Bargaining your way to success: Machiavellian CEOs and their effects on organizational costs and performance

This study examines the effects of CEO Machiavellianism on firm performance. While Machiavellianism has been usually construed as a purely negative trait, we argue that the pragmatic focus on the outcomes of exchanges and psychological obsession with winning in transactions that Machiavellian CEOs bring to their organizations can have important effects on organizational costs and performance. In line with our arguments, we find that CEO Machiavellianism has negative effects on relevant organizational costs and positive effects on organizational performance. We find support for our ideas with a sample of S&P 500 CEOs, operationalizing CEO Machiavellianism with a videometric approach.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Pennsylvania State University

PI/PDs: Federico Aime

Pennsylvania State University: Tessa Recendes

 

The joys and perils of working in plain view: Entrepreneurial engagement with organizational patrons and the emergence of an external layer of organizational control

Drawing on interviews and observation from a multi-year field study, this article investigates the impact of enacting a permeable organizational boundary by engaging with patrons (e.g., customers, crowd funders). Findings describe how the organization’s members were involved in an external stakeholder-based system of normative and motivational cues that powerfully and efficiently affected their behaviors and feelings of well-being. This account describes how opening the organizational boundaries to external stakeholders through direct exposure and social media evolved into a new form of control – the Patron Control System (PCS) – aligned employee activities by introducing both strong coercive and enabling pressures for employees.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Pennsylvania State University

PI/PDs: Federico Aime

Pennsylvania State University: Stephen Humphrey

 

Control Theory and Employee Affective Adaptation to COVID-19

We use control theory to outline the theoretical mechanisms of how people respond to an ongoing crisis using different aspects of the way that it unfolds over time and how this impacts anxiety, attitudes, and behaviors (i.e., task performance, engagement, and burnout). We show the power of different referents either diminishes or strengthens over time as people habituate to some changes but are overwhelmed by others. We test these predictions in a shingled ESM study covering a 12-week period that spans the introduction and exponential rise of the virus.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco, Nikos Dimotakis, Sherry Fu, Anna Lennard

 

Examining the Interplay Between Counterproductive Work Behavior and Negative Affect

We aim to explain how people are affected by their own negative behaviors. Negative feelings bring about such behaviors, but they do not affect subsequent moods for the average person. We show individual’s empathy determines how people feel after engaging in negative tasks, with low empathy people feeling better, and high empathy people feeling worse.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Ohio State University, Central Connecticut State University, Texas A&M, University North Carolina, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, University of Georgia, Athens

PI/PDs: Nikos Dimotakis

Ohio State: Bennett J. Tepper, Robert Lount

Central Connecticut State University: James Conway

Texas A&M: Joel Koopman, Young Lee

University North Carolina: Steven G. Rogelberg

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania: Virginia E. Pitts

University of Georgia, Athens: Fadel Matta

 

Why Some Leaders Develop Trust More Rapidly and Whether It Matters

Existing research has provided important insights regarding the positive impact that the level of trust in a leader has on organizational outcomes. Less attention, however, has been given to fact that trust changes over time.  We investigate whether changes in trust, above and beyond the level of trust, impacts leader and unit effectiveness. The highest levels of effectiveness were associated with leaders who exhibited an increase in their followers’ trust as the relationship developed.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Washington University, Saint Louis, Wake Forest University, West Point

PI/PDs: Nikos Dimotakis

Washington University, Saint Louis: Kurt Dirks

Wake Forest University: Pat Sweeney

West Point: Todd Woodruff

 

Is (in)consistency Key? Understanding How Patterns of Abusive Supervision Influence Employee Anxiety and Engagement

Abusive supervision has harmful, far-reaching effects on a broad range of employee outcomes. These effects can be particularly strong when an employee’s experience of abuse is unanticipated or persists outside of their realm of control. We posit that an examination of abusive supervision over time will capture cumulative or combinatory effects previously overlooked. Over four studies, we investigate how consistent and inconsistent levels of abuse relate to feelings of anxiety.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M, University of Arkansas, Mercer University, Townson University

 PI/PDs: Nikos Dimotakis

Texas A&M: Joel Koopman, Young Lee

University of Arkansas: Lauren Simon

Mercer University: Juanita Forrester

Townson University: Tanja Darden

 

Gains and Losses: Week-to-Week Changes in Leader-Follower Relationships. 

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory and research suggest that leader-follower relationships develop during the early stages of the dyad, mature relatively rapidly and then stabilize. We predict that leader-follower relationships, like other types of relationships, can improve or deteriorate over time and that these shifts influence follower affect and behavior on the job. Results showed that when LMX improved from one week to the next (gains), employees experienced positive affect and were more likely to engage in positive discretionary behavior (OCBs). When LMX deteriorated over the prior week (loss), they experienced negative affect and engaged in more negative discretionary behavior (CWBs).

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Ottawa, Southern Methodist University, Ohio State University, Georgia State University

PI/PDs: Dimotakis, N., Lambert, L. S., Fu, S.

University of Ottawa: Corner, A. J.

Southern Methodist University: Boulamatsi, A.

Ohio State University: Tepper, B. J.

Georgia State University: Maurer, T.

 

“I didn’t see that coming!”: Effects of As-Expected and Un-Expected Workload Levels on Well-Being Through Anxiety

Workload is a ubiquitous feature of the workplace, and one that has been a focus of investigations for decades. In contrast to other workplace aversive experiences, workload cannot be eliminated; thus, research has focused on identifying factors that could alleviate its negative consequences instead, with much of this focusing on the buffering effects of organizational resources. We propose that an unexamined characteristic of workload has the potential to inform much of this literature and thus help to clarify future work. We propose and find that the degree (and type) of workload unexpectedness is associated with well-being via anxiety.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M, Ohio State University

PI/PDs: Nikos Dimotakis, Sherry Fu  

Texas A&M: Joel Koopman

Ohio State University: Ben Tepper

 

Does The Use of Alternative Predictor Methods Reduce Subgroup Differences? It Depends On the Construct

Many selection assessments yield race/ethnic-based subgroup differences (e.g., the ACT) and a popular way to address this is to change the method of measurement (the method-change approach). We conducted a meta-analysis of subgroup differences by construct and method to show that changing the method does help eliminate subgroup differences, but it depends on the underlying construct assessed.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M University

PI/PDs: Bryan D. Edwards

Texas A&M University: Winfred Arthur, Jr., Nathanael L. Keiser, Olabisi A. Atoba, Inchul Cho

 

Oh the Anxiety! How the Disruption of Leader Bottom Line Mentality Motivates Unethical Employee Behavior.

Leader bottom line mentality (BLM) is often considered to be a static, unchanging tendency among supervisors/leaders. We challenge this view and show that changing leader demands can shift their attention to and away from the bottom line on a daily basis. We also demonstrate that this varying leader BLM behavior will lead to employees undermining each other to satisfy the leader’s changing behaviors. A leader’s shift in focus to the bottom line can be disruptive to employees because they will need to abandon their usual routines and change efforts toward the bottom line.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, University of New Mexico, Rutgers University, Drexel University

PI/PDs: Bryan D. Edwards

University of Georgia: Marie S. Mitchell

University of New Mexico: Andrea Hetrick

Rutgers University: Rebecca Greenbaum

Drexel University: Mary Mawritz

 

Inform, Offer, Connect: Using Portal Messaging and Embedded Asynchronous Care to Remotely Increase Physician-Assisted Smoking Cessation Quit Attempts

We randomly assigned 100 smokers to receive a message from their physician encouraging them to quit and the other 100 smokers received a system-generated message (digital outreach). We also randomly assigned smokers to receive asynchronous care from their physician or not. We demonstrated that the quit rate was 4% with digital outreach alone versus 9.5% when digital outreach was combined with asynchronous care. Thus, our intervention was successful in connecting smokers with their physician and ultimately improving quit attempt rates.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Bryan D. Edwards, Marjorie Erdmann, Tomi Adewumi

 

Recruiting (dis)advantage: Men and Women Differ in Their Evaluations of Gender-Based Targeted Recruitment

Organizations use targeted recruitment to attract applicants with specific characteristics or to diversify the workforce. Research reports mixed findings regarding the extent to which beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries are attracted to organizations. We explore this inconsistency by investigating how men and women respond to recruitment materials targeted toward members of the traditionally underrepresented gender. We show that a gender asymmetry exists such that men and women respond differently when targeted for occupations in which they are typically the minority gender.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Ball State University, Pennsylvania State University, Northeastern University

PI/PDs: Alexis Nicole Smith, Bryan Edwards

Ball State University: Brian Webster

Pennsylvania State University, Eerie: Joongseo Kim

Northeastern University: Marla B. Watkins

 

Employee Entitlement, Engagement, and Performance: The Moderating Effect of Ethical Leadership.

Because of their skewed sense of deservingness, employees high in entitlement are less likely to experience workplace engagement. Furthermore, the negative relationship between employee entitlement and workplace engagement is stronger with supervisors low in ethical leadership, but mitigated when ethical leadership is high. We also showed that under conditions of low ethical leadership, low levels of engagement explain why employee entitlement results in poorer job performance. But, this effect does not hold when ethical leadership is high.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Rutgers University, Clemson University,

PI/PDs: Toby Joplin, Bryan D Edwards

Rutgers University, Rebecca Greenbaum

Clemson University, J. Craig Wallace

 

Houston Sport Organizations’ Disaster Relief Efforts Following Hurricane Harvey

Sport organizations have often been active in community recovery following natural or man-made disasters. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, members of the Yankees baseball team visited several sites throughout New York City. In New Orleans, members of the Saints National Football League franchise actively served in volunteer roles and fundraising following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The research questions focused on identifying the types of responses to the disaster and exploring the sport organizations leader’s perspectives on the relief process.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Bryan Finch

 

Investigating Collegiate Athletics' Post-disaster Community Support  

This study sought to examine historical examples of community recovery efforts undertaken by American collegiate athletic programs and to specifically review the responses of Oklahoma State University (OSU) athletics following a tragic community event in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Results found community relief efforts by college athletic programs in 21 of 32 major disasters in the United States since 2000. This study provided insight into the role of a college athletic program following a local disaster and discussed ideas for future research into the topic.  

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Bryan Finch

 

Virtual Teams Meta-Analysis

Organizations are increasingly structuring work around teams; increases in technology use, means that most of these teams can be categorized as “virtual teams” that are comprised of geographically and/or organizationally dispersed coworkers that are assembled using a combination of telecommunications and information technologies. This modern reality of teamwork creates a real need to understand the fundamental ways in which technology impacts team functioning in terms of: 1) what are the team inputs that relate to effective virtual team communication and performance, and 2) how does the degree of virtuality relate to team performance.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Drake University, Georgia Southern University Brigham Young University

PI/PDs: Truit Gray, Lindsey Greco

Drake University: Ina Purvanova

Georgia Southern University: Steve Charlier

Brigham Young University: Cody Reeves

 

Moral Emotions Meta-Analysis

Organizations are rife with situations likely to cause emotional responses in employees including personal relationships, work stressors, and environmental considerations. The importance of moral emotions has led to a range of studies exploring the implications of emotions in organizational phenomena, yet despite the increase in scholarly attention, our understanding of emotional experiences and expression in organizations is limited. We provide a meta-analytic review of this diverse literature.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Rutgers University, Indiana University

PI/PDs: Truit Gray, Yingli Deng, Lindsey Greco

Rutgers University: Rebecca Greenbaum

Indiana University: Ernest O’Boyle

 

Dynamic Identification

Theories of group identification explicitly consider identification with multiple targets, specifically outlining process related to transitions between identities or conditions under which one identity may be more salient than another. However, the overwhelming majority of research into multiple identification focuses on measures of identification collected at a single point in time. This study focuses on the dynamic nature of identification, specifically how conflict with team and non-team members can affect identification with either team or organizational targets that varies over time.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco, Nikos Dimotakis, Sherry Fu, Anna Lennard

 

Stress and Coping in the Fire Service

Firefighters are frequently exposed to severe operational stressors, such as rendering aid to seriously injured victims, rescuing victims from dangerous situations, and death. Firefighters are also exposed to management-related stressors, such as work overload, staff shortages, and lack of support. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has added new layers of both operational (e.g., exposure to COVID-19) and managerial (e.g., constant changes in Incident Action Plan) stress. This study measures the various stressors experienced by firefighters as well as the contextual and managerial issues that mitigate or exacerbate the effect of these stressors on negative mental and physical health outcomes.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Albany, SUNY

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco, Dale Li

University of Albany, SUNY: David Huntsman

 

Norm-Based Counterproductive Work Behavior

Current conceptualizations of counterproductive work behavior position it largely as norm-violating behavior. That is, the assumption is that such behavior is always judged negatively by others in the organization. However, judging whether CWB is norm-violating or norm-conforming depends on the referent group. This study identifies two referent groups for establishing normative standards: society (prescriptive norms of what one should or should not do) and the workgroup (descriptive norms based on what one typically observes) and explores the relationship between each in predicting CWB.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Rutgers University, Indiana University

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco, Seth Smart

Rutgers University: Rebecca Greenbaum

Indiana University: Ernest O’Boyle

 

Work-Effort & Guilt

Employees may feel guilty after withholding effort on their jobs, yet explanations of when employees feel guilty and how this guilt motivates positive behaviors such as impression management and organizational citizenship behavior is lacking. Drawing on theories of social identity and feedback intervention, we propose and test a model wherein employees feel guilty when they withhold work effort, especially when employees have high work role identity salience. This guilt, in turn, motivates impression management and organizational citizenship behavior.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Yingli Deng, Lindsey Greco, Sherry Fu

 

Instrumental CWB

The dominant theoretical rationales used to explain counterproductive work behavior (CWB) position the behavior as a reaction to negative work events. Within these widely used frameworks CWB is preceded by aversive emotional states, with the primary goal of the behavior being harm to an intended target. However, these approaches fail to recognize alternative, goal- directed motives for CWB. This type of CWB, motivated by achievement of planned objectives, is better conceptualized as instrumental CWB. Using a grounded theory approach, we define four alternative motives for CWB: affiliation, conformity, status gain, and tangible goods.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Indiana University

PI/PDs: Seth Smart, Lindsey Greco

Indiana University: Sheri Walter

 

Taxing Sports

Sports are no longer mere games. In today’s money-driven culture, they have cultivated into a lucrative business enterprise where everyone – whether professional or amateur; owner or player; coach or spectator – stands to make significant money. Modern sports have also morphed into a landscape encompassing both traditional athletic events, and the more novel esports and daily fantasy sports (DFS) arenas. This article is a holistic and modern analysis of the impact of U.S. tax law across the contemporary business of sports, including franchises, business ventures, universities, athletes, individuals, and federal and state taxing jurisdictions.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Clemson University

PI/PDs: John Holden

Clemson University: Kathryn Kisska-Schulze

 

Taboo Transactions: Selling Athlete Biometric Data

The collection of biometric data from elite-level athletes has become increasingly complicated, as sports leagues, teams, and other governing organizations have begun to see potential commercial value beyond increased performance in this data. This article is divided into five substantive parts, 1) We provide an overview of the biometric data and its value within the gambling marketplace, 2) Discusses the issues surrounding data ownership in the major professional sports leagues, 3) Examines the growth and importance of commercial data sales, 4) Analyzes the questions surrounding the ownership of data, and 5) Finally, proposes new directions for sports organizations.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of North Texas

PI/PDs: John Holden

University of North Texas: Kimberly A. Houser

 

Fraud on Any Market

We first argue that fraud-on-the-market would benefit most types of investable markets like sports gambling as well as supporting the doctrine in the securities context. Despite criticisms of the doctrine, our analysis shows that fraud creates the presumption of distorted prices. Second, the money wagered via sports betting and daily fantasy sports (“DFS”) would generate such damages such that leagues would better maintain a competitive environment, boosting sports integrity akin to how securities regulations provide market protections. Since the leagues benefit directly from gambling, and lucratively so, they should owe their fans a truly competitive landscape.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, University of Texas

PI/PDs: John Holden

University of Georgia: Gregory Day

University of Texas: Brian M. Mills

 

Monopolizing Sports Data

U.S. professional sports leagues’ recent attempts to collectivize the sale of sports game data and prevent non-league affiliated entities from competing in the markets to collect, aggregate, and resell game data gives rise to both legal and policy concerns under federal antitrust laws. This Article analyzes whether the league-wide sale of sports game data should be viewed as a form of collusion among individual sports teams that may potentially violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and whether league-wide efforts to secure exclusive rights to sell sports game data should constitute a potential form of exclusionary conduct under Section 2 of the Sherman Act.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Baruch College

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

 

Reshaping College Athlete Sports Betting Education

The time has come for the NCAA, collegiate athletic conferences, and colleges and universities to take the steps necessary to coexist with widespread legal betting markets. This Article provides the necessary framework for collegiate sports organizations to move forward with modernizing sports wagering education and awareness for collegiate athletes, and affiliated individuals through adopting best practices, establishing reporting processes, and creating a necessary system of education that provides additional measures of protection and awareness of the threats brought on by nefarious individuals.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Nevada Las Vegas

PI/PDs: John Holden

University of Nevada Las Vegas: Becky Harris

 

Breaking The Glass Monitor: Examining the Underrepresentation of Women in Esports Environments

While the growth of esports is undeniable, access, inclusivity, and diversity within this space is reminiscent of U.S. pre-Title IX traditional sport environments. As such, recent calls for the inclusion of esports within the traditional sport management literature have been persuasive. The esports industry is largely male dominated, as women and girls represent a lower proportion of participants, fans, and employees. While the proportions are staggering, the underrepresentation of women and girls in the esports industry has not been fully explored. This serves as the first qualitative study in sport management that examines the career experiences of elite-level women gamers and executives.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, University of South Florida, State University of New York – Cortland

PI/PDs: John Holden

University of Georgia: Thomas A. Baker III

University of South Florida: Janelle E. Wells

State University of New York – Cortland: Lindsey Darvin

 

U.S. Fantasy Sports Law: Fifteen Years after UIGEA

This Article explains how the U.S. regulates fantasy sports today—fifteen years after the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. This discusses the change in regulatory governance of fantasy sports in the U.S. that has overlapped with the massive growth of the daily fantasy sports industry in the aftermath of Congress’s passing of UIGEA. We then investigate the growing cybersecurity concerns that emanate from the rise of daily fantasy sports as big business in the United States, including concerns related to both customer identification, and consumer privacy.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Baruch College, John Jay College

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

John Jay College: Adam S. Wandt

 

Regulating Vice: From Marijuana to Sports Gambling

In spite of the growing state-level legality of both marijuana and sports gambling, the exuberance for sports gambling by entities like banks and institutional investors has surpassed the marijuana industry despite the marijuana industry having a significant head start. This Article explores why sports gambling has been widely accepted and led banks and financial institutions to take risks that they have not been willing to take for the marijuana industry. It also explores best practices adopted by the sports gambling industry that the marijuana industry may be able to emulate to garner broader legal acceptance.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Baruch College, John Jay College

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

John Jay College: Adam S. Wandt

 

Exploring College Sports in the Time of COVID-19: A Legal, Medical, and Ethical Analysis

This Article explores the implications of resuming intercollegiate sports in the midst of a pandemic from a legal, medical and ethical perspective. Adopting a true interdisciplinary approach to the question of how and when to return to sport, the authors collectively express their concerns regarding how NCAA member colleges are approaching the legal and ethical issues surrounding the offering of intercollegiate sports during a pandemic and propose ten best practices for colleges to determine when and how to resume offering intercollegiate sports.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Baruch College, University of Georgia, University of Michigan

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

University of Georgia: Thomas A. Baker III

University of Michigan: Andrew G. Shuman

 

Global Sports Leagues and China’s Free Speech Problem

This article looks at the legal and ethical challenges posed for U.S. professional sports leagues that seek to do business with China based on fundamental differences in free speech norms between the United States and China. In particular, this article explores the pressure both the Chinese government and its business leaders have placed on U.S. sports leagues to censure employees and fans who speak publicly on issues that are critical of the Chinese government, as well as the potential ramifications on U.S. sports leagues that adhere to Chinese pressure.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Baruch College, University of Georgia

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

University of Georgia: Thomas A. Baker III

 

The Agency of Female Small Business Owners & Their Responses to Pandemic Issues

This past year has been fraught with major challenges to the survival of small businesses in the USA.  We posit that current agency measures will reflect differences in responses to these challenges, and thus the subsequent success in mitigating the effects due to the pandemic. Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Chalmer Labig, Juliet Abdel

 

The Tulsa Police Department’s Response to its Diminished Reputation due to the Black Lives Matter Movement

A change in leadership of a police department may have major effects on public perception of the department. We are investigating one mid-sized department’s various efforts to raise their reputation.  Of the many strategies employed which have seemed to have made the most positive impact on the general public as well as on its officers.  

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Chalmer Labig

 

An Overlooked Aspect of Measurement: Does the Content of Verbal Anchors Matter?

Discussions of content validity have focused on item generation, and have seemingly overlooked the response formats (e.g. strongly disagree, strongly agree) that accompany the items. We reason that there may be constructs measured with inappropriate response formats, and that an inappropriate response format may generate biased data. Our results show that changing the response format results in differences in the data, suggesting that the choice of response format matters.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Lambert, L.S., Gray, T., Davis, A., Erdman, M., and McDermott, R.

 

Heuristics and Comparison Standards: Developing Hypotheses Via Thought Experiments

The task of hypothesis development is widely acknowledged to require imaginative and disciplined thinking, unfortunately, the practice defies efforts to distill it into a replicable process or even into a set of best practices. We develop strategies to spur the development of well thought out and precise hypotheses by combining theories of comparison with thought experiments and three heuristics.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Lambert, L.S., and Gray, T.

 

Construct Development and Validation in Three Practical Steps: Recommendations for Authors, Reviewers and Editors

We review contemporary best practice for developing and validating measures of constructs. The three basic steps in scale development are: 1) construct definition, 2) choosing operationalizations that match the construct definition, and 3) obtaining empirical evidence to confirm construct validity. While summarizing this 3-step process, we address how to establish construct validity and provide a checklist for journal reviewers and authors when evaluating the validity of measures. We pay special attention to construct conceptualization, acknowledging existing constructs, improving existing measures, multidimensional constructs, macro-level constructs, and the need for independent samples to confirm construct validity and measurement equivalence across subpopulations.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Illinois

PI/PDs: Lambert, L. S.

University of Illinois: Newman, D.A.

 

Development of a New Measure of Corporate Reputation

Understanding and measuring the reputations of corporations is key to answering important questions. We employ up-to-date scale development practices to the construct of corporate reputation.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Texas Arlington, University of Texas A & M, Texas Christian University

PI/PD’s: Lambert, L.S.

University of Texas Arlington: Parker, O.

University of Texas A & M: Devers, C.

Texas Christian University: Krause, R.

 

Supervisors’ Trust in their Subordinates: A Quantitative and Qualitative Exploration of Trust and Trustworthiness

Subordinates assess the trustworthiness of their supervisors based on their ability, benevolence and integrity. Supervisors’ assessments of trustworthiness have been presumed to rely on these same dimensions, but the inherently asymmetrical relationship between subordinate and the supervisor suggests that the development of trust for the supervisor and the subordinate may differ. Using quantitative and qualitative data, the authors provide evidence that supervisors and subordinates focus on different aspects of trustworthiness in assessing whether to trust someone. Within the context of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, this study lays the groundwork for a new dimension of trustworthiness, subordinates’ development over time.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Caucasus University, Towson State University, Xavier University, Abraham Baldwin College

PI/PDs: Lambert, L. S.

Caucasus University: Brekashvili, P.

Abraham Baldwin College: Currie, R.

Xavier University: Hardt, G.

Towson State University: Darden, T.

 

Too Much of a Good Thing: Prosocial Fit Predicting Job Satisfaction and Pride

We examined the implicit assumption that increasing prosocial values and impact will have increasing benefits for organizations and employees by considering that employees likely vary in the strength of their prosocial values and that their jobs offer varying amounts of opportunity to experience prosocial impact. Our results indicate that employee attitudes vary substantively depending on whether prosocial supplies meet, are deficient of, or in excess of, prosocial values. Both deficiency and excess were associated with lower satisfaction and pride, but the relationship was asymmetrical such that the effects of deficiency were more severe.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: L. S. Lambert, Anna Zabinski, Abbey Davis, Cassidy Creech, Nick Hayden

 

Emotion Regulation and Work family conflict

We expand emotional labor beyond the work domain to demonstrate how experiences at home can help employees recover from the emotional requirements of their job. By creating a much-needed connection between theorizing on emotional labor and appraisal theory, we explain those processes by focusing on surface acting at home and subsequent responses. We demonstrate that emotional labor is not merely an intrapersonal process; it is an interpersonal process where its implications are as much determined by the response from the recipient of the surface acting as they are by engaging in the act itself.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Michigan State, University of Nebraska

PI/PDs: Anna Lennard

Michigan State: Brent Scott

University of Nebraska: Amy Bartels

 

Abusive Supervision and Performance Cycles

Abusive supervision harms individuals and costs companies billions of dollars annually (e.g., legal fees; Tepper et al., 2006, 2017). Consequently, an understanding of abusive supervision’s antecedents is critical. Herein, we demonstrated that different patterns of performance predict the abusive supervision that employees sustain, and that abusive supervision predicts lower levels of subsequent employee performance. Moreover, we determined that employee prevention focus influences the stability of their performance, with higher levels of prevention focus associated with more variable performance. We hope that the results of this investigation provide researchers with a clearer understanding of the employee performance-abusive

supervision relationship over time.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Michigan State, University of Georgia

PI/PDs: Anna Lennard, Nikos Dimotakis

University of Georgia: James Matusik

Michigan State: Brent Scott, Lance Ferris

 

Escalation of Commitment

Escalation drivers affect projects at different stages, but time and different organizational levels of influence are often not considered in the escalation of commitment literature, and there is little theory to organize and delineate these various drivers and contexts. We believe that these limitations in theorizing are reducing the usefulness of escalation of commitment research and aim to build new theory on escalation of commitment by using the organizational commitment literature as a lens to understand how commitment can increase over the lifetime of a project and what situational and personal drivers of commitment can be impactful.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Michigan State

PI/PDs: Anna Lennard

Michigan State: Donald Conlon, Gerry McNamara

 

A Return to Reasonableness: State Regulation of Noncompetition Agreements

States regulate restrictions on employee mobility because noncompetition agreements affect the job market and business environment. In recent years, many states targeted noncompetition agreements for further regulation. The rapid adoption of noncompetition regulation has presented employers with a challenge. I examine a representative sample of new laws passed by states intending to reduce or eliminate the use of noncompetition agreements. I then review the traditional reasonableness analysis and explain its strengths. I conclude by arguing for reduced regulation and expansion of a court’s power to construe reasonableness.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Griffin Pivateau

 

Making Arbitration Work: A Better Means of Dispute Resolution

During the last decade, the Supreme Court has made it clear that it favors arbitration as a means of dispute resolution. Arbitration clauses have become standard in employment agreements. Nevertheless, opponents of mandatory arbitration allege that such agreements are intended to rob employees of important rights. Here, I describe the arbitration process and review the numerous benefits that it provides to employees. I discuss the problems that a typical employee will incur in the litigation process.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Griffin Pivateau

 

Shields and Swords: Structural Reforms to End Workplace Harassment

The explosion of sexual harassment claims spurred by the #MeToo movement exposed the widespread nature of workplace harassment and abuse. The movement further revealed the decades-long ethical and legal failure by organizations to stop harassment. Responding to the movement, many state legislatures passed laws intending to make litigation of claims easier. I examine these new regulatory schemes to determine whether the new laws combat workplace harassment or simply increase lawsuits. I conclude that relying on costly and inefficient litigation will not be enough. Organizations should instead adopt structural reforms to end workplace harassment.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Griffin Pivateau

 

An Integrative Model of the Role of Structural, Behavioral, and Cognitive Coordination in Intergroup Effectiveness: How Middle Managers Play a Role

A major challenge for organizations is coordinating interdependent teams’ effective performance of joint tasks, but an integrative theoretical understanding of how to coordinate such intergroup effectiveness is missing. Consolidating three separate literatures, we develop an integrative multidisciplinary framework of the role of structural, behavioral, and cognitive coordination in intergroup effectiveness, and how these coordination mechanisms interrelate. Multisource data on 188 intergroup dyads support our predictions. Our integrative framework deepens understanding of how these coordination mechanisms combine in driving intergroup effectiveness and suggests that middle managers boundary spanning has a critical role in modern team-based organizations.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Drexel University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck, 

Drexel University: Daan van Knippenberg

 

Preventing Silo’s from Going Solo: the Role of Conflict Management Style and Team Learning Behavior in Inter-team Coordination & Knowledge Exchange.

A challenge many organizations face pursuing strategies that require cross-team coordination and knowledge exchange is eradicating silo thinking. This study explores the role of conflict management style and team learning with longitudinal data collected from 27 interdependent teams in a large government organization in Western Europe. Preliminary results show that interdependent teams that recognize their interdependence link are better at exchanging knowledge and inter-team coordination. Interdependent teams that engage more in team learning and coordinative conflict management are also better at exchanging knowledge and inter-team coordination. Relational identification and organizational identification seem to impact the strength of these relationships.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Drexel University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck

Drexel University: Daan van Knippenberg

 

Strategic Decision Making in Multi-team Systems.

Judgment and decision-making research has a long tradition in management. Despite numerous reviews of this topic in the organizational behavior, and psychology, there is little investigation of decision making in multi-team systems. This is surprising, given the extreme decision-making context faced by multi-team systems—such as high uncertainty, time pressure, emotionally charged, and consequential extremes. I will study the role of strategic decision making and contextual factors in multi-team systems, composed of three five-person, functionally specialized component teams, which will be engaged in an exercise that is simultaneously “laboratory-like” and “field-like.”

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Jeanine Porck

 

Middle Managers, Coopetition and Intraorganizational Knowledge Transfer

Intraorganizational knowledge transfer is difficult yet critical for numerous organizational outcomes. The knowledge-sharing behavior of middle managers, those often tasked with managing this knowledge transfer, should, however, not be taken for granted. This paper aims to develop an understanding of the underlying motives middle managers have when coordinating knowledge transfer between teams that are in coopetition, i.e. engage simultaneously in cooperative and competitive behaviors. Specifically, I argue that coopetition may prompt middle managers to adopt more myopic motives that make these managers less inclined to coordinate knowledge exchange between teams in their organization.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck, Juan Du

 

An Identity Perspective on Middle Managers’ Role Conflict and their Strategic Role Performance

What drives middle managers to champion new strategic initiatives to top management and simultaneously encourage their followers to implement the organization’s current strategy? These divergent and integrative strategic roles of middle managers are crucial to the strategy process. We argue that the complexity of middle managers’ identity will influence their perceived role conflict and will consequently determine their strategic role performance. Moreover, we hypothesize that managers’ organizational identification affects whether they perform better at the divergent or integrative part of their strategic role. We plan to collect data from middle managers and their supervisors to test these hypotheses.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck, Juan Du

 

When Middle Manager’s Performance Appraisals Are Clouded: the Role of Leadership (Mis)Fit and Depletion

Middle managers’ appraisals of employee performance are critical. Two contingencies may influence performance appraisals: the (mis)fit between how much employees need and receive task focused leadership behavior (initiating structure) from their manager, and the extent to which the middle manager is depleted. We hypothesize that deficient amounts of initiating structure are associated with lower performance appraisal, while a fit between needed and received is associated with higher performance appraisal. Yet, when middle manager depletion is high, misfit will ‘cloud’ their performance ratings negatively. Resulting in lower performance ratings for employees that receive deficient or excess amounts of initiating structure.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Lisa Lambert, Jeanine Porck, Juan Du

 

Endorsement Ambiguity: When Do Employees Re-voice?

Voice, or speaking up with work related ideas and concerns, is important. By speaking up, employees offer unique and relevant insights, ultimately influencing work group and organizational functioning. Although much work has focused on affirmative responses to voice, more recent work has begun to consider how employees respond following non-endorsement. Indeed, it is important that employees do not simply give up after a non-endorsement episode, but rather continue to engage with their improvement-oriented ideas for the organization. This study is aimed at understanding how employees learn to become more effective voicers (i.e., get endorsed).

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Iowa State University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck

Iowa State University: Melissa Chamberlin, Maartje Schouten

 

Minority Perspective-Taking: When Authenticity Climate Promotes Minority Involvement in White-Dominated Spaces

Underrepresented minorities often have negative workplace experiences that influence their intentions to stay within their white-dominated organizations. We posit that perspective-taking—imagining the world from another’s perspective—is a strategic tool that minorities use to effectively manage their workplace experiences. We argue that perspective-taking allows minorities to have greater certainty about how to best navigate their organizational worlds.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Northwestern University, London School of Economics, Slippery Rock University, Columbia University

PI/PDs: Alexis Smith Washington, Bryan Edwards

Northwestern University: Cynthia Wang

London School of Economics: Gillian Ku

Slippery Rock University: Edward Scott

Columbia University: Adam Galinsky

 

The Implication of Power Dynamics in Dual-Earner Couples: A Study of Household Labor

Our research studies the household labor of dual-earner couples—married or cohabiting couples where both partners are employed. Integrating power theories and gender-role perspectives, we examine how power dynamics within dual-earner couples influence each spouse's household labor. Polynomial analyses of 204 respondents in dual-earner couples revealed that relative power between spouses affects men and women differently. Our research contributes to the literature of power, gender, and dual-earner couples by examining all possible patterns of the power structure within couples and providing a precise explanation of how relative power and joint power between spouses affect husbands' and wives' household labor.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Alexis Smith Washington, Elise Yu, Nikos Dimotakis

 

Making Sense of Perceived Sameness and Difference: An intersectional Perspective of Executives Interpersonal Interactions at Work

As organizations strive to promote gender and racial equality at work, more research and theorizing is needed that acknowledges a minority point of view. Drawing from interviews with 53 Black female executives holding senior leadership roles in U.S. firms, we sought to understand how their intersectionality influences perceptions of inter-race and inter-gender interactions and relationships at work. We looked specifically at how Black women executives make sense of interpersonal interactions based on perceived asymmetries with others at work in light of their own intersectionality.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Northeastern University

PI/PDs: Alexis Smith Washington

Northeastern University: Jamie Ladge, Keimei Sugiyama, Marla B. Watkins