Each year at this time we have the pleasure of celebrating the winners of two awards given to papers published in our journal. For the second year, we are not able to share this news in person at our annual reception at the Academy of Management meetings. The virtual round of applause that we can offer here is not as easily heard, but we offer a loud congratulations to these accomplished authors. These are excellent papers among an extremely strong set of contenders.
We present the ASQ Award for Scholarly Contribution to the paper published five years earlier that has subsequently had the greatest influence on the field of organization studies. A committee comprising members of our editorial board is charged with reviewing papers published during the target year and choosing the one judged to have made the most important contribution. I am pleased to announce that the 2021 ASQ Award for Scholarly Contribution goes to Sarah Thébaud for her paper “Business as Plan B: Institutional Foundations of Gender Inequality in Entrepreneurship across 24 Industrialized Countries.” Sarah’s fascinating paper examines how family leave policies shape women’s employment choices. She argues that supportive institutional arrangements, such as paid leave and subsidized childcare, are associated with larger gender gaps in entrepreneurship. The explanation for this counterintuitive result is that entrepreneurship is, for many women, a kind of “Plan B” that they resort to when other forms of employment are less attractive. Consistent with this story, she finds that the gender gap diminishes when looking at high-growth entrepreneurship—that is, necessity entrepreneurs tend to run small businesses more than high-growth ventures. In doing so, she highlights the complicated effects of large-scale macro policies on individual behavior. The award committee notes that Sarah’s paper is particularly relevant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the gender employment gap (and the underlying parental employment gap, which falls disproportionately on women) and necessity entrepreneurship both on the rise. Sarah’s paper demonstrates not only that these two phenomena are linked but that one drives the other. The committee describes the paper as “an artful example of how the thoughtful and comprehensive examination of an important societal issue can yield unexpected insights and actionable policy recommendations for why paid leave and subsidized childcare are so important to increasing female representation in good jobs.”
We present the ASQ Dissertation Award to a paper published in an issue in the previous year based on a dissertation, with the lead author (preferably the only author) being the dissertation author. The award-winning article is the one that best exemplifies the criteria for publication in ASQ as described in our Invitation to Contributors. In 2020 there were an impressive 14 articles based on dissertations published in the journal (out of 27 total published papers). The committee noted the challenge of selecting among a large set of truly excellent papers.
I am pleased to announce that the 2021 ASQ Dissertation Award goes to Nathan Wilmers for his paper “Job Turf or Variety: Task Structure as a Source of Organizational Inequality.” Nate’s paper uses fine-grained employer–employee data on job tasks within 5,300 union organizations to examine pay inequality; he seeks to understand why employees within firms are paid differently. Most explanations of inequality within organizations point to firm hierarchy, but changes in the labor market and in organizational structures make fixed job hierarchies less prevalent. This novel paper reveals the importance of the job itself—and the task structure within the job—to explain pay inequalities. Interdependencies across job configurations mean that when organizations narrow the variety of tasks required in a given job, that change also has implications for the uniqueness of tasks performed by employees. When employees perform unique tasks, they amass “job turf.” The paper shows that reducing the task variety of a job depresses wages, but increasing “job turf” increases wages. As the award committee noted, in this paper Nate identifies “a really intriguing research question, develops novel theory to explain it, and writes with the requisite clarity for those not doing research on labor markets to read, understand, and appreciate.”
The award committee also identified the runner-up for the ASQ Dissertation Award: Julia DiBenigno’s article “Rapid Relationality: How Peripheral Experts Build a Foundation for Influence with Line Managers.” Based on an ethnographic study of mental health professionals in the U.S. Army, Julia’s paper explores how mental health professionals develop influential relationships with their line managers (i.e., commanders) despite their peripheral role in the organization. The relational tools and contextualized knowledge generally utilized by those in low-power positions to exert influence are not useful to peripheral experts, as they are often outside the daily workings of the organization—representing issues or expertise not seen as central to the operation. This insightful paper finds that moving quickly to establish a strong relationship is important, before major conflicts arise. In the dyads in which the experts’ recommendations are followed, the experts quickly gain access to and knowledge of the managers, demonstrate their commitment to and understanding of their jurisdiction, and continually affirm the managers’ authority. These tactics explain the dyadic relationships in which mental health professionals have their advice heeded despite their peripheral role. The committee noted, “Julia’s paper is beautifully written, and her theory building is dauntingly good.” Writing clearly and compellingly for a non-expert audience while developing theory that excites those who are more expert is a difficult but important challenge. These scholars have all demonstrated their mastery of this skill.
ASQ seeks papers that engage the theoretical and empirical literature on organizations and make significant contributions to it. The editors interpret this as papers that open up scholarly conversations and inspire research through their theoretical and methodological advances, papers that will be studied for a long time, and papers with conclusions that will be tested, re-tested, and found to hold true. Our award winners fulfill these criteria, demonstrating ASQ’s commitment to research that combines significant theoretical advances with extensive data collection and rigorous analysis.
These awards are decided by independent committees representing the diversity of ASQ’s readership. Each committee examines the eligible papers and judges which one best meets the award criteria. The ASQ Dissertation Award Committee was chaired by Adam Cobb and composed of Callen Anthony, Sarah Harvey, and Jiao Luo. The ASQ Award for Scholarly Contribution Committee was chaired by Adam Kleinbaum and composed of Sekou Bermiss, Emily Bianchi, and Kate Kellogg. I thank the committee members for their time during such a complicated year, for their thoughtful work, and for choosing such fine papers.
Christine M. Beckman
