Management Experience
The Production of Merit: How Managers Understand and Apply Merit in the Workplace
Emilio Castilla & Aruna Ranganathan
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In this article, we develop a process model that specifies how managers come to understand and approach the evaluation of merit in the workplace. Interviews from a diverse sample of managers and from managers at a U.S. technology company, along with supplemental qualitative online review data, reveal that managers are not blank slates: we find that individuals' understandings of merit are shaped by their (positive and negative) experiences of being evaluated as employees prior to promotion to management. Our analysis also identifies two distinct managerial approaches to applying merit when evaluating others: the focused approach, in which managers evaluate employees' work actions quantitatively at the individual level; and the diffuse approach in which managers assess both employees' work actions and personal qualities, quantitatively and qualitatively, at both the individual and team levels. We further find that, as a result of their different past experiences as subjects of evaluation, individuals who experience mostly negative evaluation outcomes as employees are more likely to adopt a focused approach to evaluating merit, whereas individuals who experience mostly positive evaluation outcomes are more likely to adopt a diffuse approach. Our study contributes to the scholarship on meritocracy and workplace inequality by showing that merit is not an abstract concept but a guiding principle that is produced and reproduced over time based on individuals' evaluation experiences in the workplace.
Is social capital associated with corporate innovation? Evidence from publicly listed firms in the U.S.
Iftekhar Hasan et al.
Journal of Corporate Finance, forthcoming
Abstract:
We find that social capital in U.S. counties, as captured by strength of social norms and density of social networks, is positively associated with innovation of firms headquartered in the county, as captured by patents and citations. This relation is robust in fixed-effect regressions, instrumental variable regressions with a Bartik instrument, propensity score matching regressions, and a difference-in-differences design that isolates the effects of over time variations in social capital due to corporate headquarter relocations. Strength of social norms plays a more dominant role than density of social networks in producing these empirical regularities. Cross-sectional evidence indicates the prominence of the contracting channel through which social capital relates to innovation. Additionally, we find that social capital is also positively associated with trademarks and effectiveness of corporate R&D expenditures.
The inefficacy of LinkedIn? A latent change model and experimental test of using LinkedIn for job search
Michael Johnson & Christopher Leo
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Job applicants are increasingly turning to LinkedIn for their job search, so much so that it is supplanting traditional job search tools in many ways. Despite this widespread usage, scholarly research that explores its efficacy and the mechanisms for job search success (or failure) in this context is lacking. Accordingly, we rely upon social-cognitive theory and self-regulation theory to explore beneficial and adverse outcomes of searching for a job on LinkedIn as well as these outcomes' influence on job search success. Using a multivariate latent change analysis model, our longitudinal data across 2 samples support a self-regulatory frame but not a social-cognitive view, suggesting that a change in LinkedIn use for job search is positively related to a subsequent change in ego depletion, which leads to an ensuing adverse change in job search success. Additionally, as opposed to what is predicted by social-cognitive theory and typically found in the literature, an increase in job search behavior on LinkedIn was found to lead to poorer job search self-efficacy. In Study 3, we conduct a between-person experiment that explores this finding with results showing that upward social comparisons on LinkedIn lead to lower levels of self-efficacy. In all, the more that individuals use LinkedIn for job search, the worse their job search self-efficacy becomes, the more they become depleted, and the poorer their ensuing job search success. Results suggest some caution should be taken when conducting a job search on LinkedIn.
Procrastination at the Patent Office?
Michael Frakes & Melissa Wasserman
Journal of Public Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Pointing to a limited set of statistics suggesting that examiners turn in much of their work product at the end of quota periods, the Commerce Department has recently raised concerns over examiner procrastination and its consequences for examination quality. End-loading of review completions alone, however, is not dispositive evidence of procrastination. In this paper, we confirm that examiners complete a substantial percentage of reviews at the end of both bi-weekly and quarterly quotas and then proceed to test for additional markers that may separate a procrastination explanation for these findings from a range of alternative theories. Among other tests explored in this regard, we predict and find evidence of an immediate spike in end-loading upon the onset of examiner telecommuting, a change in work environments that likely exacerbates self-control problems. Our findings support a procrastination interpretation for at least some portion of the observed end-loading of reviews, with our outcomes analysis suggesting that the predominant consequence of this behavior for examination quality is an increase in examination durations.
The "Evil Pleasure": Abusive Supervision and Third-Party Observers' Malicious Reactions Toward Victims
Erica Xu et al.
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigated how abusive supervision influences interactions between third-party observers and abused victims and hypothesized when and why third parties react maliciously toward victims of abusive supervision. Drawing on the theory of rivalry, we predicted that third-party observers would experience an "evil pleasure" (schadenfreude) when they perceive a high level of rivalry with the victims of abusive supervision and that the experienced schadenfreude then would motivate third parties to engage in interpersonal destructive behaviors (i.e., undermining, incivility, and interpersonal deviance) toward the victims. We further proposed that such malicious reactions would be attenuated if groups have a high level of cooperative goals. Results based on one experimental study and two time-lagged field studies lend support to our propositions.
What's on job seekers' social media sites? A content analysis and effects of structure on recruiter judgments and predictive validity
Liwen Zhang et al.
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many organizational representatives review social media (SM) information (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) when recruiting and assessing job applicants. Despite this, very little empirical data exist concerning the SM information available to organizations or whether assessments of such information are a valid predictor of work outcomes. This multistudy investigation examines several critical issues in this emerging area. In Study 1, we conducted a content analysis of job seekers' Facebook sites (n = 266) and found that these sites often provide demographic variables that U.S. employment laws typically prohibit organizations from using when making personnel decisions (e.g., age, ethnicity, and religion), as well as other personal information that is not work-related (e.g., sexual orientation, marital status). In Study 2 (n = 140), we examined whether job seekers' SM information is related to recruiter evaluations. Results revealed that various types of SM information correlated with recruiter judgments of hireability, including demographic variables (e.g., gender, marital status), variables organizations routinely assess (e.g., education, training, and skills), and variables that may be a concern to organizations (e.g., profanity, sexual behavior). In Study 3 (n = 81), we examined whether structuring SM assessments (e.g., via rater training) affects criterion-related validity. Results showed that structuring SM assessments did not appear to improve the prediction of future job performance or withdrawal intentions. Overall, the present findings suggest that organizations should be cautious about assessing SM information during the staffing process.
The Advantage of Scoring Just Before the Half-Time Break - Pure Myth? Quasi-Experimental Evidence From European Football
Philippe Meier et al.
Journal of Sports Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine whether the moment just before the half-time break is a particularly good time to score a goal. Using detailed data from the top five European football leagues between the 2013-2014 and 2017-2018 seasons, we exploit the quasi-random occurrence of goals scored just before and just after the half-time break. In the former situation, the game is exogenously interrupted by a break immediately after the goal, whereas in the latter situation, the game continues without interruption. We show that in the case of a goal being scored just before halftime, the scoring team benefits more from the half-time break than the conceding team.
Encouraging Others: Punishment and Performance in the Royal Navy
Hans-Joachim Voth & Guo Xu
University of California Working Paper, March 2020
Abstract:
Can severe penalties "encourage the others"? Using the famous case of the British Admiral John Byng, executed for his failure to recapture French-held Menorca in 1757, we examine the incentive effects of judicial punishments. Men related to Byng performed markedly better after his unexpected death. We generalize this result using information from 963 court martials. Battle performance of captains related to a courtmartialed and convicted officer improved sharply thereafter. The loss of influential connections was key for incentive effects - officers with other important connections improved little after Byng's execution or other severe sentences.
Bold or reckless? The impact of workplace risk-taking on attributions and expected outcomes
Susan Fisk & Jon Overton
PLoS ONE, March 2020
Abstract:
Risk-takers are rhetorically extolled in America, but does this veneration ignore the downsides of failure? We test competing perspectives on how workplace risk-takers are perceived by examining cultural attitudes about individuals who successfully take, unsuccessful take, and avoid risks at work. The results of two experiments show that, in comparison to risk-avoidance, expected workplace outcomes are enhanced by successful risk-taking and that failure does not appear to significantly harm expected workplace outcomes for risk-takers. While one experiment finds that failed risk-takers are seen as more likely to be downsized (because they are viewed as more foolish), we also find failed risk-takers are perceived as more likely to be hired and promoted. Mediation analyses reveal this is primarily because risk-taking - regardless of outcome - considerably increases perceptions of agency and decreases perceptions of indecisiveness, and these attributions predict positive workplace outcomes. We also find the results to be remarkably similar across varying participant characteristics (namely, gender, race, education level, work experience, income, and age), which suggests that there is a broad cultural consensus in the U.S. about the value of risk-taking. In sum, we find evidence that observers generally make more positive attributions about risk-takers than about risk-avoiders, even when risk-takers fail.
Socially Responsible Corporate Customers
Rui Dai, Hao Liang & Lilian Ng
Journal of Financial Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Corporate customers are an important stakeholder in global supply chains. We employ several unique international databases to test whether socially responsible corporate customers can infuse similar socially responsible business behavior in suppliers. Our findings suggest a unilateral effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR) only from customers to suppliers, an evidence further supported by exogenous variation in customers' close-call CSR proposals and by product scandals. Customers exert influence on suppliers' CSR through positive assortative matching and their decision-making process. Enhanced collaborative CSR efforts help improve operational efficiency and firm valuation of both customers and suppliers but increase only the customers' future sales growth.
Do Accelerators Work? If So, How?
Benjamin Hallen, Susan Cohen & Christopher Bingham
Organization Science, March-April 2020, Pages 378-414
Abstract:
Accelerators are entrepreneurial programs that attempt to help ventures learn, often utilizing extensive consultation with mentors, program directors, customers, guest speakers, alumni, and peers. Although accelerators have rapidly emerged as prominent players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and academics continue to raise questions about their efficacy. Moreover, relevant organizational literature suggests that, even if accelerators are associated with better venture outcomes, results could be due to mechanisms other than learning, such as sorting or signaling. Drawing on mixed empirical methods that include proprietary data on the ventures accepted and "almost accepted" to a set of top accelerators, we find evidence that some, but not all, of the early accelerators we study substantially aid and accelerate venture development. We also find some evidence of sorting dynamics. These findings are corroborated using an auxiliary quantitative data set constructed from publicly observable data. Complementary qualitative fieldwork suggests a key driver of these accelerator effects is a novel learning mechanism we label broad, intensive, and paced consultation. The implication of these insights is that the practices of early accelerators represent a beneficial and likely replicable form of intervention that may also have relevance for independent entrepreneurs, educational programs, and corporate innovation.