Speaker:

Miss Jiaqing SUN, Kathy
Ph.D. Candidate of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Liautaud Graduate School of Business
University of Illinois at Chicago

Abstract:

Drawing upon social comparison theory, we tested a model in the investigation of potential coworker negative reactions toward employees with high proactive personality. We theorized that a focal employee’s proactive personality is positively related with his or her high relative standings in the group, which in turn exposes him or her being the target of coworker envy. This may then reduce the focal employee’s received help from coworkers and give rise to coworker social undermining. We further reasoned that employee prosocial motivation moderates the serial mediated relationships. Our hypotheses were generally supported in three field studies involving a total of 1069 employees nested within 223 groups. Proactive personality was negatively and indirectly related to received help from coworkers, via relative leader–member exchange (RLMX) and relative job performance, and then via being envied by coworkers (Study 1). Results also generally supported the positive and indirect effect of proactive personality on being socially undermined by coworkers via the same set of sequential mediators (e.g., RLMX and then being envied, Study 2). The indirect effects of proactive personality on coworker helping and undermining (e.g., via relative job performance and being envied by coworkers) were only significant when employees’ prosocial motivation was low (Study 3). This research contributes to a more complete and balanced theorization of the influences of proactive personality in organizations.

Speaker:

Dr. Wei Guo
Assistant Professor
Department of Management & Marketing
Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract:

This research examines the influence of executives’ verbal communications on the divergence of investors’ opinions. Prior research has shown that publicly available information about a company increases investors’ ability to assess the company’s fundamental value and reduces differences in investors’ valuations. Hence, opinions of investors converge (diverge) when differences of opinion decrease (increase) with more (less) publicly available information. Whether and to what extent the manner in which executives deliver their talks influences investor opinion divergence remains unexplored. Focusing on the spontaneity of talks delivered by executives, we argue that greater spontaneity increases the chances of inadvertent information disclosure to investors and hence is negatively associated with investor opinion divergence. We also argue that the effect of talk spontaneity on investors’ opinion divergence will be amplified when investors have a greater demand for information (as would be the case for firms with higher earnings uncertainty), but the opposite will be true if there are other reliable sources of information (as would be the case for firms covered by more analysts). Using a unique research design and second-by-second intraday stock trading data from 10,642 conference calls of publicly listed firms between 2002 and 2012, we found strong support of our predictions.

Speaker:

Professor Daphne W. Yiu
Department of Management
Faculty of Business Administration
Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract:

We advocate that public sentiment, a cognitive-normative and an affective informal institution, plays a prominent role when formal institutions advance. With improved information dissemination and socialization that instills generalized morality, and collective instincts and emotions, public sentiment can be mobilized quickly and exert powerful institutional pressure on MNCs. Using the public thermostat analogy, we posit that MNC adjusts the levels of foreign acquisition ownership according to host country’s public sentiment. Using a sample of 413 acquisition deals from 22 foreign countries into China during 2010 and 2017 and a sentiment analysis of 100,902 blog posts, we find that host country’s public sentiment toward the acquiring firm’s home country is positively related to acquisition ownership levels, and moderates the effects of host region’s marketization levels.

Speaker:

Ms. Dalee Yoon
Ph.D. Candidate in Management
Krannert School of Management
Purdue University

Abstract:

Drawing from the literature on the entrepreneurial threshold, we develop a theory of how hybrid entrepreneurship may affect the financing and commercialization of an entrepreneurial activity. The central premise is that hybrid entrepreneurs will have a lower entrepreneurial threshold than full-time entrepreneurs, which will subsequently affect the likelihood of achieving their financing and commercialization goals. On the one hand, hybrid entrepreneurs are expected initially to have a lower entrepreneurial threshold, which may increase the likelihood of success in achieving a financing goal. Accordingly, we hypothesize that the higher financing success rates of hybrid entrepreneurs are mitigated by lower entrepreneurial thresholds, which are shaped by expected returns that are less risky and more reasonable. On the other hand, we argue that, due to their lower entrepreneurial thresholds, hybrid entrepreneurs will simultaneously have a lower likelihood of success in achieving a commercialization goal. We found strong support for our arguments in the context of crowdfunding projects in the video game category over the period of 2009-2012. Our findings illustrate that entrepreneurial success may be better understood by considering the heterogeneity in the entrepreneurial threshold in relation to the entrepreneurs’ performance.

Speaker:

Mr. Jingxian YAO
PhD Candidate
Department of Management and Organisation
National University of Singapore

The Implications of Voice Behavior on Leaders and Voicing Employees

ABSTRACT

While the benefits of employee voice for organizations have been widely documented, we know little about how voice may impact leaders and employees themselves. In this talk, I present two papers that examine the impact of voice on leaders and voicing employees, respectively, and demonstrate why such impact may be more complex than it seems.

Conventional wisdom suggests that leaders should embrace voice given the benefits it brings; however, leaders may actually resist voice since it signals dissatisfaction with the status quo and throws doubts on effective leadership. In the first paper, I draw upon self-enhancement theory and research on work roles to propose that leaders may respond adversely to voice. Specifically, I posit that employee prohibitive voice (but not promotive voice) harms leader self-enhancement and triggers leader perceived threat. Such threat perceptions, in turn, drive leader incivility instigation. Furthermore, I examine how employee emotional intelligence weakens the relationship between voice and leader perceived threat. A multi-wave, multi-source field study and a scenario-based experimental study provided strong support for the hypotheses.

In the second paper, I integrate the dual nature of voice (i.e., upward influence and contradiction against the status quo) and conservation of resources theory to conceptualize voice as a mixed blessing for voicing employees. On one hand, engaging in voice behavior may heighten perceived influence at work, which is resource-generating and thus beneficial for employee work outcomes and well-being. On the other hand, voice may induce anxiety about upsetting the leader, which is resource-depleting and thus detrimental. Besides, I examine how employee regulatory focus and leader-member exchange play a role in the impact of voice. A study using experience sampling methodology across 10 consecutive workdays was conducted to test the hypotheses.

Speaker:

Miss Huisi LI
Ph.D. Candidate of Management and Organizations (Johnson School of Management)
Department of Management & Entrepreneurship
Cornell University

Abstract:

Status incongruence, in which traditional characteristics of status (e.g., age, education, and tenure) associated with supervisor and subordinate roles are reversed (i.e., the supervisor is younger, less-educated, and of shorter tenure than the subordinate) is increasingly prevalent. We examine how status (in)congruence interacts with supervisors’ competence to influence subordinates’ perceptions of promotion system fairness and their subsequent work motivation. Grounded in system justification theory, we found that when the supervisor was incompetent as opposed to competent, status congruence was more likely to serve as a basis of system justification and thus enhance the perceived fairness of the promotion system (Studies 1-2). Moreover, this interaction was stronger among subordinates who expereienced low power, a known elicitor of people’s system justification motivation (Study 3). In further support of the system justification mechanism, in Study 4, in which the supervisor always was incompetent, status (in)congruence influenced the fairness perceptions of low-power but not high-power subordinates. Perceptions of promotion system fairness were positively related to work motivation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Speaker:

Mr. Albert Minkyu Ahn
Ph.D. Candidate in Strategy
Paul Merage School of Business
University of California, Irvine

Abstract:

Activist hedge funds have been increasingly successful at gaining board representation in firms they target. Yet, we know little as to whether activist hedge fund appointed directors can influence these firms. I propose that activist hedge fund appointed directors will be able to influence the corporate strategy of firms that they target. Specifically, I investigate and find that activist hedge fund board representation in target firms is more likely to lead to divestitures and acquisitions than target firms without activist hedge fund board representation. This paper contributes to understanding activist hedge funds and the role they play in influencing the corporate strategy of firms in which they gain board representation.

Speaker:

Miss Anjier Chen
Ph.D. Candidate of Business Administration, Concentration: Organizational Behavior
Department of Management and Organization
Smeal College of Business
The Pennsylvania State University

Abstract:

Despite the importance of ethical voice (i.e., speaking up about ethical issues in the workplace) for promoting organizational integrity and social responsibility, employees are fearful of potential negative reactions from colleagues and managers. Literatures on a few forms of ethical voice (i.e., whistle-blowing, peer reporting of unethical behavior, and moral objection) have traditionally emphasized negative observer reactions to ethical voice. Yet, anecdotes and research on moral psychology imply potential positive reactions to ethical voice. I draw on regulatory focus theory and the moral psychology literature to better understand when and why observers react positively to coworker ethical voice (i.e., increased liking, trust, status evaluation of the ethical voicer and support of the ethical voice behavior). Specifically, I propose that when voicers use promotion moral framing, emphasizing the moral ideal goals in their communication, ethical voice activates the observer’s promotion moral system and elicits moral elevation, a positive moral emotion. Moral elevation subsequently leads to positive observer reactions to ethical voice. I further propose that this positive effect is also dependent on the extent to which the ethical voice behavior is salient. Those propositions are largely supported by results of a two-wave critical incident survey with full-time employees across various industries. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Speaker:

Mr. Youngduk Lee
Ph. D. Candidate of Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Department of Management & Entrepreneurship
Kelley School of Business
Indiana University

Abstract:

Because psychological contract breach is a subjective perception, individual differences should play an important role in understanding perceptions of breach. However, psychological contract breach studies have often focused on situational antecedents, with few directly investigating the role of individual differences. Among the few that investigate individual differences, there is inconsistency in selection of individual differences and often conflicting results. Thus, despite the intuitive link with individual differences, our knowledge of these relationships is piecemeal and conflicting. Based on the situation construal model, we hypothesize that individual differences in personality, trait affect, and equity sensitivity influence employees’ construal of events related to their psychological contracts, and thus impact breach perceptions. Further, drawing on affective events theory, we highlight counterproductive work behavior (CWB) as an outcome of breach. Meta-analyses of the relationships between individual differences, breach, and CWB; and meta-analytic path analyses based on the results, provide support for our mediation model. Individual differences predict breach perceptions (R =.34) and the combination of individual differences and breach perceptions strongly predict CWB (R=.62). This advances understanding of breach perceptions by highlighting the impact of individual differences and the role that breach perceptions play in explaining why individual differences are related to CWB.

Speaker:

Dr. Fabrice Lumineau
Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Krannert School of Management
Purdue University

Abstract:

We extend the management literature on contractual governance with an asymmetric view of contract design that highlights the strategic implications of selectively excluding specific contractual rights from contracts. Specifically, we consider the choice of contract scope as an alternative way to address exchange hazards. We suggest that when facing exchange hazards, a firm may fortify its own protection not only by bolstering its own contract scope but also by narrowing the contract scope of its partner. The results from a study of disclosed documents and contracts of 136 franchise systems in the U.S. largely support our arguments.