Post on 29-May-2020
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Jon Atwell
Department/Program: Sociology and Complex Systems
E-Mail Address: atwell@umich.edu
Website: jonatwell.com
Year in Program: 7 Title: Analytical Approaches to the Production of Shared Practices, Symbols and Meanings Abstract:
Conventions are solutions to social coordination problems that are not formally agreed upon. They are
also arbitrary in the sense that an alternative behavior would also solve the coordination problem. These
emergent norms are essential for well-functioning groups, organizations, and societies, yet the processes
by which they emerge are still little understood. In particular, it is not clear under what conditions a large,
decentralized group can create a new convention. Following recent research, this project explores this
question through large group behavioral experiments. Previous research treats network topology as the
sole independent explanatory factor, but I present here evidence that small amounts of information about
the behavior of others in the network can radically change the prospects for the emergence of
conventions in small-world and random network topologies. This finding offers a resolution to a puzzle
regarding why topologies with reasonable average shortest path lengths have not supported the
emergence of conventions in previous research. It also suggests information from sources that are often
treated as analytically superfluous can significantly alter outcomes and that cultural learning and
resources are more diffuse that network-centered research would suggest.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Sheila Brassel
Department/Program: Psychology/Personality & Social Contexts
E-Mail Address: stbrass@gmail.com
Year in Program: 2 Title: Lay Perceptions of Sexual Harassment toward Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Minorities Abstract:
Gender identity and sexual orientation minority employees commonly experience sexual harassment in
the workplace. In order to better understand this mistreatment, the present study used an experimental
design to examine perceptions of the motivations for and acceptability of sexual harassment toward
transgender, lesbian, and gay individuals, and the impact of perceived acceptability on beliefs about
appropriate responses to the harassment (i.e., reporting or confronting the harasser). We tested four
motivations believed to underlie harassment: power, prejudice, gender policing, and sexual attraction.
Compared to those in the lesbian/gay and control target conditions, participants who read a scenario
depicting sexual harassment toward transgender targets perceived the harassment as less acceptable
when they viewed it as more motivated by power and prejudice, and less by attraction. Perceptions of
the harassment as less acceptable were associated with increased likelihood of recommending that the
target tell a supervisor or file a formal complaint. Implications for organizational policy and interventions
addressing the sexual harassment of gender identity and sexual orientation minority employees are
discussed.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Lindsey Cameron
Department/Program: Management & Organizations
E-Mail Address: ldcamer@umich.edu
Year in Program: 4 Title: Man vs. Algorithim: Organizationl Control and Work Design in the Gig Economy Abstract:
Uber. TaskRabbit. Postmates. Over the past five years platform work, which relies on web technology to
instantly link labor and employers, has become part of the lexicon of work, radically reshaping
organizations, employment relationships, and workers’ lives. Over the past decade the number of workers
choosing to work outside of traditional organizations has more than doubled, with more than 15% of the
US workforce working as “free agents” moving between gigs or short-term assignments (Katz and Krueger,
2016). For organizations, platform work continues the global trend of outsourcing by providing a means
to control work processes by breaking work down to its smallest component, the task. For workers,
platform enabled work offers increased autonomy, allowing workers the freedom of choosing when and
where to work. Yet how does control and worker autonomy function outside the traditional organizational
context? Perhaps even more than traditional organizations, due to lack of physical co-presence, platforms
must monitor and evaluate workers. Workers, in turn, must navigate the challenges of working
independently with minimal, if any, contact with supervisors, co-workers, or customers. In this paper, I
explore this tension by addressing the research question “How do platform workers sustainably execute
their work on a day-to-day basis?”. By exploring micro-moments of working life, this study sheds light on
how control and agency are embodied, experienced and enacted in the everyday in the organization-less
environment. This study has implication for literatures on control, work discretion, precarity and, more
broadly, the overall study of the emerging gig economy.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Lyndon Garrett
Department/Program: Management and Organizations
E-Mail Address: lyndon@umich.edu
Year in Program: 5 Title: Being in relation: Unlocking human connection through play Abstract:
Organizational scholarship is increasingly realizing the individual and organizational value of fostering high
quality connections (HQCs) at work. However, minimal work has explored the conditions and practices
that foster HQCs (Stephens, Heaphy, & Dutton, 2011). HQCs are short-term, dyadic interactions that
produce feelings of vitality, positive regard, and mutuality for both participants. Mutuality, referring to
the feeling of full engagement with another “borne out of mutual vulnerability and mutual
responsiveness” (Stephens et al., 2011), is the least understood component of HQCs, and perhaps the
most elusive in organizational contexts. The impersonal nature of organizational role structures,
reinforced by norms of professionalism, often produce a sense of artificiality in workplace interactions,
stifling the feeling of “seeing and being seen” (Kark, 2012) central to mutuality. To more fully understand
the experience of mutuality and how it is achieved, I conduct a qualitative study of community theatre, a
context in which achieving mutuality in scripted role performance is critical to a show’s success. Drawing
on over 800 hours of observations and 68 interviews across six different community theatre productions,
I find that actors infuse the rehearsal and performance process with moments of play as a way to
reanimate their connections with each other. Specifically, I observed three forms of play—diversionary
play, serious play, and absorptive play—through which actors progressively move from mechanical role
performance toward their goal of being authentic and mutually responsive in their roles. I unpack the
capacity of play to make roles a vehicle of mutuality and HQCs.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Ashley Hardin
Department/Program: Management & Organizations
E-Mail Address: aehardin@umich.edu
Website: ashleyehardin.com
Year in Program: 5 Title: Getting acquainted: How learning about colleagues' personal lives impacts workplace interactions, for better and worse Abstract:
In my dissertation, I introduce the concept of personal knowledge, discuss how it is formed, explore how
it is used, and examine potential boundary conditions of its effects. In Chapter 1, I motivate the need for
this investigation by highlighting an unresolved workplace tension: the simultaneous deep need for
human connection and fear of letting others know one’s self. In Chapter 2, I draw on theories of relational
schema, person perception, and interpersonal dynamics to develop an understanding of how the quantity
of personal knowledge acquired impacts the way the known colleague is perceived and treated. I argue
that through blurring the work-life boundary, colleagues gain personal knowledge about one another,
which changes the way they interact in both positive and negative ways. In Chapter 3, through three field
studies across diverse samples of university staff, cross-industry dyads, and consulting teams, I
demonstrate that having greater levels of personal knowledge leads to a more individuated, humanized
perception of the known colleague, which results in increased responsiveness and decreased social
undermining. Further, I show that this effect holds over and above alternative relational mechanisms of
liking, trust, and respect. I also reveal that the positive effect of personal knowledge on responsiveness is
not mitigated by perceptions of value incongruence or work-to-life interference. Finally, in Chapter 4, I
discuss the theoretical implications of my dissertation for the relationships at work and work-life
literatures.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Sarah Huff
Department/Program: Psychology
E-Mail Address: huffs@umich.edu
Year in Program: 4 Title: Identity and Conflict: When and how integrating multiple selves can be beneficial for interpersonal relations Abstract:
Increasing diversity of ethnicities, opinions, and values provide mounting opportunities for contact that
might lead to intolerance. Previous work on interpersonal and intergroup tolerance has largely focused
on societal or contextual interventions targeted at reducing intolerance. The goal of this dissertation is to
delve into the relationship between identities within individuals to improve relations between individuals.
Specifically, I test the hypothesis that individuals with higher levels of identity integration—or those who
perceive their different social identities as more blended and harmonious—will exhibit greater tolerance
towards others holding different values and norms. The first three studies examine this hypothesis using
bicultural identity integration (or perceived blendedness and harmony between multiple cultural
identities) and generalized identity integration (or perceived blendedness and harmony between one’s
social identities in general) as predictors for increased interpersonal tolerance towards individuals who
share contrasting opinions. The fourth study is a dyadic negotiation in which interpersonal tolerance is
measured by willingness to compromise and generalized identity integration is measured as a predictor
of more interpersonal tolerance. Finally, the fifth study examines this hypothesis by measuring intergroup
tolerance in bicultural individuals who have been given information that the dominant group holds either
negative or positive opinions about their group. Intergroup tolerance in this case is measured as
willingness to engage with dominant group members and bicultural identity integration is expected to
increase interpersonal tolerance, even in the presence of negative information. Theoretical and practical
implications for increasing interpersonal and intergroup tolerance will also be discussed.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Amira Ibrahim
Department/Program: CPEP
E-Mail Address: ibrahiam@umich.edu
Year in Program: 4 Title: The influence of individual differences in math anxiety on learning novel mathematics content Abstract:
Math anxiety is a major obstacle leading many students to opt out of higher mathematics education and
disproportionately affects females than males. To create effective interventions for increasing female
participation in mathematics; we need to understand how math anxiety affects learning of mathematics
information. Previous studies have demonstrated that math anxiety is associated with decreased
mathematics achievement and decreased motivation. However, little research has examined the effects
of math anxiety during learning of novel mathematics content.
Math anxiety is hypothesized to negatively impact math performance by acting as a burden on working
memory (WM) resources. The learning strategies used to learn novel mathematics content also vary in
the working memory resources they require. The aims of my dissertation are two-fold: 1) to determine
the nature of the interaction between math anxiety and different study strategies during learning of new
mathematics content, and 2) to assess the efficacy of learning materials designed to engage math anxious
individuals while learning. In experiment 1, I found evidence that high math anxious individuals are not
benefited by passively viewing examples (a low WM activity) during learning, but instead require active
practice (a high WM activity) with applying the novel mathematics information. I speculate that the
examples, although low in WM demands, are not beneficial to math anxious individuals because they lead
to shallow processing of the information, if not outright disengagement. In my remaining experiments, I
attempt to replicate this effect and test the efficacy of a worked example-active problem solving hybrid
learning strategy.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Christopher Dean Lee
Department/Program: School of Education (Educational Studies - Teaching and Teacher Education)
E-Mail Address: cdeanlee@umich.edu
Year in Program: 6 Title: Resistance in the Core: A Mixed Methods Investigation Into Teachers' Professional Learning Networks in the Context of Reform Abstract:
This mixed methods study focuses on how informal learning operated in the context of a formal
Professional Learning Community (PLC) reform initiative. Given the breadth and depth of evidence for
the positive effects of PLCs on teacher learning, one might reasonably expect the formal learning related
to PLCs to be both predominant among and preferred by teachers. The quantitative evidence suggests
that the PLC reform was correlated with new learning ties, but my analysis of the qualitative evidence
revealed that PLC groups tapped into preexisting informal learning network structures with little to no
reference to their informal nature. In one local learning network affected by this reform, one key group
of teachers reported negative affect with regard to the formal PLC reform, more positive descriptions of
informal learning incidents than formal learning incidents, more negative descriptions of formal learning
incidents than informal learning incidents, and a preference for informal learning over formal learning. If
reforms of teachers’ professional learning are to succeed, accounting for and privileging teachers’
preexisting informal learning is necessary.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Christian A. Martell
Department/Program: Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education
E-Mail Address: martellc@umich.edu
Year in Program: 3 Title: Marketing Race in Higher Education: A Study of College Viewbooks Abstract:
College viewbooks, the colorful brochures sent to thousands of prospective students annually, remain the
most common marketing tool for higher education institutions today. Unlike other marketing materials,
which can be quickly erased, removed, or edited, college viewbooks are permanent fixtures that capture
a sliver of time in an institution’s history. As such, viewbooks serve as symbolic markers of what an
institution wishes to portray to the outside world in that moment. These guides can also have real
materials effects, such as dissuading prospective students of color from applying to institutions where
they believe they may not belong. Research that considers how and why race is marketed through college
viewbooks, as well as how these viewbooks are received by prospective students, can further our
understanding of college choice and have real implications for expanding college access for historically
underrepresented students. While a few studies have considered the visual and textual portrayal of race
in the pages of these pieces, none have considered the intent behind their creation or how they are
perceived by prospective applicants. This three-paper dissertation will employ content analysis, narrative
inquiry, and experimental design to further our understanding of how people of color are portrayed in
viewbooks, why marketing professionals create these portrayals, and how students perceive these
portrayals. Using critical race theory and an institutional logics perspective, this set of studies will further
our understanding of how race is marketed in higher education and what it means for the permanence of
racism.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Michael Prentice
Department/Program: Anthropology
E-Mail Address: mprentic@umich.edu
Year in Program: 7 Title: Ranks and Files: The semiotics of management in South Korea Abstract:
My dissertation is based on ethnographic research inside a Korean steel conglomerate carried out
between 2014-2015 in Seoul. My research looks at the genres of communication used by managers and
how they mediate organizational hierarchies, such as between different ranked employees and different
office units. The dissertation argues that in contrast to the image of Korean management as highly vertical
and top-down in nature, communication is highly fractured in practice. Even though they are at the top
of a chain, managers often have a limited capacity to make decisions, see information, or direct others
work. Despite a non-vertical reality, images of “flat” organizations and communications have become
extremely popular in Korea. In the presentation, I will show four examples that display the heterogeneity
of office communication: 1) decision-making, 2) PowerPoint production, 3) internal surveys, and 4)
shareholder meetings. I will also show 4 ways that communication is being consciously changed: 1) title-
flattening, 2) two-way communication, 3) town-hall meetings, 4) mentoring. This dissertation shows that
while large organizations are often premised on salient images of communication, these images do not
reflect the actual practice. Nevertheless, images come to structure organizational reform efforts.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Sara Ryoo
Department/Program: Strategy / PhD
E-Mail Address: sararyoo@umich.edu
Year in Program: 6 Title: Anything lost inside the black-box? A study of learning by teaching in post-merger integration Abstract:
The development of knowledge and capabilities has long been the center of attention among strategy
scholars. Scholars in organizational studies have often focused on two major learning mechanisms:
experiential learning and vicarious learning. This study introduces an additional learning mechanism that
has been neglected in the management literature. In this paper, I attempt to identify the learning benefits
of mergers, which are distinct from synergy effects, that incumbents may take advantage of during their
interactions with their newly joined affiliates. I argue that the integration process provides the parent firm
with an opportunity to teach the acquired firm the parent’s systems and routines, which subsequently
triggers an opportunity for the parent to re-evaluate and reinforce their current capabilities. Traditional
studies in organizational learning build upon the premise of acquisition of new knowledge related to
improving a focal activity. This paper adopts a different angle by proposing the possibility of firms learning
from their own capabilities and improving without the pre-requisite of acquiring new knowledge. Using
data from the U.S. commercial banking industry from 1998 to 2013, I examine a learning by teaching effect
associated with bank holding companies who acquire new banks and the conditions that facilitate the
efficacy of the proposed mechanism. In the empirical analysis, I find evidence that subsequent to an
acquisition, there is improvement in loan quality of the parent firm’s pre-existing affiliates especially when
the parent and acquired firm share similar capabilities. This paper finds its novelty in exploring and
developing a construct of learning by teaching and its pragmatic implication for managers who are
involved in post-merger integration.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Guy Shani
Department/Program: Strategy
E-Mail Address: gshani@umich.edu
Website: www.guyshani.info
Year in Program: 6 Title: Our Fates Entwined: Socio-cognitive Sources of Control in Corporate Governance Abstract:
In my dissertation I examine how the exercise of board control at one firm can influence governance at
other firms by affecting the social cognitions of other corporate leaders about their own board. Existing
corporate governance research has focused on the dyad-level relationship between management and the
board or other constituencies of the same firm, and has raised a variety of questions about the efficacy of
boards as a control mechanism. I develop a novel theoretical framework in which the actions of a single
board, such as the dismissal of a CEO, can reverberate across multiple firms and affect the behavior of
other CEOs that are likely to be aware of the dismissal. The theory developed in the first chapter suggests
that a CEO is likely to experience sanctions against a fellow CEO in a way which generates deterrence by
increasing the salience of the board’s power over management, and describes contingencies under which
such CEOs are likely to preemptively alter their behavior in order to avoid similar sanctions. This
perspective uncovers a much broader effect of boards than has been identified in prior research by
considering how a single act of control by a board at one firm can bolster control at multiple other firms,
while incurring costs only at the originating firm. Whereas existing governance literature emphasizes
reactive forms of control, such as dismissing a CEO at a firm that is already in decline, the theoretical
perspective introduced here suggests a proactive form of control in which CEOs react to control at other
firms by engaging in behaviors aimed at preempting a similar fate. In the second chapter, I extend this
theoretical framework by considering how subjective feelings of common fate among CEOs can cause
sanctions aimed at one CEO to have unintended consequences for strategic preferences due to intergroup
biases that are activated by relatively automatic cognitive processes of self-categorization. Overall this
dissertation develops a cross-level perspective on governance that suggests how micro level socio-
cognitive sources of control can affect corporate governance across industry boundaries, at the field level.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Emily Vargas
Department/Program: Department of Psychology, PhD Psychology
E-Mail Address: emvargas@umich.edu
Year in Program: 3 Title: With Liberty and Sexism for All: Perceived Identity Conflict and the 2016 Presidential Election Abstract:
Women are highly underrepresented at elite leadership positions, including politics (Pew, 2015). Drawing
on research on role incongruity, stereotypes and identity management, we develop a new measure,
Perceived Identity Conflict (PIC) to assess people’s perceptions of conflict experienced by Hillary Clinton
and Donald Trump when managing their gender and leadership identities. Using this measure, we found
that PIC of Hillary Clinton was negatively related to assessments of her leadership ability (Study 1).
Importantly, this relationship was significantly stronger for perceivers rating Hillary Clinton than for
perceivers rating Donald Trump. This was true controlling for perceivers’ political orientation, gender, and
other demographic variables (Study 2 & 3). Our studies suggest that Clinton was more disadvantaged by
PIC than was Trump. It is possible that higher levels of PIC make salient stereotypes of women as unfit for
leadership, negatively affecting women even when they exhibit stereotype-inconsistent traits and
behaviors.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Sangseok You
Department/Program: School of Information
E-Mail Address: sangyou@umich.edu
Website: www.sangseokyou.com
Year in Program: 5 Title: Technology with Embodied Physical Actions: Understanding Interactions and Effectiveness Gains in Teams Working with Robots Abstract:
Teams are increasingly adopting robots for various purposes, including saving human lives in first-
responder situations and delivering medical services to areas where it is hard to send human experts.
However, the adoption of robots transforms teamwork and creates new dynamics among team members
that are unprecedented in human teams. Despite the long history of information systems research
examining different technologies used by teams, little research has focused on how robots are reshaping
teamwork dynamics and how teams can enhance outcomes when incorporating robots into their
teamwork. In this dissertation, I will address this gap by investigating several ways to improve the
effectiveness of teams working with robots. The dissertation involves several experiments in which teams
consist of multiple robots and individuals. Various psychological and emotional dimensions of team
processes, including trust, team efficacy, and perceived similarity, will be measured to test their impacts
on team outcomes such as performance, viability, and satisfaction. This dissertation will contribute to the
current field of research by developing an understanding of interactions among team members as well as
between humans and robots in order to find ways to improve team effectiveness. It will also provide
direction for designers of these robots and for managers of human-robot teams.
Interdisc ip l inar y
Committee on
Organizat ional
Stud ies Univers ity o f Mich igan
12th Likert Dissertation Poster Session Friday, March 31st, 2017
Abstracts
Name: Chen Zhang
Department/Program: Management & Organizations, Ross School of Business
E-Mail Address: zhangchn@umich.edu
Website: http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/zhangchn
Year in Program: 4 Title: Exploring Work Activities as both Constraints and Opportunities in Enhancing Workday Energy and Well-Being: A Look at Meetings and Instant Messaging Abstract:
I examine conditions under which interactive work activities in knowledge work, particularly meetings and
instant messaging (IM) conversations, may facilitate workday energy replenishment and well-being
enhancement, despite the constraints they may create for micro breaks at work. In today’s workplaces,
people are increasingly faced with heightened work demands and prolonged work hours (Michel, 2011;
Reid & Ramarajan, 2016). It has thus become more and more challenging for people to replenish their
energy resources (as manifested in high vigor and low fatigue) to sustain work performance and maintain
personal well-being during a workday. Furthermore, opportunities for replenishment through nonwork
activities (e.g., relaxing activities) are limited at work. An important question thus surfaces: Can some
work activities themselves serve as a pathway to replenishing energy and enhancing well-being, despite
the constraints they create? I explore ways in which meetings and IM conversations may have such
potential in the context of knowledge work.