Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons^™

Framing Matters: The Influence Of Group-Image Threat On Reactions To Affirmative Action Policies, Kisha S. Jones, Anuradha Anantharaman, Anjali Bhatt

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Affirmative action (AA) attempts to rectify the institutional effects of prior employment discrimination toward minority groups. Although AA has played a large role in increasing workplace diversity, organizations may vary in their perspectives towards diversity itself, ranging from a sole focus on increasing diversity to appreciating the value diversity may add. Support for AA has been considered as a form of White identity management (Knowles, Lowery, Chow, & Unzueta, 2014) and is impacted by the extent to which White people experience group-image threat to their racial identity. Our findings suggest that the level of group-image threat experienced by White people …

The Effects Of Perspective Taking Implementing Intentions On Employee Evaluations And Hostile Sexism, Saaid A. Mendoza, Jeanine L. M. Skorinko, Sarah A. Martin, Lauren E. Martone

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The current research examined whether gender bias in the workplace could be reduced through perspective taking implementation intentions, which are if–then statements that specify how to accomplish goals (Gollwitzer, 1999). Amazon MTurk participants (N = 180, 53% male) learned they would complete a two-step performance review for a consulting company. Prior to receiving a male or female employee’s record, all participants were given a goal strategy to be fair in their review, with half also receiving an if–then strategy that encouraged perspective taking. Participants rated the employee on three work related dimensions (skillset, performance, and traits), provided an overall promotion …

A Review Of Compensatory Strategies To Mitigate Bias, Oscar Holmes Iv, Gabrielle Lopiano, Erika V. Hall

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Experiences of bias and discrimination remain pernicious obstacles for many individuals. Both micro- and macro-level interventions are necessary to eliminate and/or mitigate these negative experiences. This review focuses on micro-level interventions, specifically, five types of compensatory strategies that targets can use to eliminate and/or mitigate the bias and discrimination they experience. In this manuscript, we synthesize the research on humor, avoidance, affiliation, enhancement, and social category label switching strategies; describe identities with which the strategies could be used; and highlight strengths and weaknesses of each of the strategies. Finally, we propose actionable directions for future research for each of the …

Are You Sugarcoating Your Feedback Without Realizing It?, Michael Schaerer, Roderick I. Swaab

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Managers tend to inflate the feedback they give to their direct reports, particularly when giving bad news. And by presenting subpar performance more positively than they should, managers make it impossible for employees to learn, damaging their careers and, often, the company.

Contributions Of Mindfulness To Improvisational Behavior And Consequences On Business Performance And Stress Of Entrepreneurs During Economic Downturn, Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Organization Management Journal

This research investigates the role of mindfulness among Thai entrepreneurs that can be linked to their improvisational behavior that, in turn, explains business performance and stress during a period of economic contraction in Thailand. This research collected survey data from a sample of 186 owners of small retail shops in major marketplaces in Bangkok, Thailand. Results from partial least squares structural equation modeling show that mindfulness had a positive relationship with the degree of improvisational behavior exhibited by entrepreneurs. The findings also reveal that the entrepreneurs who exhibited a higher degree of improvisational behavior achieved higher business performance and had …

Effects Of Management Support, Team Member Support, And Job Status On Safety Climate And Employee Attitudes, Bernadette M. Racicot, Mary C. Kernan, Edward D. Nichols

Organization Management Journal

This study examined the impact of management and team member support on employee attitudes through the mediating effect of safety climate. Five hundred fifty-six physicians and nurses from a large teaching hospital in the eastern United States completed survey items assessing their perceptions of management support, team member support, and safety climate as well as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Results indicated that while job satisfaction and commitment were directly affected by perceptions of management and team member support, these relationships were also partially mediated by safety climate. In addition, the results suggested that team member support contributed to the …

The Role Of Shared Leadership And Communication In Promoting Strategic Consensus And Performance, Younis Jabarzadeh, Naser Sanoubar, Arash Vahdat, Faezeh Khosravi Saghezchi

Organization Management Journal

The current study aims to investigate the effect of strategic consensus among managers on organizational performance, with an emphasis on shared leadership and communications in Iranian knowledge-intensive firms. Since Iran has its unique cultural characteristics with favoring a more authoritarian attribute, and leadership in knowledge-intensive firms has a more shared style, the context of the study is more appealing to such relationships. Data were collected from 115 randomly selected knowledge-intensive firms and analyzed using structural equation modeling by LISREL. Findings show that shared leadership positively influences strategic consensus of the management team, but it does not have a direct effect …

The Collaboration Of Human Resource Management And Line Management–An International Comparison, Klaas Szierbowksi-Seibel, Bernhard A. Wach, Rudiger Kabst

Organization Management Journal

The extant research advocates for the strategic integration of human resource management (HRM) in managerial decision making to foster firm performance. However, the empirical evidence of a stronger strategic integration of HRM is still limited, especially in terms of strategic guidelines such as a human resource (HR) strategy and international comparative matters. Drawing on responses from 588 German and US-based organizations and related to the new institutionalism theory, this study examines whether a HRM partnership (i.e., sharing responsibilities between HRM and line management) that represents a particular form of strategic integration of HRM is beneficial for organizations. In particular, we …

Hr Flexibility In Family Firms: Integrating Family Functioning And Family Business Leadership, Sanjay Goel, Lin Xiu, Sheila Hanson, Raymond J. Jones Iii.

Organization Management Journal

We developed a conceptual model that links central constructs of family functioning to HR flexibility and subsequent HR outcomes in family businesses. We proposed that family functioning was associated with two fundamental leadership decisions (i.e. family-business integration and family involvement) in family businesses. We posited that family business leaders have immense discretion to make these critical decisions that establish the degree to which the family firms would exhibit HR flexibility. We distinguished the three dimensions of HR flexibility – skill, behavioral, and HR practices flexibility and proposed that skill and behavioral HR flexibility generally lead to positive HR outcomes whereas …

Should All Stakeholders Be Treated Fairly? Identifying Stakeholders That Legitimately Matter, Desmond Ng

Organization Management Journal

A key contribution of stakeholder research is that a firm’s purpose and objective is influenced by those stakeholders who have a legitimate stake in a firm’s business activities. Yet, identifying those that have a legitimate stake remains a challenge in stakeholder research. This research draws on legitimacy arguments to explain how stakeholders develop accountability and reliability in their legal and moral claims and how legitimacy influences a firm-manager’s obligations of fairness to these stakeholder groups. A concept of directness, consisting of close and relational specific exchanges, is introduced to explain this legitimation process. Directness offers accountability and reliability when an …

In Defense Of The Lecture: Revisiting And Reassessing Its Place Within Management Pedagogy, Evan H. Offstein, Rebecca M. Chorry

Organization Management Journal

Long the staple or go-to technique in management education, instruction via the lecture has fallen on hard times. Dismissed as professorially heavy-handed and lacking creativity, the lecture has yielded considerable ground to experiential, service, applied, and active learning techniques. In this essay, we question this shift away from the lecture toward the aforementioned trending instructional methods. In coming to the defense of the lecture, we explore the benefits afforded by the lecture for students and the professorate. Drawing on the maxim that what is old is new again, we contend that the lecture still deserves central billing in the management …

The Role Of Sensemaking And Organizational Identification In Employee Engagement For Sustainability, Kent D. Fairfield

Organization Management Journal

This exploratory study examines how sensemaking and organizational identification occur inside an organization and how they can affect how employees engage in managing for sustainability. Qualitative data suggest a positive effect of organizational identification on support for sustainability goals and actions and, conversely, how individual sustainability actions may in turn increase organizational identification. The findings from interviews of a sample of eight companies reveal many different goals, challenges, and means of seeking sustainability. Analysis points toward the dynamics of cognitive and emotional processing across this diverse sample, suggesting implications for practitioners and further research.

A Qualitative Study Of “Online” Work Breaks, Sungdoo Kim, Stacie Furst-Holloway, Elaine Hollensbee, Suzanne Masterson, Therese Sprinkle, Daniele Bologna

Organization Management Journal

Despite the growing empirical evidence on the beneficial effects of “micro” work breaks, scant research has examined “online” work breaks. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the nature and effects of online work breaks. Through an in-depth qualitative study of a diverse set of 33 full-time working professionals, we identified conditions under which online breaks occur as well as the characteristics and outcomes of these breaks. Interestingly, our findings point to both negative and positive outcomes associated with online breaks, largely dependent on an individual’s ability to self-regulate. Our grounded theory approach allows us to develop a …

Team-Building: Developing Teamwork Skills In College Students Using Experiential Activities In A Classroom Setting, Shelly Marasi

Organization Management Journal

This paper provides a systematic team-building training to fill a knowledge hole and a skills gap as well as prepare college students for better employability and future career success. The teambuilding training follows the interpersonal approach and utilizes adventure learning in the form of improvisational activities that can be used in a classroom setting. The team-building training enhances student learning of teams and the team development process as well as develop students’ teamwork skills. Data from a treatment group and a control group through pre- and post-measures of student perceptions are presented to determine the team-building training’s effectiveness. Correlations, t-tests, …

The Business Meeting: A Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning Activity, Arpita Joarder, Konrad Jamro, Ram Ravi

Organization Management Journal

This paper presents a simulation designed to help students learn about the challenges and necessary skills for conducting business in cross-cultural settings. The exercise involves assigning participants to two fictitious cultural groups, each with its own norms and expectations. Participants interact with members of the other culture in accordance with the instructions provided in order to negotiate successfully. This experiential learning activity allows students to reflect on their cross-cultural skills in a simulated business setting. An assessment of the exercise conducted in classroom setting indicated evidence of its effectiveness.

Application Of Critical Chain Project Management To The Production Part Approval Process, David Podolak

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Daicel Safety Systems Americas, INC has traditionally utilized various methods to manage project completions including the Critical Path Method (CPM). Though these methods have led to successful project completions, they often come with adverse effects. Due to the amount of literature and advancement in the project management discipline, alternative options such as Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) have gained popularity. CCPM seeks to perfect the CPM approach by recognizing resource constraints and the critical chains dependency on them while safeguarding completion dates with buffers. CCPM offers project managers an option to remove resource inefficiency and stalling while meeting deadlines.

The …

Taste And Organization Studies, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D

Education Publications

Using the example of the British fish and chip shop, I explore the socio-historical connections among culture, taste and organizations. Specifically, the British “chippie” illustrates how cultural tastes affect our comprehension of organizations. In examining this occupation in depth, we see how the fish and chip shop reveals the ways class and cultural prejudices affect how an organization is perceived. Considering an organization’s history offers us a glimpse into how organizational tastes are shaped by broader social processes. Additionally, I explore taste and organizations through diverse theoretical lenses. First, the chippie constitutes an organizational example of Pierre Bourdieu’s contrast between …

Values-Based Rivalry: A Theoretical Framework Of Rivalry Between Activists And Firms, Theodore L. Waldron, Chad Navis, Olivia Aronson, Jeffrey G. York, Desiree F. Pacheco

Management Faculty Publications

In this article we develop a theoretical framework to explain values-based rivalry between activists and firms by integrating and advancing key insights from competitive dynamics and social activist research. The first part of our framework conceptualizes the unique tensions, actions, and responses that characterize values-based rivalry and distinguish it from rivalry between firms. The second part of our framework conceptualizes the role of managers’ perceptions in shaping their firms’ likelihood of responding to activists’ actions during values-based rivalry. Overall, our conceptualization primarily expands competitive dynamics research to account for rivalry between dissimilar actors and, in doing so, broadens social activist …

Warriors In Suits: A Bourdieusian Perspective On The Construction And Practice Of Military Masculinity Of Korean Men, Jin Lee, Melika Shirmohammadi, Lisa M. Baumgartner, Jihye Oh, Soo Jeoung Han

Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Within masculinity scholarship, there is a gap about how masculinity carries over from a broad social context to an organizational context. This article explores the construction and capitalization of masculinity through a series of experiences in social fields such as the military and college, and the transfer of militaristic masculinity into the workplace. Drawing on grounded theory methods, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 Korean men who completed their mandatory two-year military service and subsequently joined large corporations in Korea. We uncovered a four-phase model that depicts how Korean men’s masculinity is constructed during military service and transferred to their …

Multi-Generational Workforce Strategies For 21st Century Managers, Gail M. Cushing

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

At any given time, managers can employ up to five generations of individuals in the workplace. Each generational cohort enhances the workplace with their own belief system, habits, attitude, and work expectations. The manager's responsibility to both the organization and the workforce is to bring all the employees together to foster shared values and work towards the organization’s common goal. The aim of this qualitative collective case study was to investigate the strategies managers use to direct a multigenerational workforce in today’s marketplace. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews from managers in the banking, educational, grocery, medical, non-profit, restaurant, and …

Big-Data Talent Analytics In The Public Sector: A Promotion And Firing Model Of Employees At Federal Agencies, Rabih Neouchi

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Talent analytics is a relatively new area of focus to researchers working in analytics and data science. Talent Analytics has the potential to help companies make many informed critical decisions around talent acquisition, promotion and retention. This work investigates data science to predict “shiny star” employees in the U.S. public sector, defined as top-notch performers over the years of a given time span. Its scope falls within talent analytics, also called people analytics, a relatively new research area.

We clean a data set made available by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and present two models to predict the …

Developing Spiritual Maturity In Ministry Leaders Through A Whole-Bible Thematic Instruction, Eric John Palmu

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the development of an instructional program to teach and instruct ministry leaders in spiritual formation. The research reveals that current ministry leaders either lack a level of comfort in discipling team members or lack the capacity to teach and instruct volunteers in spiritual formation. If current ministry leaders do not disciple well, then future leaders will lack necessary leadership skills—an ominous outcome. Consequently, the purpose of the project is to develop a whole-Bible thematic instruction that will improve the discipleship skills of ministry leaders. The curriculum project is designed to develop in …

What Do Consistency And Personableness In The Interview Signal To Applicants? Investigating Indirect Effects On Organizational Attractiveness Through Symbolic Organizational Attributes, Annika Wilhelmy, Martin Kleinmann, Klaus G. Melchers, Filip Lievens

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Personnel selection research has recognized the importance of providing applicants with both standardized (i.e., “consistent”) and individualized (i.e., “personable”) treatment during interviews. However, research has yet to examine the mechanisms underlying the effects of perceived consistency and personableness in the interview on applicants’ attraction to organizations. Drawing from signaling theory, we investigate how interview consistency and personableness impact organizational attractiveness. To this end, we developed a conceptual model that proposes that applicants interpret perceived interview consistency and personableness as signals about what the organization is like in terms of symbolic organizational attributes (organizational competence and benevolence, Lievens and Highhouse 2003), …

Two Essays On The Effects Of Organization Capital On Firm Behavior, Andrew Root

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A growing stream of finance literature involves measuring the effects of organization capital (“OC”) on investment decisions, financial policy, and firm value. Li, Qui & Shen (2018) use the exogenous event of a merger or acquisition to determine whether high OC acquirers perform better. We extend the OC literature by considering economic policy uncertainty (“PU”)(Baker, Bloom & Davis, 2016), which is also exogenous to the firm, to determine the effect of OC on firms in the face of PU. Univariate tests show that high OC firms take more investment risk, have lower leverage, higher cash, lower total shareholder payouts, and …

A Delphi Study: Retention Of Women In Leadership Positions In Stem Disciplines, Kimberly T. Luthi

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

This Delphi study explores barriers and support systems that impact women’s professional advancement in STEM disciplines. There were 20 expert panelists who committed to participate in the study and 15 panelists completed the four rounds of the study after attrition. The panelists were selected based on specific criteria including educational background, diversity within STEM disciplines, experience as a former or current female administrator who served at two-year degree offering institutions, leadership and membership within women’s advocacy organizations in STEM and related workforce education fields, and depth of knowledge and understanding of the research questions. Through the four rounds of the …

From C++ To Conscientiousness: Modeling The Psychosocial Characteristics Influencing Cybersecurity Personnel Performance, Rachel C. Dreibelbis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study drew upon several theoretical frameworks of cybersecurity performance to evaluate distal and proximal individual attributes that may predict cyber performance in a variety of cybersecurity work roles. The proposed models in this study predicted that cognitive ability, personality (conscientiousness and openness to experience), and motivational factors like learning orientation would work through proximal attributes like technical knowledge, communication, and problem solving to influence performance. Hypotheses were tested using 139 employee responses to predictor variables and performance ratings from their supervisors across two industries and several cybersecurity work roles. Correlational analyses and path models supported that several individual …

Academic Skill Learning And The Problem Of Complexity I: Creational Purposeful Integrated Capability At Skill (Cpics), Martin F. Gardiner

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Physical and mental skills are intended to achieve success at acting purposefully. As capability at any skill increases, the need to adjust details of application to complexity of context and goals will increase as well. It will become more and more important to prepare mentally for what I now term Creational Purposeful Integrated Capability at Skill (CPICS). This paper develops what I mean by CPICS. Theory concerning Complex Dynamical Systems (CDS) such as the brain and other evidence points to the likelihood that the mental operations by which our brain produces any kind of skillful behavior cannot remain constant, …

Being In Uncertainties: An Inquiry-Based Model Leveraging Complexity In Teaching-Learning, Diane Rosen

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Education is traditionally structured as a closed system, privileging result-driven methods that offer control and predictability. In recent decades this reductionist approach has been effectively challenged by interdisciplinary work in complex systems theory, revealing myriad levels of orderly disorder that make either-or, linear instruction an inadequate norm. Narrowing the broad implications of a complexity lens on education, this paper focuses on generative uncertainty in teaching-learning, a paradoxical state of epistemological and creative growth described by English poet John Keats as "the negative capability of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts." Opportunities to advance this potentiating capacity are especially abundant in constructivist …

Creativity As An Emergent Property Of Complex Educational System, Ceire Monahan, Mika Munakata, Ashwin Vaidya

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The importance of creativity in education has been discussed often in the literature. While there remains no agreed-upon definition of creativity, the psychological literature points to traits of a creative person. These include the ability to think outside the box, make connections between seemingly disparate ideas, and question norms. The literature provides several examples of classroom experiments to help foster creativity in the classroom. In science and mathematics, we can start by getting students to recognize mathematics and the sciences as being creative endeavors. While these attempts are noteworthy, they are not necessarily aligned with instructional practices. In this article, …

Rethinking Educational Reforms Through A Complex Dynamical Systems Approach: Preliminary Report From An Empirical Research, Eugenia Tsiouplis, Dimitrios Stamovlasis

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Literature on educational reforms is rich of cases where changes have been attempted, without however to attain success. Likewise the Greek education system had experienced a lot of reforms, most of which have failed to make the intended changes and they attenuated shortly after their implementation or they ceased at the stage of legislative planning. On the other hand, the traditional research have failed to develop a coherent theoretical perspective and provide satisfactory interpretations of the perpetually unsuccessful reforms. This paper is part of wider project which attempts to address the above issue following the Complex Dynamical Systems (CDS) perspective, …