Management & Organization
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Item PAY SYSTEM EFFECTIVENESS IN ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: UNDERSTANDING HOW AND WHEN PERCEIVED PAY EQUITY AND PAY EQUALITY AFFECT ADAPTIVE TEAM PERFORMANCE(2017) Li, Ning; Liao, Hui; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In today’s fast-paced economy, organizations undergo changes almost constantly in order to survive or maintain competitive. Under such backdrop, it is important to understand how pay system can help teams adapt and perform well when organizational change disrupts existing ways of collective functioning. However, little theoretical effort has been given to this important topic. The main purpose of this dissertation is to develop theory that explains how pay system can be leveraged to facilitate adaptive team performance. I extend the management literature by clarifying 1) what pay system characteristics are important for promoting adaptive team performance, 2) how such pay system characteristics take effects to shape adaptive team performance and, 3) when such pay system characteristics are more or less instrumental for benefiting adaptive team performance. Specifically, I first propose that adaptive team performance is a function of two pay system characteristics: pay equity and pay equality. Next, I argue that pay equity and pay equality contribute to adaptive team performance through distinct mechanisms. That is, the pay equity operates through facilitating planned coordination; while pay equality operates through facilitating emergent coordination. Last, I predict that interdependence uncertainty serves as a boundary condition to weaken the effects of pay equity on team coordination and adaptive team performance, but strengthen the effects of pay equality on team coordination and adaptive team performance. I tested these hypotheses in a manufacturing firm during a period it went through a major organizational change. Using a sample of 207 production teams, I found evidence that largely supported my theoretical model. This dissertation not only offers a more sophisticated understanding of pay system effectiveness in organizational change, but also provides improved prescriptions for organizations and managers.Item Diversity Sells: Why Mixed-Gender Coalitions Are Most Effective at Advocating Workplace Gender Equity Issues(2019) Hussain, Insiya; Tangirala, Subra; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Employees often come together in coalitions to voice concerns and suggestions. However, such coalitions have achieved limited success thus far in advocating gender equity issues within organizations. I argue that the homophily that women demonstrate when forming coalitions on gender equity can explain their lack of effectiveness. I theorize that successful coalitions, via their composition, signal to endorsers that the issue they are advocating is organizationally relevant. Although female-only, compared to male-only, coalitions are seen as having the legitimacy to speak up about gender equity, they struggle to convince stakeholders that the issue is broadly relevant. I posit that mixed-gender coalitions, via the joint participation of women and men, can both signal sufficient legitimacy to voice about a gender equity issue while also conveying that the issue is not niche and holds relevance for everyone in the organization. As a consequence, such gender-diverse coalitions are uniquely positioned to earn higher support for gender equity issues relative to alternative, gender-heterogeneous configurations. In Study 1, a quasi-field experiment, 714 participants responded to their coworkers putatively advocating a gender equity issue in the workplace. Mixed-gender coalitions outperformed both female-only and male-only coalitions on issue support, as explained by advantages in both perceived legitimacy to speak up and perceived organizational relevance. The same pattern was found in Study 2, a fully randomized experiment involving 891 United States-based workers participating in an immersive managerial simulation. With this dissertation, I demonstrate that coalition diversity holds signaling value to potential endorsers, irrespective of any internal, functional value such diversity may bring to the coalition itself through a pooling of skills and resources. I additionally highlight that advocating for gender equity is a political process and women should enlist men as allies to better sell the issue within organizations.Item Can voice harm team performance?: The role of relationship conflict and trust(2018) Baker, Bradley Edward; Chen, Gilad; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite research substantiating the idea that when team members voice ideas and suggestions their team can perform better, some scholars have warned that voice can also harm team performance. Yet, our understanding of when, why, and how voice can undermine team functioning is still limited. Attempting to address these research gaps, I integrate and build on threat rigidity theory and regulatory focus theory to propose that the reason why voice has the potential to undermine team performance is because it can trigger relationship conflict – and that prohibitive voice, as compared to promotive voice, has a greater potential to trigger relationship conflict, especially when team trust is low. I test this theory using a time-lagged, laboratory study with 87 teams, as well as a time-lagged, multi-source field study with 49 teams of U.S. Air Force officers. Across studies, I largely do not find support for my hypotheses. For example, opposite of my predictions, it appears that both promotive and prohibitive voice have either a non-significant or negative effect on relationship conflict; however, I find partial support for the hypothesis that trust moderates the relationship between prohibitive voice and relationship conflict. Despite these mixed findings, this research contributes to the voice, teams, relationship conflict, and trust literatures by empirically investigating whether voice can undermine team performance.Item Stuck in a state of power imbalance? Unpacking the answers on why, when, and how followers challenge the state of power-dependence with their leaders(2017) Wee, Elijah Xun Ming; Liao, Hui; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Power imbalance exists in most leader-follower dyads. Because of their advantageous organizational positions, leaders generally have more power over their followers. The dominant perspective suggests that the follower is “stuck” in this state of power imbalance and is resigned to its negative consequences. However, research also suggests that power can shift from one party to another in today’s workplace. This perspective advocates for a dynamic view of power among individuals in the workplace. Unfortunately, this phenomenon of power in the leader-follower dyad has not been examined in greater detail, specifically in terms of when and how the less powerful party, the follower, may influence the power balance with the leader. With the goal to reconcile the conflicting narrative on the nature of power, my dissertation comprises of three interrelated essays to examine this dynamic perspective of power in the leader-follower dyad. In Essay 1, I answer the theoretical question of why the follower is motivated to change the state of power imbalance in the dyad by proposing a dependency-risk appraisal model. I then address when and how the follower resolves the tension between follower’s self-protection and connectedness concerns. In addition, I develop a typology of coping strategies, labeled as balancing operations, for the follower to influence the power dynamics. In Essay 2, I test the effects of balancing operations on interpersonal dynamics using a three-wave panel field design. Specifically, I highlight how certain types of balancing operations will empower the follower to break the spiral of abusive behaviors over time and encourage the leader’s effort to seek reconciliation. In Essay 3, I answer when the success of coalition formation is enhanced. Through two high-involvement laboratory studies, I explain why follower’s political skill is a critical personal attribute that enhances the efficacy of balancing operations.Item Too Busy to Be Fair? The Effect of Managers’ Perceived Workload on Their Core Technical Performance and Justice Rule Adherence(2016) Sherf, Elad Netanel; Venkataramani, Vijaya; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Despite the organizational benefits of treating employees fairly, both anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that managers do not behave fairly towards their employees in a consistent manner. As treating employees fairly takes up personal resources such as time, effort, and attention, I argue that when managers face high workloads (i.e., high amounts of work and time pressure), they are unable to devote such personal resources to effectively meet both core technical task requirements and treat employees fairly. I propose that in general, managers tend to view their core technical task performance as more important than being fair in their dealings with employees; as a result, when faced with high workloads, they tend to prioritize the former at the expense of the latter. I also propose that managerial fairness will suffer more as a result of heightened workloads than will core technical task performance, unless managers perceive their organization to explicitly reward fair treatment of employees. I find support for my hypotheses across three studies: two experimental studies (with online participants and students respectively) and one field study of managers from a variety of organizations. I discuss the implications of studying fairness in the wider context of managers’ complex role in organizations to the fairness and managerial work demands literatures.Item Effects sparked by shining stars: Consequences earned and posed by high performers at work(2014) Campbell, Elizabeth Margaret; Liao, Hui; Bartol, Kathryn M; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Organizations tend to follow two common practices. First, they seek out and recruit the best and the brightest, with the assumption that these high performers create value and drive success within the organization. Second, they increasingly rely upon workgroups and teams to accomplish organizational goals. Though each practice alone has merit, their interaction seems problematic. Organizational leaders invest substantial resources to recruit standouts, yet also want high performers to seamlessly embed within, and contribute to, workgroups and teams. I am intrigued to consider several puzzles that seem to exist where these trends intersect. How are high performers received by peers their workgroup? How do high performers influence the motivation of their teammates? What impact will high performers have on team collaboration and coordination? This dissertation seeks to address these and related questions. In three essays, I develop a theory of consequences of outperformance, focusing on implications for the high performer, his or her peers, and the team as a whole. In Essay 1, I offer a theoretical and empirical account of how high performers are socially treated by their peers. I identify prosocial (i.e., other-oriented) characteristics of the high performer and of the social environment that can mitigate unfavorable social behaviors from peers. In Essay 2, I examine how the presence of a high performer affects the proactive motivation and performance of lower-performing teammates. I also explore individual characteristics that make teammate motivation more or less susceptible to the presence of a high performer. In Essay 3, I explore how the composition of members' past performance impacts team processes. I argue that steeper differences in performance histories galvanize social order, which can facilitate coordination among members yet reduce dynamic collaboration--both of which are critical to team innovation. Using a multi-method approach, I examine these hypotheses using field studies, individual experiments, and team simulations.Item ADMIRATION AND ENVY AS AN IMPETUS: JOINT EFFECTS OF LEADER-MEMBER EXCHANGE DIFFERENTIATION AND GROUP INCENTIVE PAY ON GROUP AFFECTIVE CLIMATES, COORDINATION, AND PERFORMANCE(2014) Han, Joo Hun; Liao, Hui; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Drawing upon cognitive appraisal theory of emotions in conjunction with incentive pay research, I examine the mechanisms and boundary conditions for the effects of group leaders' differentiated development of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship on group coordination and performance. I propose that it is when groups receive a higher average proportion of group, as opposed to individual, incentive pay that LMX differentiation is more likely to foster group climate of admiration, rather than envy, which then enhances group coordination and subsequent performance. Using data on 828 sales groups in a major Chinese retailer, I find evidence that groups' use of group, rather than individual or hybrid (i.e., [1] incentive pay based on individual and group performance or [2] incentive pay based on individual, group, and store performance), incentive pay with a higher average proportion in total pay facilitated LMX differentiation to improve group coordination by cultivating group admiration climate. Also, group, as opposed to individual or hybrid, incentive pay buffered the negative effects of group envy climate on group coordination. Lastly, it was found that group coordination predicted groups' six-month lagged sales performance above and beyond prior sales performance. Several theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Item Redefining multidisciplinary teams: An institutional approach(2012) Paik, Yonjeong; Seo, Myeong-Gu; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Multidisciplinary teams, of which members are from different knowledge domains or disciplines, have been studied mostly in the context of cognitive diversity. However, diversityfocused approach may be missing some potential barriers to successful performance of individuals in multidisciplinary teams. Relying on institutional theory for a theoretical framework, I conceptualize two of such barriers: disciplinary embeddedness, or the extent to which an individual is cognitively, affectively and normatively influenced by her discipline, and disciplinary hierarchy, or the degree of perceived status differences among disciplines in the team. Further, I develop a multilevel model of their effects on team member performance in multidisciplinary teams. In the model, it is proposed that individual voice behavior and openness to voice may mediate the negative effects of the two barriers. In addition, I suggest that individual commitment to the team and team leader attributes such as disciplinary background breadth and transformational leadership may mitigate these negative effects. I test the proposed model using a data set from 138 team members in 23 multidisciplinary research teams at a large national research institute in South Korea. I find that disciplinary embeddedness and hierarchy indeed interrupt with team member performance. Additionally, openness to voice and voice behavior are found to be a mediator for the effect of disciplinary embeddedness and hierarchy, respectively. Leader disciplinary background breadth weakens the negative effect of disciplinary hierarchy on voice behavior.Item Transferring social capital from individual to team: An examination of moderators and relationships to innovative performance(2012) Edinger, Suzanne; Tesluk, Paul E; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation, I explore the relationships between individual social capital, team social capital, and team innovative performance. The association between personal and group social capital is underexplored (Burt, 2000; Kilduff & Krackhardt, 2008), and is important to investigate so that we may improve our knowledge of how social capital transfers from individuals to their teams in ways that promote team innovation. I hope to contribute to the literature on social capital in teams in three important ways. Within team-based settings with high innovation requirements, I first propose that the structural bridging social capital (i.e., ties outside the team) of team members is an important predictor of the team's structural bridging social capital. Second, transferring social capital from the individual to team level, I suggest that a team member's sharing of his/her bridging social capital resources is influenced by relational, cognitive, and task components, including group identification, dyadic trust, team member exchange, and shared vision. Finally, I investigate the role of transactive memory systems and bonding social capital (i.e., ties inside the team) in explaining the relationship between team structural bridging social capital and team innovative performance. Study participants were 263 members of 38 project teams in the merchandising displays division of a large paperboard and packaging manufacturer in the United States. I find that individual bridging social capital predicts team structural bridging social capital. Additionally, psychological identification with team, psychological identification with organization, team member exchange, and shared vision moderate the relationship between individual and team structural social capital. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for social capital and team innovative performance theory and practice.Item Passing It Forward: Intervening and Moderating Mechanisms in the Supportive Leadership Cascading Process(2011) Sharma, Payal Nangia; Chen, Gilad; Business and Management: Management & Organization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Using survey data collected from enlisted soldiers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) nested in platoons in the U.S. Army, my dissertation examines intervening and moderating mechanisms in the cascading process of supportive leadership. Typically cascading studies focus on influence processes occurring in dyadic settings, neglect to consider boundary conditions, and utilize a group mean approach to analyzing the phenomenon. In my study, however, I find support for a conditional indirect effect of cascading supportive leadership at the group level, such that supportive leadership by groups of upper-level leaders (officers) promotes social cohesion for groups of lower-level leaders (NCOs) under high levels of combat exposure. In turn, lower-level social cohesion is positively linked with supportive leadership by groups of leaders at lower organizational levels. In addition, analyses using within-unit standard deviations of the substantive measures (i.e., strength) indicate that combat exposure strength moderates the relationship between upper-level supportive leadership strength and lower-level social cohesion strength, such that the positive relationship is stronger when combat exposure strength is higher (i.e., when within-unit standard deviation in combat exposure is lower).