Core Versus Peripheral Positions: an Integrated Model
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CORE VERSUS PERIPHERAL POSITIONS: AN INTEGRATED MODEL By LIXIN JIANG A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Psychology MAY 2013 © Copyright by LIXIN JIANG, 2013 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by LIXIN JIANG, 2013 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of LIXIN JIANG find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Tahira M. Probst, Ph.D., Chair Thomas M. Tripp, Ph.D. John P. Garofalo, Ph. D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Tahira Probst, for her trust, guidance, and support. She recognizes my potential, points me in the right direction, and respects my decisions. She brought me here from China in a mentorship when she barely knew me, guided me in taking various courses and studying cutting edge knowledge in my area when I was new to I/O Psychology, and gave me freedom to explore new areas when I decided to pursue this dissertation. She is not only a supportive mentor in my research, but also a wonderful mentor in my life. She was very generous to share her life wisdom with me when I was lost. She was the first person who taught me to make lemon bars, ski, and climb indoors. She was, is, and will always be my role model of how to balance work and family as a woman. I am also deeply grateful to Dr. Thomas Tripp, who has always been there to listen and offer advice. His understanding, encouragement, and support helped me to overcome my inferiority and build my confidence. He is the best instructor that I have had in my life. He has inspired me in all aspects of my career development. I value greatly Dr. John P. Garofalo’s help. He trusted me to teach various courses, made adjustments when necessary, and supported me through tough moments. I am very thankful to have become a member of the Rance family. Whenever I needed it, they provided me with enormous help and shared their excitement, enjoyment, and American culture with me. Friends I have met in the U.S. have helped me in every endeavor. I grew from a Chinese girl knowing nobody, into a holder of Ph.D. in I/O Psychology with many life-long friends. I could not do this without all people I have mentioned. I want to say thank you all. iii CORE VERSUS PERIPHERAL POSITIONS: AN INTEGRATED MODEL ABSTRACT by Lixin Jiang, Ph.D. Washington State University May 2013 Chair: Tahira M. Probst The notion of core versus peripheral entities can be found in a variety of disciplines. Common among various conceptualizations of core versus peripheral entities is the differentiation of power among countries, industries, and subunits. Yet, little research has examined the notion of core versus peripheral positions at the individual level. The purpose of my dissertation was to provide a unified definition of core versus peripheral positions in an organization. In short, core positions were defined as those that possess non-replaceable and critical resources with which an organization achieves its goals and missions, but without which many other organizational activities will stop immediately. To sum, employee position was assessed by criticality, non-substitutability, pervasiveness, and immediacy. My dissertation also explored the advantages associated with being in core positions, including higher work, pay, and job security satisfaction, affective commitment, job involvement, power, job security perceptions, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), lower work stress and burnout, and fewer physical health complaints, as well as a disadvantage related to core positions, i.e., work overload. Last, I examined experienced meaningfulness (i.e., the work being done is meaningful) and perceived organizational worth (i.e., the organization values employee contributions) as the mechanisms explaining why core position linked to outcomes. iv Study 1 with samples from the U.S. demonstrated the reliability and the convergent, discriminant, and incremental predictive validity of the core versus peripheral position scale. Surprisingly, non-substitutability was not significantly related to criticality and negatively related to pervasiveness and immediacy. Study 2 with samples from various Chinese organizations cross validated the core versus peripheral position scale. I used structural equation modeling to examine an integrated model. The best-fitting model indicated that being in a core position linked to perceived organizational worth, which, in turn, resulted in experienced meaningfulness, which, in turn, led to work, pay, job security satisfaction, affective commitment, job involvement, job security perception, in-role job performance, OCBs, stress, burnout, health complaints, but not to power and work overload. Finally, I discussed theoretical implications of the findings regarding organizational psychology in general and positive organizational scholarship in particular, and practical implications for organizations and employees. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Conceptualization and Measurement of Core vs. Peripheral Positions ...................................... 3 The Outcomes of Core vs. Peripheral Positions ........................................................................ 17 Proposed Mediators Linking Core vs. Peripheral Positions and Outcomes .............................. 31 STUDY 1: SCALE DEVELOPMENT METHODS..................................................................... 39 STUDY 1: RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 51 STUDY 2: HYPOTHESIS TESTING METHOD ........................................................................ 66 STUDY 2: RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 76 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................... 90 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 105 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 125 Validation of the Core vs. Peripheral Positions Questionnaire ............................................... 126 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................. 148 Testing an integrated model of core versus peripheral positions in Chinese samples ............ 149 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Initial Items on the Core versus Peripheral Position Scale .............................................. 41 Table 2 Item Descriptive Statistics (N=609) ................................................................................ 52 Table 3 Factor Loadings for Exploratory Factor Analysis (N= 395)............................................ 56 Table 4 Model Fit Indices from Confirmatory Factor Analysis (N=243) .................................... 57 Table 5 Standardized Parameter Loadings (Standard Errors) from the Correlated Four-Factor Confirmatory Factor Analysis Model (N=243) ............................................................................ 59 Table 6 Correlations (Standard Errors) among criticality, non- substitutability, pervasiveness, and immediacy factors (N=243) ................................................................................................... 59 Table 7 Cronbach’s α and item-total correlation of four dimensions of the Core versus Peripheral Position Scale (N=609) ................................................................................................................. 61 Table 8 Bivariate Correlations Between Scores on the Core versus Peripheral Position Scale and the Validation Variables (N=609) ................................................................................................. 62 Table 9 Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Predictions of Pay Satisfactin, Work Satisfaction, and Affective Commitment (N=609) ............................................................................................ 64 Table 10 Descriptive Statistics of Variables ................................................................................. 76 Table 11 Zero-order Product-moment Correlations among Variables ......................................... 78 Table 12 Invariance Tests for the Core versus Peripheral Four-Factor Model............................. 79 Table 13 Measurement and Structural Equation Model Tests ...................................................... 80 Table 14 Standardized Factor Loadings for the Second-Order Measurement Model .................