It Takes Three to Tango: Exploring the Interplay among Training Intensity,Job Autonomy,and Supervisor Support in Predicting Knowledge Sharing

This study explored whether the relationship between perceived training intensity and knowledge sharing is prone to combined moderating influences. We operationalized perceived training intensity as a challenge stressor, in accordance with the challenge‐hindrance framework of work stressors. The results of a study of 129 employees from three Norwegian service industries revealed a positive relationship between perceived training intensity and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing for employees reporting high levels of perceived job autonomy and high levels of perceived supervisor support. In contrast, we found a negative relationship between perceived training intensity and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing for employees reporting high levels of perceived job autonomy and low levels of perceived supervisor support. These findings suggest that supervisors are of vital importance in facilitating knowledge sharing among employees in settings where developmental challenges are prevalent and perceptions of job autonomy are high. Implications for future research and practice are also discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The influence of workgroup identification on turnover intention and knowledge sharing: the perspective of employees in subsidiaries

Abstract

Turnover intention and knowledge sharing of local employees in multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiary workgroups have received relatively little attention in IHRM research, yet are central to everyday operation of the organisation. Drawing on optimal distinctiveness theory, we consider the influence of workgroup identification on two important employee attitudes and behaviours, turnover intention and knowledge sharing, by examining the influence of the supervisor on workgroup identification. Participants included 306 employees in an Australian and New Zealand subsidiary of an MNE headquartered in Europe. The results indicate that employees’ tendency to identify with their workgroup is enhanced by the distinctiveness of a supervisor from a different national or cultural group, which in turn leads to decreased turnover intention and increased knowledge sharing among workgroup members. Higher supervisor prototypicality however, that counterbalances distinctiveness through higher inclusion, weakens the mediation effect. An important practical implication of this research is that the HR function could play a valuable role in training or group development to raise supervisors’ and employees’ understanding and management of needs for both inclusion and distinctiveness.     

Overconfidence and Disappointment in Decision‐making under Risk: The Triumph of Hope over Experience

Overconfidence in economic decision‐making is a well‐established phenomenon; however, assessment of its scale and impact are largely absent from the literature. This paper uses Bell's disappointment metric to quantify its impact on individual decision‐makers in a risky investment setting. We are able to quantify the sensitivity of disappointment to overconfidence. We examine disappointment in both deterministic and stochastic models, finding that in the most likely cases, individual investors experience lower disappointment when variance is higher. We are also able to quantify and compare calibration‐based overconfidence and better‐than‐average overconfidence. Contrary to prior research, we find that their magnitudes are the same. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self‐managed work teams: An efficiency‐rationale for pay compression

This paper uncovers a novel mechanism through which pay dispersion can have a negative effect on firm performance, even in the absence of equity or fairness considerations. We use a stylized model of a self‐managed work team to show that, when team‐work involves heterogeneous tasks, the provision of incentives to exert effort conflicts with the provision of incentives to share information relevant for decision‐making. Pay dispersion deteriorates information sharing as it induces workers to conceal “bad news” to maintain their coworkers motivation. The practical implications of our theory are that team empowerment should go hand in hand with pay compression and that empowerment should be avoided when team production involves strongly heterogeneous tasks.     

Pay‐Level Satisfaction and Employee Outcomes: The Moderating Effect of Employee‐Involvement Climate

The present study examined employee‐involvement climate (i.e., information‐sharing and decision‐making climate) as a moderator of the relationship between pay‐level satisfaction and employee outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intention). Survey data were collected from 22,662 Belgian employees, representing 134 organizations. The hypotheses derived from distributive justice theory and from research on the meaning of pay received partial support. Multilevel analyses revealed that a decision‐making climate buffered the negative effects of low pay‐level satisfaction, and that an information‐sharing climate exacerbated the negative effects of low pay‐level satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of this differential moderating effect are discussed.     

企业会选择与竞争对手共享审计师吗?——基于经营范围相似度的分析

在选择最适合自身需求的审计师方面，企业会关注竞争对手的选择，并在享受审计专家服务与保护专有信息外溢之间寻求平衡。以企业的收入排名和经营范围的相似度衡量竞争对手，检验竞争对手间的审计师共享行为。研究发现，当行业内经营范围高度相似的两个企业互为竞争对手时，共享审计师的可能性较低；行业竞争激烈程度会放大竞争对手共享审计师的负向关系；但当外部审计师为审计专家时，会改变同行竞争对手不愿共享审计师的倾向；从经济后果来看，聘用同一会计师事务所的同行企业会有相似的经济决策。从财务层面构建衡量竞争对手的方法，验证竞争对手间的共享审计师问题，发现审计师不仅是财务报表的鉴证者，也是知识与资源丰富的信息中介与来源。     

The Effects of Negative Incidents in Sustainability Reporting on Investors’ Judgments–an Experimental Study of Third‐party Versus Self‐disclosure in the Realm of Sustainable Development

This study examines how the disclosure of negative sustainability‐related incidents affects the investment‐related judgments of decision‐makers. Participants in a sequential 2 × 2 between‐subjects experiment first received a company's financial information before viewing additional sustainability information (by the company and by a non‐governmental organization (NGO); with and without negative disclosure). Results indicate that self‐reporting of negative incidents does not affect decision‐makers’ stock price estimates and investment decisions compared with judgments based on financial information only. However, third‐party disclosure of these incidents by a NGO has a negative affect on these investment‐related judgments. Furthermore, the magnitude of the NGO reporting effect depends on whether the company itself simultaneously reports these incidents. Thus, disclosing negative incidents in sustainability reporting could lose some of its apparent stigma. Instead of avoiding negative reporting altogether, managers might use it as a risk mitigation tool in their reporting strategy. The results also emphasize the power of the often‐mentioned ‘watchdog’ function of NGOs acting as stakeholder advocates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Bracing for demand shocks: An experimental investigation

We investigate inventory ordering decisions when decision makers anticipated a demand shock. Decision makers anticipating an event have been shown to brace for an uncertain negative outcome by overestimating the likelihood of that event. Decision makers faced with a spike in demand may incur increased holding costs because they may brace, exhibiting a judgment bias, and consequently a decision bias by over-ordering inventory. Three studies span conditions of uncertainty regarding the timing and magnitude of a demand shock: Employing three between-subjects experiments, Study 1 investigates behavior when decision makers were faced with uncertainty in timing and in magnitude of demand at the most elemental level, manipulating holding and stock out costs. The three experimental tasks feature uncertainty about the magnitude of demand (Experiment 1.1), uncertainty about the timing of demand (Experiment 1.2), and uncertainty about both the magnitude and timing of demand (Experiment 1.3). Study 2 uses a dynamic, multi-period replenishment task and a between-subjects manipulation regarding the uncertainty of timing and magnitude of a demand shock. Study 3 also employs a multi-period decision environment, but compares behavior under a demand shock condition with that in a condition featuring only random variability. The collective results from the three studies identify a bias toward over-ordering in response to a demand shock, relative to the optimal orders. The between-subjects manipulations in Study 2 points toward a possible remedy as we found that providing information concerning the timing and magnitude of a shock ameliorated the bias. The primary revelation was that decision makers had more difficulty dealing with uncertain timing than with uncertain magnitude of demand. One implication is that it is particularly critical for retailers to carefully plan and manage how they share information with upstream supply chain partners regarding when they plan to introduce store-level promotions.     

Factors Influencing a Manager's Decision to Discipline Employees for Refusal to Work with an HIV/AIDS Infected Coworker

This research investigates the influence of gender, fear of AIDS, and the likelihood that a manager will share AIDS-related health information about an HIV/AIDS infected coworker with subordinates on a manager's decision to discipline an employee for refusing to work with the HIV/AIDS infected coworker. Data was obtained using questionnaires administered to 194 managers employed in service, manufacturing, and government organizations. Both fear of AIDS and sharing AIDS-related health information exhibited a significant unique negative relationship with the decision to discipline. No significant unique relationship was found between gender and the decision to discipline. However, gender was found to moderate the relationship between fear of AIDS and the decision to discipline. There was a significant negative relationship between fear of AIDS and the decision to discipline among male but not among female managers. Study findings, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Exploring psychological determinants of sharing donor recognition on social networking sites.

Not‐for‐profit organizations (NFPs) are increasingly turning to online platforms to engage with donors. However, sharing rates of donation activity to social networking sites (SNSs) are low. Existing research has predominantly taken an aggregated approach to understanding SNS sharing behavior, therefore this study took a context‐specific approach and explored; why do donors choose to share (or not share) donor recognition on social networking sites? A qualitative research design was employed using interviews with 20 Australian donors. Social, organizational and individual factors were identified as influential to donors' decisions to share online donor recognition. This study extends understanding around online self‐disclosure and firm‐generated electronic word‐of‐mouth and provides strategic direction for NFPs to encourage greater donation sharing behavior on SNSs.     

The Influence of Decision,Environmental and Firm Characteristics on the Rationality of Strategic Decision‐Making*

abstract This paper develops an integrated model of strategic decision‐making rationality. The model is informed by three perspectives that respectively identify decision, environmental and firm characteristics as influences on the rationality of decision processes. The results of a study in Egypt indicate that the rationality of strategic decision‐making processes is shaped by variables identified by all three perspectives, and that such decision processes cannot adequately be modelled in terms of a single perspective only. However, the study also suggests that the three perspectives do not contribute in equal measure to explaining strategic decision making, and that the national setting is relevant for the extent to which strategic decision‐makers take account of environmental characteristics. The location of the investigation in Egypt highlights some deviations from previous research that could be attributed to nation‐specific factors, both cultural and institutional.     

Information Sharing in Contests

We study the incentives to share private information ahead of contests, such as markets with promotional competition, procurement contests, or research and development (R&D). We consider the cases where firms have (i) independent values and (ii) common values of winning the contest. In both cases, when decisions to share information are made independently, sharing information is strictly dominated. With independent values, an industry‐wide agreement to share information can arise in equilibrium. Expected effort is lower with than without information sharing. With common values, an industry‐wide agreement to share information never arises in equilibrium. Expected effort is higher with than without information sharing.     

Information systems project management decision making: The influence of experience and risk propensity

Managing information systems (IS) projects is a notoriously difficult task. The project manager is a crucial player in a successful IS development project. This research examines how a project manager's prior experience and risk propensity influence his or her decision making. An experiment was conducted that showed that both experience and risk propensity have significant influence on the decisions made.     

Aqui No Se Habla Agencia.* An Examination of the Impact of Adverse Selection and Framing in Decision‐Making: a US/Mexico Comparison

US companies seeking cheaper labor or extraordinary returns have often seen foreign direct investment as a panacea. However, many of these companies founder on the horns of a control dilemma. While raw economic data such as labor rates prove to be true, productivity and decision‐making styles are so different that companies fail to maximize their investment returns. This situation is worsened as companies attempt to impose culturally inappropriate home country controls on their foreign investment. This study examines one of the potential sources of failure, escalation of commitment, which occurs when decision‐makers over‐commit incremental resources to failing investments without reasonable probability of recovery. This behavior has been widely documented in US domestic literature (see Whyte and Hook, 1997 , for a summary). However, there is also some evidence that such behavior is culturally bounded ( Chow et al., 1997; Sharp and Salter, 1997; Greer and Stephens, 2001 ). This study extends previous findings on cross‐cultural differences in decision‐making among managers by comparing the responses of managers in the USA and Mexico to an escalation of commitment exercise. The cross‐cultural validity of two US based theories, agency (adverse selection) and framing (prospect theory), is tested. The results indicate that at base Mexican managers were more risk seeking. However managers from the more individualistic USA were significantly more likely than Mexican managers to escalate in the presence of agency (adverse selection) based incentives. Negative framing among managers was universal in escalating commitment.     

When Should Leaders Share Information with Their Subordinates?

We show that when leaders share some of their information with subordinates, decision making is subject to a motivational bias; leaders make the decisions their subordinates want to see. As this bias increases with the quality of the shared information, an improvement of an organization's information might even decrease its efficiency. As a consequence, information sharing is not always optimal. We show however that self-confidence can help the leader to overcome his motivational bias, thus making information sharing more attractive. Conversely, we find that information sharing can help to curb the autocratic tendencies of a self-confident leadership. We conclude that a policy of information sharing and the appointment of a self-confident leadership are most effective when they go hand in hand.     

Strategic risk behaviour and its temporalities: between risk propensity and decision context

What are the determinants of strategic risk behaviour? Are they the dispositional characteristics of decision makers or the situational constraints? Or both? The empirical evidence is on all sides. We believe the issue has not been satisfactorily resolved so far because of the continued neglect of the fundamental role of time in risk behaviour. Given that risk is embedded in time, we need to recognize two critical aspects of the temporal dimension. The first is concerned with risk horizons, as in short‐range and long‐range risk horizons. The second temporal aspect relates to individual future orientations of the top managers, as in near‐future and distant‐future orientations. We propose in this article a temporal framework of strategic risk behaviour in which the two temporalities are integrated with risk propensity and perceived decision context. We then develop, based on this temporal framework, the contingent answers for the relative roles of dispositional characteristics and situational constraints in determining strategic risk behaviour.     

An Examination of the Factors that Influence Whether Newcomers Protect or Share Secrets of their Former Employers*

abstract This research investigated the factors that influence a decision that is often faced by employees who have made a transition from one organization to another: the decision about whether to protect secrets of their former employer or to share them with their new co‐workers. A total of 111 employees from two high‐tech companies participated in interviews. Their comments were analysed and, based on both relevant literature and the results of that analysis, a theory of the factors that influence newcomers' protect vs. share decisions was developed. According to that theory, newcomers first decide whether or not information is a trade secret of their former employer by considering (1) whether the information is part of their own knowledge, and (2) whether the information is publicly available, general, and negative (about something that did not work). If newcomers decide the information is a trade secret, they then evaluate (1) the degree to which their obligations are biased towards their former or new employer, and (2) the degree to which they identify more strongly with their former or new employer. Newcomers whose obligations and identifications are biased towards a new employer are more likely to share secrets. If these obligations and identifications are balanced, newcomers may share information in a way that allows them to believe they are fulfilling their responsibilities to both their former and their new employers.     

From Hot Cakes to Cold Feet: A Contingent Perspective on the Relationship between Market Uncertainty and Status Homophily in the Formation of Alliances

In this study, we reconsider the classical positive association between the level of market uncertainty and an organization's propensity to form ties with organizations of similar status. Although prior research argues that the greater the uncertainty, the higher the level of status homophily, we suggest that this relationship is contingent upon framing that affects positive or negative valence towards uncertainty. In an up market, organizations tend to frame uncertainty as upside risk, and thus will subsequently favour explorative uncertainty‐mitigation devices; whereas, in a down market, organizations primarily frame uncertainty as downward risk, and thus will rely on more conservative uncertainty‐mitigation mechanisms. We therefore predict that a greater number of status‐heterophilous ties will be formed in an up market than in a down market. We discuss the implications of our results for status theory and more broadly for research on strategic decision making under uncertainty.     

Effect of Knowledge Leadership on Knowledge Sharing in Engineering Project Design Teams: The Role of Social Capital

Knowledge sharing is a precondition for engineering project design teams to achieve an efficient design; however, designers are not always willing to share knowledge with other team members. To improve knowledge sharing, this article investigates the effect of knowledge leadership on knowledge sharing in engineering project design teams by examining the role of social capital. Our results show a significant indirect effect of knowledge leadership on knowledge sharing through the mediating role of social capital. Therefore, effective knowledge sharing depends on knowledge leaders to develop a share vision, and promote a trustworthy and collaborative environment for designers.     

基于粗集属性重要性的供应链信息共享的模糊综合评价

供应链信息共享是供应链渠道协调的重要方法，信息共享的程度评价为供应链节点企业的信息共享激励决策以及合作伙伴关系的评估提供重要依据。文章提出了信息共享的评价指标体系．利用评价指标属性的重要性作为权重值，解决了确定权重值的主观性问题。利用粗糙集理论结合模糊数学的有关理论建立了供应链信息共享的综合评价模型并进行了算例分析，为节点企业的激励决策和合作伙伴关系的评价提供依据和理论指导。