Vishal Gupta | Indian Insitute of Management Ahmedabad (original) (raw)

Papers by Vishal Gupta

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

The present study examines the relationships between leadership, psychological capital and employ... more The present study examines the relationships between leadership, psychological capital and employee creative performance behaviors in the Indian R&D context. A survey-based study was conducted in 11 government-owned R&D laboratories across India and 496 usable responses were collected. Data analyses, performed using the structural equation modeling technique, revealed that psychological capital fully mediates the relationship between leadership and creative performance behaviors. R&D leaders who display positive behaviors are more likely to aid the development of their subordinates’ positive psychological capacities. Employees with higher psychological capital engage in greater creative behaviors, improving the chances of producing creative outcomes. In addition, such employees will need less supervision and will be less dependent on leadership for directions and day-to-day work. The implication for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2014

IIMB Management Review

The authors report an inventory of leader behaviours that can promote creativity among R&D profes... more The authors report an inventory of leader behaviours that can promote creativity among R&D professionals. Specifically, we constructed and quantitatively validated a scale that was previously developed, using a qualitative approach. Toward this goal, we surveyed 584 scientists from 11 R&D laboratories scattered across the country. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the rating responses disclosed five leader behaviour factors: (a) task-orientation, (b) recognising and inspiring, (c) empowering, (d) team-building and developing, and (e) leading-by-example. Given acceptable evidence for convergent and discriminant validities of the factors, we argue for the use of our scale in future research in and management of creativity in R&D laboratories.

Management Research Review

Purpose - The apparent differences between the leadership requirements of traditional and empower... more Purpose - The apparent differences between the leadership requirements of traditional and empowered environments suggest that traditional measures of leadership may not be applicable to empowered team environments. Through an exhaustive literature review and a series of in-depth interviews with scientists in five national R&D labs in India, the study develops a set of leader behaviors having high potential to impact creativity of R&D professionals.
Design/methodology/approach - Fifty-two interviews were conducted with scientists of five Indian R&D labs located in five different cities of India. The interview transcripts were content coded and a list of behavior items were generated. The list of items was given to five doctoral students to sort them into different behavior categories. Each behavior incident was coded using a modified version of the leader behavior taxonomy presented in the Managerial Practices Survey (MPS) (Yukl, Wall and Lepsinger, 1990).
Findings - Based on the consistency score, a final list of 52 behavior items representing 5 behavior metacategories was generated that has high potential of promoting employee creativity. A set of contextual variables was identified that can moderate the impact of leadership on employee creativity.
Research limitations/implications - A large-scale follow-up survey would be useful to find out which of the identified leader behaviors do indeed have the proposed connection with employees’ creativity.
Practical implications - The identified behaviors can be of immense help to practitioners who often wrestle with the task of identifying appropriate behaviors that can ensure leader effectiveness.
Originality/value - This is the first study of its type and identifies a set of leader behaviors that can promote creative performance of R&D professionals.

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

While research exploring the relationship between leadership and creativity is scant, there exist... more While research exploring the relationship between leadership and creativity is scant, there exists even smaller research analyzing the impact of specific supervisory behaviors on creativity. The first part of the study identifies a set of supervisory behaviors that has the potential to impact Employee Creativity. The second part of the study addresses the mechanisms through which leaders influence Employee Creativity and presents organizational justice perceptions, positive psychological capital and work motivation as important mediating variables. The study uses a combination of in-depth interviews and literature review to develop a causal framework linking leadership to Employee Creativity.

Psychological Studies

Knowledge about dimensionality of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is essential for cond... more Knowledge about dimensionality of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) is essential for conducting any future research on the construct. The present study explores the suitability of OCB conceptualization developed by Organ (1988) in Indian business context. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to test the dimensionality of the 5-factor OCB conceptualization. Based on the results of CFA alternate conceptualizations were explored. A three factor conceptualization consisting of ‘organization-orientation’, ‘punctuality’ and ‘individual-orientation’ factors showed excellent fit with data. Concurrent validity of factors was tested with organizational justice, organizational identification and job tenure. ‘Organization-orientation’ and ‘individual-orientation’ emerged as significant dimensions of OCB. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Proceedings of 2011 Annual Meeting of Southern Management Association

Few studies have focused on understanding how leadership is related to creativity. The first part... more Few studies have focused on understanding how leadership is related to creativity. The first part of the study identifies a set of supervisor behaviors that has high potential to impact employee creativity. The second part of the study extends leadership theories by linking leader behaviors to employee creativity through justice perceptions, psychological capital and intrinsic motivation. The paper develops understanding about the role of extrinsic motivation in enhancing employee creativity and about the interrelationships between justice perceptions, psychological capital and intrinsic motivation. The study uses a combination of in-depth interviews and literature review to provide insights into the leadership-creativity relationship.

Proceeding of 2010 Annual Meeting of Southern Management Association, US

Based on ideas of the resource-based view of the firm and strategic Human Resource Management (HR... more Based on ideas of the resource-based view of the firm and strategic Human Resource Management (HRM), the study identifies the set of HRM practices that have the potential to lead to high-performance organizations. Taking a relational perspective, we explore the link of high-performance HRM practices with Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and the role of Organizational Justice as a possible mediating variable for the relationship between HRM practices and OCB. Study presented here provides a conceptual framework linking HRM practices, OCB and organizational justice and should further the research in the domain of high-performance HRM practices.

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management

Emotional intelligence (EI) involves the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions a... more Emotional intelligence (EI) involves the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought. Over the past two decades, EI has emerged as one of the most visible and high-profile constructs in individual differences research. Although proponents of EI argue that it affects people’s physical and mental health as well as career achievements, there has been debate about both the conceptual definition and empirical measures of EI in recent years. In this paper, we first discuss the definition and domain of the EI construct. Next, we develop psychometrically sound and practically short ability-based EI measure using three different samples. The 20-item scale shows significant correlation with academic achievement and conflict avoidance behaviour. This developmental effort could facilitate future EI studies for Indian society, in particular, and for other Asian countries, in general.

Employee Relations

Purpose – Performance appraisal is one of the most important human resource management practices ... more Purpose – Performance appraisal is one of the most important human resource management practices as it yields critical decisions integral to various human resource actions and outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between perceptions of performance appraisal fairness and employee engagement in the Indian business context.

Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in two parts. The first part explored the relationship between justice perceptions and a one-dimensional conceptualization of engagement. The second part explored the relationship between justice perceptions and a three-dimensional conceptualization of engagement. The relationships between justice perceptions and engagement were analyzed using zero-order correlations and hierarchical regression analysis.

Findings – The study findings suggest a significant positive association between distributive and informational justice dimensions and employee engagement. Distributive justice and informational justice dimensions were found to have a stronger impact on employee engagement conceptualized as antipode of burnout.

Research limitations/implications – The research was cross-sectional and so any inferences regarding causality are limited. All responses on engagement and justice scales are from self-report measures and it is likely that method variance inflated the relationships among these variables.

Practical implications – Psychometrically valid scales for performance appraisal justice and engagement were developed and tests of relationships between them have been established. The study suggests that distributive and informational justice perceptions during a performance appraisal session lead to enhanced engagement among employees.

Originality/value – The study tests the relationship between performance appraisal justice and employee engagement in the Indian context. A significant positive relationship between some performance appraisal justice dimensions and engagement has been established. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, such a study is the first of its kind undertaken in the Indian context.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

Cross-cultural research shows that while the concerns about organizational justice may be univers... more Cross-cultural research shows that while the concerns about organizational justice may be universal, operationalization of justice standards is highly particularistic (Greenberg 2001). The present study explores the dimensionality of organizational justice in the Indian context. Apart from procedural justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice, another justice dimension, labelled as empowerment justice, emerged during the study. Next, the study tests the relationships between justice dimensions and Organ's (1988) 5-factor conceptualization of organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), namely helping, compliance, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue behaviours. The perception of empowerment justice influences helping, compliance, sportsmanship, and civic virtue dimensions of OCB. Interpersonal justice significantly predicts courtesy behaviour. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Conference Presentations by Vishal Gupta

Synthesizing the ideas of high-performance Human Resource Management (HRM), positive psychologica... more Synthesizing the ideas of high-performance Human Resource Management (HRM), positive psychological capital, and componential theory of creativity, the present study develops a multi-level causal framework linking high-performance work practices (HPWP), positive psychological capital, employee creative performance behaviors and creative performance. The paper argues that to provide a convincing explanation of the association between HRM practices and creativity, we need to improve our theoretical understanding in three key areas. These are the nature of HRM, and especially the rationale for the specific lists of HR practices; the linkage between HRM practices and employee creativity; and the ‘black-box’ linking HRM practices and employee creativity. A model is presented to explore these linkages. The existing literatures on HRM, Creativity and PsyCap are reviewed and directions for future research are provided.

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2014

IIMB Management Review

Management Research Review

The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations

Psychological Studies

Proceedings of 2011 Annual Meeting of Southern Management Association

Proceeding of 2010 Annual Meeting of Southern Management Association, US

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management

Employee Relations

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

The present study tests the relationships between leader behaviors, psychological capital and emp... more The present study tests the relationships between leader behaviors, psychological capital and employee creative performance behaviors in the Indian R&D context. A survey-based study was conducted in 11 government-owned R&D laboratories across India and 496 usable responses were collected. Data analysis, performed using Structural Equation Modeling technique, revealed that psychological capital fully mediates the relationship between leadership and creative behaviors. The study provides an insight into the underlying process through which leadership impacts employee creativity. The characteristics of R&D professionals (more educated, and having distinct goal orientations) and the nature of R&D projects (high risks of failures, uncertain processes) make R&D a unique and interesting context to study. To the best of our knowledge this study is first of its kind to be conducted in the R&D context.

Purpose – The study is a part of an ongoing research on leadership and R&D management being condu... more Purpose – The study is a part of an ongoing research on leadership and R&D management being conducted in the Indian R&D laboratories. The first part of the study conducts an exploratory factor analysis of the leader behavior questionnaire developed by the authors for the R&D context and condenses the behavior items into a more limited number of underlying dimensions. The second part of the study tests the relationships between leader behaviors, organizational justice perceptions and employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach – A survey-based study was conducted in 11 government-owned R&D laboratories across India. 492 usable responses were collected. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed on the data to test the hypothesized relationships between variables.
Findings – 5 leader behavior dimensions (recognizing, clarifying/supporting, leading by example, team building, and empowering) emerged from the study. Significant relationships were found between leader behaviors, justice perceptions and subjective and objective measures of creativity.
Managerial Implications – The identified behaviors can be of immense help to practitioners who often wrestle with the task of identifying appropriate behaviors that can ensure leader effectiveness. An important contribution of the study is that it demonstrates relationships between leadership and justice perceptions with both subjective and objective measures of creativity.

The present work develops a set of leader behaviors having high potential to impact creativity of... more The present work develops a set of leader behaviors having high potential to impact creativity of R&D professionals. Fifty-two interviews were conducted with scientists of five Indian R&D labs. The interview transcripts were content coded and a list of behavior items were generated. Next, the list of behavior items was administered to R&D scientists and 584 responses were obtained. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed the existence of 5 behavior metacategories, namely, task-oriented behavior, relation-oriented behavior, team-building behavior, empowering behavior and leading-by-example behavior. The identified behaviors can be of immense help to managers involved in the management of creative employees.

Reactions to performance appraisal are believed to significantly influence the effectiveness and ... more Reactions to performance appraisal are believed to significantly influence the effectiveness and the overall viability of appraisal systems. The present study explores the relationship between perceptions of performance appraisal fairness and employee engagement in Indian business context. The study was conducted in two parts. Part I (N=203) of the study explores the relationship between justice perceptions and a one-dimensional conceptualization of engagement while part II (N=120) explores the relationship between justice perceptions and a three-dimensional conceptualization. Both the studies show significant positive association between with performance appraisal fairness and employee engagement. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Employee Creativity is a topic of great importance for present day management. Employee superviso... more Employee Creativity is a topic of great importance for present day management. Employee supervisors are, possibly, one of the most immediate and potent influencers of their creativity. While the research exploring the relationship between leadership and creativity is scant, there exists even smaller research analyzing the impact of specific supervisory behaviors on employee’s creativity. The study identifies a set of supervisory behaviors that have the potential to impact employee creativity. Fifty-two interviews were conducted with scientists of five Indian R&D labs located in five different cities of northern India. The interview transcripts were content coded and a list of behavior items were generated. The list of items was given to five doctoral students to sort them into different behavior categories. Each behavior incident was coded using a modified version of the leader behavior taxonomy presented in the Managerial Practices Survey (MPS) (Yukl, 2002, 2008). Based on the consistency score, a final list of 52 behavior items representing 13 behavior categories was generated that have high potential of promoting employee creativity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Based on the ideas of high-performance Human Resource Management (HRM), the study identifies a se... more Based on the ideas of high-performance Human Resource Management (HRM), the study identifies a set of High-Performance Work Practices (HPWP) for the Indian cultural context. Next, the study explores the relationship between HPWP identified and employee creativity. Lastly, the study builds on the concepts of positive psychology and presents positive Psychological Capital (PsyCap) as a possible mediating variable for the relationship between HPWP and employee creativity. The paper argues that to provide a convincing explanation of the association between HRM practices and creativity, we need to improve our theoretical understanding in three key areas. These are the nature of HRM, and especially the rationale for the specific lists of HR practices; the linkage between HRM practices and employee creativity; and the ‘black-box’ linking HRM practices and employee creativity. A model is presented to explore these linkages. The existing literatures on HRM, Creativity and PsyCap are reviewed and directions for future research are provided.

Cross-cultural research shows that while the concerns about Organizational Justice may be univers... more Cross-cultural research shows that while the concerns about Organizational Justice may be universal, operationalization of justice standards is highly particularistic (Greenberg, 2001: 365). The suitability of Procedural, Interpersonal and Informational Justice dimensions in the Indian cultural and economic context is explored. The study also tests the relationship of each Organizational Justice dimensions with the dimensions of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). Apart from Procedural Justice, Interpersonal Justice and Informational Justice, another dimension of Organizational Justice labeled as Empowerment Justice emerged during the study. Empowerment Justice has the strongest relationship with ‘helping’, ‘compliance’ and ‘civic virtue’ dimensions of OCB. Procedural Justice has the strongest relationship with ‘sportsmanship’ dimension while Interpersonal Justice has the strongest relationship with ‘courtesy’ dimension of OCB. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

IIM Calcutta Working Paper Series 711

The present study tests the relationships between leader behaviors, psychological capital and e... more The present study tests the relationships between leader behaviors, psychological capital and employee creative performance behaviors in the Indian R&D context. A survey-based study was conducted in 11 government-owned R&D laboratories across India and 496 usable responses were collected. Data analysis, performed using Structural Equation Modeling technique, revealed that psychological capital fully mediates the relationship between leadership and creative behaviors. The study provides an insight into the underlying process through which leadership impacts employee creativity. The characteristics of R&D professionals (more educated, and having distinct goal orientations) and the nature of R&D projects (high risks of failures, uncertain processes) make R&D a unique and interesting context to study. To the best of our knowledge this study is first of its kind to be conducted in the R&D context.

IIM Calcutta Working Paper Series 710

Using a qualitative approach Gupta and Singh (in press) developed an inventory of leader behavior... more Using a qualitative approach Gupta and Singh (in press) developed an inventory of leader behaviors that promote employee creativity. In this study, we construct and validate scales that can measure the leader behaviors proposed by Gupta and Singh (in press) quantitatively. We surveyed 584 scientists working in 11 Indian R&D laboratories for this purpose. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed five creativity enhancing leader behaviours - task-oriented, recognising and inspiring, empowering, team-building and developing, and leading-by-example. We discuss the implications of the study findings for future research and management practices.

IIM Lucknow Working Paper Series 2011-12/12

Purpose – The apparent differences between the leadership requirements of traditional and empower... more Purpose – The apparent differences between the leadership requirements of traditional and empowered environments suggest that traditional measures of leadership may not be applicable to empowered team environments. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies, the present work develops a set of leader behaviors having high potential to impact creativity of R&D professionals.
Design/methodology/approach – Fifty-two interviews were conducted with scientists of five Indian R&D labs located in five different cities of India. The interview transcripts were content coded and a list of behavior items were generated. The list of items was given to five doctoral students to sort them into different behavior categories. Based on the consistency score, a final list of 52 behavior items representing 5 behavior metacategories was generated. Next, a survey study was conducted in 11 government-owned R&D laboratories across India. The list of behavior items was administered to R&D scientists. 584 responses were obtained and analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings – The results of study supported the existence of 5 leader behavior metacategories, namely, task-oriented behavior, relation-oriented behavior, team-building behavior, empowering behavior and leading by example behavior.
Practical Implications – The identified behaviors can be of immense help to practitioners who often wrestle with the task of identifying appropriate behaviors that can ensure leader effectiveness.
Originality/Value – This is the first study of its type and identifies a set of leader behaviors that can promote creative performance of R&D professionals.

IIM Lucknow Working Paper Series 2010-11/18

Employee Creativity is a topic of great importance for present day management. ‘Local leaders’ (i... more Employee Creativity is a topic of great importance for present day management. ‘Local leaders’ (i.e. employee supervisors) are one of the most immediate and potent influencers of employee creativity. Few studies have, however, focused on understanding how these ‘local leaders’ influence employee creativity. While the research exploring the relationship between leadership styles and creativity is scant, there exists even less research analyzing the impact of specific leader behaviors on employee creativity. Moreover, there exists a dearth of studies analyzing the influence of leaders on employee perceptual and psychological processes and eventually their creative performance. Taking leave from the popular two-factor classifications of leadership like transformational-transactional and consideration-initiating structure, the first part of the study identifies important supervisory behaviors that impact employee creativity. The second part presents work motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic motivations), positive psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience) and justice perceptions (distributive, procedural and interactional justice perceptions) as important mediating variables for the leadership-creativity relationship. The paper identifies patterns of behaviors that can influence each of the proposed mediating variables. The paper is conceptual in nature and provides seeds for future research.

IIM Lucknow Working Paper Series 2010-11/17

IIM Lucknow Working Paper Series 2010-11/16

Based on the ideas of high-performance management, the study identifies a set of High-Performance... more Based on the ideas of high-performance management, the study identifies a set of High-Performance Work Practices (HPWP) important for the performance of present day organizations and explores the relationship between HPWP identified and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) – an important predictor of organizational performance. The study builds on the concepts of positive psychology and presents positive Psychological Capital (PsyCap) as a possible mediating variable for the relationship between HPWP and OCB. HPWP, OCB and PsyCap have been presented as organization-level constructs. The study presents state-of-the-art review of HRM and OB literatures and should provide seeds for future research.

IIM Lucknow Working Paper Series 2010-11/15

Research on whether Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) takes different forms in varying cu... more Research on whether Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) takes different forms in varying cultures and economic systems (Farh, Zhong, and Organ, 2002; Organ, Podaksoff and Mackenzie, 2006) show that there exist differences in dimensions most applicable to a particular national culture and argue strongly for considering culture in the process of operationalizing OCB. The suitability of basic OCB conceptualization developed by Organ (1988) in the Indian cultural and economic context is explored. ‘Organization-orientation’ and ‘time-orientation’ are the two dimensions that emerge as significant dimensions of OCB. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

IIM Lucknow Working Paper Series 2009-10/29

Based on ideas of the resource-based view of the firm and strategic Human Resource Management (HR... more Based on ideas of the resource-based view of the firm and strategic Human Resource Management (HRM), the study identifies the set of HRM practices that should lead to high-performance of Indian firms. Taking a relational perspective, we explore the link of high-performance HRM practices with Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in the Indian context. Finally, role of Organizational Justice as a possible mediating variable for the relationship between HRM practices and OCB has been analyzed. Study presented here should lead to further research in the domain of high-performance HRM practices in the Indian context.

Misra, G. (Ed.) The Sixth Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) Survey of Psychology in India, forthcoming.

Organizational performance is the ultimate dependent variable of interest for researchers concern... more Organizational performance is the ultimate dependent variable of interest for researchers concerned with just about any area of management. The chapter presents a review of the research that has happened in the area of organizational performance during the period 2003-2010. The chapter begins with a presentation on the issue of performance measurement and the associated challenges. Next, it documents the research that has linked individual-level, group-level and organization-level variables to organizational performance. Not only does the chapter present a description of studies but also presents their critical appreciation bringing out salient points, theoretical and conceptual contributions, the limitations, gaps and the scope of future research. Important areas, themes and issues that need attention are brought into focus. In the end, a causal model incorporating the insights gained from the survey has been presented, that provides a detailed, multiple-level process framework linking antecedent variables to organizational performance. The framework provides a set of working hypotheses that should set the course of future organizational performance research in the Indian context.