Abstract

This thesis collects three articles that explore the construct of reflected appraisal –individuals’ beliefs about how they are seen in the eyes of others. These manuscripts are linked by the overarching question “How do employees manage the bombardment of myriad reflected appraisals in their daily organizational lives?” To address this, the articles examine four workplace manifestations of reflected appraisals that are represented by the constructs of perceived supervisor support, organizational support, respect and external prestige (also called image) while considering the referents inherent in each construct (i.e., Co-workers, team members, the employing organization and external stakeholders). The theoretical manuscript (article 1) examines the four reflected appraisals together, asking what contextual and individual factors predict which reflected appraisals employees are more likely to focus on and when. We use employees’ work-roles as the key construct that links these factors together, arguing that self-motives drive individuals to focus on some reflected appraisals under the constraint of accountability and interdependence that are part of the organizational structure. The quantitative manuscript (article 2) examines the concurrent impact of respect and prestige on relational and organizational identification. In a survey of student-athletes from varsity sports teams, we found that the matching principle prevailed: Prestige and respect that are focused on the relationship predicted relational identification while respect and prestige focused on the collective predicted organizational identification. However, prestige was the better predictor of both the relational and organizational foci. The qualitative manuscript (article 3) focuses on organizational image and explores how individuals respond to perceived organizational stigma. I interviewed employees of general contractors during a city-wide scandal in which various audiences marked their organizations as “the enemy” by virtue of their category-membership. I found that interviewees negotiated two images that embodied individuating and de-individuating reflected appraisals of their organization. Furthermore, employees constructed these images using various sources of information that they integrated into their reflected appraisals. Overall, the three articles demonstrate that employees actively engage with a plethora of reflected appraisals from multiple referents in the organizational environment.