scholarly journals Lenience breeds strictness: The generosity-erosion effect in hiring decisions

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (17) ◽  
pp. eabe2045
Author(s):  
Marc-Lluís Vives ◽  
Tania Fernandez-Navia ◽  
Jordi J. Teixidó ◽  
Miquel Serra-Burriel
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Sequential Procedure ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
High Stake ◽  
Hiring Process ◽  
Erosion Effect ◽  
Effect Experiment ◽  
Practical Implications

In recruitment processes, candidates are often judged one after another. This sequential procedure affects the outcome of the process. Here, we introduce the generosity-erosion effect, which states that evaluators might be harsher in their assessment of candidates after grading previous candidates generously. Generosity is defined as giving a candidate the lowest possible grade required to progress in the hiring process. Analyzing a high-stake hiring process, we find that for each candidate graded generously, the probability for subsequent candidates to pass decreased by 7.7% (experiment 1; N = 11,281). Testing the boundary conditions of the generosity-effect, we explore a hiring process that, in contrast to the previous process, was very selective, because candidates were more likely to fail than to pass. In this scenario, no evidence is found for the generosity-erosion effect (experiment 2; N = 3171). Practical implications and mechanisms underlying the generosity-erosion effect are further discussed.

Innovation in SMEs: the role of employee training in German SMEs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irem Demirkan ◽  
Ravi Srinivasan ◽  
Alka Nand
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Employee Training ◽  
Lower Proportion ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis paper explores the role of effective resource and knowledge management capabilities on product innovation capabilities of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the authors research the role of the human resource investments in the form of employee training in developing firm's innovation capabilities and how SMEs manage these investments when we account for the boundary conditions such as the level of employee education, SME size and the frequency of investments in research and development (R&D).Design/methodology/approachThe authors use survey data conducted by The Centre for European Economic Research (Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung – ZEW). The final sample for analysis includes 983 SMEs from Germany that belong to 13 different industries. The authors use hierarchical OLS regression to test the hypotheses presented in this paper.FindingsThe authors find a positive association between increased investments in employee training and product innovation capabilities in the context of SMEs. More specifically, the authors’ findings support that (1) the relationship between employee training and innovation capabilities is weaker in industries with greater proportion of employees with university degrees, (2) the effectiveness of investments in employee training is lower among larger SMEs than smaller SMEs, and (3) continuous R&D weakens the relationship between training expenditure and innovation capabilities. While on the one hand the authors’ findings contribute to the debate of whether employee training is necessary for SMEs by affirming this notion, on the other hand the authors show that investments in employee training have differing implications for small and large SMEs within boundary conditions. Moreover, these findings have practical implications for the managers of all SMEs in terms of management of their knowledge resources.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ research makes important contributions to the study of innovation in SMEs. First, the authors contribute evidence to the debate whether employee training is necessary for SMEs by showing that employee training is particularly important for SMEs that are smaller in size, have lower proportion of employees with university degrees and when they invest in research and development in a targeted manner. The authors also demonstrate that investments in employee training is not a waste, rather such investments can increase the likelihood of survival for many of these firms through its positive impact on product innovation.Practical implicationsFor managers of SMEs, the authors’ findings suggest that while investments in employee training are important, the managers of particular SMEs with above-mentioned qualities should be persistent in such investments and must make deliberate efforts to reap the benefits in terms of innovative capabilities. Unlike large firms, who have the financial means to carry out investments in an abundant manner, SMEs appear to be more enterprising with their scarce resources when we also consider the role of investments in human resources.Originality/valueThe authors’ research makes important contributions to the study of innovation in SMEs. First, the authors contribute evidence to the debate whether employee training is necessary for SMEs by finding that employee training is particularly important for SMEs that are smaller in size, have lower proportion of employees with university degrees and when they do not invest in R&D continuously. The authors also demonstrate that investments in employee training is not a waste, but such investments can increase the likelihood of survival for many of these firms.

Reversing the endowment effect by empowering buyers and sellers

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1827-1844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Chan ◽  
Najam Saqib
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Low Power ◽  
High Power ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Endowment Effect ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gift Card ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Potential Moderator

Purpose The endowment effect is well-established in economics, psychology and marketing where sellers place a higher value on a good than buyers. One potential moderator, namely, power is explored. The authors predicted that feeling powerful can reverse the effect, making buyers place a higher value on a good than sellers. Design/methodology/approach The authors manipulated power to assess the effects on the valuation of three different products (keychain, gift card and iPhone case). They also assessed participants’ focus on parting with the good (money), which is a loss, and receiving money (the good), which is a gain, for sellers (buyers). Findings Feelings of power reduced sellers’ prices but they increased buyers’. Crucially, the authors observed the endowment effect, but only under conditions of low power. When participants had high power, the effect reversed, with buyers placing a higher value on the good under transaction than sellers. Process data indicated that powerful buyers and sellers focused on what they gained and less on what they lost, compared to powerless buyers and sellers. Research limitations/implications The authors link the construct of power with the endowment effect, showing that the former can moderate the latter. Certainly, the endowment effect is well-established, but there are moderators and boundary conditions that warrant consideration. Practical implications The results suggest a case where the market may clear, where buyers value a consumer product more than sellers, and thus buyers would likely accept the offer made by sellers. Originality/value The authors are the first to link the power literature with the endowment effect. They also show a possible moderator for the well-established endowment effect.

Where Do Market Categories Come From and How? Distinguishing Category Creation From Category Emergence

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolphe Durand ◽  
Mukti Khaire
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Strategic Actions ◽  
Category Formation ◽  
Antecedents And Consequences ◽  
Practical Implications

This paper reviews several streams of research on market category formation. Most past research has largely focused on established category systems and the antecedents and consequences of categorical positioning (i.e., categorical purity vs. spanning; combination vs. replacement) but relatively ignored the formative processes leading to new categories. In this review, we address this lacuna to posit that scholarship would benefit from clearly disentangling category emergence from category creation. We analytically describe the differences between the two and elaborate the boundary conditions that guide and define which process is more likely to occur in a given market. Our review contributes to illuminating the role of organizational agency and strategic actions in market categories and their formation, which deserve greater attention as a result of their theoretical and practical implications.

Development of a behavioral taxonomy of agility in the workplace

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Karl Herbert Petermann ◽  
Hannes Zacher
Keyword(s):  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Critical Incident ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Workforce Agility ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Take All

PurposeThe concept of workforce agility has become increasingly popular in recent years. However, defining it has sparked much discussion and ambiguity. Recognizing this ambiguity, this paper aims to inductively develop a behavioral taxonomy of workforce agility.Design/methodology/approachThe authors interviewed 36 experts in the field of agility and used concept mapping and the critical incident technique to create a behavioral taxonomy.FindingsThe authors identified a behavioral taxonomy consisting of ten dimensions: (1) accepting changes, (2) decision making, (3) creating transparency, (4) collaboration, (5) reflection, (6) user centricity, (7) iteration, (8) testing, (9) self-organization, and (10) learning.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ research contributes to the literature in that it offers an inductively developed behavioral taxonomy of workforce agility with ten dimensions. It further adds to the literature by tying the notion of workforce agility to the performance literature.Practical implicationsThe authors’ results suggest that it might be beneficial for companies to take all workforce agility dimensions into account when creating an agile culture, starting agile projects, integrating agility into hiring decisions or evaluating employee performance.Originality/valueThis paper uses an inductive approach to define workforce agility as a set of behavioral dimensions, integrating the scientific as well as the practitioner literature on agility.

scholarly journals Supply chain – marketing integration

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 368-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilan Alon ◽  
Shan Chen ◽  
Marco Mandolfo
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
High Stake ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Research Propositions ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss China’s New Silk Road initiative as an opportunity for European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to export to Chinese market. It offers research propositions on redefining the business process of European SMEs and Chinese importers in light of the initiative.Design/methodology/approachSMEs’ export barriers, particularly in SCM and marketing, are identified through literature review. Then they are discussed in accordance with the measures that New Silk Road proposed.FindingsLogistic infrastructure development under the New Silk Road significantly lowers the supply chain barrier. Marketing remains a challenge for European SMEs to export to China. This paper argues that the European SMEs and the Chinese importers should create closer collaboration, expand their relationship beyond SCM, and integrate their marketing efforts for mutual benefits.Research limitations/implicationsSeveral future research areas are proposed in this paper. The authors invite researchers and practitioners to deepen the discussion with empirical evidence.Practical implicationsThe New Silk Road has already become a high stake project for many countries involved. Many measures are yet to be defined and the stakeholders, including industries and businesses, should have an influence on their definition. This paper provides the authors’ viewpoints on how businesses should act in this initiative.Originality/valueDespite being an important topic of the world’s economy in the recent years, the New Silk Road initiative has rarely been studied in management research, possibly due to lack of evidence. As its development significantly sped up since 2017, it is high time that the research community starts to contribute to the knowledge building in this project. This paper is among the firsts to call for and to propose avenues for future research efforts.

Hiring in the New Economy

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
David S. Pedulla
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
New Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Job Applicants ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Hiring Process ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Work And Employment

This chapter centers the challenges faced by workers with nonstandard, mismatched, and precarious employment experiences within the hiring process. It argues that evaluating job applicants does not happen in a vacuum. The broader social and economic context matters. As such, the chapter turns to the ways that work and employment have changed and developed in the United States. To examine how hiring works in the new economy and to understand the consequences of nonstandard, mismatched, and precarious work for hiring decisions, the chapter provides details on two complementary types of data: field-experimental data on actual hiring decisions and in-depth interviews with hiring professionals. While the field-experimental data provide a direct lens into employers' behaviors—how they actually treat workers with different types of employment experiences—the interviews provide fine-grained insights into how employers think and talk about different types of workers and employment histories.

scholarly journals Individual variation in role construal predicts responses to third-party biases in hiring contexts

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0244393
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Vial ◽  
Janine Bosak ◽  
Patrick C. Flood ◽  
John F. Dovidio
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
Manager Role ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Group Characteristics ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Selection Of

We theorize that individuals’ pre-existing beliefs about the hiring manager role (role construal) are associated with their tendency to condone bias accommodation in hiring contexts, in which a person aligns hiring decisions with the perceived biases of others. In two studies, we focus on human resources (HR) professionals’ endorsement of the role demand to prioritize candidate fit with others (e.g., supervisor) when making hiring decisions. Study 1 examined bias accommodation from a vicarious perspective, revealing that role demand endorsement is positively associated with viewing it as acceptable and common for another hiring manager to accommodate third-party bias against women. Study 2 examined bias accommodation experimentally from an actor’s perspective, showing lower preference for and selection of a female (vs. male) job candidate in the presence of cues to third-party bias against women, but only when role demand endorsement is relatively high. HR professionals in both studies indicated that third-party bias influences in hiring are relatively common. Responses in Study 2 provide preliminary evidence that the phenomenon of third-party bias accommodation might be relevant in the context of employment discrimination based on group characteristics other than gender (e.g., race/ethnicity, age). We discuss the practical implications of our findings for hiring professionals and for organizations seeking to increase diversity in their workforce.

What do people desire in their leaders? The effect of leadership experience on desired leadership traits

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 658-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Lee Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Leadership Traits ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Hiring Decisions ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Selection Decisions ◽  
Leadership Experience ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine how leadership experience affects the value leaders place on leadership traits. In particular, the author sought to determine if individuals with different amounts of leadership experience deferentially desire traits related to dominance and cooperation. Design/methodology/approach – Participants reported the importance of dominant and cooperative traits for an ideal leader, and reported the number of leadership roles that they had experienced. Findings – The desirability of dominance-related traits decreased as leadership experience increased, but only for women. In contrast, the desirability of cooperation-related traits remained the same, regardless of leadership experience or gender. Practical implications – Overall, these findings suggest leaders learn to desire different traits as they gain leadership experience. Implications of this research may exist in both business and political domains. In business, several leadership outcomes depend on trait desirability. In addition, interview and selection decisions may depend on the leadership experience and gender of the decision-maker. Organizations should carefully select members of the organization to make these critical hiring decisions. In politics, candidates would be wise to consider the leadership experience and gender of constituents in their self-presentation attempts. Originality/value – This research presents the first examination of the effect of leadership experience on the desirability of leader personality traits. In addition, this is one of the first studies to refocus on the dominance/cooperation dichotomy and “ideal” leadership – a promising focus for future trait research.

Reacties van leidinggevenden op radicale creatieve ideeën van medewerkers

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy B.L. Sijbom ◽  
Onne Janssen ◽  
Nico W. van Yperen
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Achievement Goals ◽  
Performance Goals ◽  
Performance Goal ◽  
Mastery Goals ◽  
Mastery Goal ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Better Than

Leaders’ reactions to radical creative ideas voiced by employees: The role of leaders’ achievement goals Leaders’ reactions to radical creative ideas voiced by employees: The role of leaders’ achievement goals We review three articles in which we examined how leaders’ achievement goals affect their reactions to creative ideas voiced by their employees. Across a series of studies, we expected and found that leaders pursuing performance goals (to do better than others) tend to be less receptive and more opposing to voiced creative ideas than leaders pursuing mastery goals (to do better than they did before). We also present and discuss our findings on the underlying mechanisms that can clarify why performance goal leaders react differently than mastery goal leaders as well as the boundary conditions under which performance goal leaders respond in similar ways to mastery goal leaders. We conclude that leaders’ achievement goals affect their reactions to voiced creative ideas and discuss the practical implications for leaders and organizations to get the most out of upward creative input.

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