Professor Nicolaj Siggelkow

June 13th

Room Ks71

Professor Melissa Schilling

June 18th

Room Ks71

Professor Marta Geletkanycz

June 29th

Room K2.75

Brown Bag seminar 12:00-13:00
Room K2.75

Sachiko  is a Lecturer in International Business at Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests include knowledge management within multinational corporations, employment practices in foreign subsidiaries, management of international assignees, and use of English as corporate language within multinationals from non-Anglophone countries.

She has published in Human Resource Management and Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft and is currently a member of the editorial review board of Journal of International Business Studies.

Sachiko has previously worked as a cross-cultural training officer at the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship, a not-for-profit organization funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan and Japanese industries. She was born in Japan and is a Japanese citizen.

Employees' Foreign Language Ability and Commitment to Organizational Change: Implications Based on Employee Perceptions

We investigate Japanese employees’ self-perceived English language ability and their awareness of global human resource management practices at work as factors that predict their commitment to globalization of their organizations’ business operations. We see globalization of business operations, or increased level of personnel, informational, financial, and physical interactions and exchanges across national and cultural boundaries, as a change that imposes various challenges to Japanese employees. One such challenge is increase in the use of foreign language, and typically English language, at work.

Based on the survey data gathered from employees of organizations based in Japan, we have found that Japanese employees’ self-perceived English language ability mediates the association between their awareness of global human resource management and their commitment to globalization of organizational operations. We have also found that Japanese employees’ attitude to work (i.e. work centrality) strengthens the association between their self-perceived English language ability and their commitment to globalization. We suggest that organizations globalizing their operations beyond Japan should be attentive to their employees’ English language ability and their awareness of global human resource management practices in gaining employees’ commitment to the organization’s global goal. Further, we suggest to what extent an employee perceives his/her work important in his/her life plays a significant role in their commitment to organizational change.

Our findings have multiple implications for management of employees in organizations globalizing their operations from non-Anglophone countries where local language is the predominant business language. Implications gained from the current study are also relevant for employee management in Anglophone organizations that are extending their businesses into countries like China where knowledge of local language makes a huge difference in achieving business goals.

Brown Bag seminar 12:00-13:00
Room K2.75

Tomasz Obloj is an Assistant Professor in the field of Strategy and Business Policy at HEC Paris. He completed his Ph.D. in Strategy at INSEAD (France). 

His research interests cover the areas of organizational incentives, contract theory, agency theory, learning, and value-based models.

Research seminar 14:00 - 15:30
Room Ks71

Nicolaj Siggelkow is the David M. Knott Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is the Department Chair of Wharton’s Management Department and a Co-Director of the Mack Center for Technological Innovation at Wharton. He studied Economics at Stanford University and earned an M.A. in Economics from Harvard University. He received a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University and the Harvard Business School.

His research has been published in the leading management journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Industrial Economics, Management Science, Organization Science, and Strategic Organization. In 2008, he received the Administrative Science Quarterly Scholarly Contribution Award for the most significant paper published in ASQ five years earlier. Nicolaj is a member of the Editorial Review Boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Organization, and Academy of Management Perspectives.

Research seminar 14:00 - 15:30
Room Ks71

 

Melissa Schilling is a professor of management and organizations at New York University Stern School of Business. Professor Schilling is widely recognized as an expert on innovation and strategy in high technology industries. Her textbook, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, is the number one innovation strategy text in the world, and is available in seven languages.

Her research in innovation and strategy has appeared in the leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Economics and Management Strategy andResearch Policy. She also sits on the editorial review boards of Organization Science and Strategic Organization.

Brown Bag seminar 12:00-13:30
Room K2.75

Marta A. Geletkanycz has a PhD and a M.Phil. in strategic management from Columbia University. She also holds an MBA in finance and international business from New York University, as well as a BS in finance from Penn State. Prior to pursuing an academic career, she worked in management consulting and securities analysis.

Dr. Geletkanycz is an active member of the academic community. She has served in several capacities for the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management and is currently on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly and Academy of Management Journal.

Dr. Geletkanycz's research interests revolve around issues of strategic leadership and competitive advantage. She is particularly interested in how the social networks and interactions of top management teams and boards affect strategy and performance. Her main teaching interest is in the field of competitive strategy.