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Getting Closer at the Company Party: Integration Experiences, Racial Dissimilarity, and Workplace Relationships
Abstract
Using survey data from two distinct samples, we found that reported integration behaviors (e.g., attending company parties, discussing nonwork matters with colleagues) were associated with closer relationships among coworkers but that this effect was qualified by an interaction effect. Racial dissimilarity moderated the relationship between integration and closeness such that integration was positively associated with relationship closeness for those who were demographically similar to their coworkers, but not for those who were demographically dissimilar from their coworkers. Additionally, this moderation; effect was mediated by the extent to which respondents experienced comfort and enjoyment when integrating. These findings highlight the importance of creating the right kind of interactions for building closer relationships between employees, particularly relationships that span racial boundaries.
... We theorize that a second relevant relational moderator is how emotionally close the target feels to the perpetrator, following from the idea that affective sentiments toward the perpetrator or the relationship can also transform a target's motivation (Finkel et al., 2002;Olekalns et al., 2020). Relational closeness is defined as a subjective feeling of interconnectedness and bonding between the self and another person (Aron, Aron, Tudor & Nelson, 1991;Dumas, Phillips & Rothbard, 2013). Greater relational closeness is characterized by greater positive regard for the work relational partner, increased socializing and sharing of personal information, and greater feelings of validation and care in the relationship (e.g., Finkel, Simpson & Eastwick, 2017; Reis & Patrick, 1996). ...
... Greater relational closeness is characterized by greater positive regard for the work relational partner, increased socializing and sharing of personal information, and greater feelings of validation and care in the relationship (e.g., Finkel, Simpson & Eastwick, 2017; Reis & Patrick, 1996). Lesser relational closeness is characterized by decreased regard for the work relational partner, the maintenance of work and personal boundaries, and engagement based primarily on task-or work-related issues rather than socioemotional goals (e.g., Dumas et al., 2013;Finkel et al., 2017;Trefalt, 2013). ...
... Target-perceived relational closeness likely affects the transformation of a target's motivation because it provides a stronger (or weaker) foundation to challenge an initial self-protective motivation. When a target perceives greater relational closeness with the perpetrator, they are more likely to feel positive toward and interdependent with the perpetrator (e.g., Aron et al., 1991;Collins & Feeney, 2004;Cross, Morris & Gore, 2002;Dumas et al., 2013). These positive sentiments provide an impetus for the target to shift from a self-protective motivation to a relationship-promotive one. ...
... different group identities and, thereby, transforming members' cognitive representations from distinct groups to one more inclusive in-group identity (Gaertner et al. 1993;Gaertner and Dovidio 2014). Social integration practices refer to informal activities conducted by organizations to encourage nonworkrelated emotional communication, knowledge exchange, or informal conversation (Dumas, Phillips, and Rothbard 2013;Eldor and Cappelli 2021). Accordingly, we argue that social integration practices can weaken both the effects of inconsistent job conditions on identity threat and their indirect influence on individual integration outcomes. ...
... The term social integration practices refers to the organization's implementation of informal activities designed to encourage nonwork-related emotional communication, knowledge exchange, or informal conversation among employees with different social identities, with the aim of establishing high-quality relationships between them (Dumas, Phillips, and Rothbard 2013;Eldor and Cappelli 2021;O'Reilly, Caldwell, and Barnett 1989). Examples include encouraging employees to bring family members or friends to team activities or celebrations and to share nonwork-related information. ...
... Therefore, temporary workers-who were once discriminated against by regular employees because of their out-group membership-are now afforded in-group membership. This reduces the negative evaluations and bias from "different" others (i.e., regular employees) toward temporary workers (Dumas, Phillips, and Rothbard 2013). In other words, organizational social integration practices prompt members of different groups (i.e., temporary workers and regular employees) to communicate, thus fostering a single, more inclusive superordinate group. ...
This study aims to advance current understanding concerning situational cues that trigger identity threat at the workplace among temporary workers and associated effects on their integration outcomes in the flexible employment scenario. We used the social identity threat theory to empirically investigate the impact of the extent to which regular employees' job conditions are superior to those of temporary workers on these workers' outcomes, through the identity threat. In addition, we examined the moderating role of organizations' social integration practices. We conducted two empirical studies involving technical temporary workers in Chinese companies, in which we used polynomial regression analyses and response surface modeling. In Study 1, using a two-wave time-lagged design, we analyzed data from 480 temporary workers, and in Study 2, using a three-wave time-lagged multi-source dyadic design, we analyzed matching data from 371 temporary workers and 64 supervisors. Our findings indicate that the extent to which regular employees' job conditions surpass those of temporary workers is positively associated with identity threat among the latter, increasing their turnover intention and undermining their job performance. Moreover, temporary work-ers' perceptions of their organizations' social integration practices weaken the effects of the extent to which regular employees' job conditions surpass those of temporary workers. Thus, this study contributes to related literature on social identity threat and temporary workers, and to practice, by offering offers insightful implications for managers to effectively manage this threat.
... Online social networks (OSNs), such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WeChat, are widespread in both personal and business settings (Leonardi & Vaast, 2017;Ollier-Malaterre et al., 2013Song et al., 2019;Thomala, 2022;Utz, 2015;Wilson et al., 2012), which has profoundly shifted professional/personal boundary management practices (Bartels et al., 2019). The online blurring of boundary can have mixed influences on employees' interrelationship and offline behaviors at workplace, since there are advantages, such as providing access to sharing private life after work with coworkers for a richer multiplex relationship (Haythornthwaite, 2001;Pratt & Rosa, 2003), social capital (Adler & Kwon, 2002;Huang & Liu, 2017), and newcomer socialization (Gonzalez et al., 2013), but also concerns, such as bringing about privacy anxiety (Dumas et al., 2013;, ruining one's professional evaluation among colleagues (Pillemer & Rothbard, 2018), and even impacting employees' career path (i.e., not being promoted or being fired; Ollier-Malaterre & Rothbard, 2015;Valentine et al., 2010). Thus, the use of OSNs makes it more common and easier to blend professional/private relationships together when connecting coworkers as friends via social networks. ...
... Boundary management refers to the strategy of making decisions and taking actions in order to deliberately separate or blur the lines among different domains of one's life (Allen et al., 2014;Ashforth et al., 2000;Olson-Buchanan & Boswell, 2006;Rothbard & Ollier-Malaterre, 2016). Employees segment the boundary based on work and non-work activities, such as classifying keys and calendars for work and home (Nippert-Eng, 1996) or balancing the work-home borders by strict time schedules (Kreiner et al., 2009); Employees blur the boundary by integrating work and non-work issues, for instance, bringing the family to an annual workplace picnic, responding to a client's urgent request via email during weekends (Ticona, 2015), or engaging in social interactions with colleagues (Dumas et al., 2013). Nonetheless, individuals only have limited autonomy over their boundaries (Clark, 2000) since their employers' expectations may be different from employees' personal priorities (Capitano & Greenhaus, 2018;Derks et al., 2015;Huyghebaert-Zouaghi et al., 2022), thereby leading to a commonplace of boundary blurring. ...
... Thus, the untailored self-disclosure not intended for a particular individual or the customs of the professional context is often associated with privacy concerns and anxiety (Reynolds, 2015). Ellison et al. (2007) found that many boundary-management behaviors have been observed across multiple domains for people who use social media intensively in a personal context, because the increasing self-disclosure may lead to the awareness of differences (e.g., values, attitudes, habits; Harrison et al., 1998;Dumas et al., 2013;). In addition, the greater the formal hierarchy gap is, the greater the visibility of other social media interactions (Leonardi & Vaast, 2017) could further exacerbate the concerns from the blurring boundary online (Liao et al., 2008). ...
Relying on self-presentation theory and boundary management theory, this study investigated the association between employees’ personal/professional boundary blurring on social media and work engagement. We examined whether social media anxiety mediates the link between blurring boundary online and work engagement. From a relational perspective, we also investigated how perceived leader support might moderate this mediated relationship. Results from an online survey of 212 full-time employees were consistent with the proposed conceptual scheme, in that social media anxiety mediated the relationship between boundary blurring online and work engagement when employees’ perceived leader support was low. The findings highlight that the connection between boundary blurring online and work engagement demonstrates a pattern of moderated mediation that is more complex than previously thought. This study implies that blurring boundary online can result in negative psychological experiences for employees and the implications of this study present some managerial insights for the design of social media use in the workplace.
... In addition to a lack of clarity and scholarly consensus, researchers know little about Americans' conceptions of work-family balance in their daily lives. Scholars typically assume that such balance is a property of the individual (Dumas et al. 2013;Frone 2003;Guillaume and Pochic 2009;Nippert-Eng 2008), but research examining how individuals and couples conceive of balance is scant. This oversight not only limits a clear understanding of how parents and workers imagine and achieve balance; it also overlooks the potential consequences of diverse views for the gender dynamics in heterosexual, two-parent households. ...
... This line of research also examines individuals' preferences for boundary management. Dumas and colleagues (Dumas et al. 2013) and Nippert-Eng (2008), for example, find that "integrators" prefer discussing family concerns at work and discussing work concerns at home, while "segmenters" prefer to silo and separate these life domains. ...
Pandemic-related changes, including the expansion of remote work and the closure of schools and daycare supports, posed unprecedented challenges to parents’ conceptions of their work and home routines. Drawing on interviews with 88 heterosexual partnered parents, we examine the different ways parents understand what it means to balance work and family responsibilities and how their conceptions shaped satisfaction with their balance during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we discover that parents held three distinct conceptions of work–family balance at the outset of the pandemic: (1) individualistic (where balance is understood as an individual pursuit and regarded independently of their partner’s efforts in the work and family spheres), (2) specialized (where each partner specializes in one sphere, producing balance between spheres), and (3) egalitarian (where partners share responsibilities in both spheres). Next, among the women and men who held specialized or egalitarian conceptions of balance, most sustained their level of satisfaction. In contrast, among those with individualistic conceptions, most women (but not men) reported a change in their satisfaction. These findings provide new insights about the varied meanings people attach to the concept of “work–family balance” and how these diverse conceptions have consequences for satisfaction with gender dynamics in households.
... The interactions that build relationships can emerge from interdependent work, requests for help or advice, or desire for social contact and breaks. Across these forms of interaction, workers engage spontaneously, synchronously, and repeatedly with one another to forge high-quality relationships, for example, through cycles of giving and receiving task help, time spent chatting about personal lives, or tête-à-têtes about office politics and happenings (Stephens et al. 2011, Dumas et al. 2013, Grodal et al. 2015. The implication is that interactions that accumulate to build workplace relationships take significant time. ...
... Second, we identify the consequences of managing role conflict through interactional control for workplace relationships. Prior research has shown how managing role conflict can improve family relationships (Moen and Sweet 2003, Kossek and Lautsch 2008, Dumas et al. 2013 and that the relegation of such practices can lead to negative effects on home life (Russo et al. 2018, Oelberger 2019. A parallel but smaller line of existing research has considered how positive workplace relationships can help manage role conflict (Lautsch et al. 2009, Hammer et al. 2013, Trefalt 2013, complemented by similar research showing that family relationships Conzon and Huising: Devoted but Disconnected 18 Organization Science, Articles in Advance, pp. ...
The ideal worker is represented as constantly available for work. However, an increasing number and variety of workers experience conflict between work and family demands. Research has identified numerous practices to manage this conflict with positive implications for non-work relationships, but the implications of these practices for work relationships remain unclear. How do efforts to manage role conflict affect workplace relationships? To examine this question, we draw on ethnographic data from 72 STEM workers across three organizations. We find that workers who experienced role conflict interpreted interactions in the workplace—often unpredictable in timing, frequency, and length—as a threat to fulfilling both their work and family roles on a daily basis. Thus, they controlled work interactions to make time for both work and non-work roles. However, interactional control limited their sense of workplace belonging and opportunities for resource exchange. In contrast, workers who did not experience daily role conflict encouraged interactions, allowing these encounters to expand across time. As a result, their work extended into evenings and weekends, and they experienced a sense of belonging and more regular resource exchange. We identify how interactional control practices manage role conflict but limit the development of workplace relationships. We also expand the repertoire of how devotion to work can be performed, identifying the occupied worker who expresses devotion through focused and efficient work and interactions rather than availability for work and interactions.
... Moreover, when women and URMs are able to achieve leadership roles, they often face differential scrutiny and report very different experiences as leaders than their White male peers (Dumas et al., 2013;Offermann et al., 2020;Smith et al., 2019). One particularly alarming differential experience of women leaders is that of high rates of sexual harassment of women leaders compared to male leaders and individual contributors (Chamberlain et al., 2008;. ...
... Another career-related motivation, one more pertinent to URMs, is the motivation to achieve work-life balance. Worklife balance is especially important to URM employees as they often do not find personal fulfillment in workplace relationships (Dumas, Phillips, & Rothbard, 2013) Internals, due to their greater agency and the threat of workload bias. ...
... In this study, we focus on two key constructs of relationships in the workplace. First, closeness at work refers to a sense of connection and bonding with coworkers that goes beyond mere work interactions (Bacharach et al., 2005;Dumas et al., 2013). Second, OBCI refers to discretionary extra-role behaviors that are not prescribed by the job and that benefit coworkers (e.g., taking on additional work or offering other assistance to help a coworker) (Organ, 1988). ...
... Age, in particular, consistently segregates individuals into different groups (Feld, 1982;Riordan & Shore, 1997). There is evidence that, even in face-to-face interactions (e.g., office parties), disclosure may make (dis)similarity with other employees more salient (Dumas et al., 2013). We believe that the effect of disclosure is heightened in SNS, where coworkers share a wide range of personal information. ...
Individuals are increasingly connected with their coworkers on personal and professional social network sites (SNS) (e.g., Facebook), with consequences for workplace relationships. Drawing on SNS research and on social identity and boundary management theory, we surveyed 202 employees and found that coworkers’ friendship acts (e.g., liking, commenting) were positively associated with closeness to coworkers when coworkers were similar in age to or older than the respondent and were positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors towards coworkers (OCBI) when coworkers were similar in age. Conversely, harmful behaviors from coworkers (e.g., disparaging comments) were negatively associated with closeness when coworkers were older than the respondent, and with OCBI when coworkers were older than the respondent and coworkers’ friendship acts were high. Preferences for work-life segmentation moderated the relationship between coworkers’ friendship acts and OCBI (but not closeness) such that the positive relationship was stronger when the respondent had low (vs. high) preferences for segmentation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study and propose an agenda for future research.
... In the domain of romance, Knee (1998) describes similar views among romantics who believe that it is not true love if one must work hard at it, for true love is meant to be effortless, instant and permanent. In work settings, concerns over natural compatibility can inhibit people from building ties with dissimilar others (Dumas et al., 2013). ...
... Programs that target bias and prejudice directly through sensitivity or awareness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 training can backfire by triggering reactance (Kalev et al., 2006). Various efforts to promote social integration, including formal mentoring and sponsored events such as retreats, can yield varied and often negative outcomes for some people, making employees who feel dissimilar from others even more isolated (Dumas et al., 2013). Attending to lay theories may suggest a less heavy-handed approach to diversity management that focuses on cultivating growth mindsets rather than "force-feeding" the virtues of diversity. ...
The growing diversity in today’s workplace requires engaging with people who not only look different but also think different. Yet, research on workplace relations has treated similarity-attraction as a human universal and paid limited attention to individual differences in who respects or tolerates different views and values, and why. We address this gap by examining how lay theories people hold about instrumental relations affect dispositional similarity-attraction. Because people who hold a fixed (versus growth) theory of instrumental relations believe that relationships form primarily on the basis of natural compatibility (versus effort), they should be particularly prone to similarity-attraction on the basis of dispositional similarity in values, attitudes, and personality traits. To test our arguments, we first develop a Lay Theories of Instrumental Relations (LIR) scale, which we use to demonstrate that holding a growth theory decreases (moderates) people’s tendency to avoid dispositionally dissimilar partners in a naturally occurring network (Field Study) and a dyadic task (Experiment 1). Finally (Experiment 2), we manipulate lay theories to show that inducing growth theories increases people’s satisfaction with a task partner who is dispositionally dissimilar. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications for building diverse yet cohesive workplaces.
... In addition, the same workplace relationship can involve different roles at different times (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007), combining functions such as colleague, mentor, friend, and boss. Social rituals and routines such as office chit-chat and small talk (Methot et al., 2020), as well as social events that blur the boundaries between employees' work and personal lives (Dumas et al., 2013), infuse mixed content (e.g., work and non-work) and functions (e.g., instrumental and expressive) into interactions. Even the common ritual of spending the first few minutes of a meeting on personal updates can be considered to be part of the multiplex sociality in social structures of workplace interactions. ...
Although much research has sought to understand how employees come to align themselves with the social norms and routines of their workgroups, management theory has largely overlooked the possibility that such alignment might be fundamentally at odds with what it means to be autistic. Autism, which accounts for a large share of organizational neurodiversity, is associated with seeing and processing the world differently from the non‐autistic societal norm. In the workplace, autistic employees often experience barriers to inclusion, in large part due fundamental dissimilarities in how they interact with and connect to others. To identify the barriers to autistic employees' workgroup inclusion, we develop a multilevel framework centered around relational incongruence, or differences in patterns of interrelating across (autistic and non‐autistic) neurotypes. We propose that non‐autistic workgroup norms (e.g., for the use of imprecise language) exacerbate relational incongruence, which in turn hinders experiences of authenticity and belonging for the autistic workgroup member. Finally, we identify managerial practices (e.g., relational job crafting) that are likely to protect against the negative consequences of relational incongruence, by fostering workgroup climates of normalized variance in patterns of interrelating and shared understandings across neurotypes.
... Yet for those in the demographic minority, social integration can be more difficult, especially as within most organisations there are implicit beliefs about a prototypical member's desired characteristics based on identities such as gender, race or family status (Dumas and Sanchez-Burks, 2015). For example, research shows that integration is less likely among those who are demographically dissimilar to their co-workers, particularly when relationships span racial boundaries (Dumas et al., 2013). Social integration is also visibly evidenced with networking activities, which signify engagement and ambition (Brumley, 2014), yet tend to occur out of hours. ...
The ideal worker concept, typified by an unencumbered male, continues to influence workplace norms, despite a more gender-mixed workforce. This article examines whether this concept is being disrupted or reproduced as digitalisation becomes increasingly embedded in the workplace. Based on qualitative research in two professional services firms, the analysis shows how the ideal worker themes of work prioritisation and presenteeism have been maintained but adapted. Significantly, the study reveals how the novel dimension of connectedness is reshaping the ideal worker norm as enhanced digitalisation becomes interwoven in social relations. This has modified informal expectations about how, when and where work is performed, altering work organisation. This reconfiguration may in principle broaden scope for conformity with the ideal worker model, but in practice the heightened intrusion of work demands on personal time and into domestic space potentially works against gender equality.
... Discriminatory hiring practices, biased evaluations, and differential treatment in leadership further underscore systemic biases against Black employees (Morgenroth et al., 2020;Rosette et al., 2008). Despite strides toward diversity and inclusion, Black Americans face numerous forms of overt and covert workplace mistreatment (Avery et al., 2015;Dumas et al., 2013). ...
Workplace incivility disproportionately impacts Black employees and sets the stage for employee silence, where workers deliberately withhold information out of fear of retaliation and mistreatment. Although silence can have devastating effects on organizational communication and effectiveness, little research has considered mechanisms linking it to incivility, particularly among Black employees. The current work addresses these and other gaps in the empirical literature to test whether emotion invalidation, termed social pain minimization mediates incivility’s effect on defensive silence. Results from three studies, employing multi-wave and experimental designs, and centering the perspectives of Black employees supported this hypothesis. Black employees reported greater incivility and social pain minimization than White employees. Furthermore, incivility mediated the effect of employee race on social pain minimization (Study 1). Experimental manipulations of uncivil treatment increased expected social pain minimization and defensive silence and social pain minimization mediated incivility’s effect on silence (Study 2). Across a 6-week period, incivility predicted social pain minimization, which then mediated the relationship between incivility and defensive silence. These results provide evidence that in incivility’s wake, emotion invalidation can lead employees to withdraw and engage in defensive silence.
... Moreover, most previous research tends to characterize coworkers as having similar social status (Chiaburu & Harrison, 2008). The few studies that have addressed coworker social status have mainly examined its effects on positive outcomes, such as trust (Nienaber et al., 2023) and close coworker relationships (Dumas et al., 2013). By considering the interplay between social status and SDO, we provide a nuanced perspective on how these factors shape the emergence of coworker support and antagonism. ...
This article conceptualizes the bright and dark sides of self‐verification processes among dyads of coworkers from different social groups. We argue that these processes depend on coworkers' social dominance orientation (SDO), which determines whether they hold dominant, subordinate, or egalitarian social identities. The proposed typology identifies four types of dyads. In stormy dyads, the member of the dominant social group has a high SDO, the member of the subordinate social group has a low SDO, and self‐verification is associated with reciprocal covert (and occasionally overt) coworker antagonism. In conforming dyads, both members have high SDO, and self‐verification leads to covert antagonistic behaviors from the dominant member. In egalitarian dyads, both members have low SDO, and self‐verification leads to long‐term affective and instrumental coworker support. Finally, in compassionate dyads, the member of the dominant social group has a low SDO, the member of the subordinate social group has a high SDO, and coworker support is instrumental. We examine the implications of this typology for our understanding of self‐verification processes in the context of diversity among coworker relationships.
... Boundary theory has been used to explain the management of personal and professional identity and relationships at work, with a pronounced focus on work-family/life conflict situations that arise from the management of boundaries between personal and work domains (e.g., Allen et al., 2014Allen et al., , 2021Knapp et al., 2013;Sedlovskaya et al., 2013). Some studies have focused on the role of integration tactics, mentioning self-disclosure as a tactic in the creation of desirable or problematic social bonds at work (e.g., Dumas et al., 2013;Pillemer & Rothbard, 2018;Rothbard et al., 2022). However, to our knowledge, extant research using boundary theory has not yet focused on the disclosure of stigmatized identities using validated scales (Di Marco et al., 2024). ...
This study describes the development and validation of the Sexual Identity Disclosure Dynamics Scale (SIDDS), a new measure to assess the process of disclosure at work that includes the reaction of supervisors, coworkers, and clients to the disclosure preferences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) employees. The items were constructed based on the results of a previous study on sexual identity management at work drawing on boundary theory. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with a sample of n = 285 LGB employees showed that the items of the SIDDS load into a four-factor solution: integration, segmentation, intrusion violation, and distance violation. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the preliminary model had an acceptable model fit to the data in an independent sample of n = 458 LGB employees. Data offered evidence of acceptable reliability in both samples (α = .75–.95), and measurement invariance was established between sexual and gender identities and between countries in which most of the participants were working. The developed scale correlated with measures that assess authenticity at work, climate of inclusion, segmentation preferences and supplies at work, and sexual identity management strategies, showing evidence of convergent and concurrent validity. Discriminant validity was established with the SIDDS being unrelated to task variety. The SIDDS can be used to understand how the reaction of the audience to sexual identity disclosure preferences impacts on the health, attitudes, and performance of LGB employees. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.
... In a leader-subordinate blended friendship, subordinates must abide by both the role expectations of subordinate (someone with less formal power) and friend (equalstatus). Such co-activation paves the way for inter-role conflicts (Ashforth & Sluss, 2006;Bridge & Baxter, 1992;Dumas et al., 2013) as well as inter-role enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006;Ramarajan et al., 2017). ...
Plain Language Summary
For decades, the leadership literature has emphasized the importance of leader–subordinate relationships, providing abundant evidence that high-quality relationships between leaders and subordinates lead to a host of positive outcomes. Yet, significant confusion persists about the configurations of high-quality leader-subordinate relationships. How such relationships overlap and differ from personal friendships between leaders and subordinates, how they may morph into friendships, and what the outcomes of such relational change are remain unclear. This paper offers a theoretical framework that brings clarity to these issues. We examine the fundamental differences between high quality leader-subordinate relationships and friendships. We argue that when leaders and subordinates involved in a high-quality relationship get closer, their relationship may not turn into a friendship, but into a blended friendship, in which each partner must concomitantly behave as a friend and as a leader/subordinate. We examine how such relational shift may occur and identify key precipitating factors. We then explain how a blended friendship between a leader and a subordinate may lead to both positive and negative outcomes due to either enrichment or conflict between the friend's and the worker's role. The proposed framework clarifies the position of leaders and subordinates within their relationships with reference to friendship and sheds light on the dynamic nature of these relationships.
... The emergent work redesign under the sustainable worker schema was able to persist because it was hidden. Consultants who embraced this schema kept it concealed by sending and interpreting signals to identify like-minded others: the main signaling mechanism being shared information about nonwork interests and commitments, known in the literature as cross-role referencing (Olson-Buchanan and Boswell 2006, Dumas et al. 2013, Uhlmann et al. 2013, Ollier-Malaterre et al. 2019. Only in these relationships with like-minded others did consultants openly use work-life boundary tactics, which were undeniably aimed at improving work-life balance and were thus stigmatizing in the eyes of those who embraced the ideal worker schema. ...
This inductive study of 44 consultants in a prominent consulting firm examines how consultants set work-life boundaries without getting stigmatized and how they develop their workplace relationships into sources of help for this process. Within this organization, dominated by the ideal worker norm, we found a hidden, self-sustaining network of consultants who delivered excellent work while violating the ideal worker norm without stigmatization. Their way of working was based on a coherent set of beliefs about work and the work-life interface we named the sustainable worker schema, which contrasted with the ideal worker schema in all ways except in the ultimate goals: high performance and excellent work. Essential to this way of working was not only effective management of boundaries between work and life outside of work (work-life boundaries) but also effective management of boundaries around each work task or project (work boundaries). Consultants who embraced the sustainable worker schema worked fewer hours and achieved higher satisfaction with work-life balance than their counterparts. Together, these findings highlight the importance of embracing the centrality of work in work-life research; underscore the power of invisibility when challenging the ideal worker norm; and paint a rich picture of boundary work as a network-level phenomenon.
Funding: This work was supported by Simmons University [Diane K. Trust Chair in Leadership Development, President’s Fund for Faculty Excellence] and University of Massachusetts Amherst [John F. Kennedy Faculty Fellowship].
... We expect both diversionary and serious play to be positively correlated to higher level of social connectedness in organizations. Not only does social connection in Table 7 Construct validity for diversionary and serious play scales: expectations and actual Pearson's correlations the form of informal talks in the corridor and in front of the water cooler makes it easy for diversionary play to emerge, different forms of diversionary play like celebrations and humour also creates social bond and intimacy between organizational members, thus strengthening social connectedness (Dumas et al. 2013;Filipowicz 2002;Abel and Maxwell 2002). Serious play-when colleagues brainstorm and experiment together in order to find solutions to work problems-improves collaboration, and builds social relationships between colleagues. ...
Although traditionally seen as antinomic to work, play has always existed in work organizations. Recently, as organizations increasingly and openly embrace play, research indicates the positive effects of play, such as on employees’ well-being, attitude to work, and creativity. However, the difficulty in conceptualizing the different types of play in organizations and the absence of measurement tools have hindered large-scale study of play. In the present paper, we develop two measurement scales for two types of organizational play—diversionary and serious play. We use two datasets of French small businesses to develop and test the scales. We pre-test our initial set of items in a first dataset (N = 78). We perform correlation, reliability, and exploratory factor analyses on a second dataset (N = 278) using the items adjusted after the pre-test. Our final scales consist of ten items for diversionary play and seven for serious play. We assess construct validity by selecting a range of constructs pertaining to organizational members’ attitude and perception, as well as to the characteristics of the organization. Our measurement scales demonstrate good reliability and validity. The scales developed in the present study aim to contribute to the literature on play at workplace, the changing nature of modern work and research in entrepreneurial health.
... In addition, the same workplace relationship can involve different roles at different times (Sluss & Ashforth, 2007), combining functions such as colleague, mentor, friend, and boss. Social rituals and routines such as office chit-chat and small talk (Methot et al., 2020), as well as social events that blur the boundaries between employees' work and personal lives (Dumas et al., 2013), infuse mixed content (e.g., work and non-work) and functions (e.g., instrumental and expressive) into interactions. Even the common ritual of spending the first few minutes of a meeting on personal updates can be considered to be part of the multiplex sociality in social structures of workplace interactions. ...
... In fact, race is three times more predictive of perceived similarity than gender and nearly twice as predictive as age (Harrison, Price, Gavin, & Florey, 2002;Zellmer-Bruhn, Maloney, Bhappu, & Salvador, 2008). Perhaps this is one reason why racial homophily in personal networks tends to persist even as colleagues get to know one another (Dumas, Phillips, & Rothbard, 2013;Mollica, Gray, & Trevino, 2003). Whereas workplace gender integration has continually progressed since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racioethnic integration at work stalled 40 years ago (Tomaskovic-Devey et al., 2006). ...
Though we know racioethnic diversity can impact team functioning, much remains unclear about when and how it affects performance. Extending dyadic theory on interracial interactions,
we develop and test predictions about how participation diversity (i.e., the distribution of team member temporal involvement in task functions) influences the racioethnic diversity–performance relationship. We theorize that racioethnic diversity is motivational, prompting self-enhancement goals that are best achieved via cooperation, but are impeded by anxiety that often accompanies racioethnic dissimilarity. Heightened participation diversity provides structure (by clarifying behavioral scripts) that should reduce interracial anxiety, thereby resulting in positive effects of racioethnic diversity on performance through cooperation.
Such performance benefits of racioethnic diversity are lower in likelihood in less structured interracial, work-related encounters. Results from a field study and two archival datasets indicated that when there are more clearly differentiated temporal roles, greater
racioethnic diversity corresponded with higher performance. Cooperation helped to account for this relationship, as greater differentiation facilitated the positive effect of racioethnic diversity on cooperation, thereby enhancing team performance. This relationship is significantly smaller or nonsignificant when participation diversity is lower.
... See ethics approval protocol H22-00464. 10 A drop of 48% across two time-separated survey waves is comparable to that in other studies using similar designs (Dumas et al. 2013, Sun 2022. We compared participants who completed the second survey (n � 426) to those who did not complete the second survey (n � 393). ...
This article adopts a relational perspective to demonstrate that characteristics of the dyadic relationship between supervisors and their employees are critical to understanding individual-level exploration—understood as the extent to which organizational members pursue new opportunities and experiment with changes to current practices. To this end, we introduce the concept of power framing—that is, whether the control over valued resources is emphasized as the ability to reward or to punish—and propose that supervisor power framing shapes employee exploration. In an experimental study, we demonstrate that reward (versus punishment) power framing increases employee exploration behavior and that this effect is mediated by perceived trustworthiness of the supervisor. In a second survey study, we replicate these findings in a field sample and show that the relationship between reward power framing and exploration depends on the degree to which the focal employee is sensitive to power characteristics (i.e., power distance orientation). This investigation advances scholarship on the microfoundations of exploration while also highlighting the ability of leaders to alter trustworthiness perceptions and induce employee exploration through power framing.
Funding: This work was supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER Award from the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences [Grant 1943688] granted to O. Schilke. Additional funding was provided by the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1672 .
... Qualtrics maintains a database of six million adults in the U.S. who register to participate in surveys. In exchange for their participation, they receive points that can be redeemed from associated vendors (Dumas et al., 2013). As part of a larger study on candidates Trump and Biden, 650 participants responded to questions on leadership traits and perceptions at time 1, 491 matched responses provided leadership style perceptions and importance of items influencing preferences to support a candidate at time 2, and the final sample of 445 matched responses reported voting choice in the election at time 3. ...
Although research recognizes the influence of charismatic leadership and rhetoric, their practice in differing contexts and the moderating role of narcissism is understudied. Using a mixed-methods approach, we explore the effects of crises on the way a narcissistic leader employs charismatic rhetoric, and the way charismatic leadership is viewed by followers as they select leaders during a national crisis. In Study 1, we investigate former President Donald Trump’s response to threats to his social power during times of crisis. Content analysis of Trump’s speeches revealed that he used less charismatic rhetoric overall and more self-focused rhetoric during crisis periods, an unexpected outcome given existing findings in the literature. In Study 2, we explore followers’ responses to Trump’s perceived charisma. Three matched waves of data examined responses about perceived charisma, importance placed on the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, and leader choice. Findings from Study 2 suggest that crisis influenced perceptions of charisma and voting behavior, with leader narcissism playing a moderating role. Overall, our findings have implications for understanding the role of crisis in charismatic rhetoric and how narcissism and leader charisma influence followers’ voting behavior.
... Existing empirical research provides some support for this prediction. For example, recent studies suggest that employee boundary blurring behavior in the workplace, such as displaying family pictures and discussing non-work matters, helps build closer relationships with coworkers (Dumas et al., 2013;Byron and Laurence, 2015;Whitman and Mandeville, 2021). These findings further suggest that boundary blurring behavior may facilitate interpersonal liking. ...
Abusive supervision has long been found to have remarkably negative impacts on individual and organizational outcomes. Accordingly, prior studies have explored many organizational and supervisory predictors of abusive supervision and offered several interventions to reduce it. However, extant research lacks the bottom-up perspective to explore how employees can act to reduce abusive supervision, which is an important factor that enriches abusive supervision literature and helps employees protect themselves from being abused. Drawing on self-disclosure theory, we develop a model of whether and how employee boundary blurring behavior may protect them from being abused by their supervisors. Specifically, we conducted two studies to test the theoretical model, including a scenario-based experimental study and a multi-source, multi-wave field study. The results reveal a negative indirect effect of employee boundary blurring behavior on abusive supervision via supervisor liking toward the employee. By uncovering employee boundary blurring behavior as an antecedent of abusive supervision, we enrich the abusive supervision literature with a bottom-up behavioral strategy for employees to proactively protect themselves from being abused. We hope our findings will encourage future studies to identify boundary conditions and other solutions for employees to minimize the risk of being abused.
... Organizations have traditionally played a strong role in pre-packaging appropriate sets of meanings and actions about workplace relations for individuals. For instance, some employers socialize workers into viewing the workplace as a place for fun and friendship, sponsoring birthday parties, out-of-office celebrations, and "buddy" programs (e.g., Dumas, Phillips, & Rothbard, 2013;Kunda, 1995;Rivera, 2016). This conditions workers to construct relational packages in which they interpret their relations with coworkers as friendships, accompanied by composite self-narratives of being an affable and productive organizational member and bundled with actions of facile code-switching between friendly banter and task-oriented collaboration. ...
How do individuals react to the sudden public moralization of their work and with what consequences? Extant research has documented how public narratives can gradually moralize societal perceptions of select occupations. Yet, the implications of how workers individually respond and form self-narratives in light of—or in spite of—a sudden moralizing event remain less understood. Such an understanding is even more critical when workers are weakly socialized by their organization, a situation increasingly common today. During the COVID-19 pandemic, radically shifting public narratives suddenly transformed grocery delivery work, previously uncelebrated, into highly moralized “heroic” pursuits. Drawing on interviews (n = 75), participant artifacts (n = 85), and archival data (e.g., newspaper articles), we find that these workers (here, shoppers on the platform organization Instacart), left mainly to themselves, exhibited varying responses to this moralizing and that their perceived relations to the organization, customers, and tasks shaped these responses. Surprisingly, those who facilely adopted the hero label felt morally credentialled, and they were thus likely to minimize their extra-role helping of customers and show low commitment to the organization; in contrast, those who wrestled with the hero narrative sought to earn those moral credentials, and they were more likely to embrace extra-role helping and remain committed to moralized aspects of the work. Our study contributes to literatures on the moralization of work and narratives by explaining why some workers accept a moralized narrative and others reject or wrestle with it, documenting consequences of workers’ reactions to such narratives, and suggesting how a moralized public narrative can backfire.
... We considered evidence for conceptual-operational gaps where the conceptualization of the construct did not appear to align with the scale items used to operationalize the given construct. For example, some constructs that were conceptualized as segmentationintegration were more representative of permeability or flexibility (e.g., "I talk about my family schedule with my supervisor, " Clark, 2002; "To what extent do you take members of your family or nonwork friends and companions to company-sponsored or informal work-related gatherings?" Dumas et al., 2013); these scales contained items that appeared to capture permeability or flexibility better than segmentation-integration. This indicates a conceptual-operational gap (and perhaps confusion within boundary management research more broadly) for the most appropriate ways to assess segmentation-integration. ...
Boundary management refers to the ways that individuals create, maintain, and manage demarcations between work and personal life. Research regarding boundary management provides multi-disciplinary value across the organizational sciences, including work-family and work-nonwork research, but is hindered by terminological confusion and construct proliferation. We present a systematic review of work-nonwork boundary management scales, and we organize the scales into a measurement taxonomy that aligns scale items with conceptual definitions of boundary management constructs. We found evidence of misalignment between conceptualizations and operationalizations of the identified scales (n = 91), and we also find little evidence for convergent and discriminant validity among scales. Findings suggest a need to strengthen the construct validity of relevant boundary management scales, which can be guided by the proposed measurement taxonomy.
... In fact, race is three times more predictive of perceived similarity than gender and nearly twice as predictive as age (Harrison, Price, Gavin, & Florey, 2002;Zellmer-Bruhn, Maloney, Bhappu, & Salvador, 2008). Perhaps this is one reason why racial homophily in personal networks tends to persist even as colleagues get to know one another (Dumas, Phillips, & Rothbard, 2013;Mollica, Gray, & Trevino, 2003). Whereas workplace gender integration has continually progressed since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racioethnic integration at work stalled 40 years ago (Tomaskovic-Devey et al., 2006). ...
Though we know racioethnic diversity can impact team functioning, much remains unclear about when and how it affects performance. Extending dyadic theory on interracial interactions, we develop and test predictions about how participation diversity (i.e., the distribution of team member temporal involvement in task functions) influences the racioethnic diversity–performance relationship. We theorize that racioethnic diversity is motivational, prompting self-enhancement goals that are best achieved via cooperation, but are impeded by anxiety that often accompanies racioethnic dissimilarity. Heightened participation diversity provides structure (by clarifying behavioral scripts) that should reduce interracial anxiety, thereby resulting in positive effects of racioethnic diversity on performance through cooperation. Such performance benefits of racioethnic diversity are lower in likelihood in less structured interracial, work-related encounters. Results from a field study and two archival datasets indicated that when there are more clearly differentiated temporal roles, greater racioethnic diversity corresponded with higher performance. Cooperation helped to account for this relationship, as greater differentiation facilitated the positive effect of racioethnic diversity on cooperation, thereby enhancing team performance. This relationship is significantly smaller or nonsignificant when participation diversity is lower. Collectively, our theory and results help to reconcile prior inconsistent effects of racioethnic diversity on team performance.
... AET further asserts that person-related factors (e.g., intrinsic motivation) moderate the relationship between organizational events and affective states because "individuals are not passive recipients" (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996, p. 39). Although employees may participate in social activities for several reasons (e.g., Dumas et al., 2013), we investigate the moderating role of intrinsic motivation, referring to the motivation of "doing an activity for its own sake, that is, because it is interesting and enjoyable in itself" (Gagné et al., 2015, p. 179). ...
Research indicates that relationship‐oriented HR practices can increase organizational knowledge, yet we know little about the effects of relationship‐oriented HR practices on employee knowledge management behaviors. Drawing from affective events theory, we examine the indirect effect of participation in one type of relationship‐oriented HR practice (i.e., organizational social activities) on three knowledge management behaviors (i.e., knowledge sharing, knowledge hiding, and knowledge manipulating) via positive affect, as well as the conditional indirect effect of intrinsic motivation for organizational social activities on these relationships. Utilizing a time‐separated field study (n = 163), our analysis reveals positive affect fully mediates the relationship between participation in organizational social activities and (a) knowledge sharing and (b) knowledge hiding, and partially mediates the relationship between participation in organizational social activities, and (c) knowledge manipulating. Most interestingly, we unexpectedly found a positive direct effect of participation in organizational social activities on knowledge manipulation, even though the indirect effect via positive affect was negative. The results also indicate that, for individuals with high intrinsic motivation for social activities, there is a significant indirect effect of participation in organizational social activities on all three knowledge management behaviors.
... Anti-Black racism shapes lived experiences. In business and industry, race shapes our expectations of the people we work alongside (e.g., (Dumas et al., 2013;Phillips & Loyd, 2006;), influences where people want to work (e.g., (McKay & Avery, 2006)), and, when leveraged appropriately, gives firms a competitive edge over their market rivals (e.g., Richard, 2000)). Yet, racism continuously manifests within the workplace both as overt discrimination and, increasingly, as covert expressions and actions (e.g., (Avery et al., 2015;Hebl et al., 2020)). ...
In the wake of recent, highly publicized examples of anti-Black racism, scholars and practitioners are seeking ways to use their skills, resources, and platforms to better understand and address this phenomenon. Naming, examining, and countering anti-Black racism are critical steps toward fostering antiracist science and practice. To support those efforts, this paper details key insights from past research on anti-Black racism in organizations, draws from critical race perspectives to highlight specific topics that warrant consideration in future research, and offers considerations for how scholars should approach anti-Black racism research. Future research ideas include: specific manifestations of anti-Black racism within organizations, the double-bind of authenticity for Black employees, intersectionality among Black employees, and means of redressing anti-Black racism in organizations. Suggested research considerations include: understanding the history of anti-Black racism within research and integrating anti-Black racism research insights across organizational science. Research insights, ideas, and considerations are outlined to provide context for past and current experiences and guidance for future scholarship concerning anti-Black racism in organizations.
In “Designing More Effective Practices for Reducing Workplace Inequality,” Quinetta Roberson, Eden King, and Mikki Hebl suggest robust strategies for addressing inequality. ¹ They also list unanswered questions, such as whether any practices improve employment opportunities across all demographic groups or contexts. I see one potential answer: that organizational leaders and researchers look to intersectionality as a framework for addressing inequalities that occur inside and outside of organizations. ²³
An intersectionality framework considers the effects of belonging to multiple social groups simultaneously—for instance, the ways that being both Black and a woman can undercut opportunities beyond the independent ways that being Black or being a woman can. The failure to recognize how diversity policies affect people who belong to multiple disadvantaged groups will perpetuate inequalities rather than eliminate them.
Purpose
We examined who is more likely to use flexible work arrangements (FWAs) to alleviate work-family conflict (WFC) and under what conditions the use of FWAs actually reduces WFC.
Design/methodology/approach
We tested the model using survey data collected at two time points from 217 employees.
Findings
Proactive employees are more likely to use flextime to alleviate WFC (b = −0.03; 95% biased-corrected CI: [−0.12, −0.01]) and this mediation relationship is not moderated by their level of low work-to-nonwork boundary permeability. In addition, only when proactive employees have a low work-to-nonwork boundary permeability does their use of flexplace alleviate WFC (b = −0.07, 95% bias-corrected CI: [−0.1613, −0.0093]).
Originality/value
We expand our understanding of who is more likely to utilize FWAs by identifying that employees with proactive personality are more likely to use flextime and flexplace. We also advance our understanding regarding the conditions whereby FWA use helps employees reduce WFC by identifying the moderating role of work-to-nonwork boundary permeability on the relationships between both flextime and flexplace use on WFC.
Teachers of color often work in schools with few colleagues from the same racial or ethnic background. This racial isolation may affect their work experiences and important job outcomes, including retention. Using longitudinal administrative and survey data, we investigate the degree to which Tennessee teachers who are more racially isolated are more likely to turn over. Accounting for other factors, we find that racially isolated Black teachers are more likely to leave their schools than less isolated teachers. This turnover is driven by transfers to a different district and exiting the profession altogether. Consistent with an explanation that isolated teachers’ work experiences differ, they also report less collaboration with colleagues and receive lower observation scores.
Our desire to cultivate and sustain positive identities has a powerful influence on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dynamics. While sometimes the quest for positive identities promotes celebration of diversity and uniqueness, in many other circumstances our inherent motivation to strive toward building more positive identities can have unintended consequences for DEI in organizations. In this review, we organize research on positive identities at work to better understand the experiences of the diverse set of individuals that compose our work organizations today. We invite a critical examination of how individuals with underrepresented and dominant identities deal with identity demands in diverse workplaces in both helpful and harmful ways. We conclude with directions for future research on interventions that mitigate identity threat and promote inclusion.
Psychological safety is a beneficial social‐psychological state that promotes positive outcomes in the workplace, such as greater information sharing and enhanced organizational learning. Yet, how psychological safety dynamically develops as a process in groups generally and in demographically diverse groups particularly is understudied. Moreover, there is an insufficient understanding of how peer group members—group members who are not the leader—influence the progression and maintenance of psychological safety. We address these theoretical gaps through an inductive, qualitative study of a group‐based play context. Grounded in data collected from 97 participants, including 56 interviews and 70 h of participant observation, we build a theory that illuminates how psychological safety is co‐created through peer group member interactions during group‐based play. We find that the opportunities afforded by group‐based play disrupt exclusionary dynamics among demographically diverse adults and permit them to shift their relational risk motivation from pursuing goals of individualized self‐protection to pursuing goals of relationship promotion with one another. This breaking out of default, protective relational patterns during group play enables diverse group members to have a greater willingness to (1) engage in relational risk‐taking with each other and (2) support each other's relational risk‐taking—a process we refer to as the relational risk promotion cycle . As diverse group members relationally play off of one another during this cycle, they begin to co‐create a climate of psychological safety, in which they experience discrete events of relaxing and energizing into their differences. Our research makes theoretical contributions to the literatures on psychological safety, diversity in groups and play in organizations. Additionally, our findings suggest a critical role for leaders in which they are not solely creating the conditions for group psychological safety but supporting group members in working together to co‐create a climate of psychological safety for themselves.
Increasing demands to be seen as authentic at work have created a paradox of self-presentation for employees: the desire to be seen as simultaneously true to self and professionally appropriate in workplace interactions. The present paper introduces one way in which individuals may navigate this tension: strategic authenticity, a self-presentational approach that involves enacting behaviors intended to increase colleagues’ perceptions of one’s authenticity while accounting for individual and contextual factors that influence one’s professional image. I propose that the behavioral signals of social deviations (nonconformity and spontaneity) and self-expressions (transparency and vulnerability) increase colleagues’ perceptions of a worker’s authenticity but pose a threat to their professional image. Next, I highlight how felt authenticity and the degree of perceived violation of social expectations (i.e., benign versus taboo signal content and aligning with communal versus agentic norms) moderate the impact of signals on perceptions of authenticity and professional image, suggesting that strategic authenticity can be achieved via a careful selection of behaviors based on individual and contextual factors. Last, I consider how the enactment of strategic authenticity leads to high-quality connections at work, which over time, may lead to the formation of positive relationships (enhanced by an actor’s felt authenticity). This paper extends prior scholarship on authenticity, professional image construction, and high-quality connections by highlighting how to balance interpersonal goals to appear authentic and at the same time, maintain a desirable professional image in workplace interactions.
Despite increasing interest in supporting older workers' motivation, retention, and well‐being at work, knowledge about how social networks at work may affect the efficacy of training interventions among older employees is scarce. These social ties are an important source of resources for older workers' careers. This study examined the characteristics of older workers' personal social networks as boundary conditions for the effects of late‐career management intervention on work engagement. Data were used from an earlier randomized controlled trial (RCT) in which senior employees (mean age of 58 years) participated in a peer group‐based training intervention and were asked to complete follow‐up surveys at baseline, post‐intervention, and after 6 months (Vuori et al., 2019, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 115: 103327). The results showed that older workers' social ties at higher organizational levels (upper reachability) and the number of social ties at work moderated the effect of the intervention on work engagement. Specifically, the intervention aimed at enhancing employees' personal resources improved work engagement for senior employees with few or no social ties at work with whom they could discuss important matters, and for those with social ties at higher organizational levels. However, the relationship quality between older workers and their leaders showed no moderation effect. This study encourages human resources professionals to consider the social network characteristics and peer learning of older workers when providing training to enhance their work engagement.
Existing studies on boundary management are mainly discussing the work and family conflicts. However, online social networks (OSNs), such as Facebook, Twitter, and WeChat, are widespread in both personal and business settings, which has profoundly shifted employees’ professional/personal boundary management practices. OSNs offer the advantages of efficient communication, social capital, and newcomer socialization, but can also blur the boundaries between professional and personal issues, which may cause concerns such as privacy anxiety, professional evaluation distortion, and even career path obstacle. This chapter first introduces the conceptualizations of boundary management and blurring boundary, discussing current topics and issues with great concerns by practitioners and researchers such as roles transition between work and personal lives, and the self-presentation motivation. Then, I review the key antecedents and outcomes of boundary management, which followed by the distinctions between two forms of blurring boundaries. On the topic of “Concerns and Challenges about Blurring Boundary in the Workplace”, I discuss the difficulties in dealing with blurring boundaries, and provide tactics suggestions in the following section. This chapter ends by providing an overview of the boundary management measurement, significance, and future research directions.KeywordsBoundary managementRole theorySelf-presentation theoryOnline social networks
Organizations benefit from including employees with dissimilar values and perspectives, but their ability to realize these benefits is constrained by the degree to which those holding the dissimilar values (i.e., value minorities) feel comfortable engaging with their colleagues and the work of the collective. We extend theory on value dissimilarity by directly examining the experience of individuals whose values are dissimilar from those of their colleagues, and factors driving their engagement in work. Our examination spanned three studies: a laboratory experiment, a vignette study of employed adults, and a three-wave survey of student project groups. We found that the negative relationship between holding dissimilar values from one’s colleagues and engagement was lessened when value minorities disclosed personal information unrelated to their dissimilar values (Studies 1–3). Self-disclosure also moderated the negative relationship between value dissimilarity and feeling respected by one’s colleagues (Studies 2 and 3). Furthermore, felt respect mediated the effect of value dissimilarity on engagement, and this indirect effect was moderated by self-disclosure (Studies 2 and 3). Overall, this research is relevant to organizations seeking to capitalize upon the benefits of minority perspectives in the workforce but suggests that a critical first step is to prioritize the experience of value minorities and the decreased sense of social worth that can accompany this experience. By fostering an environment conducive to self-disclosure, organizations can help to alleviate the discomfort associated with value dissimilarity, thereby ensuring that all people, including the value minority, feel respected and are maximally engaged at work.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15768 .
Extant abusive supervision research has predominantly studied its prevalence and destructive effects through the lens of victims, potential victims, or third-party observers who witness such mistreatments. In the present research, we examine a neglected group of individuals—employees who are able to develop high-quality relationships and are closely associated with their abusive supervisors. Drawing insights from the stigma-by-association literature, we conceptualize abusive supervision as a unique form of moral stigma that might result in unintended spillover effects. Specifically, we found that observers tend to perceive employees who are closely associated with an abusive supervisor to be less moral and trustworthy for seemingly sharing a similar set of unethical values and beliefs, even though this might not necessarily be true in reality. As a downstream consequence, these employees are subject to unintended interpersonal backlashes (i.e., withdrawal from helping behaviors) imposed by their fellow coworkers. Furthermore, we investigate the moderating role of voluntary motive attribution, revealing that those who were attributed to voluntarily associate themselves with abusive supervisors received the highest levels of interpersonal backlashes. Results from one pilot study, one multiwave survey study (Study 2), and three preregistered experiments (Studies 1, 3, 4) supported our full theoretical model. Our research adds new insights to the abusive supervision literature by introducing a new unintended consequence on a previously overlooked group of employees who are presumed to be shielded from the negative impact of abusive supervision.
Funding: This work was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education [Grant R-317-000-164-115].
Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.1678 .
While existing approaches to workplace stratification illuminate how relational and demographic processes impact workplace inequalities, little research has sought to disaggregate the experiences of professional women at the intersection of race and ethnicity. This study explores how workplace demography intersects with relationships among women to shape the experiences of women of color in professional careers. Relying on a mixed methods study of barriers to advancement among women lawyers, we find that the presence of women in an organization has little to no effect on the token pressures women of color experience in predominantly White-male organizations. We conclude increasing women’s overall representation is necessary but insufficient for addressing the challenges women of color face navigating professional careers.
Although previous research suggests that bringing attention to minority cultural identities in the workplace can lead to professional penalties, this research provides promising evidence that the opposite can occur. I examine how cultural minority employees engaging in rich and meaningful conversations about their racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds (referred to as rich cultural-identity expression) influences majority-group coworkers’ inclusive behaviors, such as majority-group employees’ willingness to socially integrate with and professionally support minority coworkers. Three experiments found evidence of majority-group employees behaving more—not less—inclusively toward minority coworkers who engaged in rich cultural-identity expression, as opposed to small talk that did not bring attention to a minority cultural background. Even when minority employees richly expressed negatively valenced cultural information that could provoke anxiety (such as issues with discrimination), this form of sharing had positive effects on most measures of inclusive behavior in Studies 2 and 3 (although one exception was found in Study 3). No benefits were observed when minority employees engaged in surface-level cultural-identity expression (Studies 2 and 3) and intimate, noncultural self-disclosure (Study 2). The power of rich cultural-identity expression is its ability to increase majority-group individuals’ status perceptions of, feelings of closeness to, and sense of learning potential from minority coworkers. This research provides promising evidence that minority employees may be able to express valued aspects of their cultural identities while gaining—as opposed to jeopardizing—inclusion.
Funding: This work was supported by the Wharton Behavioral Laboratory and the Wharton Dean’s Research Fund.
Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1648 .
In realizing that consumers regularly straddle the work–life interface, some companies position their products according to their ability to address work and life needs together, then communicate this offering to consumers. Whether using a work–life positioning strategy is effective remains unclear though. If this strategy signals work–life enrichment, it should increase consumers’ interest, but only if the product demands few resources from consumers. If the product instead demands substantial resources, a work–life positioning might inadvertently trigger perceptions of work–life conflict and lower consumers’ interest. To test these predictions, the authors partnered with three businesses to advertise their products, which impose varying resource demands, on social media using content that highlights the work–life interface or not. Analyses of ad click data support the predictions: Work–life ads are less effective than single-domain (work or life) ads if the advertising involves resource-demanding products, but they are more effective if it pertains to resource-undemanding products. Furthermore, the effects are stronger among consumer segments that experience more work–life conflict in general. With this initial application of work–life theory to a marketing context, this article offers relevant insights for both research and practice.
We extend research on goal-contingent rewards and bottom-line mentality (BLM) by drawing on goal-shielding theory to examine BLM as a goal-shielding process that explains the link between goal-contingent rewards and pro-self, unethical behavior. We also examine future orientation as a first- and second-stage moderator and suggest that the detrimental effects of goal-contingent rewards and subsequent BLMs are weakened for employees who have high future orientations. We tested our hypotheses with two field studies and found general support for our predictions. Overall, our findings suggest rewards that are contingent on goal attainment prompt organizational members to solely focus on their bottom-line outcomes, which in turn drives their pro-self, unethical behaviors, but these indirect effects are less likely for those who are high on future orientation, because they approach their work with a longer-term perspective. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.
Guanxi HRM practices depict how performance and contributions give their way to interpersonal relationships for personnel decisions. That is, an employee’s relationships with the supervisor can largely factor in job tasks, performance appraisal, promotion, compensation, and training opportunities. Prevalent and conspicuous, guanxi HRM practices compromise organizational justice and undermine the legitimacy of personnel decisions. The upshot would include a group of demotivated employees, discredited employer branding, and intensified organizational politics. The extant literature has paid much attention to the detriments to individuals, organizations, and society. Yet, reactions from the beneficiaries have been largely overlook. Would they take it for granted? Or would they otherwise seek to “call it even”? We can hardly reach to a firm conclusion on what guanxi HRM practices implicate until those with vested interests are involved in the analysis.
Drawing upon compensatory ethics theory, we made the first attempt to theoretically explicate and empirically investigate the position that guanxi HRM practices could spur the beneficiaries’ altruistic behavior by arousing the intention to “call it even.” We conducted four independent experiments with various samples and materials to allow for causal inferences. Specifically, we tested the main effect of guanxi HRM practices on the beneficiaries’ altruistic behavior (Hypothesis 1) and the mediation effect of guilt (Hypothesis 2) with a vignette of performance evaluation and bonus allocation in Study 1a (N = 124) and 1b (N = 184), respectively. The serial mediating effect involving moral self-image (Hypothesis 3) was tested in Study 2 (N = 211), with a vignette of promotion. Finally, we tested the moderating effect of coworker relationship closeness (Hypothesis 4) in Study 3 with a 2 (guanxi HRM practices: high vs. low) × 2 (coworker relationship closeness: high vs. low) factorial design (N = 211) using the vignette of bonus allocation.
The results of four experiments fully supported our theoretical model. We found that the beneficiaries’ moral self-image and sense of guilt serially mediated the effect of guanxi HRM practices on their altruistic behavior (Study 1 and Study 2). Moreover, coworker relationship closeness moderated the serial mediating effect such that guanxi HRM practice sparked a more substantial impact on the beneficiaries’ altruistic behavior when they enjoy more close relationships with coworkers than vice versa (Study 3). Collectively, the reported effect size - being from medium to large, the various samples, and the diverse set of materials lead to robust findings.
Therefore, those beneficiaries would “call it even” than take it for granted. This research stressed the power of moral compensation and revealed a bright side of guanxi HRM practices for non-beneficiaries, those deprived of justice and resources. We added a meaningful complement to the extant sentiments that deem guanxi HRM practices overwhelmingly detrimental. It is also essential to differentiate between supervisors, beneficiaries, and non-beneficiaries to better understand this phenomenon. In short, this research broadens the theoretical spectra and informs organizations on how to balance the pros and cons of guanxi HRM practices.
If data analysts’ do not share the insights they obtain through the use of data analytics tools, firms may not be able to enhance the quality of their decisions. Therefore, it is critical to understand the factors that encourage data analysts to share their knowledge. In this study, we utilize the theory of planned behavior to understand whether the data analysts’ knowledge sharing beliefs form their behavior. We also utilize contingency and task-technology fit theories to understand the factors that influence the impact of data analysts’ knowledge sharing beliefs on their behaviors. Survey data collected from 226 data analysts U.S.-based companies and the findings showed that: data analysts’ knowledge sharing belief is formed by subjective norm and perception of control; task interdependency does not moderate the effect of data analysts’ knowledge sharing belief on their knowledge sharing behavior; analytical skills positively moderate this association; and tool comprehensiveness negatively moderates it.
This study of full-time managers and professionals examined whether variables selected from theories of the psychology of gender as well as identity, boundary, and role theories explained effects of sex on work-to-family conflict and "positive spillover." Women experienced higher positive spillover than men, primarily because they were higher in femininity. Although women did not experience different levels of conflict than men, individuals who scored higher on measured family role salience, which was positively related to femininity, experienced lower levels of conflict. Role segmentation not only reduced conflict but also had the unintended consequence of reducing positive spillover.
Attitudes among 178 professional men and women working for a clothing manufacturer and retailer depended on their work groups' sex composition. Findings were consistent with status considerations: women expressed a greater likelihood of leaving homogeneous groups than did men, even though women expressed greater commitment, positive affect, and perceptions of cooperation when they worked in all- female groups. These results suggest that similarity-attraction may be inadequate as the primary theoretical foundation for understanding how work group sex composition influences men and women.
I introduce the construct of climate for inclusion, which involves eliminating relational sources of bias by ensuring that identity group status is unrelated to access to resources, creating expectations and opportunities for heterogeneous individuals to establish personalized cross-cutting ties, and integrating ideas across boundaries in joint problem solving. I show that within inclusive climates, interpersonal bias is reduced in such a way that gender diversity is associated with lower levels of conflict. In turn, the negative effect that group conflict typically has on unit-level satisfaction disappears. This has important implications, as unit-level satisfaction is negatively associated with turnover in groups.
Sixty-three studies published in the years 1997–2002 are reviewed to assess the effects of workplace diversity on teams and organizations. Four major questions are considered: Which personal attributes have diversity researchers studied in recent years? What has been learned about the consequences of diversity for teams and organizations? What has been learned about the role of context in shaping the effects of diversity? How has research addressed the multi-level complexities inherent in the phenomenon of diversity? For each question, we consider the strengths and weaknesses of recent diversity research, point out opportunities for new research, and identify threats to continued advancement. The review concludes by considering practical implications of the accumulated evidence.
Attitudes among 178 professional men and women working for a clothing manufac turer and retailer depended on their work groups' sex composition. Findings were consistent with status considerations: women expressed a greater likelihood of leaving homogeneous groups than did men, even though women expressed greater commit ment, positive affect, and perceptions of cooperation when they worked in all-female groups. These results suggest that similarity-attraction may be inadequate as the primary theoretical foundation for understanding how work group sex composition influences men and women. Though scholars have amassed a significant body of research on how demographic diversity influ ences organizations and their members and how sex diversity influences various work processes and outcomes, conclusions remain somewhat equivocal and, in some cases, contradictory. For example, it is unclear whether greater sex diversity promotes or constrains individual and group effec tiveness or influences women differently than men. One option for increasing understanding of how sex diversity influences working men and women is to follow the lead of past research and rely on the similarity-attraction paradigm (e.g., Byrne, 1971).
High-quality connections (HQCs) are short-term, dyadic interactions that are positive in terms of the
subjective experience of the connected individuals and the structural features of the connection. Although
previous research has shown that HQCs are associated with individual and organizational outcomes, we
advance theory by identifying cognitive, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms and aspects of the context
that build and strengthen HQCs in organizations. We discuss the implications of uncovering these
mechanisms for understanding processes such as relational formation and relational resilience, relational
theories such as exchange theory, organizational moderators for these mechanisms, and the implications
for individual agency. We close the chapter with suggestions for selecting methods and research designs
that will enhance our understanding of the development and impact of HQCs at work
We develop a cross-level model and typology of work–family (W–F) boundary management styles in organizations. A boundary management style is the general approach an individual uses to demarcate boundaries and attend to work and family roles. We argue that variation in W–F boundary management styles (integrator, separator, alternating) is a function of individual boundary-crossing preferences (flexibility, permeability, symmetry, direction); the centrality and configuration of work–family role identities; as well as the organizational work–family climate for customization. The model assumes that an individual’s perceived control to enact a boundary style that aligns with boundary-crossing preferences and identities has direct effects on individual perceptions of work–family conflict and also moderates the level of work–family conflict of boundary management styles experienced across organizational contexts. We offer propositions relevant to future research and practice.
Recent research suggests that inter-group knowledge and information sharing are often required in order for employee diversity to yield significant dividends, and that such patterns of inter-group cooperation may themselves be contingent upon the prior emergence and continued maintenance of more intimate and supportive peer relations. However, little is known about the antecedents of such supportive relations among racially dissimilar peers in work organizations. We posit that the relative prevalence of supportive relations among racially dissimilar peers will be higher among those employed in work units characterized by greater task interdependence and a strong peer support climate, but will decline as the proportion of racially different others in the work unit increase (i.e., homophily effect). While we find an inverse relationship between the proportion of racially different others in the work unit and such inter-group supportive relations among whites and blacks, we also find this relationship to be curvilinear and subject to moderation by support climate.
We investigated how people manage boundaries to negotiate the demands between work and home life. We discovered and classified four types of boundary work tactics (behavioral, temporal, physical, and communicative) that individuals utilized to help create their ideal level and style of work-home segmentation or integration. We also found important differences between the generalized state of work-home conflict and "boundary violations," which we define as behaviors, events, or episodes that either breach or neglect the desired work-home boundary. We present a model based on two qualitative studies that demonstrates how boundary work tactics reduce the negative effects of work-home challenges. "Balance" between work and home lives is a much sought after but rarely claimed state of being. Work-family researchers have successfully encour- aged organizations, families, and individuals to recognize the importance of tending to their needs for balance. Over 30 years ago, Kanter (1977) spoke of the "myth of separate worlds" and called atten- tion to the reality that work and home are inexora- bly linked. Yet, she argued, organizations are often structured in such a way that their leadership for- gets or ignores employees' outside lives. Although organizational leaders and managers generally tend more to employees' nonwork needs than they did when Kanter wrote her landmark work, struggles to balance work and home demands are still common-
This study develops a model of engagement in the multiple roles of work and family. I examine two competing arguments about the effects of engaging in multiple roles, depletion and enrichment, and integrate them by identifying the type of emotional response to a role, negative or positive, as a critical contrasting assumption held by these two perspectives. Moreover, I represent depletion and enrichment as complex multistep processes that include multiple constructs, such as engagement and emotion. This study jointly examines both the depleting and enriching processes that link engagement in one role to engagement in another, using structural equation modeling. Findings from a survey of 790 employees reveal evidence for both depletion and enrichment as well as gender differences. Specifically, depletion existed only for women and only in the work-to-family direction. Men experienced enrichment from work to family, while women experienced enrichment from family to work. Overall, more linkages were found between work and family for women than for men.
As workers strive to manage multiple roles such as work and family, research has begun to focus on how people manage the boundary between work and nonwork roles. This paper contributes to emerging work on boundary theory by examining the extent to which individuals desire to integrate or segment their work and nonwork lives. This desire is conceptualized and measured on a continuum ranging from segmentation (i.e., separation) to integration (i.e., blurring) of work and nonwork roles. We examine the fit between individuals' desires for integration/segmentation and their access to policies that enable boundary management, suggesting that more policies may not always be better in terms of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Using survey methodology and a sample of 460 employees, we found that desire for greater segmentation does moderate the relationship between the organizational policies one has access to and individuals' satisfaction and commitment. People who want more segmentation are less satisfied and committed to the organization when they have greater access to integrating policies (e.g., onsite childcare) than when they have less access to such policies. Conversely, people who want greater segmentation are more committed when they have greater access to segmenting policies (e.g., flextime) than when they have less access to such policies. Moreover, the fit between desire for segmentation and organizational policy has an effect on satisfaction and commitment over and above the effects of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, income, number of children, and the ages of those children.
A multimethod field study of 92 workgroups explored the influence of three types of workgroup diversity (social category diversity, value diversity, and informational diversity) and two moderators (task type and task interdependence) on workgroup outcomes. Informational diversity positively influenced group performance, mediated by task conflict. Value and social category diversity, task complexity, and task interdependence all moderated this effect. Social category diversity positively influenced group member morale. Value diversity decreased satisfaction, intent to remain, and commitment to the group; relationship conflict mediated the effects of value diversity. We discuss the implications of these results for group leaders, managers, and organizations wishing to create and manage a diverse workforce successfully.
We used electronic name tags to conduct a fine-grained analysis of the pattern of socializing dynamics at a mixer attended by about 100 business people, to examine whether individuals in such minimally structured social events can initiate new and different contacts, despite the tendency to interact with those they already know or who are similar to them. The results show that guests did not mix as much as might be expected in terms of making new contacts. They were much more likely to encounter their pre-mixer friends, even though they overwhelmingly stated before the event that their goal was to meet new people. At the same time, guests did mix in the sense of encountering others who were different from themselves in terms of sex, race, education, and job. There was no evidence of homophily (attraction to similar others) in the average encounter, although it did operate for some guests at some points in the mixer. Results also revealed a phenomenon that we call “associative homophily,” in which guests were more likely to join and continue engagement with a group as long as it contained at least one other person of the same race as them. We consider the implications of these results for organizations and individuals seeking to develop their networks and for theories of network dynamics.
Given the emergence of a new rhetoric in the field of diversity, which replaces the term diversity with the term inclusion, this study comparatively investigates the meanings of diversity and inclusion in organizations. The findings of Study 1, which used a qualitative methodology to explore the construct definitions and to derive a measure of attributes to support diversity and inclusion, revealed conceptually distinct definitions. The reliability and factor structure of the scale was evaluated in Study 2 and cross-validated in Study 3. The results supported a five-factor model of diversity and inclusion and suggest a distinction between the concepts, although the terms may not describe separate types of work environments but different approaches to diversity management.
Response representativeness is more important than response rate in survey research. However, response rate is important if it bears on representativeness. The present meta-analysis explores factors associated with higher response rates in electronic surveys reported in both published and unpublished research. The number of contacts, personalized contacts, and precontacts are the factors most associated with higher response rates in the Web studies that are analyzed.
This study tries to explain the relationship between characteristics of the employees (e.g., gender and working hours) and short-term absenteeism by examining the social cohesiveness of a team. Hypotheses are formulated concerning gender and working hours of employees, social cohesiveness, and short-term absenteeism. To test these hypotheses, network data on 56 employees in 8 comparable teams within an organization were collected. The results show that similarity in gender and percentage of full-time employees within a team were positively related to the social cohesiveness of a team and that social cohesiveness is negatively related to short-term absenteeism.
We examined how surface-level diversity (based on race) and deep-level similarities influenced three-person decision-making groups on a hidden-profile task. Surface-level homogeneous groups perceived their information to be less unique and spent less time on the task than surface-level diverse groups. When the groups were given the opportunity to learn about their deep-level similarities prior to the task, group members felt more similar to one another and reported greater perceived attraction, but this was more true for surface-level homogeneous than surface-level diverse groups. Surface-level homogeneous groups performed slightly better after discovering deep-level similarities, but discovering deep-level similarities was not helpful for surface-level diverse groups, who otherwise outperformed surface-level homogeneous groups. We discuss the implications of this research for managing diversity in the workplace.
Using a theory-based multilevel framework, we examined the potential relationships of two organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) dimensions with individual- and group-level measures. The individual-level measures used were employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment; the group-level measure used was work group cohesiveness. The sample for the study was drawn from eight service sector organizations. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses revealed that employees in more cohesive work groups displayed greater amounts of courtesy than would have been predicted based only on their job satisfaction or organizational commitment. Further, the relationship between employee job satisfaction and the amount of courtesy displayed was stronger in the more cohesive groups. Such results were not obtained when conscientiousness was the focal OCB. Implications of our results, as well as use of HLM in multilevel investigations, are discussed.
Kanter’s theory of proportional representation suggests that tokens should experience more work stress and psychological symptoms than nontokens. We examine the effects of proportional representation by race and by gender on work stress and symptoms. Data come from structured personal interviews with a disproportionate stratified sample of elite black leaders in the U.S. (N = 167). Consistent with expectations, analyses showed that numerical rarity by race and by gender significantly increased symptoms of depression and anxiety, respectively. Numerical rarity by race significantly increases “token stress” (e.g., loss of black identity, multiple demands of being black, sense of isolation, having to show greater competence) and a high degree of gender tokenism increases role overload. Some, but not all, of the total impact of proportional representation is mediated through work stressors since these stressors are themselves directly associated with higher psychological symptoms.
In this study the authors examined the effects of an individual's similarity to the demographic composition of the workgroup on individual-level attitudes with 98 workgroups from a life insurance company. Results indicated that similarity in race-ethnicity affected individuals' attitudes toward their work group, as well as perceptions of advancement opportunities. Nonsignificant results were found for both similarity in gender and tenure. These findings suggest that demographic variables may have differing complexities in their effects on employee attitudes within work units.
Interest in the problem of method biases has a long history in the behavioral sciences. Despite this, a comprehensive summary of the potential sources of method biases and how to control for them does not exist. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which method biases influence behavioral research results, identify potential sources of method biases, discuss the cognitive processes through which method biases influence responses to measures, evaluate the many different procedural and statistical techniques that can be used to control method biases, and provide recommendations for how to select appropriate procedural and statistical remedies for different types of research settings.
Kanter's theory of proportional representation suggests that tokens should experience more work stress and psychological symptoms
than nontokens. We examine the effects of proportional representation by race and by gender on work stress and symptoms. Data
come from structured personal interviews with a disproportionate stratified sample of elite black leaders in the U.S. (N =
167). Consistent with expectations, analyses showed that numerical rarity by race and by gender significantly increased symptoms
of depression and anxiety, respectively. Numerical rarity by race significantly increases “token stress” (e.g., loss of black
identity, multiple demands of being black, sense of isolation, having to show greater competence) and a high degree of gender
tokenism increases role overload. Some, but not all, of the total impact of proportional representation is mediated through
work stressors since these stressors are themselves directly associated with higher psychological symptoms.
Using a theory-based multilevel framework, we examined the potential relationships of two organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) dimensions with individual- and group-level measures. The individual-level measures used were employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment; the group-level measure used was work group cohesiveness. The sample for the study was drawn from eight service sector organizations. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses revealed that employees in more cohesive work groups displayed greater amounts of courtesy than would have been predicted based only on their job satisfaction or organizational commitment. Further, the relationship between employee job satisfaction and the amount of courtesy displayed was stronger in the more cohesive groups. Such results were not obtained when conscientiousness was the focal OCB. Implications of our results, as well as use of HLM in multilevel investigations, are discussed. !
We argue that different types of perceived managerial controls that convey performance standards to subordinates increase the perceived relevance of particular aspects of fairness in organizations. We introduce the concept of fairness monitoring to characterize subordinates' efforts to gather and process fairness information to make sense of their organizations. In scenario and survey studies, we found that subordinates who perceive market controls engage in distributive fairness monitoring, subordinates who perceive bureaucratic controls engage in procedural fairness monitoring, and subordinates who perceive clan controls engage in interpersonal fairness monitoring. We also found that asserting clear controls and promoting the type of fairness that subordinates monitor most closely produces a positive three-way interaction affecting job satisfaction.
Through two qualitative studies, we examine how members of a particularly demanding occupation conduct identity work to negotiate an optimal balance between personal and social identities. Findings are based on open-ended survey responses from and in-depth interviews with Episcopal priests. We first explore the situational and vocational demands placed on those in challenging occupations, along with the identity tensions that often result from those demands. We then specify and classify several identity work tactics that ameliorate these demands and tensions by differentiating or integrating personal and social identities. To synthesize findings, we develop a theoretical model of identity work.
We examined the impact of surface-level (demographic) and deep-level (attitudinal) diversity on group social integration. As hypothesized, the length of time group members worked together weakened the effects of surface-level diversity and strengthened the effects of deep-level diversity as group members had the opportunity to engage in meaningful interactions.
Integrating macro and micro theoretical perspectives, we conducted a meta-analysis examining the role of contextual factors in team diversity research. Using data from 8,757 teams in 39 studies conducted in organizational settings, we examined whether contextual factors at multiple levels, including industry, occupation, and team, influenced the performance outcomes of relations-oriented and task-oriented diversity. The direct effects were very small yet significant, and after we accounted for industry, occupation, and team-level contextual moderators, they doubled or tripled in size. Further, occupation- and industry-level moderators explained significant variance in effect sizes across studies.
In this study, we examined the moderating effects of individual differences and sources of support on the negative relationship between work-family conflict and career satisfaction. Data from 975 managers indicated that the relationship was significant for women irrespective of age but was significant for men only in later career. Moreover, the relationship was stronger for individuals who were in the minority gender in their work groups, but it was weaker for those who had strong community ties. Implications are discussed.
Kanter's (1977a) tokenism hypothesis predicts that as minority and majority social types within a group reach numerical parity, interactional isolation between the two groups will diminish. In an exploratory manner, it was hypothesized that increasing minority representation in a group would also affect the group's total frequency of interaction. This prediction was tested with a sample of 96 supervisory cadre varying in the relative proportions of black and white members. Interaction was operationalized in terms of interpersonal, organizational and interorganizational communication frequency. Multivariate analysis, which controlled for organizational size and complexity as well as background supervisory characteristics, indicated only partial support for the hypothesis. Increasing race-ratio composition was positively associated only with organizational-level communication frequency. The implications of these results for future research strategems as well as for possible extension of Kanter's hypothesis to group-level analysis are presented.
The present research builds theory regarding the consequences of work unit ethnic diversity by advancing a status-based, multilevel model of when ethnic diversity is likely to constrain work unit performance. In contrast to past work unit diversity research, which has largely ignored the varying degrees of status ascribed to members of different ethnic groups, I propose that ethnic diversity is most likely to constrain work unit cohesion, and in turn work unit performance, in work units composed of two ethnic subgroups that are separated by large differences in status (i.e., ethnic status subgroups; ESS). Furthermore, and consistent with evidence that the consequences of work unit diversity are contingent on the broader social contexts in which work units are embedded, I predict that the presence of ethnic status subgroups in the community exacerbates the detrimental consequences of ethnic status subgroups in work units. Findings from a multisource, field-based data set (N = 743 employees nested within 131 bank branches) support the study hypotheses. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Responses to attitude and activity preference surveys were compared for the degrees of real and perceived similarity within male (n = 13) and female (n = 11) friendship pairs. Activity preference similarity was substantially greater than attitudinal similarity, in fact: friends' attitudinal similarity was no greater than strangers'; individuals were able to predict the friend's responses to the activity survey more accurately than to the attitude survey; and activity similarity was a better predictor of liking than was attitudinal similarity. The findings were the same for males and females. These results suggest that the opportunity to engage in mutually pleasurable activities may be a stronger motive in friendship choice and friendship maintenance than is the satisfaction of knowing the friend agrees with you.
Participative management provides a profound challenge to traditional organizations of work. Some researchers view participative management as providing an opportunity for workers to exercise increased power based on heightened responsibilities. Other researchers view participative management as management's newest ploy to extract not only labor but also the knowledge of production from workers. I use a model of workplace organizations that combines elements from Blauner's (1964) technology-based model and Edwards's (1979) labor-control model to evaluate workers' experiences of alienation and freedom across different systems of production. Data for the analysis are provided by the population of published English-language workplace ethnographies. The results provide partial support for Blauner's |bigcup-shaped curve of declining then increasing freedom under modern forms of production. Under participative organizations of work, however, positive and meaningful experiences in the workplace do not return to the same levels that they achieved under the craft organization of work. Relations among coworkers evidence less improvement under participative organizations of work than task and management-related aspects of work. This incomplete recovery of the positive experiences of craft production leaves at least some room for less optimistic visions of emergent workplace relations.
This paper makes theoretical and operational distinctions among three types of attraction: friendship, liking, and respect. Predictions derived from these distinctions are tested in three natural groups: a state police force and two college football teams. Friendship is found to be more mutual than liking and liking is more mutual than respect. The degree of respect for group members varies more widely than does friendship or liking. The average friendship rating is lower than either liking or respect. Respect is more strongly related to both expressive and instrumental leadership nominations than is friendship or liking. Joint participation in leisure activities is more strongly related to friendship than to liking, and more strongly related to liking than to respect. Future research should take these differences into account.
The rapid growth of research on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has resulted in some conceptual confusion about the nature of the construct, and made it difficult for all but the most avid readers to keep up with developments in this domain. This paper critically examines the literature on organizational citizenship behavior and other, related constructs. More specifically, it: (a) explores the conceptual similarities and differences between the various forms of “citizenship” behavior constructs identified in the literature; (b) summarizes the empirical findings of both the antecedents and consequences of OCBs; and (c) identifies several interesting directions for future research.
We used self-categorization theory--which proposes that people may use social characteristics such as age, race, or organizational membership to define psychological groups and to promote a positive self-identity--to develop and test hypotheses about the effects of demographic diversity in organizations on an individual's psychological and behavioral attachment to the organization. Individual-level commitment, attendance behavior, and tenure intentions were examined as a function of the individual's degree of difference from others on such social categories as age, tenure, education, sex, and race. We expected that the effect of being different would have different effects for minorities (i.e., women and nonwhites) than for members of the majority (i.e., men and whites). Analyses of a sample of 151 groups comprising 1,705 respondents showed that increasing work-unit diversity was associated with lower levels of psychological attachment among group members. Nonsymmetrical effects were found for sex and race, with whites and men showing larger negative effects for increased unit heterogeneity than nonwhites and women. The results of the study call into question the fundamental assumption that underlies much of race and gender research in organizations--that the effect of heterogeneity is always felt by the minority.
We examine interpersonal congruence, the degree to which group members see others in the group as others see themselves, as a moderator of the relationship between diversity and group effectiveness. A longitudinal study of 83 work groups revealed that diversity tended to improve creative task performance in groups with high interpersonal congruence, whereas diversity undermined the performance of groups with low interpersonal congruence. This interaction effect also emerged on measures of social integration, group identification, and relationship conflict. By eliciting self-verifying appraisals, members of some groups achieved enough interpersonal congruence during their first ten minutes of interaction to benefit their group outcomes four months later. In contrast to theories of social categorization, the interpersonal congruence approach suggests that group members can achieve harmonious and effective work processes by expressing rather than suppressing the characteristics that make them unique.
This paper develops theory about the conditions under which cultural diversity enhances or detracts from work group functioning. From qualitative research in three culturally diverse organizations, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity: the integration-and-learning perspective, the access-and-legitimacy perspective, and the discrimination-and-fairness perspective. The perspective on diversity a work group held influenced how people expressed and managed tensions related to diversity, whether those who had been traditionally underrepresented in the organization felt respected and valued by their colleagues, and how people interpreted the meaning of their racial identity at work. These, in turn, had implications for how well the work group and its members functioned. All three perspectives on diversity had been successful in motivating managers to diversify their staffs, but only the integration-and-learning perspective provided the rationale and guidance needed to achieve sustained benefits from diversity. By identifying the conditions that intervene between the demographic composition of a work group and its functioning, our research helps to explain mixed results on the relationship between cultural diversity and work group outcomes.
Several studies of telecommuting and working at home have alluded to the blurring line between work and family that can result from such highly integrated work-family arrangements. However, little is known about working parents’ perceptions of the integration and blurring of their work and family roles. In this study, the authors created and validated the Work-Family Integration-Blurring Scale using a national sample of business professors raising children in two-parent families. Based on boundary theory and work-family border theory, the authors expected scores on this scale to be associated with the number of hours worked at home and on campus, the number of work-family transitions made when working at home, the presence of distractions when working at home, and the presence of work-family conflict. The scale’s significant and moderately high correlations with these variables supported its construct validity. The research implications and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
This paper tests the proposition that social networks serve as a social resource which affects job satisfaction through the provision of social support. Drawing from the literature on job satisfaction and social support, the author argues that three types of networks are likely to affect job satisfaction: dense networks, social circles composed of co-workers, and kin-centered networks. Data from the 1985 General Social Survey, indicates that co-worker social circles and kin-centered networks positively affect job satisfaction and that certain of these network effects vary by contextual factors.
Cross-national comparisons of relational work styles suggest that the United States is an anomaly in its low relational focus. This article describes Protestant Relational Ideology (PRI), a cultural construct that explains the origins and nature of this anomaly. This construct refers to a deep-seated belief that affective and relational concerns are considered inappropriate in work settings and, therefore, are to be given less attention than in social, non-work settings. Akin to an institutional imprinting perspective, a review of sociological and historical research links PRI to the beliefs and practices of the founding communities of American society. A social cognition perspective is used to explain the mechanisms through which PRI influences American relational workways. The article also describes a program of research that uses PRI to address a wider set of organizational behavior issues that include: antecedents of prejudice and discrimination in diverse organizations; sources of intercultural miscommunication; beliefs about team conflict; mental models of “professionalism” and its effect on organizational recruitment and selection.
Using 20 actual work units with 79 respondents, this study explores the relationships among group demography, social integration of the group, and individual turnover. Results suggest that heterogeneity in group tenure is associated with lower levels of group social integration which, in turn, is negatively associated with individual turnover. Models of these effects using individual-level integration measures are not significant. Further, the results suggest that it is the more distant group members who are more likely to leave. Both individual-level and group-level age demography directly affect turnover and are not moderated by social integration. The findings suggest a process by which group demography affects outcomes and support the usefulness of organizational demography for understanding group and individual functioning.
This study examined the formation and persistence of homophilous, or same-race, friendship ties among racial minorities and whites in a “newcomer” setting. Homophilous ties provide valuable sources of mutual support but may limit racial minorities' access to resources and information in organizations. Study participants were first-year MBA students who entered a program at the same time. We measured network ties at two times: six weeks after the beginning of the students' first semester in the program, and at the beginning of the following semester 3 1/2 months after the second survey. We also administered a separate survey measuring social identity salience prior to the first network survey.
Despite the fact that there were fewer same-race ties for racial minorities to choose from, their friendship networks demonstrated greater homophily than those of whites early in the formation of the network and over time. Also, African-Americans were more likely than whites to seek out homophilous friendship ties in other class sections. Race as a salient social identity group membership was positively related to homophily for African-Americans, Hispanics, and whites. Over the time period studied there was no significant change in homophily among the racial groups' networks, despite the explicit promotion of diversity in recruitment of students, formation of heterogeneous classes and teams, and active support by the MBA program administrators. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for organizations that are attempting to increase cultural diversity and promote active interaction among individuals from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
In an attempt to extend the existing approaches to diversity management, and present a theoretically based intervention strategy that offers ways to reduce prejudice at the workplace, this article reviews the Personalization Model (Brewer & Miller, 1984; Ensari & Miller, 2002; Miller, 2002) and its components (self-other comparison, self-disclosure, and empathy). We argue that, when applied in an organizational context, personalization can improve intergroup relations in organizations, and thereby increase effectiveness and productivity. The present article also discusses how personalization effects can be extended to the out-group as a whole, and proposes alternative ways to implement it in organizations. We further present ideas for future research that can potentially explore the beneficial effects of intergroup personalized contact at the workplace.
Two studies investigated intergroup contact with immigrants in Italy. In Study 1 (N = 310 students) contact had direct positive effects on perceived out-group variability and out-group attitude, and a direct negative effect on subtle prejudice; the last two effects were mediated by intergroup anxiety. Contact also had a greater effect on reduced anxiety and improved out-group perception and evaluation when group salience was high. In Study 2 (N = 94 hospital workers) contact at work had direct effects on out-group attitudes and rights for immigrants, and an effect on attitudes toward ethnic coworkers that was mediated by intergroup anxiety at work. The effects of contact were again moderated by group salience. These findings show that the combination of positive contact with individuals from the out-group and group salience is effective in improving intergroup relations, and often does so via reduced anxiety.
This article suggests that the concept of organizational boundaries evokes a spatial metaphor. While the scant literature exploring the social geography of organizational life has pointed to the powerladen nature of spatiality, it does so only within the workplace. Our article maintains that the very boundary separating the inside from the outside of organizations is an equally important instrument for controlling labour. In light of the permutations that this boundary is currently undergoing, a field study is presented identifying aspects of a culture management programme aimed at significantly reorganizing the meaning of the inside/outside spatial divide among call-centre employees. This entailed a two-way process in which typically ‘private’ spatial practices are drawn into the site of production and organizational norms are encouraged outside work. The implications that these techniques have for employee autonomy are raised as important concerns.
This article introduces work/family border theory - a new theory about work/family balance. According to the theory, people are daily border-crossers between the domains of work and family. The theory addresses how domain integration and segmentation, border creation and management, border-crosser participation, and relationships between border-crossers and others at work and home influence work/family balance. Propositions are given to guide future research.
Three types of organizational responses to nonwork were identified according to orientations toward the work-nonwork relationship and toward the employer-worker relationship. The attitudes and experiences of 221 managers active in multiple domains were used to assess the effectiveness of the types. The type that enhanced the flexibility of the work-nonwork boundary, and involved the employer providing resources for workers to fulfill nonwork responsibilities themselves, proved most effective. This framework serves to shift the thinking about work-nonwork programs from a practice-by-practice focus to a more strategic level.
This study examines the behavioral commitment (intent to stay) of a sample of blue-collar employees from a manufacturing firm in Australia. The purpose was to test an integrated causal model of behavioral commitment based on four general classes of variables: structural, pre-entry, environmental, and employee orientations. The LISREL results indicate that variables rank ordered in terms of importance for their total causal effects on the decision process of employees to stay or leave an organization is as follows: job search, job satisfaction, job security, attitudinal commitment, union participation, environmental opportunity, physical conditions, job hazards, met expectations, equity, family responsibility, centraliza tion, supervisory support, and work group cohesion.