Probing the Group Faultline Concept: An Evaluation of Measures of Patterned Multi-dimensional Group Diversity

The article provides a conceptual and analytical discussion of the group faultline notion introduced to organizational research by Lau and Murnighan (1998). Group faultlines can be thought of as patterned multi-dimensional diversity, and recent attempts to measure faultline strength differ in the way they specify and operationalize this patternedness. I evaluate the comparative validity of these competing measures by scrutinizing their analytical strengths and weaknesses and by applying them to a number of illustrative group constellations that represent different faultline strengths. I conclude that at the current early stage of group faultline research, and given the shortcomings of the available indices, scholars are well advised to use multiple measures of faultline strength in empirical studies so as to better gauge the validity and reliability of both their results and the indices applied. I also caution against excessive hopes with regard to the explanatory power of the faultline concept in empirical research. This article was written while the author was teaching at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and an earlier version was presented at the Academy of Management annual meeting in New Orleans, August 6–11, 2004.     

Toward A Temporal Theory of Faultlines and Subgroup Entrenchment

A wealth of scholarship shows that faultlines drive important outcomes for groups. However, despite mounting calls for incorporating time in the group literature, our understanding of faultlines is bound by assumptions that constrain our ability to incorporate the crucial role of time as it relates to faultlines and their effects. Drawing together guidance for exploring temporal phenomena, with the faultline and group literatures, we embark on an understanding of the temporal nature of faultlines. We distinguish faultlines from specific subgroup configurations by introducing the concept of subgroup entrenchment – the agreement among group members about the existence and composition of strong and stable subgroups. We highlight how a group’s history influences its current and future experience of faultlines and subgroups, by exploring concepts such as duration, temporal alignment, and sequencing patterns. Our theory highlights how the dynamic features of multiple faultlines can influence subgroup entrenchment at any point in time.     

On the Same Side of the Faultline: Inclusion in the Leader's Subgroup and Employee Performance

Extending theory on faultlines and subgroups, we argue that faultlines splitting a team into homogeneous subgroups can have different effects on team members' individual performance, depending on different intra‐subgroup processes. Specifically, we propose that the effect of faultline strength on individual performance depends on whether a team member's subgroup includes the team leader. Building on the notion of faultline triggers, we further propose that organizational crises exacerbate this interaction because they make social support by the team leader especially important. We tested these assumptions with objective performance data collected over a period of four years from 3263 financial consultants (325 teams) while controlling for the effects of relational demography. Results showed that in teams with strong faultlines, consultants' performance decreased to a lesser extent in crisis years if the consultants shared a subgroup with their team leader. Thus, faultlines had different effects on team members from different subgroups.     

A measure of multidimensional polarization for categorical diversity data

Numerous indices measuring the degree of heterogeneity or homogeneity of small and large social entities exist. However, only recently has interest in multidimensional inequality and diversity grown. The novelty lies in looking at multiple dimensions of diversity simultaneously by asking how it is patterned across different attributes. The group faultline concept, which has gained some popularity in organizational research, is an instantiation of patterned multidimensional diversity in the context of small groups. Faultlines are thought to increase the potential for intragroup conflict. The paper provides a conceptual and operational elaboration of the group faultline concept and develops an index of patterned multidimensional diversity for categorical data based on the notion of multidimensional bipolarization. The application of this index to some illustrative group constellations leads to the conclusion that it is a valid, albeit not perfect, operationalization of faultline strength.     

董事会断裂带、内部控制与会计信息质量

以董事会断裂带为研究视角,选取2008—2018年A股上市公司为样本,分析上市公司会计信息质量是否会受到董事会断裂带的影响,以及内部控制对两者关系的调节作用。研究结果表明：断裂带的存在削弱了董事会成员监督意愿与监督能力,进而降低了上市公司披露的会计信息质量;而有效的内部控制通过抑制管理层机会主义行为,显著减缓董事会断裂带对会计信息质量的负向影响。进一步地,董事会非正式层级与持股比例较高时,断裂带的不利作用得到缓解,而在国有企业或市场化程度较低的地区,董事会断裂带对公司会计信息质量的负向影响则有所增强。研究结论深化和丰富了董事会断裂带的经济后果研究,也为上市公司完善内部控制、加强对管理层的监督,进而提高会计信息质量提供了理论依据。     

董事会断裂带、内部控制与审计质量——基于制造业上市公司的数据

断裂带的存在极容易使董事会形成不同的子群体,而子群体间的相互作用又会反向牵制和干扰董事会的监督能力,进而影响审计质量。以2013—2021年中国沪深A股制造业上市公司为样本,探究董事会断裂带对审计质量的影响。研究发现：首先,董事会断裂带与审计质量呈倒U形关系,断裂带异常会干扰公司董事会监督职能的正常发挥,从而影响审计质量;其次,董事会断裂带与审计质量的倒U形关系主要源于任务导向断裂带的作用,在企业成熟期更为显著;最后,内部控制能够削弱董事会断裂带对审计质量的影响,而良好的内部控制有助于缓解股东与管理层的代理成本,弥补董事会子群体间冲突带来的负面影响,在合理范围内有效地提升审计质量。     

“不期而寓”--青年城市配套综合体可行性调研报告

随着时代发展,独居、年轻化已成为租房人群的关键词。观念的升级和住房租赁政策的完善,使得90后的置业观悄然改变。经过市场调查,市面上还没有针对大学毕业生这一群体的长租公寓,多数是针对有一定经济能力的上班族。因此,大学毕业生的住房需求仅仅通过政府采取措施远远无法满足。论文从国家的宏观政策及市场微观细分因素中的人口因素、地理因素、行为因素等方面对“不期而寓”——青年城市配套综合体进行了分析,为项目的推进提供可靠的数据和科学性支持。     

Group learning and performance: the role of communication and faultlines

Drawing upon group learning theory, we suggest that communication content and frequency as well as experimentation can be considered aspects of group learning behavior and explore their effect on group performance. We posit that communication content and frequency, as well as experimentation, positively influence group performance. Further, drawing upon the diversity construct of group faultlines, we hypothesize that faultlines moderate these relationships. Results provide mixed support for our hypotheses.     

Occupation and the journey-to-work: Some further analysis

This paper examines the impact of occupation upon commuting distances in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). Specifically, from the residential and job location patterns of each occupational group a “minimum distance” indicator of the degree of job-residence access of each occupational group is developed with the aid of a linear programming transportation model. The differences in “minimum distance” that must be travelled by the members of each occupational group are explained. The actual distances travelled to work by the members of each occupational group are then investigated and attempts are made to separate the determinants of each occupational group's average journey-to-work distance into two main factors—job residence access and propensity to commute. On the basis of the locational patterns, the analysis suggests that job residence access was generally greater for blue-collar workers than for white-collar workers. Although occupation did have an impact, then, on journey-to-work distance through its influence upon locational patterns of job and residence, little evidence of its effect on the propensity to commute was found. Rather, the results suggest that the main determinant of this factor was sex since female workers exhibited a far lower disposition to commute than did their male counterparts.     

Interpreting IS alignment: A multiple case study in professional organizations

This paper centers on the interpretation attributed by organizational members to the information systems (IS) alignment concept. Its objective is to study IS alignment in professional organizations. Specifically, it reports on an interpretive study conducted in five Chilean organizations; four professional and one entrepreneurial, of which two are private and three are public. The theoretical background of our study is derived from three IS strategic alignment conceptualizations: managerial, emergent and critical. These concepts formed our theoretical framework that guided data collection and analysis. The study centers on the meanings organizational members assigned to IS strategic alignment, as well as their views on the barriers that hinder achieving this level of organizational integration. The analysis results are summarized in seven hermeneutic themes that point out the different connotations the organizations assigned to IS alignment. The significance of the findings are summarized in four insights that formulate theoretical and practical implications. These insights refer to: (1) the difficulties of achieving alignment for professional organizations, particularly public ones, (2) the limitations these organizations have in being agile, (3) the rationale for acquiring technology and determining IT skills, and (4) the imperative meaning that CIOs attribute to IS alignment. The paper concludes with a reflection on the limitations and relevance of the research.     

A cross-cultural analysis of the demographics of membership in nonprofit organisations

This paper is concerned with the identification of demographic characteristics of members of nonprofit organisations across a large number of countries. It is found that there are significant differences in the demographic characteristics within countries for different types of non-profit organisations and across countries for the same nonprofit type organisation. Understanding these patterns can lead to increased efficiencies in communication by nonprofit organisations within and across national boundaries.     

Predicting employee commitment and satisfaction: the relative effects of socialization and demographics

This study compared the relative influences of organizational socialization and demographic variables on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Organizational variables were assessed by asking 193 Chinese employees in Hong Kong to evaluate socialization within their companies, namely: (1) training received; (2) understanding of the organization; (3) co-worker support; and (4) future prospects within their companies. Dependent variables were standard measures of (affective, continuance and normative) commitment and of satisfaction (with co-workers, pay, promotion, supervisors and the work). Results revealed higher correlations between the socialization measures and job satisfaction and commitment than between the demographic measures and the dependent variables. Although a few demographic measures had some predictive power, the regression analyses confirmed that the socialization variables were consistently stronger predictors of both satisfaction and commitment. Strategic implications for human resource management are discussed.     

Cultural distance and cross-border bank linkages

This study investigates the effect of cultural distance on global bank linkages using country-pair data for the period 1990–2013. We followed Schwartz (2006) to measure cultural distance, and employed the number of bank pairs involved in cross-border syndicated lending from the source to target countries as a measure of bank linkages. We found that cultural distance has a negative association with bank linkages. This effect is stronger in countries featuring higher informational asymmetries, as represented by weaker institutions, higher uncertainty, or revolution shocks. Our results hold even when employing alternative measures of bank linkages and cultural distance, and when considering the potential endogeneity of cultural distance.     

The Relationships Between MBO System Strength and Goal‐Climate Quality and Strength

We adopted Bowen and Ostroff's ( 2004 ) HRM system strength concept so as to test it within the context of a management by objectives (MBO) system, which was utilized by six independent firms owned by a large, diversified family business group in Turkey. For this purpose, we surveyed the middle managers to measure 10 context‐specific metafeatures of the MBO system. By using aggregated scores at the functional group level (N = 47), we captured the distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus dimensions of this HRM practice. We tested and compared three alternative theoretical models of HRM strength where the three dimensions have compensatory, additive, and distinctiveness mediated effects on climate quality and strength. Results support the compensatory model and indicate that the strength of the MBO system (as a reflective latent variable representing the shared variance of the system's distinctiveness, consistency, and consensus) is positively related to business units’ quality and strength of goal climate. In addition, distinctiveness—but not consistency and consensus—of the MBO system appears to be particularly critical for the emergence of a strong and high‐quality goal climate. Lastly, implications and limitations of the study as well as possible future research directions are discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

International cooperation on biodiversity conservation when spatial structures matter

International cooperation on biodiversity conservation when spatial structures matter. Spatial Economic Analysis. This paper considers the stability of international environmental agreements (IEAs) for biodiversity conservation with an explicit spatial structure. It studies the impact of distance between countries on coalition stability. It analyses a circular spatial structure with different spatial patterns. Robust results are obtained for a wide range of cost-and-benefit parameters: stable coalitions have a maximum size of two members. The best global payoff is obtained when coalitions are composed of neighbouring countries with the smallest possible distance. A ‘remoteness effect’ is observed, i.e., some coalitions of two members are unstable when one of the signatory countries is far away from the other coalition member and from the singletons.     

创建学习型党组织的几点做法和体会

通过创建学习型党组织的一系列活动来强化党员干部和广大员工廉洁意识,营造健康向上、风清气正的发展环境,是树立党员干部良好形象的一项重要措施。本文从制定学习制度、开展系列教育、加强业务培训、多措并举加强廉政教育等方面对单位的创建活动进行了总结探讨。     

Assessing Trust Through Social Capital? A Possible Experimental Answer

Trust is important in economics: several transactions are based on it; unfortunately it is difficult to measure. The recent economic literature on social capital shows a positive association between this concept and trust. As social capital is easier to measure than trust, this paper analyzes the possibility of assessing trust using a measure of social capital. A basic trust game is played in three Western European countries with undergraduate students; a questionnaire measures their level of social capital as time spent within social networks. This measure is stronger and more precise than the ones generally used. The use of an experiment instead of a questionnaire allows for constructing a measure of trust that is continuous in principle. Moreover, to play an experiment allows for observing the behavior of the participants better than by the means of a survey. The results are supportive of the fact that trust can be assessed through social capital, although the presence of a strong geographical effect has to be accounted for.     

Cognitive interviewing and factor-analytic techniques: a mixed method approach to validity of survey items measuring national identity

This paper explores the possibilities of method triangulation between two methodological approaches for assessing the validity performance of survey items: cognitive interviewing and factor analytic techniques. Although their means of approaching validity differ, both methods attempt to prove whether a measure corresponds to a theoretical (latent) concept (e.g. patriotism vs. nationalism), thus both are concerned with the question, whether an indicator measures what it is supposed to measure. Based on two representative samples for Austria [data gathered within the framework of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) on National Identity in 1995 and 2003] and 18 cognitive interviews conducted between 2003 and 2005, the paper shows the considerable advantages of using a multi-method approach for ensuring the quality of survey items. On the one hand, we apply exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in order to identify poorly performing indicators with regard to validity and reliability. On the other hand, the analysis of the cognitive interviews reveals the substantial sources of response error. Results show that to a large extent, respondents do not understand the items that have been defined to measure national identification and related concepts in Austria the way intended by the drafting group of this ISSP Module, a fact that has considerable implications on the scales’ predictive power.     

Interviewer-related measurement error in attitudinal research: a nonexperimental study

Prior research efforts have attempted to identify the extent to which interviewers bias survey data. Interviewer characteristics such as age, sex, race and social class have been widely studied, as have the effects of certain interviewer attitudes. These previous works, however, have examined the effect of only one or two of these variables upon responses. The current research incorporates interviewer demographic variables, social distance measures, and interviewer attitudinal indicators into the analysis to ascertain their relative impact upon respondent attitudes. Findings include: (1) interviewer demographic characteristics and social distance measures have no significant effects upon responses; and (2) interviewer attitudes exert a statistically significant but small influence upon respondent attitudes.     

Ranking of sectors based on fuzzy importance measure

The changing nature of policy variables specific to any planned developmental programme often leads to conflicting decisional problems regarding the identification of thrust areas. Hence the inherent requirement is for a composite index which eases out such ambiguous choice issues. The present paper introduces the measure of sectoral importance which is capable of encompassing different variables with their associated weights and ranks sectors in an economy based on such a measure. However, the term importance suggests the qualitativeness and subjectivity involved in defining such a concept and thus establishes the need for the concepts of fuzzy mathematics. The theory of fuzzy subsets is capable of dealing with qualitative variables within a quantitative framework. The sectoral importance measures derived from the sectoral output linkages, employment multipliers and value added multipliers, have been represented as fuzzy subsets, or to be precise, as fuzzy numbers. A comparison of these numbers through the binary approach of determination of the measure of relative strength provides the basis for the ranking of sectors. The novelty of the approach lies in its simplicity and flexibility in treating qualitative factors which characterise most decision support socio economic planning problems. The validity of the exercise has been tested by applying it to the economy of West Bengal, a State of India.