Knowledge that Transforms

This study draws on theories of compensatory and retributive justice to examine how jurors and employment arbitrators reach decisions regarding awards and damages in cases involving allegations or wrongful discharge. The authors hypothesized that the decision to provide compensatory justice would be determined by both employee and employer attributes, whereas the decision to provide both compensatory and punitive justice would be determined by employer attributes. These hypotheses were tested using a policy-capturing exercise in which the decision makers were asked to make an award and damages determination in cases in which an employee was challenging his or her termination. Results generally support the hypotheses. Findings suggest that within the context of employment disputes, both jurors and employment arbitrators are influenced by a justice-providing motive that involves both compensating the victim and exacting retribution.

Steers and Rhodes' (1978) model of employee attendance encompasses a variety of absence-predictor types (e.g., attitudes, personal factors, etc.). Recent conceptual frameworks suggest that the inconsistent findings on this model may be attributable, in part, to the use of absence timeframes that are incompatible with individual model components. Using data from 580 federal employees, a predictive analysis evaluated exogenous model predictors against absence criteria representing four different cumulation periods. Supplemental analysis explored the possibility of incremental endogenous-variable (i.e., Ability to Attend, Motivation to Attend) contributions. Results of both tests were consistent with a conclusion of partial model support.

Attitudes are shaped through a rational process of integrating one’s beliefs and valences and an automatic process involving heuristics. This investigation extends research on the theory of other orientation by examining the role of other orientation in the first of these two processes. In two survey samples and a follow-up laboratory experiment, the relationship between beliefs about enriched job attributes and job satisfaction was weaker among persons higher in other orientation. These findings specify a different role for individual differences in job attitude formation that has implications for influencing job attitudes among persons from different professions, organizations, and cultures.

This research investigates whether unit power affects interunit knowledge transfer. We propose that units are more likely to transfer their knowledge to other units with more critical, nonsubstitutable, and central knowledge because the latter have greater unit power upon the former. Findings from two firms reveal that differences in knowledge criticality and nonsubstitutability predict the degree of power one unit has upon another. However, only findings from one firm supported the mediating effect of unit power on knowledge transfer from a source to a seeker, suggesting that the role of unit power in affecting interunit knowledge transfer may be contingent on the degree of goal interdependence among units.

A field study of 179 employees in an investment technology firm explores the relationship between identity comprehension and individual work outcomes. Identity comprehension is defined as the degree to which the relative importance of one's identities is recognized by important others. Results show that individuals with higher levels of identity comprehension in work teams are likely to have higher levels of creativity and satisfaction and lower levels of absenteeism.

Using data from the Toronto Stock Exchange 300 companies for a 7-year period, the authors examine the role that institutional activism types and three salient board monitoring mechanisms— CEO/board chair split, board composition, and compensation committee independence—play in influencing CEO contingent compensation in Canada. The authors find that the effect of institutional activism, especially proxy based, is stronger on contingent CEO compensation and that its effects span a longer time. As opposed to the interactions of cumulative proxy-based activism with any of the three monitoring mechanisms, the interactions of cumulative non-proxy-based activism with both CEO/board chair split and compensation committee independence appear to influence CEO contingent compensation. The study's implications are given.

The accounting scandals of recent years have raised concerns about the efficacy of incentive alignment and control systems. Among matched firms that either did or did not restate misleading financial disclosures during the period 1994-2003, both managerial equity ownership and contingent compensation were positively related to restatements when considered independently of other factors such as firm performance and board characteristics. When these variables were introduced, performance positively moderated the relationship between ownership and restatements, although contingent compensation was no longer significant. Finally, misleading disclosures were less prevalent in firms whose boards had high levels of business experience and long tenure.

The authors conducted five studies to examine the interactive effects of hurricane-induced job stress and perceived resources on job satisfaction, job tension, and work effort. The authors hypothesized that heightened hurricane-induced job stress would increase adverse reactions for those with fewer perceived resources. Conversely, the authors expected higher levels of perceived resources to neutralize these effects. Results support the hypothesis across studies. Interestingly, job satisfaction improved for those with high levels of perceived resources as hurricane-induced job stress increased in two studies. The authors discuss theoretical implications for traumatic and general stress research, as well as practice, and provide directions for future research.

The authors examine the moderating effects of conscientiousness on the relationships between agency controls and effort and agency controls and task performance. Results show that less conscientious individuals appear to increase effort through incentive alignment and monitoring, whereas conscientious individuals do not shirk with or without agency controls. Furthermore, results show that less conscientious individuals increase task performance through incentive alignment, but not through monitoring. The study confirms that motivation to act opportunistically differs between individuals unlike what is assumed by agency theory. Also, incentive alignment may be more effective than monitoring when attempting to align principal and agent interests.