Business Commons^™

Nationalist Sentiments And The Multinational Enterprise: Insights From Organizational Sociology, Jesper Edman, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug, Ruth V. Aguilera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

International business scholars have recognized the impact of political and economic nationalism on the multinational enterprise (MNE). We complement these approaches by highlighting the sociological manifestations of nationalism and their implications for the MNE. We argue that nationalist sentiments, i.e. widely-shared assumptions of superiority over other nations and cultures, constitute an under-researched but critical element in international business (IB). Drawing insights from organizational sociology, we elucidate how nationalist sentiments manifest in the MNE’s external and internal environment. Specifically, we suggest that nationalist sentiments accentuate national institutional logics, generate status-based categorizations of foreign and domestic firms, and heighten emphasis on national …

Networking Fast And Slow: The Role Of Speed In Tie Formation, Julia Brennecke, Gokhan Ertug, Tom Elfring

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Growing interest in network dynamics has led to insights about patterns of network change, drivers of tie formation, and the temporal unfolding of the consequences of networks. To this area of inquiry, we introduce networking speed – the time it takes for individuals to form a network tie – as an important but so far largely overlooked aspect. We develop a theory of networking speed that explains how different catalysts enable professionals to introduce variation into the speed with which they form interpersonal network ties. We discuss how such variation in the speed with which ties have been formed influences …

Humanitarian Aid Worker Retention: Is General Motivation Theory Enough?, Gabriella Lee

Senior Honors Theses

In the socially impactful realm of humanitarian business, job dissatisfaction has led to high turnover and low retention, causing many organizations to struggle and sometimes fail. To increase motivation and satisfaction, the differences between general motivation theories and common humanitarian motivations should be analyzed. These analyses can then be applied to increase retention. While most general motivation theories like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs point to internal or personal needs being met, humanitarian employees are mainly motivated altruistically. Therefore, this research will demonstrate that altruistic motivations have a greater role in humanitarian retention than traditional motivation theories. Existing human resource policies …

The Status Of Status Research: A Review Of The Types, Functions, Levels And Audiences, Matteo Prato, Gokhan Ertug, Fabrizio Castellucci, Tengjian Zou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Our review of 154 articles published over the last decade portrays an evolution of status research. This body of literature has transitioned from viewing status as a monolithic construct to appreciating its inherently multidimensional nature, characterized by diverse types, functions, levels, and audience structures. Although this shift has expanded our knowledge, it has also introduced increased complexity and fragmentation. To systematize this scattered work on a multifaceted view of status, we develop a comprehensive framework that integrates the diverse research findings. For each constituent part of this framework, we review key themes and insights in the literature and outline future …

Designing Pareto-Optimal Selection Systems For Multiple Minority Subgroups And Multiple Criteria, Wilfried De Corte, Paul R. Sackett, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Currently used Pareto-optimal (PO) approaches for balancing diversity and validity goals in selection can deal only with one minority group and one criterion. These are key limitations because the workplace and society at large are getting increasingly diverse and because selection system designers often have interest in multiple criteria. Therefore, the article extends existing methods for designing PO selection systems to situations involving multiple criteria and multiple minority groups (i.e., multiobjective PO selection systems). We first present a hybrid multiobjective PO approach for computing selection systems that are PO with respect to (a) a set of quality objectives (i.e., criteria) …

The Chemistry Between Us: Illuminating Complementarity Patterns In Interpersonal Role Play Assessment Via Moment-To-Moment Analyses, Christoph N. Herde, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In assessment and selection, organizations often include interpersonal interactions because they provide insights into candidates’ interpersonal skills. These skills are then typically assessed via one-shot, retrospective assessor ratings. Unfortunately, the assessment of interpersonal skills at such a trait-like level fails to capture the richness of how the interaction unfolds at the behavioral exchange level within a role-play assessment. This study uses the lens of interpersonal complementarity theory to advance our understanding of interpersonal dynamics in role-play assessment and their effects on assessor ratings. Ninety-six MBA students participated in four different flash role-plays as part of diagnosing their strengths and weaknesses. …

Aligning Performance Metrics With Business Strategy, Ravi Kathuria, Lorenzo Lucianetti

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

This study examines whether different strategy archetypes deploy specific performance metrics to support their strategic goals and priorities. If so, does alignment of strategy and metrics positively impact organisational performance?

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual framework and hypotheses are couched in Contingency Theory. The role of business strategy as a moderating variable is tested using MANOVA, followed by post hoc pairwise comparisons. The results are based on cross-sectional survey data from 372 manufacturing and service organisations in Italy.

Findings

The overall contingency effect of business strategy in selecting and deploying performance metrics and their effect on organisational performance is supported. …

The Interpersonal Effects Of Emotional Expressions With Both And Single Valences On Work-Related Satisfaction: An Examination Of Emotions And Perceived Openness As Mediators, Ming-Hong Tsai

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Work-related satisfaction has critical benefits. To predict work-related satisfaction, we investigated how a counterpart’s expressions of emotional complexity (both positive and negative emotions), positive emotions, and negative emotions influenced a perceiver’s work-related satisfaction during discussions over different work-relevant ideas. We conducted a three-wave coworker survey (N = 529) and an experiment with a confederate as a task partner (N = 378). The results consistently showed significant positive impacts of a counterpart’s emotional complexity and positive emotion expressions on a perceiver’s work-related satisfaction by enhancing the perceiver’s positive emotions and evaluation of the counterpart’s openness. Conversely, a counterpart’s negative emotion expression …

My Manager Endorsed My Coworkers’ Voice: Understanding Observers’ Positive And Negative Reactions To Managerial Endorsement Of Coworker Voice., Emily Poulton, Szu-Han Joanna Lin, Shereen Fatimah, Cony Ho, Lance Ferris, Russell Johnson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research on managerial voice endorsement has primarily focused on the processes and conditions through which voicers receive their managers’ endorsement. We shift this focus away from the voicers, focusing instead on the dual reactions that endorsement generates for observing employees. Drawing from an approach-avoidance framework, we propose that managerial endorsement of coworker voice could be perceived as a positive and negative stimulus for observers, prompting them to approach opportunities and avoid threats, respectively. Results from a pre-registered experiment and a multi-wave, multi-source field study revealed that managerial endorsement of coworker voice was positively related to observers’ voice instrumentality, thus prompting …

How Deep-Level And Surface-Level Board Diversity, Formal And Informal Social Structures Affect Innovation, Guoli Chen, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Yen Teik Lee, Daniel Z. Mack

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Despite a growing interest in understanding how board diversity shapes firms’ innovation, findings about the impact of board diversity have remained mixed. In this paper, we conceptualize board diversity as two forms – deep-level and surface-level – and find that these two forms of board diversity have opposing effects on a firm's innovation. We also theorize how formal and informal social structures can strengthen the positive effect of deep-level diversity yet simultaneously weaken the negative impact of surface-level diversity. We test our hypotheses with a panel of 42,432 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2019. Our paper contributes to the literature …

Envy Influences Interpersonal Dynamics And Team Performance: Roles Of Gender Congruence And Collective Team Identification, Kenneth Tai, Sejin Keem, Ki Young Lee, Eugene Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Our research extends past envy research by considering how envy and gender congruence shape interpersonal dynamics at the dyadic level and their bottom-up effects for team performance. Integrating social comparison theory and social identity theory, we examine when and how dyadic level envy influences team performance. Using time-lagged data from 428 dyads of 161 employees in 51 teams, our results show that envious employees are likely to engage in interpersonal deviance directed toward envied team members and that envied employees are likely to seek advice from envious team members. Gender congruence further influences these relationships, with different patterns for males …

An Integrative Review Of Management Research On Caste: Broadening Our Horizons, Hari Bapuji, Snehanjali Chrispal, Pardeep Singh Attri, Gokhan Ertug, Vivek Soundararajan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Even though management research on caste is growing, it is not yet on a clear trajectory to realize its vast potential due to varying terminology and framing of caste, the limited incorporation of directly relevant work from proximate disciplines, and the narrow and selective usage of the attributes of caste. To remove these obstacles, we review 259 scholarly works on caste (216 articles and 43 books and research reports) and develop an integrative framework to i) clarify the contemporary manifestations of caste as being a graded hierarchy, an inherited membership, and a set of socially enforced practices, and ii) summarize …

Attentional Engagement And Strategic Responses To Discontinuous Environmental Change: Evidence From The Us Banking Industry, Daniel Z. Mack, Theresa S. Cho, Andrew C. Yi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While prior research has established a link between the attention an organization allocates to the external environment and its adaptations to environmental change, the nature of the cognitive processes that underlie this link remains underexamined. In this study, we explore how patterns of attentional engagement—that is, the extent to which attention allocation is focused and/or consistent over time—influence the organization’s formulation of strategic responses to discontinuous change. We advance a situated perspective on attentional engagement by suggesting how the type of learning and cognitive processes are situated in different attentional-engagement structures, and can, in turn, lead to heterogeneous strategic responses …

Time And Change: A Meta-Analysis Of Temporal Decisions In Longitudinal Studies, Helen Hailin Zhao, Abbie J. Shipp, Kameron Carter, Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, Erica Xu

Management Faculty Publications

Longitudinal research has grown in popularity in the field of management and organizations. However, the literature has neglected to consider the important ways in which researchers' temporal decisions can influence observed change in longitudinal studies. Researchers must make a set of temporal decisions to capture change, such as the temporal precision of the hypothesized form of change, the selection of a sample that is expected to exhibit the change, the choice of variables to be measured repeatedly, the frequency of measurements, and the time interval between measurements. However, these decisions typically are based on "educated guesses," which makes their effects …

Reeling In The Slack: An Integrative Review To Reinstate Slack As A Central Theoretical Construct For Management Research, Matthew P. Mount, Gokhan Ertug, Korcan Kavusan, Gerard George, Tengjian Zou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Slack is a prominent construct in management research, shown to be relevant for a wide range of phenomena. Yet, despite slack’s prominence and breadth of application, our review reveals a lack of clarity and consistency in the categorization, theorizing, and measurement of various types and forms of slack. This has led to differences in the characterization and treatment of seemingly identical kinds of slack, which prevents the full exploitation of the conceptual depth of the slack construct and thus the creation of robust knowledge about slack resources. Based on a review of 229 studies which explicitly theorized about slack, we …

A New Hope? Restoring Self-Compassion In Response To Abusive Supervision, James P. Burton, Brittany C. Buis, Larissa K. Barber

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Publications

Given the persistent financial and psychological costs of abusive supervision in organizations, a greater understanding of the mechanisms that employees can use to cope with abuse is warranted. In the present study, abusive supervision is expected to be negatively related to a key employee coping mechanism – self-compassion – and this hindered mechanism would lead to higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of hope. However, a written meditation targeting self-compassion could break the link between abuse and employee anxiety or hope. The hypotheses and the written self-compassion meditation were tested across two studies incorporating both a highly controlled laboratory …

Personality Dynamics Turn Positive And Negative Mood Into Creativity, Ronald Bledow, Jana Kuhnel, Julius Kuhl

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Introduction: Research on the link between affect and creativity rests on the assumption that creativity unfolds as a stimulus-driven response to affective states. We challenge this assumption and examine whether personality dynamics moderate the relationship of positive and negative mood with creativity.Theoretical Model: According to our model, personality dynamics that generate and maintain positive affect and down-regulate negative affect energize creativity. Based on this model, we expect high creativity in response to negative mood if people engage in self-motivation and achieve a reduction in negative mood. We further derive that individual differences in action versus state orientation moderate the within-person …

Language-Related Misunderstanding At Work: What It Is, Why It Occurs And What Organizations Can Do About It, John Fiset, Devasheesh P. Bhave

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Language is the foundation of human interaction. It plays a central role in facilitating effective communication by allowing people to express their thoughts, share essential information and establish connections with one another.

Last-Minute Coordination: Adapting To Demand To Support Last-Mile Operations, Kedong Chen, Hung-Chung Su, Kevin Linderman, William Li

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

In the highly competitive e-commerce industry, customer-facing warehouses are crucial as the “order penetration points” for e-commerce last-mile operations. This research examines how warehouses use last-minute coordination, an unstructured mechanism, to ensure sufficient inventory at the order penetration points. Previous research has focused on structured mechanisms like contracts and inventory management systems to enhance warehouse performance. However, these mechanisms can be ineffective when faced with unforeseen local contingencies. To adjust inventory and adapt to changes in supply and/or demand, warehouses need to engage in unstructured, last-minute coordination with other warehouses. Using coordination and loose coupling theories, we find that coordinating …

Developing More Equitable And Critically Conscious Organizations: Testimonios And Critical Platicas With Black And Latino/X Lgbtq+ Male Chrd Leaders, Mario Burton

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation connects the recent DEIB movement within organizations to larger social justice movements, specifically those that impact workers and the workplace. Critical human resource development (CHRD) professionals, who serve as “insider activists”, are highlighted due to their work to continue movement objectives within organizations. Through testimonios and critical platicas, this study explores how Black and Latino/x LGBTQ+ CHRD professionals, in particular, are experiencing the workplace, especially as it relates to their engagement with how DEIB is practiced within organizations. Through this study, these professionals provide insights into the ways that workplaces can be redesigned and reimagined to be …

Looking In The Mirror: Including The Reflected Best Self Exercise In Management Curricula To Increase Students’ Interview Self-Efficacy, Jennifer Robertson, Noelle Baird, Mathew Mclarnon

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Students often choose to pursue a business major during their post-secondary education to increase their chances of securing employment post-graduation. However, evidence suggests that many recent business degree graduates struggle with underemployment, highlighting the importance of examining how post-secondary institutions can better prepare students for the transition to work. In the current study, we investigated how including a personal strengths-driven intervention, the Reflected Best Self Exercise (RBSE), in management curricula may help better prepare students for securing employment by increasing students’ confidence in their ability to succeed in an employment interview (i.e., by enhancing interview self-efficacy). Using a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental …

Going Beyond The Call Of Duty Under Conditions Of Economic Threat: Integrating Life History And Temporal Dilemma Perspectives, Nina Sirola

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Under conditions of economic threat, such as during economic downturns, organizations can benefit from employees’ willingness to go beyond the call of duty and engage in organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO). Yet, such behavior is discretionary and competes for time with employees’ other interests and priorities. I integrate life history theory with the temporal dilemma perspective on organizational citizenship behavior to propose that childhood environments sensitize individuals to prioritize different goals in response to economic threat later in life. Consistent with strategies for responding to threat that are functional in their childhood environments, employees from wealthier backgrounds respond to economic threat …

Why Your Organisation Needs A Language Management Strategy, John Fiset, Devasheesh P. Bhave

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article discusses the challenges and benefits of managing language dynamics at work, where both standard and hybrid forms of language coexist. It reviews the literature on language-related misunderstanding and its effects on employee outcomes through three pathways: relational, emotional, and informational. It also suggests some interventions to enhance communication effectiveness and foster an inclusive culture in linguistically diverse workplaces.

Formal Versus Informal Supervisor Socio-Emotional Support Behaviours And Employee Trust: The Role Of Cultural Power Distance, Jaee Cho, S. Arzu Wasti, Krishna Savani, Hwee Hoon Tan, Michael W. Morris

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This research investigates how formal versus informal supervisor support behaviours shape employees' affect- and cognition-based trust across cultures of varying power distance. Using data from in-depth interviews, Study 1 found that trust-enhancing supervisor behaviours were more formal, status conscious and imposing in India (a high power distance culture) than in the Netherlands (a low power distance culture); unlike in India, supervisors acted more like friends or equals with their subordinates in the Netherlands. Using vignettes, Study 2 found that, compared to informal support behaviours, formal support behaviours increased both affect- and cognition-based trust among Indian participants, but among US participants, …

On The Trajectory Of Discrimination: A Meta-Analysis And Forecasting Survey Capturing 44 Years Of Field Experiments On Gender And Hiring Decisions, Michael Schaerer, Christilene Du Plessis, My Hoang Nguyen, Robbie C. M. Van Aert, Leo Tiokkin, Daniel Lakens, Elena G. Clemente, Thomas Pfeiffer, Anna Dreber, Magnus Johannesson, Cory J. Clark

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A preregistered meta-analysis, including 244 effect sizes from 85 field audits and 361,645 individual job applications, tested for gender bias in hiring practices in female-stereotypical and gender-balanced as well as male-stereotypical jobs from 1976 to 2020. A “red team” of independent experts was recruited to increase the rigor and robustness of our meta-analytic approach. A forecasting survey further examined whether laypeople (n = 499 nationally representative adults) and scientists (n = 312) could predict the results. Forecasters correctly anticipated reductions in discrimination against female candidates over time. However, both scientists and laypeople overestimated the continuation of bias against female candidates. …

The Paradox Of Leadership Coaching In A Vuca World, Raymond L. Forbes

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

What does it feel like to be living right in the middle of a major paradox? Disorienting? Confusing? Unbalancing? One of the definitions of a Paradox is a situation, person, or thing that combines contradictory features or qualities. For many organizational leaders today dealing with paradox has become a recurrent feature of executive life. The contradictory features may arise in the form of a choice between apparently diametrically opposed alternatives. In fact, in the worst case, the best available options might all be equally undesirable. This uncertainty over paradox seems to be reflective of the many quandaries confronted by leaders …

Formal Versus Informal Supervisor Socio-Emotional Support Behaviors And Employee Trust: The Role Of Cultural Power Distance, Jaee Cho, S. Arzu Wasti, Krishna Savani, Hwee Hoon Tan, Michael W. Morris

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This research investigates how formal versus informal supervisor support behaviours shape employees' affect- and cognition-based trust across cultures of varying power distance. Using data from in-depth interviews, Study 1 found that trust-enhancing supervisor behaviours were more formal, status conscious and imposing in India (a high power distance culture) than in the Netherlands (a low power distance culture); unlike in India, supervisors acted more like friends or equals with their subordinates in the Netherlands. Using vignettes, Study 2 found that, compared to informal support behaviours, formal support behaviours increased both affect- and cognition-based trust among Indian participants, but among US participants, …

Influencing Air Force Logisticians' Information Seeking During The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role Of Organizational Meetings In An Expanded Prism Framework, Matthew D. Roberts, Christopher T. Price, Seong-Jong Joo

Faculty Publications

Purpose: This research aims to understand how organizational workplace meetings surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic impacted logistics Airmen across the United States Air Force and how these meetings impacted their risk seeking behavior on social media.

Design/methodology/approach: This survey research tested an extended Planned Risk Information Risk Seeking Model (PRISM) with organizational meetings as an antecedent to determine if current meetings influenced an Airman's perceived behavioral control, attitude toward seeking, subjective norms, knowledge sufficiency and intention to seek information regarding COVID-19.

Findings: Results of the CFA showed that the expanded PRISM model had good model fit. Additionally, using …

How Do Restaurants Grapple With Stress When Attempting To Achieve And Keep The Michelin Star? A Qualitative Investigation In The Canadian Market, Alexander Owens, Mark R. Holmes, Cyrus Cooper

TTRA Canada 2023 Conference

With The Michelin Guide’s recent expansion into the Canadian market, and the highly stressful environment associated with the restaurant industry, this qualitative study looks to understand the stress that comes from trying to acquire and retain a Michelin star rating, along with the strategies restaurants employ to mitigate these stressors.

The Culture & Practice Convergence: Looking For Ways Towards Sustainability, Miguel Paolo Paredes

Center for Business Research and Development

Thirty years ago, the Earth Summit gathering in Rio de Janeiro held host to world leaders, setting a blueprint for a more secure future by balancing economic growth and ecological necessity. Created for member states to cooperate in response to worldwide development issues, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) sought to address these challenges and achieved a global consensus on the priorities for a new development agenda (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Earth Summit, n.d.) As sustainability issues encompassed the whole of the planet, the summit provided a platform for member states to collaborate …