Business Commons^™

Workplace Bullying: Is Lack Of Understanding The Reason For Inaction?, Sara Branch, Jane Murray

Jane Murray

At what point is the line crossed between a series of humorous work pranks and workplace bullying? This question is actually more complex than it looks. Take the very well publicized office complaint case of David Thorne and Simon Dempsey—a story that has taken social media sites and the wider Internet by storm over the last couple of years. Although it has now been revealed that the interactions between Thorne and Dempsey are somewhat fictitious (loosely based on actual interactions between the author and a previous coworker), the behaviors and their ensuing complaints provide a lens from which this question …

Unpacking Unintended Consequences In Planned Organizationalchanges: A Process Model, Guowei Jian

Guowei Jian

The author develops a process model of the unintended consequences in planned organizational change that draws on the structuration, organizational change, and organizational tension literatures. The model depicts the communicative actions of both senior management and employees and reveals the dynamic through which unintended consequences unfold. The model extends theoretical understandings of planned organizational change and discusses how future research can build a dialectic and dialogic model of planned change focused on employee participation. The author illustrates the model with a case study of organizational change and its unintended consequences. The article concludes with insights on change management for practitioners …

Where Do I Stand? The Interaction Of Leader–Member Exchange And Performance Ratings, Hassan Baker, Guowei Jian, Gail Fairhurst

Guowei Jian

The congruence model of leader–member exchange (LMX) quality predicts that agreement between leader and members regarding relationship quality is associated with follower performance. However, questions remain over how cultural relational norms influence congruence. This study, based on a government-linked international joint venture in Malaysia, investigates cultural relational norms in relation to leader–member agreement on relational quality and leader evaluation of member performance. Our findings revealed that LMX quality agreement was related to in-role and extra-role performance among dyadic relationships conforming to Malaysian cultural norms. This study contributes to understanding how cultural relational norms provide conditions to the congruence model of …

The Impact Of Team Member Familiarity On Communication Media Use And Subsequent Project Performance, Priscilla Arling, Hongjiang Xu

Priscilla Arling

This study explores how team member familiarity is related to the communication media used in the completion of projects and how that use impacts project performance. We surveyed 148 university undergraduate students who were enrolled in information systems courses. The students worked on projects in teams of 3 to 4 students. The results suggest that prior collaboration with current te am members, as well as a stude nt’s class year, are related to what communication media are used. The influen ce of team member familiarity and class year varies by the type of media used. We also find that higher …

The Decline Of Global Market Leaders, Xiaowen Tian, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

Integrating capability-based and institution-based views in a multilevel framework, we argue that managerial capability to acquire loans to finance business expansion has an inverted U-shaped relationship with global market leadership. The negative effect on global market leadership of excessive loan-acquiring capability is amplified under business-friendly market institutions that ease access to credit. Managerial capability to utilize resources productively positively moderates the relationship between loan-acquiring capability and global market leadership. The role of resource-utilizing capability is attenuated under business-friendly market institutions that facilitate overinvestment. The study helps explain recent decline of global market leaders in advanced market economies.

Leader-Follower Congruence And Transformational Leadership: A Test Using Response Surface Modeling, George Hrivnak, Tjai Nielsen

George Hrivnak

Using polynomial regression and response surface modeling in a lagged field study, we examine relationships among leader and follower extraversion fit and follower ratings of transformational leadership. This paper builds on prior research investigating the influence that leader and follower personality factors have on follower perceptions of leadership. Data from a sample of 117 Naval Midshipmen dyads suggest that leader-follower extraversion congruence at Time 1 was positively related to higher follower ratings of transformational leadership at Time 2. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to perceptions and attributions of leadership, the potential role that extraversion congruence may …

Embracing The "Two-Body Problem": The Case Of Partnered Academics, Cynthia Fisher

Cynthia D. Fisher

Extract: The focal article has given examples of children, other relatives, and friends as potential beneficiaries of preferential treatment and has discussed the counterbalancing likelihood of organizational gain from(properly) employing individuals who already share social connections. Surprisingly, there is minimal mention of spouses or domestic partners. From the 1970s through the 1990s, a number of articles were published on the legal and practical issues of applying antinepotism policies to spouses, but since 2000, the literature has been almost entirely silent. This is surprising given that, in 2013, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 47.4% of U.S. families involve husbands …

Project Management And Organizational Change, Lynn Crawford, Alicia Aitken, Anat Hassner-Nahmias

Lynn Crawford

Extract: Organizational changes have become recognized as a distinct type of project or program, and it may be argued that the majority of projects involve some degree of organizational and behavioral change. The degree of this change can be expected to be greater in projects where the purpose is to achieve organizational change, but even where the focus is on other outcomes, achievement of desired benefits may require structural changes and will generally involve some change in the way people do things. However, while project managers claim to be implementers of change, current project management standards focus on change control …

Review: John S. Ahlquist And Margaret Levi, 'In The Interest Of Others: Organizations And Social Activism" (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013), Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Review of the comparative study of trade union organizational behaviour by John S. Ahlquist and Margaret Levi, 'In the Interest of Others: Organizations and Social Activism" (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013), which involves a target group of US and Australian trade unions.

Everything Gardens And Other Stories: Growing Transition Culture, Luigi Russi

Luigi Russi

The Transition movement is more than an instrumental strategy to address climate change and fossil fuel shortage. It is a collective form of life. Against the tendency to reduce social movements to mission statements and policy solutions, this book insists on de-strategising the development of Transition. It argues that the flourishing of its distinctive culture is open to both uncertainty and paradox, and resistant to prediction and mapping. Everything Gardens and Other Stories focuses instead on the body as the site where politics begins, engaging with the disquiets and anxieties that instigate the development of Transition practices: from Inner Transition, …

What Determines Mnc Subsidiary Performance? Evidence From China, Xiaowen Tian, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

The paper challenges the view that MNC dictates a subsidiary’s business strategy and operations in accordance with the integration-responsiveness (IR) framework. The paper integrates the IR framework with contingency theory to argue that a subsidiary needs discretion to craft its own effective business strategy in light of the environmental exigencies facing the subsidiary in the host country. It may do so at variance with the MNC’s strategy. Evidence from China supports that subsidiary managers should take strategic initiatives in response to specific host country environment.

Destructive Leader Behaviour: A Study Of Iranian Leaders Using The Destructive Leadership Questionnaire, Ben Shaw, Anthony Erickson, Farzaneh Nassirzadeh

Anthony Erickson

This study examines destructive leader behaviours among a sample of Iranian leaders. Destructive leader behaviour was measured using the Destructive Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ) developed by Shaw et al. (2011). Data from 700 Iranian subordinates who completed the DLQ were used to identify the dimensions of destructive leadership using principle components factor analysis. The factor analytic data were used to develop an Iranian version of the DLQ. Behavioural scale scores were then used to identify a typology of destructive leaders in the Iranian sample.

The Retention Of Chinese Managers: The Chinese Puzzle Box, Xiaowen Tian, Michael Harvey, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

Extract:

Chinese Puzzle Box: a box that can only be opened through some obscure or complicated series of manipulations. Some puzzle boxes may require only a simple squeeze in the right spot, whereas others may require the subtle movement of several small parts, to open the box.

Once entering an emerging market like China, foreign multinational enterprises (hereafter MNEs) are confronted with fierce competition almost in every key functional area, including marketing, production and supply chains, finance, human resources and information technology. Yet there is one area where many Western managers do not anticipate facing keen competition and that …

Seeing The Forest (And Your Tree): Envisioning Motivation And Performance In Work Design, Karen Eboch

Karen Eboch

Behavioral operations management explores the interaction of human behaviors and operational systems and processes. ....Specifically, the study of behavioral operations management has the goal of identifying ways in which human psychology and sociological phenomena impact operational performance, as well as identifying the ways in which operations policies impact such behavior. The learning activity in focus in this chapter is designed to help develop an understanding of job design and process improvements by drawing from personal experience and observation. Concepts related to work and process flows are integrated across a range of areas within Operations Management (OM) including quality, lean systems, …

An Investigation Of Authentic Leadership's Individual And Group Influences On Follower Responses, Carol Gill, Arran Caza

Carol Gill

In this study, we investigated and clarified aspects of the multilevel nature of Authentic Leadership (AL) and its effects on followers. Specifically, we hypothesized that AL would have distinct effects through both personalized AL (P_AL), which is a leader’s direct effect on a follower, and through generalized AL (G_AL), which is a leader’s indirect or group-based effect on a follower as a result of leadership effects among the follower’s coworkers. These hypotheses were consistent with a complete review of the empirical literature on AL’s effects and the results from a sample of leaders and followers working in a large multinational …

Creating A Stem Identity: Investment With Return, Janet Callahan, Patricia Pyke, Susan Shadle, R. Eric Landrum

R. Eric Landrum

Is It Me Or Her? How Gender Composition Influences Interpersonally Sensitive Behavior On Collaborative Cross-Boundary Projects, Michele Williams

Michele Williams

This paper investigates how professional workers’ willingness to act with interpersonal sensitivity is influenced by the gender and power of their interaction partners. We call into question the idea that mixed-gender interactions involve more interpersonal sensitivity than all-male interactions primarily because women demonstrate more interpersonal sensitivity than do men. Rather, we argue that the social category “women” can evoke more sensitive behavior from others such that men as well as women contribute to an increase in sensitivity in mixed-gender interactions. We further argue that the presence of women may trigger increased sensitivity such that men can also be the recipients …

Empowerment Through Choice?: A Critical Analysis Of The Effects Of Choice In Organizations, Roy Y. J. Chua, Sheena S. Iyengar

Roy Chua

The provision of choice is one of the most common vehicles through which managers empower employees in organizations. Although past psychological and organizational research persuasively suggests that choice confers personal agency, and is thus intrinsically motivating, emerging research indicates that there could be potential pitfalls. In this chapter, we examine the various factors that could influence the effects of choice. Specifically, we examine individual-level factors such as the chooser’s socioeconomic status and cultural background. We also examine situational factors such as the content of choice and the number of choices offered. We then expand our discussion on the effect of …

Do I Contribute More When I Trust More? Differential Effects Of Cognition- And Affect-Based Trust, Roy Y. J. Chua, Kok-Yee Ng

Roy Chua

This study investigates the relationship between level of trust and cooperative behaviours in a social dilemma. We argue that this relationship should depend on the basis of trust (cognition- versus affect-based) and on beliefs about the equality of resource endowments. Results supported our prediction that increasing affect-based trust increases cooperation, but increasing cognition-based trust to a certain level can reduce cooperation because of free-riding tendency. Moreover, these effects of trust are stronger for individuals who believed that other group members had more resources than they did. Thus, our study demonstrates that higher levels of trust do not necessarily encourage cooperation. …

Effects Of Cultural Ethnicity, Firm Size, And Firm Age On Senior Executives’ Trust In Their Overseas Business Partners: Evidence From China, Crystal X. Jiang, Roy Y. J. Chua, Masaaki Kotabe, Janet Y. Murray

Roy Chua

We investigate trust relationships between senior business executives and their overseas partners. Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm, social categorization theory, and the distinction between cognition- and affect-based trust, we argue that executives trust their overseas partners differently, depending on the partners’ cultural ethnicity. In a field survey of 108 Chinese senior executives, we found that these executives have higher affect-based trust in overseas partners of the same cultural ethnicity as themselves; cognition-based trust is associated with affect-based trust differently when overseas partners are of the same or different cultural ethnicity. We also examine the role of relative firm size and …

Organizational Culture, Organizational Orientation, And Sbu Innovativeness, Frederik Beuk, Jelena Spanjol

Frederik Beuk

No abstract provided.

Leadership And Motivational Challenges In The Australian It Sector, Jane Murray

Jane Murray

Extract Company background and contextIn early 1997, two young Australian IT graduates hatched a plan. Instead of working 9-5 in a large IT organisation, they decided they would like to start up their own software development company. After a lengthy period of discussion and planning, the pair began operations in the garage of one of their suburban Australian homes. In order to get the business up and running, they both continued their regular jobs by day and worked on their new business venture after hours. A first milestone occurred not long after the company began when the pair successfully tendered …

Political Connections As An Agreement Device, Xiaping Jerry Cao, Sheng Huang, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Qigui Liu

No abstract provided.

Political Connections As An Agreement Device, Xiaping Jerry Cao, Sheng Huang, Qigui Liu, Gary Tian

Qigui Liu

No abstract provided.

Decelerating The Diminishing Returns Of Citizenship On Task Performance: The Role Of Social Context And Interpersonal Skill, Kemp Ellington, Erich Dierdorff, Robert Rubin

Erich C. Dierdorff

Recent scholarship on citizenship behavior demonstrates that engaging too often in these behaviors comes at the expense of task performance. In order to examine the boundary conditions of this relationship, we used resource allocation and social exchange theories to build predictions regarding moderators of the curvilinear association between citizenship and task performance. In a field study of 366 employees, we examined the relationship between the frequency of interpersonal helping behavior and task performance, and tested for the moderating influences of three social context features (social density, interdependence, and social support) and of employees’ levels of interpersonal skill. Results provided corroborating …

Research Collaboration And Team Science: A State-Of-The-Art Review And Agenda, Barry Bozeman, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

No abstract provided.

Institution Building In Nascent Markets: Lessons From The Carbon Offset Market, Hans Rawhouser, Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee

In order to compete in nascent markets, an infrastructure of institutions that support economic exchange needs to be built in order. Little is known about whether and to what extent benefits accrue to firms that help develop a nascent market’s institutional infrastructure. To address this gap in the literature, we argue that involvement in building the regulative institutions in a new market—one form of participation on institutional building—helps a firm to build a reputation for as a leader in the market with a firm’s stakeholders. We argue that firms with reputations that are more established and more positive are benefit …

The Practice Of Scenario Planning: An Analysis Of Inter- And Intra- Organizational Strategizing, Gary Bowman, Ryan Parks

Gary Bowman

Strategic activity is often punctuated through the application of strategy tools. Despite widespread use, opacity surrounds how these tools shape the strategy process. We examine the application and effect of a scenario planning process at an inter- and intra-organizational level. We use a longitudinal case study to demonstrate the importance of sensemaking in strategizing activity at the inter-organizational level. We also demonstrate the relative weakness of the scenario narrative as a boundary object capable of transferring knowledge to the intra-organizational level. Through empirical and theoretical integration we develop a model depicting the flow of knowledge in inter- and intra-organizational strategizing.

Mindfully Eating Raisins Improves Negotiation Success: The Effect Of Mindfulness No Negotiation Performance, Jochen Matthias Reb, J. Narayanan

Jochen Reb

Anecdotal evidence suggests that mindfulness, or open, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment, is important fornegotiation performance. We find support for this prediction in four experiments using a variety of different mindfulnessmanipulations and both objective and subjective measures of negotiation performance. We also provide evidence that the effectof mindfulness on negotiation performance is partly mediated by reduced anxiety.

Bullying As An Organizational Safety Issue: Do Different Types Of Bullying Lead To Different Litigated Outcomes?, Helen Lavan, Yvette Lopez, William Marty

Helen LaVan

No abstract provided.