Larry R. Martinez

Policies that make a difference: bridging the gender equity and work-family gap in academia

Purpose – This paper aims to highlight interventions that promote female (and male) faculty’s ability to balance work-family issues at a specific academic institution, in response to a demand in the literature that examines the intersection between research and implementation of organizational policies within a university setting. Design/methodology/approach – Using a case study framework, the researchers present qualitative experiences and quantitative data to evaluate the successful application of a work-family balance and organizational climate improvement initiative within an academic setting. Findings – By highlighting specific examples of work-family and climate initiatives at the individual, organization, and community levels, this case study presents several ways in which academic institutions specifically, and organizations generally, can implement policies that make a difference. Practical implications – Successful implementation of work-family balance and family-friendly organizational policies...

To Say or Not to Say Different Strategies of Acknowledging a Visible Disability

Individuals with visible disabilities can acknowledge their disabilities in different ways, which may differ in effectiveness. Across four studies, we investigate whether individuals with visible disabilities engage in different acknowledgment strategies (claiming, downplaying) and how and why these different strategies affect evaluations from others. Specifically, we draw from the Stereotype Content Model and Stereotype-Fit Theory to articulate a process whereby claiming and downplaying differentially affect others’ perceptions of competence and warmth, which subsequently affect overall evaluations of the individual with a disability. We found that individuals with visible disabilities intentionally manage others’ impressions by engaging in claiming and downplaying. Claiming strategies (relative to downplaying or not acknowledging) resulted in higher evaluations because they activated perceptions of competence and warmth and the benefits of claiming were stronger for jobs higher in interpersonal demands. We discuss the implications of these results for individuals with disabilities and for organizations.

The Importance of Being “Me”: The Relation Between Authentic Identity Expression and Transgender Employees’ Work-Related Attitudes and Experiences.

The present research examined the relation between authentic identity expression and transgender employees’ work-related attitudes and experiences. Drawing on Kernis’ (2003) theoretical conceptualization of authenticity and expanding on current workplace identity management research, we predicted that employees who had taken steps to reduce the discrepancy between their inner gender identities and their outward manifestations of gender would report more positive job attitudes and workplace experiences, in part because the reduction of this discrepancy is related to greater feelings of authenticity. In Study 1, we found that the extent to which one has transitioned was related to higher job satisfaction and perceived person-organization (P-O) fit and lower perceived discrimination. In Study 2, we replicate and extend these results by showing that the extent to which employees felt that others at work perceived them in a manner consistent with how they perceived themselves (relational authenticity) mediated the relations between extent of transition and all 3 of these outcomes. However, perceptions of alignment between one’s felt and expressed identity (action authenticity) only mediated this link for job satisfaction. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our results, as well as avenues for future research on authenticity in the workplace.

Weight and Gender in Service Jobs: The Importance of Warmth in Predicting Customer Satisfaction

The average weight of employees in the United States workforce is increasing. Importantly, relatively heavier employees are often subject to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination based solely on their weight. These biases may be further influenced by factors such as employee gender and the specific nature of the job. Thus, we employ the stereotype content model (SCM) to examine the multiplicative effects of weight and gender and argue that perceptions of employee warmth are more salient than perceptions of employee competence in customer service contexts. In support of our hypotheses, we found that weight and gender interacted to influence warmth, such that heavy women were perceived to be higher in warmth relative to less heavy women (with no effect for men). Furthermore, perceptions of warmth predicted service satisfaction, whereas perceptions of competence did not. Finally, perceptions of warmth (but not competence) explained the relations between weight and gender and service satisfaction for female (but not male) customer service agents. We end with a discussion of the theoretical implications related to the SCM along with practical implications for service industry organizations and employees.

The impact of abusive supervision and co-worker support on hospitality and tourism student employees’ turnover intentions in Ecuador

Ram (2015. Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2015.1064364) posits that violence and harassment are areas of concern within the hospitality industry, and scholarly interest in abusive supervision in the workplace has grown since the last decade. This study extends Rams (2015. Hostility or hospitality? A review on violence, bullying and sexual harassment in the tourism and hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2015.1064364) assertion by examining the effect of abusive supervision experiences on student employees’ turnover intentions in a hospitality and tourism context in a high power distance culture, Ecuador. The results showed that abusive supervision was positively related to turnover intentions, and its effect was stronger than co-worker support, with the abusive supervision–turnover intentions relationship being fully mediated by perceived organizational support (POS). In addition, co-worker emotional support was found to attenuate the negative effects of abusive supervision on POS. All in all, the findings highlight the roles of POS in explaining the relation between abusive supervision and turnover intentions and co-worker emotional support in buffering the negative effect of abusive supervision. The important role of culture is discussed.

Adult survivors of childhood cancers’ identity disclosures in the workplace

PurposeRecent medical advances have resulted in unprecedented increases in the number and vitality of employed adult survivors. These survivors must make decisions about whether or not to disclose their identities to others. The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics that are related to cancer survivorship disclosure in workplace settings (perceived organizational support, centrality of survivorship to one’s self-concept, and the degree to which family and friends know about one’s survivor status) and an important organizational consequence: intentions to leave one’s job.MethodsA total of 151 adult survivors of childhood cancer completed an online survey.ResultsExtent of disclosure of one’s identity as a cancer survivor was negatively associated with turnover intentions. Furthermore, organizational support, identity centrality, and disclosure outside of work were all related to disclosure in the workplace. Relative weight analysis revealed that disclosure outside of work was the most strongly related to disclosure at work. Finally, there were indirect relations such that disclosure mediated the relations among organizational support, identity centrality, and disclosure outside of work and turnover intentions.ConclusionsSurvivors who were more open about their cancer survivor status at work had fewer intentions to leave their organizations. Importantly, although some antecedents to disclosure were personal characteristics, organizations can also encourage identity disclosure demonstrating that they are related to of work retention.Implications for Cancer SurvivorsWhile disclosure in the workplace is a complex decision to make, the relationship with work retention may reflect that disclosure is more likely to occur in an existing positive work environment or that disclosure itself may contribute to a positive work environment where employees tend to remain. The specific factors that trigger both disclosure and retention require further study although they are clearly related.

The Moderating Role of Career Progression on Job Mobility A Study of Work–Life Conflict

Employment and professional mobility are important aspects of life for both hospitality organizations and individual employees. Across two studies, we examine the effects of work–life conflict and actual (Study 1) and perceived (Study 2) progression in one’s career on hotel managers’ intentions to leave their organizations or leave the hotel industry altogether. In Study 1, positive relations between work–life conflict and turnover and career change intentions were found among actual hotel managers. Similarly, in Study 2, job seekers who were experimentally induced to expect higher work–life conflict in their future careers reported higher turnover and career change intentions. Across both studies, this effect was stronger among those with less progression in their careers. These results provide a more nuanced understanding of the high turnover rates in the hospitality industry, and we discuss how hospitality organizations can leverage this knowledge in managerial retention efforts.

Explaining the Link Between Emotional Labor and Turnover Intentions: The Role of In-Depth Communication

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationships between three different emotional labor strategies (surface acting, deep acting, and genuine emotions) and turnover intentions and introduces the role of in-depth communication with colleagues as a potential moderator. This study was administered to employees in four Chinese hotel companies. Frontline employees were asked to participate in the survey and 216 valid responses were obtained for data analysis. The results showed that surface acting and deep acting were associated with turnover intentions, and in-depth communication with colleagues moderated the relation between deep acting and turnover intentions. Although there was not a direct effect of genuine emotions on turnover intentions, in-depth communication was a significant moderator of this relation. These findings extend previous literature by demonstrating the role of in-depth communication in shaping employees’ retention.

The Use of Latent Growth Curve Modeling in Measuring Student Perceptions about Mandatory Work Experiences

ABSTRACT The study reported here investigated how hospitality students’ perceptions of a required hospitality industry work experience changed over time. By means of an experience sampling method, we captured information about the students’ emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, psychological withdrawal, and performance on an ongoing basis over a 9-week period during which they were required to work weekly shifts in 2 campus hotels. We found that whereas job satisfaction and job performance followed a linear decrease over time, psychological withdrawal followed a linear increase. Prior work expectations predicted the students’ initial levels of job satisfaction and psychological withdrawal. We elaborate on the benefits and future uses in hospitality research of latent growth curve analysis and experience sampling, which are relatively unexplored data collection and analytical tools in the field of hospitality management that enable researchers to measure trajectories of change in subjects’ attitudes and Q4 perceptions over time.

Prejudice in Perceptions of Physicians?: The Influence of Race and Gender on Evaluations of Medical Errors

Little is known about prejudicial attitudes patients have toward physicians. Past research shows that physicians commonly face discrimination 1–3, and although Asian physicians constitute the largest ethnic minority population of practicing physicians,4, there is no research that examines their experiences with discrimination explicitly. Asian professionals are subject to both positive and negative stereotypes, such that they are categorized as high-achieving (e.g., intelligent, successful), yet also perpetually foreign and never accepted into the American milieu.5 This research examined how patient biases can influence evaluations of physicians as a function of physician race, gender, and severity of a medical error.