Dusya Vera

• Maldonado, T.; Vera, D. V., 2024, "Leadership skills for international crises: The role of cultural intelligence and improvisation", Organizational Dynamics, November 43(4): 257 - 265.
• Tawse, A.; Atwater, L.; Vera, D. V.; Werner, S., 2024, "Strategy implementation: the role of middle manager leadership and coordination", Journal of Strategy and Management, February 17(1): 59 - 77.
  Abstract: Purpose Strategy implementation is a critical component of firm performance and middle managers play a key role in the implementation process. This study was conducted to enhance the authors’ understanding of how middle managers influence strategy implementation (SI) effectiveness by investigating the impact of leadership and work team coordination. Design/methodology/approach A field study was conducted using interviews and survey data gathered from executive managers, middle managers and work team members within a large municipal organization undergoing a major strategic change. Findings Middle manager transformational and instrumental leadership have a direct positive impact on work team SI effectiveness. Additionally, middle manager transformational leadership has an indirect positive effect on work team SI effectiveness through coordination. Practical implications The study offers insights into managers and practitioners seeking to improve SI effectiveness by highlighting the importance of middle manager leadership development and the coordination of interdependent tasks within work teams. Originality/value The study provides valuable insight into an important but previously unstudied relationship between middle manager leadership and SI effectiveness. The work also helps bridge the chasm between leadership research and strategy research by linking leadership behavior to SI effectiveness – a key ingredient of firm performance.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-01-2023-0007

• Crossan, M. M.; Nguyen, B.; Vera, D. V.; Sturm, R. E.; Pardo, A. R., 2024, "Leader Character in Engineering Projects: A Case Study of Character Activation, Contagion, and Embeddedness", IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, January 71: 7088 - 7100.
  Abstract: We contribute to the blending of leadership and engineering by challenging the prioritization of technical competence over leadership competence in engineering projects, and by specifically highlighting the importance of bringing leader character into the conversation. Using a single-case-study methodology, with a university's Formula Society of Automotive Engineers organization, we examine and illustrate character activation in individuals, its contagion in groups, and how character can become embedded within an organization's nonhuman repositories, such as culture, processes, and policies. In doing this, we describe a multilevel view of character. In addition, we offer a practical account of how leader character is revealed in everyday practices and in critical moments in an engineering project in terms of technical, operational, and relational decisions. Findings from the case study show that character can change how competences are enacted, and therefore, organizational members can more effectively use their competences in the organization, and the character-competence interplay can contribute to performance gains of the project.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10168287

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/tem.2023.3287191

• Crossan, M. M.; Nguyen, B.; Sturm, R. E.; Vera, D. V.; Ruiz Pardo, A.; Maurer, C. C., 2023, "Organizational learning through character-based judgment", Management Learning, November 54(5)
  Abstract: We introduce character into organizational learning by building theory about how strength of individual character enhances organizational learning and how unbalanced or weak character undermine organizational learning. Bringing character into organizational learning theory helps to elucidate the type of judgment (i.e. character-based judgment anchored in all dimensions of character) that is missing but required in organizational learning to resolve organizational learning dilemmas that have persisted in the field. In connecting character to organizational learning, we rely on the multi-level processes of the 4I framework of organizational learning as scaffolding to theoretically introduce the processes of character activation, character contagion, and character embeddedness and discuss how the different character configurations and processes enhance organizational learning across levels in an organization.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13505076221100918

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13505076221100918

• Vera, D. V.; Crossan, M. M., 2023, "Character-enabled improvisation and the new normal: A paradox perspective", Management Learning, February 54(1): 77 - 98.
  Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified and exacerbated organizational paradoxes felt by individuals largely because of the nostalgia individuals feel for the “old” normal while facing the need to let go in order to create a “new” normal. We position improvisation as a synthesis-type approach to working through the paradoxes of the pandemic. Furthermore, we look at individual differences that underpin the ability to improvise, and identify that it is the strength of character and character-based judgment of the individual that enables the enactment of a focal context, the choice to improvise, and the act of effectively improvising to work through paradoxes. Linking character to improvisation, and, vice versa, improvisation to the development of character, reveals the importance of dimensions such as courage, humility, temperance, transcendence, humanity, and collaboration in the practice of improvisation.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13505076221118840

• Miller, C.; Chiu, S. S-C.; Wesley II, C. L.; Vera, D. V.; Avery, D. R., 2022, "Cognitive Diversity at The Strategic Apex: A review and critique of four decades of research", Academy of Management Annals, June 16(2): 806 - 852.
  Abstract: Diverse perspectives and ideas among senior leaders (top management teams and boards of directors) might generate substantial value for organizations. In theory, such diversity could provide a foundation for creative insights, innovative strategies, and strong organizational performance. Unfortunately, empirical research on these and other possible outcomes has generated a complex array of confusing findings. Our systematic review, the first to consider all types of relevant studies, attempts to make sense of the complicated landscape. On the negative side of the coin, the review highlights unsolved theoretical puzzles, severely fragmented empirical studies, and methodological conundrums. As a result, it calls into question several widespread assumptions and practices. On the positive side of the coin, our work surfaces some important pockets of consistency in existing empirical findings, mostly driven by studies using direct measures of cognitive diversity among senior leaders rather than demographic proxies. Our recommendations for the future include dramatically increasing qualitative research to move beyond a powerful deductive straightjacket that seems to exist. We also recommend taking a finer-grained approach through a substantial narrowing of quantitative research in the near term to better capture and understand key concepts, measures, and boundary conditions. Many in the corporate world believe senior leaders are most effective when bringing different perspectives and ideas to their collective decision-making (Bunderson & van der Vegt, 2018). Cognitive diversity of this type is thought to promote rich decision processes and creativity that, in turn, foster organizational learning, innovation, and strong financial outcomes. Indeed, recent reports from McKinsey & Company (Barta, Kleiner, & Neumann, 2012) and Deloitte (Bourke & Dillon, 2018) suggest that different cognitive perspectives among executives create substantial value for firms. Hence, the trend among practitioners has been to actively encourage cognitive diversity in the composition of senior management teams and boards of directors to promote the insights and flexibility required for effective decisions in volatile business environments (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, and stock market crashes). Similar to corporate pundits, many scholars also believe senior leadership benefits from diverse perspectives and ideas (Samba, van Knippenberg, & Miller, 2018). Top management teams (TMTs) and boards of directors frequently deal with complex, nonroutine decisions that require judgment rather than straightforward computational elegance (Eisenhardt & Zbaracki, 1992; March, 1997). As such, the cognitive assets these leaders bring to decision-making are believed to play important roles in facilitating stronger organizational outcomes. In essence, senior leaders are seen as information workers (McCall & Kaplan, 1985) who bring together experiences and insights from different domains, thereby enhancing decision-making quality and, ultimately, organizational performance (Amason, 1996; Bantel & Jackson, 1989; Beckman, Schoonhoven, Rottner, & Kim, 2014; Olson, Parayitam, & Bao, 2007). The presence of different perspectives and ideas helps to create synergies and reduce the odds of tunnel vision, satisficing, and other common decision pitfalls (Bantel & Jackson, 1989; Boeker, 1997; Hoever, van Knippenberg, van Ginkel, & Barkema, 2012; van Knippenberg & Schippers, 2007). This scholarly perspective has been the dominant view of senior-leader cognitive diversity, particularly among strategic management scholars (Samba et al., 2018). However, a different scholarly view grounded in social psychology and the political school of thought also has emerged (e.g., Byrne, 1969). These scholars emphasize the tendency for senior managers and board members to like those who think as they do and dislike those who do not (Miller, Burke, & Glick, 1998). This pattern of liking and disliking sets the stage for cognitive diversity to generate dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics and problems in collective decision-making (Glick, Miller, & Huber, 1993; Miller et al., 1998). Moreover, from a political perspective, different ideas often have an element of self-interest, which can cause information manipulation and decision delays (Dean & Sharfman, 1996; Eisenhardt & Bourgeois, 1988; Elbanna & Child, 2007; Pettigrew, 1973). Empirically, scholars have observed both positive and negative effects across important outcome variables. On the one hand, cognitive diversity has produced positive effects in some studies, such as those focused on strategic decision quality in food-processing firms (Amason, 1996) and breakthrough innovations in biotechnology firms (Tzabbar & Margolis, 2017). Benefits also have been reported for bottom-line firm performance (e.g., de Jong, Song, & Song, 2013; Kilduff, Angelmar, & Mehra, 2000). On the other hand, Bunderson and Sutcliffe (2002) reported negative effects on information sharing and profitability in 44 Fortune 100 firms. Similarly, Denis, Lamothe, and Langley (2001) found that diverse ideas hindered necessary changes in hospitals. Others also have reported negative effects (Ko, Wiklund, & Pollack, 2021; Voss, Cable, & Voss, 2006). In addition to these opposed findings, negligible and contingent findings have appeared in the extant literature (e.g., Ensley, Pearson, & Amason, 2002; Gordon, Stewart, Sweo, & Luker, 2000; Hendricks, Howell, & Bingham, 2019). Carpenter (2002), Pennings and Wezel (2010), and Wei and Wu (2013) provided important examples of contingent effects wherein relationships are neither positive nor negative except in particular circumstances. To some extent, the complex array of findings probably is a function of the inherent complexity of the phenomena—diversity’s effects might be quite nuanced, with a number of factors playing mediating and moderating roles. At the same time, the inconsistency might result from research practices that have obscured accurate detection of nuanced phenomena (e.g., overreliance on lean archival data). Regardless of which explanation carries the most weight, cognitive diversity research focused on senior leaders has not yet reached a mature state. Accordingly, we aim to provide direction for future work through a critical, comprehensive review of existing studies. We begin by distinguishing our review from other senior-leader reviews that have shed light on the impact of diversity. We then examine the theoretical background commonly used to ground research on cognitive diversity at the strategic apex of organizations (a.k.a., the home for senior management teams and boards of directors). Next, we contextualize and describe the results of our critical evaluation of existing studies. Finally, we discuss the meaning of our findings as well as possible pathways for the future.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://journals.aom.org/doi/full/10.5465/annals.2020.0387

  http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/annals.2020.0387

• Vera, D. V.; Bonardi, J-P.; Hitt, M. A.; Withers, M. C., 2022, "Extending the boundaries of strategic leadership research", The Leadership Quarterly, June 33(3)
  Abstract: This special issue was developed to extend the boundaries of strategic leadership research, to help bridge the micro-macro divide regarding theories of strategic leadership, and to bring together theories that have emerged independently. In this introductory editorial, we provide an overview of the research on strategic leadership and emphasize the need for further integration of research from the organizational behavior, industrial and organizational psychology, organizational economics, behavioral strategy, and strategic management fields. We then introduce and summarize the eleven articles we accepted for this special issue by classifying them into two broad themes: (a) Chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics and (b) the dynamics of interactions among the CEO, the top management team, and the board. Finally, we propose recent theoretical and empirical foci for advancing strategic leadership research and offer a research agenda for future research highlighting several important research questions related to extending the dialogue among scholars across the different leadership and strategy domains.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2022.101617

• Maldonado, T.; Vera, D. V.; Spangler, W. D., 2022, "Unpacking humility: Leader humility, leader personality, and why they matter", Business Horizons, March 65(2): 125 - 137.
  Abstract: The virtue of humility and “humble leaders” have attracted increasing attention in leadership given the positive effects it can have on team and firm performance. In spite of what we know about the favorable outcomes of leader humility, we do not know much about how personality influences humble behaviors. How is leader humility related to personality? How can leaders develop humility? In this paper, we look at how the personality factors of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion, lead to specific humble behaviors: self-awareness, appreciation of others, low self-focus, teachability, and self-transcendent pursuits. We find that the personality mix of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience represents the substantial base for leader humility. At the same time, a humble leader can be introvert or extrovert, and can demonstrate different degrees of emotional stability. We offer recommendations and a behavioral inventory of leader humility that can be used by emerging leaders and by organizations to recruit and promote for humility, engage in behavioral modeling and coaching, and create interventions to develop leader humility.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Unpacking-humility%3A-An-examination-of-leader-and-it-Maldonado-Vera/374ea40f68ce14148739e3334254370a157105e2

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.032

• Tabesh, P.; Vera, D. V., 2020, "Top managers' improvisational decision-making in crisis: a paradox perspective", Management Decision, November 58(1): 2235 - 2256.
  Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe how top management teams' expertise in comprehensive and intuitive decision-making contributes to effective improvisational decision-making in times of crisis. Also, improvisational decision-making, as a means for balancing or transcending the dualities of comprehensive and intuitive decision processes, enables the three strategic decision-making processes to coexist and contribute to decision-quality when in crisis.Design/methodology/approachAfter providing a general overview of comprehensive, intuitive and improvisational decision-making and introducing paradox theory, this paper offers a conceptual model of the link between improvisational decision-making and decision quality in crisis situations. Three boundary conditions are discussed: expertise in comprehensive decision-making, expertise in intuitive decision-making and the paradoxical balanced combination of comprehensive and intuitive decision-making. Two brief cases are included to illustrate the theory.FindingsAlthough comprehensive and intuitive decision-making are rooted in distinct information processing approaches with different cognitive demands and at times contradictory logics, they can be combined in unique ways when senior executives improvise decisions in crisis situations.Practical implicationsParticularly in the contexts of crises, it is critical for managers to understand the value of improvisational decision-making and the balanced combination of decision-making tools available to them in order to make rapid and quality decisions. Potential action research interventions are suggested.Originality/valueThis paper offers an integrated model of decision-making, encompassing comprehensive, intuitive and improvisational processes and highlights the combinatory and synergistic nature of these approaches in a crisis.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/md-08-2020-1060

• Evans, K.; Salaiz, A.; Pathak, S.; Vera, D. V., 2020, "Community Influential Directors and Corporate Social Performance", Business & Society, October 61(1): 225 - 263.
  Abstract: We draw upon the attention-based view of the firm to identify the conditions under which community influentials (CIs) on a board impact a firm’s corporate social performance (CSP). We test our hypotheses with a panel data set of Fortune 500 firms from 2004 to 2008, including 3,955 unique firm–director combinations (aggregated to the board level). Although CIs are often considered less powerful directors, we identify that when the firm is experiencing poor CSP, CIs have a positive effect on CSP. The ability of CIs to influence CSP is also conditional on the access of CIs and other board members to socially oriented board ties. Our article points out that power and influence is contingent on the decision context and the relative knowledge of organizational players, and that players with relatively lower power may improve their status and command attention when they can offer exclusive insight into important issues.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0007650320965154

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0007650320965154

• Vera, D. V.; Samba, C.; Kong, T.; Maldonado, T., 2020, "Resilience as thriving: The role of positive leadership practices", Organizational Dynamics, August 54(5)
  Abstract: We introduce character into organizational learning by building theory about how strength of individual character enhances organizational learning and how unbalanced or weak character undermine organizational learning. Bringing character into organizational learning theory helps to elucidate the type of judgment (i.e. character-based judgment anchored in all dimensions of character) that is missing but required in organizational learning to resolve organizational learning dilemmas that have persisted in the field. In connecting character to organizational learning, we rely on the multi-level processes of the 4I framework of organizational learning as scaffolding to theoretically introduce the processes of character activation, character contagion, and character embeddedness and discuss how the different character configurations and processes enhance organizational learning across levels in an organization.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009026162030036X?via%3Dihub

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13505076221100918

• Salaiz, A.; Evans, K.; Pathak, S.; Vera, D. V., 2020, "The impact of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility on firm performance: New insights to an old question", Organizational Dynamics, April 49(2): 100698 - 100698.
  Abstract: This article seeks to challenge and advance current corporate social performance (CSP) research, which tends to follow one of two patterns: (1) researchers focus on only one side of the story (e.g. corporate social responsibility) while ignoring that the other exists (e.g. corporate social irresponsibility) or (2) researchers treat corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR) as opposites along a continuum, such that a firm is either good or bad, but not both. Neither of these approaches sufficiently addresses CSP’s multifaceted nature. Research, such as that of professors James Mattingly and Shawn Berman, shows that CSR and CSIR are not opposites along a continuum. Firms do not exist in a vacuum of carrying out only socially good or only socially bad actions. A firm can be both socially-responsible and irresponsible at the same time.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0090261618302511

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2019.01.004

• Maldonado, T.; Salaiz, A.; Vera, D. V.; Keller, R. T., 2019, "Taking Stock of the Absorptive Capacity Construct and its Dimensions in the Context of Technological Innovation: A Meta-Analytic Approach", IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, May 66(2): 193 - 207.
  Abstract: This meta-analysis serves to integrate evidence about the outcomes of absorbtive capacity (ACAP) resulting from different conceptualizations of its dimensionality. At the conceptual level, we examine three conceptualizations of ACAP-unidimensional, bidimensional, and multidimensional ACAP-and discuss their links to technological innovation and financial performance outcomes. At the empirical level, we examine effect sizes resulting from unidimensional, bidimensional, and multidimensional views of ACAP, and assess the impact of several methodological moderators on the links between ACAP and its outcomes. A total of 330 correlations from 96 studies show that ACAP is positively associated with organizational technological innovation and firm financial performance, and that these relationships are moderated by dimensionality, proxy choice, use of survey versus archival data, and cultural and industry context of the study. Recommendations for future theoretical and empirical studies of ACAP are included.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2018.2817388

• Tawse, A.; Patrick, V. M.; Vera, D. V., 2019, "Crossing the chasm: Leadership nudges to help transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation", Business Horizons, March 62(2): 249 - 257.
  Abstract: Top managers tend to focus on strategy formulation and planning but fail to embrace the problem-solving complexity of strategy implementation. This can lead to implementation failures that are reflected in misaligned organizations that seem to know where they want to go but cannot seem to get there. We posit that one reason for the ineffective transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation is that planning is associated with a different set of thought processes and emotional experiences than is required for strategy implementation. We integrate research from management (strategy implementation and change management) with that from psychology (self-regulation and nudges) to identify the transition from strategic planning to implementation as a roadblock that prevents effective strategy implementation. We then present six leadership nudges that aid this transition. The first set of nudges are willpower-enhancing nudges that rely on increasing willpower to help transition from planning to implementation: Remove the distraction to plan, develop implementation intentions, and use verbal framing. The second set are desire-reducing nudges that work to decrease the desirability of planning and in so doing facilitate the transition to implementation: Highlight the end game, leverage a crisis, and celebrate small wins.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.09.005

• Tabesh, P.; Vera, D. V.; Keller, R. T., 2019, "Unabsorbed slack resource deployment and exploratory and exploitative innovation: How much does CEO expertise matter?", Journal of Business Research, January 94: 65 - 80.
  Abstract: Unabsorbed slack resources are critical for organizational innovativeness and success but research regarding the relationship between unabsorbed slack and firm outcomes has resulted in mixed findings. We build on upper echelons theory to shed light on the mostly overlooked role of decision makers in slack resource deployment. We investigate how the CEO's expertise influences slack resource deployment in computer software firms' exploratory and exploitative activities. Using panel data, our findings show that unabsorbed slack is associated with an increased share of exploration and a decreased share of exploitation in firm's activities. These relationships are weakened in firms led by CEOs with longer firm tenure or wider functional background breadth. In the case of CEOs with technical education, the negative relationship between slack and exploitation becomes positive, while the link between slack and exploration becomes negative. Additionally, our post-hoc analysis reveals a more precise non-linear account of the main effect relationships.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.023

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