Schweitzer, Maurice E. and Gibson, Donald E.
Accepted for publication in Journal of Business Ethics

In this article, we describe the influence of violations of community standards of fairness (Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler, 1986a) on subsequent ethical decision-making and emotions. Across two studies, we manipulated explanations for a common action, and we find that explanations that violate community standards of fairness (e.g., by taking advantage of an in crease in market power) lead to greater intentions to behave unethically than explanations that are consistent with community standards of fairness (e.g., by passing along a price increase). We find that perceptions of justifiability mediate this relationship. We also find that individuals derive significant psychological benefits (greater satisfaction, greater happiness, and reduced anger) from engaging in unethical behavior following perceived violations of fairness.

Barsade, Sigal, & Gibson, Donald E. 2007.
Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 21, pp. 36-59.

Interest in and research about affect in organizations have expanded dramatically in recent years. This article reviews what we know about affect in organizations, focusing on how employees’ moods, emotions, and dispositional affect influence critical organizational outcomes such as job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, prosocial behavior, teamwork, negotiation, and leadership. This review highlights pervasive and consistent effects, showing the importance of affect in shaping a wide variety of organizational behaviors, the knowledge of which is critical for both researchers and the people who work in the organizations researchers study.

Gibson, Donald E. 2006
Journal of Management Education, Vol. 30(3), pp. 477-500.

This exercise explores how organizations affect individuals’ feeling and expression of emotion. While recent attention by management theorists suggests that emotions are an important aspect of organizational life, people’s actual experience of emotions at work often do not reflect this emphasis: workplace emotions remain, in large part, undiscussable. The purpose of this experiential exercise is to emphasize emotions as a central, rather than hidden, part of work life. In the exercise, students explore and discuss four emotion “episodes” from their work lives to learn about how organizations generate display rules for emotional expression and what this means for individual and organizational effectiveness.

Bhattacharya, Mousumi., Gibson, Donald E., & Doty, D. Harold. 2005.
Journal of Management, Vol. 31(4), pp. 622-640.

Current strategic human resource management theory suggests that HR flexibility is a dynamic capability that facilitates a firm’s rapid response to changing economic environments, thus creating value. However, the components of HR flexibility, their interdependencies and their relationship to firm performance have not been empirically examined. In this article, we hypothesize that flexibility of employee skills, employee behaviors, and HR practices represent critical sub-dimensions of the construct of HR flexibility. Our results demonstrate that these are distinct constructs and that at least two of these are significantly associated with accounting measures of firm performance. We also demonstrate support for a mediated model of HR flexibility that shows how the adaptability of HR practices facilitate flexible employee behavior and skills.

Schweitzer, Maurice, DeChurch, Leslie, & Gibson, Donald E. 2005.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 35(10), pp. 2123-2149.

This article examines the relationship between conflict frames, competitive bargaining, and deception. We report results from a negotiation experiment (n = 220) involving a seven-action prisoner’s dilemma. We coded participants’ conflict frames and their use of both competitive ethical tactics and deception. Our results demonstrate that negotiators’ conflict frames influence the use of both types of behavior. While prior work has conceptualized competitive ethical tactics as distinct from unethical tactics, such as deception, our results suggest that in practice negotiators who adopt a competitive frame use both types of tactics in tandem. We also examine the influence of deception on the bargaining process and outcomes. We find that the use of deception significantly distorts the targets’ beliefs, influences the targets’ decisions, increases the deceivers’ profits and harms joint profit. We discuss theoretical implications of these results and offer prescriptions for curtailing deception.

Gibson, Donald E. 2003.
Organization Science, Vol. 14(5), pp. 591-610.

While previous literature tends to focus on role models as significant other people, particularly in one’s early life, this study finds that individuals tend to construe their role models as a selection process of attributes from others throughout their career. I discovered that individuals primarily construe their role models along positive/negative, global/specific, close/distant, and hierarchically superior/peer-subordinate dimensions and that across the career span, the tendency to observe role models did not change. Rather, the emphasis placed on different dimensions of role models changes. Early stage respondents who are working on creating a viable self-concept were more likely to construe their role models as positive and close and sources of a range of attributes. Middle and late stage respondents were more likely to see their role models as sources of specific, and often negative, attributes. The study suggests that these observed patterns are related to individuals’ increasing confidence in their professional self-concept. In early stages individuals pay attention to role models to create a viable self-concept; in middle stages they seek to refine their self-concept, and in late stages they seek to enhance and affirm their self-concept.

Gibson, Donald E. 2004.
Journal of Vocational Behavior. Vol. 65(1), pp. 134-156.

Career theory proposes the importance of role models as helping to guide individual development. Furthermore, the media often depict role models as essential to career success. However, research on role models as a construct distinct from developmental relationships with mentors and behavioral models has waned. This article makes the case for reinvigorating the role model construct. A revised definition is provided, depicting role models as cognitive constructions based on an individual’s needs, wants, and ambitions. Drawing on recent advances in social comparison and self-concept theories, a dimensional approach to role models integrates current theory and research, suggesting that role models should be construed along two cognitive dimensions (positive/negative, global/specific), and two structural dimensions (close/distant, up/across-down). The article concludes by suggesting new research directions prompted by this new view of the role model construct.

Gibson, Donald E. & Barsade, Sigal G. 2003.
Journal of Social Work in Long-Term Care, Vol. 2(1,2), pp. 11-34.

Recent research has focused on organizations as continuously confronted by forces for change. These forces may cause organizations to rethink their deeply held cultural values and beliefs in order to survive in the changing landscape. Using the long-term care industry as an exemplar, we argue that effective change requires understanding what organizational culture means, and understanding how organizational change typically occurs. Though some scholars emphasize that change is largely out of the control of organization leaders and primarily the result of evolutionary and revolutionary forces, we argue that culture change can be effectively managed. We conclude with implementation strategies for effective culture change management.

Gibson, Donald E., & Barron, Lisa M. 2003.
Career Development International, Vol. 8(4), pp. 198-209.

The international trend toward organizations emphasizing adaptability and change throughout careers suggests that research examine the development of employees into later career stages. Role models have been seen as critical to individuals’ skill and identity development, but have only been regarded as salient in early career stages and to younger individuals. Recent research suggests that older employees also seek development and are likely to seek role models throughout their career. In this study, we argue that older employees’ commitment to and satisfaction in their organization will be associated with their perception of available role models. As predicted, the study finds that older employees tended to identify multiple role models in their organization. Moreover, the study finds that the degree to which older employees perceive that they have role models available and perceive that these role models share similar attitudes, values, and goals is associated with commitment and satisfaction. Implications of these findings for career researchers and for managers are discussed.

Mainiero, Lisa A., & Gibson, Donald E. 2003.
Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 17(3), pp. 130-143.

The events of September 11, 2001 rocked the nation. While the nation’s attention was riveted to Ground Zero and the drama of individuals directly dealing with its aftermath, there has been less assessment of how employees in general were affected by this crisis. What impact did this terrorist event have on employees in the workplace? Are there lessons that can be learned to effectively manage employee reactions to terror next time? This article reports on a survey capturing employee reactions three months after the September 11th attacks. The survey revealed that many employees were reacting to the crisis in a manner similar to people who have witnessed a traumatic event. We show that, three months after the event, prominent emotional responses included fear, denial, and anger directed at employers rather than the crisis itself. We also show that there is a “saliency effect”—certain groups, including women, employees with children, and those located closer to the crises—were more likely to be affected emotionally. We conclude by arguing that managers should be trained in recognizing and responding to employee trauma, and offer suggestions for managers dealing with crisis events in a way that preserves employee morale.