Management & Organization
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2257
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Item A Prosocial Contributor or Status Grabber? How and Why Newcomer Proactive Knowledge Sharing with Coworkers Impacts Inclusion Perceptions via Ambivalent Coworker Attributions(2023) Guan, Zhishuang; Liao, Hui HL; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Newcomers are often referred to as the “new blood” because they represent a source of fresh, unique, task-relevant knowledge that potentially adds value to organizations. In this research, I focus on newcomer proactive knowledge sharing with coworkers and investigate how it impacts the transition of newcomers from outsiders to insiders. Integrating attribution theory and the status characteristics theory, I propose that newcomer proactive knowledge sharing with coworkers triggers coworkers’ ambivalent attributions (i.e., perceiving it to be driven simultaneously by newcomers’ prosocial and status-striving motives). Furthermore, the ambivalent attributions affect the extent to which coworkers provide socialization support and utilize the newcomer’s knowledge, eventually exerting different influences on the newcomer’s inclusion perceptions. The results of a multi-wave (i.e., four waves) and multi-source (i.e., survey data from newcomers and coworkers) longitudinal study based on 336 newcomers in a large technology company support the proposed serial mediating relationships between newcomer proactive knowledge sharing with coworkers and their inclusion perceptions via coworkers’ ambivalent attributions and behavioral reactions. The data also demonstrates that leader encouragement of learning is a viable leader strategy that makes coworkers more likely to interpret newcomer proactive knowledge sharing is driven by prosocial motives. This research has significant implications both theoretically and practically. From a theoretical perspective, it advances our understanding of newcomer socialization, knowledge sharing, and workplace inclusion. From a practical perspective, it helps newcomers better navigate the process of knowledge sharing by illuminating potential social consequences. Practitioners can leverage these insights to create more inclusive onboarding experiences for new employees.Item Performance tip-sharing: When, and how, do employees share their insights?(2006-11-15) Burnett, Meredith Flowers; Shapiro, Debra L.; Management and Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of my dissertation is to expand understanding about when, and how, employees share performance-tips-- that is, when employees will more frequently disclose to their colleagues (in organizationally-targeted or coworker-targeted ways) the new ideas that they have discovered in the process of working that improve their work tasks (e.g., ideas that help employees to work faster, more efficiently, with fewer mistakes, etc.) for the purpose of helping others in the same job to complete work or solve problems to improve efficiency or quality. Current literature suggests that this is more likely to occur when employees: (1) feel more rather than less obligated toward their organization and (2) believe that sharing performance-tips will benefit, not harm, them. The conceptual problem I resolve in this dissertation regards my belief that the latter assumptions are overly simplistic since the effect of any one of them seems likely to depend on the presence or absence of the other factors and on what type of performance-sharing (coworker-targeted vs. organizationally-targeted) is occurring. Via a field-survey of employees in the information-technology industry, I test the more complex set of relationships I theorize as predictors of the frequency and type of performance-tip sharing that employees engage in. I conclude with the theoretical and practical implications of my findings.