Effects of perceived credibility, values, ethics and mission on competitive spirit

Journal of the Academy of Business and Economics, March, 2004 by Jerry W. Koehler, Thomas W. Philippe

ABSTRACT

Competitive spirit, a predisposition to maximize effort in the workplace is a concept that deserves further research. In this paper, the authors develop a model and make a case for testing four hypotheses that predict a correlation between and among four independent variables; credibility, values, ethics and mission on worker competitive spirit.

1. INTRODUCTION

The variance of worker behavior in the workplace often ranges from "doing as little as necessary" to "jumping in and going all out" to achieving personal and organizational outcomes. Psychologists and organization behavior specialists have tried for years to explain and predict why workers are willing or unwilling to exert effort in the workplace. For example, specific personality attributes have been found to be powerful predictors of behaviors in organizations. Personality attributes, such as self-monitoring, self-esteem, Type A-B, risk tasking and locus of control have consistently shown to moderate individual performance in the workplace. Further, theories of motivation, such as goal setting theory, actualization theory (Maslow, 1970) Herzberg's two-factor theory (Hertzberg, 1982), cognitive theory (Gross, 1992), expectancy theory (Tolman, 1959), social exchange theory (Thibaut and Kelley, 1959) etc. have sought to predict and explain why individuals in the workplace are willing to try harder, persist and do a quality job.

The purpose of this paper is to identify key organization variables that may moderate individual intensity and effort, and to advance hypotheses that require further study. It is important to understand that in this paper we are not interested in whether or not an individual in an organization channels his or her behavior in a direction that benefits the organization (which in line with motivation theory). Our focus is concerned with individual intensity and persistence or willingness to display a "gung he" attitude. We are not concerned with direction. We have labeled this display of behavior as "competitive spirit", and define competitive spirit as a predisposition to maximize effort in the workplace.

For the past four years, the authors of this paper have focused their research on organization hypocrisy. The results of our research have shown An employee's expectations of the organization are created by perceptions of management action, proclamations and rewards. These expectations are developed on an on going basis. Proclamations by management will set expectations. These may come by e-mail, newsletters or hallway conversations. The perceptions of inconsistency, or the extent of organizational hypocrisy, are based on perceived behaviors and the following perceived actions. The employee does not go to work each day totally impervious to its effects. Just as important, employees do not ignore acts of inconsistency, but appear to be affected by them.

The research suggests that manager's need to become fully aware of their actions since they are continuously observed, evaluated and checked for consistency by employees. The employee perceptions are usually based on the actions, beliefs and statements expressed by the manager. Management should be cognizant of the effects of their inconsistency between what they say, and do, on subordinate behavior.

In conducting our research on perceived organization hypocrisy, we noted from employee interviews and comments on employee surveys that numerous employees indicated they would be wiling to give more of themselves in the workplace if the perceived situation or conditions would change. Numerous individuals in our surveys indicated they perceived a disconnection between what management espoused and what they actually did and this perception caused them to reduce their effort, to less than what he employers believe they can or should do, this is what Taylor (Kakar; 1970: p.87,) described as soldering. It became apparent in our research that personality theory and motivation theory does not alone explain why a person in an organization decides to, or not to maximize their effort. We believe that neither personality theory nor motivation theory offer a sufficient explanation why a worker elects to display a competitive spirit.

2. HYPOTHESIS

This paper advances a series of hypotheses aimed at discovering why an individual within an organization elects to maximize his or her effort. In other words, under what conditions do individuals in the workplace willingly display competitive spirit? The hypotheses advanced this paper are as follows:

Hypothesis I: Competitive spirit is likely to be displayed when an individual in the workplace perceived their leadership to have high credibility.

Hypothesis II: Competitive spirit is likely to be displayed when an individual in the workplace perceives stated or published values are values that are practiced.

Hypothesis III: Competitive spirit is likely to be displayed when an individual in the workplace perceives leadership to be highly ethical in their behavior.