Lisa Nishii | Cornell University (original) (raw)

Papers by Lisa Nishii

Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2016

While academic and practitioner literatures have proposed that extraverts are at an advantage in ... more While academic and practitioner literatures have proposed that extraverts are at an advantage in teambased work, it remains unclear exactly what that advantage might be, how extraverts attain such an advantage, and under which conditions. Theory highlighting the importance of energy in the coordination of team efforts helps to answer these questions. We propose that extraverted individuals are able to develop more energizing relationships with their teammates and as a result are seen as proactively contributing to their team. However, problems in coordination (i.e., team task conflict) can reverse this extraversion advantage. We studied 27 project-based teams at their formation, peak performance, and after disbandment. Results suggest that when team task conflict is low, extraverts energize their teammates and are viewed by others as proactively contributing to the team. However, when team task conflict is high, extraverts develop energizing relationships with fewer of their teammates and are not viewed as proactively contributing to the team. Our findings regarding energizing relationships and team task conflict clarify why extraversion is related to proactive performance and in what way, how, and when extraverts may be at a (dis)advantage in team-based work.

Academy of Management Annals

The issue of workforce diversity has been at the forefront of organizational concerns for many ye... more The issue of workforce diversity has been at the forefront of organizational concerns for many years. Not surprisingly, this topic has generated reams of research aimed at shedding light not only on the challenges involved, but also on ways these challenges have been and can be addressed. This paper reports on a comprehensive survey of the most recent studies in an effort to uncover what has been learned and what remains to be examined. While the paper is aimed primarily at researchers, it also offers a number of insights of relevance to managers and others who are responsible for designing and administering diversity-related initiatives in today's organizations.

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2013

Although there is a significant need to understand the implications of increasing demographic div... more Although there is a significant need to understand the implications of increasing demographic diversity for leadership, surprisingly little research has been conducted on the topic. In this chapter, we review the extant research in this area. We organize our review into three sections: how leaders lead themselves, others, and the organization. In the first section, we discuss issues related to social identity, and how leaders’ social identities interact with those of their employees in influencing what may be required for effective leadership. In the second section, we discuss the qualities that leaders are likely to need when managing employees from diverse backgrounds. We focus on developing quality relationships, cultivating an inclusive climate, spanning boundaries, and framing of diversity initiatives. In the last section, we discuss research related to the role leaders play in setting their organization’s diversity strategy, implementing diversity practices, managing conflict,...

Academy of Management Journal, 2013

I introduce the construct of climate for inclusion, which involves eliminating relational sources... more I introduce the construct of climate for inclusion, which involves eliminating relational sources of bias by ensuring that identity group status is unrelated to access to resources, creating expectations and opportunities for heterogeneous individuals to establish personalized cross-cutting ties, and integrating ideas across boundaries in joint problem solving. I show that within inclusive climates, interpersonal bias is reduced in such a way that gender diversity is associated with lower levels of conflict. In turn, the negative effect that group conflict typically has on unit-level satisfaction disappears. This has important implications, as unit-level satisfaction is negatively associated with turnover in groups.

Cross-cultural research is dominated by the use of values despite their mixed empirical support a... more Cross-cultural research is dominated by the use of values despite their mixed empirical support and their limited theoretical scope. This article expands the dominant paradigm in crosscultural research by developing a theory of cultural tightness-looseness, the strength of social norms and degree of sanctioning within societies, and advancing a multilevel research agenda for future research. Through an exploration of the

Excerpt] The perceived reasons why management chooses a set of HR practices are linked to employe... more Excerpt] The perceived reasons why management chooses a set of HR practices are linked to employee satisfaction, commitment, and on-the-job behavior. Employees individually make their own attributions about the purposes behind the practices, which are, in turn, associated with employees' attitudes: a perception that management cares about service (or product) quality and employee well-being is associated with positive attitudes, but a sense that management is intent on cost cutting or employee exploitation is associated with negative attitudes. Furthermore, individual attitudes are shared within work units and in their aggregate are associated with "organizational citizenship behaviors;" i.e., group-level satisfaction and commitment are associated with intra-unit helping behaviors, which are linked to enhanced unit performance and customer satisfaction.

In what follows we present a systems model of discrimination at the level of the organization. We... more In what follows we present a systems model of discrimination at the level of the organization. We elaborate the model shown in and illustrate the ways in which aspects of organizations -including formal and informal structure, organizational culture, leadership, strategy, human resource systems, and organizational climates -may contribute to or attenuate discrimination. As depicted in and as discussed in detail in previous chapters, the relationship between these organizational-level processes and actual levels of discrimination is necessarily mediated by individual cognitions and interpersonal behaviors. Furthermore, we recognize that organizations do not exist in a vacuum but rather they exchange resources and information with the environment. To fully attend to the implications of this point, we utilize an open-systems model of organizations to briefly discuss inputs from the environment and organizational outputs to the environment. Thus, we begin below with a brief overview of environmental factors such as the legal, economic, and social environment that serve as inputs into the organization that are relevant to the phenomenon of discrimination. Then, the major section of the chapter is devoted to a detailed analysis of the existing literature on discrimination at the level of the organization. This exploration is accomplished through examination of six different organizational throughputs: organizational structure, organizational culture, leadership, strategy, HR systems, and organizational climate. We then briefly discuss some of the outcomes associated with organizational discrimination and the ways in which these outputs are then fed back into the environment in which organizations function. Finally, we conclude with future directions for the study of discrimination at the organizational level.

Using data from 260 U.S. organizations, we found partial support for our hypotheses that demograp... more Using data from 260 U.S. organizations, we found partial support for our hypotheses that demographic diversity of senior management would be positively associated with the diversity of the workforce, adoption of diversity practices, and power of an organization’s diversity/EEO officer, and that diversity practices impact organizational performance. Organizations wishing to attract, retain, and benefit from diverse talent are often advised

Although negotiation research is thriving, it has been criticized as having an arelational bias—e... more Although negotiation research is thriving, it has been criticized as having an arelational bias—emphasizing autonomy, competition, and rationality over interdependence, cooperation, and relationality. In this article, we advance a new model of relationality in negotiation. Drawing on research in social psychology, we describe the construct of relational self-construals (RSC) and present a temporal model of RSC and negotiation. After delineating

Research on Managing Groups and Teams, 2008

Despite the oft made argument that demographic diversity should enhance creativity, little is kno... more Despite the oft made argument that demographic diversity should enhance creativity, little is known about this relationship. We propose that group diversity, measured in terms of demographic faultlines, affects creativity through its effects on group members' felt psychological safety to express their diverse ideas and the quality of information sharing that takes place across subgroup boundaries. Further, we propose that the relationship between faultlines and creativity will be moderated by task interdependence and equality of subgroup sizes. Finally, we provide suggestions for how organizations can establish norms for self-verification and use accountability techniques to enhance creativity in diverse groups.

How do employees with health conditions, impairments, or other disabilities get treated at work? ... more How do employees with health conditions, impairments, or other disabilities get treated at work? There has been substantial attention paid to the low employment rate of people with disabilities, but much less to the experiences of employed people with disabilities. In this paper we report some findings from a large project on disability and corporate culture funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, using employee survey data from six companies. We focus on perceived overall treatment received by employees as a result of their health conditions, impairments, or disabilities; how they feel they were treated in the accommodation process; and how this depends on whether the onset of the condition occurred while the employee was at the company. We also examine how often managers report that occupational health and medical personnel are consulted in accommodations decisions, or make the final decisions themselves. The analysis has begun on over 6000 employee surveys from the six companies,...

Human Resource Management, 2014

ABSTRACT Efforts to recruit and retain employees with disabilities are often tempered by employer... more ABSTRACT Efforts to recruit and retain employees with disabilities are often tempered by employers’ concerns over potential workplace accommodation costs. This study reports on accommodations requested and granted in intensive case studies of eight companies, based on more than 5,000 employee and manager surveys, and interviews and focus groups with 128 managers and employees with disabilities. Two unique contributions are that we analyze accommodations for employees without disabilities as well as for those with disabilities, and compare perspectives on accommodation costs and benefits among employees, their coworkers, and their managers. We find people with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities to request accommodations, but the types of accommodations requested and the reported costs and benefits are similar for disability and non-disability accommodations. In particular, fears of high accommodation costs and negative reactions of coworkers are not realized; all groups tend to report generally positive coworker reactions. Multilevel models indicate granting accommodations has positive spillover effects on attitudes of coworkers, as well as a positive effect on attitudes of requesting employees, but only when coworkers are supportive. Consistent with recent theorizing and other studies, our results suggest the benefits from a corporate culture of flexibility and attention to the individualized needs of employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Excerpt] Despite the rapid growth in the diversity of service consumers-both abroad and domestica... more Excerpt] Despite the rapid growth in the diversity of service consumers-both abroad and domestically-theoretical developments regarding this diversity in the service world have lagged far behind those that have characterized the world of manufacturing. With regard to international services, Knight (1999) conducted a review of the literature and concluded that there is an alarming paucity of research on international services management despite the importance of services in the global economy. A large proportion of the research that has been conducted on international services has focused on marketing issues rather than human resource management (HRM) issues. This means that little is known about the crosscultural applicability of service HRM theories, which have hitherto been developed and tested almost exclusively within the West (mostly within the U.S. context). Similarly, there has been little research on the HRM implications of the growing diversity of service consumers within the U.S. domestic market. Again, much of the research focuses on the challenges associated with simultaneously marketing services to a multicultural customer base, with little or no work focusing on the implications of these challenges for HRM in service firms.

Science, 2011

With data from 33 nations, we illustrate the differences between cultures that are tight (have ma... more With data from 33 nations, we illustrate the differences between cultures that are tight (have many strong norms and a low tolerance of deviant behavior) versus loose (have weak social norms and a high tolerance of deviant behavior). Tightness-looseness is part of a complex, loosely integrated multilevel system that comprises distal ecological and historical threats (e.g., high population density, resource scarcity, a history of territorial conflict, and disease and environmental threats), broad versus narrow socialization in societal institutions (e.g., autocracy, media regulations), the strength of everyday recurring situations, and micro-level psychological affordances (e.g., prevention self-guides, high regulatory strength, need for structure). This research advances knowledge that can foster cross-cultural understanding in a world of increasing global interdependence and has implications for modeling cultural change.

Personnel Psychology, 2007

Drawing on the organizational justice, organizational climate, leadership and personality, and so... more Drawing on the organizational justice, organizational climate, leadership and personality, and social comparison theory literatures, we develop hypotheses about the effects of leader personality on the development of three types of justice climates (e.g., procedural, interpersonal, and informational), and the moderating effects of these climates on individual level justice-attitude relationships. Largely consistent with the theoretically-derived hypotheses, the results showed that leader (a) agreeableness was positively related to procedural, interpersonal and informational justice climates, (b) conscientiousness was positively related to a procedural justice climate, and (c) neuroticism was negatively related to all three types of justice climates. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, multilevel data analyses revealed that the relationship between individual justice perceptions and job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, commitment) was moderated by justice climate such that the relationships were stronger when justice climate was high.

Personnel Psychology, 2008

The construct of Human Resource (HR) Attributions is introduced. We argue that the attributions t... more The construct of Human Resource (HR) Attributions is introduced. We argue that the attributions that employees make about the reasons why management adopts the HR practices that it does have consequences for their attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately, unit performance. Drawing on the strategic HR literature, we propose a typology of five HR-Attribution dimensions. Utilizing data collected from a service firm, we show that employees make varying attributions for the same HR practices, and that these attributions are differentially associated with commitment and satisfaction. In turn, we show that these attitudes become shared within units and that they are related to unit-level organizational citizenship behaviors and customer satisfaction. Findings and implications are discussed.

Organizational Dynamics, 2003

... Авторы, Benjamin Schneider, Seth C Hayes, Beng-Chong Lim, Jana L Raver, et al Geographic Plac... more ... Авторы, Benjamin Schneider, Seth C Hayes, Beng-Chong Lim, Jana L Raver, et al Geographic Place: United States; US. Журнал, Organizational Dynamics. Издательство, Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc. Год выпуска, 2003, ISSN, 0090-2616. Том, 32, ИФ РИНЦ 2008 ...

Journal of Applied Psychology, 2009

This research examines leader-member exchange (LMX) at the group level as a moderator of the rela... more This research examines leader-member exchange (LMX) at the group level as a moderator of the relationships between demographic (i.e., race, age, gender) and tenure diversity and group turnover. Drawing primarily from LMX, social categorization, and expectation states theories, we hypothesized that through the pattern of LMX relationships that they develop with followers, group managers influence inclusion and status differentials within groups such that the positive relationship between diversity and group turnover will be weaker when the group mean on LMX is high or when group differentiation on LMX is low. Results from a sample of supermarket departments (N = 348) yielded general support for the study hypotheses. We also found evidence for a 3-way interaction involving demographic diversity, LMX mean, and LMX differentiation such that the interaction between demographic diversity and LMX differentiation was only significant when LMX mean was high. These findings highlight the important role that leaders play in influencing the relationship between diversity and turnover through the patterns of inclusion that they create in their units.