Academy of Management Discoveries

For over two decades, gender differences in the propensity to negotiate have been thought to explain the gender pay gap. We ask whether a “women don’t ask” pattern holds today among working adults. We compare estimates of gender differences in negotiation propensity (Study 1) with actual patterns from master’s in business administration students (n = 1,435) and alumni (n = 1,939) from a top U.S. business school (Studies 2A and 2B). Contrary to lay beliefs, women report negotiating their salaries more (not less) often than men. We then reanalyze meta-analytic data on self-reported initiation of salary negotiations to reconcile our findings with prior work (Study 2C). While men reported higher negotiation propensity than women prior to the 21st century, the gender difference has grown neutral and then reversed since then. Negotiation propensity rose across time for both men and women, although to differing degrees. Finally, we explore the consequences of the now-outdated belief that “women don’t ask,” finding that it increases gender stereotyping, even on dimensions unrelated to negotiation, and it is associated with both greater system justification and weaker support for legislation addressing pay equity (Studies 3 and 4). Our research calls for an updating of beliefs about gender and the propensity to negotiate for pay.

How do people craft a positive self-concept? How does the content of positive self-concepts change in response to feedback? Our research seeks to answer these questions by analyzing data gathered from two different samples before and after a positive-feedback intervention. Collectively, our findings identify three narrative themes that people use to articulate how they add value to their workplace and communities: Mobilizing, Connecting, and Task Engaging. Further, we found that while our participants’ initial positive self-concepts showed gendered patterns, these patterns were largely diminished after the positive-feedback intervention. In addition, after the intervention, the content of participants’ positive self-concepts were broadened and enriched. In post hoc analyses we explored possible mechanisms underlying these patterns of change. We then theorize that noncomparative, positive narrative feedback from significant others across multiple domains provides people with the opportunity to revalue ordinary actions and build a more integrated understanding of their value. We discuss the implications of these findings on strength-based research, positive identities, and gender identity construction.

Unexpected observations from a study of ultra-centenary Japanese firms suggest that organizational longevity might affect how managers relate to past, present, and future, and how they approach change and innovation. To account for these observations, we borrow the notion of historical consciousness, originally developed at the intersection of philosophy and historiography, to indicate the continued salience of history in the present. Our findings suggest how historical consciousness might induce an approach to change—which we refer to as bounded imagination—that is simultaneously conservative and creative. These revelatory insights contribute to our understanding of how history and tradition can be mobilized as resources for action. They invite us, more generally, to expand our conceptualization of history in organizations—not only as a set of objective conditions and events (as in theories of imprinting and path dependence) or a discursive representation of the past (as in rhetorical history) but as subjective experience and interpretive frame shaping action in the present.

The way we respond to the casual question “What do you do for a living?” involves making claims about work-related identity. As individuals often have multiple identities, including at work, deciding which identities to claim over others may not be straightforward. We explored how 29 entrepreneurs across Canada, the United States, and Australia respond to this question. Contrary to what would be predicted from prior research, these informants largely resisted claiming the label of “entrepreneur” in informal social interactions. Instead, informants claimed labels based either on roles they held or occupations in which they currently or previously worked. Several also claimed labels that were “self-effacing,” and downplayed their role in their organization. In exploring the rationale for these claiming decisions, we found that the broader social context—including cultural meanings of being an entrepreneur and conversational norms—played a key role in determining individual identity claiming. We also identified two motives underlying these contextual factors: the need to be comprehensible and the need to avoid creating distance between themselves and their interaction partner. We discuss the implications of these findings for the research on both identity claiming and entrepreneurship.

This paper examines the relationship between international mobility and financial compensation for knowledge workers pursuing business careers. While some theoretical arguments suggest that international mobility may lead to higher pay, others suggest that it may lead to performance problems and lack of recognition, which could reduce financial rewards. Empirical research on the topic is limited, with cross-sectional data providing little insight into the relationship between international mobility and compensation over time. Our study overcomes this challenge by using a panel data set on the career histories of 1,322 MBA graduates. The results reveal a curvilinear relationship between international mobility and compensation over time. Making one or two international moves can have substantial negative effects on pay. However, further moves are associated with pay growth, and there is some evidence that those who move countries multiple times (“superglobals”) obtain substantially higher pay. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on international mobility and business careers.

The concept of improvisation is revisited by means of a closer look at its role in the Mann Gulch wildland fire that claimed 13 lives. An improvised escape fire intended to create a safe area saved only one life. This suggests that the success of an improvisation depends on the relationship between wariness and understanding. That relationship, conceptualized as a “surface of apprehension,” is shaped by at least four contingencies: one’s raw experience, elements that are analyzed out of flux, the personal bearing of what is at hand, and the words selected to render this finitude sensible.