Apologies for any cross-posting.
A new issue of Human Relations is available online: Human Relations August 2015; Vol. 68, No. 8 - we hope you enjoy reading these articles.
The entire issue can be accessed online at http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/8?etoc .
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AUGUST ISSUE ARTICLES
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Reflections on the labyrinth: Investigating black and minority ethnic leaders' career experiences
Madeleine Wyatt and Jo Silvester
Human Relations August 2015, 68(8): 1243–1269, doi: 10.1177/0018726714550890
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/8/1243?etoc
Abstract
Black and minority ethnic (BME) employees appear to experience more difficulty reaching senior leadership positions than do their white counterparts. Using Eagly and Carli's metaphor of the labyrinth, our aim was to give voice to black and minority ethnic managers who have successfully achieved senior management roles, and compare their leadership journeys with those of matched white managers. This article used semi-structured interviews and attribution theory to examine how 20 black and minority ethnic and 20 white senior managers from a UK government department made sense of significant career incidents in their leadership journeys. Template analysis was used to identify facilitators and barriers of career progression from causal explanations of these incidents. Although BME and white managers identified four common themes (visibility, networks, development and line manager support), they differed in how they made sense of formal and informal organizational processes to achieve career progression. The findings are used to theorize about the individual and organizational factors that contribute to the leadership journeys of minority ethnic employees.
Explaining leadership in family firms: Reflexivity, social conditioning and institutional complexity
Tim Edwards and Elina Meliou
Human Relations August 2015, 68(8): 1271–1289, doi: 10.1177/0018726714554468
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/8/1271?etoc
Abstract
Research on leadership in family firms has concentrated on the drivers of performance viewed in the context of reciprocal family and business logics, family or non-family CEOs operating within different family governance and administrative settings. The explanatory aim is to ascertain the optimum configuration of elements for achieving improved economic rents so the benefits of family loyalty do not negatively impact firm performance. Our thesis challenges this research, which treats family leadership as a contingent outcome of the governance and administrative contexts within which family and non-family CEOs make strategic choices. We argue that family leadership studies restrict explanations of action to a narrow bandwidth because leadership is effectively black-boxed when it is treated as an outcome of these contingent relations. To overcome this limitation we propose a nested framing of social conditioning that explains the connections between actors, organizations and multiple social orders (and not just family and business). Our contribution is to theorize family leadership in the context of multiple 'social context – personal preference' modes; that is, leadership is conceived through reflexivity, which is the personal process mediating the effects of our circumstances upon our actions.
Fairness, envy, guilt and greed: Building equity considerations into agency theory
Alexander Pepper, Tom Gosling, and Julie Gore
Human Relations August 2015, 68(8): 1291–1314, doi: 10.1177/0018726714554663
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/8/1291?etoc
Abstract
In this article we examine the extent to which fairness considerations are salient to senior executives, and consider the implications for agency theory, tournament theory and the design of top-management incentives. We look for patterns in a unique data set of senior executive preferences and seek explanations for these patterns using a model of fairness first advanced by Fehr and Schmidt in 1999. We propose a number of amendments to Fehr and Schmidt's model. We challenge some of the standard tenets of agency theory and tournament theory, demonstrating why equity considerations should be taken into account. We add to the growing literature on behavioural agency theory.
Understanding the work passion–performance relationship: The mediating role of organizational identification and moderating role of fit at work
Marina N Astakhova and Gayle Porter
Human Relations August 2015, 68(8): 1315–1346, doi: 10.1177/0018726714555204
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/8/1315?etoc
Abstract
Despite a burgeoning of research that examines work passion, the relationships between harmonious and obsessive work passion and job performance have received insufficient attention. Using data from 233 employee–supervisor dyads from multiple organizations in Russia, this study examines the mediating role of organizational identification and the moderating roles of three different types of fit perceptions on this relationship. Results indicate that organizational identification mediates the effect of harmonious work passion – but not obsessive work passion – on performance. Only two types of fit perceptions – person–organization and demands–abilities – were found to moderate the relationship between work passion and performance. Finally, the results showed that person–organization fit perceptions moderate the indirect effect (through organizational identification) of both types of work passion on performance, whereas needs–supplies fit perceptions only moderate the indirect effect of harmonious work passion on performance. This study contributes to the work passion and fit literatures by empirically addressing the complex relationship between work passion, fit, organization identification and job performance.
Reflexivity in practice: Tools and conditions for developing organizational authorship
Mara Gorli, Davide Nicolini, and Giuseppe Scaratti
Human Relations August 2015, 68(8): 1347–1375, doi: 10.1177/0018726714556156
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/8/1347?etoc
Abstract
In this article, we build on the results of a participatory action research project in healthcare to discuss a number of methods that can strengthen the link between reflexive work and authoring in organizational contexts. We argue that, from an organizational point of view, the challenge is to devise new ways to configure (and consider) people as the authors of their work. This means assuming responsibility for, and constructively contributing to, the goals of the organizations to which they belong. Combining insights from theoretical reflection and experience from the field, the article discusses the tools, process and material conditions for fostering practical reflexivity and organizational authorship. We conclude that much is to be gained if we distinguish between authorship and authoring. Authorship is the general process whereby managers and organizational members contribute to the reproduction of organizational realities. Authoring is constituted by the special circumstances whereby authorship is brought to critical consciousness and becomes open to deliberate reorientation.
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THIS MONTH'S FREE ACCESS ARTICLE
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Enhancing performance of geographically distributed teams through targeted use of information and communication technologies
Arvind Malhotra and Ann Majchrzak
Human Relations April 2014, 67(4): 389–411, doi: 10.1177/0018726713495284
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/67/4/389.full.pdf+html
Abstract
Increasingly, geographically dispersed teams are relying exclusively on sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) to coordinate their knowledge. Current research argues that the reliance on the technology (versus face-to-face) for communication may inhibit geographically distributed team performance. In contrast, we argue that previous research associates negative performance effects with the level or degree of exclusive reliance on ICT without regard to the specific form or ways in which team members use ICT. We hypothesize that teams will be more successful when they use ICT to specifically facilitate the situational awareness needs created by their teams' composition and task. We studied 54 geographically dispersed teams that all relied exclusively on ICT (with minimal to no face-to-face interactions) for coordination in order to control for the effect of the level of reliance on ICTs. Our multi-source/multi-method study demonstrates that the form of use can have a positive association with team performance even in teams relying exclusively on ICT depending on the team composition and nature of task being performed. Our findings suggest that, instead of assuming that technology reliance negatively impacts team performance, researchers studying distributed teams should separate the level of reliance (degree of use) from form of reliance (type of use) on ICT.
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WHY PUBLISH IN HUMAN RELATIONS?
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Human Relations is an A* journal – the highest category of quality – in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABCD) Journal Quality List 2013. It is also ranked 4 in the Association of Business Schools (ABS) Academic Journal Guide 2015. With an impact factor of 2.398, it is also ranked as one of the top 5 journals in social and interdisciplinary sciences.
2-year impact factor: 2.398 - Ranked: 35/185 in Management and 5/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
5-year impact factor: 3.187 - Ranked: 37/185 in Management and 3/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Source: 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015)
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CALLS FOR PAPERS
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Special issue: Conceptualising flexible careers across the life course – submit by 1 March 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Flexible%20careers.html
Special issue: Global supply chains and social relations at work – submit by 30 April 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Global%20supply%20chains.html
Special issue: Politicization and political contests in contemporary multinational corporations – submit by 30 September 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Politics%20and%20MNCs.html
Submit your review article to Human Relations
Human Relations welcomes critical review papers that advance our understanding of social relationships at and around work. The journal seeks papers that contribute to the field through a new theory, new methods, a novel synthesis of extant evidence, or a combination of two or three of these elements. Reviews that identify new research questions and that make links between management and organizations and the wider social sciences are particularly welcome.
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RECENT ONLINEFIRST PREVIEW ARTICLES
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SAGE Choice free access:
Symmetrical and asymmetrical outcomes of leader anger expression: A qualitative study of army personnel
Dirk Lindebaum, Peter J Jordan, and Lucy Morris
Human Relations 0018726715593350, first published on July 14, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726715593350
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/07/14/0018726715593350.full.pdf+html
Abstract
Recent studies have highlighted the utility of anger at work, suggesting that anger can have positive outcomes. Using the Dual Threshold Model, we assess the positive and negative consequences of anger expressions at work and focus on the conditions under which expressions of anger crossing the impropriety threshold are perceived as productive or counterproductive by observers or targets of that anger. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted a phenomenological study (n = 20) to probe the lived experiences of followers (as observers and targets) associated with anger expressions by military leaders. The nature of task (e.g. the display rules prescribed for combat situations) emerged as one condition under which the crossing of the impropriety threshold leads to positive outcomes of anger expressions. Our data reveal tensions between emotional display rules and emotional display norms in the military, thereby fostering paradoxical attitudes toward anger expression and its consequences among followers. Within this paradoxical space, anger expressions have both positive (asymmetrical) and negative (symmetrical) consequences. We place our findings in the context of the Dual Threshold Model, discuss the practical implications of our research and offer avenues for future studies.
Is non-family social capital also (or especially) important for family firm performance?
Valeriano Sanchez-Famoso, Naveed Akhter, Txomin Iturralde, Francesco Chirico, and Amaia Maseda
Human Relations 0018726714565724, first published on June 29, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0018726714565724
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/07/01/0018726714565724.abstract
Abstract
This article reports on a study investigating the effects of both family and non-family social capital on firm performance. Specifically, we contend that non-family social capital has a stronger effect on firm performance than family social capital and it also serves as a mediator between family social capital and firm performance. Using a sample of 172 Spanish family firms that includes two respondents per firm, we test a structural model that confirms our hypotheses. Our results extend the understanding of social capital beyond family firms by exploring both family- and non-family-based social relationships in a context in which social factors are predominant.
Best wishes,
Claire Castle
Managing Editor, Human Relations
Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org
Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org
OnlineFirst forthcoming articles: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
Submission guidance: http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/submit_paper.html
2-year impact factor: 2.398 - Ranked: 35/185 in Management and 5/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
5-year impact factor: 3.187 - Ranked: 37/185 in Management and 3/95 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Source: 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015)