The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the structural characteristics (intensity of a norm, range of tolerable behavior and potential return difference) of the group norms regarding improvement proposals, psychological safety and occupational stress among engineers working in the information and communication industry. A survey by the web-based method was conducted with 602 Japanese employees (601 valid responses). Therefore, a 2-1-1 multilevel mediation analysis using a hierarchical linear model was calculated to confirm that psychological safety could be a mediator of the correlation between structural characteristics (intensity of a norm, range of tolerable behavior and potential return difference) and occupational stress, the data hierarchy of each job type was recognized by calculating ICC. The results showed that psychological safety had a mediating role in the relationship of intensity and potential return difference of the norm and stress responses.

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In two studies, we investigated whether leader evaluation would mediate the positive association between followers’ future perspectives in their organization and their organizational commitment and whether this indirect effect would be moderated by an organizational tenure. In Study 1, we recruited 191 college students (68 males and 123 females) with their mean age of 19.91 (SD=1.02) years old. In Study 2, we recruited 179 full-time employees in less than five years of employment (113 males and 65 females, 1 non-response) with their mean age of 32.94 (SD=7.68) years old. These participants were asked to recall their group or organization with a leader and, then, to respond to the scales of leader evaluation (i.e., personality and competence evaluation), future perspectives in their organization, and organizational commitment. In both studies, we found the indirect effect of personality evaluation on organizational commitment through future perspectives. This indirect effect was not moderated by organizational tenure. In other words, the importance of the evaluation on leaders’ personality was maintained even when the organizational tenure became longer, and this tendency was similar for both university students and full-time employees. On the other hand, the indirect effect of competence evaluation was moderated by an organizational tenure only among full-time employees. This result indicated that for full-time employees who belong for a longer time, their positive evaluation on their leader’s competency would likely shape their positive future perspective in their organization.

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This study explored the recovery experience process on work motivation by examining the leisure activities of young full-time employees. We collected qualitative data using semi-structured interviews with 20 Japanese full-time employees working for private companies in various industries. The analyses generated seven category groups, 15 categories, and 44 subcategories as the recovery experience processes. In addition, a hypothetical model was derived to show the three essential stages of the recovery experience process : (1) preparation and motivation for leisure, (2) recovery of personal resources through leisure, and (3) acquisition of personal resources through leisure. By examining both the positive and negative perspectives of these recovery experience processes and showing the relationship between each factor, this study integrates previous research and provides directions for future research on recovery experiences.

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Most psychological contract research has exclusively examined the impact of psychological contract breach (i.e., individuals’ cognitive aspects) on work attitudes and behaviors. On the other hand, the effects of psychological contract violation (i.e., individuals’ emotional aspects) have not been sufficiently investigated. Further, although impacts of psychological contract breach/violation on work attitudes may differ according to individuals’ career orientations, career perspective has been excluded in psychological contract research. Based on affective events theory, we attempt to test (1) the mediating effect of psychological contract violation in the relationship between psychological contract breach and work attitudes, and (2) the moderating effect of careerism on the relationship between psychological contract violation and work attitudes, using time-lagged data collected from Korean employees. The results show that (1) psychological contract breach increases psychological contract violation, which results in lower job satisfaction, organization commitment and intention to stay, and (2) careerism tends to alleviate negative effects of psychological contract violation on work attitudes.

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The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure the permeation of a management philosophy among organizational members. For this scale, we assumed a three-factor structure of “cognition,” “empathic understanding,” and “behavior”, referring to previous studies. As a preliminary survey, 35 scale items were developed based on previous studies and interview surveys. Questionnaire surveys were conducted at three locations of two companies. Based on the analysis of this questionnaire, 17 items were selected for a pilot version of the Management Philosophy Scale. We commissioned a research company to conduct a web-based survey of regular employees (from general employees to managers) working in companies with management philosophies (n=521) . As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, three factors (12 items) were extracted:“cognition,” “empathic understanding,” and “behavior”. Reliability showed high internal consistency with α=.80−.89. A model assuming the superordinate concept of “permeation of management philosophy” commonly affecting “cognition,” “empathic understanding,” and “behavior” (second-order factor structure model) was adopted, and its structural validity was verified. The relationships between the scale and affective commitment and intrinsic motivation were examined. The Criterion-related validity of the scale was verified.

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This article aims to clarify the common forms of hypotheses and explain how they are tested in industrial and organizational psychology, social psychology, and other disciplines. There are four types of testable hypotheses: main effect, moderation, mediation, and moderated mediation. Main effect hypotheses predict the relationship between two variables, for example, predictor X and outcome Y. Main effect provides a basis for the other three types of hypotheses. Moderation hypotheses focus on a variable, such as moderator W, which affects the association between two or more variables. Moderation hypotheses predict that the relationship between X and Y will change as a function of moderator W. Mediation hypotheses indicate the presence of an intervening variable, namely, mediator M that transmits the effect of X on Y. In other words, it is concerned with the indirect effect of X on Y through M. Finally, moderated mediation hypotheses refer to the notion that the indirect effect of X on Y through M is moderated by a fourth variable Z. These four types of hypotheses could be constructed from multi-level perspectives as well as a single-level perspective. Furthermore, how each type of hypothesis can be statistically tested is explained with reference to specific empirical studies. Finally, clarifying the form of the hypothesis will help reviewers and readers understand what researchers attempt to reveal. Such manuscripts can elicit a variety of comments from reviewers and readers, resulting in meaningful research publications.

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