Carolyn T. Dang

Archival Data in Micro-Organizational Research A Toolkit for Moving to a Broader Set of Topics

Compared to macro-organizational researchers, micro-organizational researchers have generally eschewed archival sources of data as a means of advancing knowledge. The goal of this paper is to discuss emerging opportunities to use archival research for the purposes of advancing and testing theory in micro-organizational research. We discuss eight specific strengths common to archival micro-organizational research and how they differ from other traditional methods. We further discuss limitations of archival research, as well as strategies for mitigating these limitations. Taken together, we provide a toolkit to encourage micro-organizational researchers to capitalize on archival data.

Are the “Customers” of Business Ethics Courses Satisfied? An Examination of One Source of Business Ethics Education Legitimacy:

Though there are many factors that contribute to the perceived legitimacy of business ethics education, this research focuses on one factor that is given great attention both formally and informally in many business schools: student satisfaction with the course. To understand the nature of student satisfaction, the authors draw from multiple theories with central claims relating (met) expectations with satisfaction. The authors then compare student expectations of business ethics courses with instructor objectives and discover that business ethics courses are not necessarily designed to meet student expectations. The authors speculate that this general mismatch between student expectations and instructor objectives has material consequences. As one example, the authors analyze student evaluations from three business schools and identify a “business ethics course effect”: a negative association between business ethics courses and student evaluations. The authors discuss the implications for business ethics education of a situation where pedagogical objectives (“Educate!”) and market prescriptions (“Satisfy!”) point in different directions.

Leader Social Accounts of Subordinates’ Unethical Behavior: Examining Observer Reactions to Leader Social Accounts With Moral Disengagement Language.

When providing social accounts (Sitkin & Bies, 1993) for the unethical conduct of subordinates, leaders may use language consistent with cognitive strategies described by Bandura (1991, 1999) in his work on moral disengagement. That is, leader’s social accounts may reframe or reconstrue subordinates’ unethical conduct such that it appears less reprehensible. We predict observers will respond negatively to leaders when they use moral disengagement language within social accounts and, specifically, observers will ostracize these leaders. In addition, we predict that observer moral disengagement propensity moderates this effect, such that the relationship between leaders’ use of moral disengagement language within a social account and ostracism is stronger when observer moral disengagement propensity is lower versus higher. Finally, we predict that the reason why observers ostracize the leader is because observers perceive the leader’s social account with moral disengagement language as unethical. Thus, perceived leader social account ethicality is predicted to mediate the interaction effect of leader’s use of moral disengagement language within social accounts and observer moral disengagement propensity on ostracism. Results from an experiment and field study support our predictions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Team-Reward Fit: Examining the Interaction Effects of Reward Target and Self-Construal on Conflict, Identity, Satisfaction, and Performance

Team-based rewards have been advanced as a way of encouraging cooperation among team members, reducing conflict, and improving member satisfaction, but empirical results have been mixed. The two studies reported in this paper show evidence that the effectiveness of team-based rewards depends on team members’ self-construals. Specifically, across two different tasks and different operationalizations of self-construal, we find that better outcomes are associated with a match between the target of the reward and members’ self-construal. Teams composed of members with interdependent self-construals experienced less conflict and were more identified and satisfied with their teams when they received team-based rewards. In contrast, teams composed of members with independent self-construals experienced less conflict and were more identified and satisfied with their teams when they received individually-based rewards.