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Workplace relationships are inherently dynamic, wherein previously positive or neutral interpersonal ties can shift toward negativity. Emergent theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that negative ties are particularly detrimental in organisational contexts. Yet, little has been done for understanding why workplace relationships can pursue a declining trajectory and eventually, transition into negative ties. Drawing upon social exchange and self-regulation theories, this study aims to shed light on this transition process. We posit that unrequited relationships, where one party invests more than the other in a workplace relationship, increase the likelihood of transitioning into negative ties over time. Furthermore, we argue that narcissistic personality traits amplify these effects, while empathic concern serves as a buffer, counteracting the influence of unrequited relationships. We find empirical evidence for these arguments in a longitudinal study conducted among the employees in an Italian architectural firm. The trajectory of workplace relationships declines due to unharmonised social exchanges between dyad members, with these effects moderated by individual differences in narcissism and empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study investigates how CSR specialists and functional managers organised their collaboration when implementing a new CSR strategy. Our ethnography is set in a large-scale utility company, where the executive board expected CSR specialists and functional managers to evolve their coordination and cooperation in peripheral CSR towards full collaboration in an embedded CSR programme. We investigated how CSR managers and functional managers interpreted and responded to this demand for collaboration. Our results reveal that both CSR managers and functional managers had altruistic and boldness motives that supported the implementation of embedded CSR. However, they faced fears of exploitation and competition that prevented them from collaborating. Fearing marginalisation, the CSR specialists employed defensive voices and controlled pitches to gain control of the CSR implementation. Fearing exploitation, the functional managers employed defensive voice and defensive silence to gain autonomy from CSR implementation. Theoretically, we argue that CSR specialists and functional managers do not perceive collaborative CSR implementation as a win-win solution, but as a win-some-lose-some. As politically astute actors, they employ their voice and silence to preserve their managerial aspirations and protect their occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management research is more and more required to develop rigorous and actionable knowledge, relevant to today's social and environmental global challenges. Engaging in collaborative knowledge creation processes - through which academics embed themselves in contexts of application, develop transdisciplinary collaborations, and involve stakeholders throughout the research process -- has been considered for years a possible way to reach that objective, and it becomes even more important today for exploring the so called 'messes' or 'wicked problems'. Even if HR research is potentially well equipped for providing actionable knowledge on global social and environmental challenges, several influential commentaries highlight that currently HR scholars tend to engage in more traditional knowledge creation processes, in which research is mostly performed and 'consumed' by academics, and is mostly driven by disciplinary and theoretical concerns rather than practical ones. Consistent with the conference theme, our panel symposium has the objective to collectively reflect on what has been done until now for developing relevant HR research via researchers-stakeholders collaborations (i.e., the 'taking stock'), and what could be future initiatives (i.e., the 'moving forward') for improving collaborative HR (relevant) research. The symposium involves a group of panellists in a formal, moderated, interactive discussion. The panellists are of two types: (i) authors of two empirical collaborative HR papers, included in a recent special issue of Human Resource Management Journal on collaborative research in the HR field; (ii) journal editors interested in collaborative research. The symposium has been intentionally designed in a multi- disciplinary way, so that voices from the HR research community are together with voices from other management research communities facing the same rigor/relevance challenge (i.e., Organizational Change, Operations Management). Overall, we hope our symposium will serve as a catalyst for increasing the relevance of HR research via collaboration with relevant stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been claimed that the HR 'profession' suffers from a chronic lack of social legitimacy. In this paper we advance the idea that not only does HR work lack social legitimacy but it is also openly stigmatized for being immoral. In other words, we maintain that HR work can be conceptualized as morally dirty work. We provide empirical support for this contention by analyzing a sample of 22 international films representing HR practitioners at work. The research results show that HR work in filmic representations comprises both immoral tasks and immoral methods, thus furnishing a comprehensive and nuanced picture of the immoral aspects that can affect the HR profession. Furthermore, films show that HR practitioners can take their distance from the moral dirtiness of their work by either exiting the role, trying to reform it, or openly raising resistance against their employer. These research results highlight the need to integrate dirty work scholarship into study of the HR profession, while they provide important indications in terms of future HR research, practice and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public Administration (PA) managers and employees deal every day with competing but equally valid demands from multiple and heterogeneous stakeholders. Paradox theory provides, in this sense, a powerful analytical lens as it offers an approach to accommodate and find synergies between competing interests simultaneously despite their contradictions and interdependency. This article aims to systematically review the application of paradox theory in PA research, adopting the replicable and transparent PRISMA methodology, for unravelling and critically interpreting whether and how this theory has been applied, according to both the explanatory potential of this framework and the specificities of the PA context. In this regard, the findings show that extant literature is under-exploiting the paradox theory framework's potentialities, as (i) paradox theory appears to be only partially applied, and (ii) its applications seem to conceive PA as a 'normal' organization, underrepresenting its unique peculiarities. The findings present relevant implications for PA scholars and practitioners and PA educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]