Exchanging & Inspiring with International & Interedisciplinary Scholars

We were delighted to share some of our research in the prestigous and selective “Organization Science Winter Conference” in Zurich (below). We discussed the work-in-progress with a range of scholars from Switzerland, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, and the U.S.

Thanks again to the organizers from ETH Zurich and to all of the participants for the warm welcome of our more micro-research in this historically more macro research community. We’re integrating the feedback and hoping to submit our paper soon.

Our core PLAID lab team were also delighted to share a new paper (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation) on how playfulness can facilitate interactions and networking across diversity (e.g., men and women, lower and higher-status persons) in organizations. In total, 31 research groups from across HSG shared their sustainability-related insights. See here for more information.

To slow down climate change, speed up gender equity?

On behalf of my coauthors Eugenia Bajet Mestre, Corinne Post, and Winfried Ruigrok, we’re delighted to share our new article on the nexxus between gender/diversity, leadership, and sustainability.

Gender equity and environmental sustainability may seem like unrelated issues, but research shows that they are in fact closely intertwined. Women and other underserved groups are disproportionately impacted by the global climate crisis, but they are also uniquely positioned to lead the fight for sustainability. We offer six strategies to help business and political leaders empower women and address environmental challenges through an intersectional approach to sustainability. To tackle climate change (as well as the myriad other sustainability challenges that face today’s organizations), we argue that leaders must acknowledge the complexity and interconnectedness of these issues — and work to develop integrated solutions that will improve them all.

Artwork accompanying our article in HBR by the talented Lars Leetaru.

See here for the original article in Harvard Business Review (in English).

See here for the television interview with Jamie Gloor in TVO (in German).

We’re delighted to see our work featured as “Strategic Intelligence” by the World Economic Forum and gaining above-average traction for Harvard Business Review articles with 22,000+ hits after only 1 month published.

But what do you think? Share your comments here—let’s keep the discussion going as we aim for awareness and positive impact in the areas of gender/diversity, leadership, and (social) sustainability.

Academy of Management in Boston

What an amazing, whirlwind experience in Boston as 11,000+ scholars, practitioners, and policy makers convened in Boston to share and discuss, connect and reconnect.

Rashpal Dhensa-Khalon (Surrey) and I organized a symposium on workplace humor within and across hierarchies, which we shared with a full house (despite the 8AM Tuesday time slot). Within the symposium, I also presented my paper on humor and diversity (coauthored with Lynn Bowes-Sperry and Cecily Cooper, based on a project with Agnes Baeker with research assistance from Felix Wuethrich and Ramon Gmuer). Finally, Cecily Cooper (Miami - see below) tied the 4 papers within the symposium together with thoughtfulness and finesse; no joke–she is surely one of the best discussants in the land!

Kate Frear (SMU) and Sam Paustian-Underdahl (FSU) included my research with Tyler Okimoto (UQ), Xinxin Li (Shanghai Jiao Tong), and Brooke Gazdag (LMU) on how higher organizational identification predicts less gender discrimination at work in their symposium on gender bias. We were delighted to be included among stellar scholars such as Natalya Alonso (UBC), Ivona Hideg (Wilfrid Laurier), Shannon Cheng (Rice), and Jasmien Khattab (UVA).

Gender discrimination, of course, isn’t funny…but the photo (below) from the symposium sure is!

And finally, have you ever wondered who's conducting award-winning international management practices and research? Who's on the AOM International Theme Committee (ITC) Executive Board, responsible for selecting and honoring these practices and papers? Today's your lucky day! 👇

We were delighted to welcome a room full of scholars and practitioners at our reception last week in Boston, where we honored the following persons: 👏
1. PTC-ITC International Impactful Collaboration Award: Jeroen Veldman (Mines ParisTech), Hugh Willmott (Cass), & Filip Gregor (Responsible Companies Section)
2. Emerald Best International Dissertation Award: Maximilian (Max) Stallkamp (Virginia Tech)
3. Emerald Best International Symposium Award: Maike Andresen (Bamberg), Eleni Apospori (Athens U), & Jon Briscoe (N. Illinois)
4. Carolyn Dexter Award: Jane Lê (WHU) & Fannie Couture (University of Sydney)

Thanks again to the divisions for their nominations, to the reviewers who supported our selections, to all of the amazing practitioners and scholars who were nominated, as well as to our ITC committee members for their hard work and enthusiasm (pictured below). 💪

Leadership, Power, and Politics @IPLS

What a delight it was to catch-up with so many colleagues (e.g., my former TU Munich team members, pictured below) at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium in Corfu, Greece. As usual, Olga Epitropaki (Durham University) and Sophia Tzagaraki did a great job organizing. I also enjoyed the keynote by one of my Swiss colleagues, Christian Zehnder (University of Lausanne).

It was invigorating to present some new ideas we’re really excited about and to experience the impressive collective brain in the room for our papers on leadership, power, and humor (with Petra Schmid, ETH Zurich, and Sam Yam, NUS) and coauthor networks (with Brooke Gazdag).

I am grateful to the SAGW, who funded part of my conference travel.

Let's get digital! ...and inclusive.

Delighted to share that Prof. Brooke Gazdag (LMU) and my new big data research on digital inequality and collaboration in science has been accepted for presentation at the inaugural the ETH-organized conference on organizing in the digital era in Switzerland. *UPDATE* Due to a time conflict that arose after acceptance, however, we unfortunately had to withdraw our paper and miss out on this amazing conference.

Our symposium on humor (with Prof. Rashpal Densa-Khalon, University of Surrey, co-organizer, and Prof. Cecily Cooper, University of Miami, discussant) that includes my paper on humor in uncertainty, as well as the symposium on gender bias in organizations (led by Prof. Samantha Paustian-Underdahl, Florida State University, and Dr. Kate Frear, Center for Creative Leadership) that includes our paper on identity and motivated reasoning (with Profs. Tyler Okimoto, University of Queensland, and Xinxin Li, Shanghai Jiao Tong University) have been accepted for presentation at the 79th annual Academy of Management Conference in Boston.

Looking forward to meeting colleagues, coauthors, and new contacts, starting, joining, and continuing discussions, and sharing science on a local and global scale.

Predictors of parental leave support: Bad news for (big) dads and a policy for equality

We are very pleased to share that our new paper on coworker support for parental leave is now published in Group Processes & Intergroup Relations. This article is part of a special issue on addressing gender inequality, edited by Prof. Dr. Michelle Ryan and Dr. Thekla Morgenroth.

Although men typically benefit from widely held gender biases in employment (e.g., selection, promotion, and pay), they are often disadvantaged when it comes to work-life. This interferes with fathers' ability to care for their children, but it may also hinder women's career development, thus reinforcing traditional gender roles and sustaining challenges to balance work and family for men and women. Best practices specify that benefits should be equally available to employees, but such policies may only be effective if there is a work culture to support them. As coworkers' responses have not yet been tested, we examine for whom coworkers show the most (and least) support for parental leave (Study 1), we replicate this finding using different methods and show the process whereby employee characteristics influence coworker support for their parental leave (Study 2), and then we test a policy-based intervention to further increase equality in coworker support for parental leave (Study 3).

Gloor, J. L., Li, X., & Puhl, R. M. (2018). Predictors of parental leave support: Bad news for (big) dads and a policy for equality. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 21(5), 810-830. doi: 10.1177/1368430217751630

This paper's findings and implications are relevant to our current ForGenderCare project at Professor Peus' chair at TUM. You can find the full publication here.

Counterintuitive consequences of maternal leave?

“Maybe Baby” expectations motivate subtle employee disrespect and work withdrawal

Pregnancy is…a wonderful thing for the woman, it’s a wonderful thing for the husband, it’s certainly an inconvenience for a business. -Donald Trump, President of the United States

Main Findings
Childfree working women report more subtle forms of disrespect (e.g., being interrupted or ignored) from colleagues and supervisors than childfree men, especially in organisations that offer more maternal leave than paternal leave. These uncivil experiences at work also predict employees' career withdrawal one year later.

View fullsize

Comparison to the General View of the Topic
A wealth of research has highlighted mothers’ many employment disadvantages compared to childfree women and men; however, "actual motherhood is not necessary for young women to experience motherhood penalties” concludes study author Dr. Jamie L. Gloor. Although maternal leave is ostensibly intended to benefit working women (e.g., enhance their economic returns and job security), this might come at the cost of their subtle social mistreatment. Finally, states Dr. Gloor, "if these employees leave, then targeting female leaders and professors for study or intervention may be too late if women have already withdrawn at an earlier career stage."   

Data
Two waves of quantitative survey data were collected one year apart from 474 early career academics (i.e., PhD and post-doctoral students, assistant professors) from all federal and cantonal universities in Switzerland. 

Implications
"Maybe baby” expectations–highlighted by the organizational inconveniences that pregnancy may entail–may be another explanation for the gender gap in leadership and professorships. Thus, "to retain highly educated women in the workforce, reduce "brain drain" and turnover costs,” recommends Dr. Gloor, “organizations might consider making parental leave more accessible to men to reduce or balance out these maybe baby expectations and feelings of potential parental inconvenience toward young female and male employees.” She added, “of course the onus should not be on women to reduce others’ biases towards them, but they, too, can proactively clarify their career committment to reduce these negative efects.”

Reference
Gloor, J. L., Li, X., Lim, S., & Feierabend, A. (in press). An inconvenient truth? Interpersonal and career consequences of "maybe baby" expectations. Journal of Vocational Behavior.*

*This paper was recently honored with the "Emerald Best Paper Based on a Dissertation Award" (Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division) at the 2017 Academy of Management Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, as well as being included in the 2017 Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. 

Leadership Excellence & Gender Symposium with Thought-Leaders @Purdue

After a 3 day symposium filled with talks, discussions, break-out groups, and socials with an intimate group of 50 or so scholars and practitioners, I am reinvigorated with purpose, creativity (and criticism) of the persistent and pervasive gender inequality (as well as the research we conduct to improve the state of the science and practice).

A few thoughts and reflections:

• Thanks for the organization by the Purdue team and to my colleagues for their engaged participation! It takes a village. And resources. Bravo & danke!
• I am increasingly skeptical of the causal claims people make (or should make in order to inform practice and policy) in the areas of gender and diversity (Thanks, John, for recruiting me into your endogeneity army!). We need this sort of evidence to stir the pot and stimulate the snail's pace of progress towards gender parity!
• Since we as humans are so biased and inefficient in our decisions and in the management and selection of our talent, I also find it difficult to understand why nudges aren't being used to their full potential (e.g., see Dr. Iris Bohnet's (Harvard) "What Works: Gender Equality by Design."). 
• Isn't gender equality in unpaid labor just as important as gender equality and inclusion in paid labor? After all, paternity leave is just as important for women's careers as it is for men's involvement in their child(ren)'s lives and development. Let's not limit equality to half the population or one domain of life and lose sight of the bigger picture.
• Thanks to Professor Kevin Leicht, who reminded me of the ever-increasing social and economic inequality between classes. Let's not get wrapped up in making the privileged more privileged. After all, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." - Mahatma Ghandi

Game, Set, Match.

Discussing gender and leadership at the Organizational Behavior brownbag in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management

I attended the the 75th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management held August 7-11, 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The program theme was Opening Governance. The 2015 theme invites members to consider opportunities to improve the effectiveness and creativity of organizations by restructuring systems at the highest organizational levels, and to try to answer the many questions organizational governance faces in today's digital and informational climate.

Together with colleagues from Germany (Aline Hernandez Bark, Goethe), Switzerland (Levke Henningsen, UZH psychology), and the United States (Avina Gupta, NYU), we also presented a symposium on gender and leadership with our stellar discussant from Yale Business School, Professor Victoria Brescoll (see below). I also presented a paper coauthored with Tyler Okimoto, Anja Feierabend, and Bruno Staffelbach on Young women are risky business? The “Maybe Baby” effect in employment decisions. 

Pictured left to right: Dr. Alina Hernandez Bark (Goethe Institute), Jamie Gloor, Professor Tori Brescoll (Yale University), Levke Henningsen (UZH) and Dr. Avina Gupta (Deloitte Consulting).