Knowledge that Transforms

ABSTRACT This study integrates organizational theory and strategic human resource management research to examine how corporate standards for managing frontline employees shape human resource (HR) implementation at the unit level. While prior research has recognized the role of line managers, less is known about how HR investments directed at line managers influence their implementation of HR practices. We argue that more extensive HR‐related corporate standards, embedded in chain training and technology systems, lead franchisees to invest in line manager training and compensation. These investments enhance line managers' ability and motivation to implement HR practices for frontline employees in line with corporate standards. We further propose that corporate enforcement mechanisms, in the form of contract terminations, strengthen these relationships. Using a nationally stratified random sample of 908 franchisee‐owned units across 143 U.S. fast food chains, we combine survey data on unit‐level HR practices with independent measures of corporate standards from franchise disclosure documents. Results reveal that corporate standards do not simply flow through to frontline employee HR practices but are instead transmitted through line manager HR investments, with stronger effects under greater enforcement. These findings identify line managers as key conduits through which corporate standards are enacted in unit‐level practices and highlight the importance of aligning standards, managerial investments, and enforcement in decentralized organizations.

ABSTRACT The COVID‐19 pandemic catalyzed a global shift toward working from home (WFH), potentially reshaping workplace norms and employee expectations. As organizations began scaling back previously available WFH arrangements in the post‐pandemic period, questions emerged about how such changes affect employee satisfaction. Drawing on psychological contract theory, this study examines how reductions in WFH availability influence employee job satisfaction and tests psychological contract violation as the key causal mechanism underlying this relationship. Using two complementary studies, we provide evidence that scaling back WFH availability leads to declines in employee job satisfaction after the pandemic. The first study leverages longitudinal organizational data from U.S. federal agencies spanning 2016 to 2023 and a quasi‐experimental research design to examine how sharper reductions in WFH availability affect employee job satisfaction. The second study uses a scenario‐based experimental design to demonstrate that reductions in WFH availability increase perceptions of psychological contract violation, which in turn reduce job satisfaction. Together, these findings highlight that post‐pandemic reductions in previously available flexibility are not merely logistical adjustments, but meaningful relational changes with important implications for employee attitudes.

ABSTRACT The proliferation of electronic performance monitoring (EPM) has made digital surveillance ubiquitous in modern workplaces. Meta‐analytic evidence indicates that, on average, EPM leaves performance unchanged while consistently increasing employee stress. We propose that this null overall effect reflects two counterbalancing pathways triggered by the same monitoring stimulus. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we posit that EPM is positively associated with employees' perception of objectification, which in turn triggers two divergent coping pathways: (a) an emotion‐focused path in which hostile affect positively predicts workplace incivility and negatively predicts job performance, and (b) a problem‐focused path in which problem‐focused reactance positively predicts job performance. Three complementary studies, an online experiment (Study 1, with two sub‐studies; N = 240), a multisource, multiwave field survey (Study 2; N = 224), and a 10‐day experience sampling study (Study 3; N = 96, yielding 612 daily observations), support this dual‐pathway model. Crucially, we identify development idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) as a pivotal moderator: employees who secure personalized growth resources amplify problem‐focused behaviors while mitigating the interpersonal and performance costs of emotion‐focused responses. This research offers a nuanced understanding of EPM, providing organizations with insights into how to balance monitoring efficiency with employee initiative through human‐centric i‐deals.

ABSTRACT Cross‐border acquisitions involving developed and emerging economies serve as an important source of organizational learning and performance renewal. Yet, how these cross‐border learning opportunities are internalized through human capital investment and how such investments influence post‐acquisition outcomes remain a theoretically rich but empirically underexplored question. Based on the resource‐based view of the firm and, in conjunction, the absorptive capacity literature, we propose that acquisitions between firms from different economic categories (developed vs. emerging economies) have a positive effect on the training investments, which, in turn, positively mediates the effect of cross‐border acquisitions on post‐acquisition firm performance. We further propose firm‐specific contingencies that bound the relationships between cross‐border acquisitions, training investments, and firm performance. Specifically, we argue that acquirers with prior experience are less reliant on training investments, and R&D of the acquired firm plays a complementary role to training investments in generating higher returns from the acquisition. We test these propositions using data on 1759 acquisition deals during the period 2004–2023. Our results provide support for our theoretical arguments. The findings advance the human resource management literature by highlighting the capability‐building role of training in leveraging human capital to enhance firm performance in cross‐border acquisitions. The study also has practical implications for multinational acquirers aiming to strengthen organizational capabilities and build post‐acquisition resilience through targeted training investments.

ABSTRACT Within pay‐for‐performance (PFP) systems, employee motivation changes over time. Lower‐performing employees, in particular, are more likely to reduce their effort in the future as their expectancy perceptions weaken. This study examines a critical yet underexplored design feature of PFP systems: PFP payment timing, which refers to the temporal distance between performance feedback and reward disbursement. Drawing on expectancy theory, we propose that instant PFP payments exert stronger incentive effects on future performance among lower‐performing employees than do delayed PFP payments. We test these hypotheses using a field experiment conducted in a real estate sales firm. The results indicate that, relative to delayed PFP payments, instant PFP payments improve the subsequent performance of lower‐performing employees, although this effect attenuates over time. These findings underscore that PFP payment timing is a human resource management intervention for sustaining motivation among lower‐performing employees, while also revealing the temporal limits of its effectiveness.

ABSTRACT Fragmented work arrangements increasingly challenge conventional firm‐centric approaches to human resource management (HRM), as HR activities become distributed across multiple actors. The concept of HR ecosystem offers a powerful lens for understanding this shift, yet we know little about how such ecosystems emerge and evolve over time. Drawing on 178 in‐depth qualitative interviews from China's online food delivery sector, we find that HR ecosystems evolve through four stages: pre‐emergence static alignment, misalignment, realignment, and dynamic alignment. A defining feature of this process is the emergence of functional shared governance, in which HR responsibilities are distributed out of operational necessity rather than consensual power sharing. As this diffusion disrupts previously established static alignment, organizations respond through maintenance and adaptation strategies, with digital technologies enabling coordination and responsiveness across dispersed participants. These efforts produce dynamic alignment—an ongoing process through which HRM is continually recalibrated to maintain coherence while accommodating variation and change. Our findings contribute to the literature by theorizing how HR ecosystems emerge, how functional shared governance develops, and how dynamic alignment is achieved over time.

ABSTRACT Gender diversity in leadership helps organizations address environmental issues, one of the grand challenges. However, much of the existing research treats corporate environmental strategies as a monolithic concept, overlooking important distinctions between different types of environmental approaches. Based on the approach/inhibition theory of power, we argue that TMT gender diversity influences different types of TMT motivation (i.e., approach or avoidance focus), which in turn lead to distinctive environmental strategies (i.e., proactive or reactive strategies). This relationship is shaped by gender power dynamics at both regional and organizational levels. Using panel data comprising 6741 observations from firms in high‐polluting industries, we find that under conditions of traditional regional gender norms or high TMT gender power inequality, gender diversity fosters reactive environmental strategies by activating TMT avoidance focus. Conversely, when TMT gender power inequality is low, gender diversity promotes proactive environmental strategies by activating TMT approach focus. This study highlights the critical roles of gender power equality and team psychological motivations in shaping the impact of female TMT representation on corporate environmental strategies.

ABSTRACT The popular press and consulting reports claim that organizations with gender equity are rewarded with a more productive workforce. Nevertheless, despite extensive research on the antecedents of the gender pay gap, we know little about how the organization‐level gender pay gap relates to labor productivity, particularly when considered alongside other interrelated human resource systems such as the work–life balance practices of the organization. Drawing on scholarship on multilevel strategic human resource processes that shape labor productivity, we theorize that organization‐level gender equity is positively associated with labor productivity such that in firms with gender‐equitable pay, alongside work–life balance, employees (regardless of gender) collaborate and collectively deploy human capital, increasing labor productivity. Data from 611 US firms and 6,255 UK firms suggest that the gender pay gap is negatively related to labor productivity, regardless of whether the country permits pay‐gap secrecy (US) or requires organizations to publicly disclose their gender pay gaps (UK). Organizations' gender pay gaps are also associated with the labor productivity trajectory: labor productivity decreased over time in organizations with greater gender pay gaps, but did not change significantly over time in organizations with moderate or lower gender pay gaps. Furthermore, organizations' gender pay gap and work–life balance interact, such that labor productivity is greatest in organizations with lower pay gaps and higher work–life balance. The results support the business case for gender equality—organizations with lower gender pay gaps and higher work–life balance exhibit higher labor productivity.

ABSTRACT This study examines the complex relationship between vertical pay dispersion (i.e., pay disparities across different organizational levels) and employee turnover by integrating insights from tournament theory and equity theory. While vertical pay dispersion is designed to incentivize career advancement, we argue it can simultaneously elevate turnover at all levels by fostering competition and inequity. Based on data collected from 302 firms in the Great Bay Area (Guangdong Province in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao), our results show that greater vertical pay dispersion increases turnover for senior managers as well as lower‐level managers and employees. Inconsistent with tournament logic, we find that the detrimental effect of vertical pay dispersion on turnover is not significantly weaker for senior managers who benefit from the dispersion than for lower‐level managers and employees. Drawing on equity theory, we further investigate the moderating role of high‐investment human resource systems (HIHRS), which reflect an organization's fair treatment of employees. Results support the hypothesis that the coexistence of high vertical pay dispersion and high HIHRS within a firm increases both employee and senior manager turnover, as these practices send conflicting signals about organizational priorities and equity. These findings contribute to compensation literature by unfolding the contingent and differential effects of pay structures on turnover across hierarchical levels and organizational contexts.

ABSTRACT The present study examined Beus et al.'s group‐based climate‐congruence theory in the context of 670 establishments of a national retailer. The theory proposes that climate‐outcome relationships can be influenced by contextual conditions such as industry and national culture. We extended such logic to the indirect relationship between manager‐rated cooperative climate (through collective employee job performance and employee‐rated cooperative climate) and business‐establishment financial performance. Drawing from the information‐based approach to diversity, we conceptualized business‐establishment employee racioethnic diversity as a contextual condition that can amplify the benefits of cooperative climate for business‐establishment performance by providing a variety of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), experience, and perspectives to bear on work tasks. In support of our predictions, results showed that manager‐rated cooperative climate (Year 1) had a more strongly positive indirect effect on business‐establishment financial performance (Year 3), through collective employee job performance (Year 2) and employee‐rated cooperative climate (Year 2), in establishments with higher versus lower employee racioethnic diversity. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings considering the study's strengths and limitations.