Francis Flynn

Demographic Diversity

Flynn, F.J., Chatman, J.A. (2001). Getting to Know You: The Influence of Personality on Impressions and Performance of Demographically Different People in Organizations.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 46: 414-442.
Available Upon Request

This paper extends social categorization theory to understand how personality traits related to information sharing may correspond with positive perceptions of demographically different people, thereby enhancing their experience and performance in organizations. We tested our hypotheses in a sample of MBA candidates and a sample of financial services firm officers and found that people who were more demographically different from their coworkers engendered more negative impressions than did more similar coworkers. These impressions were more positive, however, when demographically different people were either more extraverted or higher self-monitors. Further, impressions formed of others mediated the influence of demographic differences on an individual’s performance such that the negative effect of being demographically different disappeared when the relationship between impression formation and performance was considered. This suggests that demographically different people may have more control over the impressions others form of them than has been considered in previous research.

Chatman, J.A., Flynn, F.J. (2001). The influence of demographic composition on the emergence and consequences of cooperative norms in work teams.
Academy of Management Journal, 44(5): 956-974.
Available Upon Request

We examined the influence of demographic differences on cooperative norms among MBA students working on a group consulting project and officers working in a large financial services firm. Drawing from social categorization theory, we predicted and found that greater demographic heterogeneity among members led to the development of norms emphasizing lower cooperation (independence), rather than higher cooperation (interdependence) among members, but this effect faded over time. Further, the perceptions of team norms among people who were more demographically different from their work group changed more, becoming more cooperative, as a function of the amount of contact they had with other members over the course of the project. Finally, cooperative norms mediated the relationship between group composition and work processes and outcomes such that the direct effects of demographic heterogeneity weakened or disappeared after the influence of cooperative norms was considered.

Flynn, F.J. (2005) Having an open mind: The impact of openness to experience on interracial attitudes and impression formation.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 88(5): 816-826.
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This article considers how Openness to Experience may mitigate the negative stereotyping of Blacks by Whites. As expected, Whites who scored relatively high on Openness to Experience exhibited less prejudice according to self-report measures of explicit racial attitudes. Further, Whites who rated themselves higher on Openness formed more favorable impressions of a fictitious Black individual. Finally, after observing informal interviews of White and Black targets, Whites who were more open formed more positive impressions of Black interviewees, particularly on dimensions that correspond to negative racial stereotypes. The effect of Openness was relatively stronger for judgments of Black interviewees than for judgments of White interviewees. These findings suggest that explicit racial attitudes and impression formation may depend on the individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly whether she is predisposed to consider stereotype-disconfirming information.

Flynn, F., & Chatman, J.A. (2002) What’s the norm here? Social categorization as a basis for group norm development.
In E. Mannix and M. Neale (Eds.) Research on Managing Groups and Teams Vol. 5. 135-160.
Available Upon Request

Social categorization processes may lead work groups to form different types of group norms. We present a model of norm formation and suggest that group norms may emerge immediately following the group’s inception. Further, the content of such norms may be influenced by group members’ demographic heterogeneity. We outline a profile of work group norms and describe how social categorization processes influence the norm formation process. We also develop a series of testable propositions related to these norms. Finally, we discuss the implications of our social categorization model for future research on work groups in organizations.

Flynn, F.J., & Ames, D. (2006) What’s good for the goose may not be good for the gander: The benefits of self-monitoring for men and women.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 272-283.
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We posit that women can rely on self-monitoring to overcome negative gender stereotypes in certain performance contexts. In a study of mixed-sex task groups, we found that female group members who were high self-monitors were considered more influential and more valuable contributors than women who were low self-monitors. Men benefited relatively less from self-monitoring behavior. In an experimental study of dyadic negotiations, we found that women who were high self-monitors performed better than women who were low self-monitors, particularly when they were negotiating over a fixed pool of resources, while men did not benefit as much from self-monitoring. Further analyses suggest that high self-monitoring women altered their behavior in these negotiations—when their partner behaved assertively, they increased their level of assertiveness, whereas men and low self-monitoring women did not alter their behavior.

Helping Behavior

Flynn, F.J., & Lake, V. 2008. “If you need help, just ask”: Underestimating compliance with direct requests for help.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Article Available Upon Request

A series of studies tested whether people underestimate the likelihood that others will comply with their direct requests for help. In the first three studies, people underestimated by as much as 50% the likelihood that others would agree to a direct request for help, across a range of requests occurring in both experimental and natural field settings. Studies 4 and 5 demonstrated that experimentally manipulating a person’s perspective (as help-seeker or potential helper) could elicit this underestimation effect. Finally, in Study 6, we explore the source of the bias, finding that help-seekers were less willing than potential helpers to appreciate the social costs of refusing a direct request for help (the costs of saying “no”), attending instead to the instrumental costs of helping (the costs of saying “yes”).

Flynn, F., Reagans, R., Amanatullah, E., & Ames, D. (2006) Helping one’s way to the top: Self-monitors achieve status by helping others and knowing who helps whom.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 1123-1137.
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In this article, we suggest that high self-monitors are more likely than low self-monitors to agree with others about the existence of an exchange relation that involves giving or receiving help and advice. Further, high self-monitors are more accurate in perceiving exchange relations involving other members of their social network. Finally, we propose that high self-monitors are more attuned to the status implications of giving versus receiving help and advice (being the target of requests for help enhances one’s social status whereas seeking help from others decreases it). As a result, high self-monitors are less likely to ask others in their networks for help and are more likely to develop exchange relations in which they are sought out for help. We find support for these ideas in a complete sample of emergent network relations among Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students.

Flynn, F.J. (2003) How Much Should I Help and How Often? The Effects of Generosity and Frequency of Favor Exchange on Social Status and Productivity.
Academy of Management Journal.46(5): 539-553.
Available Upon Request

This article draws attention to an understudied form of social exchange in organizations–favor exchange among peer employees. Findings highlight a seeming paradox in employee favor exchange, such that generosity is positively related to social status, but balance is positively related to individual productivity. Employees can overcome such tradeoffs between status and productivity by engaging in favor exchange more often. Increased frequency of favor exchange is positively related to both status and productivity. Further, more frequent favor exchange strengthens both the positive relationship between being perceived as more generous and status and the positive relationship between maintaining an equitable balance in favor exchange and productivity.

Flynn F.J., Brockner, J. (2003) It’s different to give than to receive: Asymmetric reactions of givers and receivers to favor exchange.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(6): 1-13.
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The present research examines episodes of favor exchange among peer employees. We posit that favor receivers’ and favor givers’ commitment to their exchange relationships with one another will be accounted for by different factors. As predicted, in 2 different organizational contexts, receivers’ commitment to their relationships with givers was found to be more related to their judgments of the givers’ interactional justice when performing the favor, whereas givers’ commitment to their relationships with receivers was shown to be more associated with their judgments of the favorability of the outcomes associated with the favor that they performed. The implications of these findings for how givers and receivers can better manage favor exchange, and hence their relationships with each other, are discussed.

Flynn, F.J. (2003) What Have You Done For Me Lately? Temporal Adjustments to Favor Evaluations.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Vol 91(1), 38-50.
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Previous theory and research on exchange relationships offer conflicting predictions about how givers and receivers evaluate episodes of favor exchange. Whereas studies of egocentric biases suggest that favors are valued more by givers than by receivers, theory and research on interpersonal interaction norms suggest instead that favors are initially valued more by receivers than by givers. This seeming paradox may be partly reconciled by demonstrating that the nature of asymmetry in favor evaluations depends on the timing of the evaluation. This idea was tested using a sample of experimentally constructed favors and a sample of actual favors performed by employees of an organization. In both studies, the evidence showed that favors were initially valued more by receivers than by givers following an episode of favor exchange. However, givers increased their favor evaluations and receivers decreased their favor evaluations as time passed, which suggests that egocentric biases may emerge over time.

Ames, D., Flynn, F.J., Weber, E. (2004) It’s the Thought That Counts: On Perceiving How Helpers Decide to Lend a Hand.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(4): 461-474.
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How do people react to those who have helped them? The authors propose that a recipient’s evaluation of a helper’s intentions and the recipient’s own attitudes about future interactions with the helper depend partly on the recipient’s perceptions of how the helper decided to assist: on the basis of affect, of role, or of cost-benefit calculation. When a recipient perceives that the decision was based on affect (i.e., positive feelings about him or her), he or she will be more inclined toward future interaction and reciprocation than if he or she perceives the decision as based on role or cost-benefit calculation. It is proposed that these “decision modes” signal the helper’s underlying attitudes about the recipient, which in turn, clarify their relationship. A boundary is also identified: The negative impact of apparent cost-benefit thinking is greatest when the amount of help provided is small. Predictions are confirmed in four studies of actual and experimentally manipulated helping episodes.

How Much is it Worth to you? Subjective Evaluations of Help in Organizations.
Research in Organizational Behavior Vol. 27, 133-174.
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Helping behavior is a fundamental aspect of life in organizations, but subjective evaluations of giving and receiving help often diverge. What one employee believes is a generous act might seem insignificant to another. Such disparity in evaluations of helping can negatively affect interpersonal cooperation among peer employees. In this article, I review research on the topic of subjective evaluation in social exchange, present a preliminary model of how members of organizations construct evaluations of help, and explain how these evaluations may shape their work experiences. I conclude by discussing the implications of this framework for research on employee exchange and outline some directions for future research.

Flynn, F.J. (2005) Identity orientations and forms of social exchange in organizations.
Academy of Management Review, 30(4): 737-750.

In this article, I attempt to explain why employees prefer different forms of social exchange by proposing that such preferences align with their identity orientations. In addition, I develop a model that outlines how identity orientations play an important role in the development of employee exchange relations and may help predict the consequences of exchange dynamics. By identifying linkages between identity orientations and forms of social exchange, I hope to stimulate future research on the connections between social exchange theory and the identity orientation framework, which could lead to further theoretical development in both paradigms.

Leadership

Flynn, F.J., Staw, B.M. (2004) Lend Me Your Wallets: The Effect of Charismatic Leadership on External Support for an Organization.
Strategic Management Journal, 25: 309-330.
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We argue that charismatic leadership can influence external support for the organization, particularly in making the company more attractive to outside investors. Two studies were conducted to test this general hypothesis.

First, an archival study demonstrated that the stock of companies headed by charismatic leaders appreciated more than the stock of comparable companies, even after differences in corporate performance were controlled. It was also found that the effect of charismatic leadership was heightened under more difficult economic conditions. Second, an experiment was conducted in which the salience of charismatic leadership was manipulated, along with information about the prospects for an organization’s turnaround. Results showed that appeals from a charismatic leader led to increased investment in the firm, and the leader’s influence was greater when the prospects for an organizational turnaround were more difficult. It was also found that an endowment of stock enhanced the influence of charismatic appeals and that charismatic leadership may have affected the general risk propensities of followers. These findings were interpreted in terms of an external perspective on leadership, illustrating how leaders can manage the firm’s economic and social environment.

Benjamin, L., & Flynn, F. (2006) Leadership Style and Regulatory Mode: Value from Fit?
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 100, 216-230.
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In this article, we consider the relationship between regulatory orientation and transformational leadership. Specifically, we propose that the effectiveness of transformational leadership depends on followers’ regulatory mode—the manner in which they pursue goals. Based on regulatory fit theory (Higgins, 2000, 2002), we hypothesize that transformational leadership will be more effective in increasing motivation and eliciting positive evaluations from people with more of a locomotion mode (those who focus on movement from one state to another) rather than people with more of an assessment mode (those who make comparisons and judgments before acting). We find support for these ideas using data collected from a survey of executives and two original experimental designs, one in which regulatory mode is measured as a chronic disposition and the other in which it is situationally induced.

Ames, D., & Flynn, F.J. (2007) What breaks a leader: The curvilinear relationship between assertiveness and leadership.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 307-324. 2007.
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We extend theory and research on the topic of leadership by proposing that assertiveness has a curvilinear effect on evaluations of leaders. In contrast to prior work focused on linear effects, we find that too much or too little assertiveness led to lower levels of perceived leadership potential. We link this effect to tradeoffs between social outcomes (high assertiveness worsens relationships) and instrumental outcomes (low assertiveness limits goal-achievement). Further, in qualitative assessments of leadership potential, assertiveness was more likely to be reported as a weakness than as a strength. This suggests that assertiveness (and other constructs with nonlinear effects) may be overlooked in studies that focus on identifying what “makes a leader” rather than what “breaks a leader.”

Anderson, C., Spataro, S., and Flynn, F. In Press. Personality-Organization Fit as a Source of Power.
Journal of Applied Psychology Available on request

How can individuals attain influence in organizations? Prior research has identified structural determinants of influence such as formal authority and position in a social network. However, indirect evidence suggests that influence might also stem from personal characteristics. We tested whether influence can stem from the fit between the person and his or her organization (P-O fit). Consistent with expectations, extraverts attained more influence in a team-oriented organization, whereas conscientious individuals attained more influence in an organization in which individuals worked alone on technical tasks. Further, these effects held up after controlling for formal authority, job performance, and demographic characteristics such as sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Links between influence in organizations and P-O fit are discussed.

Other Papers & Research in Progress

Chatman, J.A., & Flynn, F.J. (2005) Full-cycle organizational psychology research.
Organization Science. 16(4): 434-447.
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We advocate a full-cycle approach to conducting organizational behavior research. Full-cycle research begins with the observation of naturally occurring phenomena and proceeds by traveling back and forth between observation and manipulation-based research settings, establishing the power, generality, and conceptual underpinnings of the phenomenon along the way. Compared with more traditional approaches, full-cycle research offers several advantages, such as specifying theoretical models, considering actual and ideal conditions, and promoting interdisciplinary integration. To illustrate these advantages, we provide examples of an implicit approach to conducting full-cycle research and present suggestions for fostering more explicit full-cycle research programs in the future. We encourage individual researchers to adopt this approach rather than to assume the field will naturally avoid the inevitable vulnerabilities that emerge from relying on particular methodological approaches. We conclude by discussing the relevant constraints and opportunities for engaging in full-cycle organizational research.

Flynn, F., & Anderson, C. Too tough, too soon: familiarity and the backlash effect.
(Revise and resubmit at Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes)

Assertive women often incur a backlash for violating their feminine gender role. We propose this backlash may be stronger when perceivers are unfamiliar with the woman they are evaluating. In a study of “first impressions,” we found that a woman was evaluated more harshly than a man for demonstrating the same assertive behavior. Further, this effect was driven by assumptions of a self-orientation: the assertive woman was seen as less hirable because she was seen as self-oriented. However, a pair of follow-up studies showed that the negative effect of women’s assertiveness on judgments of their hirability diminished when perceivers rated familiar targets. This improved evaluation was driven, once again, by perceived self-orientation—more familiar assertive women were seen as less self-oriented than less familiar assertive women. The moderating effect of familiarity suggests that the backlash effect may be more intense when perceivers are asked to rate women who are strangers rather than acquaintances.

Flynn, F., & Wiltermuth, S. Who’s with me?: False consensus, social networks, and ethical decision making in organizations.
(Under Review at Administrative Science Quarterly)

We argue that members of organizations who hold the minority opinion on matters of ethics overestimate the degree to which others share their views. Further, we predict that this false consensus bias is exacerbated, not mitigated, by having a larger social network. That is, having more social ties increases a focal individual’s estimates of agreement with others on ethical issues beyond what is warranted by any actual increases in agreement. We test these ideas with samples of MBA students, executive-level management students, and employees in the marketing department of a major food manufacturer. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on ethical decision-making in organizations.

Flynn, F., & Levine, R. Dr. Jekyl or Ms. Hyde? The public-private paradox of the communal feminine stereotype.
(Revision Requested at Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)

We argue that women are simultaneously stereotyped as both communal and uncommunal. To reconcile this seeming paradox, we propose that women are assumed to behave more communally than men in public, but more uncommunally than men in private. In our first pair of studies, participants rated women as being more benevolent and supportive than men, in general, but also more backstabbing and manipulative. In a third study, participants who were asked to view a photograph of a woman and one of a man were more likely to rate the woman as both more communal and more uncommunal than the man. A fourth study found that participants who read a scenario in which a target had behaved either communally or uncommunally in public and then again in private assumed the target was a woman only when the public behavior was communal and the private behavior was uncommunal. Finally, a fifth study showed that people who rated women as more duplicitous predicted that they would act uncommunally toward someone in private while maintaining a communal impression in their face-to-face interactions.

Willer, R., Flynn, F., & Ouzdin, S. Reciprocity preferences and group identification in social exchange.
(Under Review at American Sociological Review)

From classical anthropology to contemporary social psychology, social scientists have wondered how participation in generalized exchange – in which group members give valued resources unilaterally to one another without any quid pro quo – is generated and sustained, especially in large groups. We argue that individuals vary in their preferences for different forms of reciprocity and that generalized exchange emerges in part from individual-social structure complementarity. Individuals possessing a preference for indirect reciprocity, as opposed to direct reciprocity, will tend to identify more with generalized exchange systems, and contribute more to those systems as a result. We test these claims in a survey and observational study of “Freecycle,” a large-scale, on-line generalized exchange system. Self-reports and direct observation show that individuals possessing a stronger preference for indirect reciprocity contribute more items of greater value, relative to those with stronger preferences for direct reciprocity. Further, the effects of individuals’ strength of preference for indirect reciprocity on giving behavior were fully mediated by their degree of group identification. Taken together, these results help demystify the maintenance of generalized exchange systems and offer general insight on the “goodness of fit” between individuals and their social context.

Bowles, H., & Flynn, F. Getting past "No": Gender and the propensity to persist in negotiations.
(Under rRview at Journal of Personality and Social Psychology)

An individual-difference perspective on gender in negotiation suggests that men will persist more than women and that gender differences in persistence will be greatest in mixed-gender dyads. Alternatively, a gender-in-context perspective suggests women will vary their persistence behavior more than men and become more rather than less persistent with men out of resistance to male dominance in negotiation. Three studies show that, while men report being more persistent than women in negotiation (Studies 1 and 2), women vary the degree and quality of their persistence more than men (Studies 2 and 3). Specifically, women become more persistent with male than female negotiating counterparts (Studies 2 and 3). Supporting the proposition that women persist more with men than women out of resistance to stereotypical male dominance in negotiation, we find women rely on low-power forms of influence (more indirect than direct) when persisting with men but not women (Study 3).

Flynn, F.J. Thanks for nothing: The influence of sex and agreeableness on evaluations of help in organizations.
(Working Paper)

The present research considers whether helping behavior in organizations is evaluated differently depending on the sex of the helper and on the helper’s agreeableness. Help given by female employees may be considered less valuable and elicit weaker feelings of indebtedness than help given by male employees. According to role congruity theory, female organizational members are assumed to be altruistic, nurturing, and communal and therefore their helping behavior may be expected, or taken for granted. If a female helper is more agreeable, this may lead others to further devalue her assistance because it reinforces the feminine gender stereotype. I find evidence of this discounting phenomenon in a pair of field studies—one that focuses on established employee exchange relations and one that involves a controlled field experiment. The potential implications of these findings are discussed.Lake, V., & Flynn, F.J. "If they need help, they’ll ask": Overestimating the likelihood that others will ask for help.
(Under Review at Journal of Applied Psychology)

In this article, we argue that people in a position to provide help overestimate the likelihood that others will ask for their help. We propose that potential helpers do not fully appreciate the embarrassment and threat to self-esteem that help-seekers experience. We tested these ideas in three studies. In Study 1, members of a peer advisor program and a separate sample of teaching assistants overestimated the likelihood that students would approach them for help over the course of a semester. In Study 2, participants who were randomly assigned to the role of “potential helper” in a scenario paradigm overestimated the likelihood that someone would ask for help compared with participants who were assigned to the role of “help-seeker”.  Study 3 replicated our finding from Study 2 and provided evidence for our proposed mechanism—namely, that “potential helpers” fail to account for help-seekers’ feelings of discomfort. Specifically, in Study 3 we found that priming participants with “embarrassment” exacerbated the effect of perspective on judgments of help-seeking.

Flynn, F.J., & Amanatullah, E. Psyched up or psyched out: The impact of coactor status on individual performance.
(Working Paper)

Expectation-states theory (EST) attempts to explain the distribution of influence in interdependent task settings. EST posits that high-status group members perform better, in part, because they receive support from low-status group members. In the present research we attempt to extend EST by considering the impact of status on the individual performance of independent tasks. To support our theoretical predictions, we draw on theories of motivation that relate to referent setting and goal pursuit. In three separate studies, which range from undergraduate subjects performing a cognitive task to professional golfers competing in the Masters’ tournament, we found that the performance-based status of a coactor had a positive effect on an individual’s performance. That is, when faced with the anxiety of performing in the presence of a high-status coactor, people tended to get “psyched up” rather than “psyched out.”

Flynn, F.J., & Bohns, V. Can you do me a favor? Limitations of the commitment and consistency principle in soliciting help.
(Working Paper)

Previous research on persuasion has identified several tactics that can be used to elicit compliance. In this paper, we challenge the assumption that such tactics are always advantageous to those who employ them. To demonstrate this point, we examine a context—favor requests—in which commitment and consistency can serve as an effective persuasion tactic. When targets were asked, “Can you do me a favor?” before hearing a favor request, they were more likely to comply than if they heard only the request. When asked how much they expected in return, however, targets reported higher evaluations when they heard the commitment-inducing script than when they heard only the request for help. Thus, it seems these persuasion tactics may be limited in their utility—they can help elicit compliance from others but may incur a greater cost.

Flynn, F.J., Brockner, J., & Amanatullah, E. What does one good deed deserve? Differing evaluations of dyadic and brokered episodes of favor exchange.
(Working Paper)

The present research considers how givers’ and receivers’ expectations of reciprocation differ depending on whether a favor was requested directly or via a broker (someone who requests a favor on the receiver’s behalf). We propose that receivers will offer more reciprocation to givers following episodes of brokered exchange than following episodes of dyadic exchange because receivers’ experience in requesting a brokered favor is different from their experience in making a direct favor request. Givers, however, will not change their expectations of reciprocation from one form to the other as much because their experience is more similar in both situations. Finally, we suggest that this effect will be strengthened when receivers perceive the giver’s uniqueness to be high—that is, receivers are prone to evaluate brokered favors more highly when they perceive the giver to be uniquely positioned to provide help, but the giver is less apt to be affected by his/her perceived uniqueness. Support for these predictions was obtained in two studies of actual favor exchange episodes.