Showing papers in "Human Relations in 2016"
TL;DR: In this article, a comparison of what Lewin wrote about changing as three steps with how this is presented in later works is made, and it is shown that Lewin never developed such a model and it took form after his death.
Abstract: Kurt Lewin’s ‘changing as three steps’ (unfreezing → changing → refreezing) is regarded by many as the classic or fundamental approach to managing change. Lewin has been criticized by scholars for over-simplifying the change process and has been defended by others against such charges. However, what has remained unquestioned is the model’s foundational significance. It is sometimes traced (if it is traced at all) to the first article ever published in Human Relations. Based on a comparison of what Lewin wrote about changing as three steps with how this is presented in later works, we argue that he never developed such a model and it took form after his death. We investigate how and why ‘changing as three steps’ came to be understood as the foundation of the fledgling subfield of change management and to influence change theory and practice to this day, and how questioning this supposed foundation can encourage innovation.
276 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between daily work-related smartphone use during off-job time, and daily work family conflict and daily family role performance, and found that for integrators, smartphone use does not have any impact on work-family conflict.
Abstract: Is work-related smartphone use during off-job time associated with lower conflict owing to the blurring of the boundaries between work and family life? Or does it help employees juggling work and family demands? The present four-day quantitative diary study (N = 71 employees, N = 265–280 data points) aims to shed light on the relationship between daily work-related smartphone use during off-job time, and daily work–family conflict and daily family role performance, respectively. Moreover, individuals’ general segmentation preference is investigated as a potential cross-level moderator in the relationships between daily work-related smartphone use during off-job time and both work–family conflict and family role performance. Overall, the results of multilevel modelling support our mediated moderation model indicating that for integrators more frequent work-related smartphone use during off-job time is associated with better family role performance through reduced work–family conflict. For segmenters, smartphone use does not have any impact on work–family conflict and family role performance. These findings suggest that for integrators smartphone use during off-job time may be useful to simultaneously meet both work demands and family demands, which has the potential to reduce work–family conflict and enhance family role performance; whereas for segmenters no effects were found.
221 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that an increase in job crafting at time 2 was predicted by need for positive self-image (Time 1), as well as by work experience (Time 2), and need for human connection was related to job crafting when self-efficacy was high.
Abstract: As a proactive behavior, job crafting refers to changes in the task (cognitive, and behavioral) and social boundaries at work. This article focuses on antecedents of job crafting and the development and validation of a job crafting scale. In Study 1 (N = 466), an exploratory factor analysis with one half of the sample (n = 233) and a confirmatory factor analysis with the other half (n = 233) supported a three-dimensional structure of job crafting (task crafting, relational crafting and cognitive crafting), and convergent as well as discriminant validity of job crafting, in relation to personal initiative and organizational citizenship behavior. In Study 2 (N = 118, two points of measurement), we cross-validated the measure and demonstrated that job crafting was related to, yet distinct from, taking charge. We found that an increase in job crafting at Time 2 was predicted by need for positive self-image (Time 1), as well as by work experience (Time 1). Need for human connection (Time 1) was related to job crafting at Time 2 when self-efficacy was high. Moreover, there was evidence that job crafting as self-oriented behavior related positively to person–job fit. Implications for future research are discussed.
203 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an extensive mixed methods study of how the performance management system is understood by academics across universities and departments in Finland at a time when new management principles and practices are being forcefully introduced.
Abstract: Higher education has been subject to substantial reforms as new forms of performance management are implemented in universities across the world. Extant research suggests that in many cases performance management systems have disrupted academic life. We complement this literature with an extensive mixed methods study of how the performance management system is understood by academics across universities and departments in Finland at a time when new management principles and practices are being forcefully introduced. While our survey results enabled us to map the generally critical and negative view that Finnish scholars have of performance management, the qualitative inquiry allowed us to disentangle how and why our respondents resent the ways and means of measuring their work, the assumptions that underlie the measurement, and the university ideal on which the performance management system is rooted. Most significantly, we highlight how the proliferation of performance management can be seen as a catalys...
190 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define and delineate the concept of the temporary organization and develop an inductively derived framework for organizing the literature comprising individual/team attributes and interior processes, task attributes, tensions between the temporary organisation and the permanent organization, networks and organizational fields and performance/outcomes of temporary organizations.
Abstract: Despite the ascendency of temporary organizations to common practice in many industries, and their expansion as an area of academic inquiry, research evidence on their genesis, development and impact remains fragmented across diverse fields, many of which fail to engage with each other. Our purpose in this article is to bring greater systematics to the scholarship on temporary organizations through documenting their evolution and assembling their bricolage. To this end, we first define and delineate the concept of the temporary organization and we develop an inductively derived framework for organizing the literature comprising individual/team attributes and interior processes, task attributes, tensions between the temporary organization and the permanent organization, networks and organizational fields and performance/outcomes of temporary organizations. Following an explication of these attributes and the dominant relationships between them, we suggest how this nascent area of inquiry might advance thro...
174 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that critical performativity is flawed as it misreads foundational performativity authors, such as Austin and Butler, in ways that nullify their political potential and ignores a range of other influential theories of performativity.
Abstract: In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of ‘critical performativity’, a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between critical management studies researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational performativity authors, such as Austin and Butler, in ways that nullify their political potential, and ignores a range of other influential theories of performativity. It also overlooks the materiality of performativity. We review these limitations and then use three illustrations to sketch out a possible alternative conceptualization of performativity. This alternative approach, which builds on Butler’s and Callon’s work on performativity, recognizes that performativity is about the constitution of subjects, is an inherently material and discursive construct, and happens through the political engineering of sociomaterial agencements. We argue that such an approach – a political theory of organizational performativity – is more likely to deliver on both theoretical and practical fronts than the concept of critical performativity.
140 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study among 206 employees (103 dyads) followed the job demands-resources approach of job crafting to investigate whether proactively changing one's work environment influences employee's (actor's) own and colleague's (partner's) work engagement.
Abstract: In this study among 206 employees (103 dyads), we followed the job demands–resources approach of job crafting to investigate whether proactively changing one’s work environment influences employee’s (actor’s) own and colleague’s (partner’s) work engagement. Using social cognitive theory, we hypothesized that employees would imitate each other’s job crafting behaviours, and therefore influence each other’s work engagement. Results showed that the crafting of social and structural job resources and the crafting of challenge job demands was positively related to own work engagement, whereas decreasing hindrance job demands was unrelated to own engagement. As predicted, results showed a reciprocal relationship between dyad members’ job crafting behaviours – each of the actor’s job crafting behaviours was positively related to the partner’s job crafting behaviours. Finally, employee’s job crafting was related to colleague’s work engagement through colleague’s job crafting, suggesting a modelling process.
139 citations
TL;DR: The role of leader–member exchange in the relationship between two types of person–environment fit over time: person–organization and person–job fit, and subsequent turnover is examined.
Abstract: Person–environment fit has been found to have significant implications for employee attitudes and behaviors. Most research to date has approached person–environment fit as a static phenomenon, and without examining how different types of person–environment fit may affect each other. In particular, little is known about the conditions under which fit with one aspect of the environment influences another aspect, as well as subsequent behavior. To address this gap we examine the role of leader–member exchange in the relationship between two types of person–environment fit over time: person–organization and person–job fit, and subsequent turnover. Using data from two waves (T1 and T2, respectively) and turnover data collected two years later (T3) from a sample of 160 employees working in an elderly care organization in the Netherlands, we find that person–organization fit at T1 is positively associated with person–job fit at T2, but only for employees in high-quality leader–member exchange relationships. Higher needs–supplies fit at T2 is associated with lower turnover at T3. In contrast, among employees in high-quality leader–member exchange relationships, the demands–abilities dimension of person–job fit at T2 is associated with higher turnover at T3.
138 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the notion of failed performatives is introduced to extend this argument and discuss its implications for critical inquiry in business and society, and suggest alternative methods of impact must be explored.
Abstract: This article argues that recent calls in this journal and elsewhere for Critical Management Studies scholars to embrace rather than reject performativity presents an overly optimistic view of (a) the power of language to achieve emancipatory organizational change and (b) the capability of lone Critical Management Studies researchers to resignify management discourses. We introduce the notion of failed performatives to extend this argument and discuss its implications for critical inquiry. If Critical Management Studies seeks to make a practical difference in business and society, and realize its ideals of emancipation, we suggest alternative methods of impact must be explored.
116 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the basic tenets of critical performativity and how this has been applied in the study of management and organization are discussed. But these arguments suffer from an undue focus on intra-academic debates; engage in author-itarian theoretical policing; feign relevance through symbolic radicalism; and repackage common sense.
Abstract: In this article we extend the debate about critical performativity. We begin by outlining the basic tenets of critical performativity and how this has been applied in the study of management and organization. We then address recent critiques of critical performance. We note these arguments suffer from an undue focus on intra-academic debates; engage in author-itarian theoretical policing; feign relevance through symbolic radicalism; and repackage common sense. We take these critiques as an opportunity to offer an extended model of critical performativity that involves focusing on issues of public importance; engaging with non-academic groups using dialectical reasoning; scaling up insights through movement building; and propagating deliberation.
110 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors found that some managers blamed soft skills gaps on skills withdrawal, but did not reveal greater employee disaffection in the establishment worst affected by these skills gaps.
Abstract: Soft (e.g. interpersonal and social) skills are receiving ever more attention with employers frequently reporting that employees lack these skills. The ‘blame game’ for these skills deficits is frequently directed at the individual, family or government. Scant attention has been paid to the possibility that people may possess soft skills but decide to withdraw them because of disaffection with their employer. Taking a critical perspective and drawing on three case study establishments, this article finds that some managers blamed soft skills gaps on skills withdrawal. The employee data did not, however, reveal greater employee disaffection in the establishment worst affected by soft skills gaps. Investigation of withdrawal instead revealed more about employees who had left the organizations and the propensity for employers to blame employees for soft skills gaps. The study also affirmed that organizations may be to blame for their soft skills gaps if they do not contextually integrate selection, induction and training practices with their skills needs.
TL;DR: The authors explored how disabled workers engage with the ableist discourse of disability as lower productivity in constructing positive identities in the workplace and identified three types of discursive practices through which they construct positive workplace identities.
Abstract: This article explores how disabled workers engage with the ableist discourse of disability as lower productivity in constructing positive identities in the workplace. Disabled employees inhabit a contradictory discursive position: as disabled individuals, they are discursively constructed for what they are unable to do, whereas as employees they are constituted as human resources and expected to be able to produce and create value. Our discourse analysis of 30 in-depth interviews with disabled employees identifies three types of discursive practices through which they construct positive workplace identities: (1) practices contesting the discourse of lower productivity as commonly defined; (2) practices contesting the discourse of lower productivity by redefining productivity; and (3) practices reaffirming the discourse of lower productivity yet refusing individual responsibility for it. The study advances the disability literature by highlighting how disabled speakers sustain positive workplace identities...
TL;DR: In this article, a three-wave longitudinal panel study of 819 employees examined autoregressive and cross-lagged relations among latent constructs reflecting change-related beliefs (necessity, legitimacy, support) and psychological reactions (psychological empowerment, affective commitment to change).
Abstract: Organizational changes are costly ventures that too often fail to deliver the expected outcomes. Psychological empowerment and affective commitment to change are proposed as especially important in turbulent contexts characterized by multiple and ongoing changes requiring employees’ continuing contributions. In such a context, employees’ beliefs that the changes are necessary, legitimate and will be supported, are presumed to increase psychological empowerment and affective commitment to change. In a three-wave longitudinal panel study of 819 employees, we examined autoregressive and cross-lagged relations among latent constructs reflecting change-related beliefs (necessity, legitimacy, support) and psychological reactions (psychological empowerment, affective commitment to change). Our findings suggest that psychological empowerment and affective commitment to change represent largely orthogonal reactions, that psychological empowerment is influenced more by beliefs regarding support, whereas affective commitment to change is shaped more by beliefs concerning necessity and legitimacy.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the idea of unlearning on the basis of empirical data drawn from 73 social workers' accounts of addressing their problems and challenges in critical action learning sets.
Abstract: This article explores the idea of unlearning on the basis of empirical data drawn from 73 social workers’ accounts of addressing their problems and challenges in critical action learning sets. To address intractable or wicked problems, characterized by having multiple stakeholders with competing perspectives and by an absence of obvious solution, it may be necessary first to unlearn existing responses and to ask fresh questions to illuminate what is as yet unknown. Action learning privileges questions over solutions in seeking learning from action on organizational challenges, whilst critical action learning is a variety that employs insights from critical social theory to promote critical reflection and unlearning in this process. The article breaks new ground in claiming: first, that unlearning in the context of the wicked problems of social work is characterized less by the discarding of outmoded knowledge and routines and more by a critical unlearning that opens up new possibilities of not knowing and non-action; and second, that critical unlearning is much more likely to take place when supported by a deliberated and social process such as that provided by critical action learning.
TL;DR: In this article, the concept of antenarrative is introduced to highlight complex processes of organizational change in space, time and strategic context, and how managers' and other stakeholders' fragmented speculations regarding futures may legitimate or resist organizational change.
Abstract: This research extends our understanding of organizational sensemaking through storytelling to highlight complex processes of organizational change in space, time and strategic context. We focus on the concept of antenarratives, how managers’ and other stakeholders’ fragmented speculations regarding futures may legitimate or resist organizational change. Antenarratives are not yet fully-formed narratives, but rather pieces of organizational discourse that help to construct identities and interests. We explain the theoretical relevance of Russian socio-linguist Mikhail Bakhtin’s space and time conceptualizations (chronotopes) for strategic narratives of change, and illustrate how antenarratives play important roles in narrative chronotopes. We relate German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s reasons for being in relation to others (existential ontology) to stakeholders’ and organizational identities, and to antenarrative glimpses in Bakhtin’s chronotopes. Through these theorizations, we contribute to conversati...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a measure for leisure crafting and provided evidence for its reliability and validity, and found that weekly leisure crafting would relate positively to weekly satisfaction of basic human needs.
Abstract: The present study addresses employee leisure crafting as the proactive pursuit and enactment of leisure activities targeted at goal setting, human connection, learning and personal development. Study 1 developed a measure for leisure crafting and provided evidence for its reliability and validity. In study 2, we followed 80 employees over the course of three weeks. We hypothesized that weekly leisure crafting would be more likely during weeks of high job strain (i.e. high quantitative job demands and low job autonomy) combined with sufficient autonomy at home, and during weeks of high activity at home (i.e. high quantitative home demands and high home autonomy). Furthermore, we predicted that weekly leisure crafting would relate positively to weekly satisfaction of basic human needs. Results indicated that leisure crafting was pronounced during weeks with high job strain combined with high home autonomy. However, an active home condition (i.e. high home demands and high home autonomy) was unrelated to leisure crafting. Weekly leisure crafting further related positively to weekly satisfaction of relatedness and autonomy (but not competence) needs. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings for the job crafting and leisure literatures.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how able-bodied co-workers engage in the "othering" of colleagues with impairments, and find that disability is simultaneously a discursive category (i.e., the discourse of ableism prevents coworkers from talking about the impairments of a colleague) and a material phenomenon (e.g., employees with disabilities are a distinct category of employees in the eyes of the coworkers).
Abstract: The aim of this article is to explore how able-bodied co-workers engage in the ‘othering’ of colleagues with impairments. Taking a discursive analytical approach, the article examines interviews with 19 managers and 43 colleagues who all worked closely with an employee with cerebral palsy in 13 different work organizations. The primary finding of the article is that co-workers spontaneously refer to other ‘different’ people (e.g. transvestites, homosexuals, immigrants) when talking about a colleague with visible impairments. This finding suggests that disability is simultaneously a discursive category (i.e. the discourse of ableism prevents co-workers from talking about the impairments of a colleague) and a material phenomenon (i.e. employees with impairments are a distinct category of employees in the eyes of the co-workers). Othering of employees with disabilities thus demonstrates contradictory discourses of ableism (which automatically produce difference) and tolerance and inclusiveness (which automat...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how functional diversity may influence team innovation and when such influence may or may not occur in functional diverse teams, and they find that functional diversity had a negative indirect relationship with team innovation via knowledge sharing when affectbased trust in a team was l...
Abstract: Findings from prior research on the relationship between functional diversity and team innovation have been inconclusive. This study aims to reconcile the mixed findings in the literature by investigating how functional diversity may influence team innovation and when such influence may or may not occur. The view of teams as information processors suggests that functionally diverse teams may capitalize on their knowledge benefits to produce innovations through knowledge sharing. However, knowledge sharing and subsequent team innovation do not necessarily occur in functionally diverse teams. Drawing on the motivated information processing in groups theory, we propose that affect-based trust in a team moderates the effects of functional diversity on team innovation (via knowledge sharing). The results based on a sample of 96 research and development teams indicate that functional diversity had a negative indirect relationship with team innovation via knowledge sharing when affect-based trust in a team was l...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop a theory of abject appearance to explain women elite leaders' embodied identity work within a context of intra-gender relations, and illustrate how the theme Fascination with bodies and appearance depicts a dialectical process of simultaneous disgust and attraction with women's bodies and appearances.
Abstract: In this article, we develop a theory of Abject Appearance to explain women elite leaders’ embodied identity work within a context of intra-gender relations. The theory of Abject Appearance illuminates a dynamic and dialectical process whereby women elite leaders ‘manage’ the ambiguities of their ‘in-between’ and ‘abject’ status. This process is understood as a possible material effect or consequence of women’s abjection in organizations. Women elite leaders hold power through their formal positions, yet remain marginalized in social relations because their feminine bodies are out of place in organizations. In a qualitative study with women elite leaders, we illustrate how the theme Fascination with bodies and appearance depicts a dialectical process of simultaneous disgust and attraction with women’s bodies and appearance. We discuss how this material effect of abjection may be played out through two embodied identity work strategies in an intra-gender context, namely: Shifting focus from the body and app...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify a path-dependent process of tension interpretation and tension management at different levels of the organization and suggest that actors are actively involved in managing arising tensions based on their differing interpretations of these tensions.
Abstract: Whereas tensions arising from the pursuit of ambidexterity have been documented, how these are interpreted and managed by actors themselves remains largely unexplored. Based on in-depth case research in a large Scandinavian-based telecommunications organization pursuing ambidexterity, we identify a path-dependent process of tension interpretation and tension management at different levels of the organization. Our findings suggest that, in the context of an ambidextrous strategy, actors are actively involved in managing arising tensions based on their differing interpretations of these tensions (where ambidextrous demands are seen as complementary, conflicting or interrelated). We find that these interpretations are influenced by actors’ strategic orientation and organizational level. Our study extends understanding of the pursuit of ambidexterity in practice, offering a pluralist, path-dependent perspective of how actors perceive and deal with ambidexterity tensions.
TL;DR: This article examined the impact of large scale, "macro" role transitions on professional identity and found that organizational outsiders with established professional identities respond to institutional requirements and specifically to professional pre-entry scripts in their new host country.
Abstract: This article examines the impact of large scale, ‘macro’ role transitions on professional identity. Drawing on in-depth interviews with two different groups of immigrant professionals, it theorizes how organizational outsiders with established professional identities respond to the institutional requirements and specifically to professional pre-entry scripts in their new host country. The study demonstrates how identity work evolves among each group as they navigate the permeable and impermeable pre-entry scripts in their respective professions. It identifies both barriers and facilitators to engagement with, and fulfillment of, local pre-entry scripts. These findings demonstrate how different professional domains and power structures create different opportunities for re-entry and as a result give rise to different forms of identity work – involving, for example, identity customization, identity shadowing, struggle and enrichment. Implications for policy makers in the field will be discussed, focusing on...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how action research (AR) can advance sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) research and explore the proponents and application of AR as a relevant methodology for knowledge development in the field.
Abstract: This paper describes how action research (AR) can advance sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) research. Most SSCM research is empirical and little attention has been paid to reflecting upon how research is conducted in the field. Current research fails to make links with ideas of relationality, change and engagement proposed in broader sustainability research. We propose to address this gap by discussing how AR could help address current challenges in SSCM. The paper explores the proponents and application of AR as a relevant methodology for knowledge development in the field, based upon a critical analysis of SSCM and AR, including a review of previous AR studies and insights from a research project in which AR was applied. Particular emphasis is put on exploring the links between the sustainability dimension of SSCM and the foundations and practice of AR. The paper does not reject other methodological approaches, but it shows that the pragmatic orientation of AR is particularly suitable for an applied field such as SSCM where problems are often messy, cross-disciplinary and essentially concerned with the flourishing of individuals and organisations. Our paper has broader implications for inter- organisational research.
TL;DR: The authors examine the role of texts in the mutual constitution of order and disorder in project organizing, showing that attempts of ordering through language use and texts tend to induce disordering (i.e. by closing and fixing meaning) at the same time.
Abstract: This article addresses the question: why does disorder tend to simultaneously accompany efforts to create order when organizing? Adopting a communication-centered perspective, we specifically examine the role of texts in the mutual constitution of order and disorder. Drawing on empirical material from three qualitative case studies on project organizing, we show that attempts of ordering through language use and texts (i.e. by closing and fixing meaning) tend to induce disordering (i.e. by opening the possibility of multiple meanings), at the same time. As we contend, these (dis)ordering dynamics play a key role in the communicative constitution of organization, keeping them in motion by calling forth continuous processes of meaning (re-)negotiation.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce inter-field resource dependence as an important condition explaining institutional change between fields, and argue that these two dimensions have opposite effects on the likelihood of institutional change.
Abstract: Theories of institutional change have paid limited attention to the ways in which relations between institutional fields might facilitate or hinder institutional change. I introduce inter-field resource dependence as an important condition explaining institutional change between fields. Building on resource dependence theory, I conceptualize two dimensions of inter-field resource dependence: mutual dependence and power imbalance. I argue that these two dimensions have opposite effects on the likelihood of institutional change between fields. Mutual dependence between two fields increases the chances of institutional change by inducing actors in both the fields to work at creating new shared institutions in order to regulate their mutual dependence. Power imbalance between two fields decreases the chances of institutional change by inducing actors in the dominant field to work at maintaining existing institutions in order to preserve their power. Thus, different types of inter-field resource dependence motivate actors to undertake different forms of institutional work, which in turn shape the likelihood of institutional change between fields. Developing this core argument, I theorize that whether the institutional change occurring between two fields is radical or incremental is a function of the type of resource dependence linking the two fields; for example, when power imbalance is high, institutional change is unlikely but when it occurs it tends to be radical.
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of collective work-unit perceptions of social context on individual work resilience and two key individual outcomes: job satisfaction and job performance as rated by the supervisor were studied.
Abstract: Giving the crucial role of organizational context in shaping individual attitudes and behaviors at work, in this research we studied the effects of collective work-unit perceptions of social context on individual work resilience and two key individual outcomes: job satisfaction and job performance as rated by the supervisor. We theorized that collective perceptions of social context act as antecedents of individual variables, and that individual job satisfaction mediates the relationship between collective perceptions of social context and job performance, and between work resilience and job performance over time. A sample of 305 white-collar employees, clustered in 67 work-units, participated in the study. Hierarchical linear modeling highlighted that collective perceptions of social context are significant related to individual work resilience. Moreover, results showed that individual job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between collective perceptions of social context and individual job per...
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors examined whether perceived organizational support influences organizational identification and found that collectivism moderates the indirect effect of organizational support on extra-role behavior through organizational identification, while organizational identification mediates the effect of perceived support on employees' extra role behavior.
Abstract: We propose that employees’ perceptions of intra-organizational cues are an important factor influencing their identification with their organizations. Building on self-categorization theory, we examine whether perceived organizational support influences organizational identification. We contend that in addition to the mediating effect of affective commitment, organizational identification also mediates the effect of perceived organizational support on employees’ extra-role behavior. We collect perceptions of perceived organizational support, organizational identification and extra-role behavior information from 363 nurses in China using a three-wave data collection method and find empirical evidence to support most of our hypotheses. We find that collectivism moderates the indirect effect of perceived organizational support on extra-role behavior through organizational identification. We discuss the implications of our findings.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the methodological possibilities that Butler's theory of performativity opens up, attempting to translate her theoretical ideas into research practice, and advocate a research practice premised upon a reflexive undoing of organizational subjectivities and the normative conditions upon which they depend.
Abstract: This article explores the methodological possibilities that Butler’s theory of performativity opens up, attempting to ‘translate’ her theoretical ideas into research practice. Specifically, it considers how research on organizational subjectivity premised upon a performative ontology might be undertaken. It asks: What form might a Butler-inspired methodology take? What methodological opportunities might it afford for developing self-reflexive research? What political and ethical problems might it pose for organizational researchers, particularly in relation to the challenges associated with power asymmetries, and the risks attached to ‘fixing’ subjects within the research process? The article outlines and evaluates a method described as anti-narrative interviewing, arguing that it constitutes a potentially valuable methodological resource for researchers interested in understanding how and why idealized organizational subjectivities are formed and sustained. It further advances the in-roads that Butler’s writing has made into organization studies, thinking through the methodological and ethical implications of her work for understanding the performative constitution of organizational subjectivities. The aim of the article is to advocate a research practice premised upon a reflexive undoing of organizational subjectivities and the normative conditions upon which they depend. It concludes by emphasizing the potential benefits and wider implications of a methodologically reflexive undoing of organizational performativity.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw attention to reported experiences of boredom in knowledge work and analyze these experiences as a particular interaction with identity regulation and work experiences, and conceptualize the reports of the bored self as a combination of unfilled aspirations and the sense of stagnation leading to an arrested identity.
Abstract: This article draws attention to reported experiences of boredom in knowledge work. Drawing on extensive qualitative data gathered at two management consultancy firms, we analyze these experiences as a particular interaction with identity regulation and work experiences. We conceptualize the reports of the bored self as a combination of unfilled aspirations and the sense of stagnation, leading to an arrested identity. Our contribution is to expand extant conceptualizations of employee interactions with identity regulation, in particular relating to identity work and identification. The findings provide a critical rendering of the glamourized image of knowledge work.
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the impact of the gender composition of firm leadership on the likelihood that a firm will adopt lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-friendly policies, and found that firms with gender diverse boards are more likely than other firms to offer LGBT-friendly policies.
Abstract: We advance the literature on the demographic factors that shape organizational outcomes by analyzing the impact of the gender composition of firm leadership on the likelihood that a firm will adopt lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)-friendly policies. Drawing on social role and token theory, we test the relative impact of CEO gender and the gender composition of the board of directors separately and together in order to identify the effects of gender diversity at the top of the organization. We rely on a unique data set that includes corporate policies (gender identity and sexual orientation non-discrimination policies, domestic-partner benefits, and overall corporate equality index scores) as well as the gender of the CEO and board of directors among Fortune 500 firms over a 10-year period. Our findings suggest that firms with gender-diverse boards are more likely than other firms to offer LGBT-friendly policies, whereas findings for firms with women CEOs offer mixed results.
TL;DR: The authors found that favorable POS comparisons with peers in one's work unit are positively associated with commitment and retention, whereas unfavorable comparisons are negatively related, and that comparisons taking place in less-supported work units have stronger impact than comparisons made in those with better support.
Abstract: Organizational support theory (OST) suggests that employees develop a general perception of the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support – POS), and respond to that support through attitudes and behaviors that are beneficial toward the organization. Although OST emphasizes both social exchange and self-enhancement processes, most accounts of POS’s effects are rooted in social exchange. For example, POS’s linkages with commitment and retention have been explained as an exchange of support for positive attitudes and continued employment. This research sheds light on self-enhancement’s less-understood role in fostering these reactions by demonstrating the influence of social comparison effects. Drawing on a sample of 342 employees nested in 82 work-units of a US hospitality company, our analysis demonstrates that favorable POS comparisons with peers in one’s work-unit are positively associated with commitment and retention, whereas unfavorable comparisons are negatively related. Results also show that comparisons taking place in less-supported work-units have stronger impact than comparisons made in those with better support. Our findings extend OST by revealing the importance of social comparisons in engendering responses to organizational support, and in so doing potentially explicate the differential ways social exchange and self-enhancement operate with regard to POS.