Knowledge that Transforms

Strikes are a recurring workplace phenomenon that affects strikers, their families, and managers, but also others such as commuters. To date, studies examining individual-level effects of strikes have been scattered across different fields of study. This systematic literature review summarizes studies on these effects and on how unaffected third parties, such as the public, evaluate strikes. We conducted searches in four databases. The 72 included studies show that strikes can have detrimental effects, for example, on psychological health, but these can be decreased with resources such as social support. Based on the existing literature, we developed the comprehensive strike aftermath framework as an overarching framework in which we incorporate avenues for future research. We conclude that research on this work phenomenon is still scarce and future research on long-lasting effects of strikes on managers’ and employees’ health and work attitudes is needed.

Green innovation is an organizational strategy aimed to address climate crises and create low-carbon growth, yet, its implementation remains a significant challenge. We focus on green innovation implementation (GII) and argue that GII is a distinctive strategic process. Traditional innovation implementation, centered on short-term economic growth, can be problematic as it often decouples nature from innovation in the pursuit of profit maximization. Thus, the traditional approach fails to adequately explain GII, specifically, who implements it and how they do it. We adopt a strategy-as-practice perspective and conduct a systematic review of 224 journal articles across various management fields to synthesize existing knowledge of GII. This review makes three main contributions. First, we posit that GII is theoretically distinct with unique implementation challenges: recoupling nature with innovation implementation introduces complex antecedents and environment-inclusive benefits, requiring a long-term implementation process and a broader scope. Second, we develop a framework that synthesizes practitioners, antecedents, processes, and impact of GII from three theoretical foci: (1) resource-based perspective, (2) sustainable value-driven perspective, and (3) institutional perspective. This framework complements the traditional understanding of innovation implementation by offering diverse theoretical insights on GII. Third, we propose theoretical and methodological directions for future research to advance knowledge on green innovation and provide meaningful insights on GII.

Vision communication plays a crucial role in leadership, strategic management, and organizational change. However, current research on vision communication is fragmented, leading to a limited understanding of the topic. To advance this topic, this paper synthesizes the existing literature on the dimensions, theoretical mechanisms, moderators, and outcomes of vision communication, drawing on 150 papers. In particular, we identify four key dimensions of vision communication: vision attributes (e.g., imagery, metaphor), vision content (e.g., emphasis on profits or product quality), vision communication frequency (e.g., infrequent vs. frequent), and non-verbal delivery (e.g., emotional displays, eye gaze). Furthermore, we integrate four theoretical perspectives—motivation-based, identification-based, affect-based, and cognition-based—to explain the effects of vision communication. In essence, vision influences various outcomes by ensuring that employees are motivated and feel confident in their ability to achieve them (i.e., motivation-based), identify with the vision or leadership (i.e., identification-based), experience emotional inspiration or positive affect (i.e., affect-based), or understand the vision (i.e., cognition-based). Based on these mechanisms, we outline four categories of moderating factors that shape their impact (e.g., leader factors, follower factors, leader-follower relationships, and contextual factors). Finally, we outline future research directions to further advance research on vision communication.

Human resource (HR) practices hold great promise in fostering employee trust, and insights into how HR practices relate to employee trust are critical to evidence-informed management. However, extant research findings are fragmented and dispersed across disciplines and use a confusing plethora of concepts, limiting insights. To address these problems, we conducted a systematic review to offer a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of “what,” “how,” and “when” HR practices influence employee trust toward four referents (supervisor, management, peers, and organization). Specifically, we identify the evidence-based patterns regarding “what” HR practices are related to employee trust toward “what” referents, “how” HR practices are related to employee trust, and “when” HR practices are more or less related to employee trust. We find that while bundles of HR practices are positively associated with vertical trust toward management, lateral trust toward peers, and organizational trust, individual HR practices have differential associations with trust toward the four referents, which in turn predict different outcomes. We discuss research limitations and opportunities and provide a framework and set of methodological recommendations to guide a new wave of future research. We propose a broader set of theories to enrich understanding of “how” HR practices lead to employee trust, further clarifications on the HR and trust concepts examined, and explore additional moderators. These efforts will further integrate trust and HR research and generate more rigorous knowledge to inform management of employee trust through HR practices.

Perceived overqualification (POQ) has traditionally been seen as an undesirable employment situation associated with negative outcomes. However, recent research suggests that POQ may have positive implications for both employees and organizations. Despite the growing literature on this topic, scholars have offered numerous explanatory mechanisms for linking POQ with its work outcomes, and inconsistent findings have been reported, highlighting the need for a comprehensive understanding of why, where, and for whom POQ is beneficial or detrimental. In the present study, we developed an integrative theoretical framework that depicts the consequences, mechanisms, and moderators of POQ. We then conducted a meta-analytical review of the POQ literature, analyzing 704 effect sizes from 251 independent samples (N = 87,229). By organizing the dominant mechanisms in POQ research within a unified framework of work motivation, we elucidate the distinct pathways by which POQ induces differential work consequences. We further consider the role of key cultural, economic, sociodemographic, and methodological characteristics as boundary conditions. Overall, our findings provide support for our predictions and provide novel insights into the work-related consequences of POQ. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are thoroughly discussed.

Research suggests that teams can greatly enhance their performance through boundary management, which comprises activities that establish, maintain, and regulate linkages with the surrounding environment. However, such performance gains do not materialize equally in all instances, and some teams struggle to benefit from boundary management. Integrating insights from social network and team-level resource allocation theories, we develop a contingency framework that considers the internal organization of a team's boundary management (i.e., the carrier, target, and type of such activities) as a key moderating factor that accounts for the varying effects. To test this framework, we use a meta-analytic approach that synthesizes >30 years of empirical research (i.e., 85 primary studies covering 10,848 teams). Our results show a positive main effect of team boundary management on team performance. Crucially, these performance benefits are more pronounced when the target of boundary management is extraorganizational rather than inside the home organization and when the type of boundary management activities is boundary spanning (e.g., coordination, representation, or information search) rather than boundary strengthening (e.g., buffering, guarding, or sentry activities). Moreover, boundary management is more effective when executed by formal team leaders rather than team members, and our results tentatively suggest that this may reflect differences in effectiveness between leaders and members in boundary strengthening, rather than boundary spanning. Overall, our findings advance theory on team boundary management by clarifying previously ambiguous findings and illustrating how teams can design their boundary management activities to be most effective.

Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are popular assessment approaches that present scenarios describing situations that one may experience in a job. Due to its long history and cross-disciplinary nature, today’s SJT literature is quite fragmented. In this integrative review, we start by systematically taking stock and synthesizing the SJT literature from the different scientific disciplines via bibliometric techniques on 524 unique documents. We identify six literature clusters (i.e., SJTs in the medical sciences, SJTs in personnel selection, methodological issues and SJTs for specific constructs, SJTs to assess emotional intelligence and related constructs, technological advances in SJTs, SJTs for teacher assessment and development) that correspond to academic disciplines and research streams within them. We also identify current trends in SJT research by examining the clusters formed by a recent subset of the SJT literature. We then build on the bibliometric analysis by categorizing the identified themes in an organizing framework with two fundamental dimensions: the main purpose of a study (i.e., conceptual understanding, prediction, other [e.g., understanding mean group differences, applicant reactions]) and its research focus (i.e., SJTs holistically, content, and design and methods). Finally, on the basis of this framework, we provide recommendations to encourage greater knowledge sharing between scientific disciplines. In addition, we outline an agenda for future research in terms of four broad directions: SJT theory, SJT constructs, SJT design and methods, and SJT application domains.

Extant research has yielded conflicting theoretical and empirical predictions about whether family firm acquirers perform better or worse in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) than their nonfamily firm counterparts. To help resolve this controversy, we take a socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective to theorize that family members’ desire to preserve their SEW favors the pursuit of M&A strategies that are both beneficial (industry-related M&As) and detrimental (domestic M&As) to M&A performance. We further theorize that the desire to preserve SEW leads to family firm idiosyncratic SEW resources that help family firm acquirers, on average, achieve better M&A performance than nonfamily firm acquirers. Meta-analytic results based on 51 primary studies covering 242,123 M&A deals are in line with our predictions. Thus, our study contributes to the literature on family firms and M&A performance by explaining how the different M&A strategies chosen by family firms have positive and negative consequences for M&A performance. Our theory and findings have implications for future family business and M&A research.

Maternity, a period of transition beginning with prenatal bodily changes and progressing through postnatal lactation, is experienced by up to 66% of working women. Over the past several decades, research on maternity in the workplace has grown exponentially to reveal salient maternity biases that plague women as they navigate their employee and motherhood identities. With the aim of providing information that aids scholars and practitioners in better understanding the experiences of working mothers, we conducted a systematic review of 239 papers on maternity bias (i.e., formal, interpersonal, and internalized). Our interdisciplinary review discusses these three forms of bias and how they might present across different career stages for working mothers. Additionally, we review the antecedents that may drive maternity bias and the outcomes that result for working mothers who perceive or anticipate bias at work. Finally, we discuss areas of previous research aimed at overcoming maternity bias from the perspective of working mothers, their colleagues, and their organization. We conclude by discussing the trends brought to light in our review, the collective strengths and weaknesses of commonly adopted theoretical perspectives of the research reviewed, implications for combating maternity bias for women and their organizations, and recommendations for future research. Our model of maternity bias comprehensively reviews past work to provide insights into the bias that working mothers endure at work but also provides a path forward, as better understanding these biases empower organizations, coworkers, and employees to remediate maternity bias.

Organizational programs and policies are important facilitators of employees’ career development. However, organizations face a developmental paradox: Their career-aiding programs and policies might increase the employability of their employees, who might then leave the company. Guided by organizational support theory, we propose a theory-driven reciprocation view that explains why organization-sponsored career development practices might actually strengthen the current employment relationship. We argued that by offering career aids and resources, an organization can promote its employees’ perceptions of organizational support. These perceptions evoke reciprocation, manifested in strengthened organizational attachment that enhances job performance and lowers turnover. In a meta-analysis of over 1,000 articles, we found that employer-sponsored career development practices were related to employees’ job performance and turnover via the mechanisms of perceived organizational support and organizational attachment. Further, this relationship was even stronger when career development practices signaled greater care by being available (vs. used), institutionally embedded (vs. relational), and career focused (vs. job focused).