By offering employees new challenges and increasing their autonomy and responsibilities, managers and supervisors believe that they can encourage employees to feel happier, more motivated, and become more productive. A new study however challenges this assumption widely accepted in HR practices. Associate Professor Magda Donia from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management and collaborators suggest that increasing employee’s responsibilities and autonomy in culturally diverse workplaces does not always lead to higher employee satisfaction, performance, and creativity.

Cultural Differences Matter

Our perceptions of workplace dynamics are deeply rooted in our cultural context. When it comes to how we respond to hierarchy, ambiguity, and uncertainty in the workplace, past research has shown major differences across cultures.

In some cultures, employees are more comfortable with hierarchal systems where they follow the lead of a supervisor, whereas, in other cultures, employees appreciate an equal share of roles and responsibilities and enjoy being involved in the decision- making process. In some cultures, employees are less likely to tolerate ambiguity and vagueness in most day-to-day situations in the workplace. In others, employees feel more relaxed when facing unexpected or unfamiliar situations at work. But what happens when our job responsibilities increase in a new and unfamiliar workplace environment?

Professor Donia and collaborators found that the unique perceptions and experiences we bring to the workplace can affect how we respond to the greater responsibilities and increased demands of a redefined position. Their study sends an important message to organizations that employ a multicultural workforce or operate internationally: that employees from certain contexts can even view their new role as a threat instead of an exciting opportunity for professional advancement.

Research Findings

When employees are assigned more challenging tasks and responsibilities, their unique orientations toward hierarchy, ambiguity, and uncertainty in the workplace lead to very diverse responses:

• Employees who are more likely to tolerate hierarchy and less likely to tolerate ambiguous and uncertain situations may perceive new job challenges as a burdensome and threatening experience, leading to lower employee satisfaction, performance, and creativity.
• Employees who are comfortable with equal shares of responsibilities and flexible about unclear or unknown situations tend to view an increase in their independence and job responsibilities as an exciting and energizing opportunity, leading to higher employee satisfaction, performance, and creativity.

Practical Advice for Employers

A better understanding of employees’ culturally specific workplace experiences can be crucial in Canada, where organizations employ a multiculturally diverse workforce. When involving culturally diverse employees in more complex responsibilities with the hope of increasing their satisfaction, performance, and creativity, employers must think outside of the box of HR management practices:

Are you managing a culturally diverse team? Are you responsible for modifying their roles and responsibilities? Here is Donia’s hands-on advice so you can help your team thrive:

• Whenever possible, involve employees in decisions that affect them.
• Have open and timely conversations with employees about new aspects of their jobs, such as the description of their skills and complexity of their tasks.
• Develop training in areas enhancing one's job related skills.
• Allow for some time off compensating for the more demanding work schedule when employees are learning and transitioning into more managerial positions.
• Make sure you create a fair workplace environment: if employees find the process by which decisions to give them more complex tasks and demanding responsibilities are fair, they are likely to respond more favourably.
• Provide stress management workshops and seminars to help employees navigate through the challenges created by novel and unstructured jobs.

The results of this study have been recently published in the Human Resources Management Journal. Read the full article to learn how managers can create the favourable conditions for all employees to thrive at work.

Magda Donia is an Associate Professor of Strategy at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management. Her main research interests focus on individual and organizational giving exceeding formal role expectations. Learn more about her work.

Alhassan Ohiomah is a doctoral candidate in Electronic Business, an interdisciplinary program co-hosted by the Faculty of Engineering and the Telfer School of Management. Alhassan has been supervised by Professors Pavel Andreev and Morad Benyoucef, from the Telfer School of Management. We interviewed Alhassan to find out more about their research project that aims at advancing our knowledge about sales development.

What’s the focus of your research project?

In the era of modern technology, sales development has been transformed by information and communication technology tools such as phone, email, and the Web. As the use of these new tools increase, so does sales development. Researchers however know very little about what drives success, particularly what converts potential customers and other forms of what we call leads into actual customers. To fill this knowledge gap, my supervisors and I analyzed 130 million interactions between sales professionals and their corporate clients. Thanks to the access to this massive anonymized data, we were able to develop a data-driven predictive model that considers key factors in the process of converting leads into successful sales.

How did this research partnership between university and industry start?

In 2014, David Hood, the Chief Executive Officer of VanillaSoft approached Professors Andreev and Benyoucef, hoping to learn more about the academic research into sales development. Soon after, as a part of an independent research project, the research team analyzed the anonymized data provided by VanillaSoft and evaluated their sales process and impact on performance. By identifying key factors that can determine the success of sales development, we made research-driven recommendations to VanillaSoft.

Who benefits from your research insights?

The research team is proposing a model that could be implemented in real-time in a sales development environment. Such a model can help sales practitioners better rank, prioritize, and assign sales leads throughout the sales process. It could also increase the efficiency of IT tools of sales development teams, ultimately, supporting these teams in their efforts to lead in an important growing market. Although our results challenged views and myths that dominated the sector, our recommendations have been well received by both academics and practitioners.

What did you, as a doctoral student, learn from this project?

As a researcher, I acquired an extensive knowledge in the field of data science and digital transformation. Professors Andreev, Benyoucef, and I published an article titled “The role of lead management systems in inside sales performance,” in a reputable peer-reviewed journal. Through this project, I received financial support and had access to data, hardware, software, and several resources that were instrumental in the development of my research. By working closely with the Vanillasoft team, I also gained invaluable skills and hands-on experience in sales development and marketing practices.

Learn more about this collaboration with VanillaSoft.

This research was supported by Mitacs.

Meet our new faculty member: Ali Akyol was hired as an Associate Professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. He holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Alabama. We interviewed him to learn more about his research interests on the effect of the board of directors and financial misconduct on shareholder value.

Why did you choose to study Finance?

I grew up in a family of investors. As I was growing up, I was hearing all these terms associated with investing in financial markets and was curious to learn more about them. To better understand the markets, I started reading about financial markets, stocks, companies, etc. Naturally, I decided to study finance in my undergraduate degree to gain a deeper understanding of financial markets.

Any personal motivation behind your research interests on the effect of the board of directors and financial misconduct on shareholder value?

The last 2 years of my undergraduate years were marked by the governance scandals of the early 2000s and preceded by the dot-com bubble crash, during which large international companies went bankrupt partly due to how their CEOs and directors managed them. Their management failures cost their shareholders billions of dollars. To learn more, I decided to concentrate on corporate governance in my PhD. Today my research also examines the role of the board of directors and CEOs, and how their decisions affect shareholder value.

You recently published a paper in the Journal of Financial Economics, a leading Finance journal, can you share the highlights of that study?

In my recent publication entitled “Director Skill Sets”, my co-authors and I looked at director skills to understand how composition of the board (eg. their skills) affects firm value. About 37% of boards in our sample had at least one director with academic experience. 74% of boards had at least one director with leadership experience. Our study suggests that skill diversity in the boardroom can lower firm value. More specifically, a lack of communication and coordination among directors in skill-diverse boards may contribute to a lower firm value. These results point to the unwanted consequences of skill diversity in groups. Our findings challenge recent studies in finance that call for more skill diversity, and could have important implications for how a board of directors is shaped.

How can your research influence business communities in Canada?

I focus on corporate governance and how it affects shareholder value. The results of my research could inform regulators and support their efforts to improve regulation design to benefit shareholders. Overall, these results could also help regulators make effective decisions that will better protect individual investors.

Meet our new faculty member: Jennifer Dimoff is a new Assistant Professor at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. She holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Saint Mary’s University, and is the youngest recipient of the Society of Industrial/Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Scientist-Practitioner Recognition Award. Her research reflects her firm endorsement of the scientist-practitioner model. We interviewed her to learn more about her research interests in the field of Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Why did you choose to study Organizational Behavior/Human Resources (OB/HR)?

Through OBHR, I have the opportunity to help organizations strengthen their leadership teams, develop training, improve support for employee mental health and safety, and optimize organizational efficiency. Being an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist means that I have the unique privilege of being a scientist-practitioner – someone who bridges the gap between research and business. To me, that means that I get to do a dance between the proverbial “ivory tower of academia” and the “factory floor of the workplace”.

You published an article in the Journal of Occupational Health and Psychology. How did it enlighten your current research?

My research centers on three themes: Leadership, Training and Development, and Occupational Health and Safety.  My publication is a great example of those areas in synergy. The study was developed in partnership with a large Canadian organization, aimed at improving managers’ knowledge, attitudes, self-confidence, and skills related to employee mental health.  Not only did the 3-hour training achieve these goals, but it also resulted in a significant return on investment – up to one year after implementing mental health awareness training (MHAT), disability claims related to mental health declined by an average of 19 days per claim.

How can your research influence/impact the public sector/business communities in Canada?

The majority of my research relies upon partnerships with businesses – I work very closely with industry partners (e.g., private organizations, public sector) to develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based solutions to real workplace issues. I am looking forward to working with businesses in Ottawa and across Canada to address their needs related to leadership, training, organizational efficiency, employee mental health and workplace safety. It is clear that managers are regularly facing employee mental health problems, and need to be trained to realize that mental illnesses are common, costly and stigmatized. By helping managers to recognize and deal with employee mental health issues, the MHAT training program will benefit both managers and employees, with a significant return on investment for Canadian businesses.

Learn more about Professor Dimoff's Mental Health Awareness Training program.