Knowledge that Transforms

Prior research indicates that the influence of alcohol use, at work or at home, on employees' personal and professional lives is often harmless, but that it can be detrimental under certain circumstances. Alcohol's prevalence in and around some workplaces suggests that some employees value it, and that companies seeking to hire and retain these employees perhaps see a competitive advantage in embracing permissive workplace drinking norms. In this article, we draw from signaling theory and the fit, applicant attraction, and political skill literatures, to propose that during the recruitment process, organizations that promote workplace drinking norms are likely to attract applicants with high levels of political skill while turning off those with low levels of political skill. We conducted two studies and found that new labor market entrants with lower levels of political skill perceived lower levels of fit with companies that promote the acceptance of alcohol use at work‐related events during the recruitment process compared to companies that do not signal the presence of workplace drinking norms in their recruitment activities. In turn, these lower fit perceptions related to reduced organizational attraction.

The moderating effect of pay dispersion on the relationship between employee share ownership (ESO) and labor productivity is examined in an unbalanced panel sample of 533 organizations (1,156 organization‐year data points) in Korea. Pay differential between job levels (vertical pay dispersion) is theorized to negatively moderate the ESO–productivity relationship. On the other hand, pay differential within a job level (horizontal pay dispersion) is theorized to positively moderate the ESO–productivity relationship. These predictions are partially supported. Consistent with the prediction, vertical pay dispersion negatively moderates the ESO–productivity relationship in that the relationship is more negative when vertical pay dispersion is high. However, we found no support for the moderating effect of horizontal pay dispersion in this relationship. The results challenge the simplistic view that pay dispersion per se can be detrimental to the ESO–productivity relationship.

How might organizational inducements influence the mentoring behavior of senior executives? In a multisource study of senior executives ( n = 239) and their direct reports ( n = 1,098), the researchers found mixed results—relational inducements (e.g., investments in career development) were positively associated with mentoring whereas transactional inducements (e.g., compensation) were negatively associated. Results are explained from signaling and self‐determination theory wherein inducements communicate organizational priorities that either uphold or undermine mentoring behavior. While prior research has examined the benefits of inducements on job performance, this study reveals that inducements can have differential and unintended consequence on prosocial and relational behavior such as mentoring. It is the first study to examine the unintended and differential consequence of inducements on mentoring behavior. In addition, the findings challenge assumptions about the trickle‐down benefits of organizational rewards and suggest that the consequences of human capital investments extend far beyond the focal leader.

The question of whether academic research should emphasize scientific rigor, practical relevance, or both simultaneously has been hotly debated in HRM research and other related disciplines for much of the past century. That said, empirical investigations of whether these values are mutually exclusive or compatible are surprisingly rare. Moreover, the perspective of the end consumers of research—practitioners—as to what research is relevant has been almost completely ignored. In the present study, we adopt an institutional logics perspective to assess the perceived relevance of common management research findings with two samples of 298 and 143 practicing managers, respectively. Further, we examine whether objective indicators of rigor and manager‐rated relevance impact academic legitimacy. The results indicate a positive relationship between rigor and relevance. Interestingly, practitioner ratings of relevance were stronger predictors of academic legitimacy than methodological rigor. Finally, research findings that deal with leadership topics are rated as most relevant to practitioners, whereas job characteristics, demographics, and human resource practices are seen as the least relevant to managers. The contributions of this study and implications for future research conclude the article.

Research on occupational segregation has found that gay men and lesbians concentrate in occupations with high task independence. This research proposed that gay men and lesbians self‐select into such occupations, as it may be easier to manage their sexual orientation if they do not interact closely with others. We provide a complementary explanation that the high concentration of gay men and lesbians in high‐task‐independent jobs may be due to bias during the selection stage. We conducted two studies to examine (a) whether discrimination at the point of hiring limits gay men and lesbians’ access to high‐task‐interdependent occupations, and (b) whether gay men and lesbians in task‐interdependent jobs are less likely to be invited to socialize by coworkers. We found that gay men and lesbians are discriminated against for task‐interdependent occupations by hiring personnel, but notably are more likely to be invited to socialize outside of work by coworkers if they are in task‐interdependent jobs. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice of occupational segregation of gay men and lesbians specifically and for other minority or stigmatized groups in general.

This article applies a social relations discourse to examine the use of expatriates in Chinese multinational companies (MNCs). Expatriates are analyzed based on two sets of social relations: the social functions of expatriates (which include the global function of capital and the collective function of labor) and the pathways of expatriation (which include intra‐ and interfirm transfers). In particular, the framework incorporates the collective function of labor into the analysis of expatriation, which has received limited attention in the existing international HRM literature. Conceptually, the social relations discourse allowed us to frame staffing in an open system in which HR practices involving expatriation are shaped by the intersections between the choices of MNCs, the actions of workers, and the mediation of institutional players. Empirically, this article presents three case studies of Chinese MNCs in Europe to illustrate the tiered expatriation of managerial staff, technicians, and operational workers from interchangeable sources of labor. The HR policy implications suggest greater diversity in the formation of international staffing for MNCs.

Using a sample composed of 701 food and beverage managers nested in 120 units and 40 Asian hotel properties, in the current study we investigated the effects of unit high‐performance work system (HPWS) use and unit support climate on individual unit members' human resource outcomes (job performance behaviors: in‐role and organizational citizenship behaviors). The results support the hypothesized relationships among unit HPWS use, unit support climate, individual affective commitment, and individual job performance behaviors. The current study's findings illuminate the ways (e.g., mediation and moderation) in which the unit support climate advances positive organizationally relevant individual‐level human resource outcomes. Findings, implications, and limitations as well as avenues for future research are discussed.