The Award Goes To… Someone Else: A Natural Quasi-Experiment Examining the Impact of Performance Awards on Nominees’ Workplace Collaboration

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Journal Volume 66 Issue 5

Hui Liao （University of Maryland）

Qiang Feng （University of International Business and Economics）

Li Zhu （Peking University）

Olivia Zhishuang Guan （Hong Kong Polytechnic University）

Abstract

Employee awards programs are prevalent in organizations. This research examines a group of employees who have received relatively less attention in the employee awards literature: those who are nominated for but fail to receive an award. Integrating social comparison theory with the functional theory of counterfactual thinking, we argue that nonwinner nominees go through complex motivational states and affective experiences, which influence their collaboration responsiveness to colleagues. We conducted a field quasi-experiment using 160,830 collaboration records of 494 employees over eight months (Study 1) and a multisource study using survey data and 34,911 collaborative records of 598 employees over two months (Study 2). The results revealed that, compared to non-nominees, nonwinner nominees have lower collaboration responsiveness to winners following the award announcement, especially when they have a higher structural proximity to winners. However, in the long run, nonwinner nominees have higher collaboration responsiveness to others in general. Furthermore, being nominated for but failing to receive an award simultaneously induces nonwinner nominees to experience higher causal-inference counterfactual thinking and negative affect, which exert opposing impacts on nonwinner nominees’ collaboration responsiveness. This research advances the understanding of the impact, influencing mechanisms, boundary conditions, and temporal dynamics of employee awards on workplace collaboration.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2021.0662

Resource Idling and Capability Erosion

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Journal Volume 66 Issue 5

Jan-Michael Ross （Imperial College London）

Toby X. Li （Texas A&M University）

Ashton Hawk （University of Colorado）

Jeffrey J. Reuer （University of Colorado）

Abstract

Why would some firms persist with continued operations when facing unfavorable economic conditions? Although prior studies have investigated the roles of uncertainty and sunk costs as sources of inertia, an unacknowledged type of sunk cost associated with temporary suspensions of operations is related to the erosion of existing capabilities. Building on the resource-based view and real options theory, we argue that resource idling contributes to capability erosion and that the anticipated capability loss motivates firms to refrain from idling their resources under demand uncertainty in the first place. The negative effects of uncertainty on resource idling are likely to be particularly strong for firms with superior capabilities and for those having a greater reliance on human capital. Using data on oil drilling contractors in Texas, the empirical evidence lends support to our theoretical arguments. Our insights suggest that resource idling shapes the development path of capabilities and risks jeopardizing firms’ competitive advantages. The seemingly operational decision of temporarily idling resources can therefore be quite strategic for a firm, and “hysteresis,” or inertia in continuing operations, can preserve firms’ capabilities.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2020.1050

When People Build Networks That Hurt Their Performance: Structural Holes, Cognitive Style, and the Unintended Consequences of Person–Network Fit

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Journal Volume 66 Issue 5

Gianluca Carnabuci （ESMT Berlin）

Eric Quintane （ESMT Berlin）

Abstract

Extant research shows that individual cognitive style affects whether employees benefit most from a brokering or a dense network. But do people build the network structure in which they perform best? We address this question by advancing a novel two-stage explanatory model that explicitly disentangles the network formation process from its performance effects. We hypothesize that “adaptors” (i.e., individuals inclined to focus on implementable solutions through commonly accepted and well-defined approaches) perform best when their network spans structural holes. Yet, these same individuals systematically forego opportunities to build relations across structural holes. By contrast, “innovators” (i.e., individuals inclined to focus on envisioning creative solutions that break away with established approaches) draw no or even negative performance returns from structural holes. Nevertheless, their inclination is to build ever-new bridging relations. We test and find support for this counterintuitive hypothesis through a randomized longitudinal field experiment enabling us to disentangle empirically both stages of our theorized process model. Our findings help illuminate why people may build networks that hurt their performance, shed a new light on the role of individual cognitive style in shaping network advantage, and bear concrete implications for organizations aiming to leverage networks to enhance employees’ performance.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2021.1227

Tempering Temperance? A Contingency Approach to Social Movements’ Entry Deterrence in Scottish Whisky Distilling, 1823–1921

原刊和作者：

Academy of Management Journal Volume 66 Issue 5

Michel W. Lander （Erasmus University）

Thomas J. Roulet （University of Cambridge）

Pursey P. M. A. R. Heugens （Erasmus University）

Abstract

What makes social movements successfully deter entry in contested industries? We develop a contingency framework explaining how movements’ success depends on the internal fit between their private and public politics strategies with the tactics of mass and elite mobilization. We also highlight the importance of how these tactics fit with external conditions like the cognitive legitimacy of the industry and industry countermobilization. When movements rely on a private politics strategy to condemn an industry in the eyes of the public, social movement mass will be decisive. Alternatively, when movements use a public politics strategy to push for regulatory intervention, mobilization of elites is crucial. We develop our understanding of external contingency factors by exploring how cognitive legitimacy residuals from local ancestral populations affect both mass-driven private politics and elite-driven public politics, and how national-level industry countermobilization efforts affect elite-driven public politics strategies. We test these ideas in a historical study of the Scottish whisky distilling industry during the rise of temperance movements (1823–1921). We contribute to the social movements literature by showing how movements’ entry deterrence in contested industries depends on the internal fit between their strategies and mobilization tactics, as well as on their engagement with external contingencies.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2019.1411

Wearing Your Worth at Work: The Consequences of Employees’ Daily Clothing Choices

Academy of Management Journal Volume 66 Issue 5

Joseph K. Kim （University of Illinois at Chicago）

Brian C. Holtz （Temple University）

Ryan M. Vogel （Temple University）

Abstract

Do the clothes worn to work impact employees’ thoughts and behaviors? Despite the universal necessity of wearing clothes and the fact that employees make decisions about this daily, organizational scholars have not yet addressed this question. We integrate sociometer and enclothed cognition theories to propose that aspects of clothing—their aesthetics, conformity, and uniqueness—hold symbolic meanings that have implications for employees’ state self-esteem and subsequent task and relational behaviors (i.e., goal progress, social avoidance). We first provide evidence for the nature of the symbolic meanings associated with these three dimensions of work clothing in a set of within-person experimental studies. The results of a 10-day field study of employees from four organizations generally supported our predictions, showing that daily clothing aesthetics and uniqueness had effects on state self-esteem and downstream behavioral consequences. The effects of daily clothing conformity emerged under the condition of greater interaction frequency with others in the workplace. Our manuscript contributes to both major theories from which we draw, and further offers theoretical and practical contributions to the literature on organizational clothing.

Link: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2021.1358