Human Relations

The #MeToo and the Time’s Up movements have raised the issue of sexual harassment encountered by women to the level of public consciousness. Together, these movements have captured not only the ubiquity of sexual harassment in the everyday functioning of the workplace, but they have also demonstrated how women are silenced about their experiences of it. Inspired by the political and the social currents emerging from these movements, and theoretically informed by ideas of discursive hegemony, rhetorical persuasion and affective practice, this article draws on a qualitative study of early- and mid-career female academics in business schools to answer the following question: How are victims who start to voice their experiences of sex-based harassment silenced within the workplace? Our findings reveal that organizational silence is the product of various third-party actors (e.g. line managers, HR, colleagues) who mobilize myriad discourses to persuade victims not to voice their discontent. We develop the concept of ‘reluctant acquiescence’ to explain the victims’ response to organizational silencing. In terms of its contributions to the extant literature, this article: (i) moves away from explanations of sex-based harassment that focus solely (or predominately) on the actions of individual perpetrators; and (ii) shows how reluctant acquiescence leads to maintaining the status quo in the organization. In highlighting features of academic work that facilitate reluctant acquiescence, we call for more contextualization of the dynamics of sex-based harassment specifically, and other forms of workplace mistreatment broadly.

How do knowledge workers interact with their colleagues when organizations increasingly ask them to work on multiple activities, projects and working spheres simultaneously? Given the importance of social networks for individual and organizational success, in this study we explore the relationship between individual preferences for engaging in multiple tasks simultaneously (individual polychronicity), the perception of the organization’s demands in terms of engaging in multiple tasks simultaneously (organizational polychronicity), and centrality in instrumental networks. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from knowledge professionals in a research and development (R&D) unit. Our results show that both individual and organizational polychronicity were related to network centrality. However, the effect of individual polychronicity on instrumental network centrality was stronger, especially for advice-related interactions, suggesting that individual preferences matter more when it comes to knowledge-related interactions. Not only do we link polychronicity to a previously unexplored context, that is, social networks, but we also propose the use of a cultural toolkit perspective to explain how individuals differentially make sense of organizational temporal demands. Finally, we advance research on the antecedents of network centrality and contribute to the ongoing debate on the delicate balance between structure and individual characteristics.

Research has focused on individuals’ beliefs about change when considering the antecedents of employee change readiness. Our study is unique as we identify beliefs and positive emotions about change as proximal antecedents of change readiness. In Study 1, a cross-sectional study of 252 government workers, measures of change beliefs, positive emotions about change and change readiness were developed and tested. Study 1 examined relationships between these constructs. In Study 2, we collected data at two time points separated by 3 months from 199 employees. Study 2 examined the direct and indirect relationships among change beliefs, positive emotions about change, change readiness and change-supportive behaviors. Structural equation modeling results provided support for the validity of our measures. In both studies, cognitive beliefs about change and positive emotions about change were significantly associated with change readiness. Study 2 provided support for indirect and direct relationships between change beliefs and positive emotions and change behaviors. An implication of this research is that failure to consider positive emotions about change means ignoring a key source of variation in change readiness. Practically, results suggest a need to develop both change beliefs and positive emotions about change to enhance employees’ change readiness and change-supportive behaviors.

A number of leadership theories have highlighted the positive impact that a leader’s vision can have on follower outcomes. Although significant research has examined the impact of vision, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this relationship is incomplete. Here, we use self-concept-based theory (Shamir et al., 1993) to explore how the strength of the vision being propounded and the way that it is expressed by leaders influence collective work beliefs. Using a matched sample of teachers and principals, we observe that inspirational visions are positively associated with group affective tone and that future-oriented visions are positively associated with collective efficacy and group affective tone, with all relationships mediated by visioning behaviour. Thus, employees whose leaders exhibit strong visions feel more collectively capable (higher levels of collective efficacy) and happier (higher levels of group affective tone) than employees whose leaders exhibit weak visions, especially when messages are delivered in an emotionally positive way. We conclude that visions contain distinct vision strength themes that differ in terms of their motivating capacity and offer important practical implications and suggestions for future research.

The benefits and drawbacks of diversity inside organizations have been the focus of attention for researchers and practitioners for several decades. In our article, we investigate the business case for racial diversity across different hierarchical levels. More precisely, we ask: How does racial diversity within organizations and its asymmetry across hierarchical levels affect their financial performance? From a sample of 143 US law firms from 2008 to 2012, we provide strong support for the business case and show that greater racial diversity for the entire organization is positively associated with firm financial performance. However, contrary to our initial expectations, the benefits of diversity are not more pronounced at the top of the organization, where its effects should arguably be more clearly observable. Diversity seems to have a similar effect across the three levels in law firms: associates, mid-level and partners. Furthermore, we find that the most profitable firms actually have their racial diversity heavily concentrated at the associate level. We discuss alternative explanations for this surprising finding and why the top-performing law firms have both overall higher degree of racial diversity and more concentration of its diversity at the lower level.