Workplace Relationship Quality and Employee Information Experiences

This application of mind examined the extent to which the amount and quality of work-related information employee received was associated with the quality of their relationships with mate co-workers and their immediate supervisors. be the effects indicated that supervisor-subordinate relationship quality was positively related to one as well as the other the amount and quality of information employee received from their immediate supervisor. In addition, employees' proportions of information compeer relationships were negatively related, and their proportions of collegial mate relationships were positively related, to the quality of information they received from their co-workers. Regression analyses also indicated that the quality of information employee received from their supervisors and co-workers was positively related to their piece of work satisfaction and commitment to the organization.

Keywords: Workplace Relationships; Leader-Member Exchange Theory; Information; Co-worker Relationships; Satisfaction; Organizational Commitment; match Relationships

A great deal of research indicates the importance of employee being adequately informed (eg Miller, 1996; Miller & Jablin, 1991) This material substance of work demonstrates that the better informed employee are, the les uncertain they are, the more satisfied they are with their piece of works and the better their perceived performance (Brown & Mitchell, 1993) Informed employee also look after to make better decisions and enhance organizational knowledge disclosure and distribution (Sharda, Frankwick, & Turetken 1999) Scholars increasingly note that, in the common U.S. service and knowledge-based economy, information has "replaced tangible resources as a measure of power" (Eisenberg & Goodall, 2004 p 16) and is the "fundamental ingredient" in today's organizations (Wheatley, 1994 2001) With more than half of the U labor force involved in the processing of information, individuals with the best access to information, and organizations with the greatest in quantity well-informed employees, are the greatest in quantity likely to succeed (Eisenberg & Goodall, 2004; Wheatley, 2001)

Certainly, a certain number of employees are better informed than others. This variance is associated with a variety of factors including the amplitude to which they actively look for out information (e.g., Kramer, 1994; Morrison, 1993) and the amount of information others (eg a supervisor) have available to provide the employee (eg to leeward 1998; PeIz, 1952). Another potential influence upon an employee's information experiences is the quality of that employee's relationships with his/her supervisor and mate co-workers. This is particularly relevant to veteran employee (relative to fresh employees) whose workplace relationships have had time to disclose and likely vary with have a high opinion of to quality. To address this possibility, the at hand study examined the association between workplace relationship quality and the amplitude to which employees receive adequate amounts of quality information.

Review of Prior Scholarship

Much research attention has been given to employee information seeking and information receiving. This material substance of research generally focuses upon why, how, and from whom, employee obtain information (eg Kramer, Callister, & Turban, 1995; Miller & Jablin, 1991; Morrison, 1993) Studies consistently demonstrate that employee rely primarily upon their immediate supervisors and departmental co-workers for job- and organization-related information. It is important to note that this material part of work focuses primarily upon the experiences of new employee (eg Kramer, 1994; Miller, 1996; Miller & Jablin, 1991) Veteran employee however, also hang upon, and seek, information from their co-workers. Unfortunately, the information experiences of these employee are largely ignored in research. This oversight likely explains wherefore no research has examined in what manner an employee's information experiences may be associated with the quality of his/her various workplace relationships. Newcomer research assumes of recent origin employees suffer large amounts of uncertainty and try to find information upon beginning their piece of works to reduce that uncertainty. This information restores employee uncertainty and, after a extent of time, the newcomers become informed veteran employee At the beginning stages of calling newcomers' relationships with supervisors and match co-workers have had little time to exhibit and, therefore, vary little with have a high opinion of to quality. Consequently, relationship quality is unlikely to be a major influence upon newcomer information experiences.

Veteran employee also experience work-related uncertainty, however. Sias and Wyer (2001) for example, set in a longitudinal study that while many factors (eg social take away from perceptions) changed over time as wait fored employee levels of uncertainty and information seeking (regarding task, appraisal, and relational issues) remained stable. They explained this proceed by suggesting that while information may bring an employee's uncertainty regarding a specific issue, posterior events may cause that employee to have feeling uncertain regarding another issue. Thus, uncertainty is a natural and pervasive aspect of any employee's working life, whether newcomer or veteran. In contrast to newcomer veteran employees' relationships with their supervisors and match co-workers have had ample time to lay open and it is likely that different employees' workplace relationships vary with esteem to quality. Research that examines the ways in which workplace relationship quality is associated with employee information experiences could therefore, increase our understanding of the differential information experiences of veteran employee The remainder of this section discusses the ways in which workplace relationship quality may impact the information employee receive.