Role ambiguity and perceptions of unfair performance appraisals: mitigating roles of personal resources

Abstract

Drawing from conservation of resources theory and attribution theory, this study adds to human resource literature by investigating the relationship between role ambiguity and employees’ beliefs that their performance is unfairly evaluated by their organization, as well as the buffering roles of relevant personal resources. In particular, the presence of unclear role descriptions may spur perceptions of unfair performance appraisals, but this process should be mitigated by organization‐specific experience and Islamic work values. Data from Pakistani firms offer empirical support for these hypothesized effects. From a practical perspective, the findings indicate that human resource managers who fail to provide clear role descriptions to employees can mitigate accompanying concerns about the presence of unfair performance evaluations, to the extent that they encourage employees to leverage valuable personal resources.

How career plateau beliefs and leader interpersonal unfairness harm job performance in dysfunctional organizational settings

“…Previous studies have used social exchange theory to establish that employees who operate in highly politicized work environments experience a violation of their exchange relationship with their employer, and the accompanying frustration negatively affects their current and future organizational functioning (Chang et al, 2012;Hsiung et al, 2012;Yang, Pandey, Liao, & Dobson, 2017). Prior research that draws from attribution theory also suggests that accusations of inadequate organizational support can be used to blame negative expected work outcomes on external causes (De Clercq et al, 2018;Schroth & Shah, 2000). We combined these two theories and added to this research stream by clarifying that blaming their employer for providing insufficient career support may help employees who operate in highly politicized work environments express their frustration about unmet exchange obligations by their employer.…”

“…That is, adverse work conditions may steer employees to attribute anticipated work challenges-resulting from dysfunctional political games in our study context-to the organization's general lack of support for their career-related well-being (Schroth & Shah, 2000;Zuckerman, 1979). Attribution theory complements social exchange theory by explicating that employees may blame their organization for insufficient career opportunities if they believe their organizational functioning is hampered by dysfunctional political games, which enables them to avoid responsibility for potential personal failures in this situation (De Clercq, Haq, & Azeem, 2018;Zuckerman, 1979).…”

Political skill and organizational identification: Preventing role ambiguity from hindering organizational citizenship behaviour

“…For example, if their job responsibilities are unclear, the boundary between formal job duties and voluntary behaviours gets blurred, resulting in greater perceived role breadth, which might increase employees' felt responsibility to dedicate some of their time to discretionary work behaviours (Fuller, Marler, & Hester, 2006;Morrison, 1994). Because the energy depletion associated with role ambiguity might not always lead to negative work outcomes, a continued need exists to investigate which contingency factors can contain its harmful effects (De Clercq, Haq, & Azeem, 2019;Eatough et al, 2011;Schmidt et al, 2014). We have addressed this issue by investigating the moderating roles of two key personal resources: political skill and organizational identification.…”

Impact of organizational mistreatment on employee performance in the hotel industry

“…Employees are, undeniably, important resources for organizations. Success of an organization depends on employee performance (Toban et al, 2014;De Clercq et al, 2019), particularly within the context of hotels (Saban et al, 2020). To date, most of the studies have only investigated the factors that enhance employee performance, while neglecting the adverse factors that undermine employee performance.…”

“…Further, interactional stressors faced by employees can adversely affect their behavior in an organization (Brotheridge and Grandey, 2002;Naseer et al, 2018). Stressful events in organizations have been proven to prevent employees from performing well in organizations (De Clercq et al, 2019), due to excessive cognitive, emotional and sometimes, physical demands exerted on individuals (Balk et al, 2020). However, only few study considered the organizational mistreatment factors on employee performance, such as workplace ostracism and bullying at workplace (Baranik et al, 2017;Robert, 2018;De Clercq et al, 2019;Shen et al, 2019).…”