Productive Thinking
Leadership: A Personnel Economics Approach
Edward Lazear
NBER Working Paper, April 2010
Abstract:
A theory of leadership is proposed and tested. Leaders are characterized as those who have the ability to choose the right direction more frequently than their peers. The theory implies that leaders tend to be more able, place themselves in visible decision making situations more frequently, and are generalists. Also, the most able leaders should be found in the highest variance industries, where decision making has the greatest payoff. The theory is tested using data on Stanford business school alumni and is confirmed. Leaders are generalists rather than specialists, both innately and in their pattern of skill acquisition.
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Productivity Through Coffee Breaks: Changing Social Networks by Changing Break Structure
Benjamin Waber, Daniel Olguin, Taemie Kim & Alex Pentland
MIT Working Paper, January 2010
Abstract:
In this paper we present a two-phase study undertaken to experimentally study in a real world setting the effects of social group strength and how to increase the strength of groups in the workplace. In the first phase of our study we measured interactions between workers at the call center of a large bank based in the United States using Sociometric Badges. We confirmed our hypothesis that the strength of an individual's social group was positively related to productivity (average call handle time) for the employees that we studied. In the second phase of our study we show that by giving employees breaks at the same time we increased the strength of an individual's social groups, demonstrating that low-cost management decisions can be used to act on these results.
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Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea
Karan Girotra, Christian Terwiesch & Karl Ulrich
Management Science, April 2010, Pages 591-605
Abstract:
In a wide variety of settings, organizations generate a number of possible solutions to a problem - ideas - and then select a few for further development. We examine the effectiveness of two group structures for such tasks - the team structure, in which the group works together in time and space, and the hybrid structure, in which individuals first work independently and then work together. We define the performance of a group as the quality of the best ideas identified. Prior research has defined performance as the average quality of ideas or the number of ideas generated, ignoring what most organizations seek, a few great ideas. We build a theory that relates organizational phenomena to four different variables that govern the quality of the best ideas identified: (1) the average quality of ideas generated, (2) the number of ideas generated, (3) the variance in the quality of ideas generated, and (4) the ability of the group to discern the quality of the ideas. We test this theory with an experiment. We find that groups organized in the hybrid structure are able to generate more ideas, to generate better ideas, and to better discern the quality of the ideas they generate. Moreover, we find that the frequently recommended brainstorming technique of building on others' ideas is counterproductive; teams exhibiting such buildup neither create more ideas, nor are the ideas that build on previous ideas better.
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Jack Goncalo & Sharon Kim
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The equity rule is favored by groups that emphasize productivity, but there is limited support for the notion that equity actually facilitates productivity in groups (Deutsch, 1985). We propose that the relationship between equity and productivity may depend on whether individual group members have an independent or interdependent self-construal. This prediction was tested in an experiment in which groups endorsed either an equity rule or an equality rule for distributing resources and then generated ideas as a group. The results showed that equity facilitated productivity (e.g., the number of ideas generated) but only in groups whose members had been primed with an independent self-construal. The results of both self-report and video-tape data support competition as the mechanism that explains this productivity gain. This work contributes to research on both distributive justice and small group performance by specifying more clearly the conditions under which a belief in equity will stimulate productivity.
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Eden King, Whitney Botsford, Michelle Hebl, Stephanie Kazama, Jeremy Dawson & Andrew Perkins
Journal of Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current research draws from ambivalent sexism theory to examine potential gender differences in the quantity and quality of developmental work experiences. In a sample of managers in the energy industry, men and women reported participating in a similar number of developmental experiences (with comparable levels of support), but men rated these experiences as more challenging and received more negative feedback than did women. Similarly, a sample of female managers in the health care industry reported comparable amounts, but less challenging types, of developmental experiences than their male counterparts'. The results of three complementary experiments suggest that benevolent sexism is negatively related to men's assignment of challenging experiences to female targets but that men and women were equally likely to express interest in challenging experiences. Taken together, these results suggest that stereotype-based beliefs that women should be protected may limit women's exposure to challenging assignments, which in turn may partially explain the underrepresentation of women at the highest levels of organizations.
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Kathleen McGinn & Katherine Milkman
Harvard Working Paper, February 2010
Abstract:
We develop an integrated theory of the social identity mechanisms linking workgroup sex and race composition across levels with individual turnover. Building on social identity research, we theorize that social cohesion (Tyler, 1999; Hogg and Terry, 2000) and social comparison (Festinger, 1954) lead to well-known cooperative effects within subordinate-supervisor pairs of the same sex and race, but potentially competitive effects among demographically similar peers. Analyzing longitudinal human resource data on professionals employed in a large up-or-out knowledge organization, we assess the distinct effects of demographic match with superiors and demographic match with peers on the exit of junior professionals. We find largely cooperative effects of cross-level composition - junior professionals who work in groups with higher proportions of same sex senior professionals are less likely to exit. At the peer level, however, these effects are reversed, and professionals are more likely to leave as the proportions of same sex and race peers within the workgroup increase. The effects hold across demographic groups, but vary by majority/minority status, disproportionately affecting women and underrepresented minorities.
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How Long Will It Take? Power Biases Time Predictions
Mario Weick & Ana Guinote
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, July 2010, Pages 595-604
Abstract:
People tend to underestimate the time it takes to accomplish tasks. This bias known as the planning fallacy derives from the tendency to focus attention too narrowly on the envisaged goal and to ignore additional information that could make predictions more accurate and less biased. Drawing on recent research showing that power induces attentional focus, four studies tested the hypothesis that power strengthens the tendency to underestimate future task completion time. Across a range of task domains, and using multiple operationalizations of power, including actual control over outcomes (Study 1), priming (Studies 2 and 3), and individual differences (Study 4), power consistently led to more optimistic and less accurate time predictions. Support was found for the role of attentional focus as an underlying mechanism for those effects. Differences in optimism, self-efficacy, and mood did not contribute to the greater bias in powerful individuals' forecasts. We discuss the implications of these findings for institutional decision processes and occupational health.
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From approach to inhibition: The influence of power on responses to poor performers
Amanda Ferguson, Margaret Ormiston & Henry Moon
Journal of Applied Psychology, March 2010, Pages 305-320
Abstract:
This article examines how relative differences in power affect responses to poor performers in organizations. We predicted that higher power individuals would engage in approach-related behaviors, whereas lower power individuals would be inhibited when responding to poor performers. Results from a scenario study and a field study generally supported this prediction, indicating that power was positively related to training or confronting a poor performer and negatively related to compensating for or rejecting a poor performer. A second scenario study investigated the effect of the interaction of power and emotion on individual responses to poor performers. Results showed that the type of emotion expressed moderated the effect of power on inhibition-related responses. We discuss implications for managing poor performers with relative power differences.
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Joris Lammers, Janka Stoker & Diederik Stapel
European Journal of Social Psychology, April 2010, Pages 543-551
Abstract:
A large number of authors have observed that the experience of power increases behavioral approach tendencies. There are however some important unresolved problems. Predominantly, the literature relies on lab manipulations, priming, and student populations. This has resulted in low face validity. Also, it is unclear what process underlies this effect. A large-scale survey (N = 3082) reliably measures power among real low- and high-power employees in existing organizations and finds strong support for the effect of power on behavioral approach. Consistent with expectations, this effect is mediated by increased access to resources. We also discuss findings that suggest the shape of this power-approach effect might be quadratic.
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Ethical Determinants for Generations X and Y
David Boyd
Journal of Business Ethics, May 2010, Pages 465-469
Abstract:
The present study examines student perception of protagonist behavior in three case vignettes. One demographic group consists of professionally employed MBA students who show characteristics of Generation X. The second cohort consists of Generation Y business undergraduates. Differences emerge between the groups. Even when they propose similar action, their respective rationale differs. Generation Xers show themselves to be astute pragmatists whose focus is on self rather than society. Yet the younger cohort, in its quest to find fulfillment, may give short shrift to some seasoned tenets of corporate conduct, including organizational mission, organizational politics, and organizational loyalty.
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Profit Sharing and the Quality of Relations with the Boss
Colin Green & John Heywood
Labour Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Profit sharing generates conflicting changes in the relationship between supervisors and workers. It may increase cooperation and helping effort. At the same time it can increase direct monitoring and pressure by the supervisor, and mutual monitoring and peer pressure from other workers that is transmitted through the supervisor. Using UK data on satisfaction with the boss, we show in both cross-section and panel estimates that workers under profit sharing tend to have lower satisfaction with their supervisor. This result persists even as profit sharing has no or a positive influence on other dimensions of job satisfaction. Additional estimates show that lower satisfaction with the supervisor is largely generated by women, who may be less able to respond to peer pressure, and by non-union workers, who may have more to lose by failing to respond to peer pressure.
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Vangelis Souitaris & B.M. Marcello Maestro
Strategic Management Journal, June 2010, Pages 652-678
Abstract:
This study focuses on polychronicity as a cultural dimension of top management teams (TMTs). TMT polychronicity is the extent to which team members mutually prefer and tend to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously or intermittently instead of one at a time and believe that this is the best way of doing things. We explore the impact of TMT polychronicity on strategic decision speed and comprehensiveness and, subsequently, its effect on new venture financial performance. Contrary to popular time-management principles advocating task prioritization and focused sequential execution, we found that TMT polychronicity has a positive effect on firm performance in the context of dynamic unanalyzable environments. This effect is partially mediated by strategic decision speed and comprehensiveness. Our study contributes to research on strategic leadership by focusing on a novel value-based characteristic of the TMT (polychronicity) and by untangling the decision-making processes that relate TMT characteristics and firm performance. It also contributes to the attention-based view of the firm by positioning polychronicity as a new type of attention structure.
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Emily David, Derek Avery & Mark Elliott
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, April 2010, Pages 140-153
Abstract:
Diversity theorists have hypothesized that similarity leads to both greater identification among individuals and reduced interpersonal conflict within organizations. Little research, however, has been conducted to identify boundary conditions for this relationship. The authors investigated the interactive effects of supervisor-subordinate racioethnic similarity and emotional exhaustion on organizational commitment in two studies. In Study 1, racioethnic supervisor-subordinate similarity related positively to commitment, but only among employees low in emotional exhaustion. In Study 2, we observed a significant indirect effect of racioethnic similarity on loyalty through supervisor support. Moreover, the support-loyalty linkage was significantly stronger for employees low in emotional exhaustion. Thus, the effects of supervisor-subordinate racioethnic similarity on employee commitment appear contingent upon employee emotional exhaustion.