Cultivating Quality Employee-Organization Relationships: The Interplay among Organizational Leadership, Culture, and Communication

ABSTRACT

Based on a random sample of employees (n = 391) working in various industrial sectors in the United States, we examined the respective linkages between employee–organization relationships (EORs) and authentic leadership, symmetrical internal communication, and organizational culture. Results indicated that authentic leadership, organizational culture of supportiveness, emphasis on reward, and stability were significant predictors of the symmetrical internal communication system of an organization and EORs. Symmetrical internal communication cultivates quality EORs and mediates the effects of authentic leadership and cultural dimensions of supportiveness on EOR outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings were also discussed.

Notes

¹ Trust is defined as “the willingness and confidence of both parties involved in relationships to open themselves to each other,” whereas control mutuality is defined as “the degree to which parties agree on who has rightful power to influence one another” (Hon & Grunig, 1999, p. 13). Commitment is denoted as the desire of both parties to put continuous efforts to maintain and promote a relationship (Grunig & Huang, 2000; Hung, 2002). Satisfaction is the degree to which both parties of a relationship are satisfied with each other. For a more detailed and extensive discussion of the four relational outcomes, refer to Hon and Grunig (1999).

² According to SSI, multiple levels of randomisation are built into Dynamix sampling system. A participant who enters the system may potentially qualify for different projects currently live based on their known demographics or other characteristics. Ten refinement questions, representing ten of the potential projects, are randomly selected and presented to the participant. Based upon their answers to these questions, respondents may qualify for anywhere from 0 to 10 of the 10 surveys. A further level of randomisation is embedded in the system, which selects the most suitable survey for the respondent to take at that moment. This method has methodological advantage as it removes the self-selection bias inherent in traditional contact methods because participants are presented with only one survey at a time and they can not “opt in” based on the attractiveness of the reward or the topic (SSI, 2010).

³ All sets of independent variables in the regression models exhibited relatively low multicollinearity (tolerance ranged from .24 to .64).