This study explored situations in which current organizational goal priorities require rewards allocation logics that contradict traditional distributive norms and the natural characteristics of resources. Data from Chinese and U.S. business organizations showed that the Chinese employees were economically oriented and preferred to invoke differential rules (those that result in unequal distribution of rewards) for the allocation of both material and socioemotional rewards whereas their U.S. counterparts were humanistically oriented and preferred a performance rule for the allocation of material rewards but equality rules for socioemotional rewards. The results are discussed in the light of organizational goal priorities, cultural traditions, and other sociohistorical factors.

People frame and make sense of their worlds through the use of cognitive categories, which researchers can only indirectly access. Public corporate statements are easily accessible and comparable across companies and over time, but it is unclear to what extent such statements reflect organization members' cognitive categorizations. This study is the first to directly compare executives' public and private statements to explore whether and along what dimensions public statements reflect internal company communications. Comparisons of internal and external documents generated by the forest products industry over ten years revealed no significant correlations in the two sets of documents between executives' positive or negative evaluations of events and situations; however, the correlations between their perceptions of control were positive and significant.

This article presents the results of a grounded theory analysis of observation, interview, and archival data collected at SEMATECH, a research, development, and testing consortium in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Three core categories of events and behaviors are described: (1) the factors underlying the consortium's early disorder and ambiguity, (2) the development of a moral community in which individuals and firms made contributions to the industry without regard for immediate and specific payback, and (3) the structuring that emerged from changing practices and norms as consortium founders and others devised ways to foster cooperation. We interpret results in terms of complexity theory, a framework for understanding change that has not been previously explored with detailed empirical data from organizations.

Industries differ widely in how much managerial discretion, or latitude of action, they allow. This research contributes to the reliable and valid measurement of this important but hard-to-measure construct. We found that (1) a panel of academics showed very high consistency in rating managerial discretion in diverse industries, (2) a panel of security analysts agreed strongly with the academics, and (3) the panel ratings were highly related to archival indicators of discretion posited by Hambrick and Finkelstein.

This study examined the relationships among strategy, human resources, and performance among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball teams. Results based on survey data and a widely used performance rating indicated that coaches' preferred strategies influence the characteristics that they look for in recruits. Also, teams implementing a strategy different from a coach's preferred strategy performed less well than those implementing the preferred strategy. Finally, human resource capacities interacted with strategy in determining team performance for two different measures of performance.

We tested a model proposing that subordinates' impression management behavior influences performance ratings through supervisors' liking of and perceived similarity to subordinates. We measured impression management behavior, liking, and similarity six weeks after the establishment of supervisor-subordinate dyads and measured performance ratings after six months. Results indicated support for the overall model and several specified relationships. Additionally, impression management behavior had a significant, indirect impact on performance ratings. Implications of the results for research on impression management and performance appraisal are discussed.

This study examined how small firms differ in their competitive behaviors from their large rivals in an industry and explored the implications of differences for performance. Data on competitive moves and countermoves exchanged by major U.S. airlines supported the predicted differences. The small airlines more actively initiated competitive challenges and were speedy but low-key, even secretive, in executing their actions. They were also less likely and slower to respond when attacked and, contrary to expectations, their responses were more visible than those of their larger opponents. Deviations from group norms hurt performance for both the large and small firms.

The relation of age to pay rates for 197 Hispanic, black, and white non-managerial workers of both sexes was examined in two organizations. Disparity between the pay rates of women and minority group members, relative to white men, increased with age when organizational tenure, education, and skills were controlled.