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FREE ACCESS ARTICLE FOR NOVEMBER

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Free to access until 30 November 2016:

What motivates entrepreneurial entry under economic inequality? The role of human and financial capital

Emanuel Xavier-Oliveira, André O Laplume,  and Saurav Pathak

Human Relations July 2015 68: 1183-1207, doi: 10.1177/0018726715578200

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/7/1183.full.pdf+html

Abstract

Based on a multilevel analysis of nearly 120,000 observations across 31 countries between 2001 and 2008, we provide novel insights into the moderating effects that economic inequality may have on the distinct roles that human and financial capital

play on different types of entrepreneurship. As inequality increases, both forms of capital become weaker deterrents of entry into necessity entrepreneurship, whereas for opportunity entrepreneurship, only financial capital becomes a stronger predictor

of entry. We also show that, regardless of inequality levels, both human and financial capital exhibit decreasing marginal returns on the likelihood of entry into necessity entrepreneurship, and that in the case of opportunity entrepreneurship, financial capital

exhibits increasing marginal returns. However, inequality does impact the magnitude of marginal returns. Additionally, our statistical analysis provides quantitative support to extant literature arguing that higher levels of economic inequality foster both types of entrepreneurship albeit having a stronger impact on necessity entrepreneurship, and that human and financial capital have distinct effects on entry into necessity versus opportunity entrepreneurship. All these findings have pertinent policy implications and shed light on the under-researched role of inequality on entrepreneurship.

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NOVEMBER ISSUE ARTICLES

Access entire issue here: November 2016; 69(11)

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From social context and resilience to performance through job satisfaction:

A multilevel study over time

Isabella Meneghel, Laura Borgogni, Mariella Miraglia, Marisa Salanova, and Isabel M Martínez

Human Relations November 2016, 69(11): 2047‒2067, first published online before print April 26, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716631808  

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/11/2047?etoc

Abstract

Giving the crucial role of organizational context in shaping individual attitudes and behaviors at work, in this research we studied the effects of collective work-unit perceptions of social context on individual work resilience and two key individual outcomes: job satisfaction and job performance as rated by the supervisor. We theorized that collective perceptions of social context act as antecedents of individual variables, and that individual job satisfaction mediates the relationship between collective perceptions of social context and job performance, and between work resilience and job performance over time. A sample of 305 white-collar employees, clustered in 67 work-units, participated in the study. Hierarchical linear modeling highlighted that collective perceptions of social context are significant related to individual work resilience. Moreover, results showed that individual job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between collective perceptions of social context and individual job performance and the relationship between individual work resilience and individual job performance. At a practical level, results suggest that interventions on collective perceptions of social context may increase work resilience, job satisfaction and job performance over time at the individual level.

Towards a Butlerian methodology:

Undoing organizational performativity through anti-narrative research

Kathleen Riach, Nick Rumens, and Melissa Tyler

Human Relations November 2016, 69(11): 2069‒2089, first published online before print May 20, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716632050

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/11/2069?etoc

Abstract

This article explores the methodological possibilities that Butler's theory of performativity opens up, attempting to 'translate' her theoretical ideas into research practice. Specifically, it considers how research on organizational subjectivity premised upon a performative ontology might be undertaken. It asks: What form might a Butler-inspired methodology take? What methodological opportunities might it afford for developing self-reflexive research? What political and ethical problems might it pose for organizational researchers, particularly in relation to the challenges associated with power asymmetries, and the risks attached to 'fixing' subjects within the research process? The article outlines and evaluates a method described as anti-narrative interviewing, arguing that it constitutes a potentially valuable methodological resource for researchers interested in understanding how and why idealized organizational subjectivities are formed and sustained. It further advances the in-roads that Butler's writing has made into organization studies, thinking through the methodological and ethical implications of her work for understanding the performative constitution of organizational subjectivities. The aim of the article is to advocate a research practice premised upon a reflexive undoing of organizational subjectivities and the normative conditions upon which they depend. It concludes by emphasizing the potential benefits and wider implications of a methodologically reflexive undoing of organizational performativity.

Organizational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction:

The impact of occupational future time perspective

Julia G Weikamp and Anja S Göritz

Human Relations November 2016, 69(11): 2091‒2115, first published online before print May 4, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716633512  

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/11/2091?etoc

Abstract

This study examines how occupational future time perspective (OFTP) affects organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and job satisfaction. OFTP reflects how much time and how many opportunities people perceive themselves as having left in their occupational future. OCB comprises extra-role behaviours that aim to support other individuals in the organization (OCBI) and the organization as a whole (OCBO). Socioemotional selectivity theory posits that people with an open-ended OFTP strive for knowledge-oriented goals (i.e. OCBO). In contrast, people with a constrained OFTP strive for emotion-oriented goals (i.e. OCBI). Thus, the more people perceive their OFTP as open-ended, the more they should show OCBO rather than OCBI. Applying a motivational OFTP approach to job satisfaction, the greater the open-ended people's OFTP, the more they should be satisfied with their job if they show more OCBO than OCBI because they can pursue their own goals. Findings support our hypotheses for people's perceived remaining opportunities in their occupational future. Herein, we discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Doing and undoing gender in innovation:

Femininities and masculinities in innovation processes

Lara Pecis

Human Relations November 2016, 69(11):2117‒2140, first published online before print April 26, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716634445  

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/11/2117?etoc

Abstract

Despite the rising interest in the intertwining of individuals, organizations and institutions in innovation research, scant attention has been paid to the ways that their relations produce and reproduce specific gender dynamics throughout the innovation process. Innovation research has been characterized by a gender blindness that conceals the gendered nature of innovation processes. This article draws on the material collected through an ethnographic investigation conducted in two research organizations to illustrate how innovation processes are gendered when specific forms of masculinities and femininities are constructed, enacted and resisted by men and women. This article contributes towards developing a gendered understanding of innovation by introducing the term 'positions of displacement' to signal the fluidity and messiness of doings and undoings of femininities and masculinities through innovation practices.

Out of sight, out of mind?

How and when cognitive role transition episodes influence employee performance

Brandon W Smit, Patrick W Maloney, Carl P Maertz, Jr, and Tamara Montag-Smit

Human Relations November 2016, 69(11):2141‒2168, first published online before print May 3, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716636204 

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/11/2141?etoc

Abstract

A widely-cited proposition in boundary theory states that it is difficult for individuals to transition between roles, especially when these roles are highly segmented. Surprisingly, this hypothesis has not been directly tested. We provide an empirical test of these propositions and draw from the self-regulation literature to expand boundary theory in exploring how episodes of cognitive role transitions impact job performance. We propose that cognitive role transitioning is cognitively demanding, which consumes the limited executive control resources that facilitate effective job performance. In a multilevel study of 619 employees providing 4371 episodes, we observed that work-to-family cognitive role transitioning was negatively related to job performance, and this effect was mediated by self-regulatory depletion. Although individuals with greater role integration were somewhat more likely to experience cognitive role transitions than those with segmented roles, these individuals were also buffered from the self-regulatory depletion that impairs effective job performance. Overall, these findings suggest that integration, rather than segmentation, may be a better long-term boundary management strategy for minimizing self-regulatory depletion and maintaining higher levels of job performance during inevitable work–family role transitions.

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RECENT ONLINE FIRST PREVIEW ARTICLES

Access all OnlineFirst articles here: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent

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Communicative tensions of meaningful work: The case of sustainability practitioners

Rahul Mitra and Patrice M. Buzzanell

Human Relations, first published on September 30, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716663288

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/09/26/0018726716663288?papetoc

Abstract

This study, based on in-depth interviews with 45 practitioners in the emerging field of environmental sustainability, argues for a more nuanced approach to studying the meaningfulness of work. Drawing from the tension-centered approach, we posit that sustainability practitioners derived meaningfulness in tensional ways from circumstances and factors that were both enabling and constraining, stemming from various organizational, professional and political structures. This occurs through ongoing negotiation that spans everyday work processes, the perceived impact of such work, and participants' career positioning. In addition to examining meaningfulness as a dynamic and contested negotiation, rather than a purely positive outcome, the political implications of such meaning-making are traced. We close by discussing some implications for future research on meaningfulness of work.

FREE ACCESS:

Thinking together: What makes Communities of Practice work?

Igor Pyrko, Viktor Dörfler, and Colin Eden

Human Relations, first published on August 25, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716661040

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/03/0018726716661040?papetoc

Abstract

In this article, we develop the founding elements of the concept of Communities of Practice by elaborating on the learning processes happening at the heart of such communities. In particular, we provide a consistent perspective on the notions of knowledge, knowing and knowledge sharing that is compatible with the essence of this concept – that learning entails an investment of identity and a social formation of a person. We do so by drawing richly from the work of Michael Polanyi and his conception of personal knowledge, and thereby we clarify the scope of Communities of Practice and offer a number of new insights into how to make such social structures perform well in professional settings. The conceptual discussion is substantiated by findings of a qualitative empirical study in the UK National Health Service. As a result, the process of 'thinking together' is conceptualized as a key part of meaningful Communities of Practice where people mutually guide each other through their understandings of the same problems in their area of mutual interest, and this way indirectly share tacit knowledge. The collaborative learning process of 'thinking together', we argue, is what essentially brings Communities of Practice to life and not the other way round.

Incorporating the creative subject: Branding outside–in through identity incentives

Nada Endrissat, Dan Kärreman, and Claus Noppeney

Human Relations, first published on August 25, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716661617

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/03/0018726716661617?papetoc

Abstract

This article explores the intersection of branding, identity and control. It develops the notion of identity-incentive branding and links research on the collective-associative construction of occupational identities with work on identity incentives as an engaging form of control. Empirically, we draw on a case study of a North American grocery chain that is known for employing art-school graduates and other creative talents in creative (store artist) and non-creative shop-floor positions. The study shows that the brand is partly built outside–in through association with employees who embody brand-relevant characteristics in their identities and lifestyles. In return, those employees receive identity opportunities to validate their desired sense of self as 'creative subject'. We discuss the dual nature of identity-incentive branding as neo-normative control and outline its implications for the organization and the employees.

How practice makes sense in healthcare operations:

Studying sensemaking as performative, material-discursive practice

Lotta Hultin and Magnus Mähring

Human Relations, first published on August 25, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716661618

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/03/0018726716661618?papetoc

Abstract

This article aims to move sensemaking theory forward by exploring a post-humanist view of how sense is made in material-discursive practices. Answering recent calls for novel theoretical views on sensemaking, we adopt a relational ontology, assuming subject and object to be ontologically entangled, and viewing agency as a circulating flow through material-discursive practices. Employing this perspective, we study how sensemaking unfolds at the emergency ward of a Nordic university hospital. By working through the concepts of material-discursive practices, flow of agency and subject positions, we produce an account of sensemaking that decenters the human actor as the locus and source of sensemaking, and foregrounds the performativity of practices through which certain ways of acting become enacted as sensible. This allows us to propose an alternative to the traditional view of sensemaking as episodic, cognitive-discursive practices enacted within and between separate human actors. With this view, what makes sense is understood as a material-discursive practice and related subject positions, which owing to their specific positioning in the circulating flow of agency emerge as sensible. Consequently, every actor is not just making sense, but is also already being made sense of; positioning and being positioned in the flow of agency.

Scaling up to institutional entrepreneurship:

A life history of an elite training gymnastics organization

Ryan S Bisel, Michael W Kramer, and John A Banas

Human Relations, first published on August 25, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716658964

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/03/0018726716658964?papetoc

Abstract

This organizational life history documents how the founder of an elite gymnastics training organization led her organizational members to resist what she deemed to be unethical institutional influences prior to working toward changing those institutional practices. The study contributes the idea that institutional resistance leadership at the team and organizational levels can precede disruptive institutional entrepreneurship activities at the institutional level. The diachronic analysis describes the micro, local, historical, intra-organizational work that serves as a proving ground for generating resistance before proceeding to institutional level work; in doing so, the article explores how leadership activities can be 'scaled up' to affect institutions through the intermediary of an organization. Identity violations triggered a founder's sensemaking and moved her to lead others to resist institutional forces on her own organization's training practices. The founder used the rhetorical strategy of narrative to create sensebreaking to help members make sense of the dominant institutional influence, articulate an alternative philosophy, translate the alternative into practices, and acquire material resources for undertaking resistance at the local organizational level. Finally, in attempting to scale up to institutional entrepreneurship, the institutional resistance leadership then struggled with defining success for the organization in the view of dominant institutional actors.

Network characteristics: When an individual's job crafting depends on the jobs of others

Lorenzo Bizzi

Human Relations, first published on August 25, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716658963

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/28/0018726716658963?papetoc

Abstract

Because job crafting research proposes that individuals alter jobs on their own, there is an open debate on how others influence an individual's job crafting. Whereas previous research has recognized that incumbents engage in job crafting depending on the characteristics of their own job, this study shows that job crafting depends on the job characteristics of the incumbents' network contacts, meaning all employees in the organization with whom the incumbents frequently communicate about task-related issues. Applying role theory, the article theorizes that network contacts act as role senders who affect job crafting because they communicate role expectations that vary as a function of their own task activities. Key empirical findings show that contacts' autonomy and contacts' feedback from the job positively affect job crafting, whereas contacts' task significance exercises a negative effect. The findings further show that the effect of job crafting on performance depends on the central position occupied by the incumbent in the network of relationships. When designing jobs, managers should therefore not only consider the tasks of each single incumbent but also the tasks of the people connected to him or her.

A history of vocational ethics and professional identity:

How organization scholars navigate academic value spheres

Susanne Ekman

Human Relations, first published on August 25, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716660370

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/03/0018726716660370?papetoc

Abstract

In recent years, Michael Burawoy has sparked a discussion about the role of social sciences in society. He calls for an increased interaction between different value spheres in social science, because 'the flourishing of each depends on the flourishing of all.' To ensure this interaction, he proposes that we pay better attention to the micro-politics of academic lives, not least their historical, geographical and biographical specificity. The current article contributes to this agenda, contextualized in the field of Organization Studies. It analyzes the vocational micro-politics of organization scholars, especially with a focus on historical and biographical specificity. Based on in-depth interviews with 15 senior scholars, many considered founding figures of Organization Studies, I analyze how they navigate value tensions in different historical periods. To understand historical differences, the article draws on a combination of Burawoy and Boltanski and Chiapello. To understand individual navigation of value spheres, I apply terms such as selective incorporation, decoupling, antagonism and double attribution. In the end, I discuss how some scholars navigate spheres to ensure mutual correction while others navigate them to enable opportunism. The latter is a tempting strategy for young scholars trying to survive extreme performance pressures today.

Re-situating organizational knowledge:

Violence, intersectionality and the privilege of partial perspective

Kate Lockwood Harris

Human Relations, first published on August 3, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716654745

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/28/0018726716654745?papetoc

Abstract

Scholars have called repeatedly for more nuanced understandings of power and organizational knowledge, but researchers have yet to integrate available critical frameworks that could link these concepts. Moreover, existing analyses of power in organizational knowledge tend to focus on role differences but do not yet consider how social differences – including gender, race and sexuality – shape knowledge. Working from a practice-based approach, I draw upon standpoint theory and intersectionality to show how whiteness, masculinity and heteronormativity are embedded in organizational knowledge. I construct this argument using a case study at a US university known for having some of the best systems for building organizational knowledge about sexual violence on campus. I argue that the university's practices – specifically those related to interpretation and definition – mask heterogeneity in knowledge across the university. I also show how practices give the university's knowledge the appearance of neutrality and, subsequently, can unintentionally defer important organizational actions.

Organizational support for the workforce and employee safety citizenship behaviors:

A social exchange relationship

Tom W Reader, Kathryn Mearns, Claudia Lopes, and Jouni Kuha

Human Relations, first published on August 3, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716655863

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/07/28/0018726716655863?papetoc

Abstract

Employee safety citizenship behaviors are crucial to risk management in safety-critical industries, and identifying ways to encourage them is a priority. This study examines (i) whether safety citizenship behaviors are a product of social exchanges between employees and organizations, and (ii) the organizational exchanges (i.e. actual activities to support employees) that underlie this relationship. We studied this in the offshore oil and gas industry, and investigated whether organizational activities for supporting workforce health are a signal to employees that the organization supports them, and an antecedent to safety citizenship behaviors. Using questionnaires, we collected data from employees (n = 820) and medics (n = 30) on 22 offshore installations. Multi-level path analysis found that where activities to support workforce health were greater, offshore employees were more likely to perceive their organization to support them, and in turn report more commitment to the organization and safety citizenship behaviors. This indicates safety citizenship behaviors are a product of social exchange, and provides insight on how organizations can influence employee engagement in them. It also suggests social exchange theory as a useful framework for investigating how organizational safety is influenced by workforce relations. We contributed to the social exchange literature through conceptualizing and demonstrating how organizational exchanges lead to reciprocal employee citizenship behaviors.

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CALLS FOR PAPERS

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Special issue: Organizing feminism: Bodies, practices and ethics – submit by 30 November 2016

http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Organizing%20feminism.html

Special issue: The changing nature of managerial work – submit by 31 January 2017

http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Managerial%20work.html

Special issue: Inserting professionals and professional organizations in studies of wrongdoing: The nature, antecedents, and consequences of professional misconduct – submit by 30 April 2017

http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Professional%20misconduct.html

Human Relations welcomes critical reviews and essays:

- Critical reviews advance a field through new theory, new methods, a novel synthesis of extant evidence, or a combination of two or three of these elements. Reviews that identify new research questions and that make links between management and organizations and the wider social sciences are particularly welcome. Surveys or overviews of a field are unlikely to meet these criteria.

- Critical essays address contemporary scholarly issues and debates within the journal's scope. They are more controversial than conventional papers or reviews, and can be shorter. They argue a point of view, but must meet standards of academic rigour. Anyone with an idea for a critical essay is particularly encouraged to discuss it at an early stage with the Editor-in-Chief.

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WHY PUBLISH IN HUMAN RELATIONS?

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Human Relations is an A* journal – the highest category of quality – in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABCD) Journal Quality List 2013. It is also ranked 4 in the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Academic Journal Guide 2015 and on the FT50 list of journals (effective from January 2017) used by the Financial Times in compiling the FT Research rank, included in the Global MBA, EMBA and Online MBA rankings. Human Relations is a top 5 interdisciplinary social sciences journal (Source: 2015 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2016): 

2-year impact factor: 2.619 Ranked: 4/93 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary and 37/192 in Management

5-year impact factor: 3.544 Ranked: 2/93 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary and 40/192 in Management

Best wishes,

Claire Castle

Managing Editor, Human Relations 

Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org

Twitter: @HR_TIHR

Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org