A HIERARCHICAL APPROACH FOR DEFINING AND CLASSIFYING CONSTRUCTS IN MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING RESEARCH: EXAMPLES FROM THE FIELD OF DYSFUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Purpose - Construct clarity and overlapping problems are obvious in management and marketing literatures. Moreover, they cause serious methodological problems. It is vital to provide meaningful definition and classification procedures for management and marketing phenomena. Current paper argues that defining and classifying constructs using hierarchical approach can provide clear and practically meaningful construct definitions and classifications.    

Methodology - Current paper reviews construct definition articles in the fields of management, marketing and psychology in order to provide hierarchical construct definition and classification procedure. Authors also apply this procedure in the field of dysfunctional behavior, which has seriously suffered from construct definition overlaps.

Findings- Although previous literature tends to classify constructs dichotomously (latent constructs and observable variables), our literature review discovers more than two levels in the hierarchical abstraction-generalizability continuum, such as umbrella and bridging constructs. 

Conclusion- Current paper concludes that using hierarchical criteria map for defining and classifying constructs may cause meaningful, distinct (but not disconnected) construct definitions, which clearly target real world phenomena.  

Keywords

• Construct definition,dysfunctional behavior,construct clarity,umbrella constructs,bridging constructs

References

1. Ackroyd, S., and Thompson, P. (1999). Organizational Misbehaviour: London: SAGE Publications.
2. Aquino, K., and Thau, S. (2009). Workplace victimization: Aggression from the target's perspective. Annual review of psychology, 60 (1), 717-741.
3. Babakus, E., and Boller, G. W. (1992). An empirical assessment of the SERVQUAL scale. Journal of Business research, 24(3), 253-268.
4. Babin, B. J., and Babin, L. A. (1996). Effects of moral cognitions and consumer emotions on shoplifting intentions. Psychology and Marketing, 13(8), 785-802.
5. Bacharach, S. B. (1989). Organizational Theories: Criteria Some for Evaluation What Theory Is Not: Data, Typologies, and Metaphors, Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 496–515.
6. Bagozzi, R. P. (2007) On the Meaning of Formative Measurement and How It Differs from Reflective Measurement: Comment on Howell, Breivik, and Wilcox. Psychological Methods, 12(2), 229–237.
7. Bagozzi, R. P. (2011). Measurement and Meaning in Information Systems and Organizational Research: Methodological and Philosophical Foundations”, MIS Quarterly, 35(2), 261–292.
8. Bagozzi, R. P., and Edwards, J. R. (1998). A general approach for representing constructs in organizational research. Organizational research methods, 1(1), 45-87.

9. Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
10. Baron, R. A., and Neuman, J. H. (1996). Workplace violence and workplace aggression: Evidence on their relative frequency and potential causes. Aggressive behavior, 22(3), 161-173.
11. Brady, M. K., and Cronin Jr, J. J. (2001). Some new thoughts on conceptualizing perceived service quality: a hierarchical approach. Journal of marketing, 65(3), 34-49.
12. Brady, M. K., Cronin Jr, J. J., and Brand, R. R. (2002). Performance-only measurement of service quality: a replication and extension. Journal of business research, 55(1), 17-31.
13. Buss, A. H. (1961). The Psychology of Aggression, New York: Wiley.
14. Churchill, G. A. (1979). A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16(1), 64-73.
15. Cole, M. S., Walter, F., Bedeian, A. G., and O’Boyle, E. H. (2012). Job Burnout and Employee Engagement: A Meta-Analytic Examination of Construct Proliferation. Journal of Management, 38(5), 1550–1581.
16. Cronin Jr, J. J., and Taylor, S. A. (1992) Measuring service quality: a reexamination and extension, The Journal of Marketing, 56 (3), 55-68.
17. Dabholkar, P. A., Thorpe, D. I., and Rentz, J. O. (1996). A measure of service quality for retail stores: scale development and validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 24(1), 3-16.
18. DiRenzo, G. J. (1966). Concepts, theory and explanation in the behavioral sciences. New York: Random House.
19. Echambadi, R., Campbell, B., and Agarwal, R. (2006). Encouraging Best Practice in Quantitative Management Research: An Incomplete List of Opportunities. Journal of Management Studies, 43(8), 1801–1820.
20. Edwards, J. R. (2001). Multidimensional Constructs in Organizational Behavior Research: An Integrative Analytical Framework. Organizational Research Methods, 4(2), 144–192.
21. Edwards, J. R., and Bagozzi, R. P. (2000). On the Nature and Direction of Relationships Between Constructs and Measures. Psychological Methods, 5(2), 155-174
22. Fisk, R., Grove, S., Harris, L. C., Keeffe, D. A., Daunt, K. L., Russell-Bennett, R., and Wirtz, J. (2010). Customers behaving badly: a state of the art review, research agenda and implications for practitioners. Journal of Services Marketing, 24(6), 417–429.
23. Floyd, S. W., Cornelissen, J. P., Wright, M., and Delios, A. (2011). Processes and practices of strategizing and organizing: Review, development, and the role of bridging and umbrella constructs. Journal of Management Studies, 48(5), 933–952.
24. Fowler III, A. R. (2007). Hooligan’s Holiday: Rethinking Deviant Consumer Behavior and Marketing. In G. Fitzsimons and V. Morvitz (Eds.), ACR North American Advances in Consumer Research, 34, 45–46. Duluth.
25. Fuglsang, L., and Jagd, S. (2015). Making sense of institutional trust in organizations: Bridging institutional context and trust. Organization, 22(1), 23–39.
26. Fullerton, R. A., and Punj, G. (1997). Can Consumer Misbehavior Be Controlled? A Critical Analysis of Two Major Control Techniques. Advances in Consumer Research, 24, 340–344.
27. Fullerton, R. A., and Punj, G. (2004). Repercussions of promoting an ideology of consumption: Consumer misbehavior. Journal of Business Research, 57(11), 1239–1249.
28. Gerring, J. (2001). Social science methodology: A criterial framework. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29. Gilliam, D. A., and Voss, K. (2013). A proposed procedure for construct definition in marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 47(1/2), 5– 26.
30. Glomb, T. M., and Liao, H. (2003). Interpersonal aggression in work groups: Social influence, reciprocal, and individual effects. Academy of Management Journal, 46(4), 486-496.
31. Goertz, G. (2009). Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
32. Greer, D. A. (2015). Defective co-creation: Developing a typology of consumer dysfunction in professional services. European Journal of Marketing, 49(1/2), 238–261.
33. Griffin, R. W., O’Leary-Kelly, A., and Collins, J. (1998). Dysfunctional work behavior in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior: Trends in Organizational Behavior, 5, 65-82
34. Griffin, R. W., and O’Leary-Kelly, A. M. (2004). “An Introduction to the Dark Side”, In R. W. Griffin and A. M. O’Leary-Kelly (Eds.), The Dark Side of Organizational Behavior, 1–19, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
35. Guidroz, A. M., Burnfield-Geimer, J. L., Clark, O., Schwetschenau, H. M., and Jex, S. M. (2010) The nursing incivility scale: Development and validation of an occupation-specific measure. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 18(3), 176.
36. Harris, L. C. (2008). Fraudulent Return Proclivity: An Empirical Analysis. Journal of Retailing, 84(4), 461–476.
37. Harris, L. C. (2013). Service employees and customer phone rage: An empirical analysis. European Journal of Marketing, 47(3/4), 463-484.
38. Harris, L. C., and Ogbonna, E. (2002). Exploring service sabotage: The antecedents, types and consequences of frontline, deviant, antiservice behaviors. Journal of Service Research, 4(3), 163–183.
39. Harris, L. C., and Reynolds, K. L. (2003). The consequences of dysfunctional customer behavior, Journal of Service Research, 6(2), 144–161.
40. Harris, L. C., and Reynolds, K. L. (2004). Jaycustomer behavior: an exploration of types and motives in the hospitality industry. Journal of Services Marketing, 18(5), 339–357.
41. Hershcovis, M. S. (2011). ‘Incivility, social undermining, bullying. . .oh my!’: A call to reconcile constructs within workplace aggression research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(3), 499–519.
42. Hershcovis MS, and Barling J. (2007). A relational perspective on workplace aggression: an examination of perpetrators and targets. In Dysfunctional Workplace: Management Challenges and Symptoms, In J Langan-Fox, CL Cooper and R Klimoski (eds.), 268–84. Cheltenham, UK: Elgar
43. Hershcovis, M. S., and Reich, T. C. (2013). Integrating workplace aggression research: Relational, contextual, and method considerations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34. S26-S42
44. Hirsch, P. M., and Levin, D. Z. (1999). Umbrella Advocates Versus Validity Police: A Life-Cycle Model, Organization Science, 10(2), 199–212.
45. Howell, R. D., Breivik, E., and Wilcox, J. B. (2007). Reconsidering Formative Measurement, Psychological Methods, 12(2), 205–218.
46. Hunt, S. D. (1976). The Nature and Scope of Marketing, Journal of Marketing, 40(July 1976), 17-28.
47. Jarvis, C. B., MacKenzie, S. B., and Podsakoff, P. M. (2003). A Critical Review of Construct Indicators and Measurement Model Misspecification in Marketing and Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research, 30(2), 199–218.
48. Linstead, S., Maréchal, G., and Griffin, R. W. (2014). Theorizing and researching the dark side of organization, Organization Studies, 35(2), 165-188.
49. Locke, E. A. (2012). Construct validity vs. concept validity. Human Resource Management Review, 22(2), 146–148.
50. MacCallum, R. C., and Browne, M. W. (1993). The use of causal indicators in covariance structure models: some practical issues, Psychological Bulletin, 114(3), 533–541.
51. MacCorquodale, K., and Meehl, P. E. (1948). On a distinction between hypothetical constructs and intervening variables. Psychological Review, 55(2), 95–107.
52. MacKenzie, S. B. (2003). The Dangers of Poor Construct Conceptualization. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(3), 323–326.
53. Markus, K. A. (2008). Constructs, Concepts and the Worlds of Possibility: Connecting the Measurement, Manipulation, and Meaning of Variables. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspective, 6(1–2), 54–77.
54. Mowen, J. C., and Voss, K. (2008). On Building Better Construct Measures: Implications of a General Hierarchical Model. Psychology and Marketing, 25(6), 485–505.
55. Neuman, J. H. (2004). Injustice, stress, and aggression in organizations. In Griffin, R. W. and O’LearyKelly, A. M. (Eds), The Dark Side of Organizational Behavior. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
56. Neuman, J. H., and Baron, R. A. (2005). Aggression in the Workplace: A social-psychological Perspective, In Counterproductive Work Behavior: Investigations of actors and targets. 13–40, Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
57. Nixon, A. E., and Spector, P. E. (2015). Seeking Clarity in a Linguistic Fog: Moderators of the Workplace Aggression-Strain Relationship, Human Performance, 28(2), 137–164.
58. Osigweh, C. A. B. (1989). Concept Fallibility in Organizational Science. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 579–594.
59. Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., and Zeithaml, V. A. (1991). Refinement and Reassessment of the SERVQUAL Scale. Journal of Retailing, 64, 1240.
60. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Berry, L. L. (1985). A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41-50.
61. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., and Malhotra, A. (2005). ES-QUAL: A multiple-item scale for assessing electronic service quality. Journal of Service Research, 7(3), 213-233.
62. Podsakoff, P. M., Mackenzie, S. B., and Podsakoff, N. P. (2016). Recommendations for Creating Better Concept Definitions in the Organizational, Behavioral, and Social Sciences. Organizational Research Methods, 19(2), 1–45.
63. Poole, M. S., and Van de Ven, A. H. (1989). “Using Paradox to Build Management and Organization Theories”, Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 562–578.
64. Reynolds, K. L., and Harris, L. C. (2006). Deviant Customer Behavior: An Exploration of Frontline Employee Tactics, The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 14(2), 95–111.
65. Reynolds, K. L., and Harris, L. C. (2009). Dysfunctional Customer Behavior Severity: An Empirical Examination. Journal of Retailing, 85(3), 321–335.
66. Robinson, S. L., and Bennett, R. J. (1995). A Typology of Deviant Workplace Behaviors: A Multidimensional Scaling Study. Academy of Management Journal, 38(2), 555–572.
67. Rossiter, J. R. (2011). Measurement for the social sciences: The C-OAR-SE method and why it must replace psychometrics. New York, NY: Springer Science + Business Media
68. Schaffner, K. F. (1969). Correspondence Rules. Philosophy of Science, 36(3), 280–290.
69. Shapiro, D. L., Duffy, M. K., Kim, T.-Y., Lean, E. R., and O’Leary-Kelly, A. (2008). Rude,” “Uncivil,” or “Disrespectful” Treatment in the Workplace: What’s in a Name. In Justice, Morality, and Social Responsibility, 227–262. IAP.
70. Singh, J., Brady, M., Arnold, T., and Brown, T. (2017). The Emergent Field of Organizational Frontlines. Journal of Service Research, 20(1), 3– 11.
71. Suddaby, R. (2010). Editor’s comments: Construct clarity in theories of management and organization. Academy of Management Review, 35(3), 346–357.
72. Tepper, B. J., and Henle, C. A. (2011). A case for recognizing distinctions among constructs that capture interpersonal mistreatment in work organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(3), 487–498.
73. Vardi, Y., and Wiener, Y. (1996). Misbehavior in Organizations: A Motivational Framework. Organization Science, 7(2), 151–165.
74. Wang, M., Liao, H., Zhan, Y., and Shi, J. (2011). Daily customer mistreatment and employee sabotage against customers: Examining emotion and resource perspectives. Academy of Management Journal, 54(2), 312-334.
75. Warren, D. E. (2003). Constructive and Destructive Deviance in Organizations”, Academy of Management Review, 28(4), 622–632.