Originally published in the inaugural edition of 卡罗尔的资本, the print publication of the 卡罗尔学校 of Management at 电子游戏软件. 点击这里阅读全文.
Inside a large conference room in 富尔顿大厅, 柯蒂斯陈—an assistant professor in the 卡罗尔学校’s Management and Organization Department—is introducing an aspect of his research that he calls “task segregation.” This is when a group of workers is disproportionately assigned a specific task, which can erode the quality of a job and, 结果是, create workplace inequality. His case in point: “Everyone’s favorite organization—the TSA,成龙挖苦地说, referring to the Transportation Security Administration. 他的观众笑了, and Chan proceeds to examine how women TSA workers shoulder the larger burden of the dreaded pat-down task at airport security checkpoints, leading to various forms of “within-job inequality.”
柯蒂斯陈, assistant professor of Management and Organization
On this day in April, Fulton 515 is bustling with professors from across 卡罗尔学校 departments. Crowding tables in the rectangular room and sitting in extra chairs lining the walls, Chan’s colleagues pitch questions to him, at times evoking a doctoral dissertation defense. The occasion for this brisk exchange is the Bartunek 教师 电子游戏正规平台 Forum, which brings large swaths of the faculty together three times a year, lunch provided (Chinese food, 总是).
The 75-minute forum is emblematic of the school’s research culture, which has a distinctly communal flavor. One thinks of scholars laboring in solitude, or conferring with colleagues in their own fields or subspecialties, transmitting 虽然ts that only they can comprehend, like members of a fraternal society performing their secret handshakes. That’s part of academic life. 在卡罗尔学校, 虽然, professors “go beyond the code words,” because they’re speaking with a broader community of scholars, 说 Jean Bartunek教授，论坛的同名.
This is not a natural occurrence. Asked about the research culture when she arrived at the 卡罗尔学校 in the late 1970s, Bartunek, 罗伯特·A是谁. 和Evelyn J. Ferris Professor of Management and Organization, said, “There wasn’t much at all.” There was little research of the kind done by 卡罗尔学校 faculty today—original findings published in top academic journals—and hardly a widespread culture of conversation around research. She 说 changes began in the 1980s and accelerated when Andy Boynton became dean in 2005.
Other highlights of the school’s community-oriented research culture include what are dubbed “电子游戏正规平台 Conversations.” These are seminars hosted by 卡罗尔学校 departments a few times a week on average, featuring guest presenters from other institutions—with the entire 卡罗尔学校 faculty invited. “People here care about research and listen to their colleagues, and give their feedback,” 说 Haub Family Ronnie Sadka教授, 金融 Department chair and senior associate dean for faculty. “And they move the needle forward.”
“People here care about research and listen to their colleagues, and give their feedback.”
At the April 11 Bartunek forum attended by around 60 faculty members, Chan explains why female TSA agents are disproportionately allotted the pat-down task (basically, regulations require that female agents perform the task on female passengers, and there aren’t enough of them for all those passengers). This means that TSA women are inordinately exposed to a physically and emotionally exhausting task that passengers loathe, which can bring higher turnover and “managerial sanctions for taking recuperative time off,” he and a coauthor have written in Administrative Science Quarterly. The faculty question Chan further on how he extrapolates findings from his qualitative, 面访调查, which prompts close questioning about methodology.
在另一种情况下, Chan notes that a research focus on workplace inequality reflects “BC values, which are about dignity and care for the person.” And no one challenges the proposition.
