You may use search box just below and to the right to search for any text or any name.
You may search directly for a 5-digit submission number.
To search for a particular session number, enter the session number followed by “:”, e.g., “123:” (without the quotes).
Distributed work arrangements - including hybrid and remote work - offer workers around the world choice in their work location, which should ostensibly promote equity and inclusion. However, numerous challenges may arise for equity and inclusion as organizations and their employees navigate the narratives, structures, and implications of distributed work choices. In this symposium, we seek to separate narrative from fact around the current trends in distributed work and to understand exactly how hybrid and remote work can be navigated to maintain (and ideally foster) equity and inclusion in organizations. The five papers in this symposium collectively explore the emergence of prevailing narratives around remote and hybrid work, challenge existing narratives that remote and hybrid work are a “double-edged sword” for women and minorities, and seek to understand how, when, and why hybrid work can be the “best of both worlds” for diverse teams. Our discussant, Dr. Pamela Hinds, a leading scholar in the study of distributed work, will close our symposium by synthesizing the presented papers and facilitating a discussion with the audience regarding the future directions for this important topic. Through this symposium, we aim to generate new insights about how scholars can continue to study and improve the research on equity and inclusion within distributed work arrangements.
In two- or multi-sided platform ecosystems, the platform owner governs value generation between and for multiple groups of participants, such as users and complementors, and influences whether and how these ecosystems grow. Most prior research examined the impact of formal mechanisms (like application programming interfaces or software development kits) of these platform strategies, paying little attention to relational and informal factors like collaborative governance with the involvement of complementors, differences between platform ownership structures, and the context of industry or country-level differences. Our symposium is devoted to shed light on this new frontier in platform research. By drawing upon multiple methodologies and studying platform markets across countries, we aim to advance our understanding of the relational and informal side of platform strategy.
Literature on decolonizing management and organization (MOS) studies has become a hot topic in our discipline (i.e., Allen & Girei, 2023; Pal et al., 2022; Yousfi, 2021). As scholars have recognized a Western-centric bias, fostering one-sided knowledge outputs incommensurate with other cultural contexts (Banerjee, 2021; Filatotchev et al., 2021), there has been an increased call to enhance indigenous theorizing (Bothello et al., 2019; Bruton et al., 2021; Salmon et al., 2023). However, decolonizing our discipline is more than overcoming a so-called WEIRD bias – the narrow research focus on and with actors from countries with a Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic background (Henrich et al., 2010). Instead, decolonizing MOS requires serious “emancipatory” steps to overcome institutional hurdles that hamper the heterogenization of knowledge creation (Banerjee, 2021). Further reflections and new solutions on the setup of journals (Barros & Alcadipani, 2022; Zoogah et al., forthcoming), international conferences (Kondayya et al., forthcoming), or business schools (Woods et al., 2022) are needed to include previously unheard voices in the mainstream literature. What decolonizing means in academia and what it is not is thus a topic that concerns all management scholars (Abdelnour, 2022). Particularly if we take our call seriously to create knowledge for addressing current and future grand challenges (George et al., 2016; Kunisch et al., 2023). Spaces for voices and theories on sustainable solutions beyond Western Enlightenment ideals are thus needed (Banerjee & Arjaliès, 2021). Hence, decolonizing MOS requires profound and deepened reflections from different viewpoints: i) taking stock of existing literature on the topic to identify unaddressed gaps, ii) establishing a common understanding of why to decolonize our discipline, iii) creating ideas of how to do this as an individual scholar in the broader system of knowledge creation, iv) reflect on what institutions in which areas of academia need to be reimagined, v) and finally launch initiatives and start actions (beyond writing about the topic) that can seriously impact and change our academic world. The presenter symposium wants to shed light on these issues through the presentation and subsequent discussion of five articles.
Although work-family researchers have made meaningful progress in understanding how parental and pregnancy experiences affect work, little has been done to understand the affects that reproductive health issues, including infertility, IVF, and miscarriage, have on employees at work. This symposium brings together four insightful empirical studies that examine the complex interplay between employees’ reproductive challenges and their professional lives. In doing so, this symposium begins an important and much-needed dialogue on the challenges that these hardships present to employees and the ways that they spillover into the work domain. By highlighting the need for innovative organizational policies and practices that are more inclusive of and supportive towards employees confronted with these challenges, this symposium strongly aligns itself with the Academy of Management’s 2024 conference theme of “Innovating for the Future: Policy, Purpose, and Organizations.
This symposium is composed of the four 2023 SHRM Foundation Dissertation Award winners’ presentations based on their dissertations: "A Role Theory Perspective of Supervisors’ Diverging Responses to Employee Voice About Mental Health" presented by Nathan Black; "All the Time, All at Once: A Person-Centered Analysis of Subjective Temporal Fit" presented by Kristina Tirol-Carmody; "How Do Attitudinal Expressions Toward Occupations Affect Employees? Introducing Expressed Occupationalism and Considering its Identity Implications" presented by Pascale Haworth Frické; and, "Parenting Interruptions at Work: A Mixed Methods Investigation" presented by Mahira Ganster.
Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) stands at the intersection of Information Technology (IT) and Human Resource Management (HRM), shaping the way organizations manage their human capital. The evolution of e-HRM has been profoundly influenced by advancements in technology, defining a new era in how HR practices are carried out within the organizations. Over the past few decades, e-HRM has become an essential component in effectively supporting organizational processes through various HR practices such as recruitment, selection, training, and more (Bissola & Imperatori, 2013; Shah et al., 2020). The concept of e-HRM encompasses the strategic use of web-based technologies to implement HRM policies and practices, thereby improving HRM effectiveness and efficiency (Bondarouk, et. al., 2017). It comprises operational, relational, and transformational practices, each serving a distinct purpose in the HRM landscape (Bondarouk, et. al., 2017). Digital tools and platforms for supporting human resources include HR information systems (HRIS), employee self-service portals, data analytics, and various online communication channels. These tools contribute to the automation and integration of human resource management processes to make them more easily accessible and responsive (Sharma & Aggarwal, 2018). Because e-HRM is evolving rapidly, traditional practices are replaced with a more employee-centric approach. The purpose of this symposium is to explore the current discourse on the role of e-HRM in organizations. Fitting with the conference theme of “Innovating for the Future – Policy, Purpose, and Organizations” this collection of papers explores different ways to leverage technology for improving recruitment, well-being and retention of employees. By looking at the different aspects of human resource management, this symposium offers an integrative perspective on the applications of technology for improving organizational performance and employee experience.
This symposium features four papers that explore the role of race in negotiations. The studies utilize diverse methodologies and data sets to demonstrate gaps in negotiation propensity and outcomes, both between and within racial groups; the nuanced underlying mechanisms through which these gaps manifest, such as through differential employer assessment across racial groups; and initial evidence for strategies that may mitigate racial disparities in negotiation experiences. The goals of this symposium are to highlight ongoing research in the under- studied area of race and negotiations, and advance diversity and negotiations scholarship by illuminating the ways in which racial identity influences multiple stages of the negotiation process.
The interactions between newcomers and insiders are crucial for socialization and organizational functioning. These interactions contribute to knowledge sharing, relationship building, identity formation, anxiety reduction, and competence development. Despite previous research delving into various facets of social interactions in newcomer socialization, challenges persist in understanding how the process unfolds and effectively harnessing their organizational benefits. Taken together, the presentations in this symposium offer critical insights to researchers and practitioners on how to effectively evaluate social interactions during socialization and carefully evaluate the pros and cons of a variety of social interactions among newcomers, leaders, and peers. This symposium presents a compelling exploration of the dynamics of social interactions during the socialization process within organizations. It is a platform where academic scholars and practitioners converge to dissect and understand the complexities of how newcomers integrate into new work environments. This integration process is critical not only for the newcomer’s success but also for the overall health and effectiveness of the organization.
In any group or organization, conflicts of interest can arise between what serves the collective’s interests and what benefits each individual member (e.g., Evans, Hendron, & Oldroyd, 2015). This tension between the individual and the collective may emerge in the realm of social capital returns (Ibarra, Kilduff & Tsai, 2005). For example, individuals might erode the social capital of the whole community as they strive to maximize their own network benefits. Similarly, the community might prosper at the expense of individuals’ social capital. Although prior research in social networks has suggested the potential dilemmas arising from the juxtaposition of individual and communal social capital, empirical evidence concerning these dilemmas has been limited. Most social network studies concentrate on individual ego networks and their impact on the focal individual, overlooking their influence on the surrounding network community. This symposium presents four lines of research, each highlighting promising frontiers of social network research at the intersection of the individual and the collective. The first paper examines the tensions that arise in bowtie structures as brokers between cohesive groups seek advantage. The paper poses the question as to the relative outcomes for individuals and groups with respect to social capital and creativity. In the second paper, the focus shifts to cross-team social interactions, revealing an unexpected tradeoff. Whereas these interactions are commonly perceived as beneficial for work teams, the paper reveals how they can cause burnout to boundary spanners due to emotional contagion. The third paper investigates how brokers within a competition network are likely to be disadvantaged if their competitors join forces with each other rather than engage in competition with each other. The fourth paper examines the challenges faced by racial and ethnic minorities within social networks. It uncovers a dilemma between individual networking efforts and the collective network structures and dynamics that hinder or facilitate individual success.
As research on AI – much like AI itself – is in its infancy, it is imperative that scholars take up intentional research investigating the impact, presence, and attitudes toward AI at work. This presenter symposium meets this goal head-on and delves into the AOM 2024 theme: Innovating for the Future by investigating factors that managers and leaders should consider in the adoption of AI.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more employees have switched to working remotely, and consequently, interest in remote/hybrid work has been rapidly raised and studied by numerous scholars (for reference, see; Gajendran & Harrison, 2007). Despite the heightened interest in remote work, the effect of remote/hybrid work on work outcomes relies heavily on increased autonomy and efficiency (e.g., Bailey & Kurland, 2002; Shamir & Salomon, 1985), with less interest in the effect it has on workplace relationships. Yet, fostering and maintaining good relationships is crucial at work, making us question why this area or research had been neglected previously. Thus, the purpose of this symposium is to explore the nature of remote/hybrid work with a relational perspective, such as social interaction and communication, and identify detrimental effects of remote/hybrid work. First, Gajendran and Her examine how the lack of social interaction of remote workers have less opportunity to build shared cognition with their supervisor and the negative impact can be mitigated by a proactive followership behavior (Manage Your Boss). Second, Tedone, Mesmer- Magnus, and Viswesvaran also point out the lack of in-person engagement as an antecedent of loneliness for remote workers and emphasize the importance of interaction among coworkers. Third, Paik, Wang, and Lee discuss how interpersonal interaction and communication discrepancy influence the OCB of remote/hybrid workers. Lastly, Keating, Maupin, and Koko suggest a new theoretical perspective on the ambiguity of computer-mediated communication by introducing three elements: formatting, punctuation, emoticons. The papers in this symposium demonstrate how remote/hybrid work may affect relationships of remote workers and how this ultimately influences the work outcomes of remote/hybrid workers.
There are now more than 60.9 million Latinx-identified individuals in the U.S., making up more than 18.5% of the population, and trending to be approximately 30% by 2050. Yet this demographic trend is not necessarily top of mind in scholarship on management, organizations, and work. Latinx people in the U.S. are already making important contributions to American society; whether in agriculture—laboring in fields picking fruits and vegetables, as essential workers in healthcare, as entrepreneurs, as educators, as STEM or business professionals, and in the boardroom. This reality calls for greater urgency in generating research and scholarship to meet the moment and contribute to understanding this important demographic and cultural group; and as importantly to influence forward-thinking initiatives, shaping workplaces that not only attract Latinx talent but also cater to their unique needs and priorities, ultimately fostering a more innovative and diverse work environment for the future. Our aim in this symposium is to continue to generate scholarship that will assist organizations to develop strategies for attracting, engaging, and retaining Latinx people, in ways that contribute to equality, diversity, and inclusion. It will also provide evidence and perspectives to help Latinx individuals with strategies for navigating structural barriers in organizations, attaining career success, and thriving in the process. This area of inquiry focuses on issues such as the intersectionality of multiple Latinx identities to help identify barriers Latinx people face in employment and to locate ways to mitigate, remove, or overcome these barriers. It addresses areas of vitality, resilience, and possibility, even in the face of obstacles; as well as ways in which Latinx people are sustaining and developing cultural expression and identity at work and supporting collective ways of fostering more inclusion and equity in organizations and society.
In an era of significant societal challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss, how do we best tackle these complex issues? This symposium presents a reevaluation of traditional methods, spotlighting nuanced strategies in the realm of grand challenges (GCs). Addressing gaps in current GC literature, our symposium uniquely balances centralized, public coordination with decentralized, market-driven competition. Our set of five papers explore the microfoundations of societal problem-solving, traditionally depicted as a monolithic goal yet demanding systematic unpacking. Our inquiry of organizational modes spans from the roles of mission-oriented R&D programs, public-private partnerships to innovation tournaments, in the face of environmental and regulatory uncertainties. Our papers also employ diverse cutting-edge methods, including abductive reasoning, machine learning, and content analysis. This approach encourages the exploration of novel solutions to complex problems, particularly valuable in uncertain scenarios where not all variables are observable, and creative, interdisciplinary thinking is required. We examine a variety of high-risk, high-tech industries such as radar, autonomous vehicles, space exploration, carbon capture, and Covid testing. Challenging the prevailing emphasis on macro-level coordination, we unveil the transformative impact of competition and laissez-faire approaches. These studies collectively investigate how nuanced communication, regulatory dynamics, and collaborative efforts can reshape our understanding of GCs, offering innovative solutions and strategic insights. Join us to delve into the multifaceted world of GCs, where innovative approaches redefine societal problem-solving. This symposium is an invitation to rethink, rediscover, and respond to the most pressing challenges of our time with fresh perspectives and groundbreaking research methods.
This symposium serves as a showcase for existing research, with a specific focus on mechanisms for navigating the social aspects of future manufacturing. Specifically, these mechanisms can help organizations and industries to coordinate and leverage diverse resources, and develop initiatives aimed at realigning the demand and supply of skills and roles for the future. The first two papers explore diverse potential visions of future work in manufacturing, investigating how digital manufacturing may reshape the job dynamics in the sector. The third paper systematically reviews the use of socio-technical scenario tools as a mechanism to engage stakeholders in envisioning future scenarios for work processes and roles, along with developing action plans for transformative change. In the fourth paper, the exploration shifts to coworking spaces as a mechanism for promoting cross-skills fertilization. Recognizing the imperative for diverse skill sets in upcoming manufacturing roles, this paper investigates how coworking spaces can facilitate the exchange of knowledge and collaboration within and across organizations in the manufacturing sector.
The contribution of Edgar H. Schein (1928-2023), to the field of management, organization studies, and applied behavioral science is both extensive and deep. For over seventy years he creatively and systematically shaped theory and practice in areas such as: organization development and change, career dynamics, the cultural dynamics of complex systems, leadership, process consultation, and the clinical inquiry/research paradigm. Following his passing on 23rd January 2023, the proposed symposium wis intended to examine and explore the way Ed’s Schein’s seminal work informs the future of the field. We proffer that “Exploring Ed Schein’s legacy and enduring future” is congruent with the 2024 meeting’s theme of Innovating for the Future.
Progress toward workplace diversity and inclusion has been slow and there is a pressing need to identify innovative organizational practices that can support attraction and engagement of diverse employees. In this symposium, we investigate how exceptional organizations might ‘think outside the box’ to find innovative ways to support employee diversity. We focus on organizations in emerging sectors like space startups, space simulation missions. With less pressure to conform to industry norms, these organizations have the latitude to push boundaries and incubate creative ways to attract and engage a diverse workforce. We also highlight organizations in more mature sectors that recruit atypical employees and adopt innovative benefits. By focusing on the exceptions who break the usual rules, our symposium offers inspiring examples of organizations finding innovative ways to address diversity and inclusion at work. But our symposium also delivers cautionary lessons, by highlighting some unanticipated consequences of organizational diversity and inclusion practices. Two presentations (Maslikowska et al. and Perera et al.) examine diversity and inclusion practices in the emerging space sector. Two presentations investigate how high-tech organizations are attracting and engaging women (Srinivasan et al.) and racial minority employees (Fugere & Lempiälä) in a sector traditionally dominated by White men. The final two presentations (Bertola et al. and Gruda et al.) examine the complex consequences of diversity and inclusion activities across sectors (e.g., fertility treatment services, biotech, retail, healthcare, IT, finance, business services).
The recent increase in role transitions both within and beyond organizational boundaries necessitates a nuanced understanding and effective management of these movements for individual and organizational success. This symposium is anchored in research on role transitions and explores diverse perspectives on employee transitions, featuring four papers that investigate the complexity and strategy needed to manage these transitions. The first two papers delve into employees' active role in shaping their mobility, emphasizing the job-seeking strategies within organizations and likelihood of boomeranging back to an organization. The second two papers shift the focus to organizational management of employee transitions, exploring restraints and support for mobility through one paper on post-employment restrictive covenants and another paper on a structured offboarding programs. J.R. Keller, an esteemed discussant, will integrate themes and takeaways, offering valuable insights for research on employee transitions within and beyond organizational boundaries. This symposium aims to inform both researchers and practitioners, fostering a deeper understanding of the intricacies of managing individual role transitions and providing practical implications for talent management in dynamic organizational environments.
Existing organizational research addresses various paths to gaining status for individuals, groups and organizations. In light of existing work, the purpose of this symposium is three-fold. First we highlight the importance of acknowledging the differences in status associated with different social or demographic categories, and how this shapes status attainment particularly for those in lower status demographic categories. Second, we consider the interplay between individual and group-level status and the intragroup dynamics that arise when high achieving individuals are members of low status groups. Third we consider how status may be attained outside of the well-established prestige versus dominance dichotomy. Overall, the projects in this symposium seek to enrich our insight into how to gain status or overcome perceptions of holding low status.
A recent slew of scholarship in organizational psychology and management journals on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in human resource management (HRM) is evidence of its growing importance in theory and practice (e.g., Campion & Campion, 2023; Campion et al., 2023; Fan et al., 2023; Hernandez et al., 2023; Hickman et al., 2022; Koenig et al., 2023; Landers et al., 2023; Speer et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2023). Advancements such as large language models (LLMs; FALCON, GPT, LLaMa, Bard, Claude, etc.) have made the use of AI more accessible to non-data scientists and enabled widespread exploration of how to leverage these tools at work. While this is an exciting development, as researchers in the selection space, it is our responsibility to be able to understand and explain how we arrive at employment-related decisions powered by AI tools. As such, in the proposed symposium, we assess a variety of uses of natural language processing (NLP) applications. We present research on the more rudimentary methods of word dictionaries that are cost-effective, easy to understand, and relatively easy to develop; and we also present research on LLMs and how we can use these to improve resource intensive HRM processes.
In response to this year's theme, 'Innovating for the Future: Policy, Purpose, and Organizations,' we aim to explore the transformative influence of Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Underrepresented Entrepreneurs, DEI policies, and Sustainable practices on organizations doing business in a woke world. This symposium highlights the diversity of research examining the intersection of doing business in a woke world and the profound impact of stakeholder capitalism. In particular, the authors consider areas where there are opportunities to advance the field by building upon the depth and breadth of research to resolve three pressing needs in the literature: contextuality, scalability, and stakeholder management. These papers provide specific paths forward to advance the field by addressing these challenges. The papers in the symposium broaden our understanding of factors that have shaped the practice of inclusivity, sustainable entrepreneurship, and opportunities for new venture creation to generate social impact.
In the ever-evolving business landscape, an organization’s ability to effectively manage its human resources plays an essential role in creating sustained advantage at the individual and workgroup levels. Integrating traditional and innovative approaches, the presentations in this symposium delve into the modern employee experience, examining the nuanced links between daily experiences, organizational politics, employee demands, and such outcomes as employee well-being, attitudes, behaviors, cognition, and identity. The presentations contribute to the development of new and recently introduced constructs using recent advancements in momentary and longitudinal research designs. In doing so, the authors contribute to the burgeoning and existing literature on the influence of bottom-line mentality on individual outcomes, how leader-wielded social comparisons result in performance pressure, and how contextual leadership and environmental factors influence such outcomes as leader identity and turnover.
This session develops the historical underpinnings of management thought, examining pivotal moments and key contributors that have shaped the discipline.
This presenter symposium engages with the overarching question of how shareholder activism affects societal challenges. While shareholder activism research has gained popularity in recent years, too little is still known about its effects on broader societal problems such as climate change or economic inequalities. Particularly, when accounting for a substantial increase in ownership concentration of assets over recent years, that are managed by fewer and ever more powerful, and oftentimes institutional, investors. These investors have been successful in using shareholder activism to bring about organizational change, reshape priorities of target firms, and affect their agenda on climate change and other societal outcomes in various ways. In this symposium, we will unpack the inherent complexity within this powerful industry, understand more about specific types of institutional investors, learn how intermediaries play a role in shaping their agenda, and discuss how it affects the agenda of firms when some of their largest investors are simultaneously invested in their market competitors.
This symposium highlights research on vicarious organizational learning, showcasing how individuals within firms learn from others and how this might produce aggregate outcomes for organizations. We showcase micro- foundationally sound work in the field and lab that illuminate learning processes and advance the conversation on vicarious learning in organizations.
What really is a rivalry and can it truly come to an end? If a rivalry can end, who is the determiner and what consequences may arise from the termination? How rivalry is defined and measured, as well as who is asked, will determine the answers. This symposium considers the temporal nature of rivalries (i.e. potential termination) to explore whether Micro and Macro Management perspectives can be integrated and thus provide a platform for new predictions and research directions. Taken together, these talks collectively provide evidence that stakeholders may resist terminating existing rivalries, and engage in behaviors to maintain the rivalry into the future, unless there is another target or source that can serve in that rival’s place.
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” — Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars and practitioners have long recognized the importance of creativity and innovation in shaping management practices (Amabile, 1996; Birkinshaw et al., 2008), fostering organizational longevity (Heunks, 1998), and influencing decision-making (Chen et al., 2009; Damanpour, 2018; Staw, 1995). Success in many organizational contexts, from hiring to entrepreneurship, is driven by our ability to generate novel ideas, evaluate unconventional solutions, and implement innovative practices. To better understand these processes, this symposium presents four articles that collectively deepen our understanding of these phenomena. Each presentation contributes unique insights exploring related topics. These include how brainstorming sessions might be better structured to account for the differential effects of power, the intersectional effects of race and gender when evaluating a target’s creative abilities, whether rapid-feedback from AI has the potential to help entrepreneurs by fostering revision and higher quality ideas, and the ways social influence impacts our ability to “objectively” evaluate entrepreneurial ideas and predict creative success. In sum, this session lays the groundwork for important discussions and transformational advancements at the crossroads of creativity, organizational behavior, and management science. Presentations The first paper, "Low Power Warm-up Effect: Understanding the Effect of Power on Creativity over Time" by Sahoon Kim, Brian J. Lucas, and Jack A. Goncalo investigates the relationship between power dynamics and creativity. Building upon past research that shows how feeling less powerful can hinder creative expression due to a greater likelihood of conformity, they introduce the concept of a "low power warm-up effect." Specifically, they suggest that individuals with lower power can overcome initial creative disadvantages by engaging in creative tasks multiple times, eventually achieving creative parity with those in high-power positions. Three studies support this claim, revealing that while high-power individuals initially demonstrate greater creativity, low-power individuals catch up over time, with their creativity increasing more steeply across multiple rounds of a creative task. This work contributes to organizational literature on power, creativity, and brainstorming by demonstrating the dynamic effect of individual power on task performance over time, and by highlighting the rewarding nature of persistence for individuals in low-power states. The second paper, "The Intersection of Race and Gender on Creativity and Innovation" by Analexis A. Glaude, Merrick R. Osborne, and Sa-kiera T.J. Hudson, discusses the intersectionality of race and gender in the context of creativity and innovation. Specifically, they examine how perceptions of a target’s abilities differ by race, gender, and domain across three studies. Their results suggest that while perceptions of creativity and innovation play an important role in who gets hired or promoted, this role continues to depend upon race and gender. For example, all else equal, White men are perceived to be significantly more innovative than their peers. These findings illustrate the importance of taking an intersectional lens when seeking to develop better business practices. The third paper, “Feedback and Revision in Entrepreneurship: Comparing AI and Human Influence on the Willingness of Entrepreneurs to Revise” by Katie Boland, Rachel Jensen, and Sheena Iyengar delves into the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, highlighting the high failure rates of new businesses. They focus on how the psychological ownership entrepreneurs feel toward their ideas contributes to the persistence of suboptimal strategies, such as escalation of commitment and premature commitment to solutions. Broadly, their study aims to shed light on how the source of feedback, whether AI or human, influences entrepreneurs' willingness to revise and their emotional responses to feedback. Specifically, they explore the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a source of accessible, high-quality, rapid feedback for entrepreneurs—testing whether entrepreneurs revise their ideas at all based upon feedback from AI, and whether AI feedback may be less likely to threaten one’s sense of psychological ownership over an entrepreneurial idea. Indeed, preliminary results from their ongoing exploratory study suggest that entrepreneurs are more likely to revise their startup ideas when receiving feedback from AI compared to human sources. In the fourth paper, "Predicting Evaluations of Creative Ideas: Quantifying Social Influence" by C. Blaine Horton Jr. and Sheena S. Iyengar, the authors investigate how social influence affects perceptions of entrepreneurial ideas. Their study employs a "small world" design to illustrate the conditions under which social influence shapes evaluations of entrepreneurial creativity among quasi-experts (i.e., MBA students). Their studies confirm several key findings. For example, social influence increases agreement among evaluators, but blurs meaningful distinctions between creativity dimensions, and weakens correlations with expert judgment made by angel investors. Validating theory put forth in past research (Salganik et al., 2006), these effects appear to depend upon idea quality. While highly creative and non-creative ideas consistently succeed or fail across conditions, the success of ideas that would otherwise be considered average is largely explained by anchor effects. And yet, despite average ideas faring unpredictably well or poorly under social conditions, their outcomes are also more predictable with less data. For example, various regression models suggest that while an idea's “inherent creativity” explains roughly 27% of variance when considering group-level outcomes across conditions, anchor effects explain roughly 26% of additional variance. Collectively, these papers offer a multifaceted exploration of creativity and innovation, probing the social, temporal, and intersectional dimensions of these constructs. The symposium promises to spark insightful discourse on the importance of creativity and creative processes in management science and beyond.
This symposium aims to introduce novel psychological states and emphasize the importance of social contexts for gender inequality, suggesting that management scholars must adopt a broader lens beyond the traditional focus on gender disparities in human capital and occupations when considering gender inequality issues in organizations. Specifically, while introducing novel psychological states and individual characteristics for gender inequality, we emphasize the significance of scrutinizing social contexts (i.e., occupation, corporate, and familial environments) where gender inequality is more likely to manifest. By providing specific contexts that are more likely for gender disparities to occur, this symposium intends to not only identify psychological factors that yield different rewards or gendered psychological states contributing to gender inequality but also attempts to examine ‘when’ those gender gaps in psychological factors are more pronounced, providing policymakers and organizational authorities insights into where they need to pay attention to in order to mitigate gender inequality.
As organizations tackle increasingly complex challenges, multiteam systems (MTSs) have become critical for coordinating specialized teams. Despite growing recognition of the importance of MTSs, empirical research remains limited, stemming from difficulties concerning adequate data collection. This symposium demonstrates high- powered experimental and computational modeling MTS studies enabled through an innovative approach of establishing a national infrastructure facilitating large-scale collaboration. The case for the advantage of establishing such an infrastructure is best made by showcasing previously unexamined topics that are made possible to study through this collaborative capability. Each of the four papers in this symposium empirically examines important yet understudied questions in the MTS literature. Collectively, the papers exhibit multifaceted questions approachable through pooled access to participants, with insights spanning levels and methods. This symposium, therefore, illustrates the potential that architecting dedicated infrastructures can play in advancing empirical frontiers. The discussant, John Mathieu – a prominent scholar in this topic area – will highlight the key theoretical and practical implications of this innovation in MTS research.
From research spanning decades, scholars have shown that society shapes organizations and that organizations shape society. Social activists can force organizations to take stances on social issues, and in turn, those social stances alter the public’s understanding of those issues. LGBT marriage benefits are a de facto case. Pro-LGBT social activists created a cycle of targeting firms for benefits, and then firms reflected their claims’ legitimacy back through society via satisficing and the media (Briscoe & Safford, 2008). Firms’ products hold similar power, where a given product can impact society’s perception of an entire category (Negro, Hannan & Rao, 2011). Building on a rapidly growing body of recent research, this symposium extends research on how social activists change firms and invoke social change. Each of the papers presented in this symposium goes deeper into the mechanisms, frameworks, and consequences of social activism. Our goal is to provide fresh, practical insights for academics and practitioners who are navigating the evolving space of socially- conscious management. Using our symposium’s empirical papers, we explore firm-linked social change in several contexts, including community-led economic development, climate change, race, and gender. Our symposium ends with a framework to aid in identifying future topics.
While successful career transitions are vital for overall career quality, those transitions are complex and can be challenging. Occurring at different career and life stages, workers need to repeatedly maneuver transitions throughout their career journeys, ranging from school to work until retirement. Amidst the evolving modern career landscape, also our understanding of careers is shifting, and workers progressively seek to, e.g., experience meaningfulness and realize work flexibility. While research provides valuable insights into how people successfully manage diverse career transitions, we lack knowledge on what influences workers’ career choices and their experiences when transitioning across key career stages. This symposium integrates research on key career stages, ranging from school-to-work transitions, to people moving in between their work and leaving traditional paths of employment to seek fulfillment in alternative careers, to the late career stage and retirement. By this, we explore how workers experience and thus choose to develop their careers, how they make career choices to better align their careers with their identities and with what is important to them, and how they navigate new, alternative, and difficult career transitions. We advance knowledge on career transitions and offer a comprehensive view of how workers maneuver and experience their career journeys.
Prosocial behaviors are a ubiquitous part of daily organizational life for most employees. Whether it is helping an overwhelmed colleague with their work tasks, asking for advice from a team member about a work or personal problem, or observing a coworker offering assistance to another organizational member, prosocial behaviors are highly prevalent and visible in the workplace. Research has suggested that prosocial behaviors may offer benefits for both the giver and the receiver as well as improve organizational performance. However, more recent research has cautioned that prosocial behaviors may also have some costs for actors. Given the complex implications of prosocial behavior for actors, it is important to understand factors that influence the extent to which employees choose to engage in prosocial actions toward their coworkers. This symposium seeks to offer new insights into the complexity of behaving prosocially toward coworkers by considering the social context in which prosocial behaviors in organizations occur. Due to the inherently interpersonal nature of prosocial behaviors, social judgments about coworkers may affect employees’ willingness to give help, advice, or other assistance to their coworkers. Indeed, prosocial behaviors at work do not occur in a vacuum but rather are embedded in the context of ongoing coworker relationships and social pressures in an organization. Thus, our work seeks to contribute to our understanding of when employees behave prosocially toward their coworkers by considering various types of social perceptions at work as predictors of prosocial behaviors. Specifically, utilizing a diverse set of methods (e.g., experience sampling study, experiment, multi-wave dyadic study), the papers presented here collectively study relational judgements, social comparisons, and social pressures as antecedents of different types of prosocial behaviors at work (e.g., personal help giving, advice giving, OCB). Together, the papers suggest that how employees construe themselves in relation to their coworkers is a significant driving force of decisions to help (or not to help) coworkers.
This symposium addresses significant paradoxes in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology, focusing on the gap between the field's stated humanitarian values and its practices regarding employee well-being and worker treatment. The session features presentations that challenge the current state of I-O Psychology and propose a reorientation towards more authentic and equitable approaches. The first presentation critiques the prevailing utilitarian perspective in I-O Psychology, which often conflicts with fundamental human rights. This critique is especially pertinent in areas such as personnel selection and occupational health psychology. The speakers advocate for a shift in philosophical framework and policy towards rights-based standards, emphasizing the need to prioritize ethical considerations over cost-benefit analysis. The second presentation addresses the lack of focus on child labor issues within I-O Psychology research. It reviews the global state of child labor and legislative changes in the U.S., calling for expanded research to include populations affected by child labor and to assess the impact of recent legislative changes. Last, the symposium includes a discussion on the ethical considerations regarding non-human animal workers. This presentation argues for the recognition of the rights and ethical treatment of these workers, advocating for I-O psychologists to support the abolition of non-consensual, non-compensated labor of vulnerable populations. The symposium concludes with an integration of these themes, highlighting the importance of addressing oppression and striving for equity in I-O Psychology.
This symposium aims to advance our understanding of the relatively novel phenomenon of technology-mediated HRM by examining the key complexities that it represents for HRM and employment relations scholarship. With the lack of human managers in certain employment settings (e.g. platform-based gig work), HRM activities are primarily outsourced to algorithmic systems and, in some cases, customers, who engage in performance management processes by submitting anonymous ratings of workers. Thus, the uniqueness of this symposium lies in its multi-stakeholder perspective, which contributes to academic research by shedding light on and addressing the implications of this technology mediated form of people management for HRM theory and practice. In doing so, the papers featured in this symposium examine various perspectives of the working relationship, including worker, organizational, customer, and legal perspectives.
Over the past decades, scholars in management studies have continuously engaged in vibrant discussions around the topic of creativity - the production of novel and useful ideas at work (Amabile, 1983). In particular, researchers have tried to understand and delve deep into an important factor that influences creativity and creative workers: diversity. However, although diversity can positively impact creativity and creative work (i.e., Chua, 2018; Godart, Maddux, Shipilov, & Galinsky, 2015; Hoever, Van Knippenberg, van Ginkel, Barkema, 2012; Tadmor, Galinsky, & Maddux, 2012), organizational scholars have also found that these constructs can negatively influence each other (i.e., Hora, Baudra, Lemoine, & Grijalva, 2022; Lu, 2023; Proudfoot, Kay, & Koval, 2015; Proudfoot, Berry, Chang, & Kay, 2023). The purpose of this presenter symposium is to contribute to our ambiguous understanding of the link between diversity, creativity, and creative work and provide novel insights on how some important kinds of diversity (i.e., cultural, and gender) might shape creativity and the experiences of creative workers.
In light of the wide-ranging benefits of meaning-making in the workplace, and employees’ desire to experience meaningful work, it is important that researchers understand the different ways that people experience meaning in their work and the factors that can promote meaning in work. While prior research has provided initial insights, a large percentage of employees still do not find their work to be meaningful. This symposium assembles some of the latest research that investigates work meaningfulness, providing possible solutions for how to overcome the current lack of meaning in work. In doing so, the contributions of this symposium include: (1) Proposing work meaning as being empirically distinct from work meaningfulness and testing a model of work meaning relevant for the modern workplace; (2) Reconceptualizing the work orientations literature to suggest job, career, and calling as three separate dimensions of how employees experience their work; (3) Suggesting moderators that can allow employees to experience an often negative work situation (i.e., work absurdity) as meaningful; and (4) Providing self-oriented and other- oriented mechanisms that explain how beneficiary contact promotes work meaningfulness.
Recent years have seen an upsurge in shareholder activism, or the actions taken by shareholders to influence firm policies and practices. As boards of directors are responsible for fundamental decisions that affect change in a firm’s strategy, activist shareholders rely upon board representation as the primary mechanism for promoting their vision of change in the firms they target. Despite the prevalence of activist board representation, management research has thus far lagged in addressing theory regarding its implication for firms. Through four distinct papers addressing the influence of shareholder activism on boards, this presenter symposium aims to promote theoretical dialogue regarding how we may advance our understanding of this unique but understudied phenomenon.
Entrepreneurial new ventures harness founders’ and employees’ human capital to enhance performance. Individual knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) aggregate at the firm level to create competitive advantage for new ventures. In this symposium, we bring together four papers that study how individual human capital influences firm-level outcomes. Different types of human capital at different levels of analysis are introduced, thereby highlighting novel mechanisms of how they influence entrepreneurial ventures’ strategy and performance.
Despite some advancements, women continue to be significantly underrepresented in leadership roles across various sectors worldwide, notably in the senior management levels of organizations. An impressive body of research has sought to understand the drivers of this gender disparity in leadership. According to gender and leadership scholars, one reason this inequality occurs is due to the stereotypical belief that women lack the masculine, agentic traits that are deemed as important for leaders to possess (Eagly & Karau, 2002; Schein, 1973; Heilman, Caleo, & Manzi, 2023). When women become leaders, they also risk experiencing social and economic reprisals when they enact the agentic behaviors that are often considered necessary in leadership because agentic qualities are also perceived as socially undesirable in women (Akinola, Martin, & Phillips, 2018; Mishra & Kray, 2022; Rudman et al., 2012; Prentice & Carranza, 2002). Perhaps due to a cultural emphasis on prototypes of leaders tend to be masculine and agentic in nature (Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011; Vial & Napier, 2018), the literature has focused on how agentic perceptions contribute to gender disparities in leadership. A comparatively smaller body of work has examined how communal qualities that are more strongly ascribed to women, such as being “affectionate, helpful, kind, sympathetic, interpersonally sensitive, nurturant, and gentle,” influence the leadership aspirations, behaviors, and outcomes of men and women (Eagly & Karau, 2002: 574, although see Hentschel et al., 2018 for an exception). Nonetheless, communality plays an important role in many illustrious theories of gender and leadership. For example, role congruity theory posits that the under-emergence of women leaders occurs because people presume that communal women tend to lack agency and agentic women experience social and economic backlash because they are perceived to lack desirable communal traits that are prescribed for their gender role (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Therefore, the goal of this symposium is to deepen our understanding of how communal traits and stereotypes contribute to gender and leadership disparities. The first three papers focus on the experiences of men and women prior to the leadership selection process by examining how communality influences gender dynamics in career choice and leadership aspirations (Papers 1 to 3). The final two papers focus on the experiences of women and men after they have become leaders, examining the role of communality in understanding of differences in how male and female leaders communicate after they have become leaders as well as how perceivers react to communal male and female leaders (Papers 4 and 5).
Framing inclusion as a competitive advantage has become standard business practice in recent years. This symposium explores the causes and consequences of inclusion across various levels of analysis: the workgroup (Roberson et al.), the organization (Sitzmann et al. and Kossek et al.), and the industry (Pozner & Woolley). The papers examine factors that contribute to inclusion, including individuals’ positions in networks (Roberson et al.), organizational work-family support structures (Kossek et al.), and interactions with others through industry communities (Pozner & Woolley). Additionally, the papers explore a range of consequences both for individuals’ well-being (e.g., outcomes of caregivers, Kossek et al.) and for firm performance (e.g., firms’ labor productivity, Sitzmann et al.). The symposium will conclude with discussant Lisa Nishii, whose remarks – in conjunction with the papers presented in the session – will further the audience’s understanding of the causes and consequences of inclusion across workgroups, organizations, and industries.
Considering important trends in organizational contexts (e.g., remote work becoming more prevalent and integrating artificial intelligence [AI] into workplace processes), traditional methods of newcomer socialization are being challenged and re-evaluated. In an era marked by rapid technological advancements and shifting work paradigms, the process of newcomer socialization in organizations has become increasingly complex and multifaceted. Additionally, the profile of newcomers has evolved; they were once perceived primarily as undistinctive and embedded, but now display much heterogeneity in attributes and social relations. Moreover, with the increased fluidity of careers in the lifespan, it becomes more common for older and/or more experienced individuals to become organizational newcomers, challenging traditional models of socialization, which tend to overlook what newcomers bring to the workplace (good or bad) beyond their education. Further, high-status employees are increasingly transient, leading to a rise in high-status newcomers within organizations. Overall, this symposium serves as a critical platform for discussing and dissecting these emerging trends, offering a unique opportunity for scholars, practitioners, and organizational leaders to gain insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by the new work arrangements. Bringing together the latest empirical studies from leading experts and early career scholars helps create a bridge between cutting-edge academic insights and real-world organizational practices. This symposium not only disseminates new findings in newcomer socialization but also encourages a dialogue between researchers and practitioners. Such interactions are vital for ensuring that theoretical advancements are grounded in practical realities and that the pressing challenges faced by organizations inform research agendas.
Framed from a perspective of inhabited institutionalism, this symposium brings together four empirical studies situated in the healthcare field that advance understanding of how actors use power and engage in political work to construct, maintain, and change institutions. These studies reveal new insights concerning actor interactions within institutionalized settings that provide important avenues for developing theory that can inform healthcare practice. Discussion of the presentations collectively will help to advance these novel approaches.
Despite the commonality of misfit experiences at work and the negative implications they have for both employees and employers, the field still has a limited understanding of how misfit emerges, how employees avoid and/or cope with misfit, what attitudinal and behavioral outcomes are associated with misfit, and what organizations can do to effectively manage misfit. In this symposium, we deepen our understanding of this complex phenomenon through four research presentations that adopt different theoretical perspectives, employ a variety of study designs (e.g., qualitative, experimental, and multisource and multiwave field studies), and utilize an array of analytic methods (e.g., polynomial regression and response surface modeling) to explore the topic of misfit. Featured research explores how we can diagnose, prevent, and even benefit from misfit experiences and contains valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners on how to effectively navigate misfit at work.
In a context of rapid and disruptive change, there is a need for innovations in the way careers are being conceived, researched and managed. In recent years, the topic of sustainable careers has received increased interest from scholars as a promising perspective to understand contemporary careers, as evidenced by various academic publications. Sustainable careers research focuses on the dynamic interplay of person, context, and time to study how person-career fit can enhance the long-term sustainability (i.e., happiness, health, and productivity) and success of people’s careers. Recent research has applied the sustainable career model to, for example, the challenges of career sustainability for different groups of workers, the processes involved in career sustainability over time, and the interplay of multiple stakeholders in different contexts affecting sustainable careers. However, there is a need for further (critical) examination of the key relationships between context, person and time in affecting career sustainability as well as in the meaning of and interplay between its key indicators (health, happiness, productivity). There is a need to further develop and expand existing models with more specific concepts to allow for targeted empirical research testing the basic principles of career sustainability. Therefore, this symposium brings together five state-of-the-art research projects that each add a valuable phenomenon that expands and deepens the model of sustainable careers: (1) digitization, (2) multiple job holding, (3) career empowerment, (4) career sacrifice, and (5) sustainable career orientation. The first paper addresses the pertinent challenges for careers brought along by rapid digitization and provides a comprehensive review of empirical studies addressing how the increase in various types of digital tools impacts individuals' career trajectories. In the second paper, the enriching versus depleting impact of multiple jobholding on career sustainability is explored through a qualitative study, thereby considering the dimensions of person, context and time. The third paper builds upon the interplay between person and context and addresses the role of the leader in stimulating career empowerment as a vehicle for career sustainability. The fourth paper takes a sensemaking perspective to theorize about career sacrifice valuation as a process which may explain whether and how unconventional and sometimes imperfect decisions may still lead to sustainable careers over time. In the fifth paper, the concept of sustainable career orientations is introduced and operationalized via a scale validation study, aimed to further our understanding of who might be more or less likely to focus on establishing high levels of career sustainability. Taken together, the five papers included in this symposium provide new insights into the meaning of sustainable careers, offering suggestions for further refinement, adaptations, and empirical examination.
Compensation is a pivotal organizational decision that can significantly influence competitive advantage. It has long been recognized as a fundamental tool to motivate managers and employees to engage in desired role behaviors. In practice, however, these compensation strategies often extend their influence far beyond targeted behaviors and outcomes and can have unintended consequences on the organization. Evaluating the full range of its intended and unintended effects is critical to leveraging compensation as an effective tool for organizational success. This symposium is designed to delve deeply into these multifaceted impacts, specifically examining how compensation shapes organizational members’ attitudes, behaviors, and collective outcomes in expected and unexpected ways.
This presenter symposium showcases research frontiers on firms’ strategic responses to the market and non-market challenges that arise from political polarization in both domestic and international contexts. These range from underexamined, non-ideological predictors of corporate and CEO activism on contentious socio-political issues (e.g., corporate reputation, CEO narcissism) to the influence of stakeholders on the expanding venues (e.g., corporate campaign contributions, corporate LGBTQ policies) of corporate activism; and implications of political polarization for international business (e.g., divestiture). The four presentations in this symposium adopt a range of methodological approaches (e.g., matched-sample regressions, machine learning techniques, and difference-in-differences designs), and collectively contribute to the existing literature on corporate and CEO activism, stakeholder management, non-market strategies, corporate political activities, social issues in management, and international management.
This symposium brings together a panel of experts to delve into the cutting-edge research in interfirm collaboration literature. Our focus is on investigating how firms can effectively create and appropriate value by adeptly managing the dynamics within and across interfirm collaborations. The dynamics within a collaboration arise when competitive and cooperative tensions evolve within the single collaboration, while the dynamics across collaborations arise when these individual collaborations are interdependent on each other. By examining various forms of interfirm collaborations and employing unique datasets, we aim to enrich our understanding of the inception, evolution, and strategic implications of individual interfirm collaborations and the collections of them.
Accelerators have emerged as important stimulants of high-tech entrepreneurial growth. And they do so through helping startups signal their quality (Howell, 2017; Yu, 2019), providing business education (Fehder and Hochberg, 2014; Gonzalez-Uribe and Leatherbee, 2018; Hallen et al., 2020), as well as by selecting higher quality startups (Wright, Koning, and Khanna, 2023; Yin and Luo, 2018). But these effects might not accrue equally to all startups, shaping whether accelerators help bridge or exacerbate disparities in entrepreneurial growth (Wright, 2023) and the extent to which they influence the direction of their technologies (Impink, 2023). We propose to bring together three papers presented by Dan Fehder, Amisha Miller, Michael Impink, and Nataliya Wright, discussed by David Hsu, Abhishek Nagaraj, and Sandy Yu, to understand the heterogeneous selection and treatment effects of accelerators. The panel reveals how accelerators select and benefit startups more that are already in more resourced positions, whether it be in terms of being located in US hubs, possessing dominant technological stacks, having a viable business idea, and having founders with represented ethnic and gender backgrounds. In doing so, these accelerators appear to complement the existing resources of startups rather than compensate for their resource constraints.
The nature of one’s work environment has a critical impact on employee performance and commitment. At the risk of oversimplifying the story, positive features – whether it pertains to the organization, leadership, work design, relationships, etc. – tend to inspire positive experiences and reactions for employees. Yet, theoretically, there is also a sense that all good things can turn bad at some point. Indeed, it is likely that positive psychological phenomena have an inflection point where their effects turn negative – something often referred to as the “too-much-of-a-good-thing” effect (Grant & Schwartz, 2011; Pierce & Aguinis, 2013). The goal in this symposium is to explore the limits of workplace positivity. Each presentation focuses on a different aspect of the work experience that is typically seen as positive – perceived organizational support, meaningfulness, socializing, and coworker positivity – and examines how it may generate unanticipated negative outcomes.
This symposium highlights emerging insights related to social class, an important and overlooked aspect of diversity in organizations. The five papers presented in this symposium will cover various topics within the micro and macro domains of management. At the micro level, the papers reveal the complex interplay of social class background with other marginalized identities, such as gender and immigrant status, in shaping workplace experiences. Their nuanced analysis underscores the need to consider social class as a part of multiple identities shaping the lives of students and employees. Additionally, this symposium also integrates social class and conflict literature, proposing that class-based self-conceptions underlie the responses to workplace conflict. At the macro level, the papers delve into how CEO’s social class background shapes stakeholder perceptions and career outcomes. They enrich our understanding of how class-based stereotypes and shifting competence standards follow executives to the apex of corporate hierarchy, carrying career implications even after they have demonstrated merit through significant upward mobility. Together, these papers significantly advance our understanding of how social class, though often invisible, has a profound impact on attitudes and outcomes in the workplace.
As organizational research begins to catch up with the largely theoretical framework around the experience and effects of diversity at work, we propose a symposium that focuses on managing marginalization at work through the issues surrounding impression management. The purpose of this symposium is to explore the impact of social and contextual factors on interpersonal impression management choices and outcomes. Specifically, the presentations in this symposium investigate how organizational factors and individuals’ experiences with identity-related issues influence their (a) self-perceptions, (b) image concerns, and (c) self-expression choices. By integrating literature on marginalized identities, impression management, and authenticity, we aim to generate discussions around how employees navigate their identities in complex workplace dynamics, how managers can be allies against stereotyping processes, and how organizations can develop future work environments that promote individuals’ sense of self and well-being.
Contemporary organizations have been calling for inclusive leadership to promote workplace inclusion. However, the existing literature on inclusive leadership has not yet adequately addressed questions such as what inclusive leadership encompasses, how it influences marginalized groups, and the mechanisms through which it impacts individual and organizational outcomes. This symposium brings together four papers that collectively add novel insights into these questions, from a multilevel and multi-identity-group perspective. The four papers offer four different approaches of capturing inclusive leadership, at the individual, group, and organizational levels. They also delve into the impact of inclusive leadership on group members and particularly on marginalized groups such as women and people with disabilities. They further ask questions related to conduits of inclusive leadership at individual and organizational levels, examining new mechanisms such as disability identity threat and organizational climate of gender stereotypes. This symposium challenges the participants to re-think how inclusive leadership can be understood in novel ways, how diversity can be better integrated into this research, and how inclusive leadership impacts individuals’ perceptions, decisions, effectiveness, and organizational climate and knowledge use. Insights into these questions can broaden perspectives for future research and provide practical guidance on how to develop inclusive managers and organizations.
This symposium comprises four presentations that explore the integration and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in HR management. As AI technologies are reshaping HR functions, the presentations delve into how AI can support human well-being, uphold ethical standards, and optimize organizational functioning. Ama Sam and Homberg set the scene with a systematic literature review, synthesizing knowledge and revealing diverse perspectives on the relationship between AI, automation, and employee well-being. da Motta Veiga and Figueroa-Armijos then investigate the ethical perceptions that job applicants versus recruiters have of AI in hiring, across different hiring methods. Lesperance's presentation explores how AI technologies can enhance the role and identity of HR within organizations, challenging the conventional division between strategic and operational HR. Lastly, di Prisco and Fortin reveal the central role of the concept of "humanness" in shaping but also justifying recruiters' attitudes and reactions toward AI. Together, we hope that these presentations will spark a rich discussion of the challenges and effects of AI integration in HR, offering valuable insights for researchers and practitioners.
In the wake of a global mental health crisis, management scholars have recommended taking a more nuanced perspective of employee mental health and well-being. Recent interdisciplinary reviews have called for researchers to adequately differentiate between poor mental health and severe mental health conditions (Rosado-Solomon, Koopmann, Lee, & Cronin, 2023), while considering their respective roles along the ‘mental health continuum’ (Kelloway, Dimoff, & Gilbert, 2023: 365). This symposium seeks to present research with novel implications for employee well-being at various points along this continuum. First, this symposium introduces novel phenomena (e.g., AI) that may lead employee mental well-being to fluctuate or worsen. Second, this symposium introduces novel research on the experience of having mental health conditions while being employed; it also introduces a novel category of stigma, and the associated implications for both employees and organizations.
Interpersonal differences abound in the workplace. Reaping the benefits of organizational diversity requires understanding and appreciating one another’s different backgrounds, worldviews, perspectives, and viewpoints. However, the innate ease and preference associated with interacting with similar others makes relating across differences challenging in a number of ways. The five papers in this symposium provide cutting-edge insights into breakdowns in understanding that can occur across interpersonal differences in organizations, including both the emotional and cognitive processes underlying these breakdowns, as well as potential tools to prevent and repair them.
Technologies are transforming all facets of human resource management in organizations, from hiring processes to training programs to the management and structure of workflows. These changes affect not only the work and decision-making of managers and other organizational leaders, but also of employees. Employees face a wide range of impacts, from reconfigured opportunity structures in hiring, to demand for new skills sets and training, and to changed discretion and autonomy in undertaking their work. At the same time, technologies also bring new stakeholders into the fold. Developers and vendors are designing artificial intelligence applications to recruit and screen job applications, training protocols to ensure sustained use of their products, and algorithmic management applications to automate decisions regarding labor allocation and workflow. This symposium takes these two trends – the transformation of various HRM applications through technology and the addition of new stakeholders to HRM practices – as a starting point. Specifically, we focus on three processes and their technological transformations: AI-enabled recruitment and hiring; training; and algorithmic management. Empirical studies on each emphasize the experience of employees with such technologies and illustrate how the role of additional stakeholders—namely, the developers and vendors of technology—are integral to this experience. The proposed symposium thus offers a range of insights as to how various stakeholders may collaborate to derive equitably distributed value from technologies designed to improve organizations’ human resource management practices and explores challenges and limitations to doing so.
Courage has long been regarded as an important virtue in society. More recently, scholars have begun to explore the unique role that courage plays in organizational dynamics. Much of the research on workplace courage has focused on explaining why employees engage in courageous action. Yet, despite the growing focus on courage in organizations, there still remains a number of unanswered questions in the literature on workplace courage, such as the role of courage in social movements, the influence of courage on allyship, how observers make judgements about whether an act is courageous or not, and the nature of courageous followers in organizations. The papers in this symposium address these unanswered questions. In doing so, this symposium helps advance our understanding of workplace courage and highlight new directions for the study of workplace courage.
Should we re-think commonly held assumptions about how large firms operate? If so, what are the implications for scholars and practitioners? This symposium aims to open the black box of how large organizations operate and foster a rich discussion of some of the commonly held assumptions and propositions in the field based on recent micro-level empirical evidence. Considering the increasingly broad, digitally-powered, multi-business firms; rise of new factors underpinning the benefits and costs of firm scope; growing complexities from climate crisis and diverse regulatory environments; and availability of data; the field may be ripe for such an endeavor. This symposium draws on three recent, cutting-edge papers that offer a detailed empirical analysis of the mechanisms that operate within large corporates. The first analyzes the contents of internal formal contracts between organizational units. Its findings push back against the foundational theoretical distinction between the choice of contracts and hierarchy in theories of the firm that has been taken for granted by scholars. The second uncovers the trade-off between the benefits from synergies and the flexibility to redeploy in adapting to regulatory contexts. The third articulates a framework for the upsides and downsides of firm scope and identifies an increasingly important set of benefits related to common ownership akin to those that emerge in firms that co-exist in an ecosystem. This symposium aims to foster a rich discussion, led by two leading scholars who will delve into the manuscripts, common threads, and consider the implications for scholars and practitioners in the field.
Workplace mistreatment is a pervasive and costly phenomenon within organizations. It is an umbrella term that includes a variety of interpersonal harmful behaviors, such as abusive supervision, workplace incivility, and workplace ostracism. Research indicates that, on average, 34% of employees have experienced mistreatment, with 44% having observed it. The estimated annual cost of workplace mistreatment to organizations ranges from $691.70 billion to $1.97 trillion. Given its prevalence and detrimental impact, previous research has extensively examined the antecedents and outcomes of workplace mistreatment from the perspectives of targets, perpetrators, and observers. Despite significant progress in prior studies, the existing literature still grapples with mixed findings and knowledge gaps, leaving many essential questions unanswered. For instance, there remains uncertainty about how supervisors react to covert mistreatment behaviors from their employees, why supervisors may mistreat employees who render favors to them, how being authentic can make one rude toward others, and why observers may respond negatively to those who are mistreated. This symposium aims to address these questions by bringing together four papers. These papers utilize diverse methods, from experience sampling methods to multi-wave surveys to scenario experiments, exploring workplace mistreatment at various levels and over different time spans. Additionally, they draw on novel theoretical perspectives, providing fresh insights into workplace mistreatment from the viewpoints of targets, perpetrators, and observers.
While technology standards and standard-setting organizations have been the foci of economics and policy scholars for decades, there is a renewed interest among strategic management and innovation scholars in examining the role of standards in firm strategy and performance. A key reason for this research resurgence is the foundational role that standards play as ‘alignment structures’ that spur the growth of modern day platforms and ecosystems. While standards are central to the growth and success of platforms and ecosystems, their crucial role has often been implicitly assumed in the recent literature that showcases these types of organizations. The literature on standards, on the other hand, has been focused on the inter-firm level of analysis, with clear opportunities to both broaden and narrow the scope of research while integrating more directly with mainstream strategy questions. Thus, there is a need for a dedicated forum that can bring together scholars who can speak to these unaddressed research challenges and opportunities. Our objective is to reinvigorate discussions on the core issues around technology standards and the standardization process, emphasizing their profound influence on firm, ecosystem, and industry dynamics. The proposed symposium aims to spotlight emerging research ideas in technology standards by bringing together a collection of papers to present their insights on the strategic implications of standard specification, implementation, and adoption for subsequent competition and performance. The four papers encompass diverse theoretical perspectives including ecosystems, demand-side view, evolutionary perspective, and modularity, and employ a wide range of methodologies including conceptual, quantitative, qualitative, and computational modeling methods. By sharing ongoing endeavors that drive research on standards and their related issues, this symposium seeks to deepen our understanding of standards as the bedrock of technological and industry evolution.
In today’s dynamic, uncertain, and ambiguous environment, the future is often “unpredictably different from the past, and information about the future is incomplete, unknown, or unavailable” (Furr & Eisenhardt 2021: 1916). Firms struggle to understand and adapt to changes driven by emerging technologies (like large language models), escalating geopolitical tensions (such as the Ukrainian wars), and macroeconomic shifts (including interest rate hikes). These challenges underscore the need to comprehend how decision-makers understand that decision-making context, how they interpret ambiguous or even contradictory feedback, and how they mobilize internal and external support for change in a highly uncertain environment. This symposium aims to enrich our understanding by showcasing new research in a diverse set of entrepreneurial and innovation contexts. For example, Jamie Seoyeon Song and Jaeho Choi explore the impact of divergent feedback on entrepreneurial pivoting in the context of Product Hunt. Xirong (Subrina) Shen, Cha Li, Francisco Polidoro Jr., and Jizhen Li utilize detailed data on A/B testing in a large tech firm to investigate how experiences with interdependence affect decision-makers' subsequent product innovation searches. Amy Zhao-Ding and Vibha Gaba's paper probes how market aggregate feedback—user evaluations for existing competitive products—informs Photo & Video mobile app developers' product positioning in the functional space. Hui Sun employs computational simulation to uncover how ambiguity—an intrinsic property of language—shapes the evolution of interpretations within organizations. Collectively, the set of papers explores nuances in how organizations learn and adapt in complex decision-making contexts with diverse, ambiguous, and interdependent feedback.
Research on business accelerators has grown rapidly over the past decade. This growth reflects the importance of accelerators for new ventures’ growth and access to resources. Accelerators also provide new ventures with opportunities for networking and mentorship, promoting their learning and acquisition of the skills and capabilities essential for their survival and growth. Participating in these programs also gives new ventures opportunities to refine their business models and strategies, sharpening their competitive advantages. Further, admission into these accelerators serves as a signal of legitimacy that enhances these ventures’ market standing. Given these diverse benefits, business accelerators have become a vital means of developing local, regional, and national entrepreneurial ecosystems that enhance job creation, improve employment, enable technological and social progress, and improve competitiveness. This symposium takes a multi-level approach to study new ventures’ growth in accelerators from the micro, meso and macro levels. We do so by: (1) offering four empirical studies that cover the micro, meso, and macro levels; (2) highlighting points of intersection across these levels; and (3) articulating the theoretical, empirical, and practical implications for future research.
As the world grapples with unprecedented complexity, organizations search for fresh perspectives and unconventional talent pools to navigate disruptive forces and forge innovative solutions. Enter neurodiversity: a vibrant tapestry of unique cognitive styles associated with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurodevelopmental differences. These emerging communities and rising generations hold immense potential to enrich organizations with novel ideas and unconventional approaches. Yet, despite a blossoming public awareness, many neurodivergent individuals remain locked out of meaningful employment, their unique talents remaining untapped until the workplace becomes more neuro-inclusive. This symposium tackles this critical gap, presenting empirical research on innovating in the workplace to support the neurodiverse workforce of the future. We delve into the crucial aspects of selection, retention, and performance, engaging with diverse stakeholders – neurodivergent individuals, hiring managers, and HR professionals – to gain multi- level insights.
Paradox theory has been mostly applied at the meso-level of analysis in organizations with concepts like organizational ambidexterity. In this symposium, we broaden the application of paradox theory to the micro- level with contributors from Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and the US. We introduce a neuroscience-based theory of paradoxical leadership behavior (PLB), study the importance of cultural intelligence to match PLB with the cultural context, explore the short-term versus long-term paradox in a US public organization, and examine paradoxes in teamwork and -motivation.
In the aftermath of a global pandemic, the demands for greater workplace flexibility have increased, with the rise of remote and hybrid work arrangements. Research has found that work arrangements such as remote work have been seen to improve employee well-being, productivity, and job satisfaction, with reports of a reduction in burnout. People can now work from anywhere, at any time, spanning spatial and temporal boundaries. However, this can lead to working longer hours, experiencing challenges in demarcating healthy boundaries, due to the spillover of work into non-work domains. This symposium presents five studies exploring the changing nature of work and the challenges and the ways in which these experiences may be improved. Each study focuses on remote and hybrid work arrangements and consider the following: 1) the influence of virtual meetings on technostress and work-family conflict, 2) whether changing work modalities influence the psychological contracts of employees, 3) enriched work design, spirit and work, meaningfulness and satisfaction with life, 4) the psychological detachment, thriving, work-nonwork balance between couples working in a hybrid setting and, 5) A thought- piece on participatory democracy in organizing, to make hybrid work arrangements work. Our esteemed discussant will then lead a general discussion, reflecting upon theoretical and practical implications and highlight future directions for research in this field.
Accessing resources, and subsequent success, is not equal for all entrepreneurs. Questions about disparities in entrepreneurship have garnered major attention in the literature. Marginalized individuals face pervasive barriers as a result of stakeholders and investors’ biases. While past research has shown inherent barriers posed by marginalized identities, scant research has examined the strategic actions of both the entrepreneurs themselves and the supporting organizations in shaping these marginalized entrepreneurs’ journeys and outcomes. Thus, our symposium aims to advance our understanding of how marginalized entrepreneurs and their supporting organizations, such as training programs and investment funds, navigate the challenges posed by marginalized identities. Our presenters explore various strategies and their effectiveness from the side of entrepreneurs and involved agencies in supporting marginalized entrepreneurs overcome challenges associated with their marginalized identities. We center around two interrelated questions: What strategies are employed by entrepreneurs who possess marginalized identities and the organizations that assist them in overcoming various challenges associated with marginalized identities? Under what conditions do these strategies successfully support marginalized entrepreneurs, and when do they not? Together, the presentations provide implications for social inequality and pose questions for future research, such as how narrative disclosure helps overcome stigma, how entrepreneurship can override negative status beliefs, how interactions between entrepreneurs and supporting agencies shape entrepreneurial journeys, how evaluation processes may fail to create a more level playing field for marginalized entrepreneurs, and what communication strategies towards marginalized entrepreneurs can effectively increase participation in training programs. Collectively, these papers underscore the resilience and resourcefulness of entrepreneurs from under-represented backgrounds and the importance of creating supportive ecosystems that acknowledge and address the unique challenges they face.
Society, business, and innovation are interlinked – meaning that the social context in which a company is embedded plays a critical role in influencing a company’s founding, growth, hiring, and capability to innovate. While extant research highlights several interdependencies between societal dynamics, business outcomes, and innovation, in today’s rapidly changing political and technological climate, there is an opportunity for scholars to strengthen our understanding of the intricate processes connecting business and society. The goal of this symposium is to advance more research in this area by identifying specific ways in which today’s society shapes business outcomes via political, technological, and social processes. Some critical questions that will be answered include: what is the impact of growing political polarity on the distribution of high-skilled labor, patents, and innovation? How do emerging technologies such as generative AI impact the information value of signals available in hiring and venture capital settings? Are nascent entrepreneurs in communities with stronger social ties able to exploit external advice better? In doing so, the symposium will bring together multidisciplinary management research to highlight the interplay between business, society, and innovation.
Over the last 20 years, research on identity management, the strategic choices employees make to manage others’ impressions of their association with a stigmatized identity(ies), has contributed to a growing understanding of the crucial role of employment experiences for people with marginalized identities (e.g., employees with disabilities, sexual minorities). The identity management literature is at a critical juncture, however, as employees with marginalized identities are increasingly bringing new and more complex aspects of themselves to work (e.g., intersectional identities) that are not well understood in current research. As such, to aid scholars in ‘Innovating for the Future’ during the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, we aim to spark dialogue about how scholars can innovate theorizing around identity management processes in a way that better illuminates the lived experiences of marginalized employees. To achieve this, we included research in this symposium that employed grounded theory methodologies to deepen the novel theoretical contributions of the work offered . As such, the presentations, along with the unique theory-focused discussion that will take place after, are poised to help scholars innovate the future of the identity management literature using the developments presented in the symposium that are centered on illuminating the lived experiences of marginalized employees.
This symposium showcases current research projects on how political polarization shapes firms' strategies and performance. While most attention has focused on the societal repercussions of political polarization, far less research has focused on its impact on organizational strategies and outcomes. By spanning theoretical traditions and levels of analyses, the papers assembled in this symposium tackle this question, examining how polarization reshapes stakeholder relationships and corporate nonmarket strategies, influencing economic outcomes and presenting new challenges for firms navigating these shifts. They also explore how organizational practices spread in a polarized context, challenging the notion that institutionalization leads to uniformity. Finally, they offer new insights on how countermovements unfold within polarized sociopolitical contexts, strategically targeting and influencing corporations.
Despite the increasing focus on employee welfare, workplace objectification—viewing and treating employees as instruments of profit—remains a prevalent phenomenon in today’s workplace around the world. Featuring five papers by research teams from ten different institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia, the proposed symposium aims to advance scholarly discussions on workplace objectification with a focus on three interconnected themes: (1) conceptual critique and reflections on the key progresses and pitfalls of workplace objectification research, (2) empirical examination of novel antecedents (e.g., performance pressure) and consequences of workplace objectification (e.g., creativity), and (3) extension of the phenomenology of workplace objectification to previously understudied dimensions (e.g., third party/witness reactions). The symposium incorporates theories and evidence on different manifestations of workplace objectification (i.e., instrumentalization, dehumanization, commodification) in diverse contexts with mixed methodologies. It offers novel theoretical and practical insights into workplace objectification that can benefit organizations and individuals alike.
This symposium contributes to the Academy of Management’s conference theme “Innovating for the Future: Policy, Purpose, and Organizations,” showcasing five papers that highlight the impact of personal and professional grief on work and personal well-being. Loss and grief are inevitable parts of personal and professional life. Despite how common, yet critical grief-related experiences may be in workers’ lives, management scholarship on the topic remains limited in its understanding of (1) the personal beliefs and understandings people within organizations hold about grief and the influence these beliefs may have on the experience of grief at work, (2) the nuanced varieties in grieving employees’ experiences with personal and professional loss contributing to how workers communicate, make sense of, and move forward with their grief and (3) how colleagues, leaders, and organizations can best support grieving employees. This symposium includes mixed methods, qualitative, and quantitative research perspectives that enrich the current understanding of grieving workers’ beliefs and experiences and provides research-based recommendations for organizations in managing and supporting grieving individuals. Together, with discussion led by Professor Olivia “Mandy” O’Neill, these papers aim to provide insights into the processes and outcomes of grief and mourning for employees, their colleagues, and organizations, engage an emerging community of scholars focused on issues related to grief, well-being, and the work-life interface, and generate a strong program of future academic research.
This symposium presents five empirical studies that explore positive and negative work and nonwork outcomes of overqualification. We ask and answer new developing questions in overqualification research with papers unpacking nonwork outcomes such as work-family enrichment and work outcomes such as CEO performance, entrepreneurship goal-setting behaviors, and voluntary turnover. The studies presented shed light on the novel insights on (1) how and why overqualified employees may experience positive or negative nonwork lives and (2) how these workers utilize their underused capacities in unique and new ways in their work lives to improve their performance and satisfaction.
Organizations and its members play a role in producing and reproducing the gender and racial inequality reflected in larger society (e.g., Amis, Mair & Munir, 2020; Hebl, Cheng & Ng, 2019). Organizational gatekeepers can perpetuate these disproportionately unequal outcomes, while marginalized employees process and act in response to unequal treatment. Drawing on multiple methods and theories, the present symposium investigates how both gatekeepers and marginalized employees perceive, process, perpetuate and experience the complexities of such inequality in the work context. Across four papers, we consider the nuances of how inequality is perceived and perpetuated by gatekeepers (including skin tone and ideology), while also asking how certain contexts can exacerbate the experience of inequality for marginalized employees (such as resource allocation and organizational culture). Our discussant, Rebecca Ponce de Leon, an expert on inequality in organizations, will guide a discussion about the current research and directions for future research.
This session explores the intersection of ethics, race, and organizational dynamics from a historical perspective, aiming to uncover how social and cultural factors influence behavior in organizations.
This symposium investigates the intersection of two topics that are gaining traction in academic conversations across the Academy. The first is based on a phenomenon, which is the rapid rise of generative AI technologies that are transforming work and posing serious questions about how they will affect human productivity and well-being. The other is based on theory, which is the rising awareness that effective strategies for innovation and management depend on their fit with the nature of problems that they aim to solve, which in turn depends on how well individuals frame and formulate problems. Scholars have been theorizing on the importance of framing and formulating “problems” for several decades, but the topics have received growing interest in recent years due to prominent publications highlighting their fundamental role in (a) defining opportunities to pursue during strategic decision-making, (b) providing a focal point for gaining resources in entrepreneurial ventures, and (c) creating the fundamental context in which problem-solving occurs to drive creativity and innovation. Problem framing and formulation are likely to become even more important for organizational actors in organizational research because generative AI technologies are effective in and increasingly capable of creating solutions across various tasks, modalities, and contexts once problems are clearly defined. Therefore, this symposium is both timely and relevant to help shape the conversation on these important topics, which will be facilitated by many leading voices in the field.