Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Authenticity serves as the key foundation for social interactions. Nevertheless, upon joining an organization, employees are often socialized to regulate and conceal their true selves. Such inauthentic displays not only make the employees stressful, but also bring substantial loss to the companies. Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of both public and academic interest in authenticity at work. Taking a self-based perspective, prior research has focused mainly on personal authenticity. However, authenticity has an inherent orientation towards interpersonal relationship. That is, people may display different levels of authenticity depending on the nature of the interpersonal relationships. To extend the current literature, therefore, this research adopted a socio-relational perspective to propose the concept of interpersonal authenticity. Moreover, grounding on the review of current literature, we postulate that interpersonal authenticity consists of three critical components: cognitive, behavioral, and social. The cognitive component mainly focuses on the knowledge and processing of self-concept. The behavioral component reflects in autonomous behaviors which convey internal values, conscious feelings, and true self. The social component emphasizes honesty in social interactions and the response to social pressure. A comprehensive model was developed to understand how interpersonal authenticity may influence coworker interactions. Building on social penetration theory and behavioral script theory, we develop a theoretical account of how interpersonal authenticity may help focal employees be socially included and well-liked by coworkers and reap the benefit of getting higher status. Social penetration theory states that people tend to draw close to those who reveal their true selves because interacting with them constitute a rewarding experience and thus increase interpersonal closeness. As employees display authenticity in their interactions with coworkers, the coworkers see the employees as open and vulnerable and thus socially include them because openness and vulnerability suggest a willingness to be involved in an interpersonal relationship and also reduces the interpersonal risk, such as betrayal, for the coworkers. Such social inclusion may enhance the employees’ influence on group decisions, that is, increase their social status in the group. People sometimes are expected to “wear a mask” and act in a desired manner at work. Interpersonal authenticity may not be necessarily functional in facilitating social inclusion under this condition. We, thus, introduce a key contextual moderator: political climate of the work groups. We argue that the positive influence of interpersonal authenticity on social status via social inclusion will be stronger when the work environment has a weak political climate. Meanwhile, interpersonal authenticity conveys a positive meaning in interpersonal relationships, and thus can lead to interpersonal liking from coworkers. Behavioral script theory posits that people compare a particular behavior with related expectation in the social context to understand the social meaning of this behavior. And, the theory further suggests that such expectation may be shaped by the behavioral pattern of the actor. Since personality trait represents a relatively stable behavioral pattern, we believe that the personality trait of the focal employees may influence whether interpersonal authenticity is acceptable to coworkers. We argue that the effect of interpersonal authenticity on social status via interpersonal liking may be moderated by the dark triad of the employees such that this effect is weaker when the employees have a high level of dark triad. Furthermore, we draw from face-negotiation theory to argue that interpersonal authenticity makes the focal employees concern less about saving face. In this sense, we postulate that interpersonal authenticity may be negatively related to face-concern. And this theory argues that a low level of face concern will be more of an issue under the condition of conflict. We thus further suggest that when team conflict climate is high, interpersonal authenticity may lead to interpersonal exclusion by decreasing the employees’ face-concern. Overall, the research model helps us clarify how and when employees benefit from their interpersonal authenticity in coworker interactions, providing practical implications in building a work environment that encourages employees to be authentic.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： There has been an upsurge of both public and academic interest in authenticity at work. The key assumption in the burgeoning literature is that authenticity helps engender trust and decrease suspicion, thus drawing people closer to each other. In this study, however, we argued that employee authenticity can exert both positive and negative influences on coworker relationships. Using interpersonal help and interpersonal exclusion to represent positive and negative coworker interactions, respectively, we postulated that employee authenticity induces both coworkers’ helping and exclusionary behaviors toward the focal employees. Building on social penetration theory and the literature of attributional ambiguity, we proposed suspicion of ulterior motives and knowledge- based trust to be the theoretical mechanisms explaining coworkers’ behavioral responses to employee authenticity. Further, we suggested that coworkers’ behavioral responses to employee authenticity depend largely on the coworker relationship duration. Specifically, when relationships are new, employee authenticity may cause coworkers to mistrust the focal employees and be suspicious of their ulterior motives, thus decreasing coworkers’ helping behavior and increasing exclusionary behavior. Conversely, when coworkers have worked together for a long time, employee authenticity may increase coworkers’ trust in the focal employees and decrease suspicion, thus facilitating helping behavior and reducing exclusionary behavior. We conducted two independent studies to examine the hypothesized effects. First, a two-wave round-robin survey study was conducted to test the mediating role of suspicion of ulterior motives in the relationship between employee authenticity and coworkers’ behavioral responses. In the round-robin design, the team members rated each of their teammates, thus capturing the dyadic interactions between the focal employees and coworkers. We collected data from 299 members of 63 work teams in a large company. The final sample consisted of 1027 dyads. To alleviate the effects of common method bias, we used multiple data sources to measure our variables. Employee authenticity and suspicion of ulterior motives were assessed using self-reports at Time 1. Interpersonal helping behavior was measured using other-rating and exclusionary behavior with self-reports at Time 2. Coworker relationship duration was measured at both times. In Study 2, an experimental study was conducted to test the full model. Employee authenticity and the coworker relationship duration were manipulated. Specifically, the critical incident technique was used to identify the focal employees whose authenticity was high or low and whose relationship duration with the participants was long or short. The participants served as coworkers and were asked to answer questions about the focal employees. The measures used were adapted from Study 1. In support of the theoretical model, the results showed that the coworker relationship duration moderated the effect of employee authenticity on coworkers’ suspicion of ulterior motives and knowledge-based trust. Employee authenticity was related positively to suspicion and negatively to trust when the relationship duration was short, and related negatively to suspicion and positively to trust when the relationship duration was long. Further, suspicion of ulterior motives was related to interpersonal exclusionary behavior, and knowledge-based trust to interpersonal helping behavior. This research advances the existing understanding of authenticity in three aspects. First, research on coworker relationships has focused largely on social exchange and similarity attraction theories and suggested that employee authenticity facilitates positive coworker interactions. Our study departs from the main perspectives and builds on social penetration theory to propose that time is required for authenticity to exert its positive influence on coworker interaction. Second, our study contributes to social penetration theory in general. This theory was proposed and has been used mainly to explicate how self-disclosure in communication advances interpersonal relationships. This research uses the theory to understand whether and how the action of manifesting one’s inner true self (employee authenticity) affects coworker interactions. Third, this study helps reconcile the inconsistent findings regarding how coworkers react to employee authenticity by stressing the moderating role of the coworker relationship duration.
Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2022-01-21
Abstract：
There has been an upsurge of both public and academic interest in authenticity at work. The key assumption in the burgeoning literature is that authenticity helps engender trust and decrease suspicion, thus drawing people closer to each other. In this study, however, we argued that employee authenticity can exert both positive and negative influences on coworker relationships. Using interpersonal help and interpersonal exclusion to represent positive and negative coworker interactions, respectively, we postulated that employee authenticity induces both coworkers’ helping and exclusionary behaviors toward the focal employees. Building on social penetration theory and the literature of attributional ambiguity, we proposed suspicion of ulterior motives and knowledge-based trust to be the theoretical mechanisms explaining coworkers’ behavioral responses to employee authenticity. Further, we suggested that coworkers’ behavioral responses to employee authenticity depend largely on the coworker relationship duration. Specifically, when relationships are new, employee authenticity may cause coworkers to mistrust the focal employees and be suspicious of their ulterior motives, thus decreasing coworkers’ helping behavior and increasing exclusionary behavior. Conversely, when coworkers have worked together for a long time, employee authenticity may increase coworkers’ trust in the focal employees and decrease suspicion, thus facilitating helping behavior and reducing exclusionary behavior.
We conducted two independent studies to examine the hypothesized effects. First, a two-wave round-robin survey study was conducted to test the mediating role of suspicion of ulterior motives in the relationship between employee authenticity and coworkers’ behavioral responses. In the round-robin design, the team members rated each of their teammates, thus capturing the dyadic interactions between the focal employees and coworkers. We collected data from 299 members of 63 work teams in a large company. The final sample consisted of 1,027 dyads. To alleviate the effects of common method bias, we used multiple data sources to measure our variables. Employee authenticity and suspicion of ulterior motives were assessed using self-reports at Time 1. Interpersonal helping behavior was measured using other-rating and exclusionary behavior with self-reports at Time 2. Coworker relationship duration was measured at both times. In Study 2, an experimental study was conducted to test the full model. Employee authenticity and the coworker relationship duration were manipulated. Specifically, the critical incident technique was used to identify the focal employees whose authenticity was high or low and whose relationship duration with the participants was long or short. The participants served as coworkers and were asked to answer questions about the focal employees. The measures used were adapted from Study 1.
In support of the theoretical model, the results showed that the coworker relationship duration moderated the effect of employee authenticity on coworkers’ suspicion of ulterior motives and knowledge-based trust. Employee authenticity was related positively to suspicion and negatively to trust when the relationship duration was short, and related negatively to suspicion and positively to trust when the relationship duration was long. Further, suspicion of ulterior motives was related to interpersonal exclusionary behavior, and knowledge-based trust to interpersonal helping behavior. This research advances the existing understanding of authenticity in three aspects. First, research on coworker relationships has focused largely on social exchange and similarity attraction theories and suggested that employee authenticity facilitates positive coworker interactions. Our study departs from the main perspectives and builds on social penetration theory to propose that time is required for authenticity to exert its positive influence on coworker interaction. Second, our study contributes to social penetration theory in general. This theory was proposed and has been used mainly to explicate how self-disclosure in communication advances interpersonal relationships. This research uses the theory to understand whether and how the action of manifesting one’s inner true self (employee authenticity) affects coworker interactions. Third, this study helps reconcile the inconsistent findings regarding how coworkers react to employee authenticity by stressing the moderating role of the coworker relationship duration.
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