Employment organizations are one of the primary sites where individuals’ dignity can be affected–for better or for worse. For some, organizations provide an opportunity to attain and maintain dignity through achievement and positive interactions. For others, organizations impede the attainment or threaten the maintenance of dignity. Although a common subtext of the organizational literature on dignity is that dignity threats unequally and disproportionately affect individuals at the lower end of the socioeconomic and organizational hierarchy, extant research on dignity has rarely considered social class explicitly. In this study, we interviewed 22 employees from diverse social classes to learn about the process through which they experienced threats to their dignity. By integrating dignity and social class, our goal is to shed light on the relatively invisible forces of inequality through a better understanding of felt experiences of (in)dignity.
Dignity is widely considered to be an essential element of decent work. However, the extent to which people are able to derive a sense of worth and value from their work roles and the extent to which they are treated respectfully while on the job can vary greatly. One social identity that is particularly salient for understanding the achievement of workplace dignity is social class, as social class is both a consequence and a source of organizational inequalities. In this manuscript, we identify five frames through which work/places organize social class: organizing distributions of material rewards, organizing contributions to be made through work, organizing construction of physical work spaces, organizing power and status within workplaces, and organizing status and stigma outside the work domain. As a result of identity-indifferent and identity-sensitive inequalities embedded within these organizing frames, working-class employees face unique challenges in achieving dignity at work. Therefore, we conclude by addressing critical questions about management’s ethical responsibilities for addressing working-class employees’ unique dignity concerns.
Research problem: Entrepreneurial passion has been shown to play an important role in venture success and, therefore, in investors' funding decisions. However, it is unknown whether the passion entrepreneurs personally feel or experience can be accurately assessed by investors during a venture pitch. Research questions: (1) To what extent does entrepreneurs' personal passion align with investors' perceived passion? (2) To what cues do investors attend when assessing entrepreneurs' passion? Literature review: Integrating theory and research in entrepreneurship communication and entrepreneurial passion within the context of venture pitching, we explain that during venture pitches, investors make judgments about entrepreneurs' passion that have consequences for their investment decisions. However, they can attend to only those cues that entrepreneurs outwardly display. As a result, they may not be assessing the passion entrepreneurs personally feel or experience. Methodology: We used a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design. For our data collection, we surveyed 40 student entrepreneurs, videorecorded their venture pitches, and facilitated focus groups with 16 investors who viewed the videos and ranked, rated, and discussed their perceptions of entrepreneurs' passion. We conducted statistical analyses to assess the extent to which entrepreneurs' personal passion and investors' perceived passion aligned. We then performed an inductive analysis of critical cases to identify specific cues that investors attributed to passion or lack thereof. Results and conclusions: We revealed a large misalignment between entrepreneurs' personal passion and investors' perceived passion. Our critical case analysis demonstrated that entrepreneurs' weak or strong presentation skills led investors either to underestimate or overestimate, respectively, perceptions of entrepreneurs' passion. We suggest that entrepreneurs should develop specific presentation skills and rhetorical strategies for displaying their passion; at the same time, investors should be wary of attending too closely to presentation skills when assessing passion.
Part One: Basics of Business and Professional Communication Strategic Case: Sundown Bakery 1. Communicating at Work 2. Communication, Culture, and Work Part Two: Personal Skills Strategic Case: Omnicom Marketing 3. Listening 4. Verbal and Nonverbal Messages 5. Interpersonal Skills 6. Principles of Interviewing Part Three: Working in Groups Strategic Case: Museum of Springfield 7. Working in Teams 8. Effective Meetings Part Four: Making Effective Presentations Strategic Case: Fresh Air Sports 9. Developing and Organizing the Presentation 10. Verbal and Visual Support in Presentations 11. Delivering the Presentation 12. Types of Business Presentations Appendix I: Interviewing Materials Appendix II: Sample Presentations Appendix III: Business Writing
As organizational scholars have become critically attuned to human flourishing in the workplace, interest in workplace dignity has grown rapidly. Yet, a valid scale to measure employees’ perceptions of dignity in the workplace has yet to be developed, thereby limiting potential empirical insights. To fill this need, we conducted a systematic, multi-study scale development project. Using data generated from focus groups ( N = 62), an expert panel ( N = 11), and two surveys ( N = 401 and N = 542), we developed and validated an 18-item Workplace Dignity Scale (WDS). Our studies reveal evidence in support of the WDS’ psychometric properties, as well as its content, construct, and criterion-related validity. Our structural models support predictive relationships between workplace characteristics (e.g., dirty work, income insufficiency) and dignity. Moreover, we observed the incremental validity of workplace dignity to account for variance in employee engagement, burnout, and turnover intentions above and beyond the explanatory effects of organizational respect and meaningful work. These results demonstrate the promise of the WDS for organizational research.
While there has been a growing body of research on workplace dignity, the majority of studies tend to focus on how dignity is experienced by organizational members and have paid considerably less attention to consequences for organizations. In this study, we test the effect of workplace dignity on employee behaviors that affect organizational performance. Using Bolton’s (2007) multidimensional theory of dignity to analyze Hodson’s (2004) Workplace Ethnography Project dataset, we examine the influence of workplace dignity on counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) and employee engagement. Generally, we find workplace dignity predicted a decrease in CWBs and an increase in employee engagement. However, an important exception is autonomy-an essential element of workplace dignity-predicted an increase in CWBs. Following deeper exploration of this counterintuitive finding, we ultimately argue that dignity is not only good for employees, but also is advantageous to building productive workplaces.
