Situational Strength Cues from Social Sources at Work: Relative Importance and Mediated Effects

Abstract

Situational strength is considered one of the most important situational forces at work because it can attenuate the personality–performance relationship. Although organizational scholars have studied the consequences of situational strength, they have paid little attention to its antecedents. To address this gap, the current study focused on situational strength cues from different social sources as antecedents of overall situational strength at work. Specifically, we examined how employees combine situational strength cues emanating from three social sources (i.e., coworkers, the immediate supervisor, and top management). Based on field theory, we hypothesized that the effect of situational strength from coworkers and immediate supervisors (i.e., proximal sources of situational strength) on employees' perceptions of overall situational strength on the job would be greater than the effect of situational strength from the top management (i.e., the distal source of situational strength). We also hypothesized that the effect of situational strength from the distal source would be mediated by the effects of situational strength from the proximal sources. Data from 363 full-time employees were collected at two time points with a cross-lagged panel design. The former hypothesis was supported for one of the two situational strength facets studied. The latter hypothesis was fully supported.

How and When Does Psychological Wellbeing Contribute to Proactive Performance? The Role of Social Resources and Job Characteristics

“…These social interactions can involve the supervisor, coworkers, or more distal organizational representatives. Yet, because supervisors and coworkers are more accessible [ 40 ], it is easier for employees to develop exchange relationships with them to constitute ongoing resources. As such, LMX and TMX are general resources reflecting functional vertical (e.g., LMX) and horizontal (e.g., TMX) exchange relationships that can be leveraged for enacting proactive performance.…”

Personality Consistency and Situational Influences on Behavior

“…Future research should simultaneously examine these two perspectives on situational strength with the intent of determining the circumstances under which empirical results are better characterized by each perspective. The mediation perspective also suggests that nascent attempts to examine the antecedents of situational strength (Alaybek, Dalal, Sheng, Morris, Tomassetti, & Holland 2017) should feature not just situational but also personality antecedents.…”

Toward a Model of Situations and Their Context

“…Again, due to lack of "action at a distance," the influence of this kind of contextual factor must be mediated through a situational factor. In support of this distinction, there is some evidence that distal normative influences on a situation are weaker than, and mediated through, proximal sources (Alaybek et al, 2017).…”