Anchors aweigh: the sources, variety, and challenges of mission drift

The growing number of studies which reference the concept of mission drift imply that such drift is an undesirable strategic outcome related to inconsistent organizational action, yet beyond such references little is known about how mission drift occurs, how it impacts organizations, and how organizations should respond. Existing management theory more broadly offers initial albeit equivocal insight for understanding mission drift. On the one hand, prior studies have argued that inconsistent or divergent action can lead to weakened stakeholder commitment and reputational damage. On the other hand, scholars have suggested that because environments are complex and dynamic, such action is necessary for ensuring organizational adaptation and thus survival. In this study, we offer a theory of mission drift that unpacks its origin, clarifies its variety, and specifies how organizations might respond to external perceptions of mission drift. The resulting conceptual model addresses the aforementioned theoretical tension and offers novel insight into the relationship between organizational actions and identity

Frequent CEO Turnover and Firm Performance: The Resilience Effect of Workforce Diversity

© 2020, Springer Nature B.V. CEO turnover (or succession) is a critical event in an organization that influences organizational processes and performance. The objective of this study is to investigate whether workforce diversity (i.e., age, gender, and education-level diversity) might have a resilience effect on firm performance under the frequency of CEO turnover. Based on a sample of 409 Korean firms from 2010 to 2015, our results show that firms with more frequent CEO turnover have a lower firm performance. However, firms with more gender and education-level diversity could buffer the disruptive effect of frequent CEO turnover on firm performance to offer a benefit to the organization. Our theory and findings suggest that effectively managing diverse workforce can be a resilience factor in an uncertain organizational environment because diverse workforce has complementary skills and behaviors that can cope better with uncertainty and signals social inclusion of an organization, thus fostering a long-term exchange relationship. These findings contribute to the literature on CEO turnover (or succession) and diversity

Missing Links: Referrer Behavior and Job Segregation

How does referral recruitment contribute to job segregation, and what can organizations do about it? Current theory on network effects in the labor market emphasizes the job-seeker perspective, focusing on the segregated nature of job-seekers’ information and contact networks, and leaves little role for organizational influence. But employee referrals are necessarily initiated from within a firm by referrers. We argue that referrer behavior is the missing link that can help organizations manage the segregating effects of referring. Adopting the referrer’s perspective of the process, we develop a computational model which integrates a set of empirically documented referrer behavior mechanisms gleaned from extant organizational case studies. Using this model, we compare the segregating effects of referring when these behaviors are inactive to the effects when the behaviors are active. We show that referrer behaviors substantially boost the segregating effects of referring. This impact of referrer behavior presents an opportunity for organizations. Contrary to popular wisdom, we show that organizational policies designed to influence referrer behaviors can mitigate most if not all of the segregating effects of referring

Mapping the Journal of Vocational Behavior: A 23-year review

This article uses bibliometric analysis to provide an overarching review of the Journal of Vocational Behavior (JVB) over the last 23 years. To conduct this review, we systematically analyzed 1490 JVB articles published from 1994 to 2016. We draw on this analysis to answer the questions: a) What key works were cited in articles published in JVB? and b) What key topics, articles, and trends appeared in JVB over the last 23 years? This review is accompanied by two analytic science maps: 1) a co-citation map that reveals 466 key works cited by JVB articles (http://bit.ly/JVBFoundations2), and 2) a topic map that reveals 353 JVB article topics, topic relations, degree of citation associated with article topics, and trending topics (http://bit.ly/JVB_Topics1b). These maps can be downloaded and interactively explored by readers to help guide their future research. In addition to the empirically grounded reviews of major topic areas in JVB, recommendations for future research are discussed

Toward a taxonomy of career studies through bibliometric visualization

One of the greatest strengths and liabilities of the career field is its diversity. This diversity allows for wide coverage of relevant career dynamics across the lifespan and across levels of analysis. However, this diversity also reflects fragmentation, with career scholars failing to appreciate how the insights from other thought worlds can advance their own work. Using advanced bibliometric mapping techniques, we provide a systematic review of the 3,141 articles on careers published in the management literature between 1990 and 2012. In doing so, we (1) map key terms to create a systematic taxonomy of career studies within the field of management studies, (2) provide a synthetic overview of each topic cluster which extends prior reviews of more limited scope, and (3) identify the most highly influential studies on careers within each cluster. Specifically, six local clusters emerged – i.e., international careers, career management, career choice, career adaptation, individual and relational career success, and life opportunities. To classify a broad range of research opportunities for career scholars, we also create a “global” map of 16,146 career articles from across the social sciences. Specifically, six global clusters emerged – i.e., organizational, individual, education, doctorate careers, high-profile careers, and social policy. We describe and compare the clusters in the map with an emphasis on those avenues career scholars in management have yet to explor

THE EIECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF H2OH_{2}O

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State UniversityDetailed analysis of the photoabsorption spectrum of $H_{2}O$ in the 1450-1240 {\AA} region leads to a new appraisal of the electronic structure of this molecule. The first absorption band at 1670 {\AA} is very likely an intra-valence transition of the $lb_{1} \rightarrow 4a_{1}, ^{1}B_{1}$ type. The electron impact band at ~ 4.5 eV may be attributed to the triplet counterpart of the 1670 {\AA} band, since the exchange for an intra-valence state is of the same magnitude as the distance between these two bands. The $1b_{1} \rightarrow 3sa_{1}, ^{1}B_{1}$ band is embedded in the $3a_{1} \rightarrow 3sa_{1}, ^{1}A_{1}$ band in the 1450-1240 {\AA} region. At higher energy, a band at 1122 {\AA}, which was completely ignored in the past, is assigned as the $lb_{1} \rightarrow 4sa_{1}, ^{1}B_{1}$ transition. The 1115 {\AA} and 1128 {\AA} bands are assigned as two $lb_{1} \rightarrow 3d$ type transitions. Vibrationa1 analyses for these three transitions are performed for both $H_{2}O$ and $D_{2}O$ and the 1122 {\AA} band is proved to be electronic in origin

MCD SPECTRA OF METHYL IODIDE AND HYDROGEN IODIDE IN THE VACUUM ULTRAVIOLET

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State UniversityThe gas-phase magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra of methyl iodide and hydrogen iodide will be reported for the spectral region ca. 1500-2000 {\AA}. Of specific interest are the absorption bands assigned to members of the first s-Rydberg spin-orbit manifold. The differences in the magnetic properties of these spin-orbit members can be observed in their MCD spectra and, therefore, a unique insight into their characterization is provided. The validity of existing assignments will be discussed