Research Updates
2018 FALL UPDATES
Summer’s annual approach, however predictable, is always a welcome occasion. For those of us in the Carroll School, summer stands not only for beach days, barbecues, and ice cream but also for WCLE Summer Camp. As the spring semester dies down, we eagerly search for new opportunities to share our knowledge and to learn from our peers. This year, we engaged in a series of illuminating discussions on a broad array of topics related to leadership, entrepreneurship, and management more generally. Read more about WCLE summer camp.
A research study funded by the WCLE and conducted by a team of scholars with ties to BC will soon be published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Entitled “A way forward: Cascading ethical and change leadership, values enactment, and group-level effects on commitment in corruption recovery,” it was co-authored by BC alum Rick Cotton, BC Professor and Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris Chair Jean Bartunek, and retired BC Professor Bill Stevenson. The co-authors conducted a survey of over 2,000 employees at an insurance company and found that new leadership made a difference in the recovery of the firm following corruption. They report that organization members’ perceptions of their leaders’ ethical posture was significantly related to perceptions of progress on enacting important values and on their commitment to the organization.
BC hosted the 13th Boston Field Research Conference with the theme “Ethical Challenges in Fieldwork: Quandaries and Quagmires.” The organizing committee, Management & Organization Professors Jean Bartunek, Mary Ann Glynn, Spencer Harrison, and Mike Pratt, planned a program of panel discussions and workshops focusing on ethical issues in conducting fieldwork for the approximately 60 scholars in attendance.
Mary Ann Glynn was invited to join the newly formed Management and Labor Group (Behavioral Science and Policy Association) for the White House Social and Behavioral Science Team. The team reviewed the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, administered over more than 80 federal agencies, and recommended evidence-based interventions that could address several management and labor needs. This paper will appear in Behavioral Science & Policy, and will focus on improving employee wellbeing, agency productivity and performance, while being more effective and efficient for the taxpayer.
In August, the 76th annual meeting of the Academy of Management, the world’s largest forum devoted to management scholarship and education was held in Anaheim, CA. Research Director, Mary Ann Glynn served as Program Chair and created the theme: Making Organizations Meaningful. Several BC professors and PhD students presented and discussed their research at the meetings. Prof. Sandra Waddock spoke at several sessions, including, Errors of the Third Kind in Management Research: Creating Meaning in Scholarly Work; Making Organizations Meaningful: Rethinking Management around Dignity and Well-being; and Making Scholarly and Practitioner Lives and Work Meaningful. Professors Richard Nielsen and Jean Bartunek presented their work in a showcase symposium, Making Academic Practitioner Research Partnerships Meaningful. PhD students Christie Lockwood, Andrea Tunarosa, and Lee Watkiss conducted their third highly successful workshop on Measuring Meaning at the Collective Level.