Anne M. O'Leary-Kelly

Organizational socialization: Its content and consequences.

Content dimensions of the socialization domain were defined in order to determine relationships between learning particular features of a job/organization and the process and outcomes of socialization. Six socialization dimensions-performance proficiency, politics, language, people, organizational goals/values, and history-were supported by a factor analysis on data from 594 full-time professionals. The socialization process was then examined by comparing three groups of respondents who did not change jobs, changed jobs within the organization, or changed jobs and organizations. Results showed these groups had significantly different response patterns on all dimensions

A Review of the Influence of Group Goals on Group Performance

This research combined meta-analytic and narrative review methods in an effort to assess the influence of group goals on group performance. The meta-analytic review revealed a strong group goal eff...

Sexual Harassment at Work: A Decade (Plus) of Progress

This review examines research addressing workplace sexual harassment (SH) since the last major review in a management journal in 1995. The authors examine several aspects of recent research: current definitions, labeling of SH, antecedents to SH, responses to SH, and consequences resulting from SH. They then make suggestions for future research, using research on workplace aggression as a framework.

The Effects and Costs of Intimate Partner Violence for Work Organizations

This study examines the productivity-related effects and costs of intimate partner violence (IPV) on the workplace. Specifically, it explores whether IPV victims and nonvictims differ in the number of work hours missed due to absenteeism, tardiness, and work distraction and the costs for employers from these missed work hours. The research involved a Web-based survey of 823 male and 1,550 female employees in three midsized organizations. Employees who reported lifetime IPV victimization, but not current victimization, missed more hours of work because of absenteeism than did nonvictims. Current victims, but not lifetime victims, were more likely to be distracted at work than nonvictims. Organization costs due to absenteeism and tardiness were greater for lifetime victims than nonvictims; however, no difference in costs was found for current victims. Overall, we found that IPV has negative effects on organizations, but that the nature and cost of these effects vary by type of victimization.

Women and men in the IT profession

Fewer women entering IT drives the underrepresentation problem.

IT professional identity: needs, perceptions, and belonging

A theoretical model of professional identification is developed and empirically examined as a means to understanding information technology (IT) workers’ attachment to the IT profession. Professional identification represents oneness with or belonging to a profession and provides a unique means of investigating and evaluating the IT profession. Results from a survey of 305 IT workers indicate that professional identification is directly impacted by three factors: (1) the individuals need for professional identification; (2) the individuals perceived similarity to others in the IT profession; and (3) the individuals perceptions of the IT profession, signifying the importance of internalization to identification. Professional identification is also indirectly impacted by the publics perception of the IT profession.

An Organizational Identity Approach to Strategic Groups

We argue that a firm forms three distinct relationships with strategic groups-identification, disidentification, and ambivalent identification. Firms can form any of these relationships with multiple strategic groups, and the set of these relationships comprises a firms strategic group configuration SGC. We propose that the nature of a firms identity influences the characteristics of its SGC. We demonstrate the implications of our model by exploring how a firms strategic group configuration affects its information-seeking behaviors. Finally, we describe how the SGC framework offers several key implications for this field of research.

A Reevaluation of Equity Theory The Influence of Culture

The authors decompose equity theory into its component parts, evaluating related cross-cultural research to determine how culture would influence the operation of the theory. They explore complexities of and questions raised about equity theory via an analysis of this research, including methodological issues and suggestions for future research.

Work exhaustion in information technology professionals: the impact of emotion labor

As the role of information technology (IT) in business grows and IT users become more technologically dependent, the IT professional is increasingly expected to work with individuals from other areas of the organization. Dealing with customers, either internal or external, brings the expectation that one will conform to societal, occupational, or organizational norms regarding the display of emotion. This paper examines the impact of emotional display expectations on work exhaustion in IT professionals. We find that the method that one uses to manage emotional reactions in the workplace impacts work exhaustion. Surface acting shows a strong, positive association with work exhaustion while deep acting shows no such relationship. We find that the perception of emotional display rules in the workplace affects the use of emotional management strategies, termed deep acting and surface acting. We also find that the necessity of dealing with others emotions impacts the level of display rule expectations. The findings of this study offer important contributions to theory by exploring emotional labor expectations of IT professionals. This study also offers suggestions to management to help alleviate the stresses associated with common workplace interactions.

Workplace Violence, Employer Liability, and Implications for Organizational Research

Organizations face potential liability whenever workplace violence occurs inside their boundaries. Focusing on violent behaviors between employees, the authors examine the major legal theories that apply most often in workplace violence scenarios—negligence (state law), sexual harassment law (federal law), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (federal law). The purpose is to highlight avenues for organizational research that arise because of the legal issues that employers face. For each source of liability, the authors identify major research questions that should be studied in organizational science, particularly by aggression and violence researchers.