Dissertation
Team Moral Identity: A Theory of Its Antecedents, Contingencies, and Implications
Dissertation Chapter I
Academy of Management 2022 Best Paper Proceedings (SIM Division)Abstract +
In this paper, we introduce the concept of team moral identity, a team-level construct that represents the shared cognition that morality is a central, distinctive, and enduring attribute that defines the team. We draw from the theory of moral self, social identity theory, and self- verification literature to develop a model of the antecedents and outcomes of team moral identity. This model has theoretical implications for scholarship focusing on moral identity, collective identity, and behavioral ethics, and it holds numerous practical implications for those working in teams.
We Are a Moral Team: The Conceptualization, Measurement, and an Examination of Consequences of Team Moral Identity
Dissertation Chapter II
Abstract +
Moral identity has been one of the most frequently studied constructs in the field of behavioral ethics, yet previous studies have mostly examined moral identity as an individual phenomenon. Integrating the research findings from the collective identity and social identity literature, we examine moral identity at the team-level. In four studies, we develop a valid measure of team moral identity and explore its effects on various workplace outcomes. We find that team moral identity can take a different form depending on a unique set of moral values, i.e., conduct- or outcome-oriented moral characteristics, that a team regards as part of their definitional characteristics. We find that both conduct- and outcome-oriented team moral identities influence important moral and non-moral team outcomes, though their relational strengths can be vastly different as each team moral identity involves unique motivational influences on teams. Overall, this paper offers a theoretical and empirical basis for future research on team moral identity.
Publications
Knowledge management behavior and individual creativity: Goal orientations as antecedents and in-group social status as moderating contingency
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(6): 813-832. 2017. Rhee, Y. W. & Choi, J. N.
Awarded for being the eighth most cited article in 2019 JOB impact factor JournalAbstract +
Creativity is an increasingly important domain of performance largely based on knowledge held and exchanged among employees. Despite the necessity of knowledge exchange, individual employees tend to experience mixed motivation caused by the inherent social dilemma of knowledge sharing. To pragmatically explain how individuals deal with this motivational dilemma, we propose an expanded framework of knowledge management behavior (KMB) that includes knowledge sharing, hiding, and manipulation. Individual choices among these KMBs may be driven by dispositional goal orientations. We also propose that the effects of KMB on creativity of employees vary depending on their social status in a work group. Our analyses based on 214 employees from 37 teams reveal that (i) learning goal orientation increases knowledge sharing and decreases knowledge manipulation; (ii) avoiding goal orientation increases knowledge sharing and manipulation; and (iii) proving goal orientation increases knowledge hiding and manipulation. Knowledge hiding is negatively related to employee creativity, particularly for employees with high social status. Knowledge manipulation is positively related to creativity, particularly for those with high social status. This study develops and validates a theoretical framework explaining the formative process and distinct outcomes of the multifaceted and strategic approaches to KMB at the individual level.
Dual pathways of emotional competence towards incremental and radical creativity: resource caravans through feedback-seeking frequency and breadth
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 29(3): 421-433. 2020. Sung, S. Y., Rhee, Y. W., Lee, J. E., & Choi, J. N. Journal
Abstract +
This study examined how employees’ emotional competence predicts feedback-seeking behaviour (FSB) and consequently incremental and radical creativity on the basis of conservation of resource (COR) theory. We posit that emotional competence enhances the two types of creativity by generating resource caravans through distinct patterns of FSB. Our analysis based on the data collected from 206 employees from 85 work teams revealed that emotional competence has a significant indirect effect on the incremental creativity of team members, as rated by leaders, through frequent feedback seeking. Emotional competence also exhibited a considerable direct effect on radical creativity. In addition, emotional competence predicted source variety, namely, feedback-seeking breadth, which in turn contributed to radical creativity. This study offers new and useful theoretical and practical insights regarding the different types of creativity in the workplace by employing COR theory and the resource caravan perspective.
Multi-level predictors of employee feedback-seeking behaviors: From the cost-benefit perspective
Social Behavior and Personality, 47(2): 1-11. 2017. Sung, S. Y., Rhee, Y. W., Lee, J. E., Choi, J. N., & Yoon, H. J. Journal
Abstract +
In this study, we examined the two distinct dimensions of feedback-seeking behavior (FSB), namely, feedback-seeking frequency and feedback-seeking breadth. We focused on work team properties and team members’ social characteristics, and identified the multilevel social contextual predictors for each FSB dimension in an organizational team setting. Participants were 187 employees in 45 work teams in various industries in South Korea. Results show that feedback-seeking frequency was significantly positively related to three individual or team characteristics (i.e., emotional competence, team reflexivity, and task interdependence), but feedback-seeking breadth was significantly positively related to only one dimension, team reflexivity. Our findings provide an understanding of the multilevel emergent process of FSB in work teams, and the impact of the multilevel antecedents on the two FSB dimensions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Works in Progress
Moral Feedback: A Theory of Its Mechanisms, Contingencies, and Implications
Working Paper. With Scott J. Reynolds and Carolyn Dang
Abstract +
Moral self-regulation has attracted substantial research attention as a mechanism that explains employee moral behavior. However, an important piece of moral regulation has been largely overlooked in the literature, namely, supervisory moral feedback. To theoretically explain the behavioral corrective function of moral feedback, we define two different forms of supervisory moral feedback: criterion referenced and social comparison moral feedback. Drawing from the feedback intervention and moral decision-making literatures, we argue that criterion referenced moral feedback decreases subsequent employee immoral behavior through cognitive pathways, while social comparison moral feedback does so by distinct mechanisms involving social pathways. We also define three different dimensions of the behavioral correction, duration, breadth, and immediacy, and propose that the behavioral correction effect of moral feedback varies contingent upon factors at the individual, team, and organizational levels. The present conceptual analysis highlights supervisors’ role in guiding subordinates who are morally off track and offers practical guidance on how to administer moral feedback consistent with the moral goals of an organization.
Interpersonal helping toward influential others might disrupt team performance: Power, dependence, and social exchange
Under Review. With Jin Nam Choi
Abstract +
In this paper, we theorize and examine how employees’ dyadic helping behavior is predicted by a coworker or interaction target’s social influence in a team, which reflects the operation of a political or impression management motive. Drawing on power, dependence, and social exchange perspective, we further identify team conflict as a critical moderator that strengthens the relationship between target social influence and dyadic helping behavior. The theory also suggests that a dyadic social exchange relationship impacts the participating actors’ exchange relationships with other members in the network of social exchanges of the team. Hence, we predict that the extent to which team members’ dyadic helping behavior is predicted by target social influence is expected to impact subsequent team process (i.e., team trust) and outcome (i.e., team performance) negatively. The current conceptual framework was empirically tested by field survey and online experimental studies. This study highlights the importance of distinct motives (prosocial, task-related, and self-serving) underlying helping behavior, which may lead to disparate individual and organizational outcomes.
Intentions matter: Examining unethical acts intended to harm others, help the self, and help others
Working Paper. With Elizabeth Umphress and Yu Tse Heng
Abstract +
This study theorizes and examines how observing unethical behaviors with different underlying intents, namely, pro-group, self-serving, and harming, committed by a group member influences an observer’s group directed behaviors. Drawing on the social identity theory, we identify the motivations to leave a group and avoid group members as critical group-oriented behaviors after observing a member’s unethical behavior. Furthermore, we posit the trust and threat as critical mechanisms that explain the observer’s reactions to different types of unethical intentions demonstrated by the perpetrator. We hypothesize that the unethical behavior with the harming intent will have the strongest effect, followed by the unethical behaviors committed with the self-serving and prosocial intentions. These hypotheses were empirically tested by online experimental studies using the scenario and critical incident methods; . This paper highlights the importance of identifying distinct motives (i.e., pro-group, self-serving, or harming) of unethical behaviors that occur in a group setting, which can involve distinct social identity processes that possess unique group-directed implications.
Varying Effects of Unethical Pro-group Behavior on Team and Individual Performances: Abusive Supervision as a Critical Contingency
Working Paper.
Abstract +
The current study hypothesizes and tests how unethical pro-group behavior (UPB) of individual employees predict individual and team performance in a heterologous way. Drawing on the behavioral ethics literature and cognitive energetics theory, this study further identifies abusive supervision as a critical boundary condition that accentuates the heterogeneous relationship between UPB and performances at the individual- and team-levels. The current conceptual framework was empirically tested by 56 teams consisted of 186 Korean employees. Analytic results from multi-level and regression analysis reveal that UPB by individual employee is a significant and negative predictor of individual task performance, which tends to be strong in teams with a highly abusive leader. Collective UPB at teams shows a significantly positive effect on team performance, and this effect was driven primarily by teams with a highly abusive leader. The current theoretical and empirical analysis highlights the multi-level nature of UPB and its performance implications.
Improv intervention and team processes
Working Paper. With Elijah Wee, Bruce Avolio, and Kendall Yamamoto