Rubin, Brody Paper Nominated for Prestigious Kanter Award

UNC Charlotte researcher Beth A. Rubin’s third paper on management citizenship behavior was one of 16 articles worldwide nominated for the 2015 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.

The article, “Race, Management Citizenship Behavior, and Employees’ Commitment and Well-Being,” was co-authored by lead author David J. Maume, Ph.D., of the University of Cincinnati, and Charles J. Brody, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Misericordia University. Brody previously was associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UNC Charlotte.

The Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family developed the Kanter Award to raise the awareness of excellent work-family research, to foster debate about what the standards of quality for work-family research should be, and to identify the “best of the best” on which to base future research, according to criteria for the award.

This article extends prior work by the authors addressing the impact of positive behaviors by managers on their employees’ job satisfaction, commitment to their work organization and psychological well-being. Managers who demonstrate competent leadership skills (operational competence) that include ethical behavior and respecting their worker’s rights and supporting work-family balance (relational competence), positively affect employee outcomes.

The nominated article focuses on the possibility that minority and white employees might have different responses to minority and white managers. The findings support the notion in that relational competence has more positive impacts in cross-race manager-employee relationships, whereas operational competence is more important when managers and employees are of the same race.

Overall, the research suggests that managers who are strong in both operational and relational competence can potentially transcend racial differences and enhance worker well-being and commitment in the process.

The selection process involved a committee of more than 50 leading scholars from 10 countries examining more than 2,000 articles that were published in 74 leading English-language journals from around the world. The article was published in American Behavioral Scientist.

Erin L. Kelly, Phyllis Moen, J. Michael Oakes, Wen Fan, Cassandra Okechukwu, Kelly D. Davis, Leslie B. Hammer, Ellen Ernst Kossek, Rosalind Berkowitz King, Ginger C. Hanson, Frank Mierzwa, and Lynne M. Casper were named recipients of the award in early October, for their American Sociological Review article, “Changing Work and Work-Family Conflict Evidence from the Work, Family, and Health Network.”