More Class in Management Research

Yanick Kemayou investigates how the socioeconomic
background of organizational leaders can explain their management-relevant
attitudes. The study provides theory development and first empirical tests of the
impact of leaders’ socioeconomic background on their risk propensity, sense of control
and justice perceptions. The model integrates sociological and social
psychological research on class dynamics and attitudes.
Yanick Kemayou uses cross-sectional data from the German Socioeconomic Panel to
test the model. The empirical analyses provide robust support for the
theoretical ideas. Results show, for instance, that reproduced leaders with a
lower social distance toward broader classes exhibit more favorable justice
perceptions toward groups such as unskilled workers than distant reproduced leaders.
The bottom line for organizations is that leaders are likely to assess
situations and persons differently because of their own socioeconomic
background.