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This study aims to examine how the fear of appearing incompetent (FAI) and competency pressure relates to negotiation tactics and subjective perceptions in a negotiation.

Using a dyadic buyer/seller negotiation simulation and pre- and post-negotiation questionnaires, we assessed FAI, competency pressure, tactics and subjective perceptions of the negotiation. Mediation models were tested using path analysis adapted from Hayes (2013) PROCESS procedures. MPlus “complex” multi-level function was used to account for non-independence of observations.

Results indicated that those with a higher FAI perceive more competency pressure, which is associated with greater use of competitive tactics (e.g. misrepresenting own interest, holding back information, making unreasonable offers) and lesser use of cooperative tactics (e.g. sharing helpful information, making reasonable offers, compromising). Tactics used in the negotiation mediated the relationship between competency pressure and subjective perception of the negotiation, such that competitive tactics were negatively related, and cooperative tactics were significantly positively related to subjective perception of the negotiation.

Reliability on the cooperative tactics measure was only minimally acceptable and all measures were self-report and collected during a single lab simulation session.

The findings suggest that relieving competency pressure in negotiation settings could open avenues for cooperation. Gaining expertise through formal negotiation training may be one way to accomplish this.

This is the first known study to investigate FAI and competency pressure in a negotiation setting. We draw on an emotion–cognition–behavior framework to show that FAI is associated with competency pressure thoughts, which predict negotiation behaviors. Further, this research lends support to the notion that competitive tactics are fundamental to the mental model of a negotiation.

This study aims to explore the consequences of inconsistent diversity-related signals for job seekers. Information sources include strategically crafted corporate signals and independent sources. The authors seek to understand the effect of inconsistent diversity signals on job seekers attitudes and behavior during recruitment.

An experiment was conducted wherein two samples from job-seeking populations were first exposed to a fictitious corporate website and then to LinkedIn profiles of that organization’s employees, with systematically varied diversity signals.

Results demonstrated that conflicting diversity signals had negative effects on perceived organizational attractiveness in the student sample (N = 427) and on organizational agreeableness in the working sample (N = 243). Negative organizational attraction was related to a lower likelihood of participants applying.

This work provides a stark but an important message to practitioners: signaling diversity-related values on corporate websites may backfire for organizations that actually lack diversity.

Few studies have combined communication theories with recruitment to examine the link between diversity signals and inconsistent information gathered via social media.

Research indicates that inconsistent gender norm presentations are met with backlash, which is particularly damaging to women. With social media use in selection rising, it is important to understand if this remains consistent for job applicants on social media.

In two experiments, this study investigates hiring managers' reactions to job applicant (in)consistent gender norm-based communication on Facebook (n = 197) and YouTube (n = 203). Participants located in the United States were asked to review social media materials, reported perceptions of task and social attraction, and make hiring recommendations.

Inconsistent with work on backlash in face-to-face settings, results demonstrated that masculine communication styles on social media may be detrimental to job seekers, and this was more pronounced for male job seekers. Feminine presentation styles had more favorable results.

The findings challenge the long-held understanding that men have more leeway to behave in agentic ways in job seeking contexts. While this may remain true in face-to-face settings, these findings suggest that social media, lacking media richness, may be a context in which males experience backlash for agentic behavior.

The research offers a novel perspective investigating traditional gender expectations in the digital realm, paving the way for a more comprehensive understanding of gender in employment contexts. This study contributes to the growing body of research on online behavior and expands understanding of how hiring managers react to gender norms in the era of social media.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the sub-dimensions of political skill and transformational leadership, arguing that in a Chinese sample, social astuteness, networking ability, and interpersonal influence will have a stronger impact than apparent sincerity. Additionally, transformational leadership is argued to mediate the relationship between leader political skill and subordinate job performance.

This study used a dyadic, cross-sectional design where all data were collected at a single point in time and supervisors were matched to their followers.

The results support that transformational leadership mediates the relationship between leader political skill and follower performance. Additionally, social astuteness was positively related to leader charisma, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation; whereas, interpersonal influence was related to leader charisma and intellectual stimulation. Apparent sincerity was not related to perceptions of transformational leadership.

The findings imply that the authors might be able to design more customized training to reduce the costs of leadership development programs. Specially, in China, focus should be paid to increasing social astuteness and interpersonal influence only.

This study is one of the few to examine the relationship between the sub-dimensions of political skill and transformational leadership. This is especially noteworthy in the context of the Chinese sample employed, as most political skill research has been done in western contexts.

This chapter presents an investigation of the relationship between psychological entitlement and stress. Empirical and conceptual evidence is considered suggesting that Conservation of Resources (COR) theory may apply differently to employees with a heightened sense of entitlement. Using attribution and COR theory, a conceptual framework is offered predicting that entitlement is positively associated with subjective stress, based on the logic that psychologically entitled employees develop unjustifiably inflated levels of self-evaluative internal coping resources such as self-esteem and self-efficacy that promote unmet expectations. It is also proposed that political skill and the ability to manage perceptions of competency may attenuate this relationship. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges associated with managing psychologically entitled employees.

Coalitions are informal and interdependent groups of actors operating within organizations, yet their effects in organizations are not widely understood. In this paper, we develop a model of coalition formation and functioning inside organizations. By extrapolating the behavioral intentions (i.e., altruistic or antagonistic) and compositional differences (i.e., supplementary or complementary) among these informal group structures, we classify coalitions into four forms (i.e., lobby, cartel, circle, and alliance), theorizing how each coalition form affects work role innovation, resource allocations, and work performance. Our conceptualization helps clarify previous theoretical inconsistencies and establish an agenda for the study of coalitions at work. Furthermore, this paper provides insights into the ways that coalitions support or impede the organization’s objectives.

“Fit” as a human resources decision criterion has emerged as an active body of research in recent years, but its “elusiveness” as a scientific construct, noted more than a decade ago by Judge and Ferris, still remains. To best address this issue, this chapter proposes an integrative theory of multidimensional fit that encompasses five relevant (and distinct) streams of current fit research: Person-Organization Fit, Person-Vocation Fit, Person-Job Fit, Person-Preferences for Culture Fit, and Person-Team Fit. It is proposed that these five dimensions of fit relate to an individual's self-concept; moreover, an individual assesses multidimensional fit utilizing a social cognitive decision-making process called prototype matching. By assessing fit across multiple dimensions, an individual can both gain a social identity and expand the self-concept, which explains the motive to fit. Testable propositions are formulated, and implications for multidimensional fit across the employment lifecycle are discussed. Furthermore, directions for future fit research are provided.

The present study examined the relationships between P‐O fit, job satisfaction, perceived job mobility, and intent to turnover. It was hypothesized that job satisfaction mediated the P‐O fit‐intent to turnover relationship and that perceived job mobility moderated the job satisfaction‐intent to turnover relationship such that the combined effect of high job dissatisfaction and high perceived job mobility predicted intent to turnover.

Data were obtained utilizing a field survey from a sample of 205 full‐time employed adults working in two geographic regions in the USA. Participants completed an HTML‐based web survey that contained measures of the constructs of interest to this study.

Mediated and moderated regression analyses revealed statistical support for the hypothesized relationships, which were interpreted as evidence that P‐O misfit and job dissatisfaction do not necessarily lead to intent to turnover.

The potential for common method variability was present in the study, the impact of which could either attenuate or inflate estimated statistical relationships.

While P‐O fit researchers typically associate misfit with decreased job satisfaction and increased turnover, the present research suggests that intervening variables, such as job mobility, influence employee intentions to turnover.

The phenomenon of misfit is understudied in larger context of P‐O fit; thus this research represents one of the first studies in this area of research.

The current paper seeks to bring the political perspective to gender differences in promotion decisions, a phenomenon with great longevity in research and practice. Specifically, the degree to which gender role‐congruent and counterstereotypical influence behavior is related to liking as moderated by political skill.

Using a sample of n=136, these hypotheses were tested in retail organizations in the Northeast and Southwest.

Political skill significantly moderates the relationship between ingratiation and liking, such that use of ingratiation was positively related to liking when women were high in political skill. However, the relationship between assertiveness and liking was unchanged by political skill level and was unrelated to liking. Liking was consistently found to be positively related to promotability ratings.

Questionnaire data collection is used exclusively; however, the subordinate and supervisor data were collected at two different times.

The results are relevant for employees in that they imply a need for them to be cognizant of their behavior as it relates to social role expectations and for supervisors to understand the factors that could contribute to lower ratings.

The current results suggest that gender role‐congruent influence behavior is positively related to socially relevant evaluations (i.e. liking); thus, women whose behavior is consistent with social expectations may be more positively evaluated.

This study provides a political explanation for differences in women's promotability and also investigates mechanisms that may be related to reducing promotability disparity.