Identity work of science-based entrepreneurs in Finland and in Russia

Abstract

This paper investigates the identity work of science-based entrepreneurs in two very different country contexts: Finland and Russia. Building on the literature investigating role identities, we first analyse the identification of individuals with the roles of a scientist and an entrepreneur; and second, how individuals manage the boundary between these two roles. Methodologically, we take a narrative approach, which regards life stories as identity constructions. Our empirical data consist of 23 biographical interviews with science-based entrepreneurs that are inductively analysed. Our findings show that the Russian informants considered being a scientist a salient part of their self-identification, distanced themselves from the role of an entrepreneur, and set discursive boundaries to segment the two roles. For the Finnish informants, identification with the professional roles as a scientist or as an entrepreneur was less salient for the personal identity as they make a clear distinction between ‘what one does’ and ‘who one is’. They also view the two roles as integrated rather than segmented, and have no significant need to justify the border-crossing between them. Our contribution is in demonstrating how science-based entrepreneurs’ identity work is influenced by importance and meanings attached to different work roles, and how these are contextualised.     

Acculturation and Individualism as Predictors of Work‐Family Conflict in a Diverse Workforce

Ethnic and cultural diversity is an increasing reality in the US workplace. The current study highlights the importance of acknowledging the culturally heterogeneous nature of ethnic groups, and the need to focus on social identity characteristics such as cultural values when assessing group differences. We demonstrate that cultural values (i.e., individualism) contribute to employees' experiences of work‐family conflict beyond the effects of ethnicity. Specifically, we introduce a model informed by social identity theory that explains why acculturation is related to work‐family conflict. The model was tested with a sample of 309 employed Caucasian and Hispanic Americans. An empirical test of our model provides evidence that individualism mediates the relationship between language‐ and social‐based acculturation and work‐family conflict, even when controlling for ethnicity. Additionally, alternative models further reveal that the effects of acculturation and individualism contribute to work interfering with family. As an implication of the current study, we suggest that researchers and organizational managers should consider the cultural values of their diverse workforce when implementing policies that affect conflict between work and family. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Inclusion climate: A multilevel investigation of its antecedents and consequences

This study investigates the antecedents and consequences of organization‐level inclusion climate. A national sample of human resource decision‐makers from 100 organizations described their firms' formal diversity management programs; 3,229 employees reported their perceptions of, and reactions to, their employers' diversity management. Multilevel analyses demonstrate that identity‐conscious programs (programs that target specific identity groups) generate an inclusion climate. Moreover, the analyses provide evidence of multilevel mediation: In organizations with an inclusion climate, individual employees perceive the organization as fulfilling its diversity management obligations and respond with higher levels of affective commitment. This study represents an important step toward understanding how a shared perception of organizational inclusiveness develops and how inclusion climate facilitates the achievement of diversity management objectives. The findings also shed light on the important role of identity‐conscious programs in promoting organizational commitment within a diverse workforce.     

Can employee ownership and human resource management policies clash in worker cooperatives? Lessons from a defunct cooperative

The article analyzes the interaction between employee ownership, HRM policies and practices, and HRM outcomes in what was the world's biggest industrial worker cooperative for decades, and now defunct, Fagor Electrodomésticos. Using longitudinal internal data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, this paper sheds light on how employee ownership conditioned HRM policies. HRM outcomes—such as job satisfaction and absenteeism—are also analyzed over a long period of time. Chronic nepotism when recruiting new members, failures in the training policy, impoverished and Taylorist working systems, and reverse dominance hierarchies are analyzed as factors that increased free riding and caused low satisfaction and the disengagement of working members. This case study contributes to the literature on HRM and worker cooperatives as it provides some insights that are rarely found in that literature. It also provides guidance to worker cooperatives about increasing the fit between employee ownership and HRM policies and outcomes.     

转型期农村土地冲突爆发原因探究

农村土地冲突不仅影响农村土地资源配置及其效率,而且对我国的社会转型、农村社会和经济稳定发展具有重大意义。分析了农村土地冲突的概念和类型,并从土地资源的天然局限性、农村土地制度的设计缺陷、农村土地的社会保障作用和村委会自治权异化的角度探究了转型期农村土地冲突爆发的原因,为进一步化解农村土地冲突提出努力方向。     

Values and the Social Responsibility of Global Business

ABSTRACT

Business is widely viewed as one of the major institutions in society. It has assumed a socially responsible role for itself that has given rise to two competing paradigms, social philanthropy and corporate citizenship. Business, however, has not fulfilled its social responsibility particularly well. One reason is that business does not seem to have understood the interplay between individual-level, culture-level and corporate-level values nor the implications of national differences in culture-level value priorities. Some recent developments in cross-cultural psychology offer a useful paradigm for understanding this interplay and resolving any conflicts which result from the attempts of global business to implement socially responsible policies.     

Supervisor and coworker support: a source congruence approach to buffering role conflict and physical stressors

The buffering effects of supervisor support on the stressor–strain relationship have proven elusive in prior research (Beehr, Farmer, Glazer, Gudanowski and Nair (2003), ‘The Enigma of Social Support and Occupational Stress: Source Congruence and Gender Role Effects,’ Journal of Occupational and Health Psychology, 8, 220–231). We built on emerging work on source congruence and conservation of resource theory to test a series of hypotheses intended to clarify these mixed findings. Using a sample of 768 employees from 45 organizations in North America, results from moderated regression analyses, showed that the effects of supervisor support on the stressor–strain relationship depended on source congruence. In accordance with our predictions, although we found buffering effects for the physical stressors–strain relationship, we found a reverse buffering effect for the role conflict–strain relationship. These differential buffering effects did not emerge when considering coworker support. We discuss the implications of our results for shedding light on the mixed evidence regarding buffering work stressors reported in prior research.     

Ethnic homophily perceptions as an emergent IHRM challenge: evidence from firms operating in Sri Lanka during the ethnic conflict

Ethnic conflict is a defining characteristic of the post-Cold War era and is prevalent particularly in emerging economies, areas of increasing interest to multinational enterprises. Yet little is known about the international human resource management challenges arising from such societal context. Utilizing social identity theory, we propose that ethnic homophily perceptions in the workplace – an employee's assessment that colleagues prefer working with ethnically similar others – is a reflection of the societal context and can be detrimental to the organization if not managed appropriately. We investigate whether contact theory offers insights to manage such perceptions. Drawing on a sample of 550 managers in Sri Lanka during a period of protracted ethnic conflict, we found that employee sensitivity to ethnic conflict in the societal context is positively related to ethnic homophily perceptions in the workplace, and that both ethnic diversity in workgroups and quality of work relationships serve to reduce perceptions of ethnic homophily.     

新时期体育院校大学生法治认同度调查和提升路径研究

随着社会主义法治化建设的发展,我国对公民的法律知识要求大大提高。本文以我国体育学院的大学生作为研究对象,调查分析当代体育院校学生的法律知识现状,分析原因,提出提高当前体育院校大学生法治认同度的路径。     

欧洲高校创业教育对中国高校的启迪

本文结合欧洲高校创业教育体制,以查尔姆斯理工大学为例,分析其创业教育体系的利弊,与中国高校创业教育进行分析比较,从政府、学校以及学生三方面来进行阐述。