Diversity faultlines, shared objectives, and top management team performance: van Knippenberg, Daan ;Dawson, Jeremy F ;West, Michael A ;Homan, Astrid C
2010 Human Relations
doi: 10.1177/0018726710378384
Faultline theory suggests that negative effects of team diversity are better understood by considering the influence of different dimensions of diversity in conjunction, rather than for each dimension separately. We develop and extend the social categorization analysis that lies at the heart of faultline theory to identify a factor that attenuates the negative influence of faultlines: the extent to which the team has shared objectives. The hypothesized moderating role of shared objectives received support in a study of faultlines formed by differences in gender, tenure, and functional background in 42 top management teams. The focus on top management teams has the additional benefit of providing the first test of the relationship between diversity faultlines and objective indicators of organizational performance. We discuss how these findings, and the innovative way in which we operationalized faultlines, extend faultline theory and research as well as offer guidelines to manage diversity faultlines.
Emotional politics in cleaning work: The case of Israel: Benjamin, Orly ;Bernstein, Deborah ;Motzafi-Haller, Pnina
2010 Human Relations
doi: 10.1177/0018726710378383
Emotional politics instil insecurity and doubt in working-class individuals. Researchers examining social degradation through (bad) employment or other stigma have demonstrated the exclusionary impact of this process. Some suggest that individuals respond to such emotional politics and other types of exclusion by identity-management strategies aiming at a sense of worth, whereas others have found self-isolation to dominate. Here we analyse the emotional politics emerging from women’s responses to exclusion in the socially degraded field of cleaning in three ethno-national contexts in Israel. The sample was composed of Mizrahi women in the southern periphery, immigrants from the Former Soviet Union and Israeli-Palestinian women from Arab settlements in the north. By analysing cleaning employees’ talk, we characterize these women’s struggle to derive a sense of worth from their breadwinning experience within a specific ethno-national context in terms of family, community and workplace. We discuss the similarities and differences among these three groups with regard to the relative weight of each of these circles for negotiation of belonging and inclusion.
Beyond righting the wrong: Supervisor-subordinate reconciliation after an injustice: Andiappan, Meena ;Treviño, Linda K
2010 Human Relations
doi: 10.1177/0018726710384530
We propose a future-oriented model that focuses on the reconciliation of the supervisor—subordinate relationship after a workplace injustice. First, we propose factors associated with the victim’s sensemaking process that influence the need for relationship reconciliation efforts: the seriousness of the violation, blame attribution, and equity sensitivity. We address the moderating effects of relationship characteristics, such as the existing trust reservoir and level of interdependence. Next, we propose that relationship outcomes will be influenced by characteristics of the relationship repair effort. Lastly, we examine the outcomes of successful reconciliation: forgiveness and restored trust and the moderating effects of victim characteristics.
Union representation and training: The impact of Union Learning Representatives and the factors influencing their effectiveness: Bacon, Nick ;Hoque, Kim
2010 Human Relations
doi: 10.1177/0018726710378055
This article provides an assessment of the impact of Union Learning Representatives (ULRs) on both employer-funded and non-employer funded training in Britain. The findings, based upon the largest and most comprehensive national survey of ULRs conducted to date, suggest that while a significant proportion of ULRs have influenced training levels positively, a further 26 percent have had no positive impact on either employer-funded or non-employer funded training, and a further 13 percent have had a very limited impact. The article also develops an ‘Activity-Support-Characteristics’ (ASC) framework, and uses this framework to identify the factors that are associated with the ability of ULRs to influence training levels. The analysis shows ULRs are more likely to have had a positive impact on training where: they spend five hours a week or more on the role; they are supported by a workplace Learning Centre or a Union Learning Fund project; managers value their ULR activities; consultation or negotiation over training occurs; or the ULR represents no more than 200 employees.
The language of interests: The contribution of discursive psychology: Whittle, Andrea ;Mueller, Frank
2010 Human Relations
doi: 10.1177/0018726710386395
In this article we outline the contribution of the field of Discursive Psychology (DP) for the understanding of interests in organization studies. We discuss the limitations of viewing interests and motives as cognitive states, essential drivers of action and explanatory variables. Following DP, we propose to view interests and motives as a key component of meaningful social practice, making interests and motives a topic for analysis rather than resource for explanation. DP offers a distinct approach to analyzing the accounts that people make about their interests in a particular state of affairs, their stake in a particular situation, or their motive in pursuing a particular course of action. To illustrate our argument, we analyze two data extracts from a qualitative study of a UK public-private partnership. By illustrating the way in which interests are dealt with in different interactional situations, we seek to contribute by outlining a more sophisticated and insightful way of understanding interests within organization studies.
Enabling selves to conduct themselves safely: Safety committee discourse as governmentality in practice: Rasmussen, Joel
2010 Human Relations
doi: 10.1177/0018726710380976
A developing body of literature argues that workplace safety is increasingly becoming the responsibility of employees who are the potential victims of hazards. Although interaction is an integral part of enacting and justifying these responsibilization processes, previous research has not provided detailed analysis of organizational talk in this regard. Following Brownlie’s (2004) ‘analytic bridging’ of Foucault and close discourse analysis, this study centres on a safety committee meeting, and demonstrates how governmentality is exercised as senior managers seek the consent of other employees for behavioural-safety implementation. Three discursive strategies are analysed in detail, examining the construction and invocation of: 1) an equal partnership through collaborative and vague talk; 2) hierarchy through directives and declaratives; 3) competitiveness by the establishment of a factory-versus-factory contest. In sum, these discursive strategies forcefully combine constructions of reciprocal relations together with disciplinary discourse that mandates compliance with program implementation.