You are invited to a talk of interest to the COR community…

“The Career Consequences of Employee Activism: Evidence from the NFL Take a Knee Protest Movement”

Professor Forrest S. Briscoe
Pennsylvania State University Smeal College of Business

Friday, April 9, 2021

10:30a.m. – 12:00p.m.PST

Virtual Talk Via Zoom

Abstract:

Despite recognizing the potential risks for employees who choose to participate in protest at the workplace, researchers have rarely explored the actual career consequences that stem from such activism. We integrate research on employee activism and worker norms to theorize that workplace protest represents a perceived violation of idealized norms for professional employees that can lead to negative responses in the organization and labor market. We investigate this premise with the 2016 National Football League (NFL) “Take a Knee” protests as a strategic research setting. Constructing a matched sample of comparable protesting and non-protesting NFL players, we then use a difference-in-difference approach to causal identification. The results indicate that protesting is associated with negative consequences for subsequent compensation, as well as an increase in the probability of exiting from the occupational labor market. We further find that the negative effect of protesting on compensation is reduced for employees who have a potential managerial ally in their organization, in the form of a Black head coach. Overall, the findings offer contributions for research on employee activism, careers and inequality.

A colloquium of interest to COR community…

“Tokens at the Top: How Existing Ethnic Diversity Influences Entrances to Top Management Teams”

Christopher W. Bauman, University of California, Irvine
(Paper joint with John Morton, Ben Lourie & Philip Bromiley)

10:30a.m. – 12:00p.m. (PST) Virtual Talk Via Zoom

https://uci.zoom.us/j/96978185870

Abstract: Top management teams (TMTs) remain considerably less ethnically diverse than other employees and the general public. Drawing from theories of diversity, we generate and test predictions about how representation of a given ethnic group on a TMT influences the likelihood that the TMT adds a member of the same ethnic group. Supporting a tokenism account of diversity on TMTs, results provide consistent evidence across ethnic groups that representation associates negatively with subsequent additions of members of the same ethnic group. Similarly, the departure of a member of a given ethnic group from a TMT increases the likelihood of appointing someone from that ethnic group. In contrast, CEO ethnicity associates positively with the likelihood of adding another individual of that ethnicity.

October 16, 2020
From Dreams of the Overworked to Behind the Ideal Worker
Melissa Mazmanian, Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine
10:30a.m. – 12:00noon
Virtual Talk

In their recently published book Dreams of the Overworked: Living, Working, and Parenting in the Digital Age, Melissa Mazmanian and co-author Christine Beckman offer vivid sketches of daily life for nine families in Southern California, capturing what it means to live, work, and parent in a world of impossible expectations – expectations amplified by smart devices. In this book, the reader is invited into the homes and offices of these working professional in order to witness the crushing pressure of unraveling plans and celebrate how people—through a web of social “scaffolding”—support each other’s dreams. This book challenges the seductive myth of the individual with phone in hand, doing it all on their own. This ideal didn’t capture the reality of everyday life, even before the pandemic hit. In truth, beneath the veneer of technology is a complex, hidden system of support—our dreams have always been scaffolded by retired in-laws, friendly neighbors, spouses, schools, and paid help. This book makes the case for celebrating the structures that allow us to strive for our dreams by supporting new public policies, challenging workplace norms, reimagining family and community, and valuing invisible work on the home front. In this talk, Dr. Mazmanian will provide an overview of the book and preview a journal article that examines how families respond to work demands that assume everyone should be an Ideal Worker.