Browsing by Author "Fitzsimons, Gráinne M"

An abundance of research in the social sciences has demonstrated a persistent bias against nonnative English speakers (Giles & Billings, 2004; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). Yet, organizational scholars have only begun to investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive the bias against nonnative speakers and subsequently design interventions to mitigate these biases. In this dissertation, I offer an integrative model to organize past explanations for accent-based bias into a coherent framework, and posit that nonnative accents elicit social perceptions that have implications at the personal, relational, and group level. I also seek to complement the existing emphasis on main effects of accents, which focuses on the general tendency to discriminate against those with accents, by examining moderators that shed light on the conditions under which accent-based bias is most likely to occur. Specifically, I explore the idea that people’s beliefs about the controllability of accents can moderate their evaluations toward nonnative speakers, such that those who believe that accents can be controlled are more likely to demonstrate a bias against nonnative speakers. I empirically test my theoretical model in three studies in the context of entrepreneurial funding decisions. Results generally supported the proposed model. By examining the micro foundations of accent-based bias, the ideas explored in this dissertation set the stage for future research in an increasingly multilingual world.

Pursuing valued goals is a fundamental aspect of human behavior. In this dissertation, I explore the tendency of observers to underestimate the extent to which members of disadvantaged groups value their goals. Nine studies (N = 3,851) find evidence of a goal-value bias, such that people perceive goals across a variety of domains as more valuable to high-socioeconomic status (SES) individuals than to low-SES individuals (Studies 1 – 7), that these perceptions do not accurately reflect reality (Pilot and Study 3), and that those who are strongly motivated to justify inequality show the bias to a greater extent (Studies 1, 2a, 2b, and 7). In addition to motivated processes, I also test the extent to which these effects result from an inference error, such that people rely too heavily on an outcome-value association when judging value. Weakening the association between outcomes and goal value by considering additional factors that affect outcomes (e.g., time/effort, obstacles) reduces the bias (Studies 4, 6, and 7). Finally, I explore downstream implications of the bias, finding that people give greater support to high-SES individuals than to low-SES individuals, a discriminatory outcome that is partially driven by perceived goal value (Studies 5, 6, and 7). Across nine studies, I show that people expect higher-SES individuals to value achieving goals more than their lower-SES counterparts, and that this bias can lead people to support those who are already ahead.

In this dissertation, I propose a new framework for conceptualizing goal interdependence in teams and expand our understanding of team-related goal cognition. In Chapters 1 and 2, I propose that the goals of any one team can be viewed as being embedded a team goal system made up of the goals each member holds for the team as a whole, the individual goals that each member holds in relation to the team’s goal(s), the external, personal goals held by each member of a team (i.e., extra-team goals, ETGs), and the goals each member possesses for one another (i.e., relational goals). In the empirical part of my dissertation (Chapters 3 and 4) I use a mixed methods approach to investigate the role of team goal system awareness on individual and team processes and outcomes. In Chapter 3, I present findings from two qualitative studies and develop theory regarding the factors that influence the development and impact of team goal system awareness for individuals and teams. In Chapter 4, I present results from a laboratory experiment where I compare the effects of disclosing different types of extra-team goals on individual perceptions (commitment, trust, satisfaction, viability) and team performance. I find that, although there are efficiency and motivational benefits associated with team goal system awareness, teams must mitigate the perceived interpersonal costs that are associated with this awareness in order to benefit from it. In Chapter 5, I discuss implications of this work and avenues for future research.

An abstract of a dissertation that examines the motivational foundations of social networks. Five studies using diverse methods examine goal pursuit as an antecedent to social network structure, finding that self-oriented and affiliation-oriented goal pursuit evoke unique patterns of interpersonal perception and motivation which lead to the development of sparser and denser social networks, respectively. Study 1 serves as an empirical summary of our theorizing: individuals primed with dense networks feel more efficacious pursuing affiliation-oriented goals versus self-oriented goals, and individuals primed with sparse networks feel more efficacious pursuing self-oriented goals than individuals primed with dense networks. Study 2finds a correlation between personal goals and network structure. Studies 3 and 4 experimentally demonstrate that reminders of self versus affiliation-oriented goals lead to different cognitively-activated network structures. Study 5 finds that individuals entering a new social network with strong career goals (self-oriented goals) develop significantly sparser local networks and attain more central network positions; the opposite pattern emerges for individuals pursuing strong social goals (affiliation-oriented goals). Individuals strongly motivated to pursue both goals lose the network structure benefits of having a strong career goal. Findings support the hypothesis linking personal goal pursuit to network structure, a novel approach to integrating psychology and networks research.

Rarely does the path to goal accomplishment look perfect. Making progress on everyday goals is often unsteady, in that each unit of effort or time spent generates unequal results. In this research, we examine how progress steadiness affects motivation. Although unsteady goal progress is common, we suggest that goal pursuers find it discouraging. We hypothesize that even when goal progress is equal in amount and speed, unsteady (vs. steady) progress decreases people’s sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue, and increases quitting. Across a variety of goal domains, findings from vignette experiments (Studies 1a, 1b, and 5), a recall study (Study 2), and real-time experiments (Studies 3 and 4) support these hypotheses. We also explore the mediating role of self-efficacy (Study 3), and identify how manipulations targeting expectations about progress steadiness can reduce the negative effects of unsteady progress (Study 5). These results are the first to consider how progress steadiness can affect motivation.