Vigor as a Positive Personal Resource: The Effect of Vigor Gains and Losses on Organizational Commitment

Transcription

1 Vigor as a Positive Personal Resource: The Effect of Vigor Gains and Losses on Organizational Commitment Evgenia I. Lysova, Svetlana N. Khapova, & Paul G.W. Jansen VU University Amsterdam Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Evgenia I. Lysova, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. e.lysova@vu.nl

2 Vigor as a Positive Personal Resource: The Effect of Vigor Gains and Losses on Organizational Commitment Abstract A growing body of literature calls for a wider recognition of the role of human energy resource, such as vigor, in organizational performance. However, the understanding of how vigor resource develops, depletes and contributes to organizations is still lacking. We suggest that a consideration of not only average but also dynamic (changing over time) character of vigor when examining its contributions to organizations would enrich this understanding. With a theoretical foundation rooted in the three influential theories Conservation of Resources Theory, Affective Events Theory, and Gestalt Characteristics Theory we examine how changes in vigor resource relate to changes in one of the important predictors of individual performance organizational commitment and which factors play role in this relationship. Results of analyses performed on two longitudinal samples indicate that changes in vigor resource explains additional variance in organizational commitment changes after controlling for average levels of vigor at work. Furthermore, findings show that this relationship is stronger when employees perceived appraisal politics in the organizations as low (Sample 2). They also reveal the moderated mediation model (Sample 1), where a full mediation role of job satisfaction in the vigor change-organizational commitment change relationship was stronger for employees who had a mentor. Implications for theory, practice and future research are discussed. Keywords: vigor, positive affect at work, personal resources, work attitudes 2

3 Vigor as a Positive Personal Resource: The Effect of Vigor Gains and Losses on Organizational Commitment With a higher centrality of employees personal resources to the service provision and innovation in contemporary organizations, more and more organizations begin to recognize the value of positive human energy or vigor (as it is academically labeled) for individual and organizational performance (Quinn & Spreitzer, & Lam, 2012). However, a successful utilization of this human resource by organizations can be achieved only when there is a sufficient understanding of how vigor develops, depletes and contributes to organizations. These topics have been gaining an increasing attention from work and organizational scholars (e.g., Sonnentag & Niessen, 2008; Shirom, 2011; Carmeli, Ben-Hador, Waldman, & Rupp, 2009; Smith, Rasmussen, Mills, Wefald, & Downey, 2012), who have found that vigor or energy at work stimulates creativity and extra-role behavior at work (Atwater & Carmeli, 2009; Ilies, Scott, & Judge, 2006). The affective nature of vigor (Shirom, 2004), however, emphasizes that vigor changes over time and that there is a need for vigor to be properly nurtured by individuals themselves or their organizations to make contributions to organizations, so that it does not turn into, for example, low organizational commitment. That is why when examining the relationship between vigor at work and work-related outcomes, it is important to consider not only average but also dynamic (changing over time) character of vigor. This logic corresponds with Gestalt characteristics theory (Ariely & Carmon, 2000) and its related research (e.g., Chen, Ployhart, Cooper-Thomas, Anderson, & Bliese, 2011). In order to enrich our understanding of vigor contributions to organizations, we suggest that it is worthwhile to examine the dynamic relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change. In this case, the focus on organizational commitment the employee s emotional attachment to the organization (Allen & Meyer, 1990) is important because it is a salient predictor of turnover (e.g., Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Cohen, 3

4 1993; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002) and individual performance (e.g., Meyer et al., 1989; Riketta, 2002). Moreover, organizational commitment becomes particularly relevant in the context of changing employment principles (Rousseau, 1995) when organizations are less able to offer long-term employment and employees in turn are prompted to draw on the boundaryless career principles in navigating their career (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996). The latter is also a reason for the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change being of a particular investigation interest. Vigorous or energetic individuals are often the ones who are expected to take a more proactive approach to their careers. They are, in turn, also likely to feel less constrained by organizational boundaries (Briscoe, Hall, & DeMuth, 2006). While the aforementioned reasons emphasize the potential value of investigating vigor change-organizational change relation, thus far, little effort has been made on this matter (Wefald, Mills, Smith, & Downey, 2012). This could be a result of vigor being often investigated as a dimension of a broader concept of work engagement (e.g., Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Ouweneel, Le Blanc, Schaufeli, & Pascale, 2012), which researchers tried to theoretically and empirically distinguish from organizational commitment and job satisfaction concepts (e.g., Hallberg & Schaufeli, 2006). In this paper, we first draw on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll, 2001) and propose that vigor is an energetic resource which represents a positive affect experienced at work (Shirom, 2004; Shirom, 2011; Sonnentag & Niessen, 2008). This implies that vigor is valued by individuals; it facilitates the development and attainment of other resources, and changes over time. Next, building on the Affective Events Theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), we suggest that changes in vigor resource at work will stand out as affective events that trigger emotional reactions of employees, which, in turn, will result in changes in their organizational commitment. Building on these theories and applying the same logic as suggested by Gestalt characteristics theory (Ariely & Carmon, 2000) and its 4

5 related research (e.g., Chen et al., 2011), we argue for the added value of the vigor change over average vigor levels in predicting changes in organizational commitment. Building on the abovementioned theories and two longitudinal samples, we contribute to the literature on vigor at work (e.g., Sonnentag & Niessen, 2008; Shirom, 2011) by examining how changes in vigor as a personal resource relate to changes in organizational commitment. In this way, we join researchers who emphasize the dynamic nature of vigor at work (e.g., Sonnentag & Niessen, 2008) and respond to the call for more vigor models that are based on a dynamic perspective (Shirom, 2010). Moreover, we acknowledge that there are various factors that might influence the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change. Firstly, this relationship may be influenced by the availability of HRM practices in an organization and individuals perceptions of them. In particular, such an important HR-practice for individual career development as performance appraisal (e.g., Kuvaas, 2008) may facilitate/impede individual resource gains from organization (i.e., knowledge, money, and status) and, consequently, result in a greater/less commitment to the organization (Hobfoll, 1989; Shirom, 2011). Secondly, the relationship between vigor resource change and organizational commitment change may be influenced by individuals feelings of satisfaction with their jobs as individuals need to be first satisfied with their jobs in order to feel committed to the organization (e.g., Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982; Williams & Hazer, 1986). The development of individual commitment to the organization may be further facilitated by organizational HR-practices such as mentoring, which provides individuals with social resources that can foster the feeling of attachment to the organization (Payne & Huffman, 2005). Thus, this paper focuses on examining the role of perceptions of appraisal politics, job satisfaction and mentoring in the vigor change-commitment change relation. By doing so, we further enrich understanding of the effects of changes in vigor resource on changes in organizational commitment. 5

6 Theoretical Background and Hypotheses Vigor change and Organizational Commitment Change Vigor as an energetic resource evolves over time (Sonnentag & Niessen, 2008; Shirom, 2004). Given the dynamic nature of vigor, we argue that vigor change (increase or decrease) is influential in determining the degree of individual commitment to their organization. In doing so, we follow a logic applied by Chen and colleagues (2011), which corresponds with Gestalt characteristics theory (Ariely & Carmon, 2000). According to this logic (Ariely & Carmon, 2000), when people summarize their experiences they do not simply combine the intensity of their actual experiences. Instead, they extract only a few defining features (gestalt characteristics) change in experiences over time and the intensity of these experiences at particular key points in time which dominate overall experience evaluations and inform future actions. Specifically, this logic emphasizes the importance of examining both static (i.e., average variable) and dynamic (i.e., change variable) properties of individuals reactions to everyday experiences at work. Several researchers have made an attempt to empirically support the logic by examining changes in job satisfaction and in justice perceptions (Chen et al., 2011; Hausknecht, Sturman, & Robertson, 2011). We suggest that the link between vigor change and change in organizational commitment can be explained by the following two theories. First, as suggested by the Conservation of Resources theory (COR) (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll, 2001), individuals strive to obtain, retain, protect, and foster their resources their personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that they value. When these resources are threatened or are already lost, individuals experience psychological stress (Hobfoll, 1989, Hobfoll, 2001). In this paper, we treat individual vigor as a positive energetic resource, which can be developed (vigor gain) or can be depleted (vigor loss) in organizations. Previous research has shown that vigor is positively related to organizational commitment (Wefald et al., 2012; Christian, Garza, & Slaughter, 6

7 2011). We argue that this relationship between vigor and organizational commitment also holds when vigor changes over time, that is a change in vigor as a resource will be reflected in a corresponding change in level of commitment to the organization. Second, according to the Affective Events Theory (AET) (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), events in the work environment stimulate emotional reactions of employees, which in turn influence their work-related attitudes. In this paper, we suggest that changes in vigor are likely to stand out as affective events, which generate additional emotions contributing to work-related attitudes, such as organizational commitment. Specifically, an increase in vigor resource is a positive affective event that sparks positive emotions and leads to an increase in organizational commitment. Experiences of vigor at work may lead to pleasant emotional associations with the workplace, accumulation of which over time may result into commitment to the organization (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996; Fisher, 2002; Lilius et al., 2008). On the other hand, a decrease in vigor resource is a negative event because any loss of personal resources is associated with stress (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll, 2001). It sparks negative emotions and leads to a decrease in organizational commitment. Thus, in view of the discussed above theories, we expect that changes in vigor resource will be positively related to organizational commitment change. In particular, a more positive change (i.e., greater increase) in vigor resource will be associated with a more positive change in commitment to the organizations, and vice versa. Moreover, we expect that the dynamic positive relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change will hold when we control for the average level of vigor resource. By doing so, we examine whether the extent to which vigor change explains change in organizational commitment goes above and beyond the explanations provided by the average vigor level. Specifically, we hypothesize the following: 7

8 Hypothesis 1: With the average levels of vigor during a given period held constant, vigor change is positively related to change in the commitment to the organization: decline (increase) in vigor is associated with an increase (decrease) in commitment to the organization. The Moderating Role of Perceptions of Appraisal Politics Drawing on the AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), we further suggest that features of work environment may impact changes in organizational commitment resulted from vigor gains and losses through cognitive judgment processes. The theory does not precisely specify which features of work are most important predictors of affective reactions at work. This allows considering those features that would be most relevant in a particular context. When examining the vigor resource at work, we believe it is relevant to address the role of individuals perceptions of such HR-practice as performance appraisal in the vigor changeorganizational commitment change relation. Performance appraisal as a developmental HRpractice is expected to provide opportunities for individual career development (e.g., Kuvaas, 2008) and, consequently, for the obtainment of various valuable resources (e.g., money, time, and knowledge). Since vigorous employees take initiative for their career development, it is important that these learning and growing opportunities are available for them in the organization (Carmeli & Spreitzer, 2009; Carmeli et al., 2009; Shirom, 2011; Porath, Spreitzer, Gibson, & Garnett, 2012). These employees will invest their personal vigor resources expecting potential resource gains from the organization, which if not obtained would result in individual experiences of loss of the invested vigor resource (Hobfoll, 1989). In this way, perceptions of the availability of career development opportunities may impact on their experiences at work, resulting in either higher or lower commitment to the organization. Specifically, we suggest that employees perceptions of appraisal politics would moderate the relationship between vigor resource change and organizational commitment change. 8

9 In this paper, we conceive employees perceptions of appraisal politics as individuals subjective evaluation about the extent to which the appraisal process in an organization is characterized by behaviors of self-serving intent (Ferris, Harrell-Cook, & Dulebohn, 2000; Ferris et al., 2002; Poon, 2004). Previous research has shown that performance evaluation and promotion systems are often quite political in nature (Longenecker, Sims, & Gioia, 1987; Longenecker, 1989; Ferris & Judge, 1991). This creates the situation of ambiguity with respect to the performance appraisal process as there are no concrete promotion criteria available. Under these circumstances, social capital becomes more important than human capital (Burt, 2000; Brass, Galaskiewicz, Greve & Tsai, 2004). This puts pressure on individuals to engage in political influence behavior (e.g., impression management) to achieve, for instance, career success in the organization (Ferris, Russ, & Fandt., 1989; Chang, Rosen, & Levy, 2009; Judge & Bretz, 1994; Ferris & Judge, 1991). Existing research showed that the general presence of politics in the organization as perceived by employees is negatively associated with organizational commitment (e.g., Miller et al., 2008; Chang et al., 2009). We expect that high employees perceptions of politics in the appraisal process will be also negatively associated with organizational commitment. Specifically, due to vagueness and ambiguity of appraisal criteria, which characterize high appraisal politics in organizations, employees might perceive the appraisal process as less procedurally fair or justified (Leventhal, 1980; Poon, 2004). This will result in negative emotions (e.g., Weiss, Suckow, & Cropanzano, 1999) and in negative changes in their job attitudes (e.g., organizational commitment) (e.g., Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001). In this study, we propose that employees perceptions of appraisal politics as a climate variable will interact with vigor change in determining the direction of change in organizational commitment. Specifically, we expect that employees perceptions of appraisal 9

10 process will negatively moderate the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change. Due to taking initiative in their career development (Carmeli & Spreitzer, 2009; Porath et al., 2012), vigorous employees are more open towards and capable of pursuing opportunities outside their jobs/organizations (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996) than less vigorous employees. When vigorous employees perceive appraisal politics in the organization as high (e.g., ambiguous, vague, subjective), they might feel that their work is not appreciated and that their chances for growing opportunities within the organization are limited. As a consequence, they will look for these opportunities elsewhere. Moreover, under these circumstances, vigorous employees might find it hard to cope with increased pressure to engage in political influence behavior to meet their career goals (Ferris et al., 1989; Chang et al., 2009; Judge & Bretz, 1994; Ferris & Judge, 1991). As a result, their level of work stress would increase because these employees would perceive their job demands as exciding their coping resources. Consequently, this would lead to a decrease in organizational commitment (i.e., job demands-resource model of burnout) (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001). In contrast, when vigorous employees perceive appraisal politics in the organization as low, they may see more opportunities for themselves to demonstrate their high-level performance (Carmeli et al., 2009). Specifically, we hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 2: Perceptions of performance appraisal politics moderate the positive relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change: the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change will be weaker when perceptions of performance appraisal politics are high. The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction Previous research (e.g., Williams & Hazer, 1986; Iverson and Roy, 1994) showed that job satisfaction a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one s job or job experiences (Locke, 1976, p. 1304) has a significant added value for an 10

11 understanding of the influence of various other variables on organizational commitment. In this paper, we argue that job satisfaction might have an important mediating role in the relationship between changes in vigor resource and changes in organizational commitment. To start with, feeling vigorous or energetic at work is expected to result in high levels of job satisfaction. Previous evidence supports such a prediction by showing that affective states impact on job satisfaction (e.g., Fisher, 2002; Weiss, Nicholas, & Daus, 1999; Judge & Ilies, 2004). This also corresponds to AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), based on which we suggest that emotional responses to changes in vigor resource (gains and losses) will influence employees levels of job satisfaction. Next to this, job satisfaction has been often seen as one of the antecedents of organizational commitment (e.g., Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982; Williams & Hazer, 1986). Because it is important for individuals to feel satisfied with their job before they can feel committed to an organization (Mathieu & Hamel, 1989). Moreover, given that job satisfaction is associated with how individuals emotionally react to their work environment, it would develop more quickly than organizational commitment (Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974). Recognizing the relationship between vigor change and job satisfaction as well as between job satisfaction and commitment change, we argue that job satisfaction will serve as mediating mechanism, which explains how such affective events as gain (loss) of vigor resource will influence changes in employees organizational commitment. Specifically, we hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 3: Vigor change positively relates to job satisfaction, which, in turn, fully mediates the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change. The Moderating Role of Perceptions of Appraisal Politics 11

12 Applying the same logic as mentioned above (Hypothesis 2), we draw on AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and suggest that employees perceptions of appraisal politics will negatively moderate the relationship between vigor change and job satisfaction. Previous research has shown that both perceptions of workplace politics, in general, and perceptions of appraisal politics, in particular, result in lower levels of job satisfaction (e.g., Poon, 2004; Miller et al., 2008; Chang et al., 2009). Therefore, we hypothesize a weak relationship between changes in vigor resource and job satisfaction under conditions of high perceptions of appraisal politics. Hypothesis 4a: Perceptions of appraisal politics moderate the positive relationship between vigor change and job satisfaction: the relationship between vigor change and job satisfaction will be weaker when perceptions of appraisal politics are high. Assuming that the perceptions of appraisal politics moderate the relationship between vigor change and job satisfaction, it is also likely that perceptions of appraisal politics will conditionally influence the strength of the indirect relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change thereby illuminating the moderated mediation nature of our research model depicted in Figure 1. Thus, expecting a weak (strong) relationship between vigor change and job satisfaction when perceptions of appraisal politics are high (low), we hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 4b: Perceptions of appraisal politics moderate the extent to which job satisfaction mediate between vigor change and organizational commitment change: job satisfaction is more likely to mediate between vigor change and organizational commitment change when perceptions of appraisal politics are low. The Moderating Role of Mentoring 12

13 Previous research shows that the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment may be influenced by various moderating variables (e.g., Russ & McNeilly, 1995). In particular, the presence of such HR-practice as mentoring in the organization can facilitate the development of feelings of commitment to the organization when individuals feel satisfied with their job. Mentoring an intense interpersonal exchange between a senior experienced colleague (mentor) and a less experienced junior colleague (protégé) in which the mentor provides support, direction, and feedback regarding career plans and personal development (Russell & Adams, 1997, p. 2) was found to enhance the level of protégés organizational commitment (e.g., Aryee & Chay, 1994; Payne & Huffman, 2005; Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz & Lima, 2004). According to Payne and Huffman (2005), there are several explanations for this. First, through engagement in mentoring relationships at work, individuals adopt an organization s values (Viator & Scandura, 1991), which facilitates their identification with the organization. Second, having a mentor, protégés can better cope with work pressures, especially in relation to their careers and therefore can develop commitment to their organizations. Third, through mentoring a certain level of respect between protégés and mentors is generated due to mentors serving as role models, which may also translate in positive work attitudes (Scandura, 1992). Drawing on the aforementioned, we suggest that satisfied with their jobs individuals will be more attached to their organizations when they have a mentor in the organization. Therefore, we hypothesize a strong and positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment when mentor is present. Hypothesis 5a: Mentoring moderates the positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment change: the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment change will be stronger when the mentor is present. 13

14 Assuming that mentoring moderates the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment change, it is also likely that mentoring will conditionally impact on the strength of the indirect relationship between vigor change and commitment change thereby supporting the moderated mediation nature of our research model depicted in Figure 1. Because we predict a strong (weak) relationship between job satisfaction and commitment change when mentor is present (absent), we expect the following: Hypothesis 5b: Mentoring moderates the extent to which job satisfaction mediates between vigor change and organizational commitment change: job satisfaction is more likely to mediate between vigor change and organizational commitment change when the mentor is present. Perceptions of appraisal politics Vigor change H4a H4b H1 H2 Organizational commitment change H3 Job satisfaction H5a H5b Mentoring Figure 1. The proposed theoretical model Method Sample and Procedure We tested our hypotheses using longitudinal data from two samples collected as a part of a larger scale longitudinal study on career determinants, patterns, and outcomes. First, we tested Hypothesis 1 and 2 on both samples. In these samples, vigor at work and organizational 14

15 commitment were measured at two points in time, while perceptions of appraisal politics were measured in T1. Performing regression analyses on the two sampled allowed us to test the boundaries of the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change across different organizational contexts (private versus government organization) and different time frames (one year versus 18 months). Then, using data from one of the samples (Sample 1), we also tested whether job satisfaction mediates the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change and examined the role of perceptions of appraisal politics and mentoring in this indirect relationship (Hypotheses 3, 4a, 4b, 5a and 5b). In this sample, we measured job satisfaction at two points in time and we asked whether respondents had a mentor in T1. Sample 1. This longitudinal survey data was collected from a sample of lawyers, who were part of the national association of lawyers in the Netherlands. In 2007, a web-based survey was sent via to 8458 lawyers. A total of 892 lawyers completed the survey online (response rate = 11%). One year later, the survey was repeated. This survey, however, was found to be not delivered to 111 lawyers. In the non-delivery auto-response, it was stated that these lawyers were no longer employed by the firm they were employed by during the first time measurement. This means that for the second time our online survey was received by 781 lawyers, from which a total of 295 have completed it (response rate = 38%). After cleaning up our dataset from missing values on the central research variables, we ended up with the sample of 84 lawyers (overall response rate = 11%). The lawyers were 51.2% male. Their average age was years, and their average organizational tenure was 6.99 years. Sample 2. This longitudinal survey data was collected from employees of a large government organization in the Netherlands. In 2006, a web-based survey was sent via to employees of the organization. As a result, a total of 2124 employees completed the online survey (response rate = 20%). The survey was resent to these employees after 18 15

16 months. A total of 1185 employees completed the online survey during the second measurement (response rate = 56%). While editing the dataset we removed those respondents who had missing values on our central study variables, resulting in the sample of 788 employees (overall response rate = 37%). Employees in this final sample were 77% male. Their average age was years, and their average organizational tenure was years. They were mainly employed full-time (84.8%) and qualified the nature of their position in technical (41.1%) or managerial (22.1%) areas. We examined whether the sample attrition over time in both samples was nonrandom by respondents who participated only in T1 with respondents who filled in the questionnaire two times and formed the final research sample. We found that these groups of employees did not differ with respect to any study variables in Sample 2, while in Sample 1 these respondents differed in age (T1: M = 36.01; both times: M = 39.14) and organizational tenure (T1: M = 31.37; both times: M = 6.99). Measures Vigor at work. We used six-item vigor at work sub-scale from the Dutch version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003) to measure participants experiences of vigor at work at Time 1 and Time 2 in both samples. Participants rated each item on a 7-point Likert-type frequency scale (0 = never, 6 = every day). A sample item was At my work, I feel bursting with energy. The results of the principal component and confirmatory factor analyses showed that better fit was obtained when vigor measure was loading on two instead of one factor, distinguishing between physical and cognitive aspects of vigor (see Table 2). In the regression analyses, we used the average of the two factors. This corresponds with previous research that acknowledged multidimensionality of the concept of vigor (e.g., Shirom, 2011). Cronbach s alpha in Sample 1 ranged between.85 (T1) and.87 (T2), and in Sample 2.86 (T1) and.85 (T2). 16

17 Organizational commitment. We measured affective organizational commitment at T1 and T2 in both samples using seven items from the Affective Commitment Scale (ACS; Allen & Meyer, 1990). One item with a low factor loading, which was identified by Culpepper (2000) as the problematic one, was omitted from the scale. Participants rated each item on 7-point Likert-type agreement scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). A sample item was I would be happy to spend the rest of my career in this organization. Cronbach s alpha for the participants commitment to the organization in Sample 1 ranged between.92 (T1) and.94 (T2) and in Sample 2 was.88 for both T1 and T2. Perceptions of appraisal politics. We measured employees perceptions of appraisal politics in T1 using a self-constructed scale inspired by Perceptions of organizational politics scale (POPS) (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991; Kamar & Carlson, 1997). We asked respondents to indicate to what extent six appraisal criteria were relevant for their career development in the organization. The suggested appraisal criteria were related to three types of capital that are perceived to be important for achieving objective career success in an organization: human capital (i.e., knowledge, skills, competencies), social capital (i.e., network access), and cultural capital (i.e., family) (Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005; Bourdieu, 1989; Tatli, & Özbilgin, 2012). While human capital-determined criteria serve as basic criteria for appraisal in an organization, the prevalence of social capital and cultural capital-determined criteria highlights the importance of employees to engage in political behaviors (i.e., impression management) to achieve career success in the organization. Participants responded using the 5-point Likert-type likelihood scale (1 = not at all, 5 = to a great extent). An example appraisal criterion of social capital was being visible for persons who make a decision about a promotion. The results of principal component and confirmatory factor analyses showed that one of the six appraisal criteria, which refer to cultural capital, appears to be not relevant in the Dutch context. This item was found to have low inter-correlations with the other items 17

18 and to decrease the scale reliability, and hence only five items were retained. The analyses also confirmed the two factor structure of the perceptions of appraisal politics measurement. The final Cronbach s alpha of the scale was.83 in Sample 1 and.73 in Sample 2. Job satisfaction. We measured job satisfaction in Sample 1 at T1 and T2 asking participants to indicate how satisfied they were with their current job, working atmosphere, career, learning opportunities, career perspectives, and salary. Participants answered on the 5- point Likert-type agreement scale (1 = very dissatisfied; 5 = very satisfied). Cronbach s alpha for the participants job satisfaction ranged between.87 (T1) and.90 (T2). In our analyses, we refer to job satisfaction meaning its average (mean of the two times). Mentoring. We measured in Sample 2 whether respondents had a mentor by asking them to answer Yes or No to the following question: Do you have a particular person in your work environment (oftentimes someone with a longer organizational tenure) with whom you can talk about your job, your career and related matters, a so called mentor? Control variables. We controlled for participants age, gender (0 = male; 1 = female), and organizational tenure, because they have been shown to contribute to organizational commitment (Mathieu & Zajac, 1990; Cohen, 1993; Meyer et al., 2002). Age was measured by participants year of birth. Organizational tenure was measured by the year when participants joined the organization. We also controlled for organizational commitment at Time 1 in all relationship analyzed. Results Preliminary Analyses Table 1. The means, standard deviations, correlations among research variables are presented in [Insert Table 1 about her] 18

19 To establish validity of the newly-created measure of perceptions of appraisal politics and to examine whether four self-reported scales (vigor, organizational commitment, perceptions of appraisal politics, and job satisfaction) represent distinct constructs; we performed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using Lisrel. This analysis was performed separately for each sample and for each time point. We compared the fit of six-factor model (Sample 1) and of five-factor model (Sample 2) for variables measured in T1 (vigor (loads on two factors), perceptions of appraisal politics (loads on two factors), organizational commitment, and satisfaction (only Sample 1), with three alternative models. As shown in Table 2, for both samples their respective models provided better fit than any of the proposed alternative models. In a similar way, we compared the fit of four-factor model (Sample 1) and of three-factor model (Sample 1) for variables measured in T 2 (vigor (loads on two factors), organizational commitment, and job satisfaction (only Sample 1)) with two plausible two models. Table 2 shows that in both samples the specified models provided a better fit than alternative models. [Insert Table 2 about here] Hypothesis Tests We tested our Hypothesis 1 and 2 on both samples with hierarchical regression analyses with organizational commitment at Time 2 as the dependent variable. The results are presented in Tables 3 and 4. We controlled for organizational commitment (measured at T1), average vigor, gender (male vs. female), age, and organizational tenure. In the first step of analysis (model 1), we entered all the control variables. In the second step of analysis (model 2), we entered vigor change, which was found to positively relate to change in organizational 19

20 commitment in both samples. In support for Hypothesis 1 1, adding vigor change accounted for 1 percent (Sample 2) and 2 percent (Sample 1) variance in organizational commitment change, going above and beyond the variance explained by the control variables. Thus, Hypothesis 1 received support. In the third step of analysis (model 3), we entered perceptions of appraisal politics, which, however, did not have significant relationship with organizational commitment change. In the last step of analysis (model 4), we entered the moderating effect of perceptions of appraisal politics on the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change. Testing for the interaction between vigor change and perceptions of appraisal politics, perceptions of appraisal politics was found to negatively moderate the direct relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change ( =.05, t = 2.28, p <.05), but only in Sample 2, partially supporting Hypothesis 2. To further support Hypothesis 2, we examined the patterns of this interaction by plotting its simple slopes at one standard deviation above and below the mean of arena measure (Aiken & West, 1991). Figure 2 shows that vigor change was related to organizational commitment change when perceptions of appraisal politics was perceived as low in the organization (one SD below the mean) ( =.15, t = 5.09, p <.001). However, vigor change was not related to organizational commitment change when perceptions of appraisal politics was perceived as high (one SD above the mean) ( =.06, t = 1.64, p =.10). Thus, Hypothesis 2 received support but only for Sample 2. [Insert Table 3 about here] 1 Additionally, in line with Chen et al. (2011), we tested whether the direction of vigor change (0 = negative; 1 = positive) moderated the relationship between vigor change and commitment change in the two samples. For this purpose, we created the direction dummy variable, which did not significantly moderate the relationship. 20

21 [Insert Table 4 about here] [Insert Figure 2 about here] To test the rest of hypotheses that combine moderation and mediation effects (i.e., direct effect moderation model; Edwards & Lambert, 2007) on Sample 1, we used an SPSS macro (Hayes, 2012). In doing so, we followed three interlinked steps. First, we examined a simple mediation model (Hypothesis 3). Second, we integrated the proposed moderator variables in this model (Hypotheses 4a and 4b) and tested the overall moderated mediation model (Hypothesis 5a and 5b). Test of mediation model. Results from the mediation model indicated that vigor change was positively related to job satisfaction ( =.14, t = 2.25, p <.05), job satisfaction was positively related to organizational commitment change ( =.56, t = 5.51, p <.001). Corresponding to our Hypothesis 3, with the inclusion of job satisfaction in the model, the positive relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change was no longer significant, indicating that this relationship is fully mediated by the job satisfaction. In further support of Hypothesis 3, an SPSS macro allowed us to estimate the indirect effect of vigor change on organizational commitment change both with the Sobel test (i.e., normal theory test) and with bootstrapping to obtain its confidence intervals (CIs) (Preacher & Hayes, 2004; Shrout & Bolger, 2002). The results of the Sobel test indicated significant indirect (and positive) effect of vigor change on organizational commitment change ( =.10, z = 2.03, p <.05). This indirect effect was also supported by bootstrap results (N = 10,000) with 95% CI as the intervals did not contain zero (.001,.237) (Shrout & Bolger, 2002). Thus, Hypothesis 3 received support. Test of moderated mediation. Results from the moderated mediation model are presented in Table 5. As shown in the table, the interaction of vigor change with perceptions 21

22 of appraisal politics did not predict job satisfaction ( =.15, t = 1.71, p =.09). Thus, we have to reject our Hypothesis 4a and, as follows, Hypothesis 4b. However, we find the interaction of job satisfaction with mentoring to be positive and significant in predicting organizational commitment change ( =.35, t = 2.26, p <.05), supporting our Hypothesis 5a and Hypothesis 5b. In further support of the hypotheses, we explored simple slopes of indirect effect of job satisfaction on organizational commitment change (Aiken & West, 1991). Figure 3 shows that the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment change was stronger for individuals who had a mentor ( =.67, t = 5.54, p <.001) than for those who did not had a mentor ( =.36, t = 2.66, p <.01). We have also examined conditional indirect effects of vigor change on organizational commitment change through job satisfaction by looking at 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals derived from 10,000 bootstrapping samples (Preacher & Hayes, 2004; Shrout & Bolger, 2002). These results showed that CIs did not include zero, supporting our Hypothesis 5b that when mentor is present the indirect effect of vigor change on organizational commitment change through job satisfaction will be stronger than when mentor is absent. Moreover, the biggest difference in the moderating effect of mentor was under conditions of low perceptions of appraisal politics: when mentor was present, the effect was.25 with CI (.05;.51); when mentor was absent, the effect was.12 with CI (.02;.31). Thus, Hypotheses 5a and 5b received support. [Insert Table 5 about here] [Insert Figure 3 about here] Discussion Although there is a growing recognition of the value of vigor as a personal energetic resource for the contemporary organizations, yet scholars understanding of how this resource changes over time and contributes to organizations remains insufficient. To address this 22

23 research gap, we drew on AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and COR (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll, 2001) as well as applied the logic suggested by Gestalt characteristics theory (Ariely & Carmon, 2000) and the related research (e.g., Chen et al., 2011) to highlight the value of considering how dynamic nature of vigor resource is predictive of changes in organizational commitment. Based on two longitudinal samples, our study showed that gains (losses) of vigor resource resulted in increase (decrease) in organizational commitment over time. Furthermore, the study revealed that, beyond average levels of vigor in a given period of time, changes in vigor during the same period of time have a unique value in explaining changes in organizational commitment. In the sample of employees from a government organization, perceptions of appraisal politics moderated the relation between vigor change and organization commitment change, making it weaker under conditions of high appraisal politics. In the sample of lawyers, job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between vigor change and organizational commitment change, and this mediating effect was stronger when individuals had a mentor. Our results provide important contributions to the literature on vigor at work (e.g., Sonnentag & Niessen, 2008; Shirom, 2011). First, our study extends the vigor literature by examining an important role of vigor as a positive personal energetic resource in determining changes in organizational commitment over time. By doing so, we contribute to the scarce literature on the relation between vigor and work-related attitudes (e.g., Wefald, Mills, Smith, & Downey, 2012). Moreover, the results of our study illuminate the dynamic nature of vigor at work in relation to organizational commitment change. Specifically, our findings showed that in different organizational settings change in vigor resource accounts for additional variance of 1 percent and 2 percent in organizational commitment change above and beyond average level of vigor. In this way, we emphasize the unique value of the vigor change momentum and respond to 23

24 the calls for more models that take a within-person approach to examining vigor (Shirom, 2010; Sonnentag et al., 2010). Second, our study contributes to the literature by shedding light into moderator and mediator variables that impact on the vigor change-organizational commitment change relation. Drawing on the previous research on organizational politics (e.g., Miller et al., 2008; Chang et al., 2011), we examined the moderating role of individuals perception of appraisal politics in the organization in the relationship between vigor change and commitment change. Our results suggested that when individuals perceived appraisal politics in their organizations as low, an increase (decrease) in vigor resource was related to an increase (decrease) in organizational commitment. In contrast, when individuals perceived appraisal politics in their organizations as high, changes in vigor were not related to changes in organizational commitment. However, we found it to be true only for the sample of employees from a government organization. Thus, changes in vigor were less predicting changes in organizational commitment when employees perceived appraisal politics in their organizations as high. In addition, our results revealed that job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between vigor change and commitment change in the sample of lawyers. Building our theorizing on AET (Weiss & Cropzano, 1996) and previous research on job satisfactionorganizational commitment link (e.g., Mowday et al., 1982; Williams & Hazer, 1986), we found that vigor change was positively related to job satisfaction, which, in turn, was positively related to organizational commitment. Job satisfaction associated with changes in vigor resource at work appeared to be an important mechanism underlying the vigor changecommitment change relationship. The study results also supported our moderated mediation model in this sample. In particular, experiencing high levels of job satisfaction was more strongly related to positive 24

25 change in organizational commitment for individuals who had a mentor. Consequently, for individuals with a mentor, job satisfaction appeared to have a stronger mediation role in the relationship between vigor change and commitment change than for individuals without a mentor. This is consistent with previous research on work and career outcomes of lawyers (e.g., Mobley, Jaret, Marsh, & Lim, 1994; Higgins, 2000), which emphasizes the crucial role of mentoring for individuals in this legal profession. Contrary to our predictions, perception of appraisal politics in organization did not moderate the relationships between vigor change and commitment changes and between vigor change and job satisfaction in the sample of lawyers. One of the possible explanations of this lies in the nature of organizational culture in law firms, which is characterized as an aggressive, highly competitive, and up or out culture (e.g., Ramaswami, Dreher, Bretz, & Wiethoff, 2010). In this type of organizational settings, decision making about a promotion is often highly uncertain due to the very subjective, independent, and changing nature of professional work, which makes social capital a salient mechanism in achieving career progression (Higgins, 2000). Being employed in such an environment, lawyers might be already used to work under conditions of high appraisal politics and, therefore, they might be less vulnerable to the presence of these work environment characteristics. Consequently, high levels of appraisal politics in the organization have less impact on lawyers work-related outcomes such as organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Limitations and Future Research Our study has several limitations. First, due to survey-based longitudinal design, we were only able to gather self-report data. This may raise concerns about common method variance (CMV). We tried to minimize these concerns by taking the following steps (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003): a) our data was collected anonymously from respondents to reduce their evaluation apprehension; b) when collecting our data we 25

26 used different scale endpoints and formats for predictive and criterion variables; and c) we used CFA to test whether one-factor model would account for all the variance in the items, which was not the case. Future research should consider choosing data coming from various informational sources or measuring main variables in different points in time. Second, our study design did not allow us to make definitive conclusions about the causal ordering outlined in our model. Future research should replicate our findings in experimental settings. Third, attempting to increase the generalizability of our study results, we chose to test our proposed model on two samples, which represented different organizational contexts. However, in the period of data collection we had to face with participant attrition, which resulted in the final sample, representing a relatively small percentage of those initially contacted. Moreover, we ended up with a quite low sample of lawyers, which we used to test our model. We encourage investigating our findings on a bigger sample of employees from private organizational settings. Beyond addressing study limitation, we would also like to suggest interesting directions for future research. For example, adopting a dynamic process perspective in investigating relationships between vigor resource and work-related outcomes allows considering various time frames for capturing changes in these variables. We looked at vigor and organizational commitment changes that take place in the period of one year and 18 months. Future research, instead, may focus on investigating vigor fluctuations within a short period of time (e.g., from day-to-day, or from hour-to-hour). This corresponds with the contemporary literature that emphasizes a momentary and transient nature of vigor fluctuations (Sonnentag, Dormann, & Demerouti, 2010; Bakker, Albrecht, & Leiter, 2011). Investigating within-person changes in vigor resource in relation to changes in work-related outcomes would provide a more profound understanding of the work-related outcomes of changes in vigor resource. Furthermore, our proposed model did not consider factors that 26