Suchergebnisse

Traditional employment is typically defined as ongoing full-time work for one employer. However, other employment relationships are becoming more prevalent, a phenomenon often called the "rise of the gig economy." As much as one third of the adult workforce may already be involved in gig work, and this proportion is likely to grow. The increasing prevalence of gig work has implications for all aspects of organizing, including management education. In this essay, based on discussions I had about these issues at previous UnConference meetings, I describe some of the challenges and opportunities that the gig economy creates for the scholarship of teaching and learning. Combining employment statistics with preliminary research evidence, I highlight three broad areas for future investigation: how the gig economy may influence students, how it may influence faculty, and how it may influence universities. My hope is that this essay inspires new research and improved practice.

Positive organizational scholarship is the study of that which is positive, flourishing, and life-giving in organizations. Positive refers to the elevating processes and outcomes in organizations. Organizational refers to the interpersonal and structural dynamics activated in and through organizations, specifically taking into account the context in which positive phenomena occur. Scholarship refers to the scientific, theoretically derived, and rigorous investigation of that which is positive in organizational settings. This article introduces this new field of study and identifies some of its key contributions.

The importance of virtuousness in organizations has recently been acknowledged in the organizational sciences, but research remains scarce. This article defines virtuousness and connects it to scholarly literature in organizational science. An empirical study is described in which the relationships between virtuousness and performance in 18 organizations are empirically examined. Significant relationships between virtuousness and both perceived and objective measures of organizational performance were found. The findings are explained in terms of the two major functions played by virtuousness in organizations: an amplifying function that creates self-reinforcing positive spirals, and a buffering function that strengthens and protects organizations from traumas such as downsizing.

Leading people from diverse cultures is centrally important in organizations. This study investigates the extent to which transformational leadership behaviors are universal: by examining if leaders and followers perceive transformational leadership behaviors the same way across cultures; and by determining if the magnitude of satisfaction that followers derive from transformational leadership behavior is the same across cultures. Survey data from 71,537 leaders and their direct reports (n = 203,027) from 77 countries were analyzed. Respondents represented hundreds of different organizations, 12 functional areas, 26 industries, and all management levels. Cultural universality was examined by comparing internal reliability scores and using multilevel mixed coefficient models to assess the similarity of effect sizes in across cultures. Regardless of culture, when interacting with leaders from their own culture, followers were universally alike in their perceptions of transformational leadership behavior and in their satisfaction with such behavior.

A recent article in Organization Studies used in its title the term 'constant connectivity'. Though we commonly think of connectivity as 'constant', temporal intermittency and actor agency make connectivity seldom, if ever, constant. Reflecting on studies of connectivity highlights the growing importance of recognizing and defining 'states' of connectivity. Several states of connectivity are reviewed, namely: hypo-connectivity, hyper-connectivity, requisite and optimal connectivity ('flow'). As an organizational resource, understanding various states of connectivity is critical to future research. More empirical work is needed to determine how the volume of connectivity makes a difference to performance and other outcomes.

Treating employees fairly produces many positive outcomes, but evidence suggests that managers' efforts to be fair are often unsuccessful because they emphasize the wrong aspects of justice. Managers tend to emphasize distributive justice, though employees may be most concerned with procedural and interactional justice. Organizational justice theory offers a framework for correcting this problem and assisting managers in their efforts to be fair. To this end, the authors describe the Missed Promotion exercise, a two-person role-play for introducing students to organizational justice theory. It provides a way to have students experience the importance of organizational justice, while teaching them about the three dimensions of justice and why managers often fail to be perceived as fair. Although the Missed Promotion exercise is simple enough to be completed in a single class session with students of any level, it reliably produces realistic responses and experiences, which allows for a useful discussion of the role of organizational justice in managerial fairness.