This award for doctoral dissertation research in decision risk, and management science will support research costs for work on the dissertation, "The Relation of Gainsharing, Work Climate, and Social Performance." This project will integrate organization theory with businesss-and-society theory. The empirical examination of multiple stakeholder models has led organization theorists to conclude that it is extremely difficult for managers to fulfill the conflicting needs of internal and external stakeholders. Missing from this body of research is an examination of intervening variables. Business-and-society theorists have proposed that participatory management is an attribute of socially responsible companies and that it is likely to enhance a company's social performance. The dissertation will empirically examine the relationship between gainsharing (an institutional form of participatory management) and a company's social performance as it pertains to multiple stockholders. Two companies with successful gainsharing plans will be contrasted with two companies with less successful gainsharing plans, through interviews, examinations of archivaal data, field observations, and surveys. This work will provide theory and data of use for firms' managers on (1) the relationship between a company's standard operating policies, and procedures associated with gainsharing and its social performance, and (2) the relationship between a company's work climate and its social performance.
