Long Shadows of the Past: Resource Imprinting and Individual Performance in Organisations
Date, Time, Venue
19 October 2011, Wednesday 15.30-16.45
University College London
1st floor Exec-Ed room,
Engineering Front Building ("Malet place" in Google maps)
Abstract
This study examines how the intraorganizational resource environment at the time when
individuals
join an organization leaves a lasting imprint on them and how that
imprint affects their subsequent performance. I contend that the more
similar the initially experienced level of resource abundance to the
level of resource abundance in a subsequent period, the higher the focal
individual’s job performance. Under some fairly general assumptions
about intraorganizational resource fluctuations over an individual’s
tenure, I show that this mechanism leads to an inverted U-shaped
relationship between initial resource abundance and average future job
performance. This suggests a paradox of plenty: ironically, highly
prosperous initial conditions are less beneficial for average future
performance than are moderate initial conditions.
Further, I argue
that these effects will be especially strong if one’s own formative
experiences are reinforced by secondhand imprinting, that is, the
imprints of one’s initial coworkers. A multimethod study of
professionals in two information technology services firms supports
these predictions. This research uncovers several mechanisms whereby
past organizational conditions impinge on present individual outcomes,
thus shedding new light on the intertwined fortunes of individuals and
organizations.
Bio
András Tilcsik is a Ph.D.
candidate in Organizational Behavior at Harvard University. His research
examines how organizational and institutional environments affect individuals'
performance and opportunities within organizations. He studies, in particular,
three such phenomena: (1) imprinting, whereby
intra-organizational economic and social structural conditions at the time of
organizational entry exert a lasting influence on individual
performance; (2) the effect of workplace
discrimination on individuals’ opportunity
structures; (3) and the potential of macro-level institutional changes to dramatically
increase the influence of some actors at the expense of others within
organizations.
András
has published his work in the American
Journal of Sociology and the Academy of Management Journal and has
won several research awards, including the 2011 James D. Thompson Award from
the Organizations, Occupations, and Work section of the American Sociological
Association.
András has
served as teaching fellow or facilitator in undergraduate, doctoral, and
executive courses at Harvard and received several teaching awards, including
the Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence, the highest teaching award given to
a graduate student for undergraduate teaching at Harvard University.
