Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Previous research has established that supervisor’s play an important role in conveying performance management strategies and influencing an employee’s job experience. Notably, there has been a growing area of research of how Implicit Person Theory (IPT) can contribute to supervisors’ coaching and management styles. Research within the more recent years has shown that IPT has indirect effects on the employee experience. The current study expands upon both IPT and performance management literature, by examining how an employee perceives their Supervisor’s IPT, their supervisor’s coaching style of support for developmental opportunities, and the employee’s related job outcomes of: Turnover Intentions, Job Satisfaction, and Satisfaction with Supervisor. Results from 388 men and women in various industries and organizations suggest that Perceived Supervisor IPT is related to developmental opportunities within the workplace. Additionally, we found support for Supervisor IPT being indirectly related to employees’ Turnover Intentions, Job Satisfaction, and Satisfaction with Supervisor via Perceived Developmental Opportunities. When adding Employee IPT to our mediated model, we only found marginally significant support for employees’ Satisfaction with Supervisor. Additionally, we controlled for Leader Member Exchange (LMX) within our moderated mediation model and found non- significant interactions on the indirect path of Perceived Developmental Opportunities on all three employee outcomes and obtained non-significant mediations nested within our greater model. Within our exploratory analyses we found evidence of IPT interaction between an employee and supervisor predicting LMX, Turnover Intentions, and Job Satisfaction. Ultimately, this research contributes to performance management, IPT, and LMX research by providing evidence of how a developmental coaching style of providing opportunities to employees can influence the employees’ job experience and is related to their perceptions of their leader.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / There has been a growing literature regarding how subordinates’ reaction potentially impacts the performance management effectiveness. However, managers’ reaction to performance management has been largely overlooked. To address this research gap, the major purpose of the current study was two-fold. First, the present study proposed a three-component commitment model to conceptualize managers’ perception toward performance management. Second, by employing self-determination theory, the current study examined how managers’ implicit person theory and the perceived performance management purpose interactively shaped their commitment pattern towards performance management. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized factor structure of performance management commitment. Further, managers’ incrementalism was a significant and negative predictor of continuous commitment to performance management. Lastly, the moderate effect of perceived purpose of performance management in the relationship between managers’ IPT and affective commitment to performance management was supported. Theoretical contribution, study limitations as well as further research directions were discussed.

<p>Although performance management (PM) is a common, vital system used in most organizations, both supervisors and employees have been routinely disappointed with PM experiences, despite extensive research. Recent studies have identified certain individual differences that impact PM effectiveness. Specifically, the inclination to believe that one’s core traits are either malleable (an incremental mindset; high IPT) or fixed (an entity mindset; low IPT), a concept called "implicit person theory" (IPT), predicts many important supervisor behaviors that subsequently influence employee’s behaviors and attitudes. Furthermore, there is substantial support indicating that employee IPT also predicts their own performance, behaviors, and attitudes. This research shows the many benefits of having ahigh IPTover a low IPT.In this study, Iexamined the matching or mismatching IPT between employees and their respective supervisors and whether this differentially predicts employee attitudes that relate to PM. Responses weregathered from 211 participants. In an initial survey, participants were asked to report their IPT and their perceptions of their supervisor’s IPT. Two days later, participants reportedtheir perceptions of procedural justice, satisfaction with PM, and motivation to improve performance. Employee perceptions of procedural justice and satisfaction were combined into a single measure measuring general affective reactionsto PM, after an exploratory factor analysisrevealed the two outcomes loaded onto a single factor. PROCESS Model 1 was used to examine the centralhypothesis. Ifound significant interactions of employee and supervisor IPT onmotivation and affective reactionsto PM. The relationship between employee IPT and motivation was positive and strongest when supervisors had ahigh IPT, and was positive but weaker when supervisors had a low IPT. Interestingly, the relationship between employee IPT and affective reactions was negative when supervisors had alow IPT, such that low IPTemployees reported better affective reactions to PM when they perceived theirsupervisorsto have a low IPTrather than a high IPT.This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating the nuances of how IPT predicts employee outcomes. Organizations can benefit from this research by increasing awareness of one’s IPT and implementing cultural changes alongside interventions to increase favorable outcomes.</p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Despite its status as a commonly used and seemingly vital talent management system, performance management has received an abundance of criticism surrounding its effectiveness and utility in organizations. Existing deficiencies in performance management are largely attributed to gaps in its strategy and implementation, with researchers arguing that organizations need to spend more effort supporting personnel engagement in informal, “everyday” performance management behaviors to drive performance. The present study sought to expand on existing performance management research by investigating: 1) how supervisor engagement in informal performance management behaviors influences employee perceptions of overall performance management and 2) how employee feedback orientation and implicit person theory potentially alter those perceptions. The hypothesized model was tested using an online survey sent through Prolific academic to a random sample of 351 full-time United States employees. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that employee perceptions of performance management were positively predicted by supervisor engagement in informal performance management behaviors. However, employee feedback orientation and implicit person theory were not found to significantly moderate these effects. The present study contributes to performance management literature by examining the degree to which informal supervisor performance management behaviors shape employee reactions to performance management. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

<p>Previous research has established that supervisor’s play an important role in conveying performance management strategies and influencing an employee’s job experience. Notably, there has been a growing area of research of how Implicit Person Theory (IPT) can contribute to supervisors’ coaching and management styles. Research within the more recent years has shown that IPT has indirect effects on the employee experience. The current study expands upon both IPT and performance management literature, by examining how an employee perceives their Supervisor’s IPT, their supervisor’s coaching style of support for developmental opportunities, and the employee’s related job outcomes of: Turnover Intentions, Job Satisfaction, and Satisfaction with Supervisor. Results from 388 men and women in various industries and organizations suggest that Perceived Supervisor IPT is related to developmental opportunities within the workplace. Additionally, we found support for Supervisor IPT being indirectly related to employees’ Turnover Intentions, Job Satisfaction, and Satisfaction with Supervisor via Perceived Developmental Opportunities. When adding Employee IPT to our mediated model, we only found marginally significant support for employees’ Satisfaction with Supervisor. Additionally, we controlled for Leader Member Exchange (LMX) within our moderated mediation model and found non- significant interactions on the indirect path of Perceived Developmental Opportunities on all three employee outcomes and obtained non-significant mediations nested within our greater model. Within our exploratory analyses we found evidence of IPT interaction between an employee and supervisor predicting LMX, Turnover Intentions, and Job Satisfaction. Ultimately, this research contributes to performance management, IPT, and LMX research by providing evidence of how a developmental coaching style of providing opportunities to employees can influence the employees’ job experience and is related to their perceptions of their leader.</p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Supervisors are the primary drivers of performance management; however, little is known about factors that influence their implementation of these systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a supervisor individual difference—implicit person theory (IPT)—differentially predicts supervisor behaviors during, as well as both supervisor and employee reactions to appraisal interviews. In Study 1, MBA students reported their supervisors’ behaviors during their most recent performance appraisal interview (Time 1) as well as their subsequent reactions (i.e., perceived satisfaction, utility, success, supervisor support; Time 2). Their supervisors completed a measure assessing their own IPT (Time 3). Findings suggest that supervisors’ task-oriented behaviors predicted perceived satisfaction, utility, and success of the appraisal interviews, while supervisor’ relational-oriented behaviors predicted perceived supervisor support. In Study 2, supervisors recruited via MTurk completed all measures from Study 1 except perceived success. Results suggest that IPT was positively related to task-oriented behaviors and perceived utility, task-oriented behaviors mediated the relationship between IPT and all three reaction measures (i.e., perceived satisfaction, utility, and supervisor support), and relational-oriented behaviors significantly predicted supervisors’ perceived support. Overall, findings suggest that supervisors who believe people can change (hold a more incremental IPT) display more task-oriented behaviors during and see more utility in appraisal interviews. Additionally, task-oriented behaviors emerged as the key mechanism linking supervisors’ IPT and reactions to appraisal interviews. These findings demonstrate that supervisor individual differences, such as IPT, can influence performance appraisal and management outcomes.

<p>Despite its status as a commonly used and seemingly vital talent management system, performance management has received an abundance of criticism surrounding its effectiveness and utility in organizations. Existing deficiencies in performance management are largely attributed to gaps in its strategy and implementation, with researchers arguing that organizations need to spend more effort supporting personnel engagement in <em>informal</em>, “everyday” performance management behaviors to drive performance. The present study sought to expand on existing performance management research by investigating: 1) how supervisor engagement in <em>informal </em>performance management behaviors influences employee perceptions of <em>overall </em>performance management and 2) how <em>employee </em>feedback orientation and implicit person theory potentially alter those perceptions. The hypothesized model was tested using an online survey sent through Prolific academic to a random sample of 351 full-time United States employees. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that employee perceptions of performance management were positively predicted by supervisor engagement in informal performance management behaviors. However, employee feedback orientation and implicit person theory were not found to significantly moderate these effects. The present study contributes to performance management literature by examining the degree to which informal supervisor performance management behaviors shape employee reactions to performance management. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed. </p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Transformational leadership has been one of the most heavily researched theories of leadership of the past 25 years, largely because this style has been associated with a wide range of positive individual- and organizational-level outcomes. Despite the need for transformational leaders, the antecedents of transformational leadership behavior remain ambiguous. Numerous potential antecedents of transformational leadership have been identified in the past, but this research has focused on popularly addressed or commonly measured variables rather than characteristics with a strong theoretical link to transformational leadership. The current study expands on past research by examining a theoretically driven predictor of transformational leadership behavior. Specifically, the current study will examine whether a leader’s implicit person theory (IPT) will be a predictor of leadership behaviors. This theory was chosen as a potential antecedent because it centers on the concept of malleability or change, and as such shares a strong intuitive connection with transformational leadership (which itself places a heavy emphasis on change and growth). Results did not support our hypotheses, however, as regression analysis revealed that IPT failed to account for significant variation in leadership behavior after accounting for some of the most commonly examined predictors in the literature, (the Big Five personality traits). Limitations of the current study and opportunities for future research are discussed.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Previous research has found that the clarity of information provided to raters about women managers’ performance affects ratings of their competence, likeability, and overall evaluation. The current study sought to contribute to this literature by examining whether individual differences of raters can explain the reason for differential performance evaluations of male and female managers, despite them both performing equally. For this purpose, the current research extended the findings of Heilman and colleagues by replicating their methodology while introducing a moderator variable, the rater’s Implicit Person Theory (IPT). The IPT differentiates people into either entity theorists (that is, those who believe that behavior is trait-based and therefore fixed and stable) and incremental theorists (those who believe that behavior is situationally mediated and hence, changeable). Specifically, it was proposed that the effects found in the previous study would be stronger when the rater possessed an entity theory as opposed to an incremental theory. In doing so, this research attempted to provide an understanding of why male and female managers might be given different ratings, all other things being equal. Analyses revealed results that were consistent with, as well as some that were quite inconsistent with, previous findings. Rater IPT was found to have a significant effect on ratings provided by male participants but not those of female participants. Other findings and implications are discussed and limitations and future research directions are stated.