Knowledge that Transforms

This study tested the utility of a stress and coping model of employee adjustment to a merger. Two hundred and twenty employees completed both questionnaires (Time 1: 3 months after merger implementation; Time 2: 2 years later). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that positive event characteristics predicted greater appraisals of self-efficacy and less stress at Time 1. Self-efficacy, in turn, predicted greater use of problem-focused coping at Time 2, whereas stress predicted a greater use of problem-focused and avoidance coping. Finally, problem-focused coping predicted higher levels of job satisfaction and identification with the merged organization (Time 2), whereas avoidance coping predicted lower identification.

This study investigates whether different participants in corporate governance reward strategic persistence through executive compensation. Internal participants (inside directors, CEOs/ chairs, and corporate officers who own a significant proportion of company stock) are expected to favor stability and therefore reward persistence, whereas external participants (large block shareholders) are predicted to favor change and therefore penalize persistence. Results suggest that the presence of CEOs/chairs leads to rewarding strategic persistence with total compensation. Inside directors also appear to reward persistence with fixed compensation. Large external shareholders,contrary to expectations, seem to reward persistence with higher levels of fixed compensation.

This study focuses on how employees cope with dueling social identities when one is of relatively low status compared to the other by studying local senior executives in mulinational corporations’ (MNC’s) subsidiaries who can identify with the local staff and/or headquarters’ management. As hypothesized, perceptions of local staff incompetence are positively related to executives’ turnover intentions. This relationship becomes weaker if they have high-quality communication with, or high levels of trust in, headquarters’ management. Results suggest that employees disidentify with a stigmatized identity group by intending to quit; however, identification with a higher status alternative identity group can mitigate this effect.

The Journal of Management, now one of the preeminent journals in the discipline, completed its 30th year of publication in 2004. To provide an understanding of the journal's development, this article reviews its origins as recounted in reflections by its past editors, examines three decades of publication statistics, and provides a brief look at the journal's possible future. Thus, this is a history of the journal, a glimpse into the work of its editors, and a brief case study of organizational evolution.

This article takes a multilevel perspective to explore various sources of imitation. Three levels of imitation sources include firms’ own experience (firm level), actions of firms within the same product market (market level), and firms in different product markets but within the same industry (industry level). Hypothesis tests on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) that occurred from 1981 to 2000 in the financial service industry show that three levels of imitation occur independently and simultaneously and have significant impact on the choice of M&As. M&As by firms entering the focal product market, however, are not significantly associated with the likelihood of an unrelated M&A.

The authors explored the validity of two perspectives as to how managers evaluate subordinates who resist downward influence attempts: a uniformly dysfunctional perspective (i.e., managers regard all manifestations of resistance as indicators of ineffective influence and rate subordinates unfavorably when they resist) and a multifunctional perspective (i.e., managers regard some manifestations of resistance as more constructive than others and rate subordinates more favorably when they employ constructive resistance tactics). The results of two studies provided support for an interactive model, which predicts that the uniformly dysfunctional perspective is characteristic of lower quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships and that the multifunctional perspective is characteristic of higher quality leader-member exchanges.

Research on organizational socialization processes has not firmly established the relationships among prior work experience, preentry variables, and postentry attitudes and behavior. Using a longitudinal sample of 218 newcomers, a survival model was developed to test whether the relationship between prior occupational experience and retention is mediated by such preentry variables as person-job (P-J) fit, value congruence, and organizational expectations. Results indicate that prior occupational work experience significantly affects retention in the short run, and this relationship is mediated by preentry P-J fit and value congruence.

The authors examined the influence of personal information privacy concerns and computer experience on applicants’ reactions to online screening procedures. Study 1 used a student sample simulating application for a fictitious management intern job with a state personnel agency (N = 117) and employed a longitudinal, laboratory-based design. Study 2 employed a field sample of actual applicants (N = 396) applying for jobs online. As predicted, procedural justice mediated the relationship between personal information privacy concerns and test-taking motivation, organizational attraction, and organizational intentions in the laboratory and field. Experience with computers moderated the relationship between procedural justice with test-taking motivation and organizational intentions in the field but not in the laboratory sample. Implications are discussed in terms of the importance of considering applicants’ personal information privacy concerns and testing experience when designing online recruitment and selection systems.

Scholars have theorized that firms can intervene in the creation of formal technology standards to reduce uncertainty and influence the outcome to their advantage. One approach is through early acquisition: Firms can acquire targets with relevant technology prior to standardization. Using real options logic, the authors show how early acquisitions can be considered a growth option under certain circumstances. They find that acquisitions are more likely to occur before the passage of the standard when (a) acquirers lacked relevant technical knowledge, (b) target firms possessed relevant technical knowledge,and (c) acquirers had a prior equity investment in the target firm.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) has not achieved its potential, in part, because those it sought to help have shown a reluctance to request accommodations. Using survey data from 229 hearing-impaired employees and an expert panel, logistic regression confirmed that monetary costs and impositions on others negatively influence the likelihood of requesting recurring accommodations. Furthermore, monetary costs and impositions on others negatively influence the requester’s assessments of the social consequences of making such requests. These consequences, in turn, can also negatively influence future disability accommodation requests.