The popularity contest at work: who wins, why, and what do they receive?

In 2 studies, the authors investigated the popularity of employees at work. They tested a model that positioned personality in the form of core self-evaluations and situational position in the form of communication network centrality as antecedents of popularity and interpersonal citizenship and counterproductive work behaviors received from coworkers as outcomes of popularity. Data from 116 employees and 383 coworkers in Study 1 and 139 employees, their significant others, and 808 coworkers in Study 2 generally supported the model. Core self-evaluations and communication network centrality were positively related to popularity, and popular employees reported receiving more citizenship behaviors and fewer counterproductive work behaviors from their coworkers than less popular employees, even controlling for interpersonal liking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

[1]  R. H. V. Zelst.  Worker Popularity and Job Satisfaction , 1951 .

[2]  Stanley Wasserman,et al.  Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications , 1994, Structural analysis in the social sciences.

[3]  J. Dutton,et al.  Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work , 2001 .

[4]  L. Freeman.  Centrality in social networks conceptual clarification , 1978 .

[5]  R. Zajonc.  Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. , 1968 .

[6]  C. Leaper,et al.  A Longitudinal Investigation of Sport Participation, Peer Acceptance, and Self-esteem among Adolescent Girls and Boys , 2006 .

[7]  J. Hunsley,et al.  The incremental validity of psychological testing and assessment: conceptual, methodological, and statistical issues. , 2003, Psychological assessment.

[8]  R. Cialdini,et al.  Basking in Reflected Glory: Three (Football) Field Studies , 1976 .

[9]  Gerald R. Ferris,et al.  Influence tactics, affect, and exchange quality in supervisor-subordinate interactions: A laboratory experiment and field study. , 1990 .

[10]  Daniel J. Brass,et al.  POTENTIAL POWER AND POWER USE: AN INVESTIGATION OF STRUCTURE AND BEHAVIOR , 1993 .

[11]  L. Roberts.  Response: Shifting the lens on organizational life: The added value of positive scholarship. , 2006 .

[12]  Paul E. Spector,et al.  An emotion-centered model of voluntary work behavior , 2002 .

[13]  James D. Westphal,et al.  The Other Pathway to the Boardroom: Interpersonal Influence Behavior as a Substitute for Elite Credentials and Majority Status in Obtaining Board Appointments , 2006 .

[14]  J. Dutton,et al.  Exploring positive relationships at work : building a theoretical and research foundation , 2007 .

[15]  R. Dalal.  A meta-analysis of the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[16]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  Work Groups and Teams in Organizations , 2003 .

[17]  J. Coie,et al.  A developmental perspective on peer rejection: mechanisms of stability and change. , 1999, Child development.

[18]  M. Rotundo.  The relative importance of task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance to global ratings of job performance: a policy-capturing approach. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  N. Bowling,et al.  Workplace harassment from the victim's perspective: a theoretical model and meta-analysis. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[20]  B. Niehoff,et al.  Organizational Behavior: The State of the Science (2nd ed.) , 2005 .

[21]  Paul R. Sackett,et al.  Counterproductive behaviors at work , 2001 .

[22]  Raymond T. Sparrowe,et al.  Social Networks and the Performance of Individuals and Groups , 2001 .

[23]  T. Judge,et al.  THE CORE SELF‐EVALUATIONS SCALE: DEVELOPMENT OF A MEASURE , 2003 .

[24]  G. Ladd,et al.  Peer relationships in child development. , 1989 .

[25]  L. Freeman,et al.  Cognitive Structure and Informant Accuracy , 1987 .

[26]  W. Damon,et al.  Social, emotional, and personality development , 1998 .

[27]  R. Burchfield.  Oxford English dictionary , 1982 .

[28]  Peter A. Bamberger,et al.  Status inconsistency in organizations: From social hierarchy to stress , 1993 .

[29]  Terence R. Mitchell,et al.  The effects of the social context on performance evaluations , 1982 .

[30]  W. Bukowski,et al.  Popularity and friendship: Issues in theory, measurement, and outcome. , 1989 .

[31]  T. Judge,et al.  The dispositional causes of job satisfaction : A core evaluations approach , 1997 .

[32]  P. Bliese.  Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis. , 2000 .

[33]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[34]  D. Krackhardt,et al.  Bringing the Individual Back in: A Structural Analysis of the Internal Market for Reputation in Organizations , 1994 .

[35]  D. Skarlicki,et al.  The effects of overhearing peers discuss an authority's fairness reputation on reactions to subsequent treatment. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[36]  M. T. Bradley,et al.  Social Withdrawal: Self-Efficacy, Happiness, and Popularity in Introverted and Extroverted Adolescents , 1998 .

[37]  I. Sigel,et al.  HANDBOOK OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY , 2006 .

[38]  Daniel W. Russell,et al.  Discriminant validation of measures of job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. , 1988 .

[39]  T. Farmer,et al.  Antisocial and Prosocial Correlates of Classroom Social Positions: The Social Network Centrality Perspective , 1996 .

[40]  A. Gouldner.  THE NORM OF RECIPROCITY: A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT * , 1960 .

[41]  Mohammad Muzahid Akbar,et al.  ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR: ITS NATURE AND ANTECEDENTS , 2004 .

[42]  L. James,et al.  rwg: An assessment of within-group interrater agreement. , 1993 .

[43]  William Morris.  The American Heritage dictionary of the English language , 1969 .

[44]  S. Green,et al.  Coworker exchange: relationships between coworkers, leader-member exchange, and work attitudes. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[45]  K. Waddington.  Using diaries to explore the characteristics of work‐related gossip: Methodological considerations from exploratory multimethod research , 2005 .

[46]  A. Mehrabian,et al.  Analysis of affiliation-related traits in terms of the PAD Temperament Model. , 1997, The Journal of psychology.

[47]  Linda K. Stroh,et al.  Good Definitions: The Epistemological Foundation of Scientific Progress , 2003 .

[48]  Donna Eder,et al.  The Cycle of Popularity: Interpersonal Relations among Female Adolescents. , 1985 .

[49]  William H. Glick,et al.  Conceptualizing and Measuring Organizational and Psychological Climate: Pitfalls in Multilevel Research , 1985 .

[50]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Organizational behavior : the state of the science , 1994 .

[51]  D. Watson.  Mood and temperament , 2000 .

[52]  A. Tellegen,et al.  PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES An Alternative "Description of Personality": The Big-Five Factor Structure , 2022 .

[53]  S. West,et al.  A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[54]  D. Schwartz.  Subtypes of Victims and Aggressors in Children's Peer Groups , 2000, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[55]  R Hogan,et al.  A socioanalytic theory of personality. , 1983, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[56]  L. Porter,et al.  A Self‐Description Scale Measuring Sociometric Popularity Among Manual Workers , 2008 .

[57]  Remus Ilies,et al.  Hostility, job attitudes, and workplace deviance: test of a multilevel model. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[58]  A. Satorra,et al.  Power of the likelihood ratio test in covariance structure analysis , 1985 .

[59]  M. Sobel.  Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models , 1982 .

[60]  Kibeom Lee,et al.  Organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance: the role of affect and cognitions. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[61]  K. Dodge,et al.  Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. , 1982 .

[62]  E. Hollander.  Validity of peer nominations in predicting a distant performance criterion. , 1965, The Journal of applied psychology.

[63]  Bernard M. Bass,et al.  FURTHER EVIDENCE ON THE DYNAMIC CHARACTER OF CRITERIA , 1962 .

[64]  M C Blackman,et al.  Agreement among judges of personality: interpersonal relations, similarity, and acquaintanceship. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[65]  R. Bornstein.  Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968–1987. , 1989 .

[66]  Moving Forward: Positive Relationships at Work as a Research Frontier. , 2007 .

[67]  R. Z. Norman,et al.  Status Characteristics and Social Interaction. , 1978 .

[68]  T. Judge,et al.  Organizational justice and stress: the mediating role of work-family conflict. , 2004, The Journal of applied psychology.

[69]  A. Newcomb,et al.  Children's friendship relations: A meta-analytic review. , 1995 .

[70]  Karl G. Jöreskog,et al.  Lisrel 8: User's Reference Guide , 1997 .

[71]  T. M. Lodahl,et al.  Psychometric score patterns, social characteristics, and productivity of small industrial work groups. , 1961 .

[72]  C. Patterson,et al.  Children's academic and behavioral adjustment as a function of the chronicity and proximity of peer rejection. , 1994, Child development.

[73]  Samuel Leinhardt,et al.  The structural implications of measurement error in sociometry , 1973 .

[74]  R. Wageman.  Interdependence and Group Effectiveness , 1995 .

[75]  Merriam-Webster.  Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary , 1998 .

[76]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  Multilevel Theory, Research, a n d M e t h o d s i n Organizations Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions , 2022 .

[77]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[78]  Murray R. Barrick,et al.  Personality and job performance: test of the mediating effects of motivation among sales representatives. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[79]  Daniel J. Brass,et al.  Relational correlates of interpersonal citizenship behavior: a social network perspective. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[80]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Peer Interactions, Relationships, and Groups , 2007 .

[81]  Y Shoda,et al.  Reconciling processing dynamics and personality dispositions. , 1998, Annual review of psychology.

[82]  Phyllis Tharenou,et al.  Employee self-esteem: A review of the literature , 1979 .

[83]  J. Stuart Bunderson,et al.  Recognizing and Utilizing Expertise in Work Groups: A Status Characteristics Perspective , 2003 .

[84]  M. D. Dunnette.  Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology , 2005 .

[85]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[86]  Kathryn M. LaFontana,et al.  The Nature of Children's Stereotypes of Popularity , 2001 .

[87]  L. James.  Aggregation Bias in Estimates of Perceptual Agreement. , 1982 .

[88]  A. Tsui,et al.  Beyond Simple Demographic Effects: The Importance of Relational Demography in Superior-Subordinate Dyads , 1989 .

[89]  L. Roberts,et al.  Shifting the Lens on Organizational Life: The Added Value of Positive Scholarship , 2006 .

[90]  N. Anderson,et al.  Handbook of Industrial, Work & Organizational Psychology , 2001 .

[91]  R. Bennett,et al.  A TYPOLOGY OF DEVIANT WORKPLACE BEHAVIORS: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING STUDY , 1995 .

[92]  S. Kozlowski,et al.  Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions , 2000 .

[93]  W. Bukowski,et al.  Children's peer relations: a meta-analytic review of popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average sociometric status. , 1993, Psychological bulletin.

[94]  J. Axelrod,et al.  Children's Social Constructions of Popularity , 2002 .

[95]  T. Ollendick,et al.  Sociometric status and academic, behavioral, and psychological adjustment: a five-year longitudinal study. , 1992, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

[96]  M. Ashton,et al.  What is the central feature of extraversion? Social attention versus reward sensitivity. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[97]  R. Cardy,et al.  Affect and appraisal accuracy: Liking as an integral dimension in evaluating performance. , 1986 .

[98]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[99]  D. Chan.  Functional Relations among Constructs in the Same Content Domain at Different Levels of Analysis: A Typology of Composition Models , 1998 .