Showing papers in "Academy of Management Journal in 2014"
TL;DR: This paper found that female board representation is positively related to accounting returns and that this relationship is more positive in countries with stronger shareholder protections, perhaps because shareholders motivate boards to use the different knowledge, experience, and values that each member brings.
Abstract: Despite a large body of literature examining the relationship between women on boards and firm financial performance, the evidence is mixed. To reconcile the conflicting results, we statistically combine the results from 140 studies and examine whether these results vary by firms' legal/regulatory and socio-cultural contexts. We find that female board representation is positively related to accounting returns and that this relationship is more positive in countries with stronger shareholder protections--perhaps because shareholder protections motivate boards to use the different knowledge, experience, and values that each member brings. We also find that, although the relationship between female board representation and market performance is near zero the relationship is positive in countries with greater gender parity (and negative in countries with low gender parity)--perhaps because societal gender differences in human capital may influence investors' evaluations of the future earning potential of firms that have more female directors. Lastly, we find that female board representation is positively related to boards' two primary responsibilities: monitoring and strategy involvement. For both firm financial performance and board activities, we find mean effect sizes comparable to those found in meta-analyses of other aspects of board composition. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings
1,013 citations
TL;DR: The authors reflect on management of big data by organizations and comment on service level agreements (SLA) which define the nature and quality of information technology services and mention big data-sharing agreements tend to be poorly structured and informal.
Abstract: The authors reflect on management of big data by organizations. They comment on service level agreements (SLA) which define the nature and quality of information technology services and mention big data-sharing agreements tend to be poorly structured and informal. They reflect on the methodologies of analyzing big data and state it is easy to get false correlations when using typical statistical tools in analyzing big data. They talk about the use of big data in management and behavior research.
837 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a sample of 961 employees working in 71 restaurants of a moderately sized restaurant chain was used to investigate a key tenet of servant leadership theory, that servant leaders guide followers to emula...
Abstract: In a sample of 961 employees working in 71 restaurants of a moderately sized restaurant chain, we investigated a key tenet of servant leadership theory—that servant leaders guide followers to emula...
694 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the factors that influence the social performance of hybrid organizations that pursue a social mission and sustain their operations through commercial activities by studying work integra, and examine the influence of these factors on social performance.
Abstract: We examine the factors that influence the social performance of hybrid organizations that pursue a social mission and sustain their operations through commercial activities by studying work integra
576 citations
TL;DR: In this article, social exchange theory is used to understand the negative consequences of knowledge hiding on the creativity of a knowledge hider, which may prevent colleagues from generating creative ideas, but it may also have negative consequences for the knowledge hiding itself.
Abstract: Knowledge hiding prevents colleagues from generating creative ideas, but it may also have negative consequences for the creativity of a knowledge hider. Drawing on social exchange theory, we propos...
528 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared in-depth qualitative data from six top management teams exploring and exploiting paradoxes simultaneously, and the results informed a model of dynamic decision-making in which strategic paradoxes can be effectively engaged.
Abstract: Senior leaders increasingly embed paradoxes into their organization's strategy, but struggle to manage them effectively. To better understand how they do so, I compared in-depth qualitative data from six top management teams exploring and exploiting simultaneously. The results informed a model of dynamic decision making in which strategic paradoxes can be effectively engaged. The details of this dynamic decision-making model extend and complicate our understanding of managing paradoxes by depicting dilemmas and paradoxes as interwoven, explicating a consistently inconsistent pattern of addressing tensions, and framing both differentiating and integrating practices as necessary for engaging paradox.
519 citations
TL;DR: The authors developed and tested an interactionist model governing the degree to which five-factormodel personality traits are related to job performance and found that personality traits were more predictive of performance for jobs in which the process by which the work was done represented weak situations (e.g., work was unstructured, employee had discretion to make decisions).
Abstract: Derived from two theoretical concepts--situation strength and trait activation--we develop and test an interactionistmodel governing the degree to which five-factormodel personality traits are related to job performance. One concept--situation strength--was hypothesized to predict the validities of all of the "Big Five" traits, while the effects of the other--trait activation--were hypothesized to be specific to each trait. Based on this interactionist model, personality--performance correlations were located in the literature, and occupationally homogeneous jobs were coded according to their theoretically relevant contextual properties. Results revealed that all five traits were more predictive of performance for jobs in which the process by which the work was done represented weak situations (e.g., work was unstructured, employee had discretion to make decisions). Many of the traits also predicted performance in job contexts that activated specific traits (e.g., extraversion better predicted performance in jobs requiring social skills, agreeableness was less positively related to performance in competitive contexts, openness was more strongly related to performance in jobs with strong innovation/ creativity requirements). Overall, the study's findings supported our interactionist model in which the situation exerts both general and specific effects on the degree to which personality predicts job performance
512 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that job seekers receive signals from CSP that inform three signal-based mechanisms that ultimately affect organizational attractiveness: job seekers' anticipated pride from being affiliated with the organization, their perceived value fit with the organisation, and their expectations about how the organization treats its employees.
Abstract: Research on employee recruitment has shown that an organization's corporate social performance (CSP) affects its attractiveness as an employer, but the underlying mechanisms and processes through which this occurs are poorly understood. We propose that job seekers receive signals from CSP that inform three signal-based mechanisms that ultimately affect organizational attractiveness: job seekers' anticipated pride from being affiliated with the organization, their perceived value fit with the organization, and their expectations about how the organization treats its employees. We hypothesized that these signal-based mechanisms mediate the relationships between CSP and organizational attractiveness, focusing on two aspects of CSP: an organization's community involvement and pro-environmental practices. In an experiment (n 180), we manipulated CSP via a company's web pages. In a field study (n 171), we measured CSP content in the recruitment materials used by organizations at a job fair and job seekers' perceptions of the organizations' CSP. Results provided support for the signal-based mechanisms, and we discuss the implications for theory, future research, and practice
479 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conduct an exploratory qualitative comparative case analysis of the S&P 1500 firms with the aim of elaborating theory on how corporate governance mechanisms work together effectively.
Abstract: We conduct an exploratory qualitative comparative case analysis of the S&P 1500 firms with the aim of elaborating theory on how corporate governance mechanisms work together effectively. To do so, we integrate extant theory and research to specify the bundle of mechanisms that operate to mitigate the agency problem among publicly traded corporations and review what previous research has said about how these mechanisms combine. We then use the fuzzy-set approach to qualitative comparitive analysis (QCA) to explore the combinations of governance mechanisms that exist among the S&P 1500 firms that achieve high (and not-high) profitability. Our findings suggest that high profits result when CEO incentive alignment and monitoring mechanisms work together as complements rather than as substitutes. Furthermore, they show that high profits are obtained when both internal and external monitoring mechanisms are present. At the same time, however, monitoring mechanisms evidently combine in complex ways such that the...
473 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a year-long ethnographic study of reinsurance trading in Lloyd's of London is presented, where three balancing mechanisms -segmenting, bridging, and demarcating -are identified to manage competing logics and their shifting salience within their everyday work.
Abstract: Drawing on a year-long ethnographic study of reinsurance trading in Lloyd’s of London, this paper makes three contributions to current discussions of institutional complexity. First, we shift focus away from structural and relatively static organizational responses to institutional complexity and identify three balancing mechanisms - segmenting, bridging, and demarcating - which allow individuals to manage competing logics and their shifting salience within their everyday work. Second, we integrate these mechanisms in a theoretical model that explains how individuals can continually keep coexisting logics, and their tendencies to either blend or disconnect, in a state of dynamic tension which makes them conflicting-yet-complementary logics. Our model shows how actors are able to dynamically balance coexisting logics, maintaining the distinction between them, whilst also exploiting the benefits of their interdependence. Third, in contrast to most studies of newly formed hybrids and/or novel complexity our focus on a long-standing context of institutional complexity shows how institutional complexity can itself become institutionalized and routinely enacted within everyday practice.
360 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the effects of two structural features in the two networks (structural holes and degree centrality) on researchers' exploratory innovation and found that a researcher with knowledge elements rich in structural holes in the knowledge network tends to explore fewer new knowledge elements from outside the firm, while structural hole in the collaboration network increase exploratory innovations.
Abstract: Innovation in firms is doubly embedded: in a social network of collaborations between researchers, and in a knowledge network composed of linkages between knowledge elements. The two networks are decoupled. Their structural features are distinct and influence researchers' exploratory innovation differently. Using the patent data of a leading U.S. microprocessor manufacturer, we constructed the firm's collaboration and knowledge networks, and examined the effects of two structural features in the two networks--structural holes and degree centrality--on researchers' exploratory innovation. Our findings show that a researcher with knowledge elements rich in structural holes in the knowledge network tends to explore fewer new knowledge elements from outside the firm, while structural holes in the collaboration network increase exploratory innovation. The average degree centrality of a researcher's knowledge elements in the knowledge network has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with his or her exploratory innovation, while degree centrality in the collaboration network has a negative effect. This study suggests that knowledge and social networks influence where researchers search for discoveries
TL;DR: In this paper, a fuzzy set theoretic approach is used to demonstrate how different combinations of monitoring and incentive-based corporate governance mechanisms lead to the same level of investor valuations of firms.
Abstract: We build on sociology-grounded research on financial market behavior and suggest a “nested” legitimacy framework to explore U.S. investor perceptions of foreign IPO value. We draw on a fuzzy-set theoretic approach to demonstrate how different combinations of monitoring and incentive-based corporate governance mechanisms lead to the same level of investor valuations of firms. We also argue that institutional factors related to the minority shareholder protection strength in the foreign IPO’s home country represent a boundary condition that affects the number of governance mechanisms required to achieve U.S. investors’ high value perceptions. Our findings, drawn from a unique, hand-collected dataset of foreign IPOs in the U.S, contribute to the sociological perspective on comparative corporate governance and the inter-dependencies between organizations and institutions.
TL;DR: In their search for innovation, organizations often invite suggestions from external contributors as mentioned in this paper, which is a form of distant search, since it allows organizations to tap into know-how of external contributors.
Abstract: In their search for innovation, organizations often invite suggestions from external contributors. Soliciting suggestions is a form of distant search, since it allows organizations to tap into know...
TL;DR: In this article, a multidimensional framework of CEO temporal focus (the degree to which CEOs characteristically devote attention to perceptions of the past, present, and future) is proposed to predict the rate of new product introduction.
Abstract: Using a multidimensional framework of CEO temporal focus (the degree to which CEOs characteristically devote attention to perceptions of the past, present, and future), we propose that a company's rate of new product introduction (NPI) is predicted by a CEO's focus on each of the three distinct time frames in interaction with environmental dynamism. Based on a longitudinal (from 1996 to 2003) analysis of 221 firms in 19 industries, we show that, in stable environments, new products are introduced faster in firms headed by CEOs with high past focus, high present focus, and low future focus. In dynamic environments, new products are introduced faster in firms headed by CEOs with low past focus, high present focus, and high future focus. These findings demonstrate how CEO temporal attentional bias shapes the rate of NPI.
TL;DR: The authors examined the daily sleep of leaders as an antecedent to daily abusive supervisory behavior and work unit engagement, drawing from ego depletion theory, and proposed a theoretical extension that includes a serial...
Abstract: We examine the daily sleep of leaders as an antecedent to daily abusive supervisory behavior and work unit engagement. Drawing from ego depletion theory, our theoretical extension includes a serial...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on how climate change may impact the management industry after 2014 and discuss the social impact of ocean acidification and coastal flooding, the transformation of the global economy in response to climate change, and the warnings on climate change issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Abstract: The article focuses on how climate change may impact the management industry after 2014. Topics include the social impact of ocean acidification and coastal flooding, the transformation of the global economy in response to climate change, and the warnings on climate change issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
TL;DR: In this article, a theoretical model of multilevel moderated mediation in which organizational justice serves as an intervening mechanism that explains associations among two dimensions of work stressors (challenges and hindrances) and five dimensions of job performance (task performance, helping, voice, counterproductive behavior, and creativity) over and above the intervening role of strain.
Abstract: We develop and test a theoretical model of multilevel moderated mediation in which organizational justice serves as an intervening mechanism that explains associations among two dimensions of work stressors (challenges and hindrances) and five dimensions of job performance (task performance, helping, voice, counterproductive behavior, and creativity) over and above the intervening role of strain. We also consider how leadership influences the intervening role of justice in the stressor–job performance relationships by virtue of the effect it has on how stressors are interpreted with regard to fairness. Results of a study of 339 employees and their supervisors provide support for this model across dimensions of performance. Somewhat unexpectedly, the moderating effect of leadership is found to be contingent on the type of leadership and the type of stressors. Transactional leaders reduce the negative effect of hindrance stressors on job performance because they weaken the negative link between hindrance stressors and justice perceptions. Alternatively, transformational leaders enhance the positive effect of challenge stressors on job performance because they foster a positive link between challenge stressors and justice perceptions. We discuss how this intriguing pattern of moderated mediation could be explained by using theory and research on regulatory focus
TL;DR: This paper conducted a longitudinal field study of 13 resource-constrained founder-run textile and apparel firms to understand how and why firms vary in their strategic responses to the same adversity, finding that founders enact distinctly different definitions of the adversity and use their firms as vehicles to defend who they are or to become who they want to be.
Abstract: We conducted a longitudinal field study of 13 resource-constrained founder-run textile and apparel firms to understand how and why firms vary in their strategic responses to the same adversity. We discovered that founders enact distinctly different definitions of the adversity and use their firms as vehicles to defend who they are or to become who they want to be. Bridging two formerly disparate social psychological theories of identity, we develop grounded theory and a process model that together contribute toward our understanding of how and why differences in the structure of founder identity—the set of identities that is chronically salient to a founder in her/his day-to-day work—drive patterned differences in firms’ strategic responses. The processes we describe help explain responses to adversity and also provide a platform for research that may generate new insights into the significance for founders of bringing “who I am” into closer alignment with “who I want to be.”
TL;DR: Despite meta-analytic evidence demonstrating that consensus between leader and subordinate perceptions is only moderate at best, research on LMX typically e... as mentioned in this paper, the authors of this paper focus on leader-member exchange (LMX) agreement.
Abstract: Despite meta-analytic evidence demonstrating that leader–member exchange (LMX) agreement (consensus between leader and subordinate perceptions) is only moderate at best, research on LMX typically e...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the effect of the regulatory focus of a chief executive on the company's ability to make acquisitions and find that the effects of people's promotion and prevention foci are magnified when their regulatory focus is congruent with salient situational characteristics.
Abstract: Regulatory focus theory proposes that decisionmaking and goal pursuit occur via either a promotion focus (a sensitivity to gains and a desire for advancement and growth) or a prevention focus (a sensitivity to losses and a desire for stability and security). Recent theorizing in strategic management research suggests that there may be important firm- level outcomes influenced by the regulatory focus of top executives. We expand research on regulatory focus theory by testing whether chief executive officers' (CEOs') regulatory focus impacts the proclivity of firms to undertake acquisitions. Furthermore, regulatory focus theory suggests that the effects of people's promotion and prevention foci are magnified when their regulatory focus is congruent with salient situational characteristics, a phenomenon known as regulatory fit. As a test of this idea, we demonstrate how the effects of CEO promotion and prevention foci are differentially impacted by one such characteristic, namely incentive compensation. Our findings indicate that CEO regulatory focus impacts both the quantity and scale of acquisitions undertaken by a firm. We also find some support for our arguments that these relationships are moderated by stock option pay
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employed multi-source experience sampling methods to test the effects of a critical boundary condition, employee lunch break autonomy, on the relation between lunch break activities and end-of-workday fatigue.
Abstract: Work recovery research has focused mainly on how after-work break activities help employees replenish their resources and reduce fatigue. Given that employees spend a considerable amount of time at work, understanding how they can replenish their resources during the workday is critical. Drawing on ego depletion (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), we employed multi-source experience sampling methods to test the effects of a critical boundary condition, employee lunch break autonomy, on the relation between lunch break activities and end-of-workday fatigue. Although specific energy-relevant activities had a main effect on end-of-workday fatigue, each of these was moderated by the degree of autonomous choice associated with the break. Specifically, for activities that supported the psychological needs of relatedness and competence (i.e., social and work activities, respectively), as lunch break autonomy increased, effects switched from increasing fatigue to reducing fatigue. To the extent that lunch break activities involved relaxation, however, lunch break autonomy was only important when levels of relaxation were low. We conclude that lunch break autonomy plays a complex and pivotal role in conferring the potential energetic benefits of lunch break activities. Contributions to theory and practice are discussed
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors tested the hypothesis that managers with low managerial self-efficacy seek to minimize voice as a way of compensating for a threatened ego, and the results of two studies support this idea.
Abstract: Soliciting and incorporating employee voice is essential to organizational performance, yet some managers display a strong aversion to improvement-oriented input from subordinates. To help to explain this maladaptive tendency, we tested the hypothesis that managers with low managerial self-efficacy (that is, low perceived ability to meet the elevated competence expectations associated with managerial roles) seek to minimize voice as a way of compensating for a threatened ego. The results of two studies support this idea. In a field study (Study 1), managers with low managerial self-efficacy were less likely than others to solicit input, leading to lower levels of employee voice. A follow-up experimental study (Study 2) showed that: (a) manipulating low managerial self-efficacy led to voice aversion (that is, decreased voice solicitation, negative evaluations of an employee who spoke up, and reduced implementation of voice); and (b) the observed voice aversion associated with low managerial self-efficacy was driven by ego defensiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, as well as highlight directions for future research on voice, management, and leadership.
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of "career variety" was introduced, defined as the array of distinct professional and institutional experiences an executive has had prior to becoming CEO, and found to be positively associated with firm-level strategic novelty.
Abstract: We introduce the concept of “CEO career variety”—defined as the array of distinct professional and institutional experiences an executive has had prior to becoming CEO. Using a longitudinal sample of Fortune 250 CEOs, we hypothesize, and find strong evidence for the assertion, that CEO career variety is positively associated with firm-level strategic novelty—manifested in strategic dynamism (period-on-period change) and strategic distinctiveness (deviance from industry central tendencies). We also find mixed evidence that CEO career variety is positively associated with social novelty—manifested in top management team turnover and heterogeneity
TL;DR: Based on a three-year inductive study of one organization's implementation of radical organizational change, this article examined the critical role played by middle managers' judgments of the legitimacy of t...
Abstract: Based on a three-year inductive study of one organization's implementation of radical organizational change, we examine the critical role played by middle managers' judgments of the legitimacy of t...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors meta-analytically test whether occupation-, industry-, and job-level factors mitigate or exacerbate differences in performance evaluations (k = 93, n = 95,882) and rewards between men and women.
Abstract: Drawing on macro and micro domains in gender research, we meta-analytically test whether occupation-, industry-, and job-level factors mitigate or exacerbate differences in performance evaluations (k = 93; n = 95,882) and rewards (k = 97; n = 378,850) between men and women. Based on studies conducted across a variety of work settings and spanning nearly 30 years, we found that the sex differences in rewards (d = .56) (including salary, bonuses, and promotions) were 14 times larger than sex differences in performance evaluations (d = .04), and that differences in performance evaluations did not explain reward differences between men and women. The percentage of men in an occupation and the complexity of jobs performed by employees enhanced the male–female gap in performance and rewards. In highly prestigious occupations, women performed equally, but were rewarded significantly lower than men. Only a higher representation of female executives at the industry level enabled women to reverse the gender gap in ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed the concept of power heterarchy, which is a conceptualization of power structures in groups that is more dynamic and fluid than traditional hierarchical structures, and demonstrated that heterarchical structures in which the expression of power actively shifts among team members to align team member capabilities with dynamic situational demands can enhance team creativity.
Abstract: In this paper, we develop the concept of a power heterarchy, which is a conceptualization of power structures in groups that is more dynamic and fluid than traditional hierarchical structures. Through a study of 516 directional dyads in 45 teams, we demonstrate that heterarchical structures in which the expression of power actively shifts among team members to align team member capabilities with dynamic situational demands can enhance team creativity. Our results indicate that this positive effect of power heterarchies on team creativity is contingent on the team perceiving the shifts in interpersonal power expressions as legitimate. We discuss the implications of this heterarchical power structure for research on group functioning, power, and legitimacy in organizations.
TL;DR: For instance, the authors found that social class is increasingly recognized as a powerful force in people's lives, yet despite the long and extensive stream of research on the upper echelons of organizations, we know little about how social class affects the performance of organizations.
Abstract: Social class is increasingly recognized as a powerful force in people’s lives. Yet despite the long and extensive stream of research on the upper echelons of organizations, we know little about how...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a self-control model of retaliatory behavior, wherein subordinates' self control capacity and motivation to self control influence emotional and retaliatory reactions to provocations by enabling individuals to override their hostile impulses.
Abstract: There are conflicting perspectives on whether subordinates will or will not aggress against an abusive supervisor. To address this paradox we develop a self-control model of retaliatory behavior, wherein subordinates' self-control capacity and motivation to self-control influence emotional and retaliatory reactions to provocations by enabling individuals to override their hostile impulses. In Study 1, we demonstrate that self-control capacity, motivation to self-control (supervisor coercive power), and abusive supervision interact in such a way that the strongest association between abusive supervision and supervisor-directed aggression occurs when subordinates are low in self-control capacity and perceive their supervisor to be low in coercive power. In Study 2, we extend this finding, testing a moderated mediation model, wherein hostility toward a supervisor represents the hostile impulse resulting in retaliatory behavior, mediating the relation between abusive supervision and supervisor-directed aggression. Results from Study 2 indicate that self-control capacity allows individuals to regulate the hostile feelings experienced following abusive supervision, while self-control capacity and supervisor coercive power jointly moderate the tendency to act on one's hostile feelings toward an abusive supervisor. We discuss implications for retaliatory behaviors at work.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors build on theory about how identification develops when members differ in which organizational values they hold to be important and find that conflict and dis-identification arise under such conditions.
Abstract: This research builds on theory about how identification develops when members differ in which organizational values they hold to be important. It is relatively well established that conflict and dis-identification arise under such conditions. In the socially responsible retail company I studied, in contrast, I found identification as well as dis-identification. Both outcomes emerged from members’ interactions with others whose values and behaviors differed from their own. Identification arose when managers interpreted and enacted organizational values for frontline employees by developing integrative solutions, removing ideology, and routinizing ideology. Dis-identification developed in the absence of these practices. The resulting process model suggests a relational ecology of identification, in which identification emerges from the combination of bottom-up interactive processes among organizational members and top-down interpretations and enactments by managers. This model advances understanding of the relational dynamics of identification, offers new insight into how organizations can benefit from multiple identities, and illuminates the double-edged sword of ideology in organizations
TL;DR: The authors hypothesize that the reverse effect of entrepreneurial passion driving entrepreneurial effort is also true, and investigate changes in change in theoretical frameworks in entrepreneurship, which emphasize that entrepreneurial passion drives entrepreneurial effort.
Abstract: Most theoretical frameworks in entrepreneurship emphasize that entrepreneurial passion drives entrepreneurial effort. We hypothesize that the reverse effect is also true, and investigate changes in...