Management Faculty Research

George Mason University professor Sarah Wittman said the usual offboarding process is rote: effectively a checklist, and it doesn't need to be.

Einav Hart, an assistant professor of management at George Mason University’s School of Business, shows the economic implications of negotiators’ relationships, and how these economic implications affect how people negotiate. Her recent paper in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (co-authored with Maurice Schweitzer at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania) introduces the construct “ERRO” (the Economic Relevance of negotiators’ Relational Outcomes) to shed light on when negotiators should consider their future relationships.

Victoria Grady, associate professor of management and program director of the Masters of Science in Management at Mason, has a new book, Stuck: How to WIN at Work by Understanding LOSS, which is the result of years of research and writing with her co-author Patrick McCreesh, an adjunct management professor at Mason. Stuck plumbs an area of psychology known as attachment theory, first developed in the mid-20th century by John Bowlby, a British psychoanalyst.

Recent research from Heather Vough, associate professor of management at Mason, argues that gaffes have potential negative consequences that go far beyond an awkward or uncomfortable moment.

This paper offers a case study of the Honey Bee Initiative (HBI) from George Mason University’s School of Business. 

When newcomers enter teams, they seek out identity resources from team incumbents to help their socialization. In turn, team incumbents offer identity resources to newcomers to support incumbents’ existing held team identities. Based on theories of identity and socialization, the authors of this paper make a case for the identity partnership, a relationship in which identity resources are exchanged between an incumbent team member and a team newcomer.

Women who join tech companies must find a way to navigate a toxic workplace. Mandy O’Neill's forthcoming paper in Organization Science, written with Natalya M. Alonso of Haskayne School of Business, documents the “sexist culture of joviality” among trainees at a Latin American site run by a major U.S. tech company.

The call to prioritize social responsibility alongside profits can often create “an institutional contradiction” with “increased potential for conflict.” Bridging the areas of management, innovation and entrepreneurship, Professor Toyah Miller’s research illuminates the issues that will determine whether companies succeed or fail in their newly broadened mission.

“We all approach the world with knowledge that is infused by our own values,” says Matthew Cronin, co-author (with Laurie R. Weingart) of the research study Conflict Across Representational Gaps: Threats to and Opportunities for Improved Communication.