Teaching & Research
By Jaime Caliendo
The Cost of Being Ignored: Emotional Exhaustion in the Work and Family Domains
Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology
Merideth Thompson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Associate Professor, Management Department, and others from Temple University, Baylor University, and Texas State University
Ostracism in the workplace is a problem that flies under the radar in most organizations, but can have harmful effects on both the employee and the employee’s family, according to new research led by Dr. Merideth Thompson. In fact, when someone feels ignored or snubbed by work colleagues, the impact can be even more detrimental than that of an abusive supervisor or sexual harassment. Two-thirds of research respondents said they had experienced some form of ostracism in the workplace, such as being ignored by co-workers or involuntarily sitting alone in a crowded office lunch room. Of those, 68 percent acknowledge that they experienced emotional exhaustion or burnout at home, and 82 percent of their spouses reported that the ostracized worker engaged in negative behaviors toward the family, such as acting in an unpleasant or angry manner when they got home from work or taking out work frustrations on family members. Seventy percent of spouses reported that they themselves experienced family emotional exhaustion. The study illustrates the far-reaching implications of workplace ostracism, and the crossover from work life to the family domain.
Comparing UK Tax Returns of Foreign Multinationals to Matched Domestic Firms
Published in American Economic Review
Katarzyna Bilicka, Assistant Professor, Economics & Finance Department
Are there systematic differences in the amount of taxable profits that multinational and domestic companies report? According to UK corporate tax returns data, the ratio of taxable profits to total assets reported by foreign multinational subsidiaries is one-half that of comparable domestic standalones. The majority of the difference is attributable to the fact that a higher proportion of foreign multinational subsidiaries report zero taxable profits. The estimated difference is related to profit shifting, and that difference is much smaller when using accounting data.
Global talent management: A Life Cycle View of the Interaction Between Human and Social Capital
Published in Journal of World Business
Bret Crane, Assistant Professor, Marketing & Strategy Department
Christopher J. Hartwell, Assistant Professor, Management Department
At work, are an individual’s skills or an individual’s relationships more important? In reality, a person’s skills and their relationships are inseparable and interact to contribute to the development of star employees. The expertise of star employees draws in others, helping to create a powerful network of relationships that can magnify their influence. On the flip side, the same network of relationships, if not properly managed, can undermine a star’s ability to continue to learn. We consider the ways in which a person’s knowledge, skills and abilities interact with their network of relationships and provide insights into how these interactions evolve over a person’s career. Our framework helps managers leverage the talent potential of their brightest employees by managing the dynamic relationship between human and social capital
Measuring CEO Personality: Developing, Validating, and Testing a Linguistic Tool
Published in Strategic Management Journal
Gary Thurgood, Assistant Professor, Management Department, and others from Texas Christian University, Texas A&M University, and University of Georgia
Are CEOs actually more “type A” than the rest of us? This research introduces and validates a new personality measurement process that could potentially find out. Combining machine learning with text analysis techniques, the measurement tool assesses the Big Five personality traits of CEOs by focusing on how these CEOs communicate with external stakeholders. “The theory behind the new tool,” said Thurgood, “is that if a person’s personality affects their actions, how they think, how they speak, how they handle risk, etc., then certainly personality traits will affect what they do in executive roles, and we can pick up on this by examining their conference calls with shareholders.” Using a sample of more than 3,000 CEOs at S&P 1500 firms, the study shows that the CEOs’ Big Five traits (i.e., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) have a meaningful impact on the firm’s strategic change actions, both in isolation and in response to situation-based factors, such as the firm’s recent performance.
Their measurement tool provides a foundation for future studies on the effects of executive personalities’ impact on companies by overcoming the challenge of being able to accurately measure executives’ underlying personality traits.