus, this study uses an inductive approach that asks 338 leaders to report on their sensemaking activities regarding destructive incidents, specifically their motivations or explanations for engaging in destructive leader actions, as well as the emotions they experienced afterwards. Reported motives suggests that leaders make a variety of external attributions for their destructive behaviors, which suggests that leader bias in perspective may affect how they rationalize their actions, potentially enabling them to shift blame externally to the situation. As well, at least a third of emotions reported after the incident are neutral or positive, which suggests that a substantial minority of leaders may feel inclined or justified to engage in destructive behaviors toward their followers again.
On the Causes and Consequences of Abusive Supervision
(University of Waterloo, 2016-04-22) Liang, Lindie Hanyu; Brown, Douglas
Abusive supervision is a growing problem confronting organizations. In this dissertation, across two essays, I examine both the causes and the consequences of abusive supervision. In Essay 1, I answer the question when and why do supervisors abuse poor performing employees. Building on prior work showing that abusive supervision is a reaction to subordinates’ poor performance, I develop a self-control framework to outline when and why supervisors abuse poor performing subordinates. In particular, I argue poor performing subordinates instill in supervisors a sense of hostility towards the subordinate, which in turn leads to engaging in abusive supervision. Within this self-control framework, poor performance is more likely to lead to abusive supervision when (a) the magnitude of the hostility experienced is higher (e.g., for those with a hostile attribution bias), or (b) the translation of hostility into abusive supervision is unconstrained (e.g., for those who are low in trait mindfulness). In two experimental studies with full-time supervisors where we manipulated the independent variable (Study 1) and the mediator (Study 2), and in a multi-wave and multi-source field study with data collected from supervisor-subordinate teams (50 supervisors and 206 subordinates) at two time points (Study 3), I found overall support for our predictions. In Essay 2, I answer the question under what circumstances and why the detrimental effect of abusive supervision on subordinate well-being can be mitigated. When a subordinate receives abusive treatment from a supervisor, a natural response is to retaliate against the supervisor. Although the majority of the abusive supervision literature has suggested that retaliation is dysfunctional and should be discouraged, I offer an alternative narrative by suggesting that retaliation may have a beneficial purpose. Based on the notion that retaliation following mistreatment can restore justice for victims, I propose a functional theory of retaliation and predict that retaliation alleviates the effect of abusive supervision on subordinate well-being by virtue of restoring subordinate justice perceptions. In an experimental study using vignettes (Study 1), two additional experimental studies (Study 2A and 2B), and a field survey study with two independent samples (Study 3), I found general support for our predictions. Overall, the results of these two essays shed light on the phenomenon abusive supervision in terms of understanding its causes and consequences.
The Receipt of Task-Related Help: Developing and Validating a Scale
(University of Waterloo, 2018-08-23) Law, Denise; Brown, Douglas; Beck, James
Helping behaviors have been subjected to a substantial amount of research attention. However, organizational researchers have disproportionately focused on the help giver, neglecting the recipient of help. To stimulate future research on the recipient of help, I developed a receipt of task-related help scale. In Study 1, I adopted an inductive approach to generate examples of different types of task-related helping behaviors that employees receive at work. Study 1 revealed three general types of task-related helping behaviors - namely, materials, labor, and knowledge. The results of Study 1 were used to guide item development for the receipt of task-related help scale. In Study 2, I provided evidence of the items’ substantive validity. In Study 3, I explored the factor structure of the scale. In Study 4, I verified that the scale assesses three dimensions of task-related help that employees can receive. In Study 5, I developed an initial nomological network for the receipt of task-related help. I hope this research will stimulate future research to adopt the recipient’s perspective to understand helping behaviors at work.
Workplace Gossip, Paranoia, and a Deviance Dilemma: A Warning for Deviance/CWB Research
(University of Waterloo, 2018-12-04) Brady, Daniel; Brown, Douglas
Organizational research has long conceptualized workplace gossip as a form of deviance and included gossip in many measures of deviance and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). However, empirical evidence regarding the nature of workplace gossip is extremely limited. In this paper, five studies are performed with the goal of addressing three fundamental research questions: (1) is workplace gossip a form of deviance, (2) why is there so much confusion surrounding workplace gossip, and (3) how does treating workplace gossip as a form of deviance affect organizational research? Together, the research advances our theoretical and conceptual understanding of workplace gossip and deviance/CWBs. Further, it advances our understanding of paranoia, a construct which has an important, but previously overlooked relationship with workplace gossip and deviance/CWBs. Evidence from this research indicates that workplace gossip is not a form of deviance/CWB, and that paranoia uniquely affects perceptions of workplace gossip, making workplace gossip appear more like a form of deviance/CWB than it otherwise would without the influence of paranoia. Importantly, the long-standing practice of treating workplace gossip as a form of deviance/CWB can have a significant, and potentially very misleading, effect on organizational research. Specifically, including workplace gossip in deviance/CWB measurement can result in false discoveries of deviance/CWBs and systematic measurement contamination which significantly biases relationship estimates between deviance/CWB and other commonly-studied variables. Overall, treating workplace gossip as a form of deviance/CWB clouds our understanding of deviance/CWBs and can dramatically increase the probability of Type I/II errors in deviance/CWB research. Implications, recommendations, and future research directions are discussed.

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Browsing Psychology by Author "Brown, Douglas"