Mary Crossan

• Crossan, M. M.; Cote, S.; Virgin, S., (Forthcoming), "Elevating Leader Character Alongside Competence in Selection: A Case Study of Canada Revenue Agency", Organizational Dynamics.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2020.100752

• Dong, J.; Liu, R.; Qiu, Y.; Crossan, M. M., (Forthcoming), "Should knowledge be distorted? Managers’ knowledge distortion strategies and organizational learning in different environments", Leadership Quarterly.
  Abstract: Organizational learning provides a sustainable competitive advantage for an enterprise facing a highly volatile environment, and managers’ knowledge sharing strategies are of vital importance to organizational learning. This study systematically evaluates the effects of managers’ knowledge distortion types (i.e., misrepresentation and omission), distortion levels, and distortion preferences in a formal organizational context under various environments. Multi-agent simulation results demonstrate that a slight level of managers’ knowledge misrepresentation and a high level of managers’ knowledge omission are beneficial in a closed system. With increasing turnover rate, both misrepresentation and omission are detrimental. Moreover, in an open system with environmental turbulence, misrepresentation is valuable to performance, while omission is neutral. In general, misrepresentation plays a leading role in the simultaneous combination of two distortion strategies. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. Organizational learning provides a sustainable competitive advantage for an enterprise facing a highly volatile environment, and managers’ knowledge sharing strategies are of vital importance to organizational learning. This study systematically evaluates the effects of managers’ knowledge distortion types (i.e., misrepresentation and omission), distortion levels, and distortion preferences in a formal organizational context under various environments. Multi-agent simulation results demonstrate that a slight level of managers’ knowledge misrepresentation and a high level of managers’ knowledge omission are beneficial in a closed system. With increasing turnover rate, both misrepresentation and omission are detrimental. Moreover, in an open system with environmental turbulence, misrepresentation is valuable to performance, while omission is neutral. In general, misrepresentation plays a leading role in the simultaneous combination of two distortion strategies. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101477

• Pettit, K.; Crossan, M., 2020, "Strategic renewal: Beyond the functional resource role of occupational members", Strategic Management Journal, June 41(6): 1112 - 1138.
  Abstract: Research summary In this qualitative study of strategic renewal at a North American news organization we reveal that the treatment of occupational members as resources in strategy literature is necessary, but insufficient. Their activities are critical for organizational survival and competition but also the work needed to maintain their occupational identity. Furthermore, the prevailing research evidence that occupational members impede strategic renewal is incomplete. Our study challenges the narrow view of occupational members as resources that constrain strategic renewal by illustrating how occupational identity ‘work’ is instrumental in facilitating and disrupting strategic renewal. Our findings emphasize the importance of adopting broader definitions of work than the functional definition used in strategic renewal research. We also highlight how the activities of non‐managerial actors contribute to strategic renewal. Managerial summary During times of change, research highlights how occupational members such as doctors, nurses, engineers and academics, disrupt and resist change. Our study demonstrates that the same cause of disruption — sustaining their distinctive occupational identity — is critical in facilitating strategic renewal. For managers, we illustrate how and why this occurs and provide practical guidance to leverage this understanding while managing change in occupationally‐dominated organizations.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.3115

• Tang, J.; Crossan, M. M.; Rowe, W. G., 2019, "Dominant Leaders: Heroes or Villains?", Organizational Dynamics, March 48(1): 1 - 7.
  Abstract: Power is an essential part of organizational life, especially in the upper echelons. In particular, strategic leadership researchers and practitioners have long been puzzled by the question of whether dominant leaders defined as leaders (e.g., CEO) with dominant power relative to their colleagues in the leadership team are good or bad. On one hand, it has often been considered that dominant leaders tend to restrict information flow and increase politics within the leadership team and thereby negatively affect strategic decision making and organizational performance. On the other hand, there has long been a heroic portrait of dominant leaders (especially in troubled situations), arguing that dominant leaders are more apt to make tough (i.e., fast, unilateral) decisions and thus positively affect organizational performance.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.10.001

  https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1Ydax_23MHAU8A

• Seijts, G. H.; Byrne, A.; Crossan, M. M.; Gandz, J., 2019, "Leader Character in Board Governance", Journal of Management and Governance, March 23(1): 227 - 258.
  Abstract: Despite the critical leadership role that corporate boards play in organizations, the character of their members has been neglected in research studies. We used a multi-method data collection approach to explore whether current directors in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors believe that leader character plays an important role in board governance, particularly with regards to how boards make decisions, recruit new members, lead their organizations, and work together to perform their fiduciary and other responsibilities. Despite the perceived importance of leader character as reported by highly experienced corporate directors, we found that leader character is not commonly attended to in board conversations as a means to purposively improve the way boards operate. We outline practical implications of our findings as well as offer a call to action for future research on character in the context of board governance with the intent to improve governance in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors and hence to foster sustained excellence in organizations.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10997-018-9426-8

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10997-018-9426-8

• Byrne, A.; Crossan, M. M.; Seijts, G. H., 2018, "The Development of Leader Character Through Crucible Moments", Journal of Management Education, April 42(2): 265 - 293.
  Abstract: © 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. Business schools strive to develop leadership excellence in their students. In this essay, we suggest that educators should find ways to help students develop and deepen leader character, a fundamental component of exemplary leadership. Frequently, business school students have preconceived ideas of leadership, often neglecting leader character. We argue that educators can and should teach students that leader character is pivotal to leadership excellence and that they should actively develop students’ leader character. The foundational learning theories of Piaget and Kolb provide a useful framework to help achieve the development of leader character. We propose that leader character development arises from using accommodation learning strategies of crucible experiences, paired with assimilation learning methods of critical reflection, and further developed through equilibrium learning strategies where students can incorporate new information and work toward their personal character growth. While numerous teaching approaches can be used, we describe an experiential course, codesigned with members of the Canadian Forces, using these learning strategies to foster leader character development.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1052562917717292

• Tang, J.; Crossan, M. M., 2017, "Are Dominant CEOs the Saviors of Troubled Firms?", Long Range Planning, December 50(6): 782 - 793.
  Abstract: This study examines the appointment of dominant CEOs for troubled (i.e., poorly performing) firms and its implications for firm strategy and performance. With a sample of firms from the U.S. computer hardware and software industries that experienced CEO succession during the period 19942001, we found that troubled firms were more likely to appoint dominant CEOs than non-troubled firms. Newly appointed dominant CEOs undertook less strategic change than non-dominant CEOs in troubled situations, but undertook more strategic change in non-troubled situations. However, they performed no better than non-dominant CEOs with regard to post-succession firm performance whether in troubled or non-troubled situations. The results suggest that a heroic portrait of dominant CEOs in troubled situations might have impacted the practice of CEO appointment, but it appears to be a myth lacking a solid empirical basis.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2016.03.002

• Crossan, M. M.; Byrne, A.; Seijts, G. H.; Reno, M.; Monzani, L.; Gandz, J., 2017, "Toward a Framework of Leader Character in Organizations", Journal of Management Studies, November 54(7): 986 - 1018.
  Abstract: While the construct of character is well grounded in philosophy, ethics, and more recently psychology, it lags in acceptance and legitimacy within management research and mainstream practice. Our research seeks to remedy this through four contributions. First, we offer a framework of leader character that provides rigor through a three-phase, multi-method approach involving 1,817 leaders, and relevance by using an engaged scholarship epistemology to validate the framework with practicing leaders. This framework highlights the theoretical underpinnings of the leader character model and articulates the character dimensions and elements that operate in concert to promote effective leadership. Second, we bring leader character into mainstream management research, extending the traditional competency and interpersonal focus on leadership to embrace the foundational component of leader character. In doing this, we articulate how leader character complements and strengthens several existing theories of leadership. Third, we extend the virtues-based approach to ethical decision making to the broader domain of judgment and decision making in support of pursuing individual and organization effectiveness. Finally, we offer promising directions for future research on leader character that will also serve the larger domain of leadership research.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12254

• Furlong, B.; Crossan, M. M.; Gandz, J.; Crossan, L., 2017, "Character’s Essential Role in Addressing Misconduct in Financial Institutions", Business Law International, September 18(3): 199 - 224.
  Abstract: This article examines one of the critical causes of misconduct that has persisted in the global financial services industry despite the warning flags raised from the financial crisis of 2008-09 and the very public shaming of major financial institutions that have violated various regulatory regimes. The authors argue that many acts of misconduct are consequences of failure of judgement owing to weaknesses in leader character. By so doing, the article pivots away from the prevailing popular wisdom that such acts of misconduct are consequences of the moral or ethical shortcomings of 'bad' people. Rather, it takes the view that these acts of misconduct are usually the result of poor judgements made by people with underdeveloped character dimensions working in organisational cultures that allow or encourage them. The authors contend that lawyers could and should play an important role in preventing such misconduct, if they had a better understanding of the effect that character has on executive decisions.
• Sturm, R. E.; Vera, D.; Crossan, M. M., 2017, "The Entanglement of Leader Character and Leader Competence and its Impact on Performance", Leadership Quarterly, June 28(3): 349 - 366.
  Abstract: Whereas the micro- and macro-oriented leadership literatures have often studied leader competencies necessary for effective performance, the role of leader character in relation to competencies and performance has been to a large extent neglected. Our work seeks to shift the scholarly dialogue by introducing the concept of character-competence entanglement, which reflects the binding between character and competence over time. The highest degree of entanglement represents the deep and more persistent interconnection and mutually-reinforcing effect between highly-developed leader character and highly-developed leader competence, whereas in cases of low entanglement, character can be activated temporarily in a particular context to help strengthen the relationship between competence and performance. Our core proposition is that high character-competence entanglement will lead to extraordinary performance over time. In addition, we emphasize that relying on naturally-occurring learning opportunities and the processes of learning-by-living both outside and inside the organization will positively impact the development of character-competence entanglement.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.11.007

• Seijts, G. H.; Crossan, M. M.; Carleton, E., 2017, "Embedding leader character into HR practices to achieve sustained excellence", Organizational Dynamics, March 46(1): 30 - 39.
  Abstract:

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.02.001

• Krylova, K. O.; Vera, D.; Crossan, M. M., 2016, "Knowledge Transfer in Knowledge-Intensive Organizations: The Crucial Role of Improvisation in Transferring And Protecting Knowledge", Journal of Knowledge Management, October 20(5): 1045 - 1064.
  Abstract: Article Classification: Conceptual paper Purpose: This paper answers the question: How do knowledge workers’ improvisation processes promote both knowledge transfer and protection in knowledge-intensive organizations (KIOs)? A model is proposed identifying how effective improvisation can strengthen the effect of four specific knowledge transfer mechanisms--an experimental culture, minimal structures, the practice of storytelling, and shared mental models--on knowledge transfer inside the organization and knowledge protection outside of it. Designmethodologyapproach: The paper builds on a knowledge translation perspective to position improvisation as intrinsically intertwined with knowledge transfer and knowledge protection. Findings: Improvisation is proposed as the moderating factor enhancing the positive impact of an experimental culture, minimal structures, storytelling practice, and shared mental models on knowledge transfer and knowledge protection. Practical implications: The paper argues against a plug-and-play approach to knowledge transfer that seeks to replicate knowledge without considering how people relate to the routines and the context, and highlights to leaders of KIOs the importance of developing awareness, understanding, and motivation to improvise in order to internalize new knowledge being transferred and to create imitation barriers. Originalityvalue: The paper proposes that KIOs’ success in transferring and protecting knowledge emerges, not directly from formal knowledge transfer mechanisms, but from knowledge workers’ improvisation processes.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JKM-10-2015-0385

• Seijts, G. H.; Gandz, J.; Crossan, M. M.; Reno, M., 2015, "Character matters: Character dimensions' impact on leader performance and outcomes", Organizational Dynamics, March 44(1): 65 - 74.
  Abstract: Introduction: In a recent commencement address at the Ivey Business School, Domenic Barton, the head of McKinsey & Co.’s global consulting practice, said: When we think about leadership we focus too much on what leaders do and we don’t spend enough time on who leaders are the character of leaders. Similarly, in a speech to Ivey students, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, said that to restore trust in banks and in the broader financial system, global financial institutions need to rediscover their values Employees need a sense of broader purpose, grounded in strong connections to their clients and their communities. Few among the hundreds of C-suite leaders and board directors with whom we have discussed this topic in focus groups sessions, conferences, and executive development programs over the last five years, would disagree with them. While leaders readily agree that character matters, they also report that they seldom refer to it, talk about it, or use it in recruiting, selecting, promoting or developing leaders although it does surface more often when it comes to firing them Based on our research, we attribute the gap between the perceived importance and the actual use of character to three things. First, there is a great deal of ambiguity about what is meant by the word character, which of its dimensions are most important in organizational leadership, how character can be assessed, and what can be done to develop character in today's and tomorrow's leaders. Second, leaders tell us that what they need is a contemporary, practice-focused vocabulary with which to address character. This vocabulary must be expressed in the language used today in their organizations. Third, there are few reliable and valid tools available for the systematic assessment of character. Practitioners tell us they need these tools if they are to move from thinking and talking about character development to actually doing something about it. In this article, we propose an operational definition of character, outline a set of plain-language dimensions of character that we believe to be relevant to organizational leadership, present results from a survey relating these dimensions to leader performance and outcomes, and describe the practical implications for leader character development in organizations.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2014.11.008

• Vera, D.; Crossan, M. M.; Rerup, C.; Werner, S., 2014, "Thinking Before Acting’ or Acting Before Thinking’: Antecedents of Individual Action Propensity in Work Situations", Journal of Management Studies, December 51(4): 603 - 633.
  Abstract: We introduce the concept of individual action propensity’ to examine the approach of individuals towards solving situations for which they lack knowledge andor experience about what to do. We focus on a naturally contrasting pair of responses: thinking before acting’ or acting before thinking’, and associate low action propensity with thinking one's way into understanding how to act, and high action propensity with acting one's way into understanding such situations. We build on regulatory mode theory with its dimensions of locomotion and assessment and the trade-off between speed and accuracy to examine individual characteristics as predictors of individual action propensity. We find that individual action propensity is associated with being a woman, having fewer years of formal education, not relying on help-seeking behaviours, and having a positive attitude towards spontaneity. Our findings shed light on why individuals take action, or not, and provide implications for research on organizational action propensity.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12075

• Crossan, M. M.; Mazutis, D.; Seijts, G. H.; Gandz, J., 2013, "Developing leadership character in business programs", Academy of Management Learning & Education, June 12(2): 265 - 284.
  Abstract: Our objective is to encourage and enable leadership character development in business education. Building on a model of character strengths and their link to virtues, values, and ethical decision making, we describe an approach to develop leadership character at the individual, group, and organizational levels. We contrast this approach to existing practices that have focused on teaching functional content over character and address how business educators can enable leadership character development through their own behaviors, relationships, and structures. Most important, we provide concrete suggestions on how to integrate a focus on character development into existing business programs, both in terms of individual courses as well as the overall curriculum. We highlight that the development of leadership character must extend beyond student engagement in a course since it takes a village to develop character.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amle.2011.0024A

For more publications please see our Research Database