Laura Madden, Deborah Kidder, Kimberly Eddleston, Barrie Litzky and Franz Kellermanns
The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential effects of workplace stress and the use of social support by contingent vs standard employees.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential effects of workplace stress and the use of social support by contingent vs standard employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Conservation of resources (COR) theory is used to frame research questions. Using content analysis of 40 interviews from individuals in the hospitality industry, differences between the levels of stress reported by contingent and standard employees as well as differences in their use of social support networks to offset stress is examined.
Findings
Contingent employees report experiencing more stress than do standard employees in the same profession. Furthermore, contingent employees seek out more social support than do standard employees. There was no difference between the two groups with respect to the desire for social support from three sources: vertical, horizontal, and customer groups.
Originality/value
This study extends the literature on contingent workers, the literature on how different types of employees deal with stress, as well as adding to the COR literature by showing that contingent employees experience and assuage their stress differently than do standard employees.
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Barrie Litzky, Doan Winkel, Jennifer Hance and Ryan Howell
The purpose of this study was to investigate the personal and contextual factors that influence entrepreneurial intention between two student populations from the United States…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the personal and contextual factors that influence entrepreneurial intention between two student populations from the United States and Portugal.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were obtained through the Entrepreneurship Education Project, a large study that collected over 17,000 responses from students in 70 countries. A subset of this data resulted in 3,008 responses from students in the United States and 1,026 respondents in Portugal. The model predicted that entrepreneurial intention would be influenced by entrepreneurial capital and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and that the model results would be stronger in the US than in Portugal.
Findings
The main effect hypotheses were supported while moderating effect hypotheses were not, although post hoc analysis revealed some interesting culturally relevant anecdotes.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the generalizability of previously established antecedents of entrepreneurial intention to two highly different cultural contexts – the United States and individuals from Portugal. The cross-sectional, correlational nature of the survey limits the findings to one point in time.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that having the opportunity to start a business as part of entrepreneurship education may provide useful in not only enhancing ESE but also in entrepreneurial intentions. Programs might consider including starting a business, either a new venture, or as part of a corporate program as part of the degree requirement. It may be that starting a business will provide critical experience students need to choose entrepreneurship as a career.
Originality/value
This research explored the similarities and differences in characteristics between students from a highly individualistic nation with low uncertainty avoidance (United States) and one that is more collectivist and less uncertainty avoidant (Portugal). Findings highlight the importance of entrepreneurial capital, ESE and the role that culture plays in students' entrepreneurial intentions.
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Donna M. De Carolis and Barrie E. Litzky
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which traditional views of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have inadvertently limited entrepreneurship education. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ways in which traditional views of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship have inadvertently limited entrepreneurship education. The authors propose a broader view of what it means to be an entrepreneur and describe a disruptive approach to entrepreneurship education, one that centers around building students’ entrepreneurial mindset. By tapping into students’ “inner entrepreneur” and nurturing their abilities to think and act creatively, embrace failure, effect change and be resilient, the authors are preparing them for the challenges of the twenty-first century labor market.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a perspective paper about how the traditional views of entrepreneurship education may be limiting its potential to create entrepreneurial college graduates set to take on twenty-first century careers.
Findings
Teaching the entrepreneurial mindset and process will allow us, as educators, to best prepare our students for the complexities of the current and future workforce.
Originality/value
By embracing the original meanings of the word “entrepreneur” – an act of reaching out and capturing and undertaking – the authors demystify what it means to be an entrepreneur. When we adopt a broader and more accurate conceptualization of “the entrepreneur,” we can teach our students to be the entrepreneurs of their lives.
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Barrie Litzky and Jeffrey Greenhaus
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of gender, work factors, and non‐work factors with aspirations to positions in senior management. A process model of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of gender, work factors, and non‐work factors with aspirations to positions in senior management. A process model of senior management aspirations was developed and tested.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected via an online survey that resulted in a sample of 368 working professionals. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to analyze results.
Findings
Women were less likely than men to desire promotion into a senior management position. Moreover, women's lower desired aspirations for promotion to senior management were due in part to the smaller degree of congruence that women perceive between personal characteristics and senior management positions and in part to the less favorable prospects for career advancement that women perceive relative to men.
Research limitations/implications
The cross‐sectional, correlational research design does not permit strong inferences regarding the causal direction of observed relationships. In addition, the specific nature of the sample (working professionals enrolled in graduate study at one university in the USA) may limit the generalizability of the results.
Practical implications
Because women's career aspirations are affected by their perceived congruence with senior management positions and by their perceived opportunity to reach senior management, organizations should assure that senior management roles are not predominantly associated with masculine characteristics and should evaluate their promotion systems to eliminate artificial barriers to women's advancement into senior management.
Originality/value
This research distinguishes between desired and enacted aspirations as well as provides insights into some factors that explain why women hold weaker desired aspirations for senior management positions than men.
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Kimberly K Merriman, Sagnika Sen, Andrew J Felo and Barrie E Litzky
Organizational sustainability has become a priority on many corporate agendas. How to integrate sustainability efforts throughout the organization, however, remains a challenge…
Abstract
Purpose
Organizational sustainability has become a priority on many corporate agendas. How to integrate sustainability efforts throughout the organization, however, remains a challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine two factors that potentially enhance incentive effects on employee engagement in environmental objectives: explicit organizational values for sustainability and the performance objective’s complementarity with incented financial objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed a quasi-experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, including a status quo condition against which the treatments were contrasted. Participants (n=400) were comprised of a cross-section of US employees from a wide range of occupations and industries. A post hoc qualitative analysis provided additional insights.
Findings
Incentive effects were enhanced (i.e. preference for the environmental objective was significantly higher) when the environmental project offered complementary benefits for financial objectives, but not when organization values emphasized sustainability. An entrenched status quo bias for financial performance was discerned among a subset of the sample.
Research limitations/implications
Management scholars must pay close attention to the role of implicit norms for financial performance when investigating employee engagement in organizational sustainability efforts. From an applied perspective, framing sustainability objectives to emphasize financial benefits consistent with a financial mission may maximize employee engagement.
Originality/value
This study contributes to understanding of organizational sustainability efforts at the individual employee level of analysis, a conspicuously small part of the organizational research surrounding this topic.
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Syed Awais Ahmad Tipu and Faisal Manzoor Arain
The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between entrepreneurial behavior and success factors in a developing country context.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between entrepreneurial behavior and success factors in a developing country context.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach was selected to analyze real‐life situations in order to gain an insight about entrepreneurial cognition and action related to success factors. Drawing from the behavioral theory of entrepreneurship, this paper presents a conceptual model which shows that entrepreneurial cognitions about success factors may lead toward entrepreneurial actions. The data were collected through face‐to‐face interviews. Three entrepreneurs were asked to outline responses to identified success factors such as start‐up planning, managing risk, learning, networking, managing human resource, and managing finances.
Findings
The results suggest that many behavioral patterns exhibited by the case study entrepreneurs were similar to entrepreneurs' behavior in more developed regions. The similarities include: preparation of business plan, ability cognition for start‐up planning, overconfidence and representativeness heuristics for managing risk, obtaining professional outsider assistance for learning, developing business relationships with suppliers for networking and favorable credit policies, and employing owner‐related and delaying‐payment methods of bootstrapping for managing finances.
Originality/value
For the first time in Pakistan this study explores entrepreneurial cognition and action in managing success factors. The findings of the research will potentially help practitioners and policy makers in nurturing entrepreneurial initiatives in a developing country context.