Minority Dissent Research Articles

THE EFFECT OF THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE MODERATED BY COGNITIVE CONFLICT IN PARTNER COMPANIES OF PT. ERDIVA DAYA TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

This study aims to verify whether digital transformation strategy (DTS) enhances organizational performance and to analyze the necessity of implementing DTS, considering perspectives like "Skewed conflict," "minority dissent theory," and the "too-much-of-a-good-thing" principle. This research uses a quantitative method with a descriptive and explanatory survey approach to examine the cause-and-effect relationship between variables. The research concludes that DTS significantly influences both short-term and long-term financial performance, providing insights into how cognitive conflict influences DTS effectiveness and highlighting the need for enterprises to manage such conflicts to maximize financial performance.

Suspicion, inclusive leadership and team innovation: A motivated information processing approach

Suspicion has been linked to significant effects at work, yet its influence on teams remains largely unexplored. This gap in the literature is particularly surprising as initial evidence suggests that suspicion has the potential to engender both positive and negative behaviors. We draw on the motivated information processing theory of groups (MIP-G) to develop a model of suspicion’s effect on team innovation through the mediating role of minority dissent. Further, in recognition of the potential dysfunctional role of suspicion and dissent, we explore an important moderator of this mediated path: inclusive leadership. Survey results from a field study of healthcare teams lend support to our moderated mediation model. These results provide a valuable contribution to MIP-G, our understanding of the role of suspicion and inclusive leadership in team information-processing and innovation, and provide advice to HR managers on relevant leadership strategies.

Minority dissent, social acceptance and conflict transformation in multiparty systems

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the role of minority dissent (MD) as an antecedent for task (TC) and relationship conflict (RC) in groups engaged in multiparty collaboration. The authors hypothesized that MD triggers both TC and RC and that the association between MD and RC is mediated by TC. Moreover, the authors hypothesized that the positive association between MD and RC is attenuated by social acceptance, while the positive association between TC and RC is attenuated by trust.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have tested the hypotheses in 36 groups comprising in total 145 professionals that attended a two-day workshop on working across organizational boundaries and who filled in three surveys during a multiparty simulation. The authors used multilevel mediation analyses to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results generally supported the role of MD as an antecedent for both TC and RC as well as the mediating role of TC in the relationship between MD and RC. The attenuating role of social acceptance in the relationship between MD and RC was fully supported, while the attenuating role of trust in the relationship between TC and RC was not supported.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a rather small sample and used a cross-lagged data collection design, and no causal claims can be derived from the findings. Behavioral multiparty simulations create a realistic context in which the authors investigate the dynamics of conflict transformation and explore the interplay of MD, TC and RC.Social implicationsAs nowadays, multiparty systems are engaged in dealing with important societal challenges and because RC is detrimental for collaborative effectiveness, the results have important implications for facilitating effective collaboration in such complex systems.Originality/valueThis study makes an important contribution to the literature on conflict in multiparty systems by showing that as an antecedent of intragroup conflict, MD can have both a beneficial as well as a detrimental impact on the conflict dynamics of multiparty systems. It points out the importance of social acceptance as a buffer against the detrimental role of MD.

Does Group Familiarity Improve Deliberations in Judicial Teams? Evidence from the German Federal Court of Justice

Collegiality plays a central role in judicial decision‐making. However, we still lack empirical evidence about the effects of collegiality on judicial decision‐making. In this article, I argue familiarity, an antecedent to collegiality, improves judicial deliberations by encouraging minority dissent and a more extensive debate of different legal viewpoints. Relying on a novel dataset of 21,613 appeals in criminal cases at the German Federal Court of Justice between 1990 and 2016, I exploit quasi‐random assignment of cases to decision‐making groups to show that judges' pairwise familiarity substantially increases the probability that judges schedule a main hearing after first‐stage deliberations. Group familiarity also increases the length of the justification of the ruling. The findings have implications for the way courts organize the assignment of judges to panels.

Minority Dissent, Openness to Change and Group Creativity

ABSTRACT We report the results of a quasi-experimental study that tests the interaction between minority dissent and organizational openness to change on group creativity. In a sample of 199 professionals, organized in 57 groups we have manipulated minority dissent (groups with or without a devil’s advocate) and openness to change (groups were informed that the company they work for IS versus it IS NOT open to change) and evaluated group creativity using two indicators: the creativity quotient and the peer-rated creativity on three dimensions (novelty, feasibility, and usefulness). Our results show that the minority dissent and openness to change have a positive impact on group creativity. However, the interaction effect of minority dissent and openness to change was only supported for peer-rated group creativity, rendering weak support for the moderating role of openness to change.

Firm-level digital transformation affects individual-level innovative behavior: Evidence from manufacturing firms in China

Digital technologies significantly impact on manufacturing firms as they innovate their business processes in response to rapidly changing environments. Therefore, the proper use of digital technology to promote innovative behavior has become an important topic in research. However, few studies have examined how firm-level digital transformation affects individual-level innovative behavior. Drawing on the minority dissent perspective, we explored the mechanism by which digital transformation affects innovative behavior. Surveying 540 participants from Chinese manufacturing firms revealed that firm-level digital transformation was significantly correlated with both crossfunctional minority dissent and individual-level innovative behavior. Moreover, minority dissent played a partial mediating role in the relationship between digital transformation and innovative behavior. This study sheds new light on how firm-level digital transformation can determine individual-level innovative behavior.

Is Suspicion Harmful or Beneficial in Teams?

Suspicion has been linked to significant cognitive and behavioural effects, yet its influence in teams remains largely unexplored. We draw on the motivated information processing theory of groups (MIP-G) and interpersonal deception theory to develop a model of suspicion’s effect on team innovation through the mediating role of minority dissent. Further, in recognition of the potential dysfunctional role of suspicion and dissent, we explore an important moderator of this mediated path, inclusive leadership. Survey results from 76 healthcare teams lend support to our moderated mediation model. These results provide a valuable contribution to our understanding of the role of suspicion in team information-processing and innovation.

Understanding the Role of Profession in Multidisciplinary Team Innovation: Professional Identity, Minority Dissent and Team Innovation

AbstractOrganizational teams are capable of addressing complex and multifaceted problems through innovative solutions, but their capacity to innovate is far from guaranteed. The quest to address this dilemma has yet to explore the interactive roles of professional and team identification; a surprising omission as both professional and team identification have been separately shown to play an important role in determining team innovation. Responding to this research gap, we explore the potential for professional identity salience to enhance or undermine healthcare team innovation through minority dissent, and argue that team identification is capable of differentiating between these two contrasting effects. Our survey‐based study of 63 US healthcare teams supports our moderated mediation model, which provides evidence of the potential complementarity of different forms of identification and opens an opportunity for teams to reap the benefits, as well as avoid the detriments, typically associated with each form.

The effect of digital transformation strategy on performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to verify whether digital transformation strategy (DTS) could improve the organizational performance and provide a comprehensive analysis for enterprises on the necessity of implementing digital transformation in the context of China and draw on the perspectives of “Skewed conflict,” “minority dissent theory” and “too-much-of-a-good-thing.” This study investigates the curvilinear moderating role of cognitive conflict between DTS and performance.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical investigation was used to collect a large sample data of Chinese enterprises’ digital transformation. A multiple linear regression analysis with SPSS was used to test the proposed hypotheses such as the inverted U-shaped moderating effect of the cognitive conflict.FindingsIn the Chinese context, DTS has a positive relationship on the short- and long-term financial performance. Moreover, this relationship was moderated by cognitive conflict such that the relationship between DTS and short-term financial performance could be further enhanced under the moderate cognitive conflict; however, the relationship between DTS and long-term financial performance was considerably influenced for higher cognitive conflict.Originality/valueBased on the co-evolution of the information technology/information system (IT/IS) and business strategy, this study clarified the relationships among DTS, digital strategy and business and information technology strategies. By focusing on corporate strategy, this study further examined the effect of digital transformation on both short- and long-term financial performance. To further reveal the micro-psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of DTS on organizational performance, this study confirmed the inverted U-shaped moderating effect of the top management team’s cognitive conflict. Therefore, this research provides a new theoretical perspective for future research in the field of IT/IS, DTS and digital strategy.

Why does task conflict influence team creativity?

Although task conflict is usually seen to be beneficial to team creativity, the relationship is still unclear because of the mixed results. This research investigated why task conflicts resulted in some positive outcomes in terms of team creativity. Drawing on minority dissent theory, this study examined the conflict-creativity relationship by focusing on the mediating role of team reflexivity. We collected the sample data from 338 employees and 67 supervisors (67 teams) across three different sectors (banking, pharmaceuticals, and insurance) in Pakistan to support our hypotheses. We used bootstrapping analysis and the Sobel test to check for the mediation analysis. The results indicated that task conflict increases team reflexivity, team reflexivity facilitated team creativity, and thus, task conflict positively influenced team creativity via team reflexivity. The theoretical and practical implications of this study plus future directions are further discussed. 

Social Identification, Minority Dissent and Team Innovation

Organizational teams have the capacity to address complex and multifaceted problems through innovative solutions, but their capacity to innovate is far from guaranteed. The quest to address this di...

Diversity, Dissent and Innovation (WITHDRAWN)

Multidisciplinary teams have the capacity to innovate and solve complex problems largely due to their breadth of knowledge. However, the diverse composition of such teams can lead to conflict and tension, which undermines productivity. This poses a challenge for organizations who want to realize the benefits of multidisciplinary teams without risking the potential for intra-team hostility. Such equivocal results, echoed in the broader diversity literature, have led researchers to explore the potential for diversity’s effect to be curvilinear and contingent. One surprising omission in this quest to understand the curvilinear effects of professional diversity is attention to writing on the sociology of the professions that highlights the influence of professional identity and the varying degrees of status ascribed to different professional groups. We draw on this literature, as well as diversity and social identity theories, to posit that professional diversity’s curvilinear effect on team innovation is mediated by minority dissent and dependent upon professional identity and perceived interprofessional equity. Our quantitative, survey-based study of 74 US healthcare teams supports the utility of our model and contributes to the evolving discussion on professional diversity. We address substantial gaps in our understanding of how profession influences the dynamics of diverse teams and attempt to account for ambiguities in the impact of professional diversity. We build on accumulating evidence that the influence of team diversity depends on social identity and status dynamics, and build understanding of how professional diversity and identity may together determine team innovation.

Looking for Leadership in All the Wrong Places: The Impact of Culture on Proactive Followership and Follower Dissent

AbstractDespite increasing globalization, we know little about how culture influences leader–follower relationships. Specifically, what is the impact of cultural values and norms on followers’ view of their role, and their willingness to disagree with a team's or a leader's decision? Recognizing that followers by definition represent a lower status and marginalized group, we explore how cultural values and tightness–looseness theories influence proactive followership and follower dissent. We theorize that the intersection of theories of followership, power distance, cultural tightness–looseness, and minority dissent provides a rich opportunity to understand cultural differences in how followers lead and follow. We develop propositions regarding these interrelations, and conclude with implications for predicting which contexts will be more or less conducive to proactive followership and follower dissent, with the goal of fostering more innovative and effective decisions. We suggest that values and norms focused on hierarchy and control will limit active follower beliefs in shared responsibility for leadership, thus marginalizing leadership exhibited by those in follower roles.

Lombaard's categorical invitation for minority dissent against 'suspicion': How real is the 'religious' in post-secular context?

In the broader context of post-secularism and Lombaard’s contributions, needful of philosophy, this minority report lights upon an analytic–post-secular crossover. Here, responding to Lombaard’s categorical quest for the ‘religious’, philosophy serves to support greater realism in the discourse of the philosophy/sociology of religion so that we might better consider social, spiritual and philosophical capital. By small means, focusing on ontological, relational, democratic, psychological, social and analytic features of the humble category, it is suggested that an attitude of mitigated realism serves best in relief from suspicious theoretical pasts.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article attempts to demonstrate how post-secular categories like that of the ‘religious’ are enriched in post-analytic engagement with European philosophy and what this might require of theory.

Minority Dissent and Social Acceptance in Collaborative Learning Groups.

The main aim of this paper is to test the extent to which social acceptance moderates the impact of minority dissent on group cognitive complexity (GCC). We hypothesize that divergent views expressed by a minority increase GCC especially when the group climate is open to divergent contributions (e.g., a socially accepting group climate). We also hypothesize that group size has a non-linear association with GCC in such a way that GCC increases as group size increases from low to average and then GCC decreases as group size further increases from average to high. We test these hypotheses in a sample of 537 students (258 women, with an average age of 23.35) organized in 92 groups that have worked together in the same group throughout the semester, and show that: (1) group size has a decreasing positive association with GCC, (2) both minority dissent and social acceptance are beneficial for GCC and (3) groups with the highest GCC are those that experience minority dissent and develop a socially accepting climate (in which group members can equally participate to the task), allowing the majority to process the dissenting views extensively.

Minority dissent as teamwork related mental model: Implications for willingness to dissent and group creativity

Traditionally, minority influence literature has conceptualized minority dissent (MD) as a driver of divergent thinking (DT) at the individual and group level of analysis. In this paper we argue that DT and MD have a more complex interdependence and DT could in fact be conceptualized as a prerequisite of MD. In an experimental study carried out in two cultural contexts (The Netherlands and China), we tested the effect of an intervention aimed at emphasizing the value of DT on the MD related mental model change, on willingness to engage in MD and ultimately on group creativity. Our results show that members of groups that received the DT manipulation had less negative evaluations of MD compared to members in groups that did not receive the DT manipulation. However, DT triggered group members to engage in MD only in individualistic groups and not collectivistic ones and ultimately led to less creative performance in groups that operated in a collectivistic cultural context. Our study also contributes to the extrapolation of cultural differences in creative performance from individual to the group level of analysis and shows that groups operating in collectivistic cultures have a lower creativity in a divergent thinking task as compared to groups operating in an individualistic culture.

An Early Study of the Speech of Young Black Children in California: Why It Matters

This article discusses the significance and contents of Stanley Legum, Carol Pfaff, Gene Tinnie, and Michael Nicholas's 1971 report, The Speech of Young Black Children in Los Angeles. Although it is one of the first four substantial, quantitative sociolinguistic studies of AAVE nationwide and the only one from the West Coast, it was never formally published and remains essentially unknown and uncited. however, it is significant as one of the earliest studies of the speech of young (k-4th grade) African American children, as a potential reference point for studies of change in real time and for its implications for applied sociolinguistics—what we can do to improve the reading abilities and school success of African American and other vernacular English speakers. After an overview of the phonological and grammatical features covered by Legum et al., it discusses their findings with respect to the simplification of word-final consonant clusters ending in t and d, copula absence, and invariant habitual be. it then summarizes the authors' findings and their assessment of its educational implications and discusses a searing minority dissent by Gene Tinnie, one of the two African Americans coauthors. Tinnie's contrarian opinions and fears turn out to have significant echoes in more recent sociolinguistic work that urges researchers to consider similarities with standard English as well as differences from it, to be mindful of how educators might overuse the differences our descriptions pinpoint, and to remember the larger contexts of poverty-stricken and racism-plagued communities in which AAVE-speaking students live and go to school.

Innovation in top management teams: Minority dissent, transformational leadership, and radical innovations

Research among lower level teams suggests that minority dissent stimulates team innovation. We consider the role of CEO transformational leadership in the dissent–innovation relation and study this in Top Management Teams (TMTs). We propose that transformational leaders create a psychologically safe team climate, in which dissenting opinions are used effectively to create radical innovations. Members of 36 TMTs (N = 196) completed a questionnaire to assess minority dissent, transformational leadership, and participative safety. CEOs provided data about the innovations implemented by the team. Results showed that minority dissent was positively related to the number of innovations implemented by TMTs. However, only under high levels of transformational leadership were these innovations radical. It was further found that transformational leadership had this effect because it was positively associated with participative safety. These results indicate that minorities stimulate innovativeness and that through transformational leadership CEOs can create a climate in which minority input is transformed into radical innovations. Implications for TMT performance and team innovation are discussed.

No Standing Room: How Lender Collective Action Subverts Basic Principles of Contract Interpretation

Large, predominately asset-backed financings are seldom undertaken by a single lender. Most commonly, a lead lender will distribute the risk associated with such ventures by selling interests in the loan to other lenders. If the loan is “syndicated,” an administrative agent will usually be elected to manage the loan on behalf of the lenders. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and in particular, with the rise of commercial mortgage defaults, bank syndicates have faced increasing opposition from member lenders seeking to challenge the decisions of the administrative agent. In response to these challenges, the doctrine of Lender Collective Action has arisen. In New York, Lender Collective Action has been asserted to compel unified action and quash minority dissent. In essence, the doctrine has stripped member lenders of their standing to assert rights or remedies under the credit documents. Unfortunately, in applying the doctrine, courts have abandoned traditional principles of contract interpretation. This Note argues that the doctrine, although appealing, should not be asserted in order to undermine a member lender’s traditional rights and remedies at law. To the extent that New York courts have used the doctrine to reason that lenders may impliedly waive such rights, this Note will take the position that Beal Savings Bank v. Sommer should be overturned.

TMT processes as antecedents of management innovation: The moderating role of absorptive capacity

Management innovation refers to the introduction of managerial practices, products, and processes that are new to the firm. Despite numerous accounts showing its potential to lead to competitive advantage, the understanding of how and under what conditions firms introduce management innovations is still surprisingly limited. This study proposes that processes that influence the learning capacity of TMTs play an important role in stimulating management innovation. More specifically, we propose that TMT reflexivity and TMT minority dissent enhance management innovation as they provide a continuous check of the appropriateness of management practices for achieving firm goals. Furthermore, we argue that these managerial learning processes are more effective in enhancing management innovation in firms with a high level of absorptive capacity. Empirical testing on a cross-industry sample of Dutch firms provides support for the proposed relationships.