Rebecca M. Guidice

Accountability in a Performance Appraisal Context: The Effect of Audience and Form of Accounting on Rater Response and Behavior

This study explored how context influences accountability in a performance appraisal context. Results demonstrate that audience characteristics influence rating quality, as raters accountable to higher status or mixed-status audiences provided more accurate ratings, whereas those accountable to a lower status audience provided more inflated ratings. Participant note taking also mediated the relationship between accountability to higher status or mixed-status audiences and rating accuracy. Raters required to account for ratings in person as opposed to in writing were more accurate when accountable to higher status or mixed audiences and provided more positive indicators of behavior when accountable to a lower status audience.

A Field Study of the Antecedents and Performance Consequences of Perceived Accountability

Building on theoretical and empirical work considering the implications of accountability on individual behavior, the authors explored the antecedents and consequences of individual perceptions of accountability for job performance. Using data from two field samples, the authors considered whether the manager’s monitoring behavior thought to enhance perceptions of accountability for behaviors and outcomes predicted greater perceived accountability for task performance and interpersonal facilitation performance. They also explored whether perceived accountability mediated the relationship between monitoring behavior and subsequent performance. Hierarchical linear modeling indicated that subordinates of managers whose monitoring behavior reinforced perceptions of accountability perceived greater accountability for performance and that this perception mediated the relationship between managerial monitoring behavior and performance. The implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

The Indirect Relationship between Organizational-Level Knowledge Worker Turnover and Innovation: An Integrated Application of Related Literature.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptually demonstrate that the relationship between turnover and innovation is not direct as some research suggests, but rather indirect, with organizational learning as the prerequisite social mechanism that ties the two phenomena together.Design/methodology/approach – This paper integrates research across a number of related areas to develop a model of the immediate and indirect organizational consequences of different rates of knowledge worker turnover.Findings – The paper finds that certain conditions and mechanisms must first be in place to pave the way to innovation. Grounded in social capital theory, this paper describes how turnover rates and organizational learning can be curvilinearly related with respect to ambidextrous learning; how betweenness centrality and learning culture can moderate this relationship; and why organizational learning should mediate the turnover‐innovation relationship.Research limitations/implications – Faulty decisions based o...

From ''me against you'' to ''us against them'': alliance formation based on inter-alliance rivalry

This article investigates and integrates the concepts of alliance competition and inter-alliance rivalry. While past research has focused primarily on intra-alliance dynamics such as why, when, and with whom alliances are formed, the outcome of such agreements is unclear. This paper focuses on inter-alliance dynamics that involve conceptualizing group-versus-group or alliance competition and inter-alliance rivalry by studying the competitive engagements of firms through alliances. We develop a model that includes a set of market and firm-specific variables that can explain alliance competitive engagement.

This is only a test: a machine-graded improvement to the multiple-choice and true-false examination

The primary goal of teaching is to successfully facilitate learning. Testing can help accomplish this goal in two ways. First, testing can provide a powerful motivation for students to prepare when they perceive that the effort involved leads to valued outcomes. Second, testing can provide instructors with valuable feedback on whether their teaching resulted in the learning desired. It is in the process of creating test questions that the tests value is determined. After reviewing the different types of questions available to educators, we introduce a new approach that can improve the nature of testing. We report on the use of this approach and provide preliminary analysis of its impact in the classroom. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this approach as well as recommendations for its future development and use in academia.

Hedging Their Bets: A Longitudinal Study of The Trade-Offs Between Task and Contextual Performance in a Sales Organization

In a field study of 167 salespeople working within a hybrid control system where multiple goals are valued, we examine whether feedback on sales performance is an antecedent to managerial ratings of task and contextual performance. Consistent with a hedge your bets strategy, results showed that the relationship between sales performance and ratings of interpersonal facilitation was curvilinear and moderated by political skill. Whereas sales performance and ratings of task performance and job dedication were positively related, interpersonal facilitation was negatively related to subsequent sales performance, suggesting that those who hedged their bets were less likely to achieve future sales goals.

One foot in Babylon, the other in a startup: The influence of job and employment alternatives on joiner commitment

Purpose Little is known regarding joiners (i.e. early-stage non-founder entrepreneurial employees) and their commitment to joining a new venture vs pursuing a more rational and stable career path. The purpose of this paper is to bring an understanding to this phenomenon, while adding to various management theories of organizational commitment and entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine how current employment situations and alternative job prospects impact the relationship between joiner perceptions of distributive justice and organizational commitment by utilizing the equity ownership distribution decided upon by the founding team. The hypotheses are tested using data gathered from 117 joiners. Findings The findings confirm for traditional organizational research, a positive relationship exists, even in a new venture context, between perceptions of distributive justice and organizational commitment. However, when joiners report having a second (or primary) job, in addition to the new venture, the direct relationship is weakened. In contrast, higher levels of alternative employment options strengthen the relationship between justice and commitment. Research limitations/implications Although the authors’ measure of employment options only included a single-item measure, there is precedent in the literature for this approach. Yet, the authors realize this remains a limitation due to the lack of additional information surrounding each joiner’s “other job” characteristics, such as tenure, title, and salary. Practical implications Perceptions of fairness and justice appear to provide valuable implications for founders concerned about organizational commitment and employee buy-in when seeking to bring on joiners. Job alternatives and additional employment also provide interesting takeaways for practitioners. The authors suggest that founders take caution when hiring joiners, who have a second (or primary) job, in addition to working for the new venture. Levels of commitment will likely be reduced, to the possible detriment of the new venture. Originality/value Although the baseline hypothesis exists in prior literature with respect to established firms, it has not been tested in a new venture context. Furthermore, prior studies within the entrepreneurship literature have yet to examine these issues from the perspective of the joiner and certainly have not taken into account additional employment and employment prospects among these individuals.