Promoting Work Motivation in Organizations
Should Employee Involvement in Organizational Leadership Become a New Tool in the Organizational Psychologist’s Kit?
Abstract
What are the best interventions that Work and Organizational Psychology offers today for promoting high work motivation in organizations? This paper seeks to answer this question in two steps. First, we briefly summarize the main findings from 26 meta-analyses concerned with traditional practices such as goal setting, feedback, work design, financial incentives, or training. These practices can improve both organizational performance and the well-being of organizational members. Second, we examine in more depth a new, increasingly important high performance work practice: Employee involvement in organizational leadership (EIOL). This approach is built on theories focusing on organizational participation, shared leadership, and organizational democracy. We also illustrate recently constructed measurement instruments for assessing these constructs. This synopsis leads us to the development of a new integrative, multilevel model of EIOL. The model includes several mediator (e.g., knowledge exchange) and moderator variables (e.g., self-leadership competencies of actors) that explain why and when this approach is effective. We conclude that future research should focus on cross-level interactions of different forms of organizational participation, shared leadership, and organizational democracy, and seek to identify the processes mediating their interplay.
References
(1992). Bridging the boundary: External process and performance in organizational teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 527–548.
(2003). Effectiveness of training in organizations: A meta-analysis of design and evaluation features. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 234–245.
(1996). Building highly developed teams: Focusing on shared leadership process, efficacy, trust, and performance”. In , Advances in Interdisciplinary studies of work teams: Team leadership (pp. 173–209). New York, NY: US Elsevier Science/JAI Press.
(2009). Leadership: Current theories, research and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 421–449.
(2010). Beyond the demand-control model. Thriving on high job demands and resources. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9, 3–16.
(1999). Flexible and compressed workweek schedules: A meta-analysis on their effects on work-related criteria. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 496–513.
(1996). Development of leader-member exchange: A longitudinal test. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 1538–1567.
(2003). Participation, cooperatives and performance: An analysis of Spanish manufacturing firms. In , The determinants of the incidence and the effects of participatory organizations. Advances in the economic analysis of participatory and labor-managed firms (pp. 31–56). New York, NY: Elsevier.
(1983). Workplace democratization – Its internal dynamics. NJ, USA: Transaction Books.
(2007). Workplace emotions: The role of supervision and leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1357–1367.
(2009). Employee empowerment. From managerial practices to employees’ behavioral empowerment. Leadership & Organization, 30, 625–638.
(2008). A meta-analysis of relationships linking employee satisfaction to customer responses. Journal of Retailing, 84, 243–255.
(2006). What type of leadership behaviours are functional in teams? A meta-analysis. Leadership Quarterly, 17, 88–307.
(2007). Shared Leadership in Teams: An investigation of antecedent conditions and performance. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1217–1234.
(2006). Emergent leadership in self-managed virtual teams: A longitudinal study of concentrated and shared leadership behaviours. Group Decision and Negotiation, 14, 323–343.
(2006). Political participation and the workplace: The spillover thesis revisited. British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 8, 410–426.
(1998). Participation in the performance appraisal process and employee reactions: A meta-analytical review of field investigations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 615–633.
(2004). The effectiveness of managerial leadership development programs: A meta-analysis of studies from 1982 to 2001. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 217–248.
(2001). Justice at the millenium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 425–445.
(2007). Trust, trustworthiness and trust propensity: A meta-analytic test of their unique relationship with risk taking and job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 909–927.
(2006). How much do high-performance work practices matter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel Psychology, 59, 501–528.
(2010). The impact of autonomy and task uncertainty on team performance: A longitudinal filed study. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 31, 240–258.
(2007). The management of organizational justice. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21, 34–48.
(1985). A preface to economic democracy. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
(2006). Leadership in team-based organizations: On the threshold of a new era. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 211–216.
(1999). Effects of reward on intrinsic motivation – Negative, neutral and positive: Comments on Deci, Koestner and Ryan (1999). Psychological Bulletin, 125, 677–691.
(1981). Political efficacy at work: The connection between more autonomous forms of workplace organization and a more participatory politics. American Political Science Review, 75, 43–58.
(2006). The importance of vertical and shared leadership within new venture top management teams: Implications for the performance of startups. Leadership Quarterly, 17, 217–231.
(2009). Trust repair after an organization-level failure. Academy of Management Review, 34, 127–145.
(2010). Measuring and modelling shared leadership: Traditional approaches and new ideas. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 9, 172–180.
(1996). Industrial work and political participation: Beyond ‘‘simple spillover’’. Political Research Quarterly, 49, 305–330.
(2000). A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: Update, moderator tests and research implications for the next millennium. Journal of Management, 26, 463–488.
(2002). Collective influence strategies as a unit of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 13, 423–451.
(2002). A meta-analysis of team-efficacy, potency, and performance: Interdependence and level of analysis as moderators of observed relationship. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 819–832.
(1990). New developments in profit sharing, gain sharing, and employee ownership. In , Productivity in Organizations (pp. 328–366). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
(2003). Workaholism: Its definition and nature. Human Relations, 56, 292–320.
(2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction involvement, and business outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 268–279.
(2009). Are we on a learning curve or a treadmill? The benefits of participative group goal setting become apparent as tasks become increasingly challenging over time. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 430–446.
(2002). Empowerment, span of control and safety performance in work safety teams after workforce reduction. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6, 275–282.
(1998). Influence at work: A 25-year program. Human Relations, 51, 1425–1456.
(2003). Participation and power: A critical assessment. Applied Psychology, 52, 144–163.
(1998). Organizational participation. Myth and reality. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
(1976). The Demand for Participation among Employees. Human Relations, 29, 411–428.
(2006). Mitarbeiterkapitalbeteiligung. Zum Stand der Forschung zu den psychologischen Effekten
[Employees’ capital shares. State of the research on psychological effects] . Arbeit, 15, 246–258.(2007). Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytical summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1332–1356.
. (1981). Industrial democracy in Europe. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
. (1993). Industrial democracy in Europe revisited. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
(1998). Are financial incentives related to performance? A meta-analytic review of empirical research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 777–787.
(2003). Participatory approaches to strategy and research in shift work intervention. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomic Science, 4, 289–301.
(2010). Employee attitudes to the distribution of organizational influence: Who should have most influence on which issues?. Economic and Industrial Democracy. Forthcoming.
(2006). Participation and prevention: When organizing shift work at company level in various European countries. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.
(2003). The effects of psychological contract breach and organizational cynicism: Not all social exchange violations are created equal. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 24, 627–647.
(2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 755–768.
(2004). The forgotten ones? The validity of consideration and initiating structure in leadership research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 36–51.
(2001). The job satisfaction – Job performance relationship: A qualitative and quantitative review. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 376–407.
(2008). Demokratie dynamisch: Demokratische Strukturen in Wirtschaft und Gemeinde
[Democracy dynamic: Democratic structures in economy and community] . Wien: Braumüller.(1999). Goal commitment and the goal setting process: Conceptual clarification and empirical synthesis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 64, 885–896.
(2009). The effects of goal setting on group performance: A meta-analysis. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Paper presented at the WAOP conference.
(1996). The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 254–284.
(2009). Self-leadership in organizational teams: A multi-level analysis of moderators and mediators. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 18, 322–346.
(2006). Enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7, 77–124.
(1994). Research on employee participation: Beating a dead horse?. Academy of Management Review, 19, 633–636.
(1990). Employee participation in decision-making: An analysis of the perceptions of members and non-members of quality circles. Journal of Business and Psychology, 4, 411–422.
(1990). A theory of goal setting and task performance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
(2008). Organizational culture of participation. Development and validation of a measure. German Journal of Human Resource Research, 22, 195–215.
(2009). Wenn Mitarbeiter nur noch an ihre Arbeit denken – Die Schattenseite der Beteiligungskultur?
[When co-workers always have their work in mind – The dark side of an organizational culture of participation?] . Wirtschaftspsychologie, 11.(1990). Technical training and enterprise: Mondragon`s educational system and its implication for other cooperatives. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 11, 505–528.
(2006). Two decades of self-leadership theory and research. Past developments, present trends, and future possibilities. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21, 270–295.
(1998). The value of feedback and goal setting over goal setting alone and potential moderators of this effect: A meta-analysis. Human Performance, 11, 321–335.
(2006). Organizational citizenship behaviour. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2003). The promise and pitfalls of shared leadership: When two (or more) heads are better than one. In , Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership. (pp. 250–265). Thousand Oaks, CA:: Sage.
(2000). Teamwork in multi-person systems: A review and analysis. Ergonomics, 43, 1052–1075.
(1992). Participation, individual development, and organizational change: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 18, 375–397.
(1970). Participation and democratic theory. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
(
1997 ). The determinants of change management team effectiveness: A longitudinal investigation.Unpublished doctoral dissertation . College Park, MD: University of Maryland.(2004). The future of leadership: Combining vertical and shared leadership to transform knowledge work. Academy of Management Executive, 18, 47–57.
(2008). Follow the Leaders. Wall Street Journal, B8, 12.
(2003). All those years ago: The historical underpinnings of shared leadership. In , Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership (pp. 1–18). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2005). The new silver bullets of leadership: The importance of self and shared leadership in knowledge work. Organizational Dynamics, 34, 130–140.
(2009). Where do we go from here? Is shared leadership the key to team success? Organizational Dynamics, 38, 234–238.
(
in press ). Share the lead. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.(2002). Vertical versus shared leadership as predictors of the effectiveness of change management teams: An examination of aversive, directive, transactional, transformational, and empowering leader behaviours. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 6, 172–197.
(2004). Leadership, social work and virtual teams: The relative influence of vertical vs. shared leadership in the nonprofit sector. In , Improving leadership in nonprofit organizations (pp. 180–203). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
(2007). Effects of participation in decision making on performance and employee attitudes: A quality circle meta-analysis. Journal of Business Psychology, 22, 145–153.
(2010). Building sustainable organizations: The human factor. Academy of Management Perspectives, 24, 34–45.
(2006). Relationships between leader reward and punishment behaviour and subordinate attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours: A meta-analytic review of existing and new research. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 99, 113–142.
(2008). The Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 540–567.
(1988). Effects of group feedback, goal setting, and incentives on organizational productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73, 337–358.
(2010). Beteiligungskultur und die veränderungsbezogenen Einstellungen der Mitarbeiter
[Organizational culture of participation and the employees’ attitudes towards organizational change processes] . Munich, Germany: Hampp.(2006). Teamwork and associated psychological factors: A review. Work & Stress, 20, 105–128.
(2002). Perceived organizational support: A review of the Literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 698–714.
(2008). Effects of occupational stress management intervention programs: A meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 13, 69–93.
(2005). Organizational identification: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 66, 358–384.
(1991). Impact of management by objectives on organizational productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 322–336.
(2009). Worker’s cooperatives and social enterprise: A forgotten route to social equity and democracy. American Behavioural Scientist, 52, 1023–1041.
(1998). Introduction to special topic forum: Not so different after all: A cross-discipline view of trust. Academy of Management Review, 23, 393–404.
(
2006 ). Collectivity and influence: The nature of shared leadership and its relationship with team learning orientation, vertical leadership and team effectiveness.Unpublished doctoral dissertation . Washington, DC: George Washington University.(1999). The effect of team building on performance. An integration. Small Group Research, 30, 309–329.
(1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
(1993). Die österreichischen Produktivgenossenschaften – Selbstverwaltung als besondere Form der Mitarbeiterbeteiligung
[The Austrian workers’ cooperatives – self-management as a specific form of employee paricipation] . In . Arbeitnehmer als Eigentümer (S.117–140). Wien: Orac/Kremager & Scherian.(2003). Shared leadership in the management of group boundaries: A study of expulsions from officers’ training courses. In , Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership. (pp. 235–249). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(1997). Overview of the relationship between organisation and workplace factors and injury rates. Safety Science, 26, 201–217.
(2005). Workers Commitment to Safety and Work Accidents: The contribution of safety as a value-in-use. In , Occupational health psychology (pp. 378–383). Maia: ISMAI Publishers.
(2005). Safety as an organizational value: improving safety practices and learning from accident. In , Advances in safety and reliability (pp. 1817–1824). London: Taylor & Francis.
(2010). Metaanalysen. In , Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Arbeitspsychologie. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
(2008). Leadership style and team processes in self-managed teams. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 14, 332.
(2003). Reducing subjectivity in the assessment of the job environment: Development of the factual autonomy scale (FAS). Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 24, 417–432.
(2007). Giving peace a chance: Organizational leadership, empowerment, and peace. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 28, 1077–1095.
(2005). Employee cynicism and resistance to organizational change. Journal of Business and Psychology, 19, 429–459.
(1998). Participation works – If conditions are appropriate. In , Organizational participation – Myth or reality (pp. 191–219). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
(2004). The effect of teamwork on safety processes and outcomes. In , The psychology of workplace safety. Washington, DC: Sage.
(2007). Leadership and fairness: The state of the art. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16, 113–140.
(2004). Demokratisierung und Humanisierung der Arbeit – ein Überblick
[Industrial democracy and humanization of work – A review] . In , Wirtschaft, Demokratie und Soziale Verantwortung (S.105–143). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.(1999). Effects of participation on performance and satisfaction: Additional meta-analytic evidence. Psychological Reports, 84, 719–725.
(2010). Shared leadership meets virtual teams: A match made in cyberspace. In , Leadership in the digital enterprise: Issues and challenges (pp. 15–27). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
(1999). Organisationale Demokratie – Anregungen für innovative Arbeitsformen jenseits bloßer Partizipation?
[Organizational democracy – proposals for innovative forms of work beyond mere participation?] . Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft, 53, 270–281.(2008). Socio-moral atmosphere and prosocial and democratic value orientations in enterprises with different levels of structurally anchored participation. German Journal of Research in Human Resource Management, 22, 171–194.
(2009). The influence of organizational democracy on employees’ socio-moral climate and prosocial behaviour orientations. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 30, 1127–1149.
(2000). Participation in group goal setting: Some novel findings and a comprehensive model as a new ending to an old story. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 49, 498–516.
(2004). Führung von Arbeitsgruppen
[Leadership or work teams] . Göttingen: Hogrefe.(2006). A test of basic assumptions of Affective Events Theory (AET) in call centre work. British Journal of Management, 17, 237–254.
(2003). Cooperation and teamwork for innovation. In , International Handbook of Organizational Teamwork and Cooperative Working (pp. 297–319). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
(2009). Recent developments in reflexivity research: A review. Psychology of Everyday Activity, 2, 2–11.
(2006). A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of pay level satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 392–413.
(1989). Participation behaviour and personal growth. In , Self-realization, success, and adjustment (pp. 77–90). New York, NY: Praeger.
(2002). Leadership in organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
(1999). Determinants of delegation and consultation by managers. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 20, 219–232.
(2004). Employee participation and productivity. Labour Economics, 11, 715–740.
(2008). Works councils and the productivity effects of different continuing training measures. Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft. 137–149.
