Contextual feature Study Aspects of the contextual feature considered Findings Strategic importance Podgorska & Pichlak, 2019 (N = 102 PMs) Renewal, repositioning, mandatory In renewal projects project manager’s IQ plays the main role, in repositioning projects motivation (EQ), while in mandatory projects conscientiousness (EQ) is essential. Contract type Müller & Turner, 2010 (N = 400 PMs) Fixed price, remeasurement, alliance For fixed price projects all competencies, except intuitiveness (EQ) is necessary. In fixed price projects IQ and MQ competencies have more importance, than in other type of contracts. Knowledge sharing Agarwal et al., 2021 (N = 8 PBOs) Communities of practice, mentoring Distributed leadership is enabled in organizations with advanced knowledge sharing. Organizational culture Agarwal et al., 2021 (N = 8 PBOs) Control and stability, flexibility, and delegation Distributed leadership is enabled in flexible, collaborative organizations. Organizational structure Chaudhry et al., 2019 (N = 208 PMs) Functional, project, matrix People-oriented management style is most likely to be adopted by project managers working in organizations with a matrix structure than a projectized structure. Literature considering uncertainty Study Uncertainty aspects considered Findings Raziq et al., 2018 (N = 248; PBO workers) Goal clarity Goal clarity is positively associated with project success. For goal clarity, a relational leadership style (such as the transformational style) seems appropriate. Lai et al., 2018 (N = 151 IS professionals) Change of process, change of technological framework, total project uncertainty Uncertainty influences the relationship between regulatory focus (a.ected by leadership style) and project performance. In the case of high uncertainty, a promotion-oriented team (transformational leadership) is more e.ective. Literature considering other characteristics Study Aspects considered Findings Kabore et al., 2021 (N = 111 IDPs coordinator) Team size Project team size has no moderating e.ects on the relationship between transformational leadership and project success. Agarwal et al., 2021 (N = 8 PBOs) PM approaches: traditional or agile Agile methods reinforce distributed leadership. Nauman et al., 2010 (N = 117 PMs) Degree of virtuality in work of project team Task-oriented behavior is equally important for both less- and more-virtual projects whereas, relationship-oriented behavior is highly significant for more-virtual than for less-virtual projects. Literature considering project types Study Industry environment considered Findings Kabore et al., 2021 (N = 111 IDPs coordinator) International development projects Transformational leadership has a direct positive influence on the success of IDPs. Zhang et al., 2018 (N = 365 PMs and members) Integrated project delivery Leadership styles link the relationship between project leaders’ EI and collaboration satisfaction. These projects require leaders with high levels of EI to improve collaboration satisfaction. Wang & Yang, 2021 (N = 6 case studies) Sustainable product development (SNPD) projects Emotional stability, openness to experience, and transformational leadership style of PM play an important role in SNPD projects’ success. Drouin et al., 2018 (N = 6 case studies) Industry sector and specific countries In Canadian and Australian projects, a combination of autocratic and democratic leadership styles, In Scandinavian projects, democratic leadership style has been observed. There is no singificant di.erence in terms of industry sector. Nauman et al., 2022 (N = 370 PMs) IT and SW development sector Transformational leadership has a significant and positive e.ect on project success. This e.ect can be enhanced through a team-building and empowerment climate. Bhatti et al., 2021 (N = 175 project team members) IT and SW development sector Ethical leadership is positively related to a leader’s trust and knowledge sharing, and the leader’s trust and knowledge sharing mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and project success. Chaudhry et al., 2019 (N = 208 PMs) SW development sector Project managers in the software industry mainly adopt three management styles: people-oriented, task-oriented, and organization-oriented. Younger and less-experienced PMs adopt mainly task-oriented leadership style. Maqbool et al., 2017 (N = 345 managers) Construction sector Project managers with high emotional intelligence and transformational leadership behavior ensure higher success in projects than do their counterparts. Tabassi et al., 2016 (N = 70 PMs) Sustainable construction sector Project managers in sustainable building projects have high qualities of transformational leadership, these qualities have an insignificant impact on the success criteria. The intellectual competence of project managers seems to be the most significant factor in sustainable project achievement. Literature considering project complexity Study Aspects of complexity considered Findings Müller & Turner, 2010 (N = 400 PMs) Low, medium, and high Projects with high complexity require intellectual (IQ), managerial (MQ), and emotional (EQ) competencies. Projects with medium complexity require mainly managerial and some emotional competencies. Podgorska & Pichlak, 2019 (N = 102 PMs) Low, medium, and high In projects with high complexity, managerial competencies matter the most; in projects with medium complexity, conscientiousness (EQ) matters the most; and in projects with low complexity, communication (MQ) matters the most. Princes & Said, 2022 (N = 91 PMs) Complexity of technology and organization In complex projects, trust in leader and situational leadership can lead to financial sustainability. Larsson et al., 2015 (N = 162 PMs) Number of stakeholders Integrator leadership style (focus on interpersonal relationships) has a positive e.ect on project performance. Trait theory Focuses on identifying the characteristics and traits of e.ective leaders. Leaders are innate leaders.(Stogdill, 1948, 1974) Behavioral theory Focuses on the behaviors, actions, and skills of leaders. Leaders can be developed.(Lewin et al, 1939; Bales, 1950; McGregor, 1960; Blake & Mouton, 1964) Situational theory Focuses on a leaders adaptation to their environment. Leaders are able to adapt their leadership style to situational factors.(Fiedler, 1967; Hersey & Blanchard, 1977) New leadership Focusing on one aspect of leadership is not su.cient. Focuses on the interactions between leaders, followers, the situation, and the context as a whole system.(Bass & Avolio, 1994; Goleman, 1995) Forcefulness, Pfizer Inc. Rules Persuasions Negative sanctions . Topic 1, “Compliance with the code” 1 5 1 7 Topic 2, “Individual responsibility” 3 1 0 4 Topic 3, “Compliance with law” 13 4 0 17 Topic 4, “Prohibition of corruption” 2 1 0 3 Topic 5, “Avoidance of conflicts of interest” 2 4 0 6 Topic 6, “Dealing with company property” 1 2 0 3 Topic 7, “Prohibition of discrimination” 6 2 0 8 Topic 8, “Protection of data privacy” 3 3 0 6 Topic 9, “Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection” 0 0 0 0 Topic 10, “Protection of free and fair competition” 5 1 0 6 Topic 11, “Interpersonality and integrity” 1 7 0 8 Topic 12, “Other topics” 6 0 0 6 . 43 30 1 Forcefulness, Bayer AG Rules Persuasions Negative sanctions . Topic 1, “Compliance with the code” 3 5 1 9 Topic 2, “Individual responsibility” 0 0 0 0 Topic 3, “Compliance with law” 21 5 4 30 Topic 4, “Prohibition of corruption” 10 0 0 10 Topic 5, “Avoidance of conflicts of interest” 11 1 0 12 Topic 6, “Dealing with company property” 7 0 0 7 Topic 7, “Prohibition of discrimination” 3 1 0 4 Topic 8, “Protection of data privacy” 4 2 0 6 Topic 9, “Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection” 4 1 0 5 Topic 10, “Protection of free and fair competition” 13 2 3 18 Topic 11, “Interpersonality and integrity” 0 3 0 3 Topic 12, “Other topics” 2 0 0 2 . 78 20 8 Relationships of obligation Obligation of employees Obligation to employees Obligation of external stakeholders Obligation to external stakeholders . Bayer AG 18 12 5 35 70 Pfizer Inc. 12 11 8 72 103 . 30 23 13 107 Forcefulness Topic 1: Code compliance Topic 2: Individual responsibility Topic 3: Compliance with law Topic 4: Prohibition of corruption Topic 5: Avoidance of conflicts of interest Topic 6: Dealing with company property Topic 7: Prohibition of discrimination Topic 8: Protection of data privacy Topic 9: Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection Topic 10: Protection of free and fair competition Topic 11: Interpersonality and integrity Topic 12: Other topics Bayer AG 9 0 30 10 12 7 4 6 5 18 3 2 Pfizer Inc. 7 4 17 3 6 3 8 6 0 6 8 6 . 16 4 47 13 18 10 12 12 5 24 11 8 Topics Topic 1: Code compliance Topic 2: Individual responsibility Topic 3: Compliance with law Topic 4: Prohibition of corruption Topic 5: Avoidance of conflicts of interest Topic 6: Dealing with company property Topic 7: Prohibition of discrimination Topic 8: Protection of data privacy Topic 9: Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection Topic 10: Protection of free and fair competition Topic 11: Interpersonality and integrity Topic 12: Other topics Bayer AG 20 3 49 16 19 17 16 12 29 27 9 14 Pfizer Inc. 15 11 36 15 12 7 23 23 13 12 33 25 . 35 14 85 31 31 24 39 35 42 39 43 39 Code of conduct Total codes Information Rules Principles Weak norms Norm level** Persuasion Negative sanctions Persuasion density*** Negative sanction density*** Bayer AG 708* 9 61 39 67 0,95 18 4 0,82 0,18 Pfizer Inc. 733* 7 38 65 50 0,95 26 1 0,96 0,04 . 1441* 16 99 105 117 1,90 46 5 1,78 0,22 *For better reading, coding of the formal characteristics (e.g., headlines) and for this study irrelevant research criteria are excluded from this table, but still are part of the total codes. **Relation between information and norms (rules, principles, weak norms) ***Density denotes the ratio of the number of persuasions to negative sanctions. 2005–2006* With code Without code 1. Allianz SE (8 pages) 16. Adidas AG 2. Altana AG (6 pages) 17. BMW AG 3. BASF Group (4 pages) 18. Commerzbank AG 4. Bayer Group (25 pages) 19. Continental AG 5. DaimlerChrysler AG (6 pages) 20. Deutsche Börse AG 6. Deutsche Bank AG (8 pages) 21. E.ON AG 7. Deutsche Post AG (5 pages) 22. Fresenius 8. Deutsche Telekom AG (3 pages) 23. Henkel KGaA 9. Linde AG (12 pages) 24. Hypo Real Estate Bank AG 10. MAN AG (11 pages) 25. HypoVereinsbank 11. Metro AG (24 pages) 26. Infineon Technologies AG 12. Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (11 pages) 27. Deutsche Lufthansa AG 13. RWE AG (28 pages) 28. ThyssenKrupp AG 14. SAP AG (12 pages) 29. TUI AG 15. Siemens AG (12 pages) 30. Volkswagen AG 50% with code; . 175; Ø 11.67 pages* The company names were taken as they appear in the codes of conduct. 2021 With code 1. Adidas AG (23 pages) 16. E.ON SE (36 pages) 2. Allianz SE (32 pages) 17. Fresenius SE&Co.KGaA (24 pages) 3. BASF SE (29 pages) 18. Fresenius Medical Care (32 pages) 4. Bayer AG (36 pages) 19. HeidelbergCement AG (8 pages) 5. Beiersdorf AG (19 pages) 20. Henkel AG&Co.KGaA (58 pages) 6. BMW AG (14 pages) 21. Infineon Technologies AG (28 pages) 7. Continental AG (24 pages) 22. Linde plc (21 pages) 8. Covestro AG (37 pages) 23. Merck KGaA (24 pages) 9. Daimler AG (40 pages) 24. MTU Aero Engines AG (19 pages) 10. Delivery Hero SE (15 pages) 25. Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (20 pages) 11. Deutsche Bank AG (31 pages) 26. RWE AG (8 pages) 12. Deutsche Börse AG (8 pages) 27. SAP SE (20 pages) 13. Deutsche Post AG (22 pages) 28. Siemens AG (44 pages) 14. Deutsche Telekom AG (12 pages) 29. Volkswagen AG (72 pages) 15. Deutsche Wohnen SE (3 pages) 30. Vonovia SE (13 pages) . 772 pages; Ø 25.73 pages Topic 1, “Compliance with the code”: Content to enhance compliance with the code of conduct Topic 2, “Individual responsibility”: Content that explicitly addresses each individual (e.g., “Each of us has to…”) Topic 3, “Compliance with law”: Content to enhance legal compliance Topic 4, “Prohibition of corruption”: Content to avoid corruptive behavior Topic 5, “Avoidance of conflicts of interest”: Content to avoid discrepancy between the interests of the companies and the interests of the addressee Topic 6, “Dealing with company property”: Content to avoid misuse of company property (including intellectual property) Topic 7, “Prohibition of discrimination”: Content to avoid discrimination of people and to enhance fairness and equality Topic 8, “Protection of data privacy”: Content to avoid data leaks of the company or to enhance data protection of stakeholders Topic 9, “Sustainability, safety and environmental protection”: Content to enhance the conservation of resources, protection of the environment, and health and safety of the people Topic 10, “Protection of free and fair competition”: Content to enhance the equality between competitors in the market Topic 11, “Interpersonality and integrity”: Content to enhance ethical behavior and the quality of human interactions Topic 12, “Other topics”: Topics that cannot be assigned to any of the preceding topics Type of norm Call for action Example Rules • Explicit call for action • only fully compliance or fully non-compliance possible • “All-or-nothing-character” “Any form of retaliation is unacceptable.” (Bayer AG, 2019, p. 12) Principles • Explicit call for action • Gradual fulfilment is possible • “More-or-less-character” “We must use these social media platforms responsibly and in the best interest of Bayer….” (Bayer AG, 2019, p. 15) Weak norms • Implicit call for action • Related to moral aspects • Call for action is at the discretion of the code addressee We share responsibility for maintaining a healthy and safe workplace. (Bayer AG, 2019, p. 8) Information (no norm) • Informational character only • No call for action “We have internal processes and systems designed to prevent the use or diversion of Bayer goods, software, technologies or services in improper ways.” (Bayer AG, 2019, p. 9) Parameter Bayer AG Pfizer Inc. Context European Union (Germany) US Industry Pharmaceuticals, Crop Science Pharmaceuticals Number of employees 99,637 (2021) 78,500 (2021) Revenue 44.1 billion Euro (2021) 81.3 billion USD (2021) (with the vaccine) 44.4 billion USD (2021) (without the vaccine) Listed on NYSE Yes Yes Date of code publication November 2019 2020 Code length 36 pages, 7,606 words 32 pages, 7,777 words Variable Mean Standard deviation Social media use Social media reactions Social media comparison Burnout Interpersonal relationships at work Social media use 3.284 0.771 — — — — — Social media reactions 3.452 0.761 0.512 — — — — Social media comparison 3.868 0.747 0.643 0.460 — — — Burnout 3.571 0.948 0.647 0.417 0.491 — — Interpersonal relationships at work 2.682 0.603 -0.367 -0.318 -0.388 0.387 — Work performance 2.885 0.660 -0.308 -0.313 -0.331 0.569 0.473 No. Measure Scale used No. of questions Cronbach’s alpha 1 Social media usage Social media addiction scale compiled by Jamal Al-Menayes (2015) 5 0.830 2 Social media reactions Developed from previous studies 5 0.805 3 Social media comparison Iowa–Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999) 11 0.761 4 Job burnout Maslach Burnout Inventory–based questionnaire 5 0.932 5 Job performance Based on the general job performance instrument developed by Liden, Wayne, and Stilwell (1993) 5 0.834 6 Interpersonal relationships at work Adapted from Carlson et al.’s (2009) scale to measure interpersonal relationships with co-workers 4 0.713 Division N Ratio (%) Gender Male 160 44.3 Female 127 55.7 Age 24 and less 13 4.5 24–34 84 29.3 35–44 115 40.1 45–54 50 17.4 55 and above 25 8.7 Education Graduate 235 81.9 Master’s degree 48 16.7 Doctorate 4 1.4 Work experience Less than 5 years 71 24.7 5–9 years 89 31.0 10–14 years 51 17.8 15–19 years 47 16.4 20–24 years 19 6.6 25 years and more 10 3.5 Connected with co-workers on social media Yes 253 88.2 No 34 11.8 Average daily time spent on social media No SM 0 0.0 0–2 hours 7 2.4 2–4 hours 111 38.7 4–6 hours 135 47.0 More than 6 hours 34 11.8 Social media use Facebook 273 95.1 WhatsApp/Telegram 277 96.5 Instagram 156 54.4 LinkedIn 88 30.7 Twitter 34 11.8 4 Intercept -1.71 0.089 7.94 <0.001 Ethnicity 0.01 0.20 0.840 -0.05 -0.91 0.363 Gender 0.08 1.23 0.220 -0.16 -2.69 0.008 Civil state -0.02 -0.34 0.731 0.05 0.84 0.402 Employment 0.09 1.38 0.168 0.07 1.22 0.224 Education 0.04 0.62 0.536 -0.05 -0.82 0.411 COVID-19 as a risk 0.02 0.33 0.744 -0.11 -1.95 0.052 Respect COVID-19 measures 0.12 2.15 0.033 0.08 1.47 0.144 A.ected by COVID-19 -0.04 -0.65 0.518 -0.04 -0.72 0.470 Informed about COVID-19 0.09 1.74 0.084 0.12 2.25 0.025 Received voluntarily help 0.05 0.88 0.381 0.04 0.69 0.489 Common fate 0.08 1.26 0.210 0.08 1.19 0.236 Social identification 0.01 0.14 0.888 0.17 2.59 0.010 Expected support 0.27 4.48 <0.001 0.27 4.56 <0.001 Resilience-easy recovery 0.34 5.68 <0.001 0.26 4.42 <0.001 Expressed hard recovery -0.03 -0.55 0.586 -0.12 -2.22 0.028 F(15,222) = 9.87, p < 0.001, R2adj = 0.360, .R2 = 0.090, p < 0.001 F(15,222) = 11.06, p < 0.001, R2adj = 0.389, .R2 = 0.067, p < 0.001 Step Providing coordinated support Providing emotional support ß t p ß t p 1 Intercept 10.34 <0.001 23.41 <0.001 Ethnicity 0.006 -0.09 0.928 -0.04 -0.65 0.514 Gender -0.003 -0.04 0.969 -0.24 -3.31 0.001 Civil state 0.04 0.55 0.584 0.10 1.42 0.157 Employment 0.21 2.83 0.005 0.19 2.54 0.012 Education -0.03 -0.38 0.708 -0.08 -1.23 0.220 F(5,232) = 2.27, p < 0.048, R2adj = 0.026 F(5,232) = 3.56, p = 0.004, R2adj = 0.051 2 Intercept 4.87 <0.001 15.89 <0.001 Ethnicity -0.002 -0.03 0.973 -0.07 -1.03 0.306 Gender 0.03 0.44 0.657 -0.21 -2.98 0.003 Civil state 0.01 0.20 0.841 0.08 1.20 0.232 Employment 0.19 2.60 0.010 0.17 2.43 0.016 Education -0.05 -0.70 0.484 -0.10 -1.53 0.128 COVID-19 as a risk 0.11 1.61 0.108 -0.02 -0.25 0.799 Respect COVID-19 measures 0.21 3.26 0.001 0.15 2.36 0.019 A.ected by COVID-19 -0.04 -0.67 0.501 -0.04 -0.64 0.524 Informed about COVID-19 0.18 2.88 0.004 0.23 3.71 <0.001 Received voluntary help 0.06 1.03 0.306 0.07 1.10 0.274 F(10,227) = 4.15, p < 0.001, R2adj = 0.117, .R2 = 0.108, p < 0.001 F(10,227) = 4.18, p < 0.001, R2adj = 0.118, .R2 = 0.084, p < 0.001 3 Intercept 0.37 0.712 9.79 <0.001 Ethnicity 0.02 0.26 0.793 -0.05 -0.86 0.388 Gender 0.07 1.03 0.302 -0.17 -2.72 0.007 Civil state -0.01 -0.16 0.876 0.05 0.85 0.399 Employment 0.12 1.89 0.060 0.11 1.71 0.088 Education -0.02 -0.38 0.704 -0.09 -1.48 0.140 COVID-19 as a risk 0.01 0.22 0.827 -0.12 -2.03 0.043 Respect COVID-19 measures 0.18 3.02 0.003 0.13 2.21 0.028 A.ected by COVID-19 -0.06 -0.97 0.334 -0.06 -0.97 0.333 Informed about COVID-19 0.10 1.81 0.071 0.13 2.39 0.018 Received voluntary help 0.04 0.63 0.530 0.03 0.54 0.588 Common fate 0.11 1.56 0.119 0.08 1.20 0.230 Social identification 0.11 1.65 0.101 0.24 3.65 <0.001 Expected support 0.31 4.88 <0.001 0.29 4.76 <0.001 F(13,224) = 7.76, p < 0.001, R2adj = 0.270, .R2 = 0.156, p < 0.001 F(13,224) = 9.73, p < 0.001, R2adj = 0.324, .R2 = 0.205, p < 0.001 M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. Common fate with others a.ected 5.14 1.61 — 2. Social identification with others a.ected 4.95 1.41 0.47** — 3. Expected support 4.38 1.35 0. 35** 0.43** — 4. Resilience-easy recovery 5.10 1.24 0. 35** 0.42** 0.33** — 5. Expressed hard recovery 4.00 1.58 0.21** 0.17** 0.14* 0.03 — 6. Provided emotional social support 5.98 1.17 0.40** 0.42** 0.43** 0.48** -0.01 — 7. Provided coordinated social support 4.59 1.71 0.33** 0.38** 0.43** 0.48** 0.08 0.56** — Total e.ect (JI . JP) Direct e.ect (JI . JP) Indirect e.ects: JI . SWB . JP Coe. p-value Coe. t-Value p-value Predictor Coe. t-value p-Value -0.-59 0.000 -0.265 5.329 0.000 JI -0.294 7.831 0.000 SWB 0.562 10.938 0.000 Direct Relationships Path Coe.cients t- statistics p- values JI à JP -0.559 13.015 0.000 JI àSWB -0.523 12.226 0.000 SWB à JP 0.701 18.061 0.000 R2 (JP) = 0.542 Q2 (JP) = 0.416 R2 (SWB) = 0.274 Q2 (SWB) = 0.216 Variables Mean SD Job insecurity Job performance Subjective well-being Job insecurity 3.6 1.05 0.936 0.584 0.553 Job performance 5 1.03 -0.559 0.880 0.740 Subjective well-being 4.7 1.04 -0.523 0.701 0.895 Constructs Indicators Loadings Ca* AVE** CR*** Job insecurity J1 0.936 0.953 0.876 0.966 J2 0.930 J3 0.940 J4 0.937 Job performance JP1 0.838 0.951 0.775 0.960 JP2 0.915 JP3(R) 0.843 JP4 0.909 JP5 0.854 JP6(R) 0.886 JP7 0.919 Subjective well-being SWB1 0.911 0.938 0.801 0.953 SWB2 0.892 SWB3 0.900 SWB4 0.882 SWB5 0.890 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal CONTENTS Volume 12, Number 1, May 2023 E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah ....................................................................... 5 A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas ................................................................... 21 Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht ........................................................................ 35 Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic ................................................................................................................. 53 Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar ................................................................................................. 73 Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility Erik Pelters ........................................................................................................................................... 87 Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles Gabriella Cserháti ................................................................................................................................ 107 Author Guidelines................................................................................................................................ 121 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 1 This special issue section is focused on present­ing the 6th International Conference on Manage­ment and Organization SAM 2022 hosted by Slovenian Academy of Management, together with School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, and Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, with the support of CEEMAN, organized on June 23-24, 2022 in Ljubljana, Slove­nia. The theme of the conference was Integrating Organizational Research: Individual, team, organi­zational and multilevel perspectives. The inspiration for the gathering alike came from the awareness that organizations are multi­level social systems. Even though organizations are complex social systems, most scholars remain en­trenched in their own disciplinary, specialized micro (organizational behaviour and organizational psy­chology), meso (social psychology, business process management, project management) or macro (strategic management, organizational theory and design, engineering/systems management) re­search camps. Meanwhile, managers in the digitally connected world must prioritize the execution of competitive strategic initiatives and the achieve­ment of challenging business objectives by skilfully managing and continually enhancing the dynamic interactions between various levels of the organiza­tional system. Although these distinct schools of thought have traditionally focused on analyzing or­ganizational phenomena at di.erent levels of anal­ysis (i.e., individual/job, team/unit, and organiza­tion/system), they will undoubtedly persist and provide valuable, specialized insights. Nevertheless, relying solely on single-level perspectives may not be su.cient for e.ectively addressing the increasing complexity of organizational life. It is encouraging to see that there is a growing body of research in organizational studies that spans multiple levels, incorporating previously separate research areas and providing fresh perspectives on business practices. The need to bridge the gap be­tween macro and micro levels has been acknowl­edged by the field of organizational science, particularly in areas such as human resource man­agement, leadership, organizational behavior, inno­vation management, and organizational learning. Recent developments in multilevel modelling tech­niques have further emphasized the importance of considering levels in scholarly discussions. The central premise of multilevel organizational research is that a more comprehensive explanation of phenomena can be achieved by integrating factors from di.erent levels of analysis. The aim and focus of this conference were to explore and tackle theo­retical, research, and methodological challenges as­sociated with single- and cross-level investigations, with the goal of advancing our comprehension of the multilevel nature of organizations. Participants from universities and schools from 17 di.erent countries came to Ljubljana and in two days, 43 papers were presented in 10 sessions. A myriad of di.erent par­ticipants and topics were present at the conference. The first day of the conference presentations were held in session HRM and OB, Job design, Leadership, Business process management and Digitized work. On the second day, presentations were scheduled in the sessions Macro- and cross-level issues, Innova­tive work behaviour and Project organizing. In order to present the wide range of presented studies, we conducted a textual analysis presented in Figure 1. The topics covered within papers include broader fields of leadership, corporate social re­sponsibility, human resource management, project management, work design, and many more across di.erent levels (individual, team, and organiza­tional), di.erent industries, and di.erent countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Colombia and Thailand). We strived to provide much-needed synthesis of underlying theories and methodological approaches within the loosely coupled community of organizational scholars by taking account of the fact that micro phenomena are embedded in macro contexts, while macro phenomena often emerge through the interaction and dynamics of lower-level elements. Such an approach may add depth and richness to our theoretical reasoning and likewise improve conversations between researchers and practitioners, by providing insightful details con­cerning how organizations operate and behave. For the occasion of the special issue section we have decided to highlight two well-represented and interesting topics from the conference: corporate social responsibility (CSR) and leadership in project management. Both business supporters and busi­ness-and-society scholars share a basic conviction that CSR is advantageous not only for the firm but also for its stakeholders and society as a whole (Burke & Logsdon, 1996). It is important to study the development of CSR practices in di.erent contexts (implicit vs. explicit CSR) in order to reveal how or­ganizations, address stakeholder needs, as well as the changes in expressed ethical values and its im­pact on market and the society (Carson, Hagen, & Sethi, 2013). Similarly, projects are invaluable for managing complex problems and implementing changes for the good of organizations and society. Studying leadership in the context of projects is of high importance because project success depends on di.erent characteristics of the project itself such as complexity, size, uniqueness (Mir & Pinnington, 2014). Projects are temporary and as such, largely dependent on the abilities of project managers. And, what is crucial sometimes is how project man­agers adjust to contingencies of di.erent projects. The two papers in this special issue section address these topics. The first paper, by Erik Pelters investigates the extent to EU companies mimic the content of codes of conduct from U.S. companies. This is grounded in the process of hybridization, i.e. a gradual align­ment between the design of CSR practices by com­panies in implicit and explicit CSR contexts. Hybridization comes alive with the help of expliciti­zation and implicitization (Matten & Moon, 2008). In his paper, Erik Pelters is focused on empirical ev­idence of hybridization in terms of changes in codes of conduct over time. Findings point out to a notice­able hybridization where codes of conduct in USA function as templates for EU companies. Explicitiza­tion of codes content takes place in companies of the EU context. The same applies to implicitization of CSR practices: content analysis demonstrated that companies embedded new trends within their codes of conduct. The second paper is written by Gabriella Cser­háti. It provides a content analysis of leadership ap­proaches in project management with the focus on interactions between project/organizational charac­teristics and project manager’s leadership style. More precisely, the analysis centred on the depen­dence of project success on various project charac­teristics, including project type, complexity, goal clarity, uncertainty, team size, project management practices, and virtuality. Based on these findings, au­thor suggests two implications for future research. First, in order to ensure project success, research ef­forts should focus on interactions between leader­ship style and project characteristics. Second, au­thor calls for investigating multilevel interactions between organizational context (such as culture and structure), leadership style and project success. REFERENCES Matten, D., & Moon, J. (2008) “Implicit” and “explicit” CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative un­derstanding of corporate social responsibility, Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 402-424. Burke, L., & Logsdon, J. M. (1996). How corporate social responsibility pays o., Long Range Planning, 29(4), 495-502. Carson, S. G., Hagen, Ø., & Sethi, S. P. (2013). From Im­plicit to Explicit CSR in a Scandinavian Context: The Cases of HÅG and Hydro, Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), 17-31. Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: Linking Project Management Performance and Project Success, International Jour­nal of Project Management, 32(2), 202–217. Introduction to the Special Issue Section 6th International Conference on Management and Organization SAM 2022: INTEGRATING ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH: INDIVIDUAL, TEAM, ORGANIZATIONAL AND MULTILEVEL PERSPECTIVES Aleša Saša Sitar University of Ljubljana Ana Aleksic Miric University of Belgrade Matija Maric University of Zagreb 2 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Figure 1: Textual analysis of papers presented at SAM 2022 conference Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 3 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 4 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 5 EFFECT OF JOB INSECURITY ON JOB PERFORMANCE: LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING Maliha Sarfraz COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan malihasarfraz50@gmail.com Jamil Anwar COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan jamilanwar@cuiatd.edu.pk Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan afzalshah@cuiatd.edu.pk Business competition, rapid technological changes, and government reforms or deregulations around the globe have put companies in di.cult situations resulting in the risk of job insecurity, which deteriorates the well-being of the em­ployees, leading to decreased job performance. This research extends the knowledge of the link between job insecurity and job performance by exploring the potential mediating mechanism of Subjective well-being in the food and bever­age industry. Data from 357 employees of the food and beverages industry from two districts in Pakistan were collected through a pretested questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses using Smart­PLS software. Reliability and validity checks were applied to assess the measurements and structural models. The find­ings reveal that job insecurity has a negative impact on job performance, whereas subjective well-being has a significantly positive influence on job performance. Furthermore, subjective well-being mediates the negative rela­tionship between job insecurity and job performance. Multi-industry analysis can give more-robust and -generalizable results. In addition to subjective well-being, other mediators and moderators can be added for this relationship. Man­agers can improve their team performance by reducing on-the-job insecurity and improving the working condition and personal care of employees. Keywords: job insecurity, subjective well-being, job performance; smartPLS, food and beverages industry 1INTRODUCTION In addition to pandemic situations such as Covid-19, business competition, rapid technological changes, and government reforms or deregulation around the globe have put companies in di.cult sit­uations in adopting numerous strategies such as downsizing, acquisitions, outsourcing, and mergers (Minnotte & Varud, 2020). One of the most evident outcomes of these situations is the risk of job inse­curity (JI) or unemployment. Considerable job loss has amplified the feelings and perceptions of em­ployment insecurity, which aggravates the uncer­tainty among workforce at global level. Job insecurity is deemed to be a robust hindrance stres­sor that is linked to a range of damaging impacts in both the short term and the long term (Richter & Naswal, 2018). Job insecurity is expressed as an em­ployee’s concern about the continuity of existing employment in the future (Shin et al., 2019), and is linked closely with a wide range of workplace out­comes, such as anxiety, decreased performance, turnover intention, and emotional exhaustion (Chirumbolo et al., 2020). The consequences of this critical stressor cause detrimental e.ects on em­ployees’ mental and physical health and on their well-being (Choi et al., 2020; De Witte et al., 2016). An increasing number of studies are addressing the domain of employee well-being (Diener et al., 2018; Saeed et al., 2021). It is an established fact that a satisfied and happy workforce is more pro­ductive and e.ective for organizations (Warr & Nielsen, 2018). It also is acknowledged that the well-being of individuals contributes to sustainable organizational goals and contributes toward eco­nomic growth and enduring social justice. In con­trast, at the individual level, the perception of insecure employment a.ects both an employee’s physical well-being and subjective well-being (SWB). Similarly, at the organizational level, job insecurity negatively impacts employee work behaviors (Darvishmotevali & Ali, 2020; Nella et al., 2015; Saeed et al., 2021; Jiang & Lavaysse, 2018). More­over, research also has indicated adverse conse­quences of job insecurity to job satisfaction and employee well-being (Cheng & Chan 2008; Sverke et al., 2002). Although a wide range of research has vali­dated the negative association among job insecurity and a number of employee attitudes and organiza­tion-level consequences (Darvishmotevali et al., 2017; Jung et al., 2021; Sender et al., 2017; Shin et al., 2019), very little is known about the mechanism by which job insecurity influences performance through subjective well-being (Hu et al., 2018). Re­cent research (Darvishmotevali & Ali, 2020; Richter & Näswall, 2018; Salgado et al., 2019) pointed out that the mediating role of subjective well-being con­necting job insecurity to employee job performance (JP) has been less investigated, and suggested that this relationship needs to be investigated further. Because most investigation of job insecurity is con­ducted in a Western environment (Wang et al., 2014), this relationship has not been investigated in Pakistan (Saif et al., 2020). Job insecurity is a global matter, including in Pak­istan. In Pakistan, most people are unemployed, and those who are employed are encountering tough competition and remain in the fear of losing their jobs under uncertain conditions (Saeed et al., 2021). Empirical evidence has recognized job insecurity as a commonly experienced phenomenon in the private sector of Pakistan (Saeed et al., 2021; Qureshi & Khan, 2016). For example, Awan and Salam (2014) found that private college teachers’ performance is negatively related to job insecurity, whereas Saeed et al.’s (2021) findings in the pharmaceutical sector in­dicated that job insecurity negatively impacts well-being, organizational communication, and employee involvement, whereas perceived employability re­duces job insecurity. Building on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this research investigated how job insecurity impacts employee job performance via reducing their subjective well-being in the food and beverage industry in Pakistan. The food industry traditionally hires a substantial number of less-skilled employ­ees, who feel more insecure during downsizing and other uncertainty in the market (Wang et al., 2011; Zopist & Orphanides, 2009), thus making this indus­try a good choice to investigate this relationship. The study contributes to the body of knowledge of job insecurity, subjective well-being, and job per­formance in three ways. Firstly, it presents evidence to further the understanding of the process regard­ing the negative impact of job insecurity on employ­ees’ job performance by reducing their subjective well-being, which is critical for both employees and organizations. Secondly, the context of the study, i.e., the country dynamics and the industry (food and beverages) peculiarities, enrich the existing litera­ture. Thirdly, very few studies have used transac­tional stress theory to investigate the mediating role of SWB by connecting job insecurity with job perfor­mance. Lastly, managers can apply the recommen­dations to achieve greater performance in times of uncertainty, and also can understand how to take care of the subjective well-being of the employees to keep them psychologically relaxed and satisfied. The remainder of this paper includes the litera­ture review providing theoretical background and hypotheses development; research methodology; data cleansing and analysis, including assessment of common method variance, measurement model as­sessment, and structural model assessment; and hy­pothesis results of both direct and mediating e.ects. The last section concludes the results with discussion of findings, implications of the study, and limitations and future research guidelines. 2LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Development Job insecurity describes the subjective perception of an employee regarding losing their employment as a consequence of economic downturns or any changes in organizational structure (Ashford et al., 1989; Che­ung et al., 2019; De Witte, 2005; Schumacher et al., 2016). In an uncertain situation concerning job conti­nuity, individuals may experience psychological strain along with perceived uncertainty about the future of their jobs (Burgard et al., 2007; Burgard et al., 2012; Cheung et al., 2019). Prior research in the domain of JI adopted the latent deprivation model (Jahoda, 1982), job demands-resources model (Demerouti et al., 2001), and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll et al., 1990) as guiding mechanisms to identify how JI impacts individual well-being and other organizational and behavioral outcomes. To study how perceived JI influences job out­comes, we adopted the JD-R model (Demerouti et al., 2001) as a framework to investigate how JI influences work outcome or performance through subjective well-being composed of employee’s satisfaction with their life and work. Here, JI is characterized as a kind of work demand that fuels work strain, which in turn causes negative impacts on an organization in terms of decreased performance and job dissatisfaction (Shin & Hur, 2021). Consistent with JR-D theory, JI is assumed to fuel a health-diminishing process within which the cognitive and physiological resources of workers are depleted (Pap et al., 2020). In addition, job resources emphasize social, structural, and physiological factors of the work (Xia, 2021). The JD-R model depicts the dy­namic interaction among di.erent job demands in ad­dition to personal resources that impacts employee well-being and performance as a result of those inter­actions (Bakker & Demerouti 2007; Kwon & Kim 2020). In the workplace, employees encounter di.erent situations such as daily stress, consistent uncertainty about job loss, and job ambiguity, which hampers per­formance. These factors increase anxiety, which is a key indicator of lower subjective well-being (Cheung et al., 2019; Darvishmotevali et al., 2017; Darvish­motevali et al., 2020). According to the latent depri­vation model (Jahoda, 1982; 1997), it is the lack of latent benefits of work due to unemployment which leads to psychological distress. Thus employees who perceive JI frequently undergo stress due to fear of losing their employment, income, perks, and associ­ated social recognition, which ultimately has a nega­tive impact on employees’ well-being. Based on the preceding theoretical founda­tions, the relationships of the variables are pre­sented in the following conceptual mode (Figure 1). hindrance stressor that directs employees toward H1: Job insecurity has a negative relationship with employee job performance. 2.3Job Insecurity and Subjective Well-Being Well-being can be defined as a universal judg­ment of emotions, feelings, and the level of satis­faction with life, which varies between despair and contentment. Subjective well-being contains vari­ous notions that range from momentary disposi­tions to universal assessments of satisfaction related to life and the verdicts concerning depres­sion and contentment (Diener et al., 2009). SWB describes an individual’s a.ective and cognitive as­sessment of life, and it entails the individual’s per­spective regarding his or her life. It has both positive a.ect and negative a.ect on the level of satisfaction with life (Kim et al., 2018). High SWB in­volves undergoing pleasant feelings, few negative moods or happenings, and high life satisfaction (Darvishmotevali & Ali, 2020). The extant literature on well-being of employees in the workplace has found that there is a significant impact of a work­force’s well-being on the performance of individu­als and of organizations (Ali et al., 2021). In compliance with JD-R theory, certain varia­tions or circumstances in the workplace diminish employee’s mental and physical resources due to stressors and demands, and consequently raise the probability of psychological strain, which is an indi­cator of low subjective well-being (Demerouti & Bakker, 2011). Many empirical studies have docu­mented the negative association among JI and SWB (Cheng & Chan, 2008; Giunchi et al.2019; Hellgren & Sverke, 2003; Silla et al. 2009; Ferrie et al. 2005). Moreover, Cuyper et al. (2008) and Hu et al. (2018) found a significant and negative association be­tween JI and satisfaction with life. Russo and Terra2.2Job Insecurity and Job Performance JI indicates an employee’s pressures and fears concerning the stability of their existing job (Chirumbolo et al., 2020; De Witte et al., 2015). Ak­gunduz and Eryilmaz (2018) described JI from cog­nitive and a.ective perspectives. Cognitive insecurity is associated with an understanding con­cerning the prospect of the loss of position or perks, whereas an a.ective view is related to the emo­tional depression and worry about these probable deficits (Huang et al., 2012). The assessment of cir­cumstances at the individual level is concerned with a.ective insecurity (Sverke and Hellgren, 2002). JI is a hindrance stressor that hampers the personal de­velopment and learning orientation of employees at the individual level. It negatively a.ects the social aspect of corporate sustainability (Karatepe et al., 2020). In consonance with JD-R theory, job demands are the primary source that predicts adverse work strains (Darvishmotevali et al., 2017). According to the JD-R model, job insecurity is considered to be a job demand and a severe employment stressor (Rig­otti et al., 2015), and it is related to individual per­ception concerning working circumstances, specifically employment security and permanence of work association with an organization (Darvish­motevali & Ali, 2020). Job performance can be de­fined as actions and behaviors that an individual contributes toward achieving the organizational goals and objectives (Khan & Gufran, 2018). Prior studies have shown a negative association between JI and JP. There are many reasons for that relation­ship. Firstly, failure of companies to provide contract rights to workers lowers the employees’ trust in the organization, which in turns leads to decreased JP (Shin & Hur, 2021; Van et al., 2020; VO-Thanh et al., 2021). For example, prolonged employment pres­sure can produce dysfunction at work that involves poor or low job performance (Rosario-Hernández & Rovira-Millán, 2020). Employees who su.er stress are unable to assign appropriate drive to their re­sponsibilities in the workplace, which results in re­duced job performance (Qian et al., 2019). According to De Cuyper and De Witte (2006), per­ception of JI was linked with decreased JP. Likewise, Shoss (2017) showed a strong negative relationship between JI and JP. All these views are in line with the research which established job insecurity as a (2019) showed that JI decreases an individual’s well-being and negatively impacts their health. There­fore, we hypothesize that ­neo (2020) implied that self-perceived JI negatively impacts employee mental well-being, making this stressor a significant component predicting the oc H2: Job insecurity is negatively related to subjective well-being. 2.4Subjective Well-Being and Job Performance Job performance is the goal-relevant acts and conduct that individuals control, whether cognitive, interpersonal, or psychomotor (Magnier-Watanabe et al., 2020). Because JP directly a.ects the overall per­formance of an organization, firms are interested in its antecedents (Alessandri et al., 2017). According to Pandey (2019), JP is influenced by di.erent stresses that are physical, a.ective, and cognitive. These stresses are associated with the organization, the in­dividual, and employment. Other researchers pro­posed that the critical predictors of the success and performance of the organization are the health and well-being of the employees (Bakker et al., 2019; Giunchi et al., 2019). Moreover, well-being of employ­ees leads to several subjective and organizational out­comes, i.e., an increase in organizational performance and productivity (Shin & Konrad, 2017), improved client satisfaction (Sharma et al., 2016), and increased workforce engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (Mousa et al., 2020). Several studies found a positive relationship be­tween SWB and JP at an individual employee level. The behaviors at the individual level when combined can influence the overall workplace performance, and this indicates that improving workers’ SWB ulti­mately generates financial benefits for the organiza­tion (Bryson et al., 2017). Lyubomirsky et al. (2005) found that SWB and JP are positively correlated. Os­wald et al., (2015) found a positive relationship be­tween the SWB of students and their exam scores. A positive correlation with di.erent organizational outcomes also has been found in nonprofit busi­nesses, including hospitals (Robertson et al., 1995) and schools (Ostro., 1992). Patterson et al. (2004) reported the positive casual association among SWB and organization-level e.ciency. The well-being of an individual employee impacts overall organiza­tional performance in two ways: firstly, through its prospective influence on the employee’s own JP, and secondly through its prospective impact on the per­formance of work associates (Bryson et al., 2017). For example, Felps et al. (2006) proposed a model based on the analysis of organizations in which the negative a.ect and behavior of an individual team member (a so-called “bad apple”) provokes unfavor­able behavioral reactions in the other team associ­ates. Ultimately these behavioral reactions a.ect the vital team processes, e.g., the level of creativity and collaboration within the team. Similarly, DiMaria et al., (2020) found that happy and satisfied employ­ees are more productive than unhappy employees. Considering these findings, we hypothesized that H3: Subjective well-being is positively related to job performance. 2.5Subjective Well-Being as a Mediating Factor JD-R theory proclaims that high employment demands are the major cause of negative work strain. High job demands decrease the individual’s physical and psychological resources, which conse­quently direct toward energy decline and various psychological health problems (Shin & Hur, 2021). Accordingly, JI is considered to be a job demand (Darvishmotevali & Ali 2020; Rigotti et al., 2015); it describes an individual’s perception of their employ­ment, which is at risk. Witte (1999) stated that JI first decreases an individual’s well-being, which in turn impacts their work performance. Witte also ex­plained that JI seems to reduce well-being in both the short term and the long term. Cheng and Chan (2008) posited that JI negatively impacts the psycho­logical health of workers. According to Rusil et al. (2008), anxiety and emotional exhaustion mediate the influence of job demansd on the individual’s rec­ognized satisfaction with life. Earlier researches support the notion that JI correlate inversely with well-being, like the boost in emotional and physical exhaustion. Darvishmotevali et al. (2017) established that JI decreases JP as a re­sult of anxiety and emotional exhaustion, which are the two indicators of well-being. Hu et al. (2018) found a negative e.ect of JI on the happiness of em­ployees and a positive impact on employees’ de­pression as the two core factors of subjective well-being, and also found that workers who expe­3.2Measurement Pretested multi-item measurement instruments were adopted for the collection of responses. All the study’s items were measured with seven-point Likert scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly disagree). JI was measured using four items developed by De Witte (2000) and used by Darvish­motevali and Ali (2020) and Shin and Hur (2021). A sample item is “I will likely lose my job very soon and this makes me anxious.” SWB was measured using five items from the satisfaction with life scale devel­oped by Diener et al. (1985) and subsequently used and validated by Chopik et al. (2017), Darvishmote­vali and Ali (2020), and Western and Tomaszewski (2016). A sample item is “Life is close to my ideal.” Finally, JP was measured using seven items (Williams and Anderson, 1991) that were used and validated by (Lin and Huang, 2020). A sample item includes “I adequately performed my assigned duties.” 3.3Data Analysis We applied partial least squares structural equa­tion modeling (PLS-SEM), a variance-based technique for analyzing data and testing the hypothesized rela­tionships, using SmartPLS 3.2.8 software (Latif and Ahmad, 2020). For data analysis and the results pre­sentation we followed the guidelines provide by Hair et al. (2018) and Ringle et al. (2018, 2020). 3.4Assessment of Common Method Variance As statistical procedures, we applied two tests for estimating the presence of common method variance (CMV) in our data. Firstly, we performed Harman’s single-factor test, and the findings showed that the total variance explained by one fac­tor was 40.12%, which is below the tolerance threshold of 50%, signifying that CMV was not a threat in our research. Secondly, we performed a collinearity check to produce variance inflated fac­tors (VIFs) using PLS-SEM as suggested by Kock (2015). Values of VIF greater than 5 indicate proba­ble collinearity issues among predictor variables (Hair et al., 2018). In our analysis we identified VIF values below the threshold level of 5 (between 1.45 and 4.29), which also proves that CMV was not an issue in this study. rience JI feel less contentment and more despair. When employees experience anxiety, the negative feelings deplete their cognitive resources at the workplace, consequently deteriorating JP (Aguiar-Quintana et al. 2021; Ford et al. 2011). Although previous studies investigated the di.erent out­comes of job insecurity, the e.ects of job insecurity on subjective well-being and specifically the medi­ating role of SWB in the relationship between JI and employee performance has not gained enough at­tention (Darvishmotevali & Ali, 2020; Hu et al. 2018; Richter & Näswall 2018). Therefore, the present re­search tested the association between job insecu­rity and employee job performance through declining subjective well-being as a form of psycho­logical/cognitive stress/anxiety which is caused by employment stressors. Hence, we hypothesize that H4: Subective well-being mediates the relationship of job insecurity and job performance. 3RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1Sample and Data Collection The research sample was collected from the food and beverages industry in Haripur and Abbottabad districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan. This sector is dominated by private firms, and the nature of employment generally is contractual (Rigotti et al., 2015). The study investigated how employee’s per­ception of JI impacts their well-being and in turn their performance, in order to enrich the literature on em­ployee well-being and work-related performance (Kundi et al., 2020). A total of 32 firms were operating at the time of data collection. Employees were called to respond voluntarily to the pre-tested questionnaire during working hours after receiving proper approval from the HR departments of the firms. Respondents were briefed about the purpose of the study, and anonymity and confidentiality of the data were en­sured. A self-administered questionnaire and an empty envelope were provided to the employees; they were requested to return the completed ques­tionnaire in a sealed envelope to the HR department before leaving their job. A total of 450 questionnaires were distributed to the employees working in the tar­geted industry, of which 427 were returned, of which 357 were usable. The response rate was 79.33%. ­currence of mental stress (i.e., anxiety or depres­sion) among employees. Furthermore, Giunchi et al. 4RESULTS The demographic information indicated that 88.2% respondents were male and 11.8% were fe­male. The respondents were between 19 to 60 years of age. Most candidates had an intermediate level of education (47.6%), followed by a Bachelor’s de­gree (22.4%), matric level (14.8%), and a Master’s degree (5.3%); 9.8% had technical diplomas. The re­spondents were from diverse functional areas, such as manufacturing (49.0%), technical (15.1%), man­agement (14.3%), logistics (13.4%), marketing and sales (7.8%). Blue-collar employees dominated the sample (69%), and white-collar workers accounted for 31%. Most respondents were on short-term con­tracts (42.3%); others had long-term contracts with three-year terms (28%) and permanent contracts with no fixed term (19.9%), and 9.8% were on-call. The mean values, standard deviation (SD), in­tercorrelation, and discriminate validity are pre­sented in Table 2. The results show that on average, 3.5Measurement Model Assessment The initial stage in the PLS-SEM analysis in­volved the assessment of each construct’s reliability and validity. Internal consistency, reliability, and con­vergent and discriminant validity were assessed for each construct. Table 1 presents the results of mea­surement model assessment, showing the values of factor loading, Cronbach’s alpha, average variance extracted (AVE), and composite reliability (CR). The values for outer loadings of each indicator were above the acceptable threshold of 0.60 (Gefen, 2005). Similarly, the values for CR were above the minimum acceptable level of 0.70 (Hair et al., 2018). The convergent validity was established by deter­mining the AVE, and discriminant validity was estab­lished by applying the Fornell–Larcker criterion for evaluating each variable’s validity of the measure­ment (Cheung and Wang, 2017; Hair et al. 2018). The values of AVE were above the acceptable value of 0.50 as described by Hair et al. (2018). the employees felt insecure regarding the continuity of their employment and as a consequence of JI. The responses for SWB and performance had some­what better averages. To analyze the discriminant validity, the square root of each construct AVE was calculated and presented as diagonal values, whereas other values show correlation among the among variables. JI was negatively and significantly correlated with both JP (-0.559) and SWB (-0.523), and SWB was positively and significantly correlated with JP (0.701). Furthermore, heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratios also were calculated to assess the dis­criminant validity, and the results indicated that HTMT ratios were below the acceptable value of 0.85 (Leguina, 2015). All these results confirm that common method bias was not an issue in the pre­sent study. 4.1Structural Model Assessment The structural model was evaluated using R2, Q2, and the significance of paths. The R2 measures variance for each endogenous construct (Hair et al., 2018). It explains the explanatory power of the model, that is, how much variation in the endoge­nous construct is caused by the exogenous con­struct (Shmueli and Koppius 2011). The results (Table 3) show that the model has satisfactory pre­dictive accuracy, relevance, and acceptable fit based on R2, Q2, and standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) values, which were within the ranges suggested by Hair et al. (2018), Shmueli et al. (2016), and Hu and Butler (1999), respectively. Finally, path coe.cients and their significance were assessed. We tested the hypotheses using a boot­strapping technique with 5,000 bootstrap samples and 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals. 4.2Tests of the Hypotheses: Direct E.ect The results for direct relationships are pre­sented in Table 3. Our first hypothesis (H1) stated that JI has a negative relationship with JP. The re­sults revealed a negative and statistically significant relationship of JI with JP (ß = -0.559, t = 13.015, and p < 0.001), and thus H1 is accepted. The second hy­pothesis (H2), that JI has a negative impact on SWB, also is accepted, because the results support this statement as well (ß = - 0.523, t = 12.226, and p < 0.001). The third hypothesis (H3), that SWB has a positive relationship with JP, is accepted as well (ß = 0.701, t = 18.061, and p < 0.001). 4.3Tests of the Hypotheses: Mediating E.ect The results for mediation e.ect are presented in Table 4. The Preacher and Hayes (2008) method was used to analyze mediation by applying a two-step approach. In the initial step, all the direct rela­tionships were assessed in terms of two aspects: the direct association exclusive of a mediator, and the direct association with a mediator. In the second step, all indirect e.ects were estimated along with their significance via bootstrapping. The hypothesis (H4) for mediation e.ect states that subjective well-being will mediate the relation­ship between job insecurity and job performance. The mediating analysis results confirm that JI nega­tively e.ects SWB (ß= -0.523, t = 12.226, p = 0.000), and by decreasing SWB (ß = 0.562, t = 10.938, p = 0.000) it has a negative e.ect on employee JP. Fur­thermore, when the mediator was introduced into the model the e.ect was increased, and the direct relationship was found to be significant (ß= -0.265, t = 5.329, p < 0.001), and the indirect e.ect of JI on JP through the mediator (SWB) also was found to be significant (ß = -0.294, t = 7.831, p < 0.001). 5DISCUSSION To achieve our study’s objectives, a model was designed based on the previous literature and existing theories (JD-R theory and transactional stress theory), and then a series of analysis was carried out based on the responses gathered from 357 employees working in the food and beverages industry in Pakistan. Build­ing on JD-R and transactional stress theory, this study first investigated the impact of JI on JP as a behavioral consequence of stress. Because most JI-related stud­ies are from Europe and the United States, this natu­rally raises the question of the generalization of results across cultures. By providing evidence from the Asian culture, this study has enriched the literature of JI and JP. Second, we tested the e.ect of JI on SWB as a psy­chological consequence, and finally we assessed the psychological mechanism relating JI and SWB to the behavioral outcome, i.e., the mediation e.ect of SWB on the JI and JP relationship. The results revealed the presence of JI among the employees of food and beverages industry and showed its negative impact on employee JP. These re­sults are consistent with those of other studies (Darvishmotevali et al., 2017; Qain et al., 2019; Sverke et al., 2019; Vo-Thanh et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2015). The results in the literature regarding this important issue follow the same trend except for those of a few studies (Probst, 2002; Probst et al., 2007). Staufenbiel and Konig (2010) supported the idea of a positive re­lationship between JI and JP; although their results in­dicated a dominant negative path, they also showed a weaker positive path. The results confirmed that JI exaggerates the depression of employees and nega­tively a.ects the level of employee happiness, which are the two key indicators of SWB. These findings are consistent with the findings of Stiglbauer and Batinic et al. (2015) and Silla et al. (2009), who highlighted that JI is negatively related to SWB. These results deepen the understanding of how JI psychology low­ers the individual’s subjective well-being. The results also indicated that SWB positively influences em­ployee JP. This is consistent with the findings of Mag­nier-Watanabe et al. (2020) and Salgado et al. (2019). Furthermore, the findings confirm the mediating role of SWB of employees and thus deepens the un­derstanding of how JI psychologically impacts em­ployees JP in a negative way. In agreement with JD-R theory, it appears that JI, as an impediment stressor at work, influences employee well-being in a negative way. SWB implies to an individual’s evaluation of how his or her life is passing, which is described by high satisfaction with one’s life, high positive a.ect, and low negative a.ect (Darvishmotivali & Ali 2020; Di­ener et al., 2009). Employees with high SWB at work are satisfied with their jobs while experiencing posi­tive and negative feelings in the workplace consis­tently (Salgado et al., 2019). Under JI conditions, employees encounter a decline in SWB as they face uncertainty of losing their jobs; the most important resource related to employment that can fulfill their necessities of life. Consistent with transactional stress theory, in uncertain circumstances the evaluation process leads to stress and anxiety, and unambitious circumstances in the future makes it di.cult for an individual to apply an appropriate coping strategy. These findings are consistent with the findings of Richter and Naswall (2018) and Darvishmotevali et al. (2017), who indicated that anxiety is the indicator of SWB that significantly mediates the relationship be­tween JI and employee JP. These promising findings fill the gap in in the existing literature on the psycho­logical mechanism connecting JI to JP through sub­jective well-being (Hu et al., 2018). 5.1Theoretical Contributions The outcomes of the present research support the JD-R theory and add to the existing literature on the relationship of JI and JP through an intermediary role of subjective well-being. The context of the study, the country dynamics, and the peculiarities of the food and beverage industry make the existing literature more diversified. Additionally, very limited empirical research has been conducted on the phys­ical, behavioral, and psychological consequences of job insecurity. This study investigated the behavioral and the psychological e.ects of job insecurity as a job stressor among employees working in the food and beverages industry. Very few studies have in­vestigated SWB as a mediating mechanism connect­ing JI to JP. According to Darvishmotivali and Ali (2020), the mediating results contribute to the transactional stress theory. 5.2Practical Implications The findings obtained from this research pro­vide beneficial implications for the management of the food and beverages industry. It is imperative to consider that JI as a critical stressor reduces employ­ees’ psychological well-being as considering the unique aspects of food and beverages industry that are characterized by long working schedules, com­paratively low wages, and a mentally exhausting and stressful working environment (Wang et al., 2011; Zopist & Orphanides, 2009). Managers should agree that job insecurity is a nerve-racking concern with irreversible harmful consequences for instance anx­iety, depression, and poor well-being (Darvishmote­vali et al., 2017; Wang & Lu, 2015). With this knowledge, managers and administrators should take deliberate actions to lessen the detrimental pressure caused by job insecurity, which can have serious mental and behavioral concerns. HR man­agers should incorporate suitable human resources practices such as promotions, secure contracts, and transparent performance evaluation and perfor­mance appraisal systems and procedures. To reduce the detrimental e.ects of JI and to im­prove individuals’ well-being, the supervisor can play an important role by providing relevant training and development opportunities. Furthermore, managers can motivate and improve their self-esteem by solv­ing issues, assimilating the information, and provid­ing exposure to the latest technology. Managers should promote an organizational culture in which employees have the opportunity to utilize their full potential, which in turn improves employees’ auton­omy and SWB (Sharma et al., 2017). Because in the developing countries such as Pakistan it is di.cult for organizations to provide job security to the work­force because of the unstable and extremely com­petitive environment (Kundi et al., 2020; Soomro et al., 2019), organizations must focus on constructive strategies for preventing employee exposure to JI. Another approach for reducing job insecurity is that leaders or managers can engage employees in par­ticipative decision-making, because it escalates the control over the circumstances. This study’s results indicated that the negative impact of JI on employee performance passes through poor well-being. Thus, policy makers can make policies to increase employee motivation and satisfaction. For example, employing a job enrich­ment approach can enhance employee autonomy over the formation and implementation of their tasks, which in turn increases job satisfaction (Piccoli et al., 2021). Additionally, interventions regarding stress management should focus on urging employ­ees to implement numerous managing or coping strategies such as the use of alternate potentials, working in teams, individuals’ personality traits, and being involved in the change process. 5.3Limitations and Future Directions This research has some limitations. 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Thus, considering these results we hy­pothesize that Abstract Vol. 12, No. 1, 5-20 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a01 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 6 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 7 Figure 1: Conceptual Model Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 8 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 9 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 10 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 11 Table 1: Indicators, Loadings, and Validity Indexes Note: *Cronbach’s alpha. **Average variance extracted. ***Composite reliability. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 12 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Table 2: Descriptive Statistics, Inter-Correlation, and discriminant validity Table 3: Testing Direct Relationships Note: *P < 0.001, ** P < 0.05 (2-tailed test). Square root of AVE for each variable is presented on the diagonal in bold italic font. HTMTs are displayed at the upper triangular of the matrix. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 13 Table 4: Mediation Analysis Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 14 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 15 EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Poslovna konkurenca, hitre tehnološke spremembe in vladne reforme ali deregulacije po vsem svetu so podjetja postavile v težke razmere, kar je pripeljalo do tveganja negotovosti zaposlitve, ki poslabšuje dobro pocutje zaposlenih in vodi v manjšo delovno uspešnost. Ta raziskava razširja znanje o povezavi med negotovostjo zaposlitve in delovno uspešnostjo z raziskovanjem potencialnega meh­anizma posredovanja subjektivnega dobrega pocutja v industriji hrane in pijace. Podatki 357 za­poslenih v industriji hrane in pijac iz dveh okrožij v Pakistanu so bili zbrani s predhodno testiranim vprašalnikom. Za testiranje hipotez s programsko opremo SmartPLS je bilo uporabljeno modeliranje strukturnih enacb (SEM). Za oceno uporabljenih lestvic in strukturnih modelov so bili izvedeni pre­gledi zanesljivosti in veljavnosti. Ugotovitve kažejo, da negotovost zaposlitve negativno vpliva na de­lovno uspešnost, medtem ko subjektivno pocutje pomembno pozitivno vpliva na delovno uspešnost. Poleg tega subjektivno dobro pocutje posreduje negativno razmerje med negotovostjo zaposlitve in delovno uspešnostjo. Za še bolj robustne in posplošljive rezultate bi bila potrebna vecpanožna analiza. Nadalje bi poleg subjektivnega pocutja lahko k temu odnosu dodali še druge mediatorje in modera­torje. Vodje lahko izboljšajo ucinkovitost svoje ekipe z zmanjšanjem negotovosti na delovnem mestu in izboljšanjem delovnih pogojev ter osebne nege zaposlenih. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 16 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 17 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being 18 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 19 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 20 Maliha Sarfraz, Jamil Anwar, Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah: E.ect of Job Insecurity on Job Performance: Looking Through the Lens of Subjective Well-Being A COMMUNITY SEAM: SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION AND SUBJECTIVE RESILIENCE IN UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL SUPPORT DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS IN IRAQ Omar S. Rasheed University of Almería, Spain International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or221@inlumine.ual.es Lucía López-Rodríguez University of Almería, Spain Center of Study of Migration and Intercultural Relations (CEMyRI) Marisol Navas University of Almería, Spain Center of Study of Migration and Intercultural Relations (CEMyRI) People’s behavior during the pandemic raised an intriguing question: How can people display solidarity even in cir­cumstances of adversity? This investigation explored the processes associated with solidarity in times of crisis (specifi­cally during COVID-19) in the vulnerable context of Iraq. We analyzed the specific contribution of three sets of variables to providing help to others a.ected via coordinated or emotional support: beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19, social identity–related processes, and subjective resilience. A total of 299 people (mostly from Arab ethnic back­grounds, as well as Kurds and Assyrians) participated in an online survey. The results showed that social identity–related processes and subjective resilience were significantly associated with providing emotional and coor­dinated social support to others, a.ecting beyond sociodemographics and personal beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19. We critically discuss the dynamic associations between subjective resilience and solidary in times of crisis and the crucial role of reciprocity and agency in community psychology. Keywords: social identification, social support, resilience, solidarity, COVID-19 1INTRODUCTION The year 2020 will be remembered as the time in which the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically con­vulsed the world. Although COVID-19 is a physical disease, it had an unprecedented psychosocial im­pact on the population (Bueno-Notivol et al., 2021; Pfe.erbaum & North, 2020). The health crisis pro­voked by the emergence of COVID-19 altered every­day lives and dramatically changed the way we interact, work, and view the world around us. Al­though it is clear that this pandemic increased psy­chological problems and expanded economic hardship, it also created a sense of cohesion, unex­pected solidarity, and resilience among a.ected people. While still struggling with the dramatic con­sequences of war, Iraq was vigorously beaten by COVID-19, provoking an alarming situation. In such a vulnerable situation, social cohesion became a central objective, already threatened by existing so­ciopolitical, economic, and security challenges. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2020) reported that civil society organizations and local community groups rallied to support those in need, revealing multiple examples of support for people from di.erent communities (e.g., Muslims, Turkmen, and Kurdish people). Although many studies already have addressed several processes related to COVID-19, the lack of studies among non-Western communities, espe­cially in conflict-a.ected areas, and the understand­ing of how solidarity is raised in such situations, remains a significant challenge. Therefore, the pre­sent research explored the processes associated with solidarity in times of crisis in Iraq during COVID-19. In addition to personal experiences and partic­ular beliefs related to COVID-19, we analyzed the specific contribution of social identity–related pro­cesses and subjective resilience to providing help to others a.ected (via coordinated and emotional so­cial support) during the COVID-19 crisis. 2LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1Helping Behavior during Crises: The Role of Social Identification and Reciprocity Helping behavior during emergencies or crises is the outcome of a complex decision process that needs to meet di.erent requirements such as inter­preting the event as an emergency, taking respon­sibility for providing help, or considering oneself able to help (Latané & Darley, 1970). Several factors can a.ect and modulate each step of such a deci­sion process. For example, within the context of the COVID-19 crisis, di.erent beliefs and experiences with COVID-19 can a.ect the interpretation of the event and the motivation to give support to others, such as considering it a risk. Beyond the awareness of the urgency of COVID-19, how can people be­come responsible for providing help and then feel able to help? We propose that processes related to social identification might be associated with pro­viding more coordinated and emotional support during crises. Contrary to the traditional belief that during crises the bonds among a.ected people dissolve and more individualism emerges, the social identity perspective suggests that helping behavior and co­ordination among people in crowds appear to be a dominant response in many emergency situations (Alnabulsi & Drury, 2014; Drury, 2012). Social iden­tity, that part of individuals’ self-concept derived from belonging to social groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), has relevant implications for mental health through a sense of social connection (for a review, see Haslam et al., 2021). An analysis based on social identity can motivate a collective approach when fighting the COVID-19 crisis (Jetten et al., 2020). Shared identity with the person that needs help and the inclusiveness of a salient identity has proven to increase the willingness to help a victim in need (Levine et al., 2005). The responses during emergencies rely on the specific person’s social identity salience at that particular moment. Hence, self-identification with other people af­fected plays an essential role in the individual’s course of behavior (Drury et al., 2015; McLeish & Oxoby, 2011). Drury et al. (2009) reported that af­fected populations faced with risk or common threats develop a sense of “we-ness,” which could be associated with a shared common fate, a sense that “we all are in the same boat.” Researchers have tested the hypothesis that emergencies cre­ate a perceived common fate among survivors, like a strong feeling of togetherness, which in turn gives rise to a shared social identity (Cocking et al., 2009; Drury et al., 2009). The notion of “we-ness” plays a significant role in collective coordination and cooperation that oc­curs among people in crowds during emergencies (Drury & Winter, 2003), because shared social iden­tity can determine the level and interpretation of social support (Haslam et al., 2012). Vezzali et al. (2016) argued that in most emergency situations, the collective behaviors among a.ected people are characterized by providing practical and emotional support to one another. Libal and Kashwan (2020) reported that showing support and solidarity be­came a prominent norm among the population dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic. Solidarity behaviors, which also involve providing and coordinating sup­port among a.ected people, can prevent further harm and contribute to psychological and collective well-being (Hawdon & Ryan, 2011; Kaniasty, 2012). Given the value of providing coordinated help among a.ected communities, it not only con­tributes to the sense of connection and well-being but also contributes to a cohesive function over the longer term during crises (Bowe et al., 2022). Solidarity during emergencies might be af­fected by observations of the responses of others a.ected during the crisis—meaning that acts of pro­viding support and coordination among survivors may a.ect others’ solidarity behaviors in a positive way (Drury et al., 2015). Expectations of support might activate a group norm of social responsibility and reciprocity that motivates people to o.er their help to others a.ected (De Cremer et al., 2001). In­ternalized social norms such as reciprocity also may be crucial when understanding helping behavior (Burger et al., 2009; Gouldner, 1960). Regarding prosocial behavior specifically during the COVID-19 crisis, Zagefka (2021) showed that focusing on global solidarity had positive e.ects. A recent survey clustering multiple countries found that high levels of perceived social support were most strongly as­sociated with prosocial behavior, followed by high levels of positive a.ect, perceived stress, and psy­chological flexibility (Haller et al., 2022). These studies suggest that shared social iden­tity may motivate people to provide support to fel­low group members, and o.er a basis for providers and recipients to interpret support in a mutually beneficial way. What is not commonly explored by scholars in the field is how conflict-a.ected popula­tions during a pandemic come together to show sol­idarity in the face of adversity, and how people feel able to do it. In a double-vulnerable context (conflict combined with pandemic), we analyzed the specific contribution of social identity–related processes and subjective resilience to providing help to others demonstrated e.ects beyond personal experiences and particular beliefs related to COVID-19. 2.2Subjective Resilience as a Reinforcement for Community Solidarity COVID-19 exacerbated the threshold of psycho­logical pressure. Nevertheless, communities, fami­lies, and individuals tried to adapt and bounce back in the face of the COVID-19 di.culties using uncon­ventional methods, revealing the human ability for resilience (e.g., Killgore et al, 2020; Verdolini et al, 2021). Resilience generally is referred to as a state in which individuals arrive at good psychological outcomes despite su.ering from adversities that would be expected to bring about serious conse­quences (Rutter, 2006, 2012), or the ability to with­stand, bounce back, or recover from substantial di.culties such as stress (e.g., Sapienza & Masten, 2011; Smith et al., 2008). Despite increasing interest, the concept of re­silience has received criticism. It has been suggested that it has a certain a.nity with neoliberalism and prevents critical agency instead of promoting change (e.g., Evans & Reid, 2015). However, the complex interaction between resilience and solidar­ity has been explored to some extent. For example, researchers have analyzed “how resilience can emerge in the intensification of mutual aid ties at the community level” and how this might be related to the pursuit of diverse and revolutionary forms of solidarity (Vrasti & Michelsen, 2017, p. 1). Kelly and Kelly (2016) suggested that resilience can be related to solidarity and agency, and can be a helpful con­cept for analyzing the converging crises that people and societies face. Resilience is related to a series of psychosocial factors that can contribute to active support in times of crisis. It is positively associated with self-ef­ficacy (Lee et al., 2013), purpose in life, active cop­ing, and mood clarity and optimism (Smith et al., 2013). The relationships between resilience and psy­chological well-being as well as social support and connectedness are well established (Davydov et al., 2010; Fan et al., 2020; Muldoon et al., 2019; Son et al., 2020). More generally, prosocial behavior has been associated with better well-being across re­gions during COVID-19 (Haller et al., 2022). Although some studies explored solidarity and resilience in relation to other related variables, we could not find research on the association of re­silience to solidarity in times of crisis in conflict-af­fected contexts. Accordingly, we believe that it is important to explore the association between sub­jective resilience and solidarity during emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic beyond the beliefs and experiences with COVID-19, and social identity–related processes. 2.3Present Research The social identity perspective helps to under­stand social fragmentation and unity during the pan­demic (Abrams et al., 2021; Drury et al., 2021; Templeton et al., 2020). Since the emergence of COVID-19, studies have explored crowd behavior and social identity processes in the context of the pandemic (e.g., Bavel et al., 2020; Drury et al., 2020, 2021; Zagefka, 2021). Fatmawati and Dewantara (2022) went further and analyzed how specific tra­ditional rituals can bolster social resilience within in­digenous communities and help deal with COVID-19. In addition, social identity and solidarity have been explored in the context of natural disasters, fire, bombing and, more recently, during the pandemic. However, the beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19, the social identity–related process, and resilience in relation to providing coordinated and emotional social support in conflict-a.ected contexts have not attracted much attention. This investigation explored the processes asso­ciated with solidarity in times of crisis in Iraq during COVID-19. We analyzed the specific contribution of beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19, social identity–related processes, and subjective resilience to providing help to others a.ected via coordinated or emotional support. A sense of togetherness among the a.ected population may arise when a community is faced with an emergency (Figure 1). Be­liefs and experiences related to COVID-19 combined with social identity–related processes and subjective resilience may contribute to prosocial behavior and motivate people to support others in need. Regarding beliefs and experiences related to the crisis, the perception of risk-related events is associ­ated strongly with willingness to take precautionary measures against infection (Dryhurst et al., 2020; Ru­disill, 2013). Moreover, having su.cient information is proven to play an important role in people’s behav­ior during an emergency (Bavel et al., 2020). Further­more, van den Broek-Altenburg and Atherly (2021) found that motivations, beliefs about the e.ective­ness of measures, and pre-pandemic behavior play an important role in shaping public health behaviors during COVID-19. Therefore, being more aware of the risk, having been a.ected, or knowing what to do (e.g., having su.cient information) during COVID-19 are important aspects when understanding who will be more prompt in providing support. Therefore, we expected to find a link between these beliefs and ex­periences and providing emotional and coordinated social support (Hypothesis 1). Regarding the social identity–related processes, data suggest that social identification with a.ected population as well as observing supportive behavior could predict solidarity (Drury et al., 2015). Further­more, subjective perceptions of what others are doing is a reliable predictor for people’s behavior (Cialdini & Goldstein, 2004). Haller et al. (2022) showed that high levels of perceived social support are strongly associated with prosocial behavior. Therefore, we hypothesized that social identifica­tion with others a.ected, experiencing a common fate (such as a feeling of togetherness due to the COVID-19 crisis), and having expectations about re­ceiving support from others will be strongly related to provided emotional and coordinated social sup­port to others a.ected (Hypothesis 2). Finally, we propose that it is significant to explore the association between subjective resilience and sol­idarity during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq. We ex­pected that, in addition to personal beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19, and social identity–related processes, subjective resilience would be strongly related to providing emotional and coordi­nated social support to others a.ected (Hypothesis 3). The significance of this research lies not only in testing the presented hypotheses in a conflict-af­fected area but also in investigating the specific sets of factors related to COVID-19 (e.g., experiences and beliefs), social identity–related processes, and re­silience in understanding solidarity in the form of so­cial emotional support in the unique context of Iraq. 3RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1Participants A total of 344 participants across Iraq volun­teered to participate in this study. After the applica­tion of pre-established inclusion criteria (i.e., provision of complete answers, being residents of Iraq, having Iraqi nationality), the final sample was composed of 299 voluntary participants (62.5% males) from 18 to 65 years of age [Mage = 30.33, standard deviation (SD) = 8.53]. A non-probability convenience sampling was followed to recruit participants via social networks during August–September 2020. About half of the participants were single (50.5%), 47.2% were married, 1.7% were divorced, and 0.3% were widowed, with some missing data (0.3%). Participants were living in conflict-a.ected areas: 60.2% were identified as be­longing to a host community1, 13.0% were internally displaced persons, and 13.7% were returnees to their original places. Participants came from various cities and zones of Iraq and had di.erent ethnic back­grounds: 42.5% of the sample self-identified as Arab, 29.8% self-identified as Kurd, 8.4% self-identified as Yazidi, and 3% self-identified as Assyrian. In terms of religion, 78.3% of the participants were Muslim, 9.7% were Yazidi, 3.0% were Christian, and 4.0% defined themselves as non-believers. Regarding employment status, 61.9% of the participants were working, and 35.1% had no job (3.0% missing data). 3.2Variables and Instruments Beliefs and Experiences Related to COVID-19: Participants were asked to report their beliefs and ex­periences during the COVID-19 crisis by answering di­chotomous questions with “yes” (coded as 1) or “no” (coded as 0) to the following variables: COVID-19 as a risk (“Do you believe COVID-19 poses a risk to your life?”), A.ected by COVID-19 (“Do you have someone close who is infected by COVID-19?”), Respect for COVID-19 measures (“Do you follow COVID-19 pro­tective measures, e.g., wearing masks?”), Informed about COVID-19 (“Do you think you have su.cient information about COVID-19, e.g., how it spreads?”), and Received voluntary help (“Have you received any voluntary support during COVID-19?”)2. Resilience: To capture the subjective perception of personal resilience, we used the brief resilience scale (BRS) (Smith et al., 2008). Participants were asked to what extent they agreed with six state­ments regarding their ability to stand and face di.­cult times. Three items had a positive formulation and captured the ability to have recover easily: “I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times,” “I tend to recover quite fast from a stressful event,” and “I usually come through di.cult times with little trouble” (a = 0.62; . = 0.66; inter-item correlation values ranged from 0.22 to 0.48). The other three items had a reversed formulation and captured the di.culty of recovery: “I have a hard time making it through stressful events,” “It is hard for me to snap back when something bad happens,” and “I tend to take a long time to get over setbacks in my life” (a = 0.76; . = 0.76). They used a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). We consid­ered resilience with positive items (hereafter “re­silience-easy recovery”) and resilience with negative items (hereafter “expressed hard recovery”) with­out reversing the scores separately3. Resilience-easy recovery captured the ability to recover easily from di.cult times and experiences, whereas expressed hard recovery captured the di.culty of recovering from di.cult times and experiences. Provided Emotional Social Support: Three items measured how much participants were involved in providing emotional social support to a.ected peo­ple in the context of crises (adapted from Drury et al., 2015): “I give emotional support,” “I show re­spect for others,” and “I show concern for others’ needs” (a = 0.77; . = 0.80). The same answer scale was used as for the previous measure. 3 Initially, reversed items were inverted. However, the in­ternal consistency of the scale including the six items together (both positive and reversed items after they were recoded) was low (a = 0.54; . = 0.59). An ex­ploratory factor analysis (principal-axis factoring) with oblimin rotation revealed that the scale was composed of two subdimensions (instead of a unique dimension), and that positive and reversed items loaded on two di.erent factors. The mean of the positive subdimen­sion was significantly higher (M = 5.10, SD = 1.25) than the mean with the reversed items after they were re­coded (M = 4.00, SD = 1.58), t(298) = 9.33, p < 0.001. These findings might indicate that for our sample (Ara­bic speakers), the reversed items might not work in the same way as the positive formulated items when as­sessing resilience. Provided Coordinated Social Support: Five items assessed the extent to which people took part in collective and coordinated activities to support the community during the pandemic (adapted from Drury et al., 2015): “I participate in groups which have been organized to provide support to people in need,” “I work together with strangers,” “I act to­gether with others in response to the COVID-19 pan­demic,” “I participate in the coordinated rationing of basic needs such as food,” and “I participate in community-organized groups to raise awareness about the pandemic” (a = 0.87; . = 0.87). The same answer scale was used as for the previous measure. Socio-demographic variables: Participants also re­ported their sociodemographic details, including gen­der (0 = female; 1 = male), age, educational level, civil state, employment status, country of origin, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and situational or residential status. 3.3Procedure The previous measures were included in a ques­tionnaire designed in Google Forms and adminis­tered by researchers online via social networks (e.g., Facebook). Participation was voluntary and anony­mous, no economic compensation was o.ered, and the required consent was obtained before data col­lection. Upon giving consent, participants could con­tinue to take part by completing the questionnaire, which took about 15 minutes. 4RESULTS Regarding the beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19, at the time of the survey, most partici­pants believed that COVID-19 posed a risk to their lives (84.3%, vs. 15.7% who did not believe so). Most of the respondents considered that they had su.­cient information about the virus and the protective measures to combat it (80.9%, vs. 18.1% who re­ported a lack of information). Over half of the partic­ipants (57.2% vs. 42.1%) reported not having someone close to them who had been a.ected by COVID-19 (e.g., infected, or lost someone), and 17.1% of participants received voluntary support from fel­low community members during COVID-19.4 Means, standard deviations, and correlation co­e.cients among variables are presented in Table 1. Both “Provided emotional social support” and “Pro­vided coordinated social support” were strongly or moderately associated with social identity–related process (e.g., common fate with others a.ected, so­cial identification, and expected support) and re­silience-easy recovery. These positive correlations revealed that higher scores for identified with oth­ers, sense of common fate, expected support, and resilient led to higher scores for provided emotional and coordinated social support o.ered to others af­fected. 4 Around half of the sample was not involved in any re­sponses against COVID-19 during the pandemic (52.5% vs. 46.5%). In terms of voluntary acts to fight the virus, only 21.4% provided voluntary support to other af­fected persons. These two questions were not in­cluded in the analyses because they overlapped with the criterion variables of providing emotional and co­ordinated support. To understand the distinct contributions of three sets of variables to providing coordinated and emo­tional social support, we conducted two hierarchical regressions. We controlled for sociodemographic variables in Step 1; included specific beliefs and ex­periences related to COVID-19 in Step 2; included so­cial identity–related processes related to common fate, social identification, and expected support in Step 3; and included resilience-easy recovery and ex­pressed hard recovery in Step 4. We focused on the significant contribution of each set of variables and the increase in R-squared in each step. Although employment status was positively re­lated to providing coordinated and emotional sup­port, gender was associated only with providing emotional support, with women reporting providing more emotional support (Table 2). After controlling for socio-demographics, respect for COVID-19 mea­sures and being adequately informed about COVID-19 were positively associated with providing both coordinated and emotional support in Step 2. The inclusion of the second set of social iden­tity–related process highly increased the explicative power of the model in Step 3, with expected sup­port positively associated with providing both coor­dinated and emotional support and social identification with others a.ected associated with providing more emotional social support. Finally, Step 4 showed a significant improve­ment in the model when considering subjective re­silience. In this final step, expected support from others and resilience-easy recovery were positively associated with providing both coordinated and emotional support. Social identification and being properly informed about COVID-19 were associated with providing more emotional support, which was negatively associated with expressed hard recovery. That is, participants were more prompt to provide emotional support when they were properly in­formed, felt identified with others a.ected, ex­pected support from others, believed they could recover quickly from adversity, and reported less dif­ficulty in recovery. All of this was found by control­ling the e.ects of gender. Providing coordinated so­cial support also was associated with expected sup­port from others, resilience, and a commitment to follow COVID-19 measures. The variance explained was considerable in both cases. 5DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The crisis provoked by the COVID-19 altered the lives of individuals, families, and communities around the world. Although extensive research has been conducted about its consequences, impact, and bu.ering variables, we were interested in un­derstanding how people keep showing solidarity be­havior in a context with a particular vulnerability combined with facing years of violent conflict. This investigation explored the processes associated with solidarity in times of the COVID-19 crisis in Iraq. We analyzed the specific contribution of three sets of variables to providing help to others a.ected via coordinated or emotional support: beliefs and ex­periences related to COVID-19, social identity–re­lated processes, and subjective resilience. Although this study focused on the three men­tioned set of variables, the role of sociodemographic factors could not be dismissed. Results showed that among sociodemographic variables, having a job was associated with providing coordinated and emo­tional social support. Gender was associated only with providing emotional social support. The first result was associated with beliefs and experiences related to COVID-19. Results showed that being properly informed about COVID-19 was positively associated with providing coordinated and especially emotional social support, partially confirming Hypothesis 1. In an era in which it is di.­cult to manage a vast quantity of information, hav­ing su.cient information about the virus was associated with providing support to others. Sharing information and involvement of the public has been critical not only to counter the misinformation but also to manage the public behavior during COVID-19. In this regard, Elcheroth and Drury (2020) advo­cated that authorities should follow three guiding principles: share available information, communi­cate about the limits of current knowledge, and admit that citizens are better equipped to live with di.cult but shared truths than with isolating confu­sion. The role of transparent and time-bounding in­formation is significant in shaping public behavior during emergencies (e.g., Carter et al., 2020; Drury et al., 2013). Obviously, we cannot infer any directionality with correlational analyses and cross-sectional data. However, these findings suggest that information is a powerful weapon to respond to crises and that people who are not informed about the crises they face might have di.culty knowing how to help and o.ering adequate support. The second finding was related to the contribu­tion of social identity–related processes such as so­cial identification and expected support from others to o.ering help during crisis. The role of social iden­tification and a sense of “being in the same boat” as a motivation to support the ingroup is well estab­lished (Drury & Winter, 2003), and our results con­firm it in a conflict-a.ected area. Cooperation, helping behaviors, and coordination are positive con­sequences of shared identity (Drury, 2012; McLeish & Oxoby, 2011; Zagefka, 2021). Individuals who iden­tify with a group display better coordination and col­laboration toward fellow members. The sense of “we-ness” that exists among members of a particu­lar ethnic group contributes to better coordination also could be developed among strangers during an emergency in the face of a threat (Drury, 2012; Drury et al., 2010; Sime, 1985). Furthermore, Drury and Winter (2003) argued that perceiving a threat to others as a threat to one­self during an emergency (facing a common threat) maximizes the sense of shared identity and further enhances survivors’ helping behaviors. As expected (Hypothesis 2), our results show that social identifi­cation with others a.ected and expected support in times of COVID-19 contribute significantly to provid­ing emotional social support to other people. Ex­pected support also is positively related to providing coordinated support. Expected support entails a certain norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960), which is important in prosocial behavior. People are moti­vated to help when they have received or expect to receive help from others. Finally, this study showed that subjective re­silience—in terms of perceived tendency to bounce back quickly after hard times, recovering quickly from stressful events or coming through di.cult times with little trouble– was positively associated with providing both coordinated and emotional sup­port, partially confirming Hypothesis 3. Contrarily, the expressed hard recovery (having a hard time making it through stressful events, considering it hard to snap back when something bad happens, and taking a long time to get over setbacks in life) was negatively associated with providing emotional support. Kelly and Kelly (2016) suggested that re­silience can motivate solidarity, contribute to recov­ery and strengthen agency, and help people find creative and meaningful responses to crises. Helping others may involve a considerable sense of agency and motivation to act for others. A dynamic and bidirectional relationship between providing coordinated and emotional support and subjective resilience could be established. Helping others also can be a source of strength that can re­inforce subjective resilience. On the other hand, feeling resilient may motivate an individual to help others. The same reasoning might be applied in terms of low perceived agency, something that may inhibit helping others. These dynamic relations might be crucial for community psychology. 5.1Implications A contribution of this research is bringing to­gether the social identity perspective and resilience. Additionally, investigating these processes among a population in Iraq might help widen the knowledge. Most studies designed to understand the impact of COVID-19 from the social identity perspective were conducted in Western societies, characterized by an increasing individualism. This study explored the so­cial identity–related processes of di.erent ethnic groups in the specific social context of Iraq, a vul­nerable area a.ected by a lasting conflict and cate­gorized as less individualistic and more collectivist than other contexts (Almutairi et al., 2020). Our findings contribute to the previous literature and emphasize the importance of community engage­ment in guaranteeing well-being and the signifi­cance of public behavior in response to a crisis. It could also help health authorities to take into consideration community involvement in the re­sponse to crisis (e.g., to share time-bound and pre­cise information, including the limitations, with the public; and encourage community-based responses which are adapted to the local context and re­sources; and utilize social identity–related processes when designing crisis responses). 5.2Limitations and Future Directions The results presented in this study are not free of limitations. In addition to the low reliability of variables conformed by only three items, other con­straints are a lack of adequate sample representa­tion due to internet access, inequality in the sample for each ethnic group, and language barriers. We cannot conclude that all groups are equal in their feelings, experiences, and attitudes. Given the small and unequal sample size of the di.erent ethnic groups, we could not make reliable comparisons among them. Lastly, we also recognize the limitation of using cross sectional data and avoid any assump­tion of causation of these processes. Future studies should include representative samples across di.erent groups and guarantee equal opportunities to participate to delve into the di.er­ences among groups. It also is suggested that re­searchers adopt an interview-style methodology to collect qualitative data using open-ended questions in order to clarify responses and have a deeper com­prehension of the processes analyzed. Although the mentioned limitations are real, we are confident about the findings of this study that highlight the im­portance of beliefs and experiences (to have infor­mation and respect to COVID-19 measures), of the social identity–related process during the pandemic and other humanitarian emergencies, and especially the emphasized role of subjective resilience (of easy recover), in providing social support (emotional and coordinated) to other fellow community members. 5.3Conclusions The findings of this study are a reminder of the importance of changing the mainstream under­standing about the population in emergencies. The vital message is to encourage authorities and poli­cymakers to utilize the findings from social psychol­ogy research to invest in the sense of community during crises rather than undermining it. This find­ing refers to the importance of sharing information and preparing people to counter an emergency. 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Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/re­sources/UNDP%2520Iraq%2C%2520Impact%2520of%2520Covid-19%2520and%2520Social%2520Cohe­sion.pdf Zafra, R. (2021). Frágiles: Cartas sobre la ansiedad y la es­peranza en la nueva cultura (1st ed.). Editorial Ana­grama. Zagefka H. (2022). Prosociality during COVID-19: Globally focussed solidarity brings greater benefits than na­tionally focussed solidarity. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 32(1), 73–86. Common Fate: Participants reported the ex­tent to which they believed that they and other people around them shared the same fate in rela­tion to the pandemic and their current situation, using three items extracted from Drury et al. (2015): “We are all in danger,” “We all share the same fate,” and “It is all of us against the COVID-19 pandemic” (a = 0.78; . = 0.78). Participants rated each statement on a Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Social Identification with Others A.ected: Par­ticipants were asked to what extent they identified with others who were a.ected by the same crisis, using four items (Drury et al., 2015): “I felt at one with the people around me,” “I identified with the other people a.ected,” “I felt unity with others,” and “I felt that other people a.ected by COVID-19 are like me” (a = 0.69; . = 0.69). The same answer scale was used as for the previous measure. Expected Support: Three items assessed the ex­tent to which participants expected to be supported by others in the immediate context of the pandemic (Drury et al., 2015): “I come to expect other people to be cooperative,” “It becomes the norm for others to be supportive of my actions,” and “I realized that other people would give help if I asked for it” (a = 0.65; . = 0.68). The same answer scale was used as for the previous measures. 1A host community in conflict-a.ected areas refers to members of the country or location who have not left their place of origin, where asylum seekers, refugees, or displaced persons live. In the context of refugee camps, the host community may encompass the camp or may simply be a neighbor of the camp, having in­teraction with or being a.ected by the refugees resid­ing in the camp or the community. 2We included two additional questions regarding pro­viding support “Are you taking part in COVID-19 re­sponse (e.g., health workers, online support, etc.)?” and “Have you participated in any volunteering acts to support people a.ected by COVID-19?” They were not considered to be predictors because they overlapped with the criterion variables. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 21 Abstract Vol. 12, No. 1, 21-34 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a02 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 22 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 23 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 24 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq Figure 1: Beliefs and experiences related to the crisis, social identity–related processes and resilience as associates of solidarity in crisis Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 25 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 26 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 27 Table 1: Descriptive statistics and correlations of variables Notes: Scores range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). **p < 0.01. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 28 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 29 Table 2: Hierarchical regression analyses to predict providing coordinated and emotional social support Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 30 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq Note: Statistically significant predictors and values are shown in bold. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 31 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 32 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Vedenje ljudi med pandemijo je sprožilo zanimivo vprašanje: Kako lahko ljudje izkažejo soli­darnost tudi v težkih okolišcinah? Ta clanek je raziskoval procese povezane s solidarnostjo v casu krize (zlasti med COVID-19) v ranljivem kontekstu Iraka. Analizirali smo poseben prispevek treh sklopov spremenljivk k zagotavljanju pomoci drugim prizadetim prek usklajene ali custvene podpore, in sicer specificno prek: prepricanja in izkušenj povezanih s COVID-19, procesov povezanih s družbeno identiteto in subjektivne odpornosti. V spletni anketi je sodelovalo 299 ljudi (vecinoma arabskega etnicnega porekla, pa tudi Kurdi in Asirci). Rezultati so pokazali, da so bili procesi povezani z družbeno identiteto in subjektivna odpornost, pomembno povezani z zagotavljanjem custvene in usklajene družbene podpore drugim, onkraj sociodemografskih podatkov in osebnih prepricanj ter izkušenj povezanih s COVID-19. Kriticno razpravljamo o dinamicnih povezavah med subjektivno odpornostjo in solidarnostjo v casu krize ter o kljucni vlogi vzajemnosti in delovanja v psihologiji skupnosti. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 33 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 34 Omar S. Rasheed, Lucía López-Rodríguez, Marisol Navas: A Community Seam: Social Identification and Subjective Resilience in Understanding Social Support During the Covid-19 Crisis in Iraq IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING WITH CO-WORKERS: A STUDY ON THE MEDIATING ROLE OF SOCIAL REACTIONS AND COMPARISONS Deepshikha Seth Amity Business School, Amity University Noida, India deepshikha_seth@hotmail.com Priyanka Agarwal Amity Business School, Amity University Noida, India Anubha Vashisht Sharda University, Noida, India Social media has become an important part of life. People of all age groups are using the various networks of social media. Social media keeps us connected with one another and gives us an opportunity to share our accomplishments with friends and family. Businesses also have been using its ever widening reach to promote their objectives and have used it to build supportive relations among co- workers. However, it was found to be consuming a great deal of time and energy of the users. This draining of two valuable resources has a serious impact on the behavioral and psycho­logical well-being of people, which leads to burnout and ultimately shows in their performance at work. Social media also is seen as a cause of deteriorating interpersonal relations in the workplace, almost contrary to the purpose for which it was adopted. Previous studies indicated a mediating role of social comparisons and social reactions. This study explored the impact of social media networking with workplace colleagues. A hypothesized model was developed to examine the impact of various factors using path analysis. Data were collected from 287 full-time private sector employees located in the National Capital Region of India. The respondents comprised di.erent age groups and all employment levels and experience. Keywords: social media, workplace dynamics, social media use, social media addiction, social comparison, social re­action, burnout, workplace relations, work performance 1INTRODUCTION Social psychology studies have shown that peo­ple evaluate their own social situation by comparing it with those of others. The concept of social com­parison was first given by psychologist Leon Fes­tinger as early as 1954 (Festinger 1954). Subsequent studies confirmed that people continuously look at others to judge their own living conditions. This ap­plies to lifestyle, popularity, accomplishments, pos­sessions, health, family, and happiness. Everyone wants to be seen on a higher pedestal among their acquaintances. Social comparison motivates people to achieve more, but at the same time puts pressure on everyone. This psychology does not let people enjoy whatever they have or wherever they are (Zivnuska et al., 2019). With omnipresent social media (SM) platforms, obtaining information about others has become easier than before. In addition to providing us an op­portunity to stay connected with our friends and family, social media in a way also promotes social comparison (Ding el al., 2018). As social media en­ters the workspace and as we become connected with our colleagues on these social media plat­forms, we obtain easy access to personal informa­tion about them, which previously was not possible (Schmidt et al., 2016). However, this social comparison may interfere with life order and disrupt psychological balance as both the sender and viewers come under pressure. Senders struggle to post enviable content (pictures and text), and viewers constantly judge their own life on the basis of the posted content. Add to that the stress of garnering and adding reactions to each post, and social media emerges as a major stress-booster (Carlson et al., 2016). What started as an en­deavor to bring colleagues closer by providing a means to understand their views and opinions soon gave way to evaluation, envy, disagreements, con­flict, and separation. This in turn influences working and interpersonal relationships, leads to burnout, and a.ects performance at work. This also consumes a great deal of time and energy of the users, which could have been used to accomplish work goals and develop relationships (Schmidt et al., 2016). Although social media has entered work life, there is limited research on its impact from the indi­vidual perspective. Most studies have focused on how organizations can use social media for greater employee engagement (Kaupins & Park, 2011; Lan­ders & Goldberg, 2014) and HR processes, including marketing (Carr & Walther, 2014; Chiang & Suen, 2015) and hiring (Davison, Marist, & Bing, 2011; Kleumper, Rosen, & Mossholder, 2012; Van Id­dekinge, Lanivich, Roth, & Junco, 2013). Some studies have explored the personal side, but that has been limited to the way people behave on social media platforms and the types of stories, photos, and com­ments they post (Weidner et al., 2012). Studies also have investigated the impact of comparison and re­actions related to social media (Kende, 2016). Therefore, the impact of social media network­ing in the workplace remains in need of thorough research, especially when studies have shown that 60% of employees (Weidner, Wynne, & O’Brian, 2012) had one or more colleagues as “Facebook friends.” The percentage of co-worker social media connections has a positive relationship with per­ceived organizational support and spontaneity (Schmidt, 2016), but there seems to be scope for studies to explore the e.ects of social media net­working in the workplace on work behavior and re­lationships. For example, little research has examined whether a peek into the “beyond-work life” of a colleague impacts a person’s attitude, feel­ings, and behavior toward the colleague at work, or if the lifestyle of a colleague a.ects a person’s satis­faction with his or her own accomplishments—and if all of this can lead to job burnout. This study used the theory of conservation of resources (COR) (Hobfoll, 2001) as a basis to under­stand how social media addiction can a.ect perfor­mance at work. The COR theory suggests that stress results when there is threatened or actual loss of valued resources. However, people have an innate tendency to conserve, uphold, and support these resources; it is this desire that motivates people in stressful situations. Furthermore, the loss is more significant than the gain, and this loss leads to more loss. This theory has received much empirical sup­port, and helps in examining the relationship be­tween stress and health, especially coping with long-term e.ects of occupational burnout. There are two types of resources people want to conserve: contextual or external sources (physical things and social support) and personal resources that come from within, such as personality traits, beliefs, and energy (Hobfoll, 2001; Ten Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012). As one grows, both types of re­sources are accumulated, and can be re-invested to generate new resources. This is called a resource spiral (Hakanen, Peeters, & Perhoniemi, 2011). For example, a positive resource spiral may occur when job resources lead to work engagement, which causes personal satisfaction (Hakanen, Perhoniemi, & Toppinen-Tanner, 2008). The accumulated re­sources also mitigate any stressors on the way, but when this resource deployment is not adequate to manage stress triggers, it leads to resource loss. As stressors build up unrestricted, more resources are lost, leading to further stress (a downward spiral) (Hobfoll, 2001). The present research focuses on how social media addiction may deplete resources and a.ect relations and performance at work. This study explored the impact of social media in the workplace. Due to the changed working en­vironment in wake of the COVID pandemic, digital and remote working has become the new normal, and social media has emerged as a new tool to re­main connected with co-workers. However, this has started to have a significant impact on the working behavior of people. Employees are struggling to cope up with the di.erences they find in the content posted by their colleagues and the persons they knew so far. The relationships are being tested as lines between work and personal lives become blurred. By examining the causes of negative behav­ior toward relationships and productivity at work, this study investigated whether employers can re­orient this phenomenon for a profitable impact. This study examined how social media net­working at work a.ects employee relationships. The use of social media was projected as a means to strengthen bonding among employees, but recent studies have shown an opposite e.ect. In addition to the e.ects on interpersonal relationships at work, social media use is reported to have an adverse im­pact on the emotional well-being of a person, caus­ing exhaustion, lack of interest in work, and depression (all of which are signs of burnout), re­sulting in lower job performance. This research an­swered the following questions: 1. Do social media connections at work impact employees’ interpersonal relations? 2. Do social media connections at work cause job burnout? 3. Does social media networking at work result in low performance? This paper advances the literature of social media impact in the workplace by focusing on the mediating function of social media reactions and comparisons. It is proposed that there is a significant and positive relationship between the addictive use of these “con­necting platforms” and employees’ work behavior. This research examined the impact of personal connections with work colleagues on professional behavior. This understanding can be used to suggest possible solutions that employers can adopt to re­duce burnout, improve interpersonal relationships and motivate employees to achieve work goals. This research assessed the elements of social media usage at the microlevel (in terms of time spend, so­cial reactions, and social comparisons) that con­tribute to negative emotions, especially related to job performance and behavior in the workplace. 2LITERATURE REVIEW Studies have shown that any kind of addic­tion—excessive monitoring of social media, compul­sive gambling, and even workaholism (De Carlo et al., 2014)—ultimately leads to emotional fatigue, strain, depression (Dieris-Hirche et al., 2017), a de­crease in interests and lifestyle (Ferraro, Caci, D’Am­ico, & Blasi, 2007), and seclusion (Moody, 2001). This study used the COR theory as a basis to un­derstand these traits. It suggests that workers may turn to social media more when they face stress trig­gers. Initially, the stress seems to decline slightly, but soon grows rapidly. In fact, the more resources an employee puts into this addiction, the severer the e.ects become due to loss of more time and energy, and job performance su.ers more. For example, when an employee spends time monitoring social media platforms in an e.ort to expand their network (Treem & Leonardi, 2013), the expected boost in re­lationships and motivation still remains elusive (Safioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014), but the loss of time and energy proves to be all the more detrimental. The interactive feature of social media makes it very stimulating; people are able to share their achievements, activities, pictures, possessions, feel­ings, and opinions—and obtain others’ apprecia­tion, reactions, and feedback. This boosts their morale and confidence (Kende et al, 2016). Equally interesting is the freedom to visit other people’s posts and share one’s opinion (Moqbel, 2013). This helps to explore and reinforce bonds in the work­place (Junco, 2012). Probably for this reason, the popularity of various social media platforms is in­creasing throughout the world. In 2017, there were 2.86 billion social network users in the world; in 2021 this figure reached 3.78 billion, and it is ex­pected to exceed 4.4 billion by 2025 (Statista Re­search Department, 2021). Addiction level can be understood by the re­ported numbers—64% of adults check Facebook every day, and, on average, a smartphone user checks Facebook at least 14 times each day (Taylor, 2013). Addiction to social media has been equated with compulsive gambling (Meerkerk et al., 2009), mainly due to certain similar symptoms associated with use and mood modification, including withdrawal, lack of control and relapse, time loss, and conflict (An­dreassen, Torsheim, Burnborg, & Pallesen, 2012). As the urge to check social media posts turns into an addictive habit, it takes away the time and attention that otherwise could have been put to productive use at work or with family. Excessive use of social media further distances the user from work accomplishments, and with time, leads to lack of control and all the negative consequences associ­ated with its use. This explains why social media use is considered to be a major reason for organization deviance (Carlson et al., 2016), solitude (Kross et al., 2013), melancholy (Safioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014), mental fatigue (Cambron, Acitelli, & Steinberg, 2010), and low self-esteem (Kuss & Gri.ths, 2012). When social media entered the workplace, em­ployers found it very useful because it helped em­ployees expand their professional reach, learn about industry updates, and even obtain suggestions and views from colleagues and managers (Carlson et al, 2016). Through social media, employees can get to know their workmates better, and learn their pref­erences and opinion on local issues, politics, environ­ment, and culture, and also learn about their personal lives. This helped foster strong ties in the workplace because, as per the COR theory, people try to uphold, defend, and endorse their conditioned beliefs, opinions, and values (Hobfoll, 2011). However, what started as an e.ort to build sup­portive relationships at work soon was held respon­sible for deteriorating interpersonal relationships (Nowland, Necka, & Cacioppo, 2018). In addition, it also is seen as a major cause of depression. Previous studies indicated that social comparisons and social reactions (Nabi & Prestin, 2013) play a mediating role in this. When a user clicks Like (or any other response) or reacts to a post with a comment, it is called a so­cial media reaction. The platform keeps a count of these, so reactions to a post are not only a measure of the reach of the post, but also indicate how many viewers paid attention to it. Over the years, this has become the main reason for posting content on so­cial media. Positive reactions boost the confidence of the writer, whereas negative reactions (or the ab­sence of any reaction at all) creates negative emo­tions about the viewers, friends, and followers on the social media; and when these reactions are as­sociated with work colleagues, it influences their re­lationships at work as well. Social media reactions also include the emo­tional response of viewers when they see the posted content. When users view and read other users’ posts, they also obtain feelings of happiness, envy, and other emotions in response to the latter’s achievements, lifestyle, and beliefs. (Nowland, Necka, & Cacioppo, 2018). The main idea behind social media was to provide a platform to communicate with friends, family, col­leagues, and like-minded people to strengthen bonds with them, feel happy, and be inspired (Carlson et al., 2016). However, social media users report negative ef­fects (Carlson et al., 2016) when such sharing causes distress (Koerner, 2010), narcissism (Andreassen et al., 2017), and deviance (Carlson et al., 2016), and at times even anger, frustration, and burnout. This happens when users start comparing their lifestyle and achieve­ments with the posted information. Burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and physical fatigue. For long, it was considered to be caused by severe stress for a long period. A person feels emotionally drained, loses energy and will to work. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently updated this definition by describ­ing burnout as an outcome of prolonged workplace stress that has not been managed successfully. People with burnout generally show the follow­ing three symptoms: (1) emotional and physical ex­haustion or feeling of energy depletion, (2) work alienation or a mental distance from one’s job or negative feelings towards one’s career, and (3) low self-fulfilment or reduced professional productivity. When ignored for a long time, job burnout can lead to lack of sleep, increased sadness, anger and irritability, and depression and anxiety, and the per­son may turn to alcohol or substance misuse. This not only a.ects people’s work performance, but personal interactions as well. Burnout also has been associated with certain physical conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 dia­betes. Therefore, it is important to identify the signs of burnout at the earliest and work to reduce the causes before it becomes a threat. Studies as early as 1982 (Maslach & Jackson) and 1997 (Maslach & Leiter) talked about burnout as an individual’s response to stress, marked by exhaustion, tiredness, cynicism, and low performance at work. Subsequent studies also defined burnout as deple­tion of energy and will to work (Bakker, Emmerik, & Euwema, 2006). This indicates that when a worker su.ers burnout, the employer su.ers resource loss. 3HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION To understand the impact of social media use, a relationship model was used. Hypotheses were formulated regarding the mediating role of social media comparisons and reactions on the develop­ment of burnout, which ultimately a.ects work per­formance. The performance also is impacted by the interpersonal relationships among colleagues, in which these mediators also play a significant role. On the basis of the review of the available lit­erature, the following concept model was prepared to show the impact of social media use on work per­formance (Figure 1). It takes into account the medi­ating role of social comparisons and reactions to determine how they influence interpersonal rela­tionships with work colleagues and cause physical and mental burnout. All this ultimately a.ects per­formance at work. 3.1Social Media Use and Social Comparison Among the popular social network platforms, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp handle around 60 billion messages every day. Facebook has 1.91 billion users globally (Facebook, 2021)—340 million of which are in India—and WhatsApp users have ex­ceeded 1 billion (Statista, 2021). On these and other social media sites, people share many personal de­tails, such as their relationships, vacations, recent purchases, achievements, activities, habits, and feelings and views on various events. However, this sharing of personal information leads to social comparisons as people start compar­ing the lifestyles and achievements of others with their own. Some studies have indicated that people spend more time checking others’ pages than post­ing their own details. (Joinson, 2008). This easy ac­cess to others’ lives can either lead to motivation (positive e.ect) or may cause envy and depression (negative impact). It also has been revealed that social networking sites are used more by people who are interested in learning about others. Surprisingly, it is the same set of people who are a.ected negatively by the comparison. This frame of mind results in low evaluation of self (Vogel et al., 2015). There seems a direct relationship between the time spent on social networking and such negative emotions (Safioglou & Greitemeyer, 2014). Sharing personal details on social media puts almost equal pressure on the senders as well, because they are aware that they will be evaluated for their choices, pos­sessions, and success. (Xie & An, 2006). This formed the basis of the first hypothesis of this study: H1: There is a positive relationship between social media use and social comparison. 3.2Social Media Use and Social Reactions Social media reactions can be described as emo­tional responses to social media posts. When co-work­ers are connected on social media, they see great deal lot of personal content posted by each other. This may generate varying degree of emotional responses. They may feel happy for a friend, or may experience envy, anger, bitterness, resentment, and even spite. The re­actions depend upon the viewers’ situations, capabil­ities, availability of resources, needs, and aspirations. In addition, reactions a.ect the people who post the content as well—they want to project themselves in a particular way through their posts. The number of likes, comments, and shares that their posts receive boosts their confidence and morale. This makes them post more content. In addition, as mentioned previ­ously, social networking sites are frequented more by those who want to know about others, so more posts mean more reactions as well (Zivnuska et al., 2019). H2: There is a positive relationship between social media usage and social reactions. 3.3Social Comparison and Interpersonal Relationships Social comparison can have a positive or nega­tive influence on interpersonal relations, depending upon the social standing of the viewer with respect to the source of the content. An upward comparison leads to a feeling of low self-esteem, and therefore, a negative impact. On the other hand, downward comparison boosts one’s confidence, and causes a positive impact. Therefore, the result of social media comparison is dependent on the user’s personality and social standing, and on the direction of the com­parison (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999). Because person­ality traits can be a complete behavioral study, we limited the scope of this study to the user’s situation and the direction of the comparison. H3: There is a negative relationship between social comparison and employees’ interpersonal relation­ships. 3.4Social Comparison and Job Burnout Studies of burnout have hinted that social com­parison is one of its main causes. Comparison drains one emotionally because it makes one’s achieve­ments seem less than those posted by others (Maslach et al., 2001). Michinov (2005) showed that people exhibit lower burnout when social media use is controlled. In addition, social comparison was found to having a mediating role between job satis­faction and job burnout (Kitchel et al., 2012). When a colleague is promoted, others at the same level become more jealous than those in a junior or se­nior position, especially if the promotion is at a higher position (Zhao et al., 2017). Based on these findings, the next hypothesis is proposed: H4: There is a positive relationship between social comparison and job burnout. 3.5Social Media Reactions and Burnout Often, colleagues’ reactions to one’s social media posts have an intense emotional impact on the writer, and may lead to job burnout. Strong emotions (such as anger) a.ect one’s mood (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), and also are linked to certain somatic conditions, such as increased blood pres­sure (Dimsdale et al., 1986), heart rate, adrenaline (Brosschot & Thayer, 2003), and muscle tension (Brosschot & Thayer, 2003). The body in turn allo­cates resources to reducing these impacts. This means that the body spends energy first on the emotions, and then on fighting the impact of emo­tions. This energy loss makes one exhausted and can cause job burnout. Looking at the opportunity loss, all this energy could have been used more produc­tively and in better ways. Harsh reactions and feedback generally leave people emotionally exhaustion or close to burnout. They also cause stress that makes one more vulner­able to emotional trauma (Fox & Moreland, 2015). This also is true in the case of social media reactions. Emotions control our mood (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), and according to the COR theory, when em­ployees experience the stressful stimuli of strong and harsh social media reactions, the body allocates energy to mitigate the mental response. As energy stockpiles are used, employees experience mental fatigue, a major sign of job burnout. H5: There is a positive relationship between social reactions and burnout. 3.6Social Media Reactions and Employee Relations According to the COR theory, social media re­actions have a significant impact on emotional en­ergy (Hobfoll, 2001; Ten Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012). When employees are connected on social media, it is di.cult to separate personal and work relationships. On social sites, people post personal content, such as pictures of their cars, outings, hob­bies, birthdays, children, and even political opinions. This way, co-workers obtain extensive information about each other, which is not possible otherwise. Social networking in the workplace was viewed as an e.ort to enhance interpersonal bonding and friendliness at work. Personal posts give employees a chance to expand their networks—for example, they can connect with colleagues who share their interest in exercise, reading, poetry, trekking, or photography. However, it was found to have an un­derlying impact as well—not everyone can be happy looking at a co-worker’s house, vacations, and other achievements; some people may show signs of jeal­ousy, frustration, and anger, especially when a man­ager posts pictures of an out-of-city conference with industry seniors while his team is working. These feelings of anger or jealousy in reaction to a colleague’s social media post are likely to make people lose interest in their work. As part of their reactions, they may start talking ill of them or even confront them, leading to direct or indirect conflicts and unfriendliness. H6: There is a negative relationship between social reactions and employees’ interpersonal relations. 3.7Burnout and Interpersonal Relationships Job burnout and interpersonal relationships at work, two major outcomes of social media interac­tions, have a two-way linkage. Each leads to the other (Innstranda, Langballe, Espnes, Falkum, & Aasland, 2008). For example, one of the symptoms of burnout is emotional fatigue (Karatepe & Tekinkus, 2006), and when one is emotionally worn out, one cannot have happy relationships. Similarly, when due to the mod­erating impact of social comparison and social reac­tions, relationships between two individuals are a.ected, there is demotivation, and the result is job burnout. The opposite also is true. When colleagues are supportive, one feels happy, inspired, and confi­dent in their company, which means that there is less chance of job burnout (Kanwar, Singh, & Kodwani, 2009). This also is supported by the COR theory, which says that resource depletion due to burnout may lead to the depletion of other resources. H7: Job burnout and interpersonal relationships are negatively correlated. 3.8Burnout and Work Performance Employees who are emotionally stressed, dis­tracted, or low on energy display low levels of per­formance. Job burnout depletes these resources that are important for high levels of performance (Maslach, 1993). COR theory suggests that when employees experience burnout, they exhibit contin­uous emotional and physical exhaustion (Wright & Cropanzano, 1998) and cannot perform at the same level as their colleagues. The higher the degree of burnout, the lower is the in-role output. When an employee is dissuaded with his or her work, the chances are remote that he or she would step up for extra-role assignments. This would keep him or her away from all opportunities for advancement in career, and would result in lower performance (De­merouti, Verbeke, & Bakker, 2005). This supports our next hypothesis that job burnout has a negative spiral impact on job performance. H8: There is a negative relationship between burnout and performance at work. 3.9Interpersonal Relationships and Work Performance Personal relationships with colleagues and other employees in the workplace are a significant part of working. Employees often rate an organiza­tion based on what they learn about the people working there (Reich & Hershcovis, 2011). The bond employees have with one another often has been studied from a negative perspective, but for many, these bonds can be an encouraging factor because good relationships help people “fulfill the need to belong” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). This forms the basis of our hypothesis that harmony and trust among co-workers lead to a healthy work environ­ment, and ultimately help to enhance performance at work: H9: There is a positive correlation between interper­sonal relationships and performance at work. 4RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1Sample The data were collected through an online sur­vey of a working population sample in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, India, during Septem­ber–October 2021. Convenience sampling was adopted; respondents were from various age groups, both genders, varying education levels, and di.erent professional areas. A web link to the online questionnaire was shared through social networking sites. The snowballing method was used to expand the sample size. In all, responses were received from 287 participants. Details of descriptive statistics of the participants are presented in Table 1. All 287 re­spondents were actively using one or more social media sites. 4.2Demographic Variables The demographic variables (age, gender, and education) of the respondents are described in Table 1. Initially, it was expected that gender, age, and current working hours have an impact on job burnout. Therefore, these variables were used as background variables in the regression model. How­ever, the results showed that occupation and edu­cation do not significantly a.ect job burnout. To maintain consistency of the measurement variable levels, these were not included in the final model. 4.3Measurement Scales A five-point Likert scale was used for all the questions (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Table 2 lists the measurement scales used for each variable. The complete set of questions for each value and factor is listed in the Appendix. 4.4Statistical Analysis Path analysis with structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to investigate the proposed me­diation pathways. In the covariance structure analysis, maximum likelihood of estimation was used. In SEM, the exogenous variables were control variables, and In­stagram use, social comparison, self-esteem, and social anxiety were endogenous variables. Paths were drawn from exogenous variables to all endogenous variables. Paths also were drawn from social media use to social comparison, from social comparison to self-esteem and burnout, and, finally, to low output at work. 5DATA INTERPRETATION, ANALYSIS, AND RESULTS Correlation tests showed that social media use had a significant and positive correlation with social comparison, and with job burnout. However, no sig­nificant correlation was found between social com­parison and job burnout. Those using social media for longer durations and more frequently had a higher degree of job burnout; they also were found to resort more to social comparison (Table 3). However, people who had a greater tendency for social comparison did not necessarily complain of job burnout. A structural equation model analysis was used to check the suggested theoretical model. First, item-level covariances were used to test the measurement model. This is an important step for structural equa­tions analysis because it matches the measures with theoretical constructs. It also helps to determine how the latent variables are associated with their measures, and to ensure that the measurement model fits before the structural model is interpreted (Weston & Gore, 2006). This was followed by examining the hypothe­sized model (Figure 2). To confirm that this was the best-fitting model, two alternative models were tested, and the two social media variables were exam­ined to determine their impact on work performance. As the final step, the Process feature of SPSS (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) was used to determine the indirect ef­fects. In both the cases, after estimating the path, a bootstrapping confidence interval was calculated. First, the means, standard deviations, and cor­relations among the variables in the study were ob­tained (Table 3). The measurement model comprising 33 indicators and 5 factors was tested—one for each scale in the study—and the items within each scale were correlated. Then the hypoth­esized model and relationships were examined (Fig­ure 2). This model builds on the previously established measurement model incorporating nine hypothesized paths. Seven of the hypothesized paths were found to be significant (p < 0.05). A positive relationship was found between so­cial media usage and social comparisons (b = 0.62, SE = 0.04, p = 0.00). Thus, Hypothesis 1 is supported. Hypothesis 2 predicted that social media addiction is positively related to social reactions (b = 0.51, SE = 0.05, p = 00); it also is supported. The negative path from social media comparisons to interper­sonal relationships also is supported (Hypothesis 3) (b = -0.18, SE = 0.05, p = 00). Similarly, Hypothesis 4 is supported: burnout is positively related with so­cial comparisons (b = 0.40, SE = 0.07, p = 00). Hy­pothesis 5, social reactions lead to burnout, also is supported (b = 0.26, SE = 0.07, p = 00). Hypothesis 6 also is supported, which predicted social media reactions are negatively correlated with interper­sonal relationships at work (b = -0.10, SE = 0.05, p = 0.05). Hypothesis 7 suggested a negative correla­tion between interpersonal relationships and burnout; it also is supported (b = -0.15, SE = 0.05, p = 0.01). In fact, it showed a clear correlation, indi­cating that a higher degree of burnout leads to a de­terioration of interpersonal relationships, and that better interpersonal relationships at work can min­imize the possibility of job burnout. Furthermore, the positive relationship between interpersonal re­lationships and performance at work (H8) is sup­ported (b = 0.33, SE = 0.05, p = 0.01), as is the neg­ative relationship between job burnout and job performance (H9) (b = -.32, SE = 0.04, p = 0.01). Thus, the indirect e.ect of social media addiction on performance is supported. 6DISCUSSION The study used the COR framework (Hobfoll, 2011) to investigate how social media use (including the mediating e.ect of social media reactions and comparison) is linked with interpersonal relation­ships and job burnout—both of which are signifi­cantly relevant to performance at work. Overall, the results supported the theory, demonstrating that social media reactions and comparisons a.ect job performance negatively. Specifically, it was found that job performance can be a.ected by social media in two ways: (1) addictive use causes exhaus­tion and loss of time that depletes focus on work, and (2) the tendency to compare one’s situation with the social media posts of others leads to emo­tional burnout that a.ects relationships with co-workers and job performance. The findings significantly linked social media use with interpersonal relationships at work and with job burnout, highlighting the ways in which so­cial media addiction can a.ect job performance. The physical implications of social media addiction were measured in terms of the time and energy spent on social media—time and energy that could have been spent on work. Social media addiction also depletes a good amount of emotional re­sources, which a.ects organization behavior. Re­spondents with tendency to measure feedback on their social media posts were more likely to report job burnout, mainly due to the pressure of posting likeable content and comparing it with co-workers’ posts. This comparison also is as a major cause of the decline in good relationships among co-workers. Envy, frustration, and anger over social media posts and reactions to them a.ect the way in which peo­ple deal with each other. Therefore, there are two types of responses to social media—physical ex­haustion, and emotional fatigue. The latter is di.er­ent from the behavioral path, which is more about the characteristic manner in which a person acts or conducts themself, especially toward others. Behav­ior is more of a permanent nature, whereas emo­tional reaction is a dynamic response to a situation. Another focus area that this study explored was the implications of social media connections among co-workers. These connections initially were consid­ered to be beneficial for improving communication among co-workers and promoting a feeling of cama­raderie, of mutual trust and friendship. It helped em­ployees get to know one another better by communicating on other-than-work grounds. How­ever, over time, comparisons and reactions on social media posts led to feelings of frustration, envy, and even anger. This setback to interpersonal relationships was exactly the opposite of the planned objective. Amid this physical and emotional exhaustion at work due to increased social media use and the urge to share all of one’s details (personal and profes­sional), it was found that job burnout also has an im­pact on personal relationships, though this e.ect is not very strong. A possible reason could be that the loss of energy and drive in the case of a burnout also a.ects interest in and attention to other people. This study has important practical contributions for both employees and managers. The path analysis of addictive social-media-use burnout, poor interper­sonal relationships, and an ultimately negative im­pact on job performance suggests that the adverse e.ects of social media use can be managed to some extent by good time management. If there is a restric­tion on the time to use social media, employees will stop checking their social media accounts constantly throughout the day (and this may soon become a habit). If organizations restrict social media use to 2–3 times per day, employees can dedicate their time and energy to work and improve their e.ciency. Fur­ther studies can be conducted to determine how in­terpersonal relationships can be improved by using social media networking with co-workers. This study also highlights several possibilities for future research, for example, the impact of dif­ferent types of social media. This study uses the term social media collectively for all the networking apps, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, but the di.erences between the use of Facebook (Tang, Chen, Yang, Chung, & Lee, 2016) WhatsApp, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be explored, and may provide more insight. Because most of the respondents admitted to overlapping use of multiple social media networks, this factor also can be considered. It would be very interesting to explore how employees di.erentiate between di.erent platforms for attaining social and work goals. Exploring the reasons behind the growing use of social media, even to the extent of addiction, at the cost of work and among all age groups also is an interesting area of study. It is hoped that future studies will try to gain deeper insights into these in­fluences of social media networking in the work­place to help organizations encourage employees to utilize social media connections productively. 7CONCLUSION Social media is an important tool to build up a business—and also the organization. Despite all the negative influences, its use is increasing mainly due to its role in the instant distribution of information in today’s digital world. Because most employees today are connected with co-workers on social media, it is important to understand the impact of such connections on individual performance at work and on the organization as whole. This study fo­cused on the possible impact of social media con­nections with co-workers on interpersonal relationships and performance at work so that busi­nesses can take measures to mitigate any negative e.ect. 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Harris (2019), “Social Media Addiction and Social Media Reactions: The Im­plications for Job Performance,” The Journal of Social Psychology, 159(6), 746-760 Appendix: Measurement Instruments 1.Social Media Use and Addiction Social media addiction scale (Al-Menayes, 2015) 1.I often find myself using social media longer than intended. 2.I get irritated when someone interrupts me when I’m using social media. 3.Time passes by without me feeling it when I am using social media. 4.My family complain frequently of my preoccupation with social media. 5.I find myself thinking about what happened on social media when I am away from it. 2.Social Media Reaction Developed from previous studies (Suzanne Z. et al., 2019; Schmidt, Lelchook & Martin, 2016) 1.Knowing things about colleagues through social media makes me feel awkward around them. 2.Learning through social media what my colleagues are doing when I think they should be working makes me angry. 3.Sometimes I get frustrated by the things I learn about my work colleagues through social media. 4.It is hard not to let the information about my work colleagues I get from social media impact my feelings about them at work. 5.Knowing things about colleagues through social media makes me feel like our relationships are fake. 3.Social Media Comparison Iowa–Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999) 1.I often compare how my loved ones (boy/girlfriend, spouse, family) are doing with how others are doing. 2.I often compare how I am doing socially (such as social skills, popularity) with other people. 3.I often compare myself with others with respect to what I have accomplished in life. 4.I often like to talk with others about mutual opinions and experiences. 5.If I want to learn more about something, I try to find out what others think about it. 4.Burnout Maslach Burnout Inventory–based questionnaire (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001) 1.I feel emotionally exhausted because of my work. 2.I feel worn out at the end of a working day. 3.I feel tired as soon as I get up in the morning and see a new working day stretched out in front of me. 4.I get the feeling that I treat some clients or colleagues impersonally, as if they were objects. 5.Working with people the whole day is stressful for me. 6.I feel frustrated by my work. 7.I get the feeling that I work too hard. 8.Being in direct contact with people at work is too stressful. 9.I have the feeling that my colleagues blame me for some of their problems. 10. I feel I am not capable of investing emotionally in co-workers and customers. 5.Work Performance General job performance instrument developed by Liden, Wayne, and Stilwell (1993) 1.I always perform better than an acceptable level. 2.I often perform better than what can be expected from me. 3.I often put in extra e.ort in my work. 4.I intentionally expend a great deal of e.ort in carrying out my job. 5.The quality of my work is top-notch. 6.Interpersonal Relationships at Work Scale to measure interpersonal relationships with co-workers (Carlson et al., 2009) 1.I am always ready to communicate and discuss ideas with colleagues. 2.I do not put enough time into developing deep and trusting relationships. 3.I find it hard to approach people or start up a conversation. 4.Di.erences of opinion on matters of work and matters other than work puts me o.. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 35 Abstract Vol. 12, No. 1, 35-51 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a03 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 36 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 37 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 38 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 39 Figure 1: Model showing impact of social media use on work performance Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 40 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 41 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 42 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 43 Table 1: Descriptive statistics of survey participants (N = 287) Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 44 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Table 2: Measurement scale details for each variable Table 3: Means, standard deviations, and correlations (N = 287) Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 45 Figure 2: Standardized path loadings Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 46 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 47 EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Družbena omrežja so postala pomemben del življenja ljudi vseh starostih skupin. Le-ta nas nam­rec povezujejo med seboj in nam dajejo priložnost, da svoje dosežke delimo s prijatelji in družino. Zaradi njihovega cedalje vecjega dosega, so ga za promocijo svojih ciljev in za vzpostavitev podpornih odnosov zacela uporabljati tudi podjetja. Ugotovljeno je bilo, da družbena omrežja uporabnikom vzamejo veliko casa in energije. Crpanje teh dveh dragocenih virov resno vpliva na vedenjsko in psi­hicno pocutje ljudi, kar vodi v izgorelost, ki se na koncu odraža tudi v njihovi uspešnosti pri delu. Družbena omrežja prav takoo veljajo za vzrok slabšanja medsebojnih odnosov na delovnem mestu, kar je skoraj v nasprotju prvotnega namena vzpostavitve le-teh. Prejšnje študije so že pokazale posredniško vlogo družbenih primerjav in družbenih reakcij, ta študija pa je raziskala vpliv družbenih omrežij na sodelavce na delovnem mestu. Za preucitev vpliva razlicnih dejavnikov z analizo poti, je bil razvit hipoteticni model. Koncni vzorec je zajemal 287 zaposlenih v zasebnem sektorju s polnim delovnim casom, ki se nahajajo v regiji glavnega mesta Indije. Anketiranci so bili razlicnih starostnih skupin in vseh stopenj zaposlitve ter izkušenj. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons 48 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 49 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Deepshikha Seth, Priyanka Agarwal, Anubha Vashisht: Impact of Social Media Networking With Co-Workers: A Study on the Mediating Role of Social Reactions and Comparisons 50 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 51 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 52 EMBRACING THE DIGITAL AGE: THE IMPACT OF PROACTIVITY AND BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS ON EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT Jure Andolšek School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia jure.ando@gmail.com Armin Salkic School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia arminsalko45@gmail.com ness to experience, agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness (O’Connor, 2002). The five-1Introduction Personality refers to an individual’s enduring patterns of behavior and intrapersonal processes that originate within the person (Burger, 2014). RePersonality traits are crucial to understanding an individual’s behavior, and the Big Five personality traits provide insight into the five core traits that underlie this behavior. A better understanding of an individual’s Big Five personality traits can aid in identifying their connection with proactivity, which, in turn, has a positive impact on employee devel­opment within a company. This article explores the link between the Big Five personality traits and proactivity, and their combined e.ect on employee development. Our study emphasizes the significance of distributed work and high­lights the positive link between four of the Big Five personality traits (i.e., openness, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and proactivity. Our research draws upon theoretical concepts and practical case analyses of larger companies, demonstrating the favorable relationship among the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and employee development. This study’s findings underscore the significance of a.ording adequate opportunities for employee de­velopment, and highlight the positive impact of distributed work on stimulating employee development. Our study’s results are pertinent to researchers conducting further research on this topic, and we recommend that companies in­vest resources in providing training to their workforce on proactive behavior, which can lead to improved organizational performance and foster individual development within the company. Keywords: digital age, proactivity, big five personality traits, employee development, case study ­search emphasizes that individuals exhibit consisProactivity is another personality trait that is considered to be significant, particularly due to its association with career success and its high value to employers (Ramus, 2001). Unlike the Big Five per­sonality traits, proactivity is more malleable, and can be acquired through organizational learning, making it a key trait in employee development. It is defined as the initiation and creation of change by assuming control over a given situation (Crant, 2000). Individuals with high levels of proactivity are better able to adapt to the organizational environ­ment, socialize e.ectively with other employees, and increase task success. Proactive individuals can take advantage of an enriched workplace design and anticipate and prepare for changes, leading to opti­mal outcomes with appropriate support (Lamovšek, Cerne, Radevic, & Božic, 2022). Bateman and Crant (1993) introduced the concept of proactive person­ality in organizational behavior research, positing that it is a desirable trait that motivates individuals to take actions to overcome situational constraints. Within the current developmental context, it is im­perative that employees possess proactivity (Dachner, Ellingson, Noe, & Saxton, 2021) and de­velop high levels of openness to experience and ex­traversion, among the Big Five personality traits, to achieve optimal development within an organiza­tion (Antoncic, Antoncic, Grum, & Ruzzier, 2018). Understanding the influence of the Big Five person­ality traits and proactivity on employee develop­ment is critical for organizations seeking to enhance their human capital. The Big Five personality traits are considered to be a fundamental framework for understanding personality di.erences, and they have been linked to a range of important work out­comes. By understanding how di.erent personality traits impact employee development, organizations can tailor their training and development programs to meet the unique needs and characteristics of their employees (Major, Turner, & Fletcher, 2006). The integration of distributed work in a digital context has given rise to a diverse range of opportu­nities and challenges for employee development. The use of information telecommunication technologies (ICT) has enabled new distributed work arrange­ments, thereby allowing employees to work remotely, and the implementation of digital technologies has enabled the creation of more e.ective and flexible work arrangements (Lamovšek & Cerne, 2023). How­ever, the trend toward agile operations and low hier­archies may necessitate that employees assume more significant responsibility for their own learning and development, highlighting the importance of self-di­rectedness in employee development (Lemmetty & Collin, 2020). Additionally, given the recent transfor­mations in the digital context, emphasizing the impor­tance of distributed work, in conjunction with the aforementioned personality traits, is crucial for achieving optimal results (Sousa & Rocha, 2019). An examination of the available research pa­pers on three crucial concepts, namely the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and employee devel­opment, reveals numerous theoretical and practical implications. However, a major research gap ob­served in the literature is the absence of a compre­hensive model that links and explores the interrelationships between the aforementioned key concepts. Moreover, most authors concentrated on the theoretical aspects of the key concepts, without delving into their application in the business prac­tices of large corporations. As a result, it is challeng­ing to apply the existing analyses and findings to concrete business practices, because most authors do not consider digitalization, which continuously transforms both work and the business environ­ment. Thus, the digitalization of work environments must be regarded as a large-scale organizational change that has various implications for employee development (Ostemeier & Strobel, 2022). The ex­isting literature and research do not establish a di­rect link among all three constructs and their practical implications within the context of a dis­tributed work environment. Instead, they concen­trate on examining the individual relationships between each construct. The contemporary workplace has undergone several transformations that have resulted in a shift toward more employee-driven human capital devel­opment practices. This has led to a significant change in the types of activities employees engage in for employee development. Employees increas­ingly participate in informal and unstructured activ­ities that emphasize learner proactivity, autonomy, and interactions. However, classical employee de­velopment theories still follow a traditional ap­proach that limits the understanding of how employee development happens today, because it places the responsibility for development solely on the employer and an instructor who carries out structured activities. To better align with modern employee development methods, scholars have proposed that development is a shared responsibil­ity between employers and employees, in which proactivity is of significant importance (Dachner et al., 2021). Nonetheless, current research and theo­ries on proactive employee development largely have overlooked the impact of large-scale changes in an organization’s environment on an employee’s motivation to participate in proactive learning pro­grams (Ostemeier & Strobel 2022). The Big Five personality traits and proactivity are crucial individual characteristics for employee development. Thus, we propose a contemporary theoretical framework for employee development that highlights the active role of employees in ac­quiring new skills and knowledge. Our theoretical model emphasizes an employee-led approach char­acterized by proactive behavior, wherein employees actively create opportunities for professional growth and take accountability for their career ad­vancement (Dachner et al., 2021). To comprehen­sively understand the evolution of employee development practices over time, we find the em­ployee-led approach to be a valuable tool. We con­sidered Noe’s classification of employee-driven development programs implemented by organiza­tions worldwide (Dachner et al., 2021). To demonstrate the significance of each funda­mental concept to organizations, we present multi­ple case studies of large corporations that e.ectively implement our theories into practical strategies within authentic work environments. The case stud­ies serve to illustrate the proposed propositions and establish cohesive integration among the concepts. 2Theoretical Background 2.1Employee Development According to McCauley and Hezlett (2001), em­ployee development pertains to the augmentation of an individual’s ability to perform their current or fu­ture job responsibilities e.ectively within their work organization. This entails an iterative intervention by the organization to facilitate or directly enhance the job-relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities of its workforce. A broader approach to employee devel­opment, as proposed by Dachner et al. (2021), en­compasses an ongoing and continuous process that may comprise voluntary or mandatory activities and formal or informal training, and may be related to one’s present job or long-term personal e.cacy, un­dertaken during and/or outside of work hours. In a related vein, Kaše and Svetlik (2021) associated em­ployee development with the acquisition of compe­tencies that enable individuals to execute their future job roles e.ectively, which may be dissimilar from the present workplace requirements. In contemporary times, amid the prevalence of a knowledge-based society, there is a growing em­phasis on employee development across various do­mains of human resource management (HRM). Concurrently, organizations actively are seeking e.ec­tive schemes to cultivate the skills of their workforce with the objective of enhancing their occupational proficiency. In addition to enhancing the adaptability and competitiveness of the organization, employee development also can have favorable e.ects on its reputation, augment the capacity to attract prospec­tive talented employees, and foster employee reten­tion by providing opportunities to fulfill career aspirations (Kaše & Svetlik, 2021). Within the literature review, several commonly used concepts for the development of new employ­ees can be identified. This pertains to all the devel­opmental processes utilized to enhance the performance of new employees to desired levels, en­compassing all the formal and informal activities in which an organization and employee participate. The pivotal outcome of new employee development is the cultivation of an employee with a high level of job performance, alignment with the job environ­ment, and a sense of loyalty toward their new em­ployer (Holton, 1996). Organizations employ diverse developmental activities, including formal educa­tion; job experiences; professional relationships; and personality, skills and abilities assessment, to enable professional growth for employees. However, formal education remains the dominant strategy for em­ployee development in the majority of organizations. Therefore, employees are a.orded the opportunity to enroll in classroom instruction, online courses, college degree programs, and mentorship initiatives, all of which are designed systematically with specific goals, learning objectives, assessment instruments, and expectations (Dachner et al., 2021). Advanced HRM theory introduces the concept of strategic employee development, which is re­garded as a pivotal element of achieving competitive advantage. The distinctive skills and capabilities pos­sessed by an organization and its employees, which are arduous to replicate and imitate by competitors, are deemed to be critical components of competitive advantage. In this regard, strategic employee devel­opment facilitates the development of firm-specific knowledge and skills that are in line with the strategic objectives of the organization. Strategic employee development is characterized by several key features, including the integration of employee development activities with the organizational mission and goals, active participation of line managers in designing and delivering employee development programs, the im­plementation of complementary employee develop­ment activities that reinforce the contribution of employee development, and the alignment of em­ployee development initiatives with the organiza­tional culture and values (Garavan, 2007). Strategic employee development is an essential component of the four dimensions of core capabil­ity, namely: (1) knowledge and skills, (2) physical and technical systems, (3) managerial systems of de­velopment and education, and (4) organizational values and norms. In this context, the implementa­tion of development programs may result in the generation of distinctive economic values for multi­ple stakeholders in an organization, including em­ployees, management, shareholders, environment, and customers (Garavan, 2007). The development of employees is not solely contingent upon their physical presence in the work­place, because opportunities for growth still can arise despite distributed work arrangements. In­deed, in certain cases, distributed working can result in more-e.ective development outcomes. The rapid emergence of new technologies and employment opportunities has led to an increased likelihood of distributed work, thereby enabling individuals to pursue development opportunities remotely (Wag­ner, Heil, Hellweg, & Schmedt, 2019). 2.2Big Five Personality Traits and Employee Development Personality is a complex and widely recognized construct that embodies an individual’s consistent and distinctive patterns of thoughts, feelings, behav­iors, and social interactions, which define their overall character (Kernberg, 2016). The study of personality di.erences has been an enduring pursuit throughout human history; ancient Greek philosopher Hip­pocrates posited four temperaments associated with specific bodily fluids. Modern personality psychology emerged later, and, with advances in technology and access to vast data sets, researchers can now study personality with greater precision and depth than ever before (Montag & Elhai, 2019). Personality arises from an individual’s capacity to experience both internal bodily states and exter­nal environmental perceptions, and theories of per­sonality must elucidate its definition, components, organization, and development across time (McCrae & Costa, 2008). Although di.erent psychologists may hold di.ering views on the exact definition of personality, it generally encompasses more than surface-level characteristics (Feist, Roberts, & Feist, 2021). According to Kernberg (2016), personality comprises the entirety of an individual’s subjective experiences and behavior patterns, including both conscious and unconscious factors such as concrete and habitual actions, self-perceptions, perceptions of the world, conscious thoughts, desires and fears, and internal states. In essence, personality consti­tutes a persistent set of traits, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors that remain stable over time and in varying circumstances, constituting an individual’s unique and recognizable identity (Boyd & Pen­nebaker, 2017). Conversely, personality traits refer to the rela­tively stable and long-lasting characteristics that dis­tinctively shape an individual’s personality (Allport & Allport, 1921). These traits play a vital role in de­termining an individual’s behavior, thoughts, and emotions, contributing to the development of their distinctive personality (Buss, 1989). Personality traits remain an important area of study in the 21st century, because they o.er insight into the mecha­nisms underlying behavior, cognition, and emotion, and can be applied to a range of practical settings, such as the workplace (Montag & Elhai, 2019). They represent consistent patterns of thoughts, emo­tions, and behaviors that shape an individual’s unique characteristics (Diener & Lucas, 2023). Trait psychology postulates that individuals di.er in terms of fundamental trait dimensions that remain stable over time and in varying situations (Diener & Lucas, 2023). Popular understanding of personality traits often suggests that they are immutable and exert a direct influence on an individual’s behavior (Matthews, Deary, & Whiteman, 2003). The Five-Factor Model, also known as the Big Five, is the most commonly used model of traits, and encompasses five broad dimensions repre­sented by the acronym OCEAN, which can be parsed further into smaller facets for detailed anal­ysis of an individual’s personality (Hough, Oswald, & Ock, 2015). The Five-Factor Model also can be linked to behavioral content primarily through con­scientiousness, and secondarily through extraver­sion and agreeableness. Cognitive content can be associated with openness, followed by agreeable­ness and conscientiousness, whereas a.ective con­tent can be linked to neuroticism, followed by extraversion and agreeableness (Zilig, Hemenover, & Dienstbier, 2002). The Big Five personality traits have been shown to play a crucial role in the positive development of employees in an organization. Kickhuk and Wiesner (1997) found that a high level of extraversion and agreeableness have been highlighted as being par­ticularly advantageous, and low levels of neuroticism also could enhance the development process. Shahreki (2020) arrived at similar results, highlight­ing the significance of agreeableness and addition­ally emphasizing conscientiousness as a contributing factor to successful employee development. In ad­dition to pre-existing cognitive impairments, an in­dividual’s openness to experience can serve as an additional factor influencing their positive develop­ment within an organizational context (LePine, Colquitt, & Erez, 2000). Proposition 1: There is a positive relationship between the Big Five personality traits (high lev­els of extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness, and a low level of neu­roticism) and employee development. 2.3Big Five Personality Traits, Proactivity, and Employee Development In general, employee behavior in the workplace can be categorized into two distinct groups: reactive and proactive. Reactive employees typically wait for instructions before they take any action and carry out their tasks with minimal direction. On the other hand, proactive employees are highly motivated and take initiative to identify opportunities to im­prove processes, share ideas, and enhance their own and others’ performance (Campbell, 2000). Among the array of significant personality traits, proactivity also is considered to be crucial. Proactivity is a quality that entails the tendency to take proactive measures in one’s approach to tasks, which encompasses crucial elements such as initia­tive-taking, forward-thinking, self-regulation, and the ability to facilitate change (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010). It is a critical component of personal and professional success, and is defined as taking a proactive approach to tasks, rather than simply re­acting to events (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010). It encompasses the key aspects of taking initiative, anticipating future situations, exercising control, and causing change (Grant & Ashford, 2008). Proac­tivity is not only a desirable quality in employees, but also a critical skill that employers look for when hiring new sta. (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010). An organization’s success is dependent on having a sig­nificant number of proactive employees, but this requires more than just hiring proactive individuals. A proactive culture must be nurtured within the or­ganization—a culture that values and celebrates achievement, allows for failure, and fosters collab­oration and innovation (Joo & Lim, 2009). The cat­egorization of proactive behavior as either extra-role or in-role is subjective, and can vary based on an individual’s interpretation of their role and responsibilities (Parker & Collins, 2008). Extra-role proactive behavior refers to actions that are outside the scope of one’s formal job responsibili­ties, whereas in-role proactive behavior is within the bounds of one’s o.cial duties (Grant, & Ash­ford, 2008). Both forms of proactive behavior can contribute to overall success and can help individ­uals take control of their career and personal de­velopment (Parker & Collins, 2008). The benefits of proactivity, including its positive impact on individuals and organizations, are well documented. Whereas proactive individuals may re­sort to using various inappropriate methods to achieve their goals, resulting in negative e.ects on employee morale (Parker, Wang, & Liao, 2019), the positive impacts of proactivity are noteworthy. These include enhanced job satisfaction, better time management, improved problem-solving abilities, and increased success. Similarly, organizations that have a substantial proportion of proactive individu­als may experience positive outcomes, especially in terms of high work performance and innovation, which are the most significant benefits achieved by such organizations (Ghitulescu, 2018). The Big Five personality traits and proactivity are two areas of study that have been researched widely in the field of psychology. Proactivity can be seen as a form of behavior that is influenced by an individual’s personality traits. Personality traits, such as conscientiousness and openness, have been shown to positively impact an individual’s level of proactivity. This is because conscientious individuals are more likely to take initiative, and are focused on achieving their goals, and open individuals are more likely to be forward-thinking and have a greater propensity to seek out new opportunities (Thomas, Whitman, & Viswesvaran, 2010). In contrast, indi­viduals with high levels of neuroticism may be less proactive due to their tendency to be anxious and cautious (Miller & Lynam, 2006). The relationship between personality traits and proactivity can help individuals to understand themselves better, and can help organizations to select and develop em­ployees who have a higher propensity for proactivity (Thomas, Whitman, & Viswesvaran, 2010). The ongoing digital transformation has led to a shift in the required skill set for organizational suc­cess. In light of this, it has become imperative for employees to engage in proactive skills development in order to remain competitive and relevant in the workforce. The rapid advancements in digital tech­nology and its integration into the modern work­place have challenged conventional perspectives on human creativity (Miah & Omar, 2012). This has elicited numerous inquiries from both academic re­searchers and industry professionals on how to fos­ter creativity among employees in distributed work environments (Cai, Khapova, Bossink, Lysova, & Yuan, 2020). The notion of employee proactivity in skills development emphasizes the need for individ­uals to take the initiative and responsibility for their own professional growth and career advancement. This proactive approach to skills development is criti­cal for employees to stay ahead of the changing de­mands of the digital landscape and to secure their future employability (Ostmeier & Strobel, 2022). Numerous organizations have implemented new work arrangements, guided by design interven­tions and the implementation of activity-based workplaces. The anticipated outcomes of these changes are substantial, including more-e.cient utilization of space and resources, enhanced job sat­isfaction, positive client image, improved perfor­mance, and reduced costs (Vos & van der Voordt, 2001). Although it is recognized widely that an or­ganization’s success is influenced by various factors such as its overall strategy and resource availability (Nasemm, Sheikh, & Malik, 2011), it is equally im­portant to acknowledge the crucial roles of proac­tivity and innovation as outcomes resulting from the collective thoughts and actions of individual em­ployees. The ability of employees to generate cre­ative and innovative ideas during their daily work routines depends not only on their personal at­tributes, but also on their perceptions of the work­place environment (Amabile, Schatzel, Moneta, & Kramer, 2004). Organizations that foster and sup­port proactivity are more likely to have a motivated and engaged workforce committed to continuous improvement and the achievement of organiza­tional goals (Ramus, 2001). E.ective employee development is critical for organizational success, and requires an understand­ing of the individual employee’s proactivity and per­sonality traits. When developing employees, it is important to recognize the unique combination of these factors and how they shape an employee’s ap­proach to their work (Turner, 2003). In this way, em­ployee development strategies can be tailored to the individual, enabling them to achieve their full potential and contribute to organizational goals. Un­derstanding the complex interplay of proactivity and personality traits in employee development is a crit­ical element of e.ective management practices (Crant, 2000). Proposition 2: The Big Five personality traits (high levels of extraversion, agreeableness, openness and conscientiousness, and a low level of neuroticism) are positively related to proactivity, which, in turn, is positively associ­ated with employee development. 2.4Distributed Work Settings The impact of technological advancements on work design for both employees and organizations has been significant (Schwarzmuler et al., 2018). Contemporary workplaces have transitioned from traditional to digitalized environments, with a focus on ICT rather than physical infrastructure (Richter et al., 2018). Cloud services, online platforms, and mo­bile devices are common tools used by employees for constant communication and connectivity with colleagues and stakeholders from di.erent organi­zations (Schwarzmuler et al., 2018). The concept of distributed work arises when employees are able to remain connected to their workplace and co-work­ers on a continuous basis. Lamovšek and Cerne (2023) highlighted that distributed work requires in­dividuals to collaborate with team members via computer-mediated communication technology, both for planning and for coordination, as well as in­formal and social interactions. Under these condi­tions, employees must hone new human capabilities, including prompt problem-solving, con­tinuous learning, and collaborative problem-solving (Richter et al., 2018). The notion of work settings, also known as dis­tributed work, typically is defined in terms of its spa­tial dimensions, as per Schwarzmuler et al.’s definition, which characterizes it as “working out­side the conventional workplace and communicat­ing with it by way of telecommunications or computer-based technology” (Schwarzmuler et al., 2018, p. 177). In addition to spatial considerations, temporal flexibility is another vital aspect of this work design, because employees may connect to the workplace and perform their duties outside of customary working hours. Consequently, the advent of disruptive technologies such as mobile comput­ing and virtual reality significantly has eroded the traditional boundaries between online and o.ine work. For example, telepresence systems have en­abled employees from diverse geographical loca­tions to attend the same meeting and participate actively, irrespective of physical or temporal con­straints (Schwarzmuler et al., 2018). The process of digital transformation is signifi­cantly compelling organizations to update the com­petencies of their employees regularly to sustain their success. In line with this trend, informal and proactive modes of work-related learning have gar­nered increased significance, because employees are required to take a proactive approach to man­aging their careers in contemporary times. Conse­quently, proactive skills development is defined as “the self-initiated, future- and change-oriented ac­quisition of knowledge and skills that individuals may need to master future job tasks” (Ostmeier, & Strobel, 2022). Based on empirical research conducted by Dachner et al. (2021), approximately 35% of em­ployee development hours occur in the absence of an instructor. Therefore, companies must identify the educational requirements of their employees and provide them with access to suitable educa­tional programs, and employee proactivity plays a crucial role in acquiring additional knowledge and skills. Employees are expected to take on greater re­sponsibility for developing their current competen­cies and acquiring new competencies to fulfill current job demands, assume leadership positions, and ensure their own employability. This employee-driven approach is linked directly to proactive em­ployee behavior, wherein employees create opportunities for growth and hold themselves ac­countable for their career progression, rather than waiting passively for opportunities to be presented to them (Dachner et al., 2021). Mikolajczyk (2021) reported on a research study conducted by The Association for Talent De­velopment in August 2020, which examined em­ployee development programs in distributed work settings. The results showed that 99% of the orga­nizations surveyed had implemented e-learning methods for their employees. Furthermore, all the participating organizations in the study planned to o.er e-learning programs as part of their human re­source development (HRD) initiatives in the next few years. Ostmeier and Strobel (2022) contended that proactive skills development is associated positively with distributed work design. In accordance with their findings, distributed work settings, as well as digital tools and programs implemented by organi­zations, provide employees with access to diverse information resources and skills development pro­grams. Thus, distributed work is perceived by em­ployees as an opportunity to augment their knowledge and engage in proactive skills develop­ment initiatives. Proposition 3: Distributed work settings are con­ducive to proactivity, and hence to employee de­velopment. 3Case Studies 3.1Employee Development Programs That Are Creating Digital Future Companies constantly are seeking appropriate programs to develop their employees’ skills and knowledge, and digitalization and technological progress have provided numerous opportunities for employees to improve their knowledge any­where and at any time. Digitalization has had a sig­nificant impact on employee development in all organizations, from micro companies to large cor­porations. Most educational activities in compa­nies now are carried out digitally, using ICT and various intermediaries. The share of classic educa­tional programs that occur “in the classroom” is significantly smaller; courses do not provide the flexibility for employees, and require a consider­able amount of time and money (Dachner et al., 2021). Dachner et al. (2021) introduced Noe’s classifi­cations of employee-driven development methods, namely formal courses and programs, assessment, professional relationships, and on-the-job-experi­ence. Each of these categories has a brief theoretical background that is presented in the following sub­sections, along with practical cases of large compa­nies that have implemented these methods. Although the category of professional relationships are not covered, we explore the theoretical founda­tions and real-world applications of the other three categories. 3.1.1Formal Courses and Programs Traditional “in the classroom” educational pro­grams are o.ered primarily by academic institu­tions; companies have turned to online platforms to provide their employees with formal educational courses. Such programs serve as autonomous de­velopment activities, helping employees to enhance their knowledge, skills, and capabilities. To this end, companies o.er access to massive open online courses (MOOCs) that cover a wide range of topics, including computer science, psychology, physiology, health policy, and similar subjects. These programs provide time and space flexibility while still main­taining high quality because they are developed in collaboration with academic institutions. Notable examples include the MOOCs o.ered by Georgia Tech, Udacity, and AT&T, which provide a Master’s degree in computer science. This was the first online Master of Science in Computer Science, and it has gained the attention of companies worldwide. On­line learning environments also include webinars, which are lectures, workshops, live seminars, and presentations delivered online. Webinars can be de­livered to a large number of participants spread out geographically, and o.er real-time question-and-an­swer sessions, discussion, and immediate feedback. There also is the possibility to record content for re­view or sharing with others (Dachner et al., 2021). In contemporary times, online courses increas­ingly have been adopted by major corporations for the professional development of their employees. Chipotle, an American restaurant chain, is an exam­ple of such investments made in employee devel­opment. Prior to their investment in employee development, Chipotle was grappling with the issue of high employee turnover rates. In 2018, the com­pany opted to allocate more than one-third of its anticipated savings from tax law changes toward the betterment of its workforce. Subsequently, in re­sponse to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chipotle made further improvements to its employee development plans by introducing over 5,500 remote courses, which focused on topics encompassing business, technology, and wellness. This initiative was imple­mented as part of a comprehensive strategy de­signed to promote a merit-based approach to career growth and development. The development program was accompanied by the formation of an employee resource group en­titled the United Network of Influencers Furthering Inclusion and Ethnic Diversity. The group was estab­lished to promote a workplace environment free of discrimination and inequality. Furthermore, the pro­gram featured several components, such as mentor­ship programs targeted toward minority employees, quarterly training sessions aimed at promoting workplace diversity and inclusion, and virtual roundtable events featuring distinguished speakers and panels. These components were designed to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and to enhance the quality of work-life for employ­ees (D’sa-Wilson, 2022). According to the Chief Diversity, Inclusion and People O.cer, Marissa Andrad, Chipotle’s e.orts were driven by the need to create a conducive en­vironment for their employees to connect and pur­sue their passions with like-minded co-workers, even in a virtual setting (D’sa-Wilson, 2022). Several companies have established their own online learning academies to address the challenges posed by the ever-evolving work environment. Urban Company, India’s most extensive home services mar­ketplace, is one such example. The company’s plat­form provides customers with the ability to book a diverse range of services, such as plumbing, appli­ance repair, beauty services, and personal training. With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, Urban Company was required to radically overhaul its oper­ations, a task that proved to be immensely challeng­ing for an organization with 1,300 o.ce-based employees. To address these challenges, Urban Com­pany turned to innovative solutions and creative workflows. As a result, the company’s marketing team was able to reduce creative production costs by a staggering 85% (Wilson, 2022). Urban Company’s ambitious approach ex­tended to its learning and development e.orts, be­cause the company recognized the importance of continuous employee skill development. In re­sponse, the company launched its own learning and development platform, the Urban Academy, which provides programs covering an array of topics, in­cluding Excel skills (basic, intermediate, and expert), leadership, feedback provision, problem-solving, and SQL. As interest in the platform grew among in­dividual teams and departments, Urban Company bolstered the program by hiring 25 new instructors. Additionally, the company augmented its internal knowledge with a regular series of 2-hour talks fea­turing influential leaders from various industries (D’sa-Wilson, 2022). 3.1.2Assessments Dachner et al. (2021) suggested that assessments can be e.ective for autonomous employee develop­ment, allowing individuals to upgrade their skills and identify opportunities for further development. Ac­credited institutions and professional societies o.er exams to assess candidates’ understanding, skills, knowledge, and capabilities, and those who meet the standards receive certification as proof of their exper­tise. Examples include the Human Resource Certifica­tion Institute (HRCI) for HR professionals, and the Chartered Financial Analyst certificate from the CFA Institute for financial professionals. Many companies have embraced an approach that enables their employees to acquire formal ed­ucation, certifications, or skills-development pro­grams to enhance their skills and knowledge. For example, Amazon has introduced the Amazon Ca­reer Choice program, which is available to associates who have been with the company for at least 90 days. Through this initiative, Amazon covers the costs of various educational programs, including bachelor’s or associate’s degrees, job training for in-demand fields, and certification for General Educa­tional Development (GED) or English as a Second Language (ESL). Similarly, Starbucks has developed the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, which as­sists employees in paying for college costs through scholarships and financial aid. Employees are re­quired to fill out federal student aid applications and accept financial aid from the school. Starbucks pays for the remaining tuition costs for a first-time bach­elor’s degree through Arizona State University’s on­line program (Marquit, 2022). The Walt Disney Company has established the Disney Aspire program, which enables full-time and part-time employees to enroll in bachelor’s or mas­ter’s degree programs. Employees must attend one of the partner schools, and Disney covers the costs of textbooks. In contrast, Chipotle Company o.ers its employees access to online classes from partner institutions and tuition reimbursement of up to $5,250 each year if they opt for a non-partner insti­tution. To qualify for the program, employees must have worked at least 15 hours/week for 4 months (Marquit, 2022). 3.1.3On-the-Job Experience One example of an employee-driven on-the-job experience approach is the job crafting strategy, which involves empowering employees to modify their work situation to achieve a better alignment of employee traits and job characteristics. This bot­tom-up approach to job design allows employees to shape their work experiences by altering the behav­ioral, relational, and cognitive boundaries of their jobs. Proponents of this employee development strategy highlight the significance of job design, and two primary designs are suggested: task emphasiz­ing, and job expanding. Task emphasizing entails employees changing the nature of a task or devoting more time and attention to it, whereas job expand­ing involves selecting new, unfamiliar tasks that often require the use of trial and error to complete (Dachner et al., 2021). These approaches include traditional on-the-job training methods such as job rotation, mentor­ing programs, co-worker training, internships, job shadowing, practice simulations, delegation, and coaching. To investigate how large companies im­plement on-the-job training in the context of digital and remote work design, with mentoring programs serving as interesting examples, this paper explores this topic further (Small, 2021; Dachner et al., 2021). Cooley, a global law firm operating across 18 of­fices in the US, Asia and Europe with more than 1,400 lawyers and more than 3,000 personnel, has implemented a virtual mentoring program known as the Cooley Academy Mentoring Program (CAMP). The program is aimed at improving the onboarding process for new employees through pairing them with experienced individuals, thereby facilitating more-e.cient assimilation into the company. The mentors in the program are responsible for teach­ing, training, and supporting new hires, preparing them for more-complex work. Cooley leverages re­porting tools to monitor the progress of mentoring relationships, and gathers feedback to enhance the e.ectiveness of the program (D’sa-Wilson, 2022). Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical com­pany with more than 100,000 employees, encoun­tered challenges related to connecting its employees with colleagues from di.erent regions and functional areas. To address this issue, the company launched a mentoring program with a focus on cross-functional and cross-country pairings. Mentee–mentor pairs were generated from Novartis’ talent marketplace based on relevant expertise. The program aims to provide associates with the opportunity to establish new networks, collaborate with colleagues they may not have had a chance to meet otherwise, and en­hance their skills and knowledge. The entire program, including communication, mentoring, and training, is delivered online via various communication channels and applications, leveraging ICT, smart technology, and digital channels. Currently, more than 460 asso­ciates have been paired with a mentor within Novar­tis, and 75% of these mentoring assignments involve cross-functional connections. The program also en­ables proactive employees to engage in mentoring on their own initiative (Schreiber-Shearer, 2023). Deloitte has developed a noteworthy virtual mentoring program known as D-180, which forms an integral part of the company’s community re­sponse e.orts to COVID-19. The program is aimed at university graduates who are in their first few years in the workforce, as well as high school and college students across the Middle East and Cyprus, and seeks to provide them with mentoring and ex­posure to real work environments through Deloitte volunteer professionals. The main objective of this initiative is to equip young talents with the skills and knowledge required in the new economy. Deloitte mentors are paired with mentees and o.er support through virtual meetings to aid their skills-building and employability journeys. Deloitte mentors pro­vide mentees with exposure to the world of work, assist them in setting and pursuing educational jour­neys or entering the job market, and serve as sound­ing boards to mentees. This initiative o.ers mutual benefits to both parties. Young talents are given the opportunity to be mentored by Deloitte profession­als and learn from their experiences, gain insight into work and employee development, be part of a journey of exploration of the world of work through a series of mutually beneficial virtual meetings, and be challenged to improve their professional and per­sonal skills. Deloitte has the opportunity to attract young, motivated talent and enhance their em­ployer brand (Deloitte, 2023). 3.2Most Important Personality Traits In the Digital Age The prevailing notion regarding 21st century skills suggests that students must attain proficiency in the STEM subjects—science, technology, engi­neering, and math—and acquire programming skills, given the high demand for these skills in the job market (Baran, Canbazoglu Bilici, Mesutoglu, & Ocak, 2019). However, this representation is a gross oversimplification of the knowledge and skills re­quired for students to thrive. Despite its origin as a company that initially assumed that only techno­logically proficient individuals could comprehend technology, Google has discovered that soft skills, rather than STEM skills, are paramount for success (Miles, 2022). In 2013, Google conducted a study named Pro­ject Oxygen, which scrutinized its employment, ter­mination, and promotion data since its establishment in 1998. The research determined that among the eight most essential attributes of Google’s high-performing employees, STEM profi­ciency ranked at the bottom (Miles, 2022). In con­trast, the seven leading indicators of success at Google were soft skills, which encompassed being an e.ective coach, being adept at communicating and attentive listening, exhibiting insight into others (including their varying values and perspectives), ex­pressing empathy toward and being supportive of colleagues, possessing strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and demonstrating the ability to create connections across intricate concepts (Strauss, 2017). The significance of soft skills in high-tech set­tings is underscored by Google’s recent investiga­tion, Project Aristotle. This inquiry examined information on innovative and productive teams, and revealed that the most exceptional teams at Google manifest a spectrum of soft skills, such as impartiality, munificence, inquisitiveness regarding the concepts of colleagues, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Furthermore, emotional safety was found to be the most crucial characteristic. To pros­per, every member of the team must feel self-as­sured to voice their opinion and make mistakes, while being confident that they are being heard (Duhigg, 2016). The findings align with the results of previous studies of the characteristics sought by employers in job candidates. A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a non-profit organization comprising both small busi­nesses and large corporations such as Chevron and IBM, revealed that communication skills were rated among the three most desired qualities by re­cruiters (Koncz & Gray, 2022). This highlights the sig­nificance of both interpersonal communication within the workplace and the ability to communi­cate e.ectively the company’s product and vision to external stakeholders. The digital age of the future likely will place a premium on certain personality traits that are well-suited to the demands and chal­lenges of the rapidly evolving technological land­scape (Jackson, & Ahuja, 2016). In light of the recent technological advance­ments and innovative research methods, it is ex­pected that the understanding of personality traits will continue to advance and grow in the future. This highlights the importance of staying up-to-date with current developments and advancements within the field, in order to e.ectively understand and ad­dress the changing needs and expectations of em­ployers (Montag & Elhai, 2019). Although STEM skills are fundamental in today’s world, technology alone is insu.cient. The inclusion of individuals ed­ucated in the human, cultural, and social aspects, as well as computational knowledge, also is crucial. Personality traits such as soft skills, as outlined in Project Oxygen and Project Aristotle, play a vital role in achieving long-term success and satisfaction in one’s career. By incorporating a passion for the arts, humanities, and social sciences, individuals can pre­pare themselves not only for the workforce but also for the world at large (Balcar, 2023). 3.3Encouraging Proactive Behavior In a Digital World Google places a significant emphasis on culti­vating a positive and fulfilling workplace environ­ment for its employees. The company believes that a happy and engaged workforce leads to improved results and outcomes. To achieve this, Google pro­vides its employees with a comprehensive suite of benefits and amenities, including access to gourmet organic cuisine, complimentary dental and health check-ups, subsidized massages, in-house nap pods, and more (Main, 2022). This ap­proach to employee happiness and well-being has proven to be a successful strategy for Google. As a leading company in its field, known for its compet­itive salaries and distinctive office spaces, Google’s commitment to the well-being of its employees has contributed to its prestigious reputation and overall success (Akram, n.d.). Research conducted by LinkedIn supports this perspective, finding that an excessive workload can contribute to burnout, but also can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction. In the study, 71% of em­ployees who reported having an excessive workload were content in their roles, whereas only 62% of those who reported having too little work were sat­isfied with their jobs. These data highlight the im­portance of finding the right balance between work and leisure in order to promote employee happi­ness and engagement (Main, 2022). Google’s strategy involves three key elements (Main, 2022): 1. giving employees more purpose by giving them more work, 2. getting employees involved in projects outside their direct duties, and 3. setting higher goals to help employees reach new heights. The company’s approach helps employees feel a sense of pride and satisfaction in their work, be­come more versatile, and build professional rela­tionships. It also enables employers to better understand their employees’ strengths and iden­tify those who are well-suited for a promotion (Main, 2022). Studies have shown that employees are more productive and creative in positive and encouraging environments. For example, Google allows its engi­neers to pursue passion projects during 20% of their working time, which results in increased motivation and creativity (Akram, n.d.). Google’s investment in its luxurious campus and workplace amenities also supports its employees’ well-being, leading to in­creased focus and collaboration, ultimately improv­ing the bottom line (Radford, 2018). However, creating a proactive culture does not require financial investment. A change in leadership messaging can lead to significant shifts in employee behavior. Leaders must communicate that em­ployee input is valued, and that the company is will­ing to pursue new ideas. In a proactive culture, negative feedback should be avoided in the event of failure; instead, setbacks and failures should be treated as opportunities for learning (Brunetto, Xerri, & Nelson, 2014). Encouraging brainstorming sessions and involv­ing leaders in open-door, cross-functional sessions significantly can enhance the performance of teams. The consistent, genuine, and reinforced cultural message must emphasize the importance of seeking new opportunities and improving processes. Em­ployees should be encouraged to ask questions and identify areas for improvement, with a focus on en­hancing customer and organizational satisfaction (Argyris, 1994). In conclusion, creating a proactive culture in the workplace requires a shift in leadership messag­ing, a focus on positivity, and a supportive environ­ment that fosters collaboration and innovation. By prioritizing employee well-being and encouraging continuous improvement, organizations can reap the benefits of a motivated and highly productive workforce (Papagiannidis & Marikyan, 2020). 4Integrative Conceptual Model After analyzing the theoretical framework and findings from the case studies, we formulated an integrative model that e.ectively connects our three key research concepts into a comprehensive and cohesive structure. Our integrative conceptual model provides a deeper understanding of the complex and varied interrelationships among the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and em­ployee development by presenting a more thor­ough and interconnected framework. Notably, our model acknowledges the impact of distributed work settings on these constructs and the conse­quent e.ects on employee development within a digital context. Consistent with our first proposition (Figure 1), our model vividly demonstrates the favorable asso­ciation between the Big Five personality traits and employee development. Shareki (2007) suggests that agreeableness and conscientiousness are the foremost personality traits required for successful employee development. Furthermore, a survey con­ducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that interpersonal communication was among the three most desirable qualities that contribute to successful employee development and high job performance (Koncz & Gray, 2022). Our conceptual model is designed specifically to focus on distributed work environments, in which proactivity is deemed to be a crucial personal characteristic for employees involved in develop­ment activities. Ostmeier and Strobel (2022) high­lighted the importance of informal and proactive forms of learning programs, which have gained sig­nificance in the wake of digital transformation and diverse work settings. Therefore, in line with our second proposition, proactivity serves as an addi­tional factor that contributes to the employee de­velopment process. To adapt to this trend, companies have modified their employee develop­ment programs accordingly (Ostmeier & Strobel, 2022). For example, the American restaurant chain Chipotle has introduced a variety of employee de­velopment programs that are accessible through online platforms, enabling employees to pursue their interests and engage in preferred programs in­dependently (Wilson, 2022). Consequently, proac­tivity represents an extended and developed dimension of personality traits, and forms the sec­ond integral part of our model. Employees with high levels of proactivity, in relation to the Big Five personality traits, demonstrate a greater inclination and willingness to participate in skills development courses implemented in distributed work settings (Ostmeier & Strobel, 2022). After the connection between the Big Five per­sonality traits and proactivity has been established, the final step in developing a model is to create ap­propriate employee development programs that are suitable for distributed work environments. Given the significance of employee proactivity in such pro­grams, employee-driven development programs prove to be a valuable approach that aligns directly with the proactive conduct of employees in a dis­tributed work setting. Specifically, employees ac­tively seek and create opportunities for personal and career growth, and the organization supports them by providing adequate resources to facilitate this process (Dachner et al., 2021). For example, Star­bucks covers the expenses of formal university edu­cational programs for employees who demonstrate self-initiative behavior by selecting and enrolling in such programs. Therefore, employee-driven devel­opment programs have emerged as the most desir­able type of employee development program in a distributed work environment (Dachner et al., 2021). In this way, we also highlight the third proposition in our model, which describes the positive relationship between distributed work settings and employee de­velopment practices. Our integrative model connects these three concepts by highlighting their interdependence and the importance of considering their impact in dis­tributed work settings within a digital context. The model proposes that specific Big Five personality traits (e.g., openness, agreeableness, and extraver­sion) are positively associated with proactive em­ployee behavior, which, in turn, is related to employee development initiatives. The model also highlights the importance of employee-driven de­velopment initiatives in distributed work environ­ments and the need for organizations to provide adequate resources to support such initiatives. In conclusion, our conceptual model provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the complex nature of employee development in dis­tributed work settings within a digital context. It highlights the importance of specific personality traits, proactivity, and employee-driven develop­ment initiatives, and their interdependence in pro­moting employee development. The model has practical implications for organizations looking to design e.ective employee development programs in distributed work environments, by identifying the key factors that contribute to successful initiatives (Semeijn, Van der Heijden, & De Beuckelaer, 2020; Dachner et al., 2021). 5Discussion 5.1Theoretical Contributions This study addresses several gaps in the literature on employee development, and makes significant contributions to the field. Adopting a mixed-methods approach that combines theoretical insights with practical examples from successful large-scale organi­zations, our study elucidates how various methods and approaches can enhance economic outcomes, augment employee satisfaction, and promote optimal organizational characteristics. Our investigation focuses on the interplay be­tween the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and employee development in distributed work settings. Prior research has established associations between two of these three constructs, specifically between Big Five personality traits and proactivity (Thomas, Whitman, & Viswesvaran, 2010), and between proactivity and employee development (Ghitulescu, 2018). Our study builds on this literature by exam­ining the relationship among all three constructs while also considering the impact of distributed work on employee development. Although we did not conduct empirical research, we provide practical examples from larger organizations that illustrate a positive relationship between these constructs. Semeijn et al.’s (2020) linear regression analysis investigated the impact of Big Five personality traits on job success, including participation in develop­ment activities, and found that these traits have positive implications for job performance, job satis­faction, and skills development. This study con­firmed previous claims about the association between Big Five personality traits and employee development (Semeijn et al., 2020). Moreover, the case studies presented in this paper support Semeijn et al.’s results. For example, Google’s Project Aristotle study revealed that the most productive teams exhibit a range of soft skills that can be attributed to the openness and extraver­sion dimensions of the Big Five classification (Duhigg, 2016). Similarly, a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers showed that most employers seek candidates with high levels of interpersonal communication and openness to interact e.ectively with external stake­holders (Koncz & Gray, 2022). The case studies sug­gest that individuals with high scores on traits such as openness, agreeableness, and extraversion are more likely to engage in proactivity and develop­ment activities, which is consistent with the man­agement practices of leading companies such as Google, Chipotle, Amazon, and Starbucks. 5.2Practical Implications In light of the prevalent utilization of distributed work settings, the cultivation of human capital has gained paramount significance for both employers and employees (Dachner et al., 2021). Given the ex­orbitant costs associated with the recruitment of fresh talent and the adverse outcomes of elevated turnover rates, the implementation of e.cacious employee development initiatives may furnish a substantial return on investment for any given orga­nization (Holton, 1996). Consequently, employee development programs can be regarded as a prag­matic mechanism that enables organizations to at­tain a competitive edge and maintain a highly advantageous position within the labor market (Dachner et al., 2021). In the initial phase, organizations may formu­late their recruitment strategies by taking into ac­count personality traits such as agreeableness and extraversion, which were identified by Kickhuk and Wiesner (1997) as crucial factors in the employee development process. For example, Google’s hiring approach incorporates soft skills such as emotional intelligence, curiosity, and critical thinking, in addi­tion to technical expertise, as supported by empiri­cal research (Strauss, 2017; Duhigg, 2016). After organizations have recruited individuals with favor­able personality traits, managers should foster proactive behavior within the organization and cre­ate an environment that supports such behavior (Lamovšek et al., 2022). To promote overall proac­tivity in telework, several essential factors must be prioritized and considered. Two of the most pivotal factors that can positively impact proactivity are in­ternal motivation and digital literacy, according to Siswanto, Wu, Widowati, and Wakid (2022). Internal motivation serves as a potent driving force for proactive behavior, and refers to the inclination to engage in proactive actions that arise intrinsically rather than externally. On the other hand, digital lit­eracy pertains to the ability to use technology e.ec­tively and e.ciently, which is increasingly crucial in the current digital era. Google endeavors to foster proactive behavior among its employees by assign­ing them more-meaningful work, involving them in projects beyond their immediate responsibilities, and setting ambitious goals to encourage them to attain new heights (Main, 2022). In the final phase, organizations may devise employee-driven development programs, which in­volve the proactive participation of employees in identifying their developmental needs, exploring growth opportunities, and managing their career progression. According to our third hypothesis, em­ployee-driven development techniques are particu­larly suitable for distributed work settings (Dachner et al., 2021). Hence, companies can introduce a broad array of employee-driven development meth­ods, such as massive open online courses, webinars, certifications, job expansion, and job crafting (Dachner et al., 2021). These methods already are in place at several prominent companies, such as the Urban Company’s online learning academy and Amazon’s scholarships and financial assistance to aid employees in acquiring a bachelor’s degree (D’sa-Wilson, 2022; Marquit, 2022). 5.3Limitations and Future Research Directions Although existing research has provided valu­able insights into the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and employee de­velopment, several limitations should be considered regarding the generalizability of these findings. Firstly, this study is based on theoretical work and practical examples provided by established compa­nies, and no empirical research was conducted to obtain data directly from organizations. This ap­proach may limit the ability to capture fully the nu­ances of how personality traits and proactivity impact employee development in various organiza­tional contexts. Secondly, although most previous studies sug­gest a positive relationship between the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and career success (Seibert, Kraimer, & Crant, 2001), many of those studies were primarily theoretical in nature. Future research should consider practical implications of these findings to ensure their generalizability in real-world economic environments. Lastly, this study drew on practical examples only from large international companies, which may not capture fully the experiences of smaller organi­zations or those with weaker organizational cul­tures. Therefore, caution should be exercised in generalizing these findings to other types of organi­zations. In summary, although the existing research provides valuable insights into the connection be­tween the Big Five personality traits and proactivity and their e.ect on employee development, these limitations suggest that further research is needed to understand fully the nuances of this relationship across a wider range of organizational contexts. To address the limitations of existing research, future studies could explore several directions. Firstly, conducting a longitudinal study with a diverse range of companies could provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and employee development. This study could include a larger sample of companies with varying characteristics such as size, revenues, and culture to ensure that the results are more broadly generalizable. Secondly, future research should prioritize practical applications and ensure that it extends beyond theoretical frameworks. By ex­amining practical applications, researchers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of how per­sonality traits and proactivity impact employee de­velopment in real-world contexts. In conclusion, future research could focus on the impact of interventions aimed at enhancing proactivity and employee development. Specifically, studies could investigate the e.ectiveness of train­ing programs or coaching interventions designed to promote employee proactivity and facilitate skill de­velopment. Such research could help identify e.ec­tive interventions that organizations can use to enhance employee development and proactivity. In summary, future research should prioritize practical applications, broaden the range of companies under study, and explore the e.ectiveness of interventions such as training programs or coaching interventions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the Big Five personality traits, proactivity, and employee development. 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Al­though a relatively small number of personality traits are studied to explain individual behavior, the most important traits include neuroticism, open­ factor model of personality traits, initially proposed by McCrae and Costa (1986), provides a basis for un­derstanding individual di.erences in personality. However, personality traits are subject to change over time as individuals develop and age, with traits becoming more stable during middle age and within specific work environments (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012). Judge et al. (2006) showed that the con­stancy of the Big Five personality traits varies in el­derly individuals, as does their impact on career advancement. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 53 Abstract Vol. 12, No. 1, 53-71 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a04 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 54 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 55 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 56 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 57 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 58 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 59 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 60 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 61 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 62 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 63 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 64 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 65 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 66 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development Figure 1: Integrative conceptual model with propositions Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 67 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 68 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Osebnostne lastnosti so kljucnega pomena za razumevanje posameznikovega vedenja, pet velikih osebnostnih lastnosti pa omogoca vpogled v pet temeljnih lastnosti, ki so podlaga za to vedenje. Boljše razumevanje posameznikovih velikih pet osebnostnih lastnosti lahko pomaga pri prepozna­vanju njihove povezave s proaktivnostjo, kar posledicno pozitivno vpliva na razvoj zaposlenih v pod­jetju. Doticni clanek raziskuje povezavo med petimi velikimi osebnostnimi lastnostmi in proaktivnostjo ter njihovo skupno povezavo na razvoj zaposlenih. Študija poudarja pomen porazdel­jenega dela in izpostavlja pozitivno povezavo med štirimi od petih velikih osebnostnih lastnosti (tj. odprtost, ekstravertnost, prijaznost in vestnost) in proaktivnostjo. Naše raziskave temeljijo na teo­reticnih konceptih in prakticnih analizah primerov vecjih podjetij, ki dokazujejo ugodno razmerje med petimi velikimi osebnostnimi lastnostmi, proaktivnostjo in razvojem zaposlenih. Ugotovitve študije poudarjajo pomen zagotavljanja ustreznih priložnosti za razvoj zaposlenih in poudarjajo poz­itiven vpliv porazdeljenega dela na spodbujanje razvoja zaposlenih. Rezultati študije so pomembni za raziskovalce, ki izvajajo nadaljnje raziskave na to temo, in priporocamo, da podjetja vložijo sredstva v zagotavljanje usposabljanja svoje delovne sile o proaktivnem vedenju, saj lahko le-to privede do izboljšane organizacijske uspešnosti in spodbuja individualni razvoj v podjetju. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 69 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Jure Andolšek, Armin Salkic: Embracing the Digital Age: The Impact of Proactivity and Big Five Personality Traits on Employee Development 70 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 71 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 72 THROUGH SELF-LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP TO SHARED LEADERSHIP: A PARADIGM FOR EFFECTIVE VIRTUAL TEAMWORKING Enja Topic School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia enja.top@gmail.com Melisa Cehic School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia melisa.cehic9@gmail.com Rok Belingar School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia rok.belingar@gmail.com Leadership and followership are key to firm performance, so it is important to understand them and find the optimal leader–follower interaction to be implemented in an organization. Understanding these concepts is important, because they help increase the company’s productivity and success in achieving its goals. This paper explores the connection among shared leadership, self-leadership, and followership, and argues that their practice is crucial for virtual teams’ success. The theoretical framework presented is supported by practical study cases of EY Slovenia, Haier, Soldev, and Hershey. The propositions, derived from the case studies, are related to two topics. The first proposition concerns how self-leadership is assumed by one who practices e.ective followership, and the second proposition concerns how shared leadership styles positively influence the building of trust and fostering of a sense of ownership of employees. With this theory, organizations can navigate the challenges of the modern workplace, and consequently improve their performance, productivity, and job satisfaction. Furthermore, we present a model that shows the influence of self-leadership on e.ective followership, and emphasizes the benefits of implementing shared leadership styles, especially in digital work, and we discuss the impact of self-leadership, self-awareness, and self-e.cacy on the implementation of shared leadership within an organization that operates virtually. Keywords: self-leadership, shared leadership, virtual teams, teamwork 1Introduction Leadership is about leveraging social influence to maximize the contributions of a team in order to achieve a common goal (Kruse, 2013). Alattari and Essa (2019, p. 408) stated that “Leadership has an important and e.ective role to play in achieving the goals. The leader is the captain of the ship who holds the reins of his hand; either he achieves his goals successfully or fails to do so and this eventually will empowerment that employees need in order to complete tasks successfully (Cahyadi, Marwa, Hágen,Siraj, Santati, Poór, & Szabó, 2022). Self-lead­ership was introduced in the organizational manage­ment literature by Manz (1983), who described it as a “comprehensive self-influence perspective that concerns leading oneself toward performance of naturally motivating tasks as well as managing one­self to do work that must be done but is not naturally motivating” (Manz, 1983, pp. 288-297). Three core components of self-leadership in vir­tual teamwork that we describe in this paper are self-awareness, empowerment, and self-e.cacy. On the other hand, shared leadership takes place when two or more team members participate in leading the team with the aim of influencing and guiding other members to achieve optimal team perfor­mance. (Rentsch, Small, Davenport, & Bergman, 2012). Four core components of shared leadership in virtual teamwork that we describe in this paper are distributed decision-making, collaborative prob­lem-solving, building trust, and fostering a sense of ownership. The phenomenon of digital transforma­tion has transcended the realm of technical depart­ments and now has become a priority for leaders across all industries, sectors, and regions. The cur­rent digital age represents only a starting point in the development of a world that is made possible by the rapid and extensive integration of technology in the workplace. The pace of the digital era is so swift that it is fundamentally altering the opera­tional frameworks of both private and public orga­nizations, demanding that they adopt new modes of thinking when designing their operating models (Mihai & Cretu, 2017). Therefore, the topic of lead­ership styles and followership is important because it can help organizations to create a more produc­tive work environment, improve leadership e.ec­tiveness, and achieve their goals, especially in the era of virtual teamwork, in which employees are dis­persed geographically (Malhotra, Majchrzak, & Rosen, 2007). The combinations of leadership and follower­ship in virtual teamwork are a relatively new area of research, especially after COVID-19, because the re­search has proliferated since that time, and as a re­sult there are many gaps in the literature on this topic. Leaders often are portrayed as the element that “makes or breaks” an organization. In contrast, a follower’s role is undervalued or neglected. Fol­lowers are treated as silent or passive participants, rather than assertive doers. That is why the leader­ship literature and research studies are leader-cen­tric, whereas followership has received scant attention, and remains on the periphery rather than at the core of leadership research (Essa & Alattari, 2019). In conclusion, the existing literature lacks the actual connection between leadership styles and ac­tive followership in digital work. To date, most of these concepts have been described individually (e.g., for self-leadership, see Manz, Stewart, & Cour­tright, 2011), and are not related to virtual team­work, whereas we investigated their optimal combination. In addition, the existing findings lack recommendations of good practice to implement these styles in a company, especially in virtual teams, in which not all employees are always at the same place. This combination of leadership and follower­ship styles is important theoretically because these leadership styles all take into account the complex­ities of modern organizations, and active follower­ship emphasizes the importance of followers. The combination also reflects current trends in the era of virtual teamwork, because it promotes collabo­ration, empowerment, self-awareness, building trust, etc. Studies of leadership have focused pri­marily on the leader, neglecting the significant con­tribution of followers to the leader’s e.ectiveness and the organization’s performance. However, re­cently there has been a growing recognition of the crucial role played by followers in both the leader’s capacity to lead and the organization’s overall func­tioning. (Marturano & Gosling, 2008; Novak, 2012). The relationship between a leader and their follow­ers is crucial for the success of both parties and to the achievement of the organization’s strategic ob­jectives (Carpenter, 2009; Gallagher, 2009; Hollan­der, 2008). We complement the research on each leadership style individually and advance it by con­necting self-leadership and shared leadership with active followership, which we find to be the optimal combination for digital work. We show the benefits of implementing shared leadership styles in an or­ganization in the era of digital work. We focus on the connections among empowerment, self-aware­ness, and self-e.cacy, and the successfulness of im­plementing them in one’s personal and professional life. Furthermore, we present a model that shows the connection between leadership styles and ac­tive followership. 2Theoretical Background 2.1Self-Leadership, Self-Awareness, Empowerment, and Self-E.cacy Self-leadership has been introduced as a dis­tinction among di.erent levels of self-influence, and which provides a perspective that goes beyond the discipline and self-management process. Neck and Manz (2010, p. 4) defined self-leadership as “the process of influencing oneself.” Manz (1986), who originally introduced the concept, described self-leadership as a person’s ability to deliver excellent performance in tasks which motivate them as well as tasks that are challenging because their charac­teristics are not aligned completely with the per­son’s purpose. Manz also stated that self-leadership is di.erent from classic self-control or self-manage­ment because it acknowledges behavioral, cogni­tive, and intrinsic motivation. The first supporting aspect we address is self-awareness, which contributes to the development of an individual because it allows a person to re­spond to their feelings and adjust their actions ac­cordingly. Hultman (2006) defined self-awareness as a person’s capacity to be aware of their limitations when it comes to challenges, while having a strong sense of their capability to maximize their personal skills, such as motivation, and the skills they have developed in their area of expertise. Robak, Ward, and Ostolaza (2005) stated that self-awareness is based on (self) observation, through which one can identify the quality of their abilities and recognize those of others. These attributes are a crucial com­ponent in successfully adopting the self-leadership approach in an organization. One who is able to reg­ulate their emotions and responses when facing a challenge or a conflict within the team delivers high-quality performance. For example, a person who puts the anxiety and fear of failing aside when pre­sented with a challenging task and manages to coax focus, determination, and best skills out of oneself undoubtedly will complete the task with excellent results. Being self-aware also means completing one’s tasks with integrity, inspiration, and respect for other team members, because self-aware peo­ple understand the emotional and behavioral im­pact on themselves and others. The second supporting aspect is empower­ment, which gives employees the independence to actually make decisions and commitments instead of only suggesting them (Forrester, 2000). It encour­ages people to become more involved in their envi­ronment and proactive in their work, which opens them up to new opportunities to develop skills and knowledge. As Carson and King (2005, p. 1,050) noted, “the root of empowerment is power and em­ployees must be given the ability to exercise that power.” Carson and King (2005) also noted that em­powerment is the basis for self-leadership to pro­duce positive outcomes in organizations. Because empowerment encourages a display of indepen­dence in one’s work, lets one perform well in team­work environments, and gives one a sense of ownership of their position within the organization, it is one of key factors that co-create one’s ability to self-lead. It is the organization’s responsibility to en­courage empowerment among their employees, not only to attain excellent financial results, achieved through maximized productivity, but also to create a well-informed and functional environment that is based on the community rather than on individuals. The third supporting aspect is self-e.cacy, which refers to an individual’s perception of his or her capacity to perform a specific task. Bandura (1986) is credited with recognizing the importance of self-e.cacy in human agency. He clarified that “self-e.cacy is an important variable in cognitive self-regulation (goal-setting, feedback, etc.).” Theo­retically and empirically, self-e.cacy has been shown to have wide-ranging implications for orga­nizational behavior. Gist and Gist (2013) noted that self-e.cacy has been proven to have a positive in­fluence on cognitive self-regulation, especially on leadership and decision-making, and also con­tributes to predicting di.erential behaviors in di.er­ent job situations, such as stress and strain, commitment, adaptability to change, en­trepreneurial behavior, and socialization. Self-e.­cacy is critical to self-leadership because it enables individuals to pursue new challenges and goals with persistence and determination. The external stimu­lation a company would have to provide in order to achieve the same results therefore is significantly reduced. Therefore, we propose Proposition 1: Self-leadership is a prerequisite for e.ective followership, and is supported by em­powerment, self -awareness, and self-e.cacy. 2.2Shared Leadership as a Theoretical Concept “Shared approaches to leadership question indi­vidual level perspective, arguing that it focuses exces­sively on top leaders and says little about informal leadership or larger situational facts. In contrast, shared leadership o.ers a concept of leadership prac­tice as a group-level phenomenon.” (Pearce & Conger, 2003, p. 22). Shared leadership theory argues against the traditional top-down approaches and hierarchical structures within an organization, and leans heavily toward a more decentralized approach, that is “dis­tributed and interdependent” (Pearce & Conger, 2003). As a concept, it assumes that individuals within a team or organization possess unique skills, knowl­edge, and expertise that can be leveraged to achieve the collective goals of the organization. Shared lead­ership is conceptualized as a set of practices that can and should be enacted by people at all levels, rather than a set of personal characteristics and attributes enacted by people at the top. McIntosh (1989) de­scribed the individual achievement as being the tip of the iceberg, with collaborative networks creating con­ditions and supporting and facilitating it from be­neath. Shared leadership concepts recognize that teamwork and group leadership practices truly are the enablers of one’s individual success. Another shift from the traditional leadership ap­proaches lies in embedment in social interaction. Lave & Wenger (1991, p. 23) stated that the “shared leadership is portrayed as a dynamic, multidirec­tional, collective activity that, like other human ac­tion and cognitive sense-making, is embedded in the context in which it occurs.” Again, it contradicts the generally accepted top-down approach, with its strict hierarchical nature of a leader–follower rela­tionship. The followers are recognized for their role in influencing the leader, and not only the other way around. The implementation of the concept of shared leadership implies certain characteristics of the followers, whose role is changed from a passive to an active one, for which reason they can be de­scribed as e.ective followers. They are characterized by a sense of personal responsibility for achieving the defined goals and sharing the organizational mis­sion (Pearce & Conger, 2003). They take initiative for activities ensuring the improvement of their own po­tential while trying to recognize and meet the needs of the organization along with the leader. In addition, they are characterized by the ability to express their views clearly and freely and stand up to the leader, if by doing so they can prevent actions that could un­dermine the integrity or the goals of the organization (Pearce & Conger, 2003). Shared leadership also includes a continuous process of identifying leadership potential among employees and encouraging them to develop these resources, and it is related to the particular quality and characteristics of the social processes in which leadership occurs. Isaac (1999) described the oc­currence of collective learning as a safe container of this approach, as well as less likelihood of low fluctuation of information and knowledge within the organization. Scharmer and Käufer (2002, p. 24) noted that collective learning occurs when individuals are able to move through di.erent talking stages, the “talking nice” stage being the first and most shallow, rule repeating phase where people do not cross the line of expected, “reflective dia­logue”, where people begin to speak their minds, engage in conversation actively and de­fend their perspectives openly, to the “genera­tive dialogue” which occurs when the group losses its individual level focus and truly co-cre­ates ideas. People are open to being influenced by others perspectives and ideologies. The shift toward collective learning is particu­larly significant because it highlights the need to ex­pand the individual level skills and characteristics that are related to learning (such as self-awareness) in order to include more group level–focused rela­tional practices and skills such as authenticity, open­ness, vulnerability, and the ability to anticipate the responses and needs of others, yet not being afraid to fail (Fletcher, 1994, 1999). We expand the context of shared leadership by incorporating characteristics of the servant leader­ship style, because it is considered to be one of the ideal styles in terms of human factors. In this leader­ship style, the leader identifies first as a servant and second as a leader (Parolini, 2009). In the context of virtual teamwork, in which isolation and exclusion due to there being little to no physical involvement among the team members, and they may even be separated geographically, being managed by some­one who adopts the servant leadership style signifi­cantly reduces the possibilities of asynchronicities in communication and team relationships. Such leaders model behaviors that make their followers feel safe to fail, which results in a high level of trust between the leader and their subordinates (Zanouz et al., 2022). Especially in virtual teams, in which questions usually are put in writing and people tend to be care­ful what they ask because of the risk of failure or em­barrassment, having one’s subordinates feel safe enough to turn to them reduces information frag­mentation, and consequently weak economic and fi­nancial results. Therefore, we propose Proposition 2: The shared leadership style, which can be manifested through servant lead­ership, is positively related to building trust and fostering a sense of ownership of employees by distributing decision-making, and boosts collab­orative problem-solving. 3Case Studies 3.1Self-Leadership through Self-Awareness and Self-E.cacy at an Audit Firm in Slovenia To discuss the importance of self-leadership, we introduce a weekly skills-development workshop, the Audit Hub Weekly Workshop, as an example of good practice suggested by an audit intern at EY Slovenia that was implemented for all assistants and interns in Audit Hub by the management. It is a specific local dissemination of knowledge, in addition to the exten­sive formal curriculum, which contains in-person and web-based learning. The workshop is held online so that remote workers are able to participate and over­come frequent Excel and audit-related challenges to­gether. The intern who suggested the workshop showed their ability to recognize an area in which the entire team of assistants and interns lacked experi­ence and knowledge, and the management listened to them and developed a solution that benefited ev­eryone. This indicates a community in which people are rewarded for self-leading, and the management is open to being influenced by their subordinates (In­ternal Source, 2023). 3.2Shared Leadership at Haier and Solodev The example at Heier, described by Hamel and Zanini (2018), involves seeking a compromise be­tween a rigid hierarchical structure and agile shared leadership, because poorly performing leaders are vulnerable to a hostile takeover. If leadership in­creases people’s authority without increasing their compensation, the additional responsibility may well be seen as a burden. Conversely, if leadership grants people stock without increasing their authority, they still will feel like minions. The Haier company opera­tional model, Rendanheyi, is built on microenter­prises (MEs) acting as smaller autonomous units within a larger company structure. According to Fis­cher (2013), microenterprises were assembled in the fourth organizational restructuring of Haier, which took place between 2005 and 2012. The implemen­tation introduced three powers within a microenter­prise: the power of decision-making, the power of hiring and firing, and the power of profit distribution. When a new market demand is created, so is a mi­croenterprise that will specialize in the supply, e.g., the creation of the microenterprise that produces and sells three-door refrigerators. The operational and tactical leadership within each unit is voted on by employees each year, whereas the visionary leadership is directed by upper management. Anyone employed by Haier can apply to work in any microenterprise and to become its leader. Therefore microenterprises are expected to be self-managing, and their freedoms are formally enshrined in three rights. Firstly, an organization de­cides on opportunities that need to be pursued, sets its priorities, and facilitates internal and external partnerships with a strategy. Based on that, they evaluate their human resources and increase the set, and align individual roles and working relationships. Lastly is the distribution of pay rates and bonuses. (Hamel & Zanini, 2018). Haier has managed to build a competitive internal labor market, in which mutual selection of heads and employees takes place dy­namically (Li, 2017). Its employees not only serve as subordinates, but serve customers on behalf of the company, and are able to decide for themselves the areas in which they are experts. The possibility of ap­plying to any microenterprise within the company enables employees to be linked directly to a business opportunity of their personal choice. By creating value for the customer, they also create value for themselves, through compensation (Li, 2017). Additionally, Haier expanded the meaning of each employee by implementing a principle that en­courages everyone to apply for a leadership role. That makes an employee an e.ective follower in their team, actively preparing to step into the shoes of a leader at any time. Li (2017, p. 164), refers to an important concept which is crucial for this type of enterprise management: “orders with high value attract competent employees, competent employ­ees complete orders with high value.” Hamel and Zanini (2018) noted that the afore­mentioned steps come with great responsibility. Tar­gets are customized for every member of a microenterprise and are specified by periods: quar­terly, monthly, and weekly. Compensation is coupled tightly with business performance. The base salaries are low, and opportunities for additional compensa­tion are tied to three performance thresholds. Ac­cording to Li (2017), compensation is directly related to customer reviews, and has little to do with assess­ments by superiors as in the traditional salary system. With so much at stake, it is hardly surprising that microenterprises team members have little toler­ance for incompetent leaders. If a microenterprise fails to hit its baseline targets 3 months in a row, a leadership change is triggered automatically. If the microenterprise is meeting its baseline targets but failing to reach its value-adjusted mechanism (VAM) targets, a two-thirds vote of the microenterprise’s members can oust the existing leader. As stated pre­viously, poorly performing leaders are vulnerable to a hostile takeover. Anyone at Haier who believes that he or she could better manage a struggling ME can make a pitch to its team. Performance data for all MEs is transparent across the company, so it is easy to spot takeover opportunities. If an interloper’s plan is convincing, a leadership change ensues. This may seem extreme, but it is simply an analogue for the market approach to corporate control. If a company consistently underperforms, its board will simply eject the CEO—or the business may be bought by a competitor who believes it can manage the assets more e.ectively (Hamel & Zanini, 2018). Haier adamantly follows the concept from the I Ching which refers to dragons flying without a leader. In the organizational context, this means working together to do everything in the team’s power. Assisting each other in need and co-devel­oping prominent solutions creates an environment in which there is no need for a leader (Li, 2017). In support of the preceding statement, we incor­porated another no-CEO case study. Solodev decided to hire a CEO, but the company culture did not re­spond well to this. Instead, the responsibilities and de­cisions of the CEO were transferred to an Executive Committee of experts from di.erent departments. The decision-making processes were distributed among them according to their roles in navigating the direction of the company. In the case of paralysis in decision-making, the founders intervene to reduce the confusion by assessing a more centralized opinion. Solodev works on the principle that the goal of an ex­ecutive is supposed to be building a company that can run without them. This is why it is crucial for leaders to empower their teams to make these decisions, in­stead of relying solely on the leader (Valamis, 2023). 3.3Embracing the Role of a Servant Leader: Hershey Case Study This section presents the benefits of adopting a servant leadership style through a practical case. McCollum (2022) explained his personal trans­formation from a budget owner to an influencer in his position at Hershey by being mentored by leaders with a servant leadership style. He explained that the driving force behind the servant leadership must ex­tend beyond the knowledge in one’s area of expertise and must include components such as behaviors and attitude, and strategies and actions, because the ser­vant leadership approach strongly advocates for achieving authority through communication and ser­vice to one another, rather than solely through lucra­tive titles and accreditations. It is the organization’s responsibility to adopt the “greater good” concept, which means that the environment must encourage this type of leadership style. McCollum (2022) stated that because the stake­holders’ interest is to genuinely serve their subordi­nates, it is easy for them to align their own goals with those of their stakeholder and become personally in­vested in the company’s success. Alignment is crucial for achieving the planned financial and interpersonal results. Encouraging genuine interest of the employees in the collective investments of the company conse­quently makes them an extension of the stakeholders’ teams. They will be considered at early stages of every process, such as (re)negotiations of contracts, solving of disruptions, and communicating e.ciently with agencies. Such actions create conditions in which stakeholders do not need to be present at all times, because mutual trust is at its peak. Because everyone is empowered to do their best, there is very little need for an actual CEO. McCollum (2022) stated that an­other benefit of this establishment is allowing employ­ees to be less fearful to come forward regarding compensation and how success is measured. That is achieved through the servant leader positioning them­selves a facilitator and enabler. They pave the way for their subordinates and overcome obstacles with them. Modeling this type of behavior boosts trust among the team members, and it is an excellent approach to em­powerment. Servant leader is able to embrace failure as an inevitable e.ect of a less strict hierarchical ap­proach. By encouraging employees to take on chal­lenges that will fulfill their professional and personal purposes, they serve their own and the company’s greater good. Obviously, the financial targets must be met, but the idea of servant leadership is to accomplish them through active role-modeling (Steelcase, 2018). 4Integrative Conceptual Model Based on the theoretical research, we propose an integrative conceptual model (Figure 1) that shows the optimal combination of leadership–fol­lowership styles in digital work for the optimal team and company performance. The model displays the first proposition (P1) by connecting empowerment, self-awareness, and self-e.cacy in the context of adopting or improving self-leadership among employees. These concepts promote having the ability to self-observe and regu­late one’s behavior and emotions accordingly, as well as modeling confidence and trust in one’s skills in one’s area of expertise, and expressing one’s perspec­tives powerfully and on one’s own initiative (Lee et al., 2018, Manz, 2015). Self-leadership is an essential skill for anyone working in virtual teamwork, because it in­volves being proactive, taking initiative, and seeking feedback to improve one’s performance continuously. By empowering individuals, fostering self-awareness, and building self-e.cacy, organizations can create a culture of self-leadership that encourages individuals to take ownership of their work, stay motivated, and achieve their goals (Tastan, 2013). This helps individuals to stay productive, moti­vated, and adaptable, and enables them to succeed in an increasingly competitive and rapidly evolving virtual team working. For example, according to Li (2017), Haier’s employees not only serve subordinates, but exist to serve customers on behalf of the company, while deciding themselves upon the areas in which they hold expertise, because they work in an environ­ment that encourages the three concepts of self-lead­ership, self-awareness, and empowerment. In the role of a follower, such an approach makes a person e.ec­tive. E.ective followership is an essential component of virtual teamwork and virtual collaboration (Carsten et al. 2021), because active followers work collabora­tively with the leader and other team members to achieve shared goals, and they take initiative in con­tributing their ideas, feedback, and suggestions to the group. In the case of reduced physical involvement, as in a highly virtual team, such an approach is necessary for high productivity and excellent financial teamwork. Haier encourages e.ective followership by implement­ing the principle that everyone can apply for a leader­ship role. They establish new microenterprises every time there is an increase in demand for certain goods and services, and anyone at Haier can apply to lead these microenterprises (Li, 2017). The shared leadership approach, supported by active followership, can help promote collaboration, communication, and trust in a virtual teamwork en­vironment. By working together and leveraging each other’s strengths, teams can be more e.ective and achieve better outcomes. Exemplary active follow­ership is an essential component of e.ective team­work and collaboration. It enables individuals to contribute their best work and promotes a positive and productive team culture that is essential for achieving shared goals. Therefore, to make shared leadership in virtual teamwork as e.ective as pos­sible, it is essential to foster an environment in which active followership is encouraged and valued. For shared leadership, which is a collaborative ap­proach in which leadership is distributed among team members, rather than being the sole respon­sibility of one person (Lave & Wenger, 1991), e.ec­tive followership is a crucial component, because it means mutual collaboration among team members, especially in highly virtual teams, which in turn im­proves the organizational climate and builds rela­tionships and trust among colleagues. Shared leadership allows the expertise to be distributed across the team, because each employee has di.er­ent knowledge and skills that can be integrated into successful decision-making. Shared leadership is a collaborative approach in which leadership is distributed among team members, rather than being the sole responsibility of one person (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which is cru­cial in the digital era. It encourages mutual collabo­ration among team members, who often are geographically dispersed, which in turn improves the organizational climate and builds relationships and trust among colleagues. Shared leadership al­lows the expertise to be distributed across the team, because each employee has di.erent knowl­edge and skills that can be integrated into successful decision-making. Moreover, the model acknowl­edges servant leadership as an optimal reciprocal relationship with the active followership style; by encouraging employees to take on challenges that will fulfill their professional and personal purposes, they serve their and the company’s greater good. The idea is to accomplish this through active role-modeling (McCollum, 2022). Although the servant leader identifies as a servant first, it is important to acknowledge that their increased responsibility sets them apart from their followers. In our framework, the model is consistent with the second proposition (P2), because in order to distribute the decision-making and constant collaborative problem-solving, it is essential to build trust and foster a sense of ownership among the team members. Shared lead­ership directly contributes to the aspects of remote work. Collaborative problem-solving encourages collaboration of smaller groups in the particular de­partment and promotes the sharing of ideas and in­formation, helping to ensure that team members can work together to identify, address, and over­come challenges (Collier, 2016). It can be particularly challenging to build and maintain trust in a virtual teamwork environment, because there are fewer opportunities to form a re­lationship. However, trust is an essential component in any team environment, because it increases the team’s and the organizations’ performance (Ferrin, Bligh, & Kohles, 2008). Distributed decision-making in virtual team­work is helping to distribute decision-making au­thority more evenly and ensuring that decisions are made with input from multiple perspectives (Malone, 2014). Fostering a sense of ownership encourages team members to take ownership of their work and to contribute their ideas and exper­tise to the team’s goals, helping to ensure that ev­eryone feels invested equally in the team’s success (Pierce et al., 2001). When team members are working remotely, it can be challenging not only to maintain a sense of ownership and accountability for their work, but also to see their work present in the “bigger picture.” 5Discussion 5.1Theoretical Contributions This paper shows the benefits of implementing shared leadership styles in an organization, but fore­most in an era of virtual teamwork. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of possessing a sense of self-leadership, self-awareness, and self-e.cacy in order to co-create an empowered and innovative environment. Shared leadership distributes the powers of decision-making and responsibilities among more people within an organization than does the traditional approach, so it is important that as many people as possible possess these attributes. The research in this paper is focused on the connections among empowerment, self-awareness, and self-e.cacy, and how successful a person is in implementing a self-leadership approach in their life, which directly influences their ability to become an e.ective or active follower within their organiza­tion. By that, we mean a person’s capacity to be aware of their limitations when it comes to chal­lenges, while having a strong sense of their capabil­ity to maximize their personal skills, such as motivation, as well as the skills they developed in their area of expertise (Hultman, 2006; Bandura, 1986). It is important for one’s personal life and pro­fessional life. Consciously creating room for im­provement is crucial for developing new skills and knowledge, as well as symbiotic coexistence within an organization. It also is significant to have a solid belief system about one’s own capabilities in order to take on new challenges. Although the case study coherently presents the importance and impact of adopting the fact that a person is in the role of a follower, those attributes make them an e.ective follower who contributes to the organization by fulfilling their own goals and de­sires, while also preparing for the role of leader be­cause the environment empowers them to express their perspective to their peers. As per McCollum (2022), who transformed from an active follower of his servant leader to a servant leader himself, the most important thing is to include one’s heart in every aspect of one’s work. Despite a coherent display of the importance and impact of adopting a self-leader­ship approach and how it transforms a person into an e.ective follower, and subsequently into a leader, the case study excluded the context of remote or hybrid working, in which it is especially important to be aware of the impact that these attributes have on the quality of work life as well as the functioning of an or­ganization, because people are not present in their of­fices every day. This research proves that it is very important to be proactive and engage in activities that result in stronger relationships in the work commu­nity. It complements the existing theoretical implica­tions by giving fresh insight into the impact of these three individual concepts—self-awareness, self-e.­cacy, and empowerment—on self-leadership in the context of modernizing workplaces by working re­motely or in hybrid mode. Existing theoretical findings stress the impor­tance of being open to adopting di.erent ap­proaches and constructive behavior when facing challenges, while also being confident in overcom­ing them with one’s abilities and skills. By incorpo­rating another variable, virtual teamwork, we attach even greater importance to self-leadership, lack of physical involvement within a team could mean iso­lation and dissociation from its common purpose. Collaborative problem-solving then would decline, as would productivity and financial results. With the implementation of shared leadership styles, for example, the servant leadership style, it is much easier for the people involved to obtain a sense of control over their work and narrative. Be­cause the servant leader is devoted to their team and to serving its purpose, they set an example for their subordinates. This means empowering them to find their true purpose within an organization and helping them to fulfill it. When people are lis­tened to and supported to achieve their personal goals within the work goals, productivity rapidly in­creases, which is directly beneficial to the organiza­tion itself. According to Valamis (2023), “the goal as an executive is to build a company that can run without them. This is why it is crucial to empower your teams to make these decisions instead of rely­ing solely on you.” Our research complements Valamis (2022) by presenting how to lead a team to work in unison and achieve great results. For virtual teamwork, these concepts take on new, greater importance, because the modern ways of working mean signif­icant changes in ways that work teams function. Some virtual employees are very fond of not hav­ing to commute to the office every day and inter­act in person with co-workers and management. If not applied properly, leadership styles can cause asynchronous dynamics within teams that work virtually. Some employees may find that they are doing their job routinely, with no passion for it, because they have little to no contact with other members, no career conversations with their su­periors, and therefore no development in their area of expertise. That can cause lower productiv­ity and weak economic and financial results. By in­troducing shared leadership styles that include collaborative problem-solving and distribution of responsibilities within a team, employees start fostering a sense of ownership, which contributes to building trust among team members. Although they may not see each other in person every day, their work is organized to maintain contact with one another. If everyone is very well informed about others’ tasks and responsibilities, the re­sponse to a challenge or a problem is much stronger. Therefore, there is less need for an exec­utive in the shared leadership approaches. 5.2Practical Implications 5.2.1Recommendations for Managers and Sta. about Self-Leadership and Supporting Attributes Self-leadership has great significance because it enables individuals to achieve their professional objectives and be e.ective leaders to their follow­ers. The most important self-leadership skills that managers and employees should develop are self-awareness, motivation, decision making, dedica­tion, self-regulation, and accountability (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022). Having a high level of self-awareness in man­agement is critical for achieving success. Insu.cient self-awareness can result in poor decision-making, di.cult relationships with co-workers, and feelings of incompetence. Recognizing one’s strengths and weaknesses can lead to the development of im­provement strategies in a more e.ective way (Sharma, 2022). Self-awareness in managers can be built by measuring strengths and weaknesses, set­ting boundaries, knowing one’s emotional triggers, considering how one’s actions a.ect others, and, most importantly, asking for feedback from employ­ees (Peek, 2023). However, it is crucial that not only managers are self-aware—followers also must be self-aware. The development of self-awareness in employees is a crucial step in improving how they handle their behavior and relationships with others (Heumann, 2018). Self-awareness in employees can be built with self-reflection, asking for feedback from managers, assessments, and skills develop­ment (Arruda, 2023). Self-awareness is important because self-leaders need to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Motivation is crucial be­cause if managers and employees are highly moti­vated, they can cope better with challenges. Build­ing self-regulation skills is important because it helps employees and managers cope with chal­lenges instead of reacting to them. A successful self-leader is accountable for his actions and takes the blame if he or she is responsible for a mistake. Empowerment is significant because it leads to employees feeling empowered, resulting in in­creased engagement, higher work effort, and greater loyalty toward their employer. The author­ity granted to them often results in quicker, supe­rior, and more-efficient outcomes (De Smet, Hewes, & Weis, 2020). To empower employees, it is essential for leaders to establish transparent ex­pectations, provide the necessary resources, offer constructive feedback, welcome input and ideas, effectively communicate the organization’s vision, and recognize and appreciate the hard work of em­ployees. Establishing transparent expectations is important because it enables employees to make decisions while ensuring that the decisions align with the organization’s objectives. Leaders should be specific when they offer constructive feedback, because it provides an opportunity to help employ­ees understand the impact of their actions on a person or project, whether positive or negative. Leaders should encourage the participation of fol­lowers in decision-making and goal-setting, be­cause it exposes the organization to innovative ideas and a new perspective. In addition, effec­tively communicating the organization’s vision to employees helps them understand how each team member’s efforts contribute to achieving that vi­sion. When employees feel appreciated for their hard work, they are inspired to be more innova­tive, proactive, and resourceful in problem-solving (Bosworth, 2022). Individuals with high self-efficacy tend to put forth the necessary effort to attain a desired goal, which increases the chance of achieving it. Having high self-efficacy in leadership can impact one’s own performance as a leader and the perfor­mance of the group one leads. (Spoelma, 2018). Employees and managers can build self-efficacy by celebrating success, observing others, seeking positive affirmations, and paying attention to oth­ers’ thoughts and emotions. It is important to cel­ebrate success, because accomplishing something creates a strong sense of confidence in one’s abil­ities. Witnessing others making an effort and suc­ceeding also can boost one’s confidence in one’s own potential to succeed. Positive social feedback can enhance one’s sense of efficacy, whereas neg­ative comments can significantly weaken it (Cherry, 2023). 5.2.2Application of Shared Leadership Concept to the Organizational Structure in the Context of Virtual Teams According to Valamis (2022), there are steps that must be followed in order to implement the shared leadership concept successfully in the or­ganizational structure. Firstly, a safe working envi­ronment is crucial to shared leadership. This means that employees feel safe to propose their own ideas and perspectives that help to transform and grow the businesses, meaning they “feel safe to fail.” In order to create such an environment, employees should interact with one another on a personal level, e.g., learning their kids’ or pets’ names. Still, expectations must be set, especially for virtual teamwork, because direct team man­agement is more difficult due to less physical pres­ence. Pearce and Sims (2002) noted that when the team has a common grasp of a vision, they facili­tate goals that are associated with improved per­formance. Because highly virtual positions incorporate more individuality than do full-time of­fice or hybrid positions, it is important for a team to have a ritual. Bell and Kozwloski (2002) propose creating routines and habits in the early stages of a team lifecycle, because they contribute to the es­tablishment of healthy expectations and reduce any individualistic behavior that potentially could be harmful. Hambley (2007) noted that it this es­pecially applicable in the context of shared leader­ship, because the responsibilities and tasks are distributed within a group, and therefore all the team members must maintain a standard in the performance of their work. Secondly, encouraging transparency is a funda­mental concept that needs to be implemented in order for shared leadership to function within an organization. Therefore, it is crucial to hire people who respect transparency. Valamis (2022) high­lighted that having employees who value trans­parency is essential for meeting company standards. The organization itself also must be transparent with its performance and rewards re­lated to performance, because these are crucial for employees to understand precisely their role in the process and how they can maximize their contribu­tion to shared goals. It is very important to provide avenues for communication, such as Slack or Mi­crosoft Teams. Thirdly, a clear structure must be created. Morgeson (2002) suggested three main parts to the structuring of the leadership: methodology of ac­complishing a task, clarification of roles within a team. and time frame. Valamis (2022) noted that in practice, this could be a back-end hub, in which em­ployees co-create and use a decision and/or respon­sibility map. Hamel and Zanini (2018) noted that it is essen­tial to reward employees according to their accom­plishments. This ensures fairness, which leads to better performance and employee engagement. To reward employees, one option is to implement a social recognition system, in which employees enter their observations of their own work and that of other members of the team. Rewards then are distributed according to the votes. Keeping the re­ward system transparent and clear is vital (Valamis, 2022). More importantly, every employee must re­ceive feedback. Morgeson (2009) suggested that a certain degree of informal internal leadership must be applied by communicating feedback and task-re­lated results to employees, ensuring greater indi­vidual commitment to the team as well as identification with its purpose. In practice, there should be balance in methods of providing feed­back. Milestones always must be communicated in a detailed and comprehensive way, whereas smaller-scale tasks can be communicated infor­mally and contemporaneously. 5.3Limitations and Future Research Directions Although this paper presents many new find­ings regarding how shared leadership influences teams in the era of hybrid work and the connection to personal attributes leaders must possess in order to function well within such teams, certain limitations must be considered regarding these findings. Firstly, the research in this paper was not based on empirical work of our own, but on theo­retical work and real-life cases of implementation of such practices. Furthermore, the cases were provided by multinational companies, which have an above average amount of resources at their dis­posal to allocate for many different purposes. Therefore, we could not conclude through this re­search that applying shared leadership styles would have been as successful in small and medium-sized enterprises. Secondly, the cases provided are not an empir­ical study. The information was gathered through (self) observing by the authors of the studies in the workplaces of their choosing, and they listed the positive e.ects they experienced or noticed in an environment in which shared leadership styles were applied, by mentors or through the functioning of teams (McCollum 2022; Hamel & Zanini, 2018). Therefore, an empirical analysis must be conducted in the future in order to better understand the un­derlying factors of success in work teams that func­tion under shared leadership styles. Among the personality traits of the followers and their manage­ment, financial compensation must be included as a variable in order to measure the impact of self-leadership that is rooted solely in the ability to self-observe and be influenced by others who have adopted similar characteristics. 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International Journal of Digital Content Management, 3(4), 165-186. a.ect the entire crew.” Leadership and followership are accountable for the breakthroughs or break­downs in organizations. This paper focuses on ex­ploring the concepts of shared leadership and self-leadership, and the impact they have on follow­ership. Leadership styles for small and medium-sized enterprises, that now are making an appearance in the era of virtual teamwork, are based on service from leaders to their employees, active engagement between leaders and employees, and the necessary Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 73 Abstract Vol. 12, No. 1, 73-86 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a05 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 74 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 75 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 76 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 77 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 78 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 79 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 80 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 81 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking 82 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 83 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking 84 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 85 EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Vodenje in sledilstvo sta kljucnega pomena za uspešnost podjetja, zato ju je pomembno razumeti in poiskati optimalno interakcijo med vodjo in sledilcem, ki jo je treba izvajati v organizaciji. Razumevanje teh konceptov je kljucno, saj pomagajo povecati produktivnost podjetja in uspeh pri doseganju njegovih ciljev. Ta clanek raziskuje povezavo med deljenim vodenjem, vodenjem samega sebe in sledenjem ter trdi, da je njihova praksa kljucnega pomena za uspeh virtualnih skupin. Pred­stavljeni teoreticni okvir je podprt s prakticnimi študijskimi primeri; EY Slovenija, Haier & Soldev in The Hershey Study. Predlogi za nadaljnje raziskovanje, ki izhajajo iz študij primerov, se nanašajo na dve temi. Prvi predlog govori o tem, kako samo-vodenje prevzame tisti, ki prakticira ucinkovito spremljanje, drugi pa o tem, kako deljeni stil vodenja pozitivno vpliva na izgradnjo zaupanja in spod­bujanje obcutka lastništva zaposlenih. S to teorijo lahko organizacije krmarijo z izzivi sodobnega de­lovnega mesta in posledicno izboljšajo svojo uspešnost, produktivnost in zadovoljstvo pri delu. V nadaljevanju predstavljamo model, ki prikazuje vpliv samo-vodenja na ucinkovito spremljanje, poudarjamo pa tudi prednosti implementacije deljenega vodenja, zlasti v kontekstu digitalnega dela, ter razpravljamo o vplivu samo-vodenja, samozavedanja in samoucinkovitosti, pri implementaciji in izvajanju deljenega vodenja znotraj organizacije, ki deluje virtualno. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Enja Topic, Melisa Cehic, Rok Belingar: Through Self-Leadership and Followership to Shared Leadership: A Paradigm for E.ective Virtual Teamworking 86 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 87 sponsibility toward their stakeholders (Aguilera & Jackson, 2003; Amaeshi et al., 2016; Matten & Moon, 2008; Scott, 1995). 1INTRODUCTION EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR HYBRIDIZATION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Erik Pelters Andrássy Universität Budapest, Hungary erik.pelters@andrassyuni.hu Studies have stated that the corporate social re­sponsibility (CSR) practices enacted by companiesThis study presents empirical evidence of the hybridization of the content of codes of conduct in the US and EU. It links the conceptual frameworks of neo-institutional theory and hybridization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) with current research on codes of conduct. Set within the international context of codes of conduct from the US and the EU, the study adopts a qualitative content analysis using MAXQDA software. Research subjects are the codes of conduct of two multinational companies (MNCs) from the pharmaceutical industry: Bayer AG (EU), and Pfizer (US). The findings show that explicitization within the EU context leads to a strong content alignment between codes of conduct from MNCs of the US and the EU. The contents of the codes in both contexts are aimed mainly at complying with legal re­quirements. However, codes within the US context still predominantly use explicit CSR, and demonstrate obligations to external stakeholders. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to find empirical evidence of hybridization of CSR by examining the content of codes of conduct. Future research should expand the sample both cross-sectionally and within the pharmaceutical industry to expand the transferability of the results further. Keywords: code of conduct, explicit CSR, explicitization, hybridization, implicit CSR, implicitization, institutional pressures Although several studies have identified the role of institutional pressures on CSR (Aguilera & Jackson, 2003; Amaeshi et al., 2016; Gjølberg, 2009; Matten & Moon, 2008), there is a lack of empirical evidence about how the hybridization of CSR is un­derstood, practiced, and evaluated across national contexts, and how this understanding changes over time (Fifka 2013; Matten & Moon, 2020). Therefore there is a need not only to identify institutional fac­tors, but also to measure empirically the extent of their influence upon MNCs’ CSR practices (Matten & Moon, 2020). In addition, empirical CSR literature rarely has acknowledged the multilevel social na­ture of MNCs. Because the concept of CSR assumes that MNCs have commitments to several diverse stakeholders, it is a dynamic and socially deter­mined construct (Scott, 2008). Multilevel analysis implies that in addition to institutional pressures, the specificities of MNCs’ responses to them also in­fluence the adoption of CSR (Dós & Pattarin, 2021). Because MNCs are multilevel social systems (Hed­berg et al., 1976; Kesler & Kates, 2015), the e.ec­tiveness of CSR practices is not determined solely by their composition or normative validity, but also by actual compliance of the people who are ad­dressed by these CSR practices (Kleinfeld & Müller-Störr, 2010). Therefore, it is of particular interest to gain empirical insight into the way in which MNCs transfer the institutional pressures exerted on them to various internal and external stakeholders within their CSR practices. As a major part of CSR practices, codes of con­duct, with their high degree of dissemination and mostly public accessibility, o.er a suitable tool to close this research gap on hybridization. The first in­sights were given by Carson et al. (2015), who con­firmed an increased number of code publications by companies from an implicit context. Sharbatoghlie et al. (2013) found indications of a content align­ment between codes of conduct from the US-based Fortune 100 companies and Global 100 companies. However, no empirical study has examined if, and to what extent, a hybridization of CSR practices of MNCs is taking place with regard to the content of codes of conduct in the US and EU contexts. By cap­turing the topics addressed within the codes of con­duct, the urgency with which they are pursued, and the coding of relationships of obligation, this paper presents empirical evidence for the assumed hy­bridization. This study is based on the following re­search questions: RQ1: Which institutional pressures a.ect the codes of conduct of MNCs in the US and in the EU context? RQ2: To what extent do codes of conduct of MNCs in the EU context mimic the content of codes of conduct of MNCs in the US context? The paper is divided into six sections. After the Introduction (Section 1), Section 2 provides the the­oretical framework of hybridization of CSR and codes of conduct. Section 3 introduces the method­ical approach and operationalization of the codes’ content analysis. Results are presented and dis­cussed in Section 4. The limitations and implications are presented in Section 5, and the paper ends with a conclusion (Section 6). 2HYBRIDIZATION OF CSR IN THE US AND EUROPE USING CODES OF CONDUCT AS AN EXAMPLE CSR practices can be seen as a company’s ex­pression of responsibility to align economic goals with social and ecological needs (for an overview, see Pelters, 2021, pp. 75–76). Matten and Moon (2008) distinguished between two approaches to CSR: an implicit CSR approach, and an explicit CSR approach. Implicit CSR practices are mainly a reaction to expectations of a company’s role embedded “in the formal and informal institutions that represent the interests and concerns of society” (Matten & Moon, 2008, p. 409), and therefore they are neither com­pany-specific nor voluntary (Brown et al. 2018). Drawing from neo-institutional theory, those expec­tations can be regulative (pressures exerted by na­tional law obligations), normative (pressures placed by international standards and business associa­tions) or cultural-cognitive (pressures engendered by national culture) (Hahn & Kühnen, 2013; Miska et al., 2018; Scott, 1995; Smith et al., 2011). In Eu­rope, CSR is practiced much less frequently, because many of the corporate social responsibilities are de­fined and prescribed by law (Barth & Wol., 2009). Explicit CSR practices “normally consist of vol­untary programs and strategies by corporations that combine social and business value and address is­sues perceived as being part of the social responsi­bility of the company” (Matten & Moon, 2008, p. 409). The key di.erence from implicit CSR is that the type, scope, and direction of any explicit CSR prac­tices are at the discretion of the company, because these practices are beyond any institutionalized re­quirements of the wider business system (Brown et al., 2018; Matten & Moon, 2008; Porter & Kramer, 2006). The usually explicitly communicated CSR practices can be either implemented proactively and self-directed, or initiated in response to pres­sure from stakeholders (Yan, 2020). In the course of globalization, MNCs increas­ingly are faced with the challenge that their CSR practices need to serve equally both regulatory (im­plicit CSR) and market-driven expectations (explicit CSR) of di.erent national contexts (Yan, 2020). This causes a blurring of the boundaries between im­plicit and explicit CSR, which is called hybridization (Matten & Moon, 2020). Hybridization “is an ongo­ing process by which either norms and rules associ­ated with implicit CSR are adopted in explicit CSR policies” (explicitization), or “by which norms and rules of business responsibility with an explicit CSR nature are built into general obligation of business” (implicitization) (Matten & Moon, 2020, p. 7). Specifically, explicitization is the process by which norms and rules originally associated with im­plicit CSR are transformed into explicit CSR policies, practices, and strategies (Matten & Moon, 2020). This means that companies actively communicate those responsibilities that they have already pur­sued due to embedded and binding policies of the wider business system. Incentives and characteris­tics of the explicitization process are influenced by the perceived expectations of core stakeholders, so­ciety and governmental and non-governmental reg­ulators (for a summary of explicitization, see Matten & Moon, 2020: 20). The reasons for explicitization can be explained by “coercive isomorphism” (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p. 150) and “mimetic processes” (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, p. 151). In the case of coercive isomorphism, the structures of other companies are adopted compulsorily due to the pressure to meet existing expectations of vari­ous stakeholders. For example, the increasing visi­bility of corporate actions in the world through ac­tivities of (social) media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or other civil society activists sheds light on corporate responsibility and exposes corporate misconduct. Therefore, society exerts normative pressure on companies to make their CSR practices more transparent. In addition, govern­ments frequently impose new legal framework con­ditions that need to be met (e.g., reporting obligations). With mimetic processes, MNCs volun­tarily decide to imitate organizational structures if these are judged to be successful. In most cases, this involves copying another company’s best practice activities. Implicitization is the process of normalizing CSR practices in various business areas by embedding explicit CSR practices in binding guidelines for com­panies (Matten & Moon, 2020). In many of these cases, state and non-state regulators simply take up existing corporate trends and impose a binding framework on them. This establishes a new consen­sus on what is expected of CSR practices by all groups in society, including companies. Examples of implicitization are non-financial reporting (e.g., sus­tainability reports), the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles, or the supply chain law in Germany. (For a summary of implicitization see Matten & Moon, 2020, p. 20.) A code of conduct is one of the most widely adopted tools to communicate and enhance CSR (Singh, 2011; Wheldon & Webley, 2013). The glob­alization of markets and the need for core principles that are universally applicable are evidence of its growing importance (Kaptein, 2015). A code of con­duct is a “distinct and formal document containing a set of prescriptions developed by and for a com­pany to guide present and future behavior on mul­tiple issues of at least its managers and employees towards one another, the company, external stake­holders and/or society in general” (Kaptein & Schwartz, 2008, p. 113). In other words, it is a tool to implement standards of behavior that are ex­pected of the MNCs external stakeholders (e.g., sup­pliers, business partners). Every code of conduct therefore contains relationships of obligation of and to internal and external stakeholders, which can be either unilateral or mutual. The reasons that MNCs adopt a code of con­duct vary from the need to react to regulatory and normative expectations (implicit CSR), to avoiding financial or reputational damage or achieving finan­cial or reputational gains, to the voluntary expres­sion of the MNCs commitment in enhancing ethical behavior (explicit CSR) (Bondy et al., 2004). As a cen­tral part of CSR practices, codes of conduct are sub­ject to adjustment pressures. Consequently, codes of conduct no longer are limited to one of the afore­mentioned reasons, but try to cover the whole spec­trum of extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors. Therefore, more-recent definitions identify codes of conduct as the MNCs’ standards of behavior that display “the types of ethical and legal issues employ­ees are likely to face in their organization” (Treviño et al., 2014, p. 638). Formulated more normatively, the aim of a code is to govern “the actions and con­duct of employees through the promotion of ethical business practices, thereby avoiding legal conse­quences” (Erwin, 2011, p. 536). Drawing on the framework of implicit and ex­plicit CSR, codes of conduct are a special case when comparing the US context with the German context. The peculiarity resides in the fact that, even though the United States is a LME with rather explicit CSR, publishing a code of conduct underlies much more regulative pressure than in the German context. Section 406 of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) requires a code of conduct for top financial and accounting officers of publicly traded companies, and instructs the Securities and Ex­change Commission to issue rules requiring a pub­lic company to disclose whether it has a code (and if they do not, the reason why they do not). An­other requirement to adapt and publish a code of conduct applies to listed companies at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) (Sec. 303A.10 Listed Company Manual). Not a requirement, but rather an incentive to publish a code of conduct, is the possibility introduced by the United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines to reduce penalties if a company can demonstrate an effective ethics compliance program at the time of a violation (McKendall et al., 2002). Such formal and informal incentives of the institutional framework led to a massive distribution of codes of conduct (Weber & Wasieleski, 2013). Beyond their impact on distribution, SOX and NYSE impact the codes’ composition. Whereas SOX largely leaves the content of the code of conduct to the discretion of the individual company, the ex­planations of the NYSE coding rule give topic-struc­tured recommendations. This includes conflicts of interest; handling of business opportunities; pro­tection of data privacy; appropriate behavior to­ward customers, suppliers, competitors, and employees; dealing with company property; com­plying with legal and regulatory requirements; and reporting examples of suspected wrongdoing (Sec. 303A.10 Listed Company Manual). The strong ori­entation toward these suggested topics is reflected in the current literature (for an overview, see Babri et al. 2021, pp. 80–82). Weber and Wasieleski’s (2013) survey of ethics and compliance o.cers of 60 US companies shows that some topics are al­most universally covered within the codes of con­duct: confidential information, conflicts of interest, discrimination or sexual harassment, corruption, antitrust compliance (all of which appear in 59 of 60 codes) and the use of organizational assets (58 of 60 codes). With that come observed isomorphic similarities with regard to the content alignment of US companies. In a content analysis of codes of conduct of a cross-section of 75 US companies, Holder-Webb and Cohen (2012) identified a conver­gence of content across companies, independent of the industry. This concerns both the legal-based statements given by SOX and NYSE, but also value-based statements, such as promoting ethical be­havior and integrity (Forster et al., 2009). Although Germany has a coordinated market economy, there is no legal obligation to have a code of conduct. As a private set of rules—so-called “soft law”—the German Corporate Gover­nance Code (DCGK) is neither mandatory nor discretionary. Strictly speaking, the code is in a no man’s land between legislation and voluntary ini­tiative, because “soft law” is a term that is a con­tradiction in terms. The DCGK contains best-practice recommendations that are recog­nized nationally and internationally as standards of good and responsible corporate governance. The thematic focus is on the reproduction of ex­isting legal regulations for the management and supervision of German companies listed on the stock exchange, conflicts of interest, and trans­parency and external reporting. According to Sec­tion 161 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG), the Management Board and Supervisory Board of a listed company must submit an annual declaration regarding the extent to which they comply with the DCGK (and if they do not, why). This declaration must be permanently accessible to the shareholders and all other interested par­ties. This usually happens through publication on a company’s website. Together with the public availability, the annual declaration puts normative pressure on German MNCs to follow the DCGK’s recommendations. The websites of the current DAX 30 companies show that all of them, without exception, have published such a declaration. The associated orientation toward the proposed topics suggests an alignment of the code content of Ger­man MNCs with a focus on the reproduction of legal requirements. Because MNCs increasingly are subject to sim­ilar normative (e.g., the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles, and the OECD Guidelines for Multina­tional Enterprises) and regulative pressures (e.g., NYSE’s requirement to publish a code of conduct also applies to foreign companies listed there) by the wider business system, it is reasonable to as­sume that the US and EU codes of conduct are sub­ject to hybridization. Sharbatoghlie et al. (2013) identified a convergence of codes’ content between US codes (U.S.-based Fortune 100 companies) and the Global 100 companies (including German com­panies) across time. However, their results were based on a data-mining content analysis to deter­mine the frequency of key ethical words contained in the codes. There is a lack of in-depth research that not only captures the topics that are covered within the code of conduct, but also examines the forcefulness with which each topic is pursued, and how this may or may not di.er across national con­texts. In addition, the study examines which and to what extent internal and external stakeholders are directly a.ected by the codes’ content. Therefore, the following chapter introduces the methodology and operationalization of such an ap­proach to find evidence for the hybridization of codes’ content between corporations in the US and EU contexts. 3METHODOLOGY AND OPERATIONALIZATION The first step in finding empirical evidence for hybridization was to compare current codes of the German DAX 30 companies with a collected data set of DAX 30 companies’ codes from 2005–2006. Con­sidering the changes in codes of conduct from Ger­man DAX 30 companies over time provides conclusions about the extent to which the expliciti­zation of CSR practices in national contexts that have traditionally implicit CSR shown in the literature also applies to codes of conduct. Current versions of a code of conduct, if available, usually can be found on a company’s website. Accordingly, the homepages of all DAX 30 companies were examined. In addition, di.erent combinations of “code of conduct + com­pany’s name” were inserted in the Google search en­gine to find results.1 This method does not apply for earlier versions of a code. Even though the most re­cent code of conduct is publicly available on a com­pany’s homepage, former versions of these codes usually are not available and vanish with each up­date. Some may say that this is a simple strategy com­panies use to prevent the setting of time stamps, which can be used to determine when a company has changed or added content. Fortunately, the chair of Business Administration (Corporate Management, Organization and Corporate Social Responsibility) at Andrássy University Budapest o.ered access to every code of conduct of the DAX 30 companies that was available during the years 2005–2006. The second step of the investigation diverged from the isolated consideration of only one national context, and involved a comprehensive content analysis of the codes of conduct of two comparable MNCs in the EU and the US contexts. In doing so, the theoretically proclaimed alignment between CSR practices in both contexts was examined empir­ically. The review was based on the codes of two MNCs that have a significant impact on the lives of people across the world: Bayer AG (Germany), and Pfizer Inc. (US). Hardly any other industry has been as much in focus since the beginning of the coron­avirus pandemic as the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, with the development and worldwide distribution of the Pfizer–BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer Inc. has a special responsibility to people. Therefore it is of particular interest to inves­tigate how the American corporation expresses this responsibility within its code of conduct. This also applies to the German counterpart Bayer AG. Not only the up-to-dateness but also similar character­istics of both MNCs o.er a solid basis for compari­son between Pfizer Inc. and Bayer AG. This also applies to their codes of conduct. Since 2001, Bayer AG has been listed on the NYSE, and therefore is subject to its requirement to publish a code of con­duct. Beyond the mere publication, Bayer AG faces the challenge of serving formal and informal expec­tations of stakeholders from both national contexts (Germany and the US). Therefore, both codes o.er an excellent basis for comparison. The content of codes of conduct in each context was examined in a qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2000) using the encoding software MAXQDA. The analysis criteria were derived from the guidelines for coding corporate ethical codes (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming). They are a fur­ther development of Talaulicar’s (2006) considera­tions, and o.er a multilevel approach to analyze codes with regard to the binding nature of a norm, the form in which a norm is implemented, the topics and the forcefulness with which each topic is cov­ered, and the explicitly articulated relationships of obligation of and to stakeholders (Trautnitz & Pel­ters, forthcoming). Although the guidelines include more analysis criteria, only those that were relevant to answering the research question are introduced here. Additionally, each criteria is accompanied by a short explanation of how it was coded. 3.1Binding nature of a norm As mentioned previously, a code of conduct is a set of guidelines. These guidelines contain norms that determine standards of behavior (Talaulicar, 2006; Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, p. 6). The stronger a norm is, the stronger is the associated call for action. This also applies to any prohibitions of ac­tions. Talaulicar distinguished between two forms of norms: rules, and principles: “Rules contain defini­tive commands that either can be followed com­pletely or not at all.” (“All-or-nothing-character”) (Talaulicar, 2006, p. 301). A gradual fulfillment of rules is not possible. Principles provide for a binding observance of the action formulated in the norm, but leave the addressee of the norm scope for action (“More-or-less-character”) (Talaulicar 2006, p. 305A gradual fulfillment of principles is possible. However, codes of conduct do not contain only explicit and binding calls for action or prohibitions. Therefore, sentences that relate to moral aspects and contain an implicit call for action from the code addressee’s point of view are determined to be weak norms (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, p. 9). If there is no call for action at all within a sentence, it is simply in­formation (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, p. 7). How it was coded: Information must never be coded as a norm. A norm can be a rule, a principle, or a weak norm. A double assignment (e.g., as a rule and as a principle) is impos­sible. For this study, each (half) sentence was coded as either a norms or as information (see Table 2). 3.2Preference-based (persuasion) and sanction-based (negative sanction) implementation The implementation of the code norms can be promoted following two di.erent strategies: prefer­ence-based or sanction-based implementation. In the preference-based implementation, it is assumed that the preferences of the code addressee are not given (Talaulicar, 2006, pp. 401–402). Thus, the norm addressee should be convinced as much as possible of the necessity and appropriateness of the norm to support its compliance (Trautnitz & Pelters, forth­coming, p. 10). An important instrument for this is persuasion. Persuasion is a convincing argument that consciously underpins the meaningfulness of com­pliance with the norm (Talaulicar, 2006, p. 411). The sanctions-based implementation assumes that the preferences of the code addressee are given. There­fore, the action situation of the code addressees should be changed through restrictions in such a way that they decide to behave in accordance with the code, despite their own, possibly conflicting, prefer­ences (Talaulicar, 2006, p. 459). Restriction-related measures, in the narrower sense, are the imposition and enforcement of negative sanctions, which are understood as a disadvantage imposed on a norm-breaker because of a norm violation (Talaulicar 2006, p. 471, Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, p. 11). How it was coded: Usually, persuasion and negative sanctions do not ap­pear in every (half-)sentence, and were coded only if there was a corresponding content in the code. Sometimes companies do not include them at all. 3.3Topics An important classification criterion within the framework of this study was the allocation of the coded information, norms, persuasions, or negative sanctions to one of the topics listed in Table 3. The topics were taken from the guidelines for coding codes of business ethics (Trautnitz & Pelters, forth­coming, pp. 14–16). The selection reflects the find­ings of the current literature on codes of conduct (for an overview, see Babri et al. 2021). To trace hybrid CSR trends in US and EU codes, the coded topics were analyzed in terms of their re­lationship with implicit (mandatory) CSR and explicit (voluntary) CSR. Because these “two di.erent types of CSR represent two di.erent systems that nor­mally sit on the two ends of the spectrum” (Yan 2020, p. 269), a standardized classification of every given topic as either implicit CSR or explicit CSR is not possible. Although some are quite obvious at the implicit-CSR end (Topic 3, “Compliance with law”) or the explicit-CSR end of the spectrum (Topic 11, “Interpersonality and Integrity”), most of the others are located somewhere between both types, depending on how the specific topic is presented within the code. How it was coded: All coded rules, principles, weak norms, informa­tion, persuasions, or negative sanctions were as­signed to the topics mentioned in Table 3. Every coded norm or information was combined with at least one topic. If a (half-)sentence could be as­signed to several topics, all relevant topics were coded separately. If one of the given topics did not fit the content, the coded (half-)sentence was as­signed to Topic 12, “Other topics,” 3.4Forcefulness Forcefulness is a newly introduced research cri­terion that has not yet been tested empirically (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, p. 16). Holder-Webb and Cohen (2012) complained that a lack of normative charging within codes of conduct of dif­ferent companies give the impression that a code is more of a rational symbolic response in the wake of institutional isomorphic pressure, and less a gen­uine declaration of intent by the company. As a con­sequence, a code of conduct remains ine.ective if the topics raised are not addressed vigorously. In this study, the forcefulness with which the topics are treated was represented by the number of coded rules, persuasions, and negative sanctions (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, p. 16). The more coded rules there are, the stronger is the normative charge of a topic; the more coded persuasions there are, the more value a company places on convincing its code addressees of the importance of the topic; and the more coded negative sanctions there are, the more non-compliance is being penalized. How it was coded: All coded rules, persuasions, and negative sanctions within each topic were added separately (to make a statement about the composition of forcefulness) and together (to make a statement about the overall number of coded forcefulness). 3.5Relationships of obligation A code is aimed at various internal and external stakeholders who sometimes are addressed directly. With this direct approach, either the addressees can be obliged to do something, or the people responsible for the code (usually the company’s top management) make a commitment to the code addressee (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming, pp. 16–18). As a rule, the main internal stakeholders that are addressed within a code of conduct are employees. There is more leeway when determining the external stakeholders. Fre­quently represented external stakeholders are, e.g., customers, suppliers, or business partners, but can be any other stakeholder that a.ects or may be a.ected by the company’s actions. In coding relationships of obligation, it was possible to record which stakehold­ers are addressed and how often, whether the top management shifts most of the responsibility onto the shoulders of employees, or whether it supports em­ployees in implementing the guidelines. How it was coded: A relationship of obligation—either “obligation of…” or “obligation to…”—was coded whenever a stake­holder was mentioned explicitly. 4FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The results are presented in two subsections. The first subsection presents the findings of the comparison of the codes of conduct of the DAX 30 companies over time to determine evidence for any explicitization of CSR in the EU context. The second subsection presents the results of the content anal­ysis of two codes of conduct of comparable US and EU companies to examine hybrid trends in an inter­national context. The data set from 2005–2006 indicates that, during this time, only about half of the DAX 30 com­panies had published a code of conduct, with an overall length of 175 pages and an average of 11.67 pages per code. In contrast, the data set from Jan­uary 2021 collected in the course of this study re­vealed that 100% of the DAX 30 companies had a code of conduct that was publicly available on the company websites, with an overall length of 772 pages and an average 25.73 pages per code. Although the composition of the DAX 30 com­panies has changed over time, two developments can be identified clearly. Firstly, companies that did not have a code of conduct in 2005–2006, have now published one, although there is no legal obligation to do so. Second, the scope of codes that existed in 2005–2006 has increased significantly.2 Both devel­opments are strong indications that support the theoretically proclaimed explicitization of implicit CSR through codes of the EU context. To illustrate hybrid trends and differences be­tween codes in an international context, the cod­ing results of the codes’ contents of comparable companies in the EU (Bayer AG) and US context (Pfizer Inc.) first are presented in Table 5, and then interpreted. A total of 1,441 codes were assigned in the MAXQDA coding program. Bayer AG accounted for 708 codes, and Pfizer Inc. accounted for 733 codes. At 0.95, both corporations had the same, high norm level. Together with the relatively high number of codes concerning “Compliance with code”—half of which are accompanied by rules, persuasions, or negative sanctions—Bayer AG and Pfizer Inc. seem to be generally committed to the implementation of their codes. This means that both codes are not mere information brochures at their core, but aim to influence the behavior of the code addressees (Kaptein, 2011). However, the data reveal di.erent approaches by the corporations. On the one hand, with 61 coded rules, Bayer AG puts a strong focus on “all-or-nothing” guide­lines for action that must be followed. On the other hand, 67 coded weak norms show that a similar number of codes contain only implicit calls for action, so that the code addressees can decide whether they feel obliged to implement it. There­fore, with regard to guidelines for action, Bayer AG equally serves both ends of a normative contin­uum. An analysis of the topics and the forceful­ness with which these topics are treated in the code reveals which topics are really important to Bayer AG. The top five thematic priorities of Bayer AG in descending order are (1) “Compliance with law” (49 codes); (2) “Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection” (29 codes); (3) “Protection of free and fair competition” (27 codes); (4) “Code compliance” (20 codes); and (5) “Avoidance of conflicts of inter­est” (19 codes). However, sorting the topics accord­ing to the forcefulness with which they are treated (Table 9), the ranking is (1) “Compliance with law” (30 codes); (2). “Protection of free and fair compe­tition” (18 codes); (3) “Avoidance of conflicts of in­terest” (12 codes); (4) “Prohibition of corruption” (10 codes); and (5) “Code compliance” (9 codes). The comparison discloses that “Compliance with law” is by far the topic that Bayer AG not only mentions the most often (49 codes), but also pur­sues the most emphatically (30 codes). Of the 30 codes concerning forcefulness, 21 are rules, five are persuasions, and four are negative sanctions. All four coded sanctions within Bayer AG’s code of con­duct concern at least the topic “Compliance with law.” The range of these sanctions, from fines, to termination of employment, to imprisonment, con­firms how important it is for Bayer AG that their em­ployees comply with legal requirements. The strong reliance on legal obligations also is reflected in other topics. This includes “Protection of free and fair competition” (18 codes concerning forcefulness) and “Avoidance of conflicts of interest” (12 codes concerning forcefulness). “Protection of free and fair competition” is influenced by a strong link to legal compliance at the EU and national lev­els. At the EU level, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (AEUV) provides mandatory competition rules for all member states. In addition, the EU regulation is supplemented at the national level in Germany by the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). If necessary, the EU competi­tion law can influence and override the German GWB definitions. The mandatory nature of compe­tition law provides an understandable reason why Bayer AG pursues this issue with such urgency. The topic “Avoidance of conflicts of interest” has many points of reference. External content drivers are the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK) and the NYSE template (Holder-Webb & Cohen, 2012). In addi­tion, a company has a major self-interest in ensuring that the interests of the code addressees and the in­terests of the company do not diverge. This is to avert financial or reputational damage as well as legal liability (Weber & Wasieleski, 2013). There is a fine line between conflicts of interests and corrup­tion. When an individual puts their own interests ahead of the company’s interests, they also are more likely to accept unfair advantages. Therefore, it is not surprising that the topic “Prohibition of cor­ruption” has 10 codes according to forcefulness (all rules), with a total of only 16 assigned codes. Although “Sustainability, safety, and environ­mental protection” is the second most frequently mentioned topic, only five of the 29 codes can be assigned to the forcefulness criterion, and even those codes refer to compliance with legal environ­mental protection requirements. The following ex­cerpt from the code of conduct underscores this: “We further observe all laws … regarding the gen­eration, use, storage and disposal of waste, emis­sions, hazardous chemicals and other materials.” (Bayer, 2021, p. 8). In fact, the majority of codes are weak norms. Another excerpt from the code illus­trates the lack of cohesiveness that accompanies it (Bayer, 2021: 8): Our actions, operating practices and prod­ucts should not damage the environment in which we operate. To uphold this commitment, we work hard to reduce the environmental im­pact of our products and operations, use natural resources responsibly, improve our resource and energy e.ciency, and develop new technolo­gies, optimized processes and innovative prod­ucts that serve to protect or even benefit the environment, nature and the climate. Although this statement suggests a wide range of responsibilities, it is not binding for the individual addressee, and o.ers no measurable criteria. There­fore, the implementation remains vague. Bayer AG’s code of conduct, it seems, is committed only to what the law prescribes in terms of “Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection.” Bayer AG’s code of conduct has little relation to the topic “Interpersonality and integrity,” with only nine thematic mentions. A special feature of this topic is its forcefulness. Integrity can arise only from an intrinsic motivation (Paine, 1994). Persuasion is important here, especially in the form of persuasive arguments that convince the addressee of the meaningfulness of acting with integrity. Extrinsic motivational factors such as rules and especially negative sanctions harbor the risk of contrary be­havior. Hence, with three coded persuasions, no coded rule, and no coded negative sanction, Bayer AG shows a first right but modest approach to pro­mote integrity-based behavior. With regard to the relationships of obligation, there is a slight preponderance of obligations of em­ployees (18 codes) versus obligations to employees (12 codes). Whereas there are only five single codes regarding the obligation of external stakeholders (two codes on business partners, two codes on third parties, and one code on suppliers3), there are 35 codes concerning obligations to external stakehold­ers, which are distributed widely among 18 di.erent external stakeholders. The composition of obliga­tions to customers (5 codes); whistleblowers, au­thorities, and the environment (3 codes each); and business partners, shareholders, people in general, patients, and society (2 codes each), highlights that Bayer AG’s code of conduct generally demonstrates responsibility to a huge variety of external stake­holders. However, compared with the high number of coded obligations to external stakeholders within Pfizer Inc.’s code of conduct, Bayer AG’s code of con­duct seems to lack depth. Pfizer Inc. shows the opposite picture to Bayer AG with regard to its norms. With 38 coded rules, Pfizer Inc. places the least value on unconditional guidelines for action. Instead, the MNC relies on principles (65 codes), i.e., explicit guidelines for ac­tion, which always gives the code addressee some scope for decision-making in the implementation. The top five thematic priorities of Pfizer Inc. are, in descending order, (1) “Compliance with law” (36 codes); (2) “Interpersonality and integrity” (33 codes); (3) “Prohibition of discrimination” and “Pro­tection of data privacy” (23 codes each); (4) “Prohi­bition of corruption” and “Code compliance” (15 codes each); and (5) “Sustainability, safety, and envi­ronmental protection” (13 codes). Sorted according to the forcefulness with which each topic is treated (Table 10), the ranking is (1) “Compliance with law” (17 codes); (2) “Prohibition of discrimination” and “Interpersonality and integrity” (8 codes each); (3) “Code compliance” (7 codes); (4) “Avoidance of con­flicts of interest,” “Protection of data privacy,” and “Protection of free and fair competition” (6 codes each); and (5) “Individual responsibility” (4 codes). Due to the small number of coded rules, Pfizer Inc.’s number of codes concerning forcefulness is much lower than that of Bayer AG’s code of conduct. In contrast, and similar to Bayer AG, “Compliance with law” is the topic that Pfizer Inc. not only men­tions the most often, but also pursues the most em­phatically. This shows that, for both corporations, governmental regulations are the major content drivers, regardless of the context. The major di.er­ences appear in the second row of Tables 9 and 10. Whereas “Interpersonality and Integrity” is given lit­tle consideration by Bayer AG, (33 codes), it has a similar status as “Compliance with law” (36 codes) at Pfizer Inc. Moreover, it is accompanied by the highest number of topic-specific coded persuasions (seven codes). “Prohibition of discrimination” has slightly fewer mentions, but is coded with the same forceful­ness (26 codes, eight codes concerning forcefulness). Both “Interpersonality and Integrity” and “Prohibi­tion of discrimination” (with one exception concern­ing the vague reference “applicable law”) are detached from legal requirements and reflect content that refers to essentially explicit CSR. The remaining codes concerning forcefulness are distributed rela­tively evenly across the other topics. A notable exception is the comparatively small number of explicit mentions of “Sustainability, safety, and environmental protection” (13 codes for Pfizer Inc, compared with 29 codes for Bayer AG), as well as the complete lack of any codes concerning its forcefulness. This is surprising, because Pfizer Inc. has committed itself to the UN Global Compact, for example, which contains a number of principles for environmental protection. In addition, the “Fridays for Future Movement,” launched in 2018, has led to companies increasingly referring to environmental issues in their CSR practices. In the case of “Sustain­ability, safety, and environmental protection,” infor­mal institutions seem to have a minor impact on Pfizer Inc.’s codes’ content. Numerous US climate and environmental regulations were abolished or relaxed under the Trump presidency (Bomberg, 2021). This may be a hint that the composition of codes of conduct is highly sensitive to the current zeitgeist (Chua & Rahman, 2011), and primarily is geared toward complying with formal obligations (Adelstein & Clegg, 2016). Concerning relations of obligation, “Obligations of employees” (12 codes) and “Obligations to em­ployees” (11 codes) are almost the same, which is a good indication that Pfizer Inc. does hold its employ­ees accountable, but also supports them in their ac­tions. The ratio of the “Obligations of stakeholders” (8 codes) to the “Obligations to external stakehold­ers” (72 codes) is remarkable. Pfizer Inc. attaches the greatest importance to the protection of pa­tients (17 codes), customers (8 codes), people in general (7 codes), doctors (4 codes), and even entire communities (7 codes). Together with, e.g., business partners (4 codes), suppliers (4 codes), whistleblow­ers (3 codes), and competitors (3 codes), Pfizer Inc. expresses a holistic picture of its responsibility to a variety of external stakeholders, mostly with refer­ence to the topic that seems to be one of the most important topics when discussing pharmaceutical industries: the health of people. The findings of the content analysis reveal strong content similarities between Bayer AG’s and Pfizer Inc.’s codes of conduct, especially with regard to top­ics addressed therein. This confirms an explicitization of codes from MNCs in the implicit EU context. MNCs from the EU context, it seems, use codes of conduct from the US context as templates to revise and up­date their own codes. Although corporations in both national contexts increasingly are subject to new and similar regulations by the wider business system, they still refer explicitly to those regulations within their code of conduct, regardless of whether they are for­mal (e.g., international legal obligations) or informal (e.g., the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles). This explains why the scope and harmonization of inter­national codes is increasing steadily. With 49 codes (Bayer AG) and 36 codes (Pfizer Inc.) concerning “Compliance with law,” the primary concern of both codes of conduct is to assure com­pliance by employees against any breach of legal obligations or other corporate interests. At the core, both codes of conduct are instruments of organiza­tional risk management than rather /vehicles for achieving more-sustainable organizational practice (Adelstein & Clegg, 2016). Beyond that, the distribution of the topics and the linking of these to forcefulness shows some di.erences. Whereas Bayer AG adheres closely to applicable law and similar topics (“Prohibition of corruption,” “Avoid­ance of conflicts of interest,” and “Protection of free and fair competition”), voluntarily initiated CSR prac­tices play a subordinate role. In comparison, Pfizer Inc. predominantly uses explicit CSR. This applies to the high priority of the topic “Interpersonality and integrity” (33 codes, with eight codes concerning forcefulness) and the large number of obligations to various external stakeholders (more than twice as many codes as Bayer AG). Pfizer Inc.’s code of conduct makes it clear that the character of US codes is characterized more strongly by explicit CSR than is the character of EU codes. Referring to recent definitions of codes of con­duct cited in Section 2, the codes’ content of both contexts reveal an imbalance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors, because the avoid­ance of legal consequences is weighted significantly higher than the promotion of ethical business prac­tices (Erwin, 2011; Treviño et al., 2014). 5LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The main limitation of this study is its small sam­ple. Due to the high scope of the qualitative content analysis, only one code of conduct from each context (US and EU) was examined. Future research should expand the sample, both cross-sectionally (companies from other industrial sectors) and in depth (other pharmaceutical companies). In addition, the EU con­text in this study was represented only by one German MNC. Additional research with codes from other member states is necessary to strengthen the validity of the results in relation to the entire European Union. Another limitation inherent in most qualitative studies is the fact that the results of a qualitative con­tent analysis can never be completely free of the coder’s subjective perception, although the guide­lines for coding corporate ethical codes (Trautnitz & Pelters, forthcoming) are designed to be as intersub­jective as possible. To increase the objectivity of the coding results, each code of conduct was coded twice with a time gap of 1 month. Any di.erences in the coding results were checked manually and assigned definitively according to the coding guidelines. Although it is possible to di.erentiate between a large number of external stakeholders within the content analysis, statements regarding internal stake­holders—other than top management—can be made only across all employees. The desired universal va­lidity of a code of conduct usually prevents the nam­ing or obligation of individual employees, functional and/or cross-functional teams, or di.erent depart­ments. To better capture the e.ects of a code of con­duct against the background of the understanding of MNCs as multilevel social systems, an additional em­pirical study within the corporation is necessary in which di.erent clusters can be taken into account (Hedberg et al., 1976; Kesler & Kates, 2015). Accord­ing to the literature, the code implementation is af­fected strongly by the behavior of supervisors and the top management (Kaptein, 2008). These positions have an inherent role-model function that the em­ployees use as a guide. Moreover, they are gatekeep­ers in providing information and other resources to implement the standards of behavior. Linking the code analysis with an employee survey would o.er the opportunity to better account for the influence of those individual positions in the company. Within an employee survey, the distinction be­tween departments is particularly interesting. MNCs in particular often have their own compliance de­partments, which are responsible for the content of the codes of conduct. As a result, employees in the compliance department usually are more familiar with the code than are employees in other depart­ments. Restricting the query about the perceived implementation and e.ectiveness of the code of conduct to this rather biased group of employees could falsify the result. To ensure the company-wide validity of the code, employees of other depart­ments should be included in the investigation. Concerning practical implications, the multi­level analysis criteria presented in this study gives companies a blueprint to assess and revise their own code of conduct. 6CONCLUSION The aim of this study was to find empirical evi­dence of the hybridization of CSR in an international context by examining codes of conduct of MNCs from the US and the European Union. For this purpose, it was first determined which institutional pressures (Scott, 1995) are exerted on the codes of conduct of international MNCs, and how those pressures stim­ulate a content convergence between the codes of MNCs in the US and the EU contexts. The comparison of codes of conduct of the German Dax 30 companies over time revealed that an explicitization of CSR prac­tices has taken place with regard to the spread and scope of codes of conduct within the EU context (Sharbatoghlie et al., 2013). To determine to what ex­tent the content of a code in the EU context resem­bles the content of a code in the US context, a qualitative content analysis of the code of an MNC from each context was carried out. The findings re­veal a strong content alignment and show that US codes—including content suggestions coming from SOX or NYSE—function as templates for comparable corporations in the EU context. The EU code is char­acterized by a strong focus on legal requirements, which is a prime example of explicitization. Hence, the assumed explicitization of codes of conduct in an implicit context is proved with regard to spread, scope, and content. The US code of conduct shares the strong adherence to law, but includes more con­tent that goes beyond the mere expectations of var­ious stakeholders, and thus corresponds to the true nature of explicit CSR. In terms of implicitization, both US and EU corporations increasingly are subject to similar regulations by formal and informal regulations of the wider business system, which are referred to in the codes, regardless of the national context (e.g., the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles). 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Corporate ethics poli­cies & programmes: 2013 UK & continental Europe survey. London: Institute of Business Ethics. Yan, M. (2020). Government and regulation in promoting corporate social responsibility – The case of China (October 1, 2019). Queen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 321/2019. Columbia Jour­nal of Asian Law, 33 (2), 264-294. in a country are contextualized by the national in­stitutional frameworks that reflect existing wider policy arrangements at the national level (Barth & Wol., 2009; Matten & Moon, 2008). Liberal market economies (LMEs), which have less-strict regulatory regimes (e.g., the US), tend to allow corporations to design their own discretionary CSR practices (Barth & Wol., 2009; Hall & Soskice, 2001; Matten & Moon, 2008). In contrast, coordinated market economies (CMEs), which have strict regulatory regimes (e.g., Germany), are more likely to bind cor­porate behavior in a mandatory manner and implic­itly direct corporations to address society’s concerns (Barth & Wol., 2009; Hall & Soskice, 2001; Matten & Moon, 2008). Therefore, the role of institutional pressures for CSR influences how companies in dif­ferent societies express and pursue their social re­1 In addition to “code of conduct,” this includes other des­ignations such as “code of ethics,” “Verhaltenskodex” (German), and “Unternehmenskodex” (German). 3 Both Bayer AG and Pfizer Inc. have published an extra code for suppliers. Therefore, less reference to suppli­ers within the (main) code of conduct is to be expected. The ongoing international market penetration of multinational corporations (MNCs) shows that CSR is a dynamic process, which has led MNCs to take into account the behavioral expectations of dif­ferent stakeholders along with mandatory require­ments of other countries in addition to national circumstances (Matten & Moon, 2020; Moon et al., 2017; Palazzo & Scherer, 2008). Therefore, MNCs in­creasingly are faced with the challenge that their CSR practices need to serve equally institutional, non-institutional, and other stakeholder expecta­tions of di.erent national contexts (Scott, 1995). As a consequence, those institutional pressures lead MNCs to adopt similar organizational features, which contribute to CSR practices becoming more homogeneous (Ali et al., 2017; Brammer et al., 2012; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). This process is called hybridization (Matten & Moon, 2020). 2 The only exception is the 2006 RWE code. However, this was due only to its oversized resolution. Abstract Vol. 12, No. 1, 87-105 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a06 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 88 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 89 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 90 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 91 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility 92 Table 1: Comparison of Bayer AG and Pfizer Inc. Source: Bayer AG, Annual Report, 2021; Bayer AG, Corporate Compliance Policy, 2019; Pfizer Inc., Form 10-K Annual Report, 2021. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 93 Table 2: Types of norms Source: own representation based on Talaulicar, Unternehmenskodizes: Typen und Normierungsstrategien zur Implementierung einer Unternehmensethik, 2006: 301–306; Trautnitz & Pelters, Richtlinien zur Codierung unternehmensethischer Kodizes 2.0 (working title), forthcoming, pp. 6–9. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility 94 Table 3: Topics within a code of conduct Source: Topics adapted from Trautnitz & Pelters, Richtlinien zur Codierung unternehmensethischer Kodizes 2.0 (working title), forthcoming, pp. 14–16. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 95 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility 96 Table 4: Availability of the DAX 30 codes of conduct in Germany, 2005–2006 vs. 2021 Source: 2005–2006 data made available by the chair of business administration of the Andrássy University Budapest; 2021 data collected from the companies’ websites. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 97 Table 6: Number of coded topics Table 5: Overview of coding results Source: own representation Source: own representation Table 7: Forcefulness with which each topic is covered (rules, persuasions, and negative sanctions) Source: own representation Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility 98 Table 8: Relationships of obligation Source: own representation Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 99 Table 9: Forcefulness, Bayer AG Source: own representation Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility 100 Table 10: Forcefulness, Pfizer Inc. Source: own representation. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 101 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 102 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 103 EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Ta študija predstavlja empiricne dokaze o hibridizaciji vsebine kodeksov ravnanja v ZDA in EU. Povezuje konceptualne okvire neo-institucionalne teorije in hibridizacije korporativne družbene odgovornosti (angl. corporate social responsibility; CSR) s trenutnimi raziskavami o kodeksih ravnanja. Umešcena znotraj mednarodnega konteksta kodeksov ravnanja iz ZDA in EU, študija uporablja kval­itativno analizo vsebine, in sicer z uporabo programske opreme MAXQDA. Raziskovalni subjekti so kodeksi ravnanja dveh multinacionalk (angl. multinational companies; (MNCs) iz farmacevtske in­dustrije: Bayer AG (EU) in Pfizer (ZDA). Ugotovitve kažejo, da eksplicitacija v kontekstu EU vodi do mocne usklajenosti vsebine med kodeksi ravnanja multinacionalk iz ZDA in EU. Vsebina obeh kon­tekstov je namenjena predvsem izpolnjevanju zakonskih zahtev. Vseeno pa se kodeksi v ZDA še vedno vecinoma osredotocajo na eksplicitno CSR in kažejo obveznosti do zunanjih deležnikov. Po avtorjevem vedenju je to prva študija, ki je s pregledom vsebine kodeksov ravnanja, našla empiricne dokaze o hibridizaciji CSR. Prihodnje raziskave bi morale razširiti vzorec, tako presecno, kot znotraj farma­cevtske industrije, da bi še bolj povecale prenosljivost rezultatov. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Erik Pelters: Empirical Evidence for Hybridization of Corporate Social Responsibility 104 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 105 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 106 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 107 Abstract HIGHLIGHTING APPROACHES TO LEADERSHIP STYLE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE NEED FOR A BROADER RESEARCH APPROACH TO THE CONTEXT-RELATED USE OF LEADERSHIP STYLES Gabriella Cserháti Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pannonia,Hungary cserhati.gabriella@gtk.uni-pannon.hu A project manager’s leadership style has a considerable impact on project success. However, there is no one best ap­propriate leadership behavior. The characteristics of the project and the organizational context determine which lead­ership style could be appropriate in di.erent situations. To provide a clear picture of the complexity of contextual features, leadership style, and its relation to project success, there is a need for a systematic review of leadership style–related papers focusing on project management. This paper has two aims: to provide a content analysis of pre­vious papers to determine which leadership style approaches were studied in project management; and to provide a detailed content analysis of previous findings of project management studies in terms of matching project character­istics and organizational features with the appropriate leadership style of the project manager. The findings of this paper give a comprehensive analysis of previous results, and also highlight the weaknesses in terms of neglected as­pects of conceptualization and deficiencies. Our results indicate the lack of comprehensive context-related studies of project manager’s’ leadership. Thus, there is a need for research examining project characteristics and contextual fea­tures in detail to identify the appropriate project managers’ leadership style by means of deductive reasoning. Keywords: project manager, leadership style, project characteristics, contextual features, content analysis 1INTRODUCTION Successful implementation of projects is essen­tial in implementing corporate strategic objectives. However, projects are temporary forms of organiz­ing, and they di.er from permanent organizational arrangements and processes in several ways. Be­cause of the inherent characteristics of projects as temporary organizations (e.g., novelty, uniqueness, uncertainty, complexity, and low standardization), further to the project manager’s skills and compe­tencies, the leadership style has a considerable im­pact on project success. Several studies (Prabhakar, 2005; Müller & Turner, 2007; Yang, Wu, & Huang, 2013; Tabassi et al., 2016; Bhatti, Kiyani, Dust, & Za­kariya, 2021) analyzed the relationship between the project manager’s leadership style and project per­formance. Most of these studies reinforce that an appropriate leadership style facilitates successful project completion in general (Prabhakar, 2005; Müller, & Turner, 2007; Yang, Wu, & Huang, 2013; Tabassi et al., 2016). However, there is no one best appropriate leadership behavior. Instead, the appro­priate leadership style should be fitted to the char­acteristics of the project and of the organizational context. Bearing this in mind, researchers (Müller & Turner, 2010; Raziq, Borini, Malik, Ahmad, & Shabaz, 2018; Kabore, Sane, & Abo, 2021; Nauman, Mu­sawir, Munir, & Rasheed, 2022) also analyzed the re­lationship between leadership style and project success in a more specific manner. Previous studies utilized various leadership style approaches, applying often overlapping frame­works, and analyzed numerous di.erent attributes pertaining to project characteristics and contextual features. Nevertheless, the conceptualizations of the analyzed attributes exhibited substantial di.er­ences. To provide a comprehensive basis for under­standing a project manager’s leadership style, the contextual elements associated with it, and the con­sequences in terms of project performance, a sys­tematic review of the relevant literature focusing on leadership style approaches in project management is imperative. This paper has two aims: to provide a content analysis of these published papers to deter­mine leadership style approaches considered in pro­ject management studies; and to conduct an associated content analysis to highlight previously published results regarding the relationships be­tween project characteristics and organizational fea­tures, and the appropriate leadership style. Our findings provide a systematic overview of previously published papers, presenting not only the studies of di.erent leadership style approaches, but also the considered characteristics and environ­mental aspects of the project. In this way, our find­ings support human resource professionals in understanding the interdependencies between con­textual features and di.erent leadership styles. This understanding can help them find the most appro­priate project manager for a specific project. Addi­tionally, the results of the study can assist project managers in adapting their leadership style to the required leadership behavior based on the specific project characteristics and context. Furthermore, based on the results, we can es­tablish further studies and highlight the basics of a framework that might contribute to identifying the best-suited project management leadership style in a context-related manner. This framework is con­structed using a deductive approach. In the pro­posed framework, the deductive approach is based on the relationships between inherent project char­acteristics and features of di.erent leadership styles (along with the underlying personal characteristics), and on the relationships between contextual fea­tures and di.erent leadership styles. The proposed framework has significant prac­tical management implications, because it facilitates matching project managers’ leadership styles with the unique characteristics and contextual features of a given project. It has the potential to support project managers and personnel departments in comprehending these interdependencies in order to facilitate the appropriate selection and develop­ment of project managers. Further research based on this framework could assist human resource de­partments and project management o.ces in re­cruiting and selecting project managers who can exhibit a leadership style customized to the specific attributes of a project and its environment. Conse­quently, the framework’s utilization might advance project success. 2LITERATURE REVIEW As far as the leadership style of a project man­ager having a considerable impact on the success of a project, there is a need to provide a short overview of understanding the project success, and the under­lying concepts of projects and project management. 2.1Understanding the Concept of Projects, Project Management, and Project Success In for-profit and non-profit organizations pro­jects, are common operations. Organizations fulfil the requirements of di.erent clients or realize their development, innovation, or other future plans via projects. However, the implementation of projects di.ers from standard operational processes in many ways. Because of their novelty, complexity, unique­ness, and time and cost constraints, these tasks are characterized by high uncertainty, require more flex­ibility, and allow low standardization (Koster, 2010). A project is not only a complex and “temporary en­deavour undertaken to create a unique product, ser­vice or result” (Project Management Institute, 2021, p. 4), but also a temporary organization (Lundin & Söderlund, 1995) and a strategic building block (Cle­land, 1994). According to Görög (2016) this broader concept of a project includes a one-time, unique, and complex sequence of activities, characterized by a definite outcome and by time and cost constraints, by means of which corporate strategic objectives can be realized, and which is carried out by a temporary project organization. This multifaceted concept of a project requires a broader approach to project management itself. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) published by the Project Management Institute (2021) emphasizes the management of project activ­ities and the guiding of project work; however, it fails to mention the role of project management in realiz­ing strategic objectives. Project management based on the comprehensive approach includes the man­agement of implementation processes, temporary or­ganizations, and “the achievement of beneficial changes implied in the organizational strategic objec­tives” (Görög, 2016, p. 1662). This broader approach to the concept of project management implies a very complex project manager role. The project manager is responsible for planning the project activities; real­izing the plans; delivering the desired outcome; lead­ing, motivating, and facilitating the team members; managing project stakeholders; and so on. Conse­quently, based on this comprehensive approach, the project manager has a considerable e.ect on the suc­cessful implementation of a project (Cleland, 1994; Turner, 2009), including the long-term success of an organization. The phenomena of project success evolved con­siderably in line with the conceptual development of projects and project management. In recent decades, researchers analyzed various aspects of project suc­cess, including how projects are implemented; how their outcomes are evaluated; and how the environ­ment, or organizational context in which they are ex­ecuted, can be characterized. (Papke-Shields, Beise, & Quan, 2010). Based on these studies the so-called input–output-oriented view of project success has been formulated (Blaskovics, 2014). The concept of input concentrates on facts and circumstances that contribute to the successful implementation of the project (Lim & Mohamed, 1999). In other words, these factors are the success factors “that must be given special and continual attention to bring about high performance” (Boynton & Zmud, 1984, p. 17). The concept of output focuses on the evaluation of project outcome by using di.erent base values and requirements. These requirements are the success criteria, based on which the success of a project can be evaluated. The classical and most common used success criteria is the “project triangle” (time, cost, and quality), because the fulfilment of these require­ments can be assessed objectively (Judgev & Müller, 2005). Due to the broader approach to project sand project management, during the last 20 years sev­eral studies comprehensively evaluated project suc­cess by broadening the range of success criteria (Atkinson, 1999; Baccarini, 1999; Cooke-Davies, 2004). Görög (2013) developed a hierarchical model for the evaluation of a project’s success which en­compasses three types of criteria in line with the broader concept of projects and project manage­ment: the traditional project triangle (time, cost, and quality), which measures the e.ciency of pro­ject implementation; client satisfaction, which mea­sures the e.ectiveness of the completed project outcome, and the benefit to the achievement of un­derlying strategic objectives; and the stakeholder satisfaction, which includes the satisfaction of both internal and external stakeholders. Parallel to the evolution of success criteria, re­searchers attempted to identify the critical success factors of project implementation, focusing on the broader approach to projects and project manage­ment. Whereas earlier studies concentrated on de­termining factors that influence the realization of project objectives in terms of schedule, cost, and per­formance (Baker, Murphy, & Fisher, 1988; Pinto & Slevin, 1988), later publications attempted to classify these factors and develop a consistent model of suc­cess factors (Cooke-Davies, 2002; Leung, Ng, & Che­ung, 2004), or identified the most popular success factors by analyzing previous publications (Fortune, & White, 2006). In addition to the identification of success factors, more studies focused on determining the relationships between success criteria and suc­cess factors based on empirical surveys (Papke-Shields et al., 2010; Yang, Huang, & Wu, 2011, Cserháti & Szabó, 2014). According to the results of these studies, relationship- and human-oriented suc­cess factors (e.g., communication, project leadership, human resource management, cooperation with stakeholders, and cohesion of the project team) ad­vanced, and played a crucial role in client and stake­holder satisfaction. However, the role of task- and process-oriented success factors should not be ne­glected, because these factors have a considerable impact on the fulfilment of the project triangle (Doloi, Iyer, & Sawhney, 2011). As the broader approach to project success ad­vanced, more studies analyzed the impact of a pro­ject manager’s leadership style or leadership competencies on project success, and several of these studies reinforced the role of appropriate leadership behavior in achieving project success. Based on interviews and an empirical survey with project managers, Müller and Turner (2007) deter­mined that the leadership style of a project manager influences project success. Gruden and Stare (2018) reinforced the role of leadership competencies in project performance. According to Yang et al. (2013) and Bhatti et al. (2021), project managers’ leader­ship style improves teamwork, trust in leaders, knowledge sharing, and project performance, and thereby facilitates stakeholder satisfaction. How­ever, the e.ectiveness of leadership behavior de­pends highly on the characteristics of the project and its environmental or organizational context. Thus, there is not only one suitable leadership be­havior, because it is influenced by the aforemen­tioned factors. Based on this notion, several researchers (Agarwal, Dixit, Nikolova, Jain, & Sankaran, 2021; Blaskovics, 2014; Kabore et al., 2021; Müller & Turner, 2010; Raziq et al., 2018) have considered factors that relate to the required lead­ership style of project managers. They studied fac­tors such as project type, complexity, duration, uncertainty, type of contract, team size, goal clarity, project importance, organizational culture, and knowledge sharing. These studies promoted re­search on the impact of leadership styles on project success in a relatively specific contextual manner, because they analyzed a certain part of project char­acteristics and contextual features. However, they did not determine the most important factors to be taken into consideration during the specification of the required leadership style of project managers. Both project characteristics and contextual fea­tures are essential aspects to consider when deter­mining the appropriate leadership style for a project manager. However, there are no well-established models in the project management literature for classifying these aspects. Crawford, Hobbs, and Turner (2006) developed a state-of-the art classifi­cation system that includes di.erent project at­tributes, such as application area, complexity, strategic importance, contract type, life-cycle stage, and culture. Görög (2013) di.erentiated two inher­ent project characteristics: uncertainties, and inter­dependences. Despite these e.orts, there is no broadly accepted approach among authors, and fur­ther research is needed in this respect. 2.2Understanding the Concept of Leadership, Leadership Theories, and Leadership Styles To develop an elaborate study of project man­agers’ leadership styles, we first define the phenom­ena of leadership, leadership theory, and leadership style, which are related but distinct concepts. Blake and Mouton (1985, p. 9) considered leadership to be “the process of achieving organization purpose through the e.orts of people, results in some peo­ple attaining authority to set direction and coordi­nate e.ort; that is, to exercise the responsibility for the activities of others.” The basis of leadership is the influence upon other individuals to act “to per­form tasks or to solve problems in order to attain the goals of the organization” (Andersen, 2013, p. 5). On the other hand, leadership theories are frameworks that attempt to determine how leader­ship works and what makes an e.ective leader. These theories provide a systematic way of under­standing the complexities of leadership, and o.er insight into how leaders can enhance their e.ective­ness (Yukl, 2013). Finally, leadership style refers to the approach that a leader uses to guide and influ­ence the team or organization. According to Nort­house (2001), leadership styles are the specific ways in which a leader interacts with their followers and achieves their goals. Within this influencing process, authors have emphasized the need for a dynamic relationship be­tween leader and followers, which correlates highly with the characteristics of leaders and followers, and to “the context in which the influencing process occurs” (Antonakis, Avolio, & Sivasubramaniam, 2003, p. 5). There is an agreement among aca­demics that the concept of leadership style is un­derstood in many di.erent ways. In other words, researchers di.erentiate a confusingly high number of the leadership styles. Based on Northouse (2001) and Buchanan and Huczynski (2004), Table 1 summarizes the most im­portant milestones of leadership theories. Early studies (Stogdill, 1948, 1974) focused on personality traits of leaders that can influence or ex­plain the behavior of leaders and followers. Re­searchers of trait theory focused on the analysis of physical factors, knowledge, and abilities, as well as on personality features of leaders, and identified the specific traits of e.ective leaders. However, charac­teristics defined as crucial traits by one researcher were not confirmed by others (Hughes, 2005). Con­flicting results of trait theory inspired researchers to study leaders’ behavior and its organizational ef­fects. This leadership approach assumes that a leader’s behavior influences followers’ work, and, through the followers’ e.ectiveness, the perfor­mance of the whole organization. Based on behavioral characteristics and the re­lationship of leaders and followers, researchers de­scribed typical behavioral styles of leaders. Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) identified the autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles based on observation of a group of children. The auto­cratic leader tends to direct and control subordi­nates, and centralizes authority. The democratic leader facilitates followers’ participation and dele­gates authority to them. The laissez-faire leader is a passive character and does not take part in the ac­tions of the group, which results in unproductive work and disengaged co-workers. Other studies (Bales, 1950; McGregor, 1960) identified two funda­mental styles of leader behavior. The employee-cen­tered leader focuses on the individual needs and opinions of followers, cohesion and commitment of the team, and delegation of authority. The job-cen­tered leader concentrates on goals and perfor­mance, specifies the tasks, and controls the implementation. Based on these two main leader­ship behaviors, Blake and Mouton (1964) developed the managerial grid, in which the two dimensions (concern for people, and concern for production) do not exclude each other. They considered the con­cern for people and the concern for production to be equally essential for e.ective leaders. Based on these two dimensions, they compiled a grid in which five categories of leadership behavior can be di.er­entiated. The behavioral studies identified the main leadership styles and their e.ectiveness and deter­mined the importance of human orientation. How­ever, it became increasingly clear that the study and prediction of e.ective leadership are more complex. There is not only one right way of leading; a leader should adapt to the internal and external features of the situation. Accordingly, contingency theories took into consideration the characteristics of the environ­ment and tried to predict in which situations each kind of leadership behavior can be e.ective. Fiedler’s (1967) contingency theory proposed that leadership behavior is influenced by the leader–member relationship, the degree of task structure, and the power derived from the leader’s position. Hersey and Blanchard (1977) emphasized the role of subordinates. Depending on their maturity and motivation, task- or human-oriented leadership be­havior can be su.cient. After the aforementioned traditional leadership theories, the so-called new leadership theories came to the fore, which focus on the interactions between leaders and followers, the situation, and its context as a whole system. These theories emphasize the leader’s role in the well-being of followers, and the moral and social responsibility of leaders. Several dif­ferent leadership approaches emerged in recent decades. Batistic, Cerne, and Vogel (2017) grouped these theories in larger clusters by applying biblio­metric analysis. They identified seven clusters of leadership theories in publications of the 2000s: transformational leadership; emotions and emo­tional intelligence; authentic leadership; shared leadership; ethical leadership; organizational justice; and complexity, context, and leadership. There are many di.erent theories of leadership (such as authentic leadership, ethical leadership, empowering leadership, etc.), in which emphasis is mostly on a narrower aspect of a leader’s behavior or personality traits, or on the development of a leader’s personality. Although there is a substantial relationship between leaders’ personality and the adopted leadership style, studies, &, & found no or only weak correlations between the leaders’ per­sonality and their performance as a leader (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2003; Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2002). During the last 20 years, most theo­ries were based on the human orientation of lead­ers; however, goal or task orientation also appeared in some concepts (e.g., transactional theory, and path–goal theory). There are various leadership style approaches, and several internal and external factors are interrelated with the appropriateness of using these leadership styles. When studying pro­ject managers’ leadership style, we need to consider how the di.erent leadership styles of project man­agers match the characteristics of projects, project team members, and di.erent contextual factors. 3METHODOLOGY In this paper we applied content analysis of pre­vious studies discussing di.erent leadership style approaches in project management. We conducted a systematic review of leadership style–related pa­pers in project management to determine the pres­ence of leadership style approaches in project management studies. We also conducted a detailed content analysis of selected papers to collect and systematize previous results regarding the corre­spondence of project characteristics and project context with the appropriate leadership style of the project manager. For the analysis we selected leadership style–related papers in project management journals from the Web of Science database. During the selection process we applied the following criteria: •Keywords: project & leadership style •Fields: all fields •Document type: article •Publication title: International Journal of Project Management, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Project Management Journal •Publication year: 2002–2021 Our selection process resulted in 32 relevant pa­pers. Most of the papers (19) were after 2017, half of them (16) were published in the International Journal of Project Management, and five of the arti­cles were written by Ralf Müller and his co-authors. A detailed content analysis of the selected pa­pers was carried out. We collected information about the applied leadership style approaches as well as the details and results of published research, where the association of project characteristics and contextual features with the appropriate leadership style of project manager were studied. 4FINDINGS In the 32 relevant papers, we analyzed the applied leadership style approaches as well as their findings regarding the relationships between project character­istics and contextual features, and leadership styles. Most studies applied leadership style approaches based on the transformational and transactional (15) leadership theory, the competency theory (6) and the shared or balanced leadership approach (6) to study the leadership styles of project managers. Four papers analyzed task- and human-oriented behavior, and two articles analyzed the emotional intelligence (EI) of pro­ject managers. In some cases, the situational (1), em­powering (1), ethical (1), and authentic (1) leadership approaches were considered. Comparing these results with the clusters of leadership approaches identified by Batistic et al. (2017) shows that in project manage­ment papers, more or less the same leadership theo­ries came to the fore. Furthermore, in project management studies, the competency theory was considered widely; this theory involves the emotional (EQ), intellectual (IQ), and managerial (MQ) compe­tencies of leaders, and distinguishes three di.erent leadership styles: the goal oriented, involving, and en­gaging styles (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005). As mentioned previously, to identify the e.ective leadership style of project managers, we need to take into consideration the characteristics of the project and of the organization itself. The required behavior of a project leader should be matched with the type or complexity of the project, the degree of uncertainty, or the strategic importance of the project. We thor­oughly analyzed which of these factors had been stud­ied previously, and the results that were determined. Most of the analyzed papers (9) studied the lead­ership style with respect to a certain project type or in­dustry sector. Based on the results, the transformational leadership style is appropriate for international devel­opment projects (Kabore et al., 2021), sustainable prod­uct development (SNPD) projects (Wang & Yang, 2021), and IT and software (SW) development projects (Nau­man et al., 2022), although research shows inconsistent results in the case of construction projects. Based on the responses from 345 managers in the construction in­dustry, Maqbool, Sudong, Manzoor, and Rashid (2017) found that the transformational leadership of project managers ensures higher project success. Tabassi et al. (2016) reported that the transformational leadership style has an insignificant e.ect on the success of sus­tainable construction projects. Furthermore, some pa­pers reinforced the positive relationship between the project manager’s emotional intelligence and project success in the case of integrated project delivery situa­tions (Zhang, Cao, & Wang, 2018), sustainable product development projects (Wang, & Yang, 2021), and con­struction projects (Maqbool et al., 2017). One paper re­inforced the positive connection between ethical leadership and project success in IT and SW develop­ment projects (Bhatti et al., 2021). Another paper found the dominance of a democratic leadership style in Scan­dinavian projects compared with Australian and Cana­dian projects, but it did not find significant di.erences within the industry sector (Drouin, Müller, Sankaran, & Vaagaasar, 2018). In terms of complexity, published articles do not provide consistent results. Müller and Turner (2010) concluded that high-complexity projects require high managerial, intellectual, and emotional competencies, whereas Podgorska and Pichlak (2019) reported the importance of only managerial competencies. How­ever, the authors of both papers applied the same leadership style approach (competency theory) and a simplified categorization of complexity (low, medium, and high complexity). Princes and Said (2022) analyzed the complexity in terms of technology and organiza­tion, and reported that the situational leadership style facilitates financial sustainability. Other studies (Raziq et al., 2018; Lai, Hsu, & Li, 2018) investigated the un­certainty and goal clarity of projects. Based on their re­sults, a relation-oriented leadership style enables goal clarity, and a transformational leadership style is more e.ective in projects with high uncertainty. Considering the characteristics of project teams and methods, a distributed leadership style is appro­priate for agile teams (Agarwal et al., 2021), whereas in highly virtual teams a relation-oriented leadership be­havior may be e.ective (Nauman et al., 2022). Table 2 summarizes the findings of previously published papers regarding the relations between various project char­acteristics and leadership styles of project managers. Because of the lack of a unified and recognized catego­rization of project characteristics in the literature, I re­lied on terms applied by authors. The first part of Table 2 presents the findings in terms of di.erent project types. The second part of Table 2 summarizes previous results in terms of certain project characteristics, such as project complexity, uncertainty, and other attributes. By analyzing the contextual features of projects, Podgorska and Pichlak (2019) studied the competen­cies required of leaders in terms of the strategic im­portance of the project. They found that in renewal projects, the IQ of a project manager has an important role, whereas in repositioning and mandatory pro­jects, EQ competencies are essential. Müller and Turner (2010) di.erentiated the significance of com­petencies depending on contract type and deter­mined the importance of IQ and MQ competencies in fixed-price projects compared with other contract types (remeasurement, and alliance). Agarwal et al. (2021) suggested the application of a distributed lead­ership style in flexible, collaborative organizations with advanced knowledge-sharing practices, based on the analysis of eight project-based organizations. Chaudry, Raziq, Saeed, Sajjad, and Borini (2019) stud­ied the correlation between organizational structure and leadership styles, and found the people-oriented style to be appropriate for a matrix structure. Table 3 presents the findings of previously published papers and highlights the suggested leadership style versus certain contextual features, which should be taken into consideration in the selection of leadership style. 5CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Project managers’ leadership style is a critical success factor. However, there is no single leadership style that is suitable for all kinds of projects. Inherent project characteristics and contextual features of a project are en rapport with the appropriateness of the leadership style. Previous studies did not con­sider these factors in detail, which inhibits formulat­ing correct and well-established conclusions. In terms of project type, prior studies focused mainly on the industry sector, and did not di.erentiate the types of projects per industry. Due to the indistinc­tive research of diverse projects within an industry sector, survey results exhibited inconsistent findings. The correlation between complexity and the project manager’s leadership style was considered by more researchers, who defined complexity di.erently but not in a comprehensive manner. Instead of adopting a broader approach, most of these studies analyzed only a one-on-one aspect of complexity. However, complexity of a project is a multifaceted concept, which correlates with many di.erent factors (uncer­tainty, goal clarity, novelty, professionalism of project team members, attitude of stakeholders, etc.). Com­plexity also is a substantial characteristic of a project, and therefore has a considerable e.ect on the im­plementation process and success of a project. De­spite its importance, there is a lack of consensus on the definition and conceptualization of complexity (Cristóbal, 2017). Further studies are needed to de­termine the relationship between project complexity and a project manager’s leadership style. Only a few authors studied the interdependencies of a project team’s characteristics, project management meth­ods, organizational context, and the appropriate leadership style. The qualities of the project team, the importance of the project, the organizational structure and culture, and further contextual fea­tures correspond to the possibilities and margins, and thereby fundamentally the appropriate leader­ship style of a project manager. This study o.ers a critical analysis of the current literature on leadership style approaches in project management. It highlights the inadequacies in pre­vious research, and suggests future possibilities for exploring project characteristics and contextual fea­tures that correlate with leadership styles. The lit­erature on this topic utilized various approaches to leadership styles, and analyzed multiple aspects of project characteristics and contextual features. However, inadequacies in the categorization and conceptualization of the analyzed characteristics im­peded the formulation of definitive conclusions based on previous findings. Therefore, this study emphasizes the need for a well-established concep­tual framework for the most essential project char­acteristics, particularly complexity. Furthermore, despite the investigation of a few contextual fea­tures in prior studies, it is imperative to consider the appropriate leadership style of a project manager in relation to the characteristics of organizational structure, culture, project team members, and other relevant factors. Based on these summarized findings, there is a need for research investigating project characteris­tics and contextual features in detail to underpin the appropriate project managers’ leadership style, by means of deductive reasoning. To accomplish a well-established deductive reasoning process, first there is a need to highlight project characteristics, contex­tual features, and the features of the fundamental leadership styles, which provide the basis for further empirical studies. Such studies need to have two aims: to highlight the relationships between the in­herent project characteristics and the features of the fundamental leadership styles; and to highlight the relationships between the contextual features and the features of the fundamental leadership styles. Based on these relationships, true premises might be formulated, by means of which valid con­clusions may be formulated regarding the appropri­ate use of the fundamental leadership styles. This study is limited in its scope, because it is mainly theoretical and does not provide empirical evidence to support its claims. Although it provides mainly theoretical contributions, the proposed com­prehensive research could have significant implica­tions for practitioners. The expected outcomes have the potential to match project managers’ leadership styles with the unique features of a project and its environment. In this way, a well-established frame­work could be developed for the selection of project managers, replacing the current trial-and-error pro­cess. The proposed framework would enable project managers and human resource departments to bet­ter understand the interdependencies between leadership styles and the characteristics of a project and the project context. 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Vol. 12, No. 1, 107-119 doi:10.17708/DRMJ.2023.v12n01a07 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Gabriella Cserháti: Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles 108 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 109 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Gabriella Cserháti: Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles 110 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 111 Table 1: Milestones of leadership theories Source: authors’ compilation based on Northouse (2001) and Buchanan and Huczynski (2004). Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Gabriella Cserháti: Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles 112 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 113 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Gabriella Cserháti: Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles 114 Table 2: Project type and project characteristics analyzed in previous studies Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 115 Table 3: Contextual features analyzed in previous studies Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Gabriella Cserháti: Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles 116 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 117 EXTENDED SUMMARY/IZVLECEK Projektni manager s svojim vodstvenim slogom bistveno vpliva na uspeh projekta. Vendar za le-to ne obstaja en sam najbolj primeren stil vodenja. Lastnosti projekta in organizacijski kontekst dolocajo, kateri vodstveni slog bi lahko bil primeren v razlicnih situacijah. Da bi zagotovili jasno sliko kompleksnosti kontekstualnih znacilnosti, stila vodenja in njegovega odnosa do uspeha projekta, je potrebna sistematicna raziskava clankov o vodstvenem stilu, ki se osredotocajo na upravljanje pro­jektov. Namen tega clanka je dvojen: zagotoviti analizo vsebine prejšnjih clankov in s tem ugotoviti, kateri pristopi k vodstvenemu slogu so bili raziskani v projektnem managementu; in zagotoviti po­drobno analizo prejšnjih ugotovitev študij managementa projektov v smislu ujemanja lastnosti pro­jekta in organizacijskih znacilnosti z ustreznim vodstvenim slogom vodje projekta. Ugotovitve tega clanka ponujajo celovito analizo preteklih rezultatov in hkrati poudarjajo slabosti v smislu zanemar­jenih vidikov konceptualizacije in pomanjkljivosti. Rezultati kažejo na pomanjkanje celovitih študij povezanih s kontekstom vodenja projektnih vodij. Zato je potrebna raziskava, ki bi podrobno preucila lastnosti projekta in kontekstualne znacilnosti ter bi z deduktivnim sklepanjem dolocila ustrezen vod­stveni slog vodje projekta. Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 Gabriella Cserháti: Highlighting Approaches to Leadership Style in Project Management: The Need for a Broader Research Approach to the Context-Related Use of Leadership Styles 118 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 119 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 120 Dynamic Relationships Management Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1, May 2023 121 AUTHOR GUIDELINES 1.GENERAL INFORMATION All articles submitted to the Dynamic Relationships Management Journal are double-blind reviewed. The manuscript should submitted via e-mail to the editor (matej.cerne@ef.uni-lj.si). 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