Centre for Leadership & Followership Seminar with Prof Rebecca Greenbaum (Rutgers)

Coping with the threat of family financial pressure: A threat rigidity perspective on bottom-line mentality

Abstract

We integrate original bottom-line mentality (BLM) theorizing with threat rigidity theory to propose that family financial pressure (i.e., an inability to meet the financial demands of one’s family) instigates anxiety that then provokes employee BLM at work. In turn, we theorize that employee BLM results in the desirable outcome of financial goal progress as a way of lessening the threat of family financial pressure, but it simultaneously leads to the undesirable outcome of family withdrawal as a secondary, less functional way of alleviating the threat. Furthermore, we offer a research question to draw out the utility of threat rigidity theory with respect to our theoretical model. We suggest that BLM serves as a threat rigid cognitive state that is needed to drive the favorable outcome of financial goal progress in response to family financial pressure and associated anxiety. In this respect, we ask whether the mediating role of anxiety alone (i.e., without BLM) can drive the positive outcome of financial goal progress. We test our theoretical model across two studies, the first of which is an experiment, followed by a second multi-wave, survey-based, field study. Our hypotheses are generally supported, and our research question was answered with supplemental analyses that suggest that BLM is needed to drive the positive effects of our theoretical model. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

About the speaker

Rebecca L. Greenbaum received her bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Warrington College of Business Administration, the University of Florida, in 2003. She then worked for two years as a Claims Adjuster for a rapidly-growing insurance company. She returned to school and received her Master’s in Human Resources Management from the University of Central Florida in 2008, followed by her PhD in Business Administration in 2009. In 2009, Rebecca also began her first academic appointment in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. In 2018, Rebecca was promoted to Professor of Human Resources Management in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Rebecca’s research interests include behavioral ethics, dysfunctional leadership, organizational justice, workplace deviance, and the effects of social media on workplace relationships. Her research appears in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology, among others.