The ambiguous trap of higher expectations: Female CEOs and market performance

While research has shown progress in the representation of women in middle management positions, the underrepresentation of women in top executive positions persists. We introduce a new explanation for the underrepresentation of women in CEO positions. Utilizing a longitudinal sample of 16,134 observations, we hypothesize and find strong evidence for the assertion that female CEOs are more likely to be dismissed because firms with female CEOs face higher analysts’ earnings expectations. We also find that with equal performance but higher expectations, they underperform of their male counterparts in performance relative to expectations, increasing the likelihood that they will be dismissed.

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

 

Time pressure, anxiety, and engagement.

Time pressure is a common workplace stressor; while its overall effects are well-documented, we know little about how the patterns with which it manifests influence individual outcomes. We argue and demonstrate that when time pressure is constant (unchanging from day to day) the lack of respite this represents is associated with greater anxiety compared to when time pressure is fluctuating or cyclical.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Illinois-Chicago, Hunan University

PI/PDs: Nikos Dimotakis

University of Illinois-Chicago: Donald Kluemper

Hunan University: Xinxin Lu

 

Workload expectations and anxiety.

The level of workload one experiences is a ubiquitous but unavoidable stressor (there is no work without workload). Research has thus focused on finding factors that might buffer individuals from this necessary stressor, with mixed result. We advocate for a return to the basic characteristics of workload and find that it is the unexpectedness of workload that determines its effects, with workload that is expected being much less problematic for employees compared to workload that manifests without warning.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M University

PI/PDs: Sherry Fu, Nikos Dimotakis

Texas A&M University: Seoin Yoon, Young Eun Lee, Joel Koopman

 

Abusive supervision change: Effects of anxiety moderated by status.

Abusive supervision is a particularly pernicious workplace factor. Current consensus is that lessening employees’ exposure to this is universally a good thing. In this paper, we point out that this is only partially true; such experiences that are ongoing and stable are not particularly worse than intermittent experiences of this factor. That is, supervisors that are occasionally abusive create just as much anxiety (particularly for low-status employees) as those that are abusive all of the time. We thus advocate for an approach aiming at completely eliminating, not just reducing, this phenomenon.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M University

PI/PDs: Sherry Fu, Nikos Dimotakis

Texas A&M University: Seoin Yoon, Young Eun Lee, Joel Koopman

 

Looking Back or Forward? Instrumental Motives for as Overlooked Antecedents of Counterproductive Work Behavior.

Current views on misbehavior in organizations focus on individuals being “provoked” into aggressing against others. Using a qualitative approach, we demonstrate that individuals can aggress for a variety of reasons, many of them not driven by anger or experienced threat—instead, individuals can be motivated towards particular negative behaviors because of a general dissatisfaction with where they are in their lives relative to valued goals.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Indiana University

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco, Seth Smart, Nikos Dimotakis

Indiana University: Sheryl L. Walter

 

Performance patterns and abusive supervision: A perpetrator predation perspective on performance spirals

Supervisors engage in misbehavior against their subordinates (abusive supervision) for a number of reasons. Our knowledge of their thinking about these reasons, however, is still incomplete. We utilize a common predictor of supervisor misbehavior (subordinate performance) and illustrate that fluctuations in performance, not just overall levels, is an important determinant for how subordinate behavior is seen by the supervisor, their affective response, and ultimately behavior.

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

PI/PDs: Anna C. Lennard, Nikos Dimotakis

University of Georgia: James G. Matusik

Michigan State University: Brent A. Scott, D. Lance Ferris

 

Couple income dynamics

How couples choose to negotiate their household labor arrangements has important impacts on their well-being, functioning, and even career success. Current views however are split between theories integrating gender roles and expectations and those applying a more economic view. We reconcile these views by positing that it is the relative, not absolute, income levels between partners that matters, and that these effects are different for men and women. We furthermore demonstrate that performing too much household labor has negative implications on the career trajectories of women, but not men.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Elise Yu, Lex Washington, Nikos Dimotakis

 

Why Do Countries Increase Trade Secret Protections?

Over the past several decades, a number of countries have enacted large increases in the levels of trade secret protections in their domestic policy.  This article investigates why countries undertake these significant policy reforms.  Using data on the trade secret protection levels of a sample of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and OECD-trading-partner countries, this article examines potential mechanisms for the diffusion of trade secret protections across countries over time.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Christopher Dinkel

 

IMF Lending and Repression in Autocracies

Several prior studies have linked countries’ participation in International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending programs with worsened government respect for human rights.  This article analyzes whether this link varies by regime type and argues that repression is more likely to increase in non-democratic countries under IMF arrangements than in democratic countries.  Using data from a sample of autocratic countries, it examines the relationship between participation in IMF lending programs and measures of physical integrity rights protection in non-democratic settings.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Northwestern University

PI/PDs: Christopher Dinkel

Northwestern University: Stephen C. Nelson

 

Evaluation of electronic portal messaging and embedded asynchronous care on physician-assisted smoking cessation quit attempts: A quality improvement randomized clinical trial

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 rates.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University; Pfizer; Center for Health Systems Innovation

PIs/PDs: Bryan D. Edwards

Pfizer; Center for Health Sciences: Mopileola Tomi Adewumi, Marjorie Erdmann

 

Enhancing Future Work of Nursing Professionals through Collaborative Human-

Robot Interfaces

This project has two overarching objectives. First, we are developing a taxonomy of nursing tasks that can be automated using robotics. Second, we are conducting a series of studies whereby we are testing different features of ARNA (a nursing robot) that will help nurses with a sitter task and ambulation.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, National Science Foundation

PIs/PDs: Bryan D Edwards, William D Paiva

University of Louisville: Dan O Popa, Cynthia Logdson, Olfa Nasraoui

 

The effect of honest and humble leadership on salesperson customer orientation.

Servant leadership has a positive effect on salesperson outcomes because it enhances leader-subordinate relationship quality. Data from 317 professional salespeople representing a variety of industries lend support for the proposed model: honesty-humility → servant leadership → relationship quality → customer orientation. We conclude that the personality trait of honesty-humility affects leadership style, which in turn impacts salesperson customer orientation and performance via a positive effect on relationship quality. Additionally, we show that salesperson perceptions of difficulty in attaining quota moderate the relationship between relationship quality and customer orientation.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Bryan D. Edwards, Karen E. Flaherty, Julia C. R. Kirkland

 

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

 

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 minorities use to effectively manage their workplace experiences. We argue that perspective-taking allows minorities to accurately assess and 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

 

How African American Accountants Managed their Social Identity in White-Dominated Firms and Effects on Supervisor Familiarity and Turnover Intent

We found that when African American accountants use social identity-based impression management strategies that align with their preference to be racially authentic at work, their perceived level of familiarity with their supervisor increased. Moreover, when they gained familiarity with supervisors, their turnover intent was reduced. We also found that when African American behave in racially inauthentic ways, they do not increase familiarity with supervisors.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Northwestern University, Slippery Rock University

PIs/PDs: Bryan D Edwards, Alexis Smith Washington

Slippery Rock University: Edward Scott

Northwestern University: Cynthia S. Wang

 

Examining Australian sport organizations disaster relief efforts

Thirty-four people were killed and over 46 million acres of land burned during the 2019-20 Australian bush fires, many in New South Wales and Victoria.  Australian sport organizations, including Australian Rules Football and Netball teams engaged in a number of disaster relief efforts, from fund-raising to communication support to site visits of affected communities.  This research seeks to identify and categorize the types of responses to the disaster and explore insights into the effectiveness of the relief efforts from organization leaders, employees, and fans. 

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Bryan Finch

 

Amateur baseball in Minnesota: Examining the role of sport organizations as social anchors in rural American communities

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the role that amateur baseball teams play in rural communities. Using Social Anchor Theory, I seek to explore the community impact and learn about the perspectives of key stakeholders in a few rural communities in northwestern Minnesota. Research has suggested that social activities, including sports, has had a positive social and cultural impact on rural communities.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Bryan Finch

 

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, Colorado State University

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

Colorado State University: 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, Nikos Dimotakis

Indiana University: Sheri Walter

 

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.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco, Jayci, Robinson

College of Engineering: Dale Li

University of Albany, SUNY: David Huntsman

 

Not A Question of If, But How Often: A Temporal Theory of Norm Enforcement

A large body of work is devoted to examining group norms in defining and enforcing contextual behaviors. Despite these advances, there is a key consideration of group norms that is often overlooked by management theory. Theories of norm enforcement generally treat contextual behavior as binary – behaviors are either condoned or condemned according to the norms of that specific referent group. However, foundational work on norms shows that group norms prescribe, not simply whether a behavior is acceptable, but instead the acceptable rate at which the behavior can be engaged in. Therefore, norms define the acceptability of behavioral patterns over time.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Indiana University

PI/PDs: Lindsey Greco

Indiana University: Ernest O’Boyle

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Yingli Deng, Lindsey Greco

Colorado State University: Sherry Fu

 

Dynamic Motivation

In the course of a workday, employees attend to a variety of distinct tasks. Considering that motivation may vary from one task to the next, we consider (1) how demand-ability fit affects motivation at the task, instead of job, level and (2) how motivation on previous tasks carries over into subsequent tasks. We develop a theoretical model that examines the moderating effects of intrinsic motivation on a previous task on the relationship between characteristics of a later task and task intrinsic motivation, which in turn influence task performance and task engagement for the later task, and end-of-day recovery.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

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

Colorado State University: Sherry Fu

 

A Short Treatise on College-Athlete Name, Image, and Likeness Rights: How America Regulates College Sports’s New Economic Frontier

The right of publicity has allowed for celebrities to monetize their names, images and likenesses for commercial gain. However, until recently, college athletes remained excluded from the endorsement marketplace based on the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s internal Principle of Amateurism, which has kept the wealth of college sports in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors and coaches. This Article, or perhaps more accurately Short Treatise, provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the right of publicity and discusses the legal risks facing the NCAA, collegiate conferences, schools, and athletes in this new world of college sports.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce College of Law: Michael McCann

 

Navigating the Non-Fungible Token

Although NFTs were first created in 2014, 2021 saw an unprecedented rise in their global popularity. In fact, Google reported that in 2021, “How to buy an NFT?” was one of its most searched questions. This article seeks to fill the gap in the legal literature by analyzing how the specific use of an NFT implicates different areas of the law. Examining the way NFTs function in sectors ranging from fine arts to finance, this Article suggests how tokenization law and policy must advance to leverage the incredible opportunities that NFTs present.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

University of North Texas: Kimberly A. Houser

 

Reimagining the Governance of College Sports After Alston

The Summer of 2021 marked a major inflection point in the external governance of college sports. After nearly half a century of federal and state governments taking a hands-off approach with regard to the rights of college athletes, nearly all at once several states passed laws granting college athletes the right to endorse products. The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s longstanding restraints on providing unlimited educational benefits to college athletes violated federal antitrust law. This Article offers a roadmap for reimagining the internal governance structure of college athletics in the 21st Century.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce College of Law: Michael McCann

 

Brute Force Federalism

In today’s partisan arena, states are engaging in brute force federalism, where both sides of the political coin push extreme agendas to maximize popular support and appease special interest groups. These tactics are aggressive, contentious, and elevate politician notoriety. They also increase vertical and interstate horizontal frictions, maneuvering states away from serving as innovative experimenters, toward more belligerent feats that resist federal law. Increased polarization, social media use, and public distrust in the federal government intensify such activity. This introduces the concept of brute force federalism, examines its roots, and analyzes its evolving impact in the current regulatory landscape.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

Clemson University: Kathryn Kisska-Schulze

University of Denver: Corey Ciocchetti

 

Disproportionate Fines

The reliance on an imprecise proportionality analysis in Excessive Fines Clause cases has resulted in uncertainty. The uncertainty surrounding the Excessive Fines Clause was on the cusp of being resolved in 2021, when Stars Interactive, owners of the PokerStars website, petitioned for certiorari challenging a judgment of the Kentucky Supreme Court as violative of the Excessive Fines Clause. However, prior to a response brief being filed, the parties settled, leaving unresolved the question of when a penalty violates the Eighth Amendment. This article attempts to answer that question in the Supreme Court’s absence.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

 

Not Just Wages: The Unconscionability of Minor League Working Conditions and Remedying Their Plight

The treatment of minor leaguers has been enabled by two principal factors, first, is baseball’s 100-year-old judicially-created antitrust exemption, and second, has been lobbied for special treatment for exemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act. These two factors have allowed teams to impose a uniform player contract on minor league players with numerous unconscionable provisions. While various articles have discussed baseball’s antitrust exemption, this is the first to discuss and analyze the uniform player contract as an unconscionable agreement and also propose detailed revisions to ameliorate the unconscionable working conditions for minor league players

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

Texas A&M University-Central Texas: Lucas Loafman

 

Testing for toxicity in electronic gaming and esports: Development of the Gender Hostile Esport and Gaming Environment Scale (GHEGES)

The current study focused on the creation of a tool that can be used to measure gender-based hostility of specific gaming and esport environments. Building from the qualitative work of Darvin et al. (2021) and their uncovering of the often-impenetrable glass monitor in esport and gaming, this study generated a quantitative scale to measure overall gaming and esport hostility. The overarching objective of this study was to create a hostile scale that could be used by esport and/or gaming organizations, teams, academic programs, etc. in an effort to better understand the current culture and environment experienced by their respective participants.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

University of South Florida: Cheryl Gray

Syracuse University: Lindsey Darvin

University of South Florida: Janelle Wells

University of Georgia: Thomas A. Baker III

 

Charting new waters: Governing Name, Image and Likeness after Alston v. NCAA

The Supreme Court’s ruling in NCAA v. Alston, which did not extend an antitrust exemption to the NCAA, which means that for the first time in 120 years, NCAA athletes can monetize their NIL and remain eligible for competition. This is a momentous step forward for college sports. However, this new dawn does not provide college athletes with a true free market to seek endorsement deals in, as they must contend with a patchwork of regulations from the NCAA, colleges, and states. Further, the post-Alston era NCAA college athletes remain vulnerable to different new and traditional forms of athlete exploitation.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: John Holden

Florida State University: Joanna Tweedie

Baruch College: Marc Edelman

Pepperdine University: Alicia Jessop

University of Georgia: Thomas A. Baker III

Strategic Incongruence as a Driver of Proactive Investor Attention
Despite the growing presence of activist investors and increasing research on the outcomes that arise from their involvement, research in strategy has not studied the nature of strategies that attract attention from these investors. We examine the characteristics of strategies that make them more difficult to evaluate and heighten information asymmetries, focusing on how a firm’s extent of “strategic incongruence” influences its relative valuation and proactive investor attention. Using hand-collected proprietary data on SEC 13D filings, we find that the more that firms’ diversification strategies differ from peers, the lower their relative market valuations and the greater the likelihood they will attract proactive investors. Our work contributes to understanding important drivers of equity market pressures on public firms.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Rosa Kim

 

Going Private as a Solution to Public Market Pressures
Information asymmetry exists between companies and investors in public equity markets. A public firm’s unique, complex, and uncertain strategies may lead to an even greater degree of rifts. Companies pursuing strategies that are misaligned with investor expectations may face penalizations such as valuation discounts. Such pressures can spur firms to abandon particular strategies even if they hold potential. Building on the lemons problem in the strategy framework, I argue that strategically incongruent companies facing pressures in the public equity market may choose to privatize as a response to these pressures. I use a parametric test of the maximum likelihood model based on domestic publicly-listed companies in the US during 1997-2016. I find some evidence that public market pressures are linked to companies’ strategies and that there is also an association between public market pressure and privatizations.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Rosa Kim

 

Firm Innovation Strategies and Private-to-Public Choices
This study seeks to understand how firms’ innovation strategies may impact firms’ decisions to stay private, motivated by the decreasing number of IPOs (Initial Public Offering) and thus fewer publicly-traded firms in the US. Building on the lemons problems in strategies framework, I argue that innovation strategies that are more difficult to understand or value by public market participants may have firms avoid IPOs due to concerns that the public equity market will not fully appreciate its value. I examine this argument in the context of heterogeneous patenting activities in VC (Venture Capital)-backed firms. Preliminary findings show that technological incongruence does not positively affect the decision to go public but that it takes a longer time-to-IPO for those who decide to go public in some industries.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Rosa Kim

 

The Aftermath of “No”: The Effects of Managerial Idea Rejection on Employee Voice

Although prior research has demonstrated the organizational benefits of voice and managerial strategies for increasing voice frequency in the workplace, there’s less known about how managers turn down employee voice without doing irrevocable damage to employees’ willingness to speak up again in the future. Through interviews with managers and employees, this research identifies four dimensions of managerial voice rejections.  Drawing on theories from linguistics and education, I hypothesize and test with a lab study the effects of these dimensions on not only employees’ future voice frequency, but also their subsequent voiced idea quality.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Yurianna Kimmons

 

Does Difference = Distance? Experiencing Diversity as Psychological Construal of Teams

We draw on construal level theory (CLT) from cognitive psychology to hypothesize that individuals experience interpersonal differences from other members as psychological distance, which in turn, will transmit and moderate diversity’s effects on team-related outcomes.  Given that prior studies of psychological distance have been conducted in lab settings with manipulations of distance via visual or auditory stimuli and vignettes, we developed an instrument for measuring psychological distance in the field to examine its effect on various group outcomes.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Yurianna Kimmons; University of Texas, David Harrison and Luis Martins

 

The Consequences of Female Impression Management and Backlash Concerns on the Choice to Voice

I theorize on the potential impact of female top management team (TMT) members’ voice and impression management on group status and influence.  Using a self-regulatory resource consumption framework, I develop a theoretical model to explore these behaviors, which may provide insight into why women often get stalled at the TMT. Data from student teams is examined to understand if and how team members are speaking up differently based on gender (ie private vs. public voice, promotive vs. prohibitive voice), and how that affects individual and team outcomes. 

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Yurianna Kimmons

 

Tailoring The Pitch: The Impact Of Idea Framing And Regulatory Fit On Endorsement Of Voice

We explore the framing of employee voice and generate theory for why ideas that are framed to fit are more likely to be endorsed and implemented by managers. With four separate studies, we show that voiced ideas whose specific proposal and justification for what action should be taken are uniformly framed in a promotive or prohibitive way are more often endorsed and implemented by managers than are ideas that mix frames. We also find that the extent to which the idea’s uniform framing fits with the regulatory focus of the manager enhances endorsement.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Yurianna Kimmons; University of Texas, Ethan Burris and Luis Martins

 

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.

Sponsors: 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.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

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

 

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., Parker, O., Devers, C. Krause, R.

 

Development of a Measure of Status in the Workplace

Workplace status is defined and distinguished from other related concepts. We develop a new measure of workplace status using best practices. The measure is used to show that while having less status than desired (deficiency) is detrimental to individuals’ outcomes such as job satisfaction, having more status than desired (excess) is also detrimental.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

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

 

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

 

Extending Social Contract Theory

Integrative Social Contract Theory specifically and social contract theory generally have been subjected to sustained criticism in business ethics. This paper responds to recent assertions that ISCT fails to overcome claims of moral relativism or theoretical problems related to the fact-value distinction, as applied in the Separation thesis prevalent in management theory. Using insights from Durkheim’s conception of the noncontractual elements of a contract, this work argues that the integrative aspect of the ISCT model normatively grounds ISCT, overcomes criticisms related to the Separation thesis, and provides a theoretical mechanism that positively contributes to advancing social contract theory.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Laurie A. Lucas

 

Sharp Business Practices

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regulates financial institutions and prohibits practices that cause substantial financial injury to consumers, including unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also regulates unfair or deceptive acts or practices (UDAP) affecting commerce, especially such practices that are anticompetitive in effect. This paper analyzes and reviews the “abusive practices” standard under the CFPB’s UDAAP powers, compares the CFPB’S “abusive practices” standard with the FTC’s “unfairness standard,” and asserts that the FTC’s enforcement powers should be expanded to include the prohibition of abusive practices.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Laurie A. Lucas

 

Putting the Commitment Back In Escalation Of Commitment: Using Organizational Commitment to Understand The Antecedents of Escalation of Commitment and Build De-Escalation Tools

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

Performance Patterns And Abusive Supervision: A Perpetrator Predation Perspective On Performance Spirals
A majority of research that has examined job performance as an antecedent of abuse has focused on typical or episodic conceptualizations of performance and failed to recognize that the different ways in which performance manifests over time might influence the abuse an employee incurs. In this investigation, we illustrate that various patterns of performance (e.g., high vs. low; inconsistent vs. consistent; improving vs. deteriorating) are differentially associated with abusive supervision. Moreover, we link the receipt of abusive supervision to future performance levels—finding that abusive supervision in one week results in lower levels of performance in the next.
Sponsors: Oklahoma State, University of Georgia, Michigan State

PI/PDs: Anna Lennard, Nikos Dimotakis

University of Georgia: James Matusik

Michigan State: Brent Scott, Lance Ferris

 

Demand-Ability Fit At The Task Level: Fluctuation AND Carryover Effects Of Motivation Across The Workday

We demonstrate how our understanding of the effects of demands-abilities fit on important outcomes might be incomplete without taking into account how prior motivational states influence the effects of insufficient or excess abilities relative to task demands. We find that when prior task motivation was higher, the positive effects of congruence between task demands and abilities on current task motivation were stronger; however, the negative effects of any incongruence between task demands and abilities on current task motivation were also stronger. In addition, task intrinsic motivation was indeed positively associated with task performance, task engagement, and recovery.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State

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

Colorado State University: Sherry Fu

 

Institutional Logics and Economic Development in Latin America

This research examines the public discourse surrounding policy reforms to the state oil firms of two Latin American countries. The objective is to develop a dynamic framework modeling the interplay of organizing principles stemming from different societal domains, such as the market or the state, during reforms. In market reforms to Argentina’s YPF and Mexico’s Pemex, discourse of proponents and opponents to reforms is traced over time in articles from newspapers spanning each country’s political spectrum. The research focuses on three specific processes relating discourse and organizing principles over the events of the reforms.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University, Northwestern University

PI: Daniel Milner

 

Unjust and Contrary: The Unworkable Blue Pencil Doctrine

Many employment agreements — particularly in the financial, tech, and science fields — contain restrictive covenants, which are clauses that restrict an employee from competing with former employers. These noncompetition agreements can substantially restrain trade and will affect an employee's post-termination employment options. The law states that, to be enforceable, noncompetition agreements must be reasonable. The blue pencil doctrine permits courts to modify an unreasonable noncompetition agreement to make it reasonable. Recently, some state courts rejected the use of the blue pencil doctrine. In this study, I examine public policy factors weighed against the limited utility of the blue pencil doctrine.

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

 

Can Cognitive Consensus Soften the Blow? TMT Language (In)Congruence after a Negative Earnings Surprise

When firms face unforeseen negative events, their top managers must decide on which actions to take to mitigate their effects. Despite the importance of coordinating and implementing effective action to manage event-induced negativity, what has so far been overlooked is that—even within the same firm—not all managers’ perspectives can be expected to align when faced with such a challenge. Integrating insights from the strategic communication and decision-making literatures, we theorize on the role of top managers’ cognitive consensus surrounding surprise negative events. Specifically, we argue that TMT cognitive consensus can ‘soften the blow’ and affect firms’ performance outcomes.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Pepperdine University, University of Texas at Arlington

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck

Pepperdine University: Cole Short 

University of Texas at Arlington: Owen Parker

 

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).

Sponsor: Iowa State University, Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck

Iowa State University: Melissa Chamberlin, Maartje Schouten

 

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 study 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.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte

PI/PD: Jeanine Porck

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte: Janaki Gooty

 

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, Truit Grey

 

How crises challenge existing assumptions in strategy process and practice theory

This research note provides a multiplicity of complementary perspectives on studying the role of crises, such as the current Covid pandemic, in strategy process and practices research. We incorporate the reflections of several leading scholars on how strategy processes and practices have to evolve to cope with crisis situations, organize those reflections into broad themes, and discuss associated implications and challenges for future research. As main contribution, we assert that future scholarship should challenge existing assumptions in strategy process and practice research, specifically our assumptions about organizational adaption, firms’ strategic responses, decision making processes, strategic practices, and strategic foresight.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University, University of St. Gallen

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck

University of St. Gallen: Joachim Stonig

 

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. This study looks at the role of the complexity of middle managers’ identity and organizational identity on their perceived role conflict and consequent strategic role performance.

Sponsor: Oklahoma State University

PI/PDs: Jeanine Porck

 

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

 

External Knowledge Sourcing and Employee Mobility Barriers

To continuously innovate, firms need to explore and use new knowledge, even the knowledge developed by other firms. This research examines how employee mobility barriers could make firms increase the use of knowledge developed by other firms. Employee mobility barriers may be negative to external knowledge sourcing of firms because they constrain knowledge flows through new hires. According to our research, however, restricted employee mobility may encourage firms to use external knowledge by making them less worried about losing their valuable employees, showing that a strong protection over human resources could make firms more actively engaged in external knowledge sourcing.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

PI/PDs: Eunkwang Seo

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Deepak Somaya

 

The Effect of Internal Collaboration on Inventor Mobility: Quasi-experimental Evidence from an Office Consolidation

Employee retention is critical to firm success, and thus is important to understand factors that increase or decrease the chance of employee turnover. This research examines the role of within-firm collaboration for employee turnover. Conventionally, within-firm collaboration is understood as a constraint to employee turnover because it makes employees more embedded within the company. According to this research, however, collaboration may increase the chance of employee mobility by making employees accumulate resources that could help their mobility. The results suggest that firms’ efforts to increase value creation through collaboration may backfire by increasing the turnover of their valuable knowledge workers.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Eunkwang Seo

 

Collaboration and Knowledge Spillovers by Mobile Inventors

Firms could obtain other firms’ knowledge by hiring key employees from them. However, little is known about whether mobile employees can transfer the knowledge generated by other employees in their previous firm. This research shows that pre-mobility and post-mobility collaboration jointly affect the extent that mobility employees transfer the knowledge developed by other employees in their previous firm. Specifically, when inventors move to other firms, their collaborators’ knowledge is more likely than non-collaborators’ knowledge to be transferred by the mobile inventors, and this effect is greater when the mobile inventors actively collaborate with the new colleagues of their new firm.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University

PI/PD: Eunkwang Seo

 

Does Who Helps You Impact Your Future Behavior? Examining the Effects of Social Interactions on Knowledge Sharing in Online Communities

Online communities provide vibrant forums for knowledge sharing and are increasingly being used by individual users and firms to source knowledge and create and capture value. Yet, there is much to learn about how the actions of community members affect other members, particularly new members whose continued participation is important to community vibrancy and growth. This research investigates whether or not receiving a reply increases the likelihood that a new user will post again. Our findings suggest that social interactions play an important, albeit nuanced and sometimes unexpected, role in shaping subsequent participation.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Harvard University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

PI/PDs: Eunkwang Seo

Harvard University: Frank Nagle

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Sonali Shah

 

Short-selling Pressure and Technological Exploration of Firms: A Randomized Policy Experiment

To be successful in a long run in technology-intensive industries, firms should continuously search and use new knowledge for innovation. Thus, it is important to understand what makes firms more or less engaged in this technological exploration. This paper examines the role of capital market for firms' technological exploration by focusing on the influence of short sellers, sophisticated investors who make a profit from downward stock price movements. According to this research, short sellers may reduce firms' motivation and ability to explore new technological areas by spreading negative information and limiting their ability to acquire skilled human capital.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, University of Southern California, Nanyang Technological University

PI/PDs: Eunkwang Seo

University of Southern California: Hyo Kang

Nanyang Technological University: Jingoo Kang

 

How Does Corporate Reputation Damage Affect Innovation of Firms?

Given the importance of innovation for firm success, it is important to understand what motivates firms to innovate. This research investigates whether firms innovate to build corporate reputation. We are collecting the data of work-safety violation and media coverage to examine if firms increase innovation activities when their corporate reputation get damaged. This research will expand our understanding about innovation and corporate reputation.

Sponsors: Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

PI/PDs: Eunkwang Seo

Texas A&M University: Haram Seo

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Junbeom Park

 

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