Danielle Cooper

It Depends: Environmental Context and the Effects of Faultlines on Top Management Team Performance

Informational faultlines, the alignment of team member task-related attributes to form subgroups, are important in explaining team performance. Although informational faultlines may promote specialization and division of labor, they may also increase communication and coordination costs. Integrating work on the categorization-elaboration model, social identity theory, and contingency theory, we posit that facets of a teams external environment moderate the effects of informational faultlines on performance. Using a sample of 380 top management teams, we examine moderation effects of environmental dynamism, complexity, and munificence. We find that informational faultline strength positively affects firm performance under low environmental dynamism, high complexity, and high munificence, but it negatively affects firm performance under high environmental dynamism, low complexity, and low munificence. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.

Conflict and performance in US and Mexican learning teams

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of two moderators of the relationships between affective conflict and cognitive conflict and team performance: the cultural context and the level of team‐oriented behaviors.Design/methodology/approach – Survey questionnaires were administered to a sample of 143 Mexico‐ and US‐based learning teams. Regression analysis was used to test hypotheses.Findings – In both cultural contexts, cognitive conflict more positively affected performance when team‐oriented behaviors were high. This effect was stronger for Mexican teams. Affective conflict more negatively affected performance in Mexican teams than US teams, particularly when team‐oriented behaviors were high.Practical implications – The results have implications for managing conflict to improve team effectiveness in the USA and in Mexico and for training managers who work across these cultural contexts.Originality/value – The paper demonstrates the joint role of the cultural context and team behavio...

Transformational leadership and supply chain ambidexterity: Mediating role of supply chain organizational learning and moderating role of uncertainty

Abstract This paper examines the impact of top management transformational leadership on supply chain organizational learning and supply chain ambidexterity. We also evaluate the influence of uncertainty, present in the operating environment, on these relationships. Integrating multiple perspectives of organizational behavior relating to learning and leadership, we develop our research model and evaluate it using survey data. Results from our analysis support the notion that supply chain organizational learning orientations fully mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and supply chain ambidexterity. Also, uncertainty in the operating environment positively moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and supply chain learning.

Commentary: Family Member Well-Being in the Kinship Enterprise: A Self-Determination Perspective:

Nordstrom and Jennings (2017) provide an in-depth view of the Hutterite Brethren community to theorize family business practices and their association with familial well-being. Drawing from self-determination theory, we extend their model to provide additional theoretical development regarding the role of task and enterprise practices in satisfying basic needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), promoting motivation, and fostering family member well-being. Although the Hutterite community’s practices likely facilitate high levels of competence and relatedness, there is potential for autonomy need deficits. As such, we address areas for future research regarding need fulfillment and well-being in family businesses.

Seizing Opportunities: The Moderating Role of Managerial Characteristics on the Relationship between Opportunity‐Seeking and Innovation Efficacy in Small Businesses

We draw from regulatory focus theory to examine the relationship between a focus on opportunities through strategic orientation and entrepreneurial culture and managerial reports of innovation efficacy in small businesses. We propose that manager goals and behaviors moderate these relationships. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 352 small employer firms. Findings support that strategic orientation positively associates with innovation efficacy and that this relationship is stronger under low managerial direction behaviors. Entrepreneurial culture positively associates with innovation efficacy when managers focus on profit and growth goals and under high managerial direction behaviors.