David C. Baldridge

Toward modeling the predictors of managerial career success: does gender matter?

Although research has uncovered important predictors of managerial career success, the causal relationships between these predictors has not been fully explored. Accordingly, we propose and test a model that establishes a link between individual differences, salient career‐related beliefs, career enhancing outcomes and managerial career success. Using path analysis, we found that education and career impatience directly affected willingness to relocate and perceived marketability, which in turn led to more promotions offered and greater exposure to powerful networks. Finally, the number of promotions offered directly affected management level, which in turn affected compensation level. With respect to gender differences, we found that beliefs regarding the efficacy of mentoring positively influenced a womans sense of marketability, and like her male counterpart, exposure to powerful networks. However, we also found that for women managers, unlike men, such exposure did not affect the number of promotions they were offered.

The Impact of Anticipated Social Consequences on Recurring Disability Accommodation Requests

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.

Saying no to being uprooted: The impact of family and gender on willingness to relocate

Although career research contends that women managers and professionals are less willing than men to relocate, much of the previous research has been either limited by comparative sampling issues, or has not fully accounted for the role of family. To address these issues we gathered survey data from managers and professionals in 102 large companies by identifying pairs of individuals from each firm who worked in the same division, location, and functional area, who were similar in age (± 5 years), yet differed in gender - resulting in a comparatively matched sample of 333 male and 333 female respondents. To account for the role of family, we tested a model that first controlled for the impact of previous determinants of willingness to relocate, and then examined the impact of four family attributes including spouses contribution to family income, presence of preschool-aged children at home, and the perceived strength of spouses and childrens community ties. We also examined the moderating role of gender in explaining the impact of these attributes. Results indicate that the inclusion of family attributes increased the amount of variance explained in our regression model. Moreover, beyond substantiating a significant main effect for gender - that is, women managers are less willing to relocate - we also found that gender interacts with family attributes to further dampen a womans willingness to relocate.

Withholding Requests for Disability Accommodation: The Role of Individual Differences and Disability Attributes

Prior research suggests that people with disabilities often do not request needed workplace accommodations, though relatively few studies address which factors influence the extent of such potentially self-limiting behavior. Drawing on workplace disability, help seeking, and social identity literature, this study proposes and tests a model of request withholding frequency using survey data from 279 people with hearing impairments. Consistent with expectations, older employees withheld requests less frequently; however, there was no main effect of gender. Moreover, the strength of the relationship between age and request withholding frequency was significantly weaker when the disability was more severe and when the age of disability onset was earlier. Similarly, disability severity influenced the strength of the relationship between gender and request withholding frequency, though the age of disability onset did not. These findings are consistent with social identity theory, in that those individual differences and disability attributes that shape social identities also appear to affect decisions to request disability accommodation. In practical terms, managers need to not only be supportive of disability accommodation requests but also recognize that some employees, such as young persons with disabilities, may need even more support, and support in a form that affirms or minimizes threats to other salient identities, such as their youth. Additional implications for management research and practice are discussed.

Toward greater understanding of the pernicious effects of workplace envy

Despite the fact that envy is widely viewed as one of the most pernicious and dysfunctional workplace emotions, research has ignored its longer term consequences. This oversight can largely be attributed to over reliance on the relatively static affective events framework that does not account for how envy-eliciting events can threaten an individuals perceptions of social standing or trigger emotional schema from previous events. Hence, we propose an extension of this framework in order to address these shortcomings and in order to account more fully for the cumulative effects of prior envy-eliciting events. In particular, by integrating insights from social comparison and emotional schema theories into the current framework, we offer a deeper, more fine-grained explanation of the cumulative effects of emotionally congruent envious episodes. We believe that these additional insights will offer a perspective, for researchers and practitioners alike, into how envy-eliciting events can result in more malicious and chronic behavior. Future research and managerial implications are discussed.

The shaping of sustainable careers post hearing loss: Toward greater understanding of adult onset disability, disability identity, and career transitions:

Through this interview-based study with 40 respondents in the United States we have outlined enablers of career transitions and sustainable careers for professionals who have experienced severe hearing loss as adults. To sustain careers after adult onset disability, respondents engaged in a quest for meaning and big picture answers to ‘who am I?’ and ‘am I still successful?’ This included redefining themselves – e.g. I am now both a person with a disability (disability identity) and a successful professional (professional identity) – and career success (e.g. now I care about service to society as much as I care about material artifacts). Respondents also adopted new work roles where disability was a key to success (e.g. becoming an equal employment officer) and utilized social networks to continue being successful. Such redefining of work and networks supported the aforesaid quest for meaning and big picture answers. Findings not only indicate how individuals experience career success after a life-changing event but also help defamiliarize extant notions of ableism in workplace contexts.

Childhood-onset disability, strong ties and employment quality

Purpose Persons with childhood-onset disabilities are among the most marginalized populations, often unemployed or underemployment in jobs providing neither adequate hours for financial self-sufficiency nor fulfillment through skill-utilization. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which social capital in the form of strong ties with family and friends is associated with enhanced employment outcomes for persons with childhood-onset disabilities. Design/methodology/approach Questioning the current theoretical consensus that strong social ties are unimportant to employment quality, the authors draw on disability research and opportunity, motivation and ability social capital theory to propose a model of the impact of strong ties with family and friends on paid-work-hours and skill-utilization as well as the potential moderating role of gender and disability severity. The authors then test this model using data from 1,380 people with childhood-onset disabilities and OLS regression analysis. Findings As theorized, family-of-origin-size is positively associated with hours worked. Family-of-origin-size is also associated with having more close friends and children. These strong ties, in turn, are positively associated with hours worked. The impact of having more children on hours worked and skill-utilization, however, is positive for men but non-significant for women. Originality/value This study breaks new ground by focusing on the association between strong ties with family and friends and employment quality for people with childhood-onset disabilities – a marginalized and understudied group. Findings further indicate the particular vulnerability of women with disabilities.

New Directions in Disability Research: Work Contexts, Inclusivity, and Wellbeing Interactions

This presenter symposium features four research studies on the workplace experiences of persons with disabilities, their coworkers, and organizations. These studies shed new light on the interactio...