Date of Award

Spring 5-27-2022

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Department

Accountancy

First Advisor

Erich C. Dierdorff

Second Advisor

Robert S. Rubin

Third Advisor

Grace Lemmon

Abstract

Communication is a crucial component connecting individuals to organizational processes, ultimately impacting firm performance outcomes. While numerous studies have investigated communication in the workplace, few have examined communication behavior styles and the mechanisms by which they come to impact individual performance outcomes. This dissertation investigated how communication behavior styles and impression management tactics affect individual performance outcomes (communication effectiveness, citizenship performance, and task proficiency) across variable situational constraints in organizational settings. Participants were 152 working professionals enrolled in graduate business programs, with performance outcomes derived from supervisory ratings. This dissertation makes four primary contributions to the existing literature. First, this study suggests that some communication styles appear to demonstrate predictive validity beyond broader HEXACO personality dimensions (i.e., preciseness and impression manipulativeness). Second, the communication styles of preciseness, questioningness, emotionality, and impression manipulativeness accounted for variance in individuals’ communication effectiveness, citizenship performance, and task proficiency. Additionally, the impression management tactic of ingratiation mediated the relationships between the communication styles of emotionality and impression manipulativeness onto citizenship performance. Self-promotion mediated the relationship between expressiveness and both communication effectiveness and citizenship performance. Finally, while accountability was predicted to attenuate the indirect effects of communication styles via impression management tactics on performance effectiveness, the extent to which these conditional indirect effects on performance outcomes were minimal.

Share

COinS