The View from the Top: How Strategic Human Resource Management Affects the Performance of Initial Public Offering Firms

We study SHRM by taking an organizational level perspective on control over all employees. Drawing from agency theory, control theory, and the resource-based view of the firm, we develop hypotheses regarding the differential effects on firm performance of various overarching approaches to human resource management (HRM) control implemented in small, growing firms. We test our hypotheses in a longitudinal study of 342 firms that went public in 1993. Results support the negative effect of bureaucratic HRM control on market-based measures of performance, while firm-specific HRM control and incentive-based HRM control are related to internal measures of firm growth

The Human Resource Executive Effect in Initial Public Offering Firms

[Excerpt] There is much discussion about HRM becoming strategic, in part by hiring a senior HR executive. This study explores whether that recommendation can help entrepreneurial, growth-oriented companies. By applying organizational inertia concepts, we study whether having a senior HRM executive, reporting to the CEO, affects firm performance in a sample of initial public offering (IPO) firms. Results indicate that smaller and fast-growth IPOs experience the most gain from having a senior human resource executive

Using Ownership as an Incentive: Does the Too Many Chiefs Rule Apply in Entrepreneurial Firms?

Agency theory is used to develop hypotheses regarding the effects of ownership proliferation on firm performance. We examine the effects of CEO ownership, executive team ownership, and all employee ownership, in addition to the moderating effect of risk, on firm survival and stock price. Firms with low CEO ownership outperform those with high levels of CEO ownership across all levels of risk, but the effect is most pronounced for low risk firms. Executive team ownership is negatively related to firm performance, while ownership for all employees is positively associated with firm performance particularly for higher risk firms

Agency Theory Implications for Strategic Human Resource Management: Effects of CEO Ownership, Administrative HRM, and Incentive Alignment on Firm Performance

Agency theory is used to expand the research in strategic human resource management (SHRM) by viewing the construct underlying SHRM as control over all employees. We develop hypotheses on the effects of CEO ownership, administrative HRM, and incentive stock ownership on firm performance. The results indicate that administrative HRM has a negative effect on stock price. Incentive alignment via stock ownership has a positive effect on stock price and productivity. CEO ownership has a positive effect on sales but a negative impact on productivity. Implications for theory and practice are discussed

Dimensionality of the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire: A Confirmatory Factor Analytic Investigation

The present study applied confirmatory factor analysis in investigating the dimensionality of the Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire. Using a more rigorous and extensive series of tests than has been the case with past research, and employing longitudinal data from 2 samples of workers, the present study supported the 4 dimensions suggested by Heneman and Schwab (1985). The four-factor solution was supported both at Time 1 and Time 2, despite the fact that a compensation intervention occurred between the time intervals. Implications of the results are discussed

Does the Leader Make a Difference? Relationship Between Executive Leader Personality and Entrepreneurial Firm Performance

The purpose of this study was to expand research on personality and leadership by investigating the relationship between executive leader personality and firm performance. Drawing from research on the five-factor model of personality (the Big Five), executive leader emotional adjustment (low neuroticism) and conscientiousness were hypothesized to be positively related to firm performance. No specific hypotheses were offered for the relationships between the remaining Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience) and firm performance. Using a longitudinal sample of initial public offering (IPO) firms, results indicated that emotional adjustment and extraversion were related to measures of firm performance. Specifically, after adjusting for the influence of prior firm performance, as well as for the effects of several industry, firm, and demographic variables, executive leader emotional adjustment was associated with firms that had higher earnings per share and higher stock price; executive leader extraversion was associated with firms that had lower earnings per share and lower productivity. Contrary to expectations, conscientiousness was not related to firm performance

Effects of Employee Personality on the Relationships between Experienced Incivility, Emotional Exhaustion, and Perpetrated Incivility

Workplace incivility refers to low-intensity negative behaviors that violate workplace norms of respect. Incivility is known to be a type of stressor in the workplace, with recent research drawing attention to how it may differentially affect employees with varying personality traits. Drawing from a stressor–strain theoretical framework, we examined the moderating effects of four of the Big Five personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion) on the relationship between individuals’ experienced incivility and their subsequent emotional exhaustion and perpetrated incivility toward others in the organization. Results from a 2-wave survey of 252 working adults indicate that personality traits moderated the relationship between the stressor of experienced incivility and the examined strains. Agreeableness strengthened the relationship between experienced incivility and the strains examined here. On the other hand, highly conscientious employees were less likely (than employees scoring low on this trait) to perpetrate incivility toward others or become emotionally exhausted in response to experiencing incivility. No moderating effects were found for the personality traits of neuroticism and extraversion. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Creating Buzz: The Neural Correlates of Effective Message Propagation

Social interaction promotes the spread of values, attitudes, and behaviors. Here we report on neural responses to ideas that are destined to spread. Message communicators were scanned using fMRI during their initial exposure to the to-be-communicated ideas. These message communicators then had the opportunity to spread the messages and their corresponding subjective evaluations to message recipients, outside the scanner. Successful ideas were associated with neural responses in the mentalizing system and the reward system when first heard, prior to spreading them. Similarly, individuals more able to spread their own views to others produced greater mentalizing system activity during initial encoding. Unlike prior social influence studies that focus on those being influenced, this investigation focused on the brains of influencers. Successful social influence is reliably associated with an influencer-tobe’s state of mind when first encoding ideas