Trading off learning and performance: Exploration and exploitation at work
Human Resource Management ReviewLindsey M Greco, Steven D Charlier, Kenneth G Brown
2018
Employees are increasingly given control over how they learn, and their choices for training are diverse and varied, yet employees must balance competing demands. On one hand, they are expected to be increasingly efficient in their current job duties – on the other hand, they are expected to develop new skills and competencies that enable them to adapt and respond to changing job demands. Drawing from the organizational learning literature, we propose a model of worker and work characteristics that inform choices between two mindsets related to learning at work. The first mindset is exploration, or the pursuit of learning outside one’s current knowledge domain; the second mindset is exploitation, the refinement/deepening of one’s existing knowledge stock focusing on the task at hand. We further propose that these strategic choices, or trade-offs, influence employee learning and performance in unique ways, with different implications for both routine and adaptive performance. Finally, we incorporate the notions of feedback loops and risk assessments that influence ongoing decisions between exploration and exploitation mindsets. Recommendations for future research and extensions of the theoretical model are also proposed.
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Undergraduate Programs in the US: A Contextual and Content-Based Analysis
Teaching Human Resources and Organizational Behavior at the College LevelSteven D Charlier, Lisa A Burke-Smalley, Sandra L Fisher
2018
Given the importance of human resource management skills both in management education and business in general, an empirical review of undergraduate human resource (HR) curricula and programs is needed. In this study, the authors provide an investigative analysis of the content taught across HR programs in the U.S. and the context in which HR programs operate. Specifically, data across 179 undergraduate “SHRM-aligned” HR programs were collected and analyzed to identify common as well as unique content and contextual attributes at the university, business school, and program levels. Against the backdrop of the study's findings, the authors step back and purposefully comment on how they believe HR education can best be moved forward. In total, this study seeks to inform stakeholders in HR education through a clearer picture of the current and potential future states of HR curricula within U.S.-based undergraduate management programs.
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Workplace cyberdeviance
The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of the internet at workSteven D Charlier, Gary W Giumetti, Cody J Reeves, Lindsey M Greco
2017
This chapter proposes a holistic definition of cyberdeviance, describing it as: behavior that takes place using information and communication technologies (ICTs), which violates workplace norms, and has the potential to harm individual employees, the organization as a whole, or both. It aims to propose a new typology and framework for viewing cyberdeviance and its associated behaviors, and review the existing literature within this new framework. The typology of behaviors features three broad categories of cyberdeviance: intrapersonally focused behaviors (cyberloafing), interpersonally focused cyberdeviance (CD‐I), and organizationally focused cyberdeviance (CD‐O). Studies that examine intraindividual differences in the willingness to engage in cyberdeviant behavior, including differences in the timing and rate of the behavior, might also prove particularly useful in the effort to better understand the underlying psychological processes that drive cyberdeviance. The chapter concludes with the recommendations for future research, both from a methodological and a content‐specific perspective.
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Plugged in or disconnected? A model of the effects of technological factors on employee job embeddedness
Human Resource ManagementSteven D. Charlier, Russell P. Guay, Ryan D. Zimmerman
2016
Technology continues to play an ever-increasing role in both our work and private lives. In parallel with this expanding reliance on technology has been a shift in how people now view their jobs. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical model that bridges these two areas—technology and employee attitudes (more specifically, work-related feelings of embeddedness). Within our model, we consider aspects of common work-related technologies and key perceptual variables related to technology, and how both areas can influence embeddedness in one’s job. We conclude the article by providing examples of how specific technologies that are commonly found in today’s work environment may influence job embeddedness perceptions, and we discuss the implications of the model on both theory and practice.
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Emergent leadership in virtual teams: A multilevel investigation of individual communication and team dispersion antecedents
The Leadership QuarterlySteven D Charlier, Greg L Stewart, Lindsey M Greco, Cody J Reeves
2016
While considerable research has been conducted on understanding why individuals are perceived as leaders in traditional work contexts, much less is known about how individual difference variables influence leader perceptions in a virtual environment. In this study, we examine this issue by investigating the effects of two communication-related constructs (communication apprehension [CA] and text-based communication ability [TBCA]) on leadership emergence in virtual teams. We also examine how leadership emergence is affected by team dispersion: specifically, overall team configuration and dyadic team member co-location. Predicated on adaptive structuration theory (DeSanctis & Poole, 1994), we propose a theoretical model that outlines the effects of the individual difference attributes and team dispersion variables on leadership emergence. Results of an experiment testing the model with 84 four-person teams of varying levels of team member dispersion suggest that CA and TBCA have significant relationships with leadership emergence, as well as team configuration and team member co-location.
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