Knowledge that Transforms

Life satisfaction is a key indicator of subjective well-being. This article is a review of the multidisciplinary literature on the relationship between life satisfaction and the work domain. A discussion of top-down and bottom-up theories of life satisfaction is included, and the literatures on work-related antecedents of life satisfaction, the proximal mediators (quality of work life, quality of nonwork life, and feelings of self-worth), and consequences of life satisfaction were reviewed. A meta-analysis of life satisfaction with respect to career satisfaction, job performance, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment was performed. Each major section of the article concludes with a future opportunities subsection where gaps in the research are discussed.

The authors integrate the employee proactivity, information exchange, and psychological safety perspectives to develop a model of individual creativity. Proactive employees prepare themselves with resources in anticipation of effecting changes. The authors propose that proactive employees seek informational resources through exchanging with others in the workplace. Information exchange, in turn, fosters the development of trust relationships that provide psychological safety for creative endeavors. The authors collected time-lagged data from a sample of 190 matched employee–manager pairs in a specialty retail chain. The results showed that proactive employees engaged in more information exchange and, by so doing, built stronger trust relationships with supervisors and colleagues. These trust relationships, in turn, increased employee creativity. The relationship between information exchange and employee creativity was fully mediated by trust. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for creativity theory and research.

Workplace voice has been the subject of much research over the past 30 years. Prior work has examined the precursors of a wide variety of voice types including prosocial voice, grievance filing, whistle-blowing, informal complaints, and participation in suggestion systems. However, research on each type of voice has largely been conducted in isolation from work examining alternate types of workplace voice. The goal of this article is to review and integrate the literature on the determinants of workplace voice. The authors’ review of the literature is organized around the major categories of determinants that have been observed in the separate literatures on workplace voice. Based on the review, the authors identify commonalities and differences across alternative forms of voice in the determinants observed. Following this, they explore how the nature and purpose of voice varies, with emphasis on three dimensions of voice: formality, focus, and identifiability. The authors then explore whether this variation is relevant for understanding the pattern of determinants observed across alternative forms of voice. They close by discussing the implications of an integrative perspective of scholars’ understanding of the processes that determine voice and for organizations as they strive to facilitate the productive use of workplace voice.

The authors review the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature based on 588 journal articles and 102 books and book chapters. They offer a multilevel and multidisciplinary theoretical framework that synthesizes and integrates the literature at the institutional, organizational, and individual levels of analysis. The framework includes reactive and proactive predictors of CSR actions and policies and the outcomes of such actions and policies, which they classify as primarily affecting internal (i.e., internal outcomes) or external (i.e., external outcomes) stakeholders. The framework includes variables that explain underlying mechanisms (i.e., relationship- and value-based mediator variables) of CSR–outcomes relationships and contingency effects (i.e., people-, place-, price-, and profile-based moderator variables) that explain conditions under which the relationship between CSR and its outcomes change. The authors’ review reveals important knowledge gaps related to the adoption of different theoretical orientations by researchers studying CSR at different levels of analysis, the need to understand underlying mechanisms linking CSR with outcomes, the need for research at micro levels of analysis (i.e., individuals and teams), and the need for methodological approaches that will help address these substantive knowledge gaps. Accordingly, they offer a detailed research agenda for the future, based on a multilevel perspective that aims to integrate diverse theoretical frameworks as well as develop an understanding of underlying mechanisms and microfoundations of CSR (i.e., foundations based on individual action and interactions). The authors also provide specific suggestions regarding research design, measurement, and data-analytic approaches that will be instrumental in carrying out their proposed research agenda.

Core self-evaluation (CSE) represents the fundamental appraisals individuals make about their self-worth and capabilities. CSE is conceptualized as a higher order construct composed of broad and evaluative traits (e.g., self-esteem and generalized self-efficacy). The authors review 15 years of CSE theory and research, focusing in particular on the outcomes, mediators, and moderators of CSE via qualitative and quantitative literature reviews. Meta-analytic results support the relation of CSE with various outcomes, including job and life satisfaction, in-role and extra-role job performance, and perceptions of the work environment (e.g., job characteristics and fairness). The authors conclude with a critical evaluation of CSE theory, measurement, and construct validity, highlighting areas of promise and concern for future CSE research. Key topics requiring further research include integrating CSE within an approach/avoidance framework, ruling out alternative explanations for the emergence of the higher order construct, testing the possibility of intraindividual change in CSE, evaluating the usefulness of CSE for staffing and performance management, and moving beyond CSE to also consider core external evaluations.

Drawing on 50 unique samples (from 37 studies), the authors used meta-analytical techniques to assess the extent to which job burnout and employee engagement are independent and useful constructs. The authors found that (a) dimension-level correlations between burnout and engagement are high, (b) burnout and engagement dimensions exhibit a similar pattern of association with correlates, and (c) controlling for burnout in meta-regression equations substantively reduced the effect sizes associated with engagement. These findings suggest that doubts about the functional distinctiveness of the dimensions underlying burnout and engagement cannot be dismissed as pure speculation.