Mark A. Clark

Normalizing dirty work: Managerial tactics for countering occupational taint

Dirty work refers to occupations that are viewed by society as physically, socially, or morally tainted. Using exploratory, semistructured interviews with managers from 18 dirty work occupations, we investigated the challenges of being a manager in tainted work and how managers normalize taint--that is, actively counter it or render it less salient. Managers reported experiencing role complexity and stigma awareness. Four types of practices for countering taint were revealed: occupational ideologies, social buffers, confronting clients and the public, and defensive tactics. We discuss links between these practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holders express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Substantive and operational issues of response bias across levels of analysis: An example of climate-satisfaction relationships

Two studies tested whether method variance is present at multiple levels of analysis and whether methodological procedures can minimize its impact. In Study 1, 8,052 employees from 71 hotels completed measures of climate, work environment characteristics, and satisfaction. A comparison of correlations at the individual level, cross-level, cross-level split, aggregate level, and aggregate-split level of analysis revealed that response bias was present across multiple levels. Results suggest that samples should be split in half when cross-level and aggregate correlations are computed to ameliorate response bias problems that arise from individual-level method variance. In Study 2, results indicated that the temporal spacing of measures of climate and satisfaction influenced response bias. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Professional identity formation: creating a longitudinal framework through TIME (Transformation in Medical Education).

The University of Texas System established the Transformation in Medical Education (TIME) initiative to reconfigure and shorten medical education from college matriculation through medical school graduation. One of the key changes proposed as part of the TIME initiative was to begin emphasizing professional identity formation (PIF) at the premedical level. The TIME Steering Committee appointed an interdisciplinary task force to explore the fundamentals of PIF and to formulate strategies that would help students develop their professional identity as they transform into physicians. In this article, the authors describe the task force’s process for defining PIF and developing a framework, which includes 10 key aspects, 6 domains, and 30 subdomains to characterize the complexity of physician identity. The task force mapped this framework onto three developmental phases of medical education typified by the undergraduate student, the clerkship-level medical student, and the graduating medical student. The task force provided strategies for the promotion and assessment of PIF for each subdomain at each of the three phases, in addition to references and resources. Assessments were suggested for student feedback, curriculum evaluation, and theoretical development. The authors emphasize the importance of longitudinal, formative assessment using a combination of existing assessment methods. Though not unique to the medical profession, PIF is critical to the practice of exemplary medicine and the well-being of patients and physicians.

Chief purchasing officer compensation

It is increasingly accepted that the chief purchasing officer (CPO), as the highest ranking member of the purchasing and supply management (PSM) function, is a resource that can add strategic value to the firm. Delineating the organizational and human capital factors that determine CPO compensation packages can help firms maintain their competitive advantage by attracting and retaining talent in this position. Although an extensive literature base examines executive compensation, such research at levels below the CEO is sparse. Based on the rich literature discussing executive compensation as well as a survey of Fortune 500 CPOs, examines the influence of organizational and human capital on CPO compensation from a resource‐based view of the firm. The organizational capital characteristics of annual sales, purchases as a percent of sales, and the number of reporting levels between the CPO and CEO were found to influence CPO compensation significantly. Somewhat surprisingly, CPO age was the only human capital factor of those tested (years in PSM, education level, CPM certifications) that significantly influenced compensation.

Team Knowledge in Enterprise Architecting

Enterprise architecture (EA) seeks to align business process and IT, but architecting involves many stakeholders (e.g., architects, IT staff, and business staff) with very diverse and often conflicting goals, making this alignment difficult to achieve. In this study we investigate how team knowledge helps coordinate the architecting effort to achieve this alignment. We report on four case studies with various degrees of EA success. Specifically, we investigate how EA, IT and business staff coordinate their work, with special focus on implicit coordination through team knowledge.

Data from a pre-publication independent replication initiative examining ten moral judgement effects

We present the data from a crowdsourced project seeking to replicate findings in independent laboratories before (rather than after) they are published. In this Pre-Publication Independent Replication (PPIR) initiative, 25 research groups attempted to replicate 10 moral judgment effects from a single laboratory’s research pipeline of unpublished findings. The 10 effects were investigated using online/lab surveys containing psychological manipulations (vignettes) followed by questionnaires. Results revealed a mix of reliable, unreliable, and culturally moderated findings. Unlike any previous replication project, this dataset includes the data from not only the replications but also from the original studies, creating a unique corpus that researchers can use to better understand reproducibility and irreproducibility in science.

Relational Demography: A Question of Measures

The relational demography literature uses a variety of measures to describe how overt human differences in two entities, such as a group and its individual members, influence individual and collective outcomes (Tsui & Gutek, 1999). Although there has been much debate on the relative suitability of these measures (e.g., Bedeian, Day, Edwards, Tisak, & Smith, 1994), the demography literature lacks within-sample comparisons of the measures that might help to settle the question. This study tests the relative efficacy of absolute squared difference scores, interactions, polynomial regression, and perceptions of differences in representing relational demography among members of a workgroup against affective and performance outcomes.

Teaching Work Group–Task Congruence: The Fit for Performance Exercise

An activity description, debriefing guide, and instructional appendices are presented through which students may learn about the optimal use of work groups in addressing organizational tasks of varying functional complexity. Student groups assigned to four conditions design and build Lego® products, learning how fit or mismatch between task and group composition can improve quality, learning, and affective outcomes. Discussion centers on the student’s development both as a member and as a manager of such work groups. Favorable reactions to the utility of the activity were obtained from student participants and outside business facilitators.

From Followership to Shared Leadership: The Changing Role of the Patient in the Healthcare Team

This chapter explores the changing role of the patient in healthcare teams through the perspective of follower-centered and shared leadership theories, offering individual and team-context factors that influence this role. Healthcare practice increasingly supports patient proactivity in managing their own medical needs, shaped by factors within the team context and at the patient level that move the patient role from follower to leader through sharing complementary knowledge, authority, and responsibility for health service choices. The team context, encompassing broad economic and social realities, includes factors of increased healthcare system and medical complexity, trends in societal demographics, resource limitations, technology in healthcare, culture, and the informed patient. At the patient level, factors affecting participative roles in the healthcare team include a range of personal characteristics, health perceptions, knowledge and information access, relationship with medical professionals, and the informal support network. Through this overview, we aim to contribute to the paradigm shift needed to achieve an appropriate level of followership and shared leadership in healthcare, with the ultimate goal of improving patient well-being within a sustainable healthcare system.