A Social Identity Perspective on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Entrepreneurs’ Networking Behavior

Purpose: We draw upon entrepreneurial network resource and social identity theories to advance our understanding of LGBT entrepreneurial behavior. We focus on what resources are acquired by LGBT entrepreneurs from LGBT-specific networks, such as entrepreneurs’ associations or chambers of commerce, and why they might engage with them. Design/methodology/approach: As an initial scoping exercise, study one quantitatively examined the different resources acquired via a survey of 109 LGBT entrepreneurs from the UK, mainland Europe, and North America. Building on these findings, study two qualitatively explored why LGBT entrepreneurs acquire resources from and engage with LGBT-specific networks via interviews with 23 LGBT entrepreneurs (with representation from the UK, Mainland Europe, and North America). Findings: Study one indicates that being more involved in LGBT-specific networks is associated with stronger resource acquisition, particularly those that are relational and psychological in nature. Study two reveals that such networks can act as psychologically safe holding environments where resources that fulfil needs for belonging and uniqueness are acquired. Originality: We advance our understanding of LGBT entrepreneurs by connecting knowledge on entrepreneurship with that on applied psychology. We develop an original contribution by focusing on how LGBT entrepreneurs utilize LGBT specific networks to meet important psychological and relational needs, thus speaking to the importance of developing an LGBT entrepreneurial community that enables LGBT entrepreneurs to express their LGBT and entrepreneurial identities.Practical implications: Our findings underscore the need for LGBT networks that are run for, and by, LGBT entrepreneurs. Such networks allow LGBT entrepreneurs to be more authentic about, and empowered by, their LGBT identity in their business such that they can develop a stronger sense of individual and collective pride in being part of an LGBT entrepreneurial community

The interplay between organizational polychronicity, multitasking behaviors and organizational identification: A mixed-methods study in knowledge intensive organizations

This paper investigates how individual perceptions and attitudes about an organization influence multitasking behaviors in the workplace. While we know that individuals are significantly influenced in their behaviors by the characteristics of their organizations (e.g. ICTs, organizational structure, physical layout), we still do not know much about how the way individuals interpret their organization influences their multitasking behaviors. Thus, we specifically hypothesize that the individual perception of the organizational preferences for multitasking (i.e. organizational polychronicity) engenders the actual multitasking behaviors that an individual enacts in the workplace. We also hypothesize that the attachment to the organization (i.e. organizational identification) moderates the above relationship. We conducted a mixed method study in two knowledge intensive organizations (an R&D unit and a university department) and collected data through a survey, diaries, and semi-structured interviews. Our findings support the first hypothesis but not the moderating role of organizational identification. However, this latter is directly related to how much a person is willing to work on multiple activities on a single day. Further, our study suggests that not only the organizational context should be investigated in the study of multitasking behaviors, but also the larger work context, including the individuals’ professional communities. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications as well as methodological reflections on mixing methods in the study of multitasking in organizations

A Social Identity Perspective on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Entrepreneurs’ Networking Behavior

Purpose: We draw upon entrepreneurial network resource and social identity theories to advance our understanding of LGBT entrepreneurial behavior. We focus on what resources are acquired by LGBT entrepreneurs from LGBT-specific networks, such as entrepreneurs’ associations or chambers of commerce, and why they might engage with them. Design/methodology/approach: As an initial scoping exercise, study one quantitatively examined the different resources acquired via a survey of 109 LGBT entrepreneurs from the UK, mainland Europe, and North America. Building on these findings, study two qualitatively explored why LGBT entrepreneurs acquire resources from and engage with LGBT-specific networks via interviews with 23 LGBT entrepreneurs (with representation from the UK, Mainland Europe, and North America). Findings: Study one indicates that being more involved in LGBT-specific networks is associated with stronger resource acquisition, particularly those that are relational and psychological in nature. Study two reveals that such networks can act as psychologically safe holding environments where resources that fulfil needs for belonging and uniqueness are acquired. Originality: We advance our understanding of LGBT entrepreneurs by connecting knowledge on entrepreneurship with that on applied psychology. We develop an original contribution by focusing on how LGBT entrepreneurs utilize LGBT specific networks to meet important psychological and relational needs, thus speaking to the importance of developing an LGBT entrepreneurial community that enables LGBT entrepreneurs to express their LGBT and entrepreneurial identities.Practical implications: Our findings underscore the need for LGBT networks that are run for, and by, LGBT entrepreneurs. Such networks allow LGBT entrepreneurs to be more authentic about, and empowered by, their LGBT identity in their business such that they can develop a stronger sense of individual and collective pride in being part of an LGBT entrepreneurial community

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT AND MULTITASKING BEHAVIORS: A MIXED-METHOD STUDY

This paper investigates how individual perceptions and attitudes about an organization influence multitasking behaviors in the workplace. While we know that individuals’ behaviors are influenced by the characteristics of their organizations (e.g., ICTs, physical layout), we still do not know much about how the way individuals interpret their organization influences their multitasking behaviors. We first hypothesize that individual perceptions of organizational preferences for multitasking (i.e. organizational polychronicity) have impacts on actually enacted multitasking behaviors. We also hypothesize that the attachment to the organization (i.e. organizational identification) moderates the above relationship. We conducted a mixed method study in two knowledge intensive organizations and collected data through a survey, diaries, and semi-structured interviews. Our findings support the first hypothesis but not the moderating role of organizational identification. However, this latter seems to be directly related on how much a person is willing to work on different activities, but not on how much she interrupts others or accepts being interrupted. Further, our study suggests that not only the organizational context should be investigated in the study of multitasking behaviors, but also the larger work context, including the individuals’ professional communities

How Many Teams Should We Manage at Once? The Effect of Multiple Team Membership, Collaborative Technologies, and Polychronicity on Team Performance

We explore the relationship between multiple team membership (the extent to which team members are engaged in more than one team and switch between different teams in a work day) and team performance. We argue that the number of MTMs has an inverted U-shaped relationship with team performance while the team average daily MTM is negatively related to performance. We propose that the use of collaborative technologies moderates the above relationships: when MTM is low technology use helps teams attain higher performance, when MTM is high collaborative technology use reduces performance. Conversely, variance in perceptions of technologies’ usefulness negatively moderates the above relationships. Finally, we expect teams whose members are more polychronic to perform better when MTM is high, but teams whose members are very diverse in terms of polychronicity to experience reduced performance. We are exploring these issues through a mixed-methods field study conducted in an IT consulting firm

Minimizing CO2 emissions in a practical daily carpooling problem

Governments, as well as companies and individuals, are increasingly aware of the damages to the environment caused by human activities. In this sense, the reduction of CO2 emissions is an important topic that is pursued through a range of practices. A relevant example is carpooling, which is defined as the act of individuals sharing a single car. In this paper we approach a practical case found in an Italian service company. Our objective is to develop an integrated web application to be used by the employees of this company to organize carpooling crews on a daily basis, so as to reach a common destination. We look for possible crews by the use of mathematical formulations and heuristic algorithms. The heuristic algorithms are then embedded into the web application to provide users with carpooling solutions. Experimental results attest for a great potential in CO2 savings by the use of carpooling in the real-world scenario as well as in newly generated instances

Who benefits from multiple team membership? An investigation of how the structure of MTM shapes team- and system-level performance

An increasing number of organizations have been adopting Multiple Team Membership (MTM), an organizational model in which individuals work concurrently in more than one team. Using agent-based simulation modeling, we examine the performance of teams within an organization’s MTM structure. We find that the best performing teams in an organization are those whose members engage in higher degrees of multi-teaming (i.e., are part of more teams) than the system average, whereas the worst performing teams in an organization are those whose members engage in lower degrees of multi-teaming than the system average. We observe that this phenomenon is driven by asymmetries in the opportunities for dynamic resource reallocation as a function of teams’ relative degrees of multi-teaming. We also reveal a core tension between incentives at different levels of analysis: While teams benefit from having members who engage in greater degrees of multi-teaming, the organization as a whole suffers when its constituents engage in greater degrees of multi-teaming. We discussimplications for organizational theory and managerial practice

Geographic Configuration Fluidity in Virtual Teams: Consequences for Individuals and Teams

As communications technologies become increasingly stable and secure, distributed virtual work is fast becoming a central component of how global organizations function (Caya, Mortensen & Pissoneault, 2013; Gibson, Huang, Kirkman & Shapiro, 2014). With U.S. virtual worker growth of over 100% in the past decade (Global Workplace Analytics, 2014) and an estimated 1.3 billion virtual workers worldwide (International Data Corporation, 2011), it is increasingly important for organizations and employees to effectively navigate this transformed work environment. Although work is becoming more and more virtual, our collective understanding of the effects of this change is still in its infancy. In a variety of articles across a range of domains, Organizational Behavior scholars have lamented the lack of clarity on whether existing, highly cited management theories wholly apply to virtual contexts (Bolino, Long & Turnley, 2015; Feldman & Ng, 2007; Grandey, 2015). Theories relating to interpersonal interactions, which often rely on synchronous communication, in person cues, and shared understandings, may operate differently in settings where individuals are separated by space, time, and technology. The goal of this symposium is to advance research on virtual work by illuminating new findings and theoretical developments within this emerging work context. The presentations in this symposium cross domains and methodologies to help build an understanding of how virtual work impacts employee status, voice, transactive memory, team creativity, and communication. Together, these presentations propose theories and offer practical implications that will advance our understanding of this increasingly popular business context

Working in the Era of Multiple Virtual Team Membership. A Study on the Effects of Variety of Communication Rules on Individual Management of Knowledge Resources

In contemporary workplaces, individuals are concurrently members of more than one virtual team. As they experience multiple virtual team membership, they may be subjected to different rules related to communication with collaborative technology. We propose that this context variety (i.e. different communication rule systems) and switching between teams negatively affect individual capability to acquire and provide resources in a team, due in part to an increased perception of role overload. In our experimental studies, we confirm that context variety directly and negatively affected individuals’ ability to acquire resources, and, through role overload, negatively influenced the ability to provide resources. Contrary to our hypotheses, switching frequently between teams reduced role overload, which, in turn, increased ability to provide resources. Our results have theoretical implications for understanding the changing nature of work in increasingly virtual and complex team contexts, as well as practical implications for managing teams and designing collaborative technology