Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

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The Faculty of Business, Economics and Law is committed to conducting research that matters. Research that matters is both research of high academic quality and impact, and research of relevance and value for business, the professions, government and society. The Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, comprises The AUT Business School, The AUT Law School and The School of Economics as well as a research institute and five research centres.

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A Paradox-Constitutive Perspective of Organizational Gossip
(Wiley, 2023-06-20) Greenslade-Yeats, James; Cooper Thomas, Helena; Corner, Patricia D; Morrison, Rachel
We review cross-disciplinary research on gossip and integrate it with two streams of theoretical scholarship: paradox theory and the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) perspective. In doing so, we develop what we label a paradox-constitutive perspective of organizational gossip. Our perspective holds that gossip does not merely reflect or reveal organizational paradoxes but contributes to constituting them. Drawing on an extensive narrative literature review (N = 184), we conceptualize organizational gossip as a socially constructed category of interpersonal communication that, paradoxically, is regarded as both an exceptionally reliable and exceptionally unreliable source of social information. In turn, we illustrate how this contradictory view of gossip engenders paradoxical tensions when gossip surfaces in organizational life, and we illuminate two specific tensions to which gossip contributes: resistance-authority tensions and inclusion-exclusion tensions. Our work has important implications for research on organizational gossip, paradox, and communication and suggests intriguing directions for future investigations.
An Empirical Investigation into UK University - Industry Collaboration: The Development of an Impact Framework
(Springer, 2023-11-12) Bamford, David; Reid, Iain; Forrester, Paul; Dehe, Benjamin; Bamford, Jim; Papalexi, Marina
Providing evidence of the impact of university–industry (U–I) partnerships is challenging. This empirical research contributes to this thought-provoking subject area by developing an impact assessment framework to assess the effect of collaboration between university and industry. This is examined through a multiple case study approach: 13 partnership schemes, each of two years duration, in manufacturing and healthcare. This study demonstrates that effective knowledge transfer from universities to enterprises is not only hypothetically feasible, but also realistically tangible and measurable. It explores how Business and Management Schools transfer knowledge and technology through external interventions and formal partnership schemes. Our findings show that impact and knowledge transfer can be evaluated, but requires active facilitation before, during and after the project, plus a level of openness and expert engagement within the partnerships. Additionally, our findings established that healthcare partnerships generated higher perceived levels of impact than manufacturing. This perhaps indicates that further work is necessary to resolve the issues limiting the productivity gains of manufacturing partnerships.
Brown Glass Ceiling Career Inequalities? Empirical Evidence from Samoans in New Zealand
(ER Publishing Ltd, 2024-05-06) Ofe-Grant, Betty
This study draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with a cohort comprising 31 Samoan CEOs and senior managers across various New Zealand industries to explore the phenomenon of a ‘brown glass ceiling’. The results reveal that Samoans encounter barriers in their career trajectories, hindering or stalling their progression into senior management roles. Our study indicates that cross-cultural differences in communication led to missed opportunities in addition to issues, such as racism, occupational segregation, and tokenism. Notably, some Samoan women experienced interracial and gender discrimination, particularly as afa-kasi (half-caste). Samoan career facilitators included mentorship from ‘white’ New Zealand Europeans, establishing future legacies, and a commitment to embracing their Samoan cultural identity. Our results have significant implications regarding how barriers to the glass ceiling shape and impact the careers of Samoans within New Zealand organisations. Consequently, our study contributes to the existing glass ceiling literature by incorporating insights from indigenous Samoans, who have received limited attention in glass ceiling and management research.
Centring Participant Voices Through Metaphor in Employment Relations Research
(Taylor and Francis, 2023) Ewertowska, Tanya; Ravenswood, Katherine; Douglas, Julie
Metaphorical concepts shape our thoughts, actions, and communication in everyday life. A rich network of metaphors underlies employment relations theories, framing our understanding of work and employment. This article urges employment relations researchers to use metaphors not just in theory, but in empirical data collection. Metaphor elicitation methods offer insights beyond what can be gleaned using traditional methods, such as interview, alone. Using the context of research into youth non-standard employment, this article proposes that through incorporating methods such as metaphor elicitation, employment relations research can uncover greater depth of experience, and empower workers who may lack voice or power.
Community Support Workers’ Experiences of Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Informa UK Limited, 2023-05-10) Ravenswood, Katherine; Hurd, Fiona; Nicholson, Amber; Fromm, Andrea; McCully, Kirsty; Woolley, Melissa; Ewertowska, Tanya
This paper investigates the way in which COVID-19 has exacerbated the poor work conditions within community support work in Aotearoa-New Zealand. It examines the invisibility of care work in New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of Government policy and communication, societal recognition of care work, and the spatially hidden nature of the work. It does so within the of gender norms in the socio-cultural, socio-spatial and socio-legal spheres that render this work and workers invisible. This paper documents the experiences of community support workers and contributes to our theoretical understanding of frontline health workers’ experiences of work during a global public health crisis.
Cue Consistency Matters: How and When Newcomers Respond to Supervisor Creativity Expectations
(Informa UK Limited, 2023) Chen, J; Cooper-Thomas, HD; Cheung, G
Organizations may hire newcomers as a source of creativity, bringing fresh ideas and novel solutions to benefit organizational performance. However, the conditions that foster newcomer innovation are not well understood. Drawing on behavioral plasticity and cue consistency theories, we investigate the combined influence of new job self-efficacy and two work design factors (work autonomy and work demands) affecting how supervisor creativity expectations (SCEs) translate into newcomers behaving innovatively. Two-wave data were collected from 108 graduates of a university in China. Results using reliability-corrected single indicator latent moderated structural equation modeling (RCSLMS) supported our hypotheses. Thus, SCEs predicted newcomer innovative behavior more strongly for newcomers with low new job self-efficacy. Moreover, supporting cue consistency theory, newcomers who perceived high SCEs and low new job self-efficacy demonstrated the highest level of innovative behavior when work autonomy was high or work demands were low. These results broaden the application of behavioral plasticity theory for understanding newcomer behaviors. Further, our findings emphasize the importance of consistent work environment cues to encourage newcomer innovation.
Decisions With ChatGPT: Re-examining Choice Overload in ChatGPT Recommendations
(Elsevier BV, 2023-07-13) Kim, J; Kim, JH; Kim, C; Park, J
This research examines how individuals respond differently to recommendation options generated by ChatGPT, an AI-powered language model, in five studies. In contrast to previous research on choice overload, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that people tend to respond positively to a large number of recommendation options (60 options), revealing diverse consumer perceptions of AI-generated recommendations. Studies 3 and 4 further illustrate the moderating effect of recommendation agents and indicate that choice overload elicits distinct patterns of consumer reactions depending on whether the recommendations are from a human or AI agent. Lastly, Study 5 directly measures consumer preferences for recommendation agents, revealing a general preference for ChatGPT, particularly when a large number of options are available. These findings have significant implications for recommendation system design and user preferences regarding AI-powered recommendations.
Developing, Validating, and Applying a Measure of Human Quality Treatment
(Springer, 2022-07-25) McGhee, Peter; Haar, Jarrod; Ogunyemi, Kemi; Grant, Patricia
Human Quality Treatment (HQT) is a theoretical approach expressing different ways of dealing with employees within an organization and is embedded in humanistic management tenants of dignity, care, and personal development, seeking to produce morally excellent employees. We build on the theoretical exposition and present a measure of HQT-Scale across several studies including cross-culturally to enhance confidence in our results. Our first study generates the 25 items for the HQT-Scale and provides initial support for the items. We then followed up with a large study of managers (n = 363) from Nigeria in study 2, which confirms the theoretical properties of the five dimensions of HQT and highlights a two-factor construct: HQT Ethically Unacceptable and HQT Ethically Acceptable using a 20-item HQT-Scale. Study 3 with a large sample of New Zealand employees (n = 452) again confirms the nature of the construct and provides construct validity tests. Finally, using time-lagged data, study 4 (n = 308) focuses on New Zealand employees and job attitudes and behaviors, and a well-being outcome. That study not only confirms the theoretically implied effects but also shows the HQT Ethically Acceptable factor mediates the detrimental effects of HQT Ethically Unacceptable. Overall, our four studies provide strong support for the HQT-Scale and highlight important understandings of HQT and humanistic management in the workplace.
Displaced or Depressed? Working in Automatable Jobs and Mental Health
(Wiley, 2024-01-04) Blasco, S; Rochut, J; Rouland, B
Automation may destroy jobs and change the labor demand structure, thereby potentially impacting workers' mental health. Implementing propensity score matching on French individual survey data, we find that working in an automatable job is associated with a 3 pp increase in the probability of suffering from mental disorders. Fear of automation through fear of job loss, expectation of a required change in skills, and fear of unwanted job mobility seem to be relevant channels to explain the findings.
Doing Big Things in a Small Way: A Social Media Analytics Approach to Information Diffusion During Crisis Events in Digital Influencer Networks
(Australian Journal of Information Systems, 2024-01-28) Kishore, Shohil; Errmann, Amy
Digital influencers play an essential role in determining information diffusion during crisis events. This paper demonstrates that information diffusion (retweets) on the social media platform Twitter (now X) highly depends on digital influencers’ number of followers and influencers’ location within communication networks. We show (study 1) that there is significantly more information diffusion in regional (vs. national or international) crisis events when tweeted by micro-influencers (vs. meso- and macro-influencers). Further, study 2 demonstrates that this pattern holds when micro-influencers operate in a local location (are located local to the crisis). However, effects become attenuated when micro-influencers are situated in a global location (outside of the locality of the event). We term this effect ‘influencer network compression’ – the smaller in scope a crisis event geography (regional, national, or international) and influencer location (local or global) becomes, the more effective micro-influencers are at diffusing information. This shows that those who possess the most followers (meso- and macro-influencers) are less effective at attracting retweets than micro-influencers situated local to a crisis. As online information diffusion plays a critical role during public crisis events, this paper contributes to both practice and theory by exploring the role of digital influencers and their network geographies in different types of crisis events.
Enhancing Midwives’ Occupational Well-Being: Lessons From New Zealand’s COVID-19 Experience
(Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 2024-05-17) Mharapara, Tago L; Ravenswood, Katherine; Clemons, Janine H; Kirton, Gill; Greenslade-Yeats, James
Background The World Health Organization posits that adequate maternity health is possible if midwives are supported, respected, protected, motivated, and equipped to work safely and optimally within interdisciplinary health care teams. Based on qualitative survey data, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic amplified job demands and resources, professional invisibility, and gender norms to negatively impact midwives' well-being. Purposes We aim to develop a refined understanding of the antecedents of well-being in midwifery to equip policymakers, administrators, and professional associations with the knowledge to enhance midwives' well-being postpandemic. Methodology/Approach Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources model, we thematically analyzed qualitative survey data (N = 215) from New Zealand midwives to reveal how job demands, resources, and structural factors impacted midwives' well-being. Results We identified fear of contracting and spreading COVID-19, financial and legal imperatives (job demands), work-related hypervigilance, sense of professional duty, practical and social support, and appreciation and recognition (job resources) as key antecedents of midwives' well-being. These job demands and resources were influenced by professional invisibility and gender norms. Conclusion Policy and practice solutions must address job demands, resources, and structural factors to meaningfully enhance midwives' well-being postpandemic. Practice Implications We recommend that policymakers, administrators, and professional associations monitor for signs of overcommitment and perfectionistic strivings and then take appropriate remedial action. We also suggest that midwives receive equitable pay, sick leave, and other related benefits.
Ethics and the Future of Meaningful Work: Introduction to the Special Issue
(Springer, 2023-04-17) Lysova, EI; Tosti-Kharas, J; Michaelson, C; Fletcher, L; Bailey,, C; McGhee, P
The world of work over the past 3 years has been characterized by a great reset due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving an even more central role to scholarly discussions of ethics and the future of work. Such discussions have the potential to inform whether, when, and which work is viewed and experienced as meaningful. Yet, thus far, debates concerning ethics, meaningful work, and the future of work have largely pursued separate trajectories. Not only is bridging these research spheres important for the advancement of meaningful work as a field of study but doing so can potentially inform the organizations and societies of the future. In proposing this Special Issue, we were inspired to address these intersections, and we are grateful to have this platform for advancing an integrative conversation, together with the authors of the seven selected scholarly contributions. Each article in this issue takes a unique approach to address these topics, with some emphasizing ethics while others focus on the future aspects of meaningful work. Taken together, the papers indicate future research directions about: (a) the meaning of meaningful work, (b) the future of meaningful work, and (c) how we can study the ethics of meaningful work in the future. We hope these insights will spark further relevant scholarly and practitioner conversations.
Experiencing Meaningful Work Through Worthwhile Contributions: A Critical Discourse Analysis
(SAGE Publications, 2024-05-19) Bailey, Catherine; Madden, Adrian; Lips-Wiersma, Marjolein
Why do individuals find their work meaningful and what is the role of worthwhile contributions in this experience? We undertake an analysis of accounts related by individuals working as nurses, creative artists and lawyers in which they explain why they find their work meaningful. Drawing on the traditions of critical discourse and narrative analysis, and informed by French pragmatic sociology, we move beyond a focus on what is said to consider how accounts are structured in explanations of meaningfulness. We find meaningfulness to be discursively constituted in the judgement that work makes a worthwhile contribution to others or wider society. We add theoretically to the literature on meaningful work, first, by revealing worthwhile contributions to be a complex, three-fold evaluation comprising the value attached by the individual to their contribution, validation from others that aligns with the individual’s own evaluation concerning the worth of the contribution and the individual’s self-efficacy belief that they are able to make the contribution. Second, we build bridges between hitherto disconnected branches of the meaningful work literature grounded in positive psychology on the one hand and moral worth on the other by showing how judgements of worth are fundamental to the experience of meaningfulness.
Financial Abuse in a Banking Context: Why and How Financial Institutions Can Respond
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023-06-02) Scott, A
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a global social problem that includes using coercive control strategies, including financial abuse, to manage and entrap an intimate partner. Financial abuse restricts or removes another person’s access to financial resources and their participation in financial decisions, forcing their financial dependence, or alternatively exploits their money and economic resources for the abuser’s gain. Banks have some stake in the prevention of and response to IPV, given their unique role in household finances and growing recognition an equitable society is one inclusive of consumers with vulnerabilities. Institutional practices may unwittingly enable abusive partners’ financial control as seemingly benign regulatory policy and tools of household money management exacerbate unequal power dynamics. To date, business ethicists have tended to take a broader view of banker professional responsibility, especially post-Global Financial Crisis. Little scholarship examines if, when and how a bank should respond to societal issues, such as IPV, traditionally outside their ‘remit’ of banking services. I extend existing understandings of ‘systemic harm’ to conceptualise the bank’s role in addressing economic harm in the context of IPV, viewing IPV and financial abuse through a consumer vulnerability lens to translate theory into practice. Two in-depth stories of financial abuse further illustrate the active role banks can and should take in combating financial abuse.
From the Store to the Kitchen: Herbal Scents Drive Wholesome Food Choice
(Elsevier, 2024-06-13) Phillips, Megan; Kapitan, Sommer; Rush, Elaine
As retail adopts more use of scent to sell, this paper explores whether an herbal scent can be used to prime wholesome food choices. The results of two laboratory experiments (physical and online) and one field experiment show that the presence of an herbal scent (vs. non-herbal or no scent) – specifically a mixed herb odor – increases selection and purchase of wholesome foods. This is due to semantic associations created through repeated exposure to the smell of culinary herbs widely employed in global cuisines and everyday home cooking. Specifically, exposure to herbs (vs. no scent) activates associations to cooking and home-cooked meals, which in turn motivates consumers to select more wholesome ingredients to create a meal at home. The results of this research extend findings in olfactory congruence in marketing and ambient scents in retail to enhance understanding of the role of retail atmospherics in influencing food choice and sales. This research provides further implications of scent in retail settings for consumer health and well-being.
Influence of Strategic HRM and Entrepreneurial Orientation on Dynamic Capabilities and Innovation in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises
(SAGE Publications, 2023-10-16) Ho, Marcus; Soo, Christine; Tian, Amy; Teo, Stephen TT
In small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), adopting a strategic human resource management (SHRM), approach can improve dynamic capabilities and promote greater innovation. However, most research on this topic is theoretical and focuses on large firms with well-established formal and mature human resource management systems and access to significant resources. Using a resource-based view framework, we investigate how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) enhances the SHRM–dynamic capabilities relationship in SMEs. Using time-lagged data from 456 SMEs in Australia, our results confirm that SHRM has an indirect positive association with innovation through its impact on dynamic capabilities. Additionally, EO has an indirect positive association with innovation through its impact on dynamic capabilities. Our results also show that EO moderates the positive relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation such that the relationship becomes stronger as EO increases. This study’s results have theoretical and practical implications for the role of SHRM and EO in developing dynamic capabilities and innovation in SMEs.
Minor Parties and Employment Relations at the 2023 Election
(ER Publishing Ltd, 2023-10-12) Skilling, Peter; Molineaux, Julienne Andrea
After three years of the first single-party majority government of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) era, the 2023 general election in Aotearoa New Zealand will result in a return to the historical norm: a government containing a major party with one or more minor political parties in a formal coalition, or a minority government relying on minor parties for support. Thus, the employment relations policies, the priorities and the power of these minor parties becomes important for assessing the likely trajectory of employment relations policy (ER) in the coming three years. Indeed, recent polling suggests that minor parties will have an unusually large degree of influence. At the time of writing, opinion polls suggest that the combined support for the minor parties is at levels not seen since 2002, with support for the two major parties correspondingly low. This article analyses the positions of the various minor parties likely to be in parliament after the election and speculates on how these parties might seek to influence the employment relations agenda of the next government.
Peering Through the Lens of High-Reliability Theory: A Competencies Driven Security Culture Model of High-Reliability Organisations
(Wiley, 2023-05-17) Hassandoust, Farkhondeh; Johnston, Allen C
To improve organisational safety and enhance security efficiency, organisations seek to establish a culture of security that provides a foundation for how employees should approach security. There are several frameworks and models that provide a set of requirements for forming security cultures; however, for many organisations, the requirements of the frameworks are difficult to meet, if not impossible. In this research, we take a different perspective and focus on the core underlying competencies that high-reliability organisations (HROs) have shown to be effective in achieving levels of risk tolerance consistent with the goals of a security culture. In doing so we draw on high-reliability theory to develop a Security Culture Model that explains how a firm's supportive and practical competencies form its organisational security culture. To refine and test the model, we conducted a developmental mixed-method study using interviews and survey data with professional managers involved in the information security (InfoSec) programs within their respective HROs. Our findings emphasise the importance of an organisation's supportive and practical competencies for developing a culture of security. Our results suggest that organisations' security cultures are a product of their InfoSec practices and that organisational mindfulness, top management involvement and organisational structure are key to the development of those practices.
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(Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-10-03) Mahli, Rudy
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Reporting Reliability, Convergent and Discriminant Validity with Structural Equation Modeling: A Review and Best-Practice Recommendations
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2023-01-30) Cheung, GW; Cooper-Thomas, HD; Lau, RS; Wang, LC
Many constructs in management studies, such as perceptions, personalities, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, are not directly observable. Typically, empirical studies measure such constructs using established scales with multiple indicators. When the scales are used in a different population, the items are translated into other languages or revised to adapt to other populations, it is essential for researchers to report the quality of measurement scales before using them to test hypotheses. Researchers commonly report the quality of these measurement scales based on Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis results. However, these results are usually inadequate and sometimes inappropriate. Moreover, researchers rarely consider sampling errors for these psychometric quality measures. In this best practice paper, we first critically review the most frequently-used approaches in empirical studies to evaluate the quality of measurement scales when using structural equation modeling. Next, we recommend best practices in assessing reliability, convergent and discriminant validity based on multiple criteria and taking sampling errors into consideration. Then, we illustrate with numerical examples the application of a specifically-developed R package, measureQ, that provides a one-stop solution for implementing the recommended best practices and a template for reporting the results. measureQ is easy to implement, even for those new to R. Our overall aim is to provide a best-practice reference for future authors, reviewers, and editors in reporting and reviewing the quality of measurement scales in empirical management studies.

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