The empowering leadership literature supports that empowering team members can result in a host of positive outcomes for work teams. These findings, however, largely assume that leaders uniformly empower their followers and overlook the potential consequences when leaders differentially empower members of the same team. In this study, we develop a theoretical model to delineate how and when differentiated

Prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement, and COVID-19’s deepening of inequalities, philanthropic foundations are increasingly claiming racial justice as a core part of their mission and strategy. This study uses a racial capitalism lens to examine racial justice organizations’ (RJOs) accountability relations towards the philanthropies that fund them. Drawing on interviews with leaders of Canadian

Do the key drivers of alcohol misuse change as young adults transition from early to late stages of employee onboarding? To answer this question, a series of hypotheses were tested based on two waves of data collected from 1240 college graduates from four different universities in the United States who reported obtaining full-time employment following college graduation. Data on alcohol misuse and

Whereas vision is central to understanding leadership influence in organisations, it has mostly been explored either in predominantly hierarchical or predominantly pluralistic contexts. We know relatively little about how the processual dynamics, content and sources of vision evolve when senior teams are undergoing a transition from hierarchical to collective leadership. Drawing upon a qualitative

Democratizing entrepreneurship itself is by far no guarantee for emancipation: the majority can (over)rule, masculinist dominance or regressive ideologies may flourish, and exclusions occur. By ethnographically following the transformation of a socially engaged agency into a diverse cooperative, we offer a processual study of emancipatory entrepreneuring that is undoing the paternal, family-like, and

While considerable attention has been devoted to understanding how individual characteristics influence unethical actions, far less research has examined the role of social and organisational processes. We introduce the concept of organisational moral disengagement (OrgMD), drawing on Bandura’s moral agency theory, to explain how unethicality may be fostered in organisations. OrgMD is a multilevel

Reflexivity is often considered a prerequisite for institutional work. However, the relationship between reflexivity and institutional work has rarely been examined rigorously in empirical research, and there is a lack of consensus on when and how reflexivity motivates such efforts. This study aims to address this gap by reviewing existing operationalisations of reflexivity and exploring how different

The power to ignite change in organizations does not rest solely with managers—it can also stem from employees. Employee voice, the upward communication of change-related information, can be a powerful catalyst for inspiring managers to be transformational. To examine how this process unfolds, we utilize the transmission model of inspiration as a theoretical foundation for identifying when and for

Pushing for social change at work is frustrating and precarious. Many employee activists therefore seek support in communities that form around their aspirations and reside ‘between’ organizations. This article advances our understanding of how community participation shapes employee activists’ experiences of their change agency as they return to and pursue their social purpose in their corporate lives

Women who step into the spotlight may be burdened with managing their sexualised bodies, unlike men. This is true also in stand-up comedy, where more women than ever are entering the field. Investigating this unequally distributed body work, we use Sara Ahmed’s idea of the wilful subject to spot naturalised beliefs of women as unfunny who ‘will too much’. We do so through a qualitative study carried

As the number of publications demonstrating the benefits and risks of being authentic at work grows, so does the variety of interpretations of what it means to be authentic—and with it increasing inconsistencies and contradictions in conceptualizations of authenticity and its outcomes. We propose that the reasons for these inconsistencies stem from differing underlying assumptions on what authenticity

Despite well-intentioned gender diversity initiatives aimed at addressing gender imbalances by ensuring minimal female representation in predominantly male groups, such tokenism often exacerbates discrimination and social isolation for these women, potentially leading to absenteeism. Research suggests that the benefits of diversity are realized only when the ratio of women to men reaches a critical

How do marginalised cultural outsiders negotiate fit into new work settings? I draw on a discursive (re)positioning lens to examine qualitative interview accounts of a group of skilled refugees in Britain and provide insights into three temporal moves they make to portray themselves as unconstrained by a lack of host country cultural know-how, able to swiftly address gaps in knowledge and skills, and

This article marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of the UK’s Sex Discrimination Act (1975). The UK offers an important historical case study of how such laws are, or are not, translated into practice. The success of the Act is mixed: there has been progress but much more needs to be done. In this study, we seek understanding of the mechanisms through which changes, albeit limited, have been made

This article explores men’s psychic attachments to organisational masculinities in the context of gender equality initiatives in the UK finance sector. Deploying an object-relations psychoanalysis and generating interview data with 30 male executives and non-executives, it unpacks why and how men outwardly support but unconsciously repudiate workplace gender equality. We explain how this conflict indicates

Feminism is back, but is it? What does the contemporary popularity of feminism mean for the feminist subject and the feminist project in western organizations? This is the question that lies at the heart of this article. We observe how postfeminism – as a key source for feminism’s contemporary attractiveness – individualizes the feminist subject as empowered, choosing and self-transforming. However

Our study illustrates how boundary mechanisms exacerbated the marginalization of paid domestic workers in India, after they resumed their employment at the end of the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. We draw upon in-depth interviews with the middle-class employers of these workers to show how the employers renegotiated boundary rules and created bubbles of safe interaction for themselves. We

Performance management (PM) practices were conceived to improve employees’ performance. However, one may ask: do they also have unintended and accompanying consequences on employee well-being? In this study, we set out to answer this question, and examined the influence of three PM practices, namely goal setting, monitoring, and performance evaluation, on two behavioral indicators of employee well-being:

How can actors use the future to politically navigate moral disputes today? This article examines how projected futures are constructed and mobilised to suspend present-day moral dilemmas. Utilising the Economies of Worth and Barbara Adam’s sociology of time, we discursively analyse the moral dilemma between civic virtues and financial savings in UK healthcare austerity (2010–2018). This reveals how

Chief executive officers (CEOs) are generally expected to make strategic decisions in pursuit of their firms’ best interests. Nevertheless, CEO decisions can be made upon noneconomic factors, such as their personal values and their relationship with the board. Building on upper echelons theory and CEO–board power dynamics literature, I examine how racial minority CEOs influence firms’ skilled migrant

Where do high-impact human resources management practices thrive, and how do they make a difference in environments with limited institutional support? This study delves into the realm of talent management (TM) in Turkey, where institutional coverage is incomplete and unstable. Drawing on survey data, we explore the conditions under which TM succeeds, supplementing previous research on internal networks

Through a collaborative ethnography told through narratives and a counter-map drawn from Mapuche ontology, we determine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) simultaneously fractures and strengthens the collective identity of an Indigenous community through the mechanism of community benefit sharing. This study reveals how a young Mapuche Indigenous leader, Simón, and his allies underwent the re-rooting

Why do individuals find their work meaningful and what is the role of worthwhile contributions in this experience? We undertake an analysis of accounts related by individuals working as nurses, creative artists and lawyers in which they explain why they find their work meaningful. Drawing on the traditions of critical discourse and narrative analysis, and informed by French pragmatic sociology, we

What is the effect of trait narcissism on creative performance? Although both constructs share an emphasis on uniqueness and novelty, prior investigations of the narcissism–creative performance relationship have produced inconsistent findings and failed to provide conclusive answers to this question. One possible reason for the seemingly contradictory evidence is that extant research has examined the

Most of us will be familiar with the saying, ‘Find something you love to do, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life’. But is it accurate? Through interviews with individuals who have felt beckoned towards such an activity – in other words, who have a calling – we explain why this saying holds true for some, but not for others. We found that many called individuals have conditions, which are

This article explains how employees construct inconsistencies between two separate mandated changes and use these inconsistencies to progressively resist the realization of both changes. Specifically, they use three practices – (1) demonstrating interdependencies between change elements, (2) framing these change elements as inconsistent and (3) establishing the consequentiality of specific change elements

As corporate social responsibility research increasingly focuses on the role of grassroots organizations in challenging business practices, there remains a gap in understanding how these organizations prefigure alternatives to the prevailing business status quo. This study addresses this gap by developing a framework of prefigurative imaginaries, drawing from a qualitative study of a grassroots organization

Do shared mental models support proactive problem-solving? Research on shared cognition suggests that shared mental models aid team performance by improving coordination between team members’ actions. However, these models can also lead to groupthink, potentially diminishing team members’ proactive problem-solving behaviors. Based on social identity theory, this study examines how shared mental models

The article examines the formal process of ‘ethical clearance’ for social science research at a large university and illuminates how it functions to undermine its stated purpose. We find that rather than promoting ethical standards, the bureaucratic process creates negative and cynical attitudes and game playing. For almost all participants, the entire procedure is counterproductive and experienced

This introduction, and the special issue on ‘Contesting social responsibilities of business: Experiences in context’ it frames, addresses the neglected question of the experience of contestation in the terrain of the social responsibilities of business. It re-conceptualises the social responsibilities of business by advancing research grounded in a relational perspective, exploring and highlighting

How do organisations that belong to a stigmatised industry manage negative perceptions? We contribute to answering this question by highlighting how organisational members turn external negative evaluations into positive self-idealisations. Our research offers a unique perspective on how stigmatised actors navigate their tarnished image, as well as how they remain attached to a group and its attributes

Commuting is a global phenomenon that has primarily been studied in terms of its costs. However, anecdotes and recent theorizing suggest that some employees enjoy their commutes. Is it, thus, possible that commuting can also be beneficial for employees? We integrate the Work–Home Resources model with the Conservation of Resources theory to conceptualize commuting as a source of recovery that facilitates

Using data from the Australian Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001–2020), we examine how combined patterns of non-standard employment and underemployment in the early career shape later wage trajectories, paying careful attention to gender differences on a representative sample of Australian young men ( N = 470) and women ( N = 497). By combining multichannel sequence

Boundary objects help collaborators create shared meaning and coordinate their work across differences. Acknowledging the complex dynamics of such processes, we propose a multimodal alternative to studies’ traditionally static view of boundary objects and ask: How do boundary objects “shape-shift”? How do they emerge in varying forms across visual, verbal, and embodied modes, and in what ways does

While narcissism is commonly regarded as a dark personality trait associated with many negative outcomes, it also carries potential benefits. How to suppress the negative aspects of narcissism and promote its benefits has important implications for both scholars and practitioners. This study proposes two managerial practices (i.e. promotions based on relative performance and empowering leadership)

Collaborating is increasingly characterized by working across domains and organizations. Teams rapidly form and dissolve, actors and settings frequently change, yet most academic research focuses on stable organizations and team configurations with familiar domains. This leads to the question: how do people successfully collaborate across domains and organizations in circumstances where there is little

This article examines different orientations to planning in the context of the post-redundancy transition of workers in the Swedish steel industry. The aim of the article is to extend our understanding of the role of planning in careers transitions. Drawing on careers transitions theories, the article explores the qualitative experience of the journey between a redundancy event and the employment situation

Prevailing socio-legal structures create a state of personhood limbo for undocumented workers, where broader society undermines various aspects of their personhood in a way that prevents them from fully representing and embracing all dimensions of their selves in and around the workplace. But how do undocumented workers cope with personhood limbo? Drawing on interviews with undocumented workers and

Research depicts job crafting as a desirable, ongoing employee behavior rather than a one-off event. However, insights are lacking into how employees’ active engagement in job crafting may be sustained across time. In this study, we advance a dynamic framework of how changes that follow employees’ periods of job crafting may, in turn, motivate versus impede continued crafting of one’s job role over

Collaborative organising is known to burn like a rocket: it thrives on intense passion, relationality and creativity but quickly falls into pieces. This article explores the underestimated role of events and their affective atmospheres to sustain collaborative work. Drawing insights from two ethnographic field studies within an open-source software community and a network of impact entrepreneurs, we

Chief executive officer (CEO) activism literature primarily explores issues in which CEOs engage, and its consequences for consumers and employees. However, a glaring gap lies in how CEOs engage in activism, particularly, through social media. Our study aims to bridge this gap by analyzing the online identity of Luciano Hang, a Brazilian CEO, activist, and billionaire, focusing on the crafting of Hang’s

The relationship between emotions and identity work is well established, yet the dynamic between emotional dissonance and identity work remains under-researched in organizational studies. We explore this relationship in the context of organizational scandal, examining the required and experienced emotions of organizational members when ‘working in the shadow of shame’. Drawing on an in-depth ethnographic

How do individuals who engage in high-risk work deal with the existential threats that are part and parcel of their daily activities? Based on a qualitative study of fighter pilots, we find that experiences and responses to existential threats are shaped by three intersubjective processes, that is, socially constructed and accepted patterns of interactions by which individuals come to view existential

Studies of meaningful work have proposed that work that holds personal significance and meaning can transcend pay. But how can workers who do not want, or cannot afford, to sacrifice pay for meaning commercialise their work to realise its market worth? We explore this question in the context of social media influencers who participated in the InfluencerPayGap community (an Instagram profile established

Surely a leader should know what to do? But what happens when complexity means they cannot know which path to take? We answer this question with an ethnographic study of distributed leadership (DL) in an organisation grappling with inherent tensions within its mission. The article makes a counter-intuitive argument for the value and utility of unknowingness, defined as a state of awareness of both

Ingratiation is an impression management tactic used by those who seek to obtain the favor of others. Previous studies mainly examine the role of ingratiation from the initiator’s perspective, igno...

This article examines the role of strategic leadership groups in radical organisational change. Previous research has focused on how ‘heroic’ individual leaders guide change. In contrast, we argue ...

This research explores the association of ethical leadership with employee service innovation behavior through a moderated mediation model. Theorizing on uncertainty reduction theory, we explore ps...

While there may be no difference in terms of the love, care, and bond shared between parent and child, relationships created through adoption are often viewed less favorably in our society compared...

How does female board membership affect firm stakeholder strategy? With the large increase in pressure to add more women to boards, it is especially important to understand how they influence firm ...

How does being the target of negative supervisor gossip influence the functioning of targeted employees? We draw on feedback intervention theory to examine the beneficial and detrimental effects of...

Why do women receive equal or better performance ratings than men in managerial assessment centers even when they are structured in ways that systematically disadvantage them? This study provides t...

Despite the prevalence of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) as an adaptive strategy for the effective management of an increasingly diverse workforce, the drivers of these customized work arrangements ...

Though studies increasingly suggest nurturing a polyphonic and conflict-centered understanding of organizational social responsibility—referred to as CSR here—little is known about which voices mak...

Does endorsement of employees’ constructive voice always result in more voice behavior in the future? Although it is often assumed that endorsement is a critical predictor of future voice behavior,...

Human Relations has long welcomed different types of reviews – systematic reviews, meta-analyses, conceptual reviews, narrative reviews, historical reviews – and critical essays that are original, ...