Browsing by Author "Zhu, Siyao"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Essays on workplace well-being
    (IE University, 2023-03-05) Zhu, Siyao; Jain, Kriti; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
    This thesis consists of three chapters that address different facets of employee well-being. Chapter 1 examines how employees make sense by seeking feedback from both leaders and coworkers. We propose that proactively seeking feedback from others in the workplace enables the sense-making process to encourage process regarding their own job/role and enhances the employee’s work meaningfulness. The enhanced work meaningfulness, in turn, drives employees to take personal initiatives at work, which then results in higher performance. We collected longitudinal data and used the latent change score (LCS) method to analyze the dynamic process. Chapter 2 tested how performance pressure intensifies envy towards the coworker and then leads to surface acting—a strategy of image management moderated by emotional intelligence. This research was done with both experiments and time-lagged survey studies. Chapter 3 argues that the follower’s work meaningfulness serves as the initiating factor of social exchange between the follower and the leader, which produces trust from the leader via enhanced task performance and organizational citizenship behavior oriented towards the organization (OCBO). In addition, there is a gender difference, such that the effect of work meaningfulness on task performance and OCBO and, sequentially, the leader's trust are stronger for male employees than for female employees. This study uses a multi-source (leader and follower) and multi-time survey design.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    The “sense” behind proactive behaviors: Feedback seeking, meaningfulness, and personal initiative
    (Elsevier, 2023-06-29) Jain, Kriti; Ma, Bin; Zhu, Siyao; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
    With organizations increasingly requiring employees to proactively manage their job and career, researchers have examined various proactive behaviors, such as feedback-seeking behavior and personal initiative. However, few studies have explored the relationships and dynamics among these behaviors. Based on sensemaking theory, this paper argues that employees' feedbackseeking behavior is positively associated with their performance through two stages: meaningfulness and personal initiative. Our hypotheses were tested and supported using two samples: 196 supervisor-subordinate dyads from one large organization in China (Study 1) and panel data of 207 full-time employees from the UK (Study 2). Our findings highlight the importance of recognizing the distinctiveness of different forms of proactive behavior and the synergistic way they contribute to performance. We also demonstrate that employees can seek feedback and construct meaningful work experiences in an agentic manner, which contributes to the literature on career crafting and career self-management.