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H ow are tasks bundled into and across jobs within organizations? In this paper, I develop a model of this process of job design by drawing on a multisite qualitative study of task allocation following the installation of a DNA sequencer. The model that emerges is one of the assembly of tasks through multiple subassembly processes with multiple assemblers. Four activities produced requirements and requests for job designs and propositions about how to meet these: actively searching, passively receiving, doing work, and invoking preexisting ideas. The ideas that emerge from these processes are further transformed through reconciliation, interpretation, and performance. My observations show that this overall process is far reaching and incorporates many elements, not all of which are explicitly intended for job designs. The arrangements that emerge from this process are not the product of a deliberate and controlled job design process within the boundaries of a single organization.

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In this paper, we examine the relationship between an organization’s proportion of female managers and the number of new management jobs initially filled by women versus men. We draw on theories of job differentiation, job change, and organizational demography to develop theory and predictions about this relationship and whether the relationship differs for jobs filled by female and male managers. Using data on a sample of New York City advertising agencies over a 13-year period, we find that the number of newly created jobs first filled by women increases with an agency’s proportion of female managers. In contrast, the effect of the proportion of female managers on the number of new management jobs filled by men is positive initially but plateaus and turns negative. In showing these influences on job creation, we highlight the dynamic and socially influenced nature of jobs themselves: new jobs are created regularly in firms and not merely as a response to technical and administrative imperatives. The results also point to another job-related process that differs between women and men and that could potentially aggravate, mitigate, or alleviate inequality: the creation of jobs. Thus this research contributes to literatures on demography, the organization of work, and inequality.

This study examines the relationship between racial composition and individual, voluntary turnover for minorities (i.e., Asians, blacks, and Hispanics) in a large organization. We present a critical test for two sets of contrasting predictions. The first draws on similarity attraction, social contact, and social identity theories to suggest that working with racially similar others enhances the work environment in terms of perceived career opportunities, mentoring relationships, and network ties, all of which would increase the likelihood of remaining in an organization. The contrasting predictions draw on group competition and group threat theories and propose that working with racially similar others might increase competition for resources and generate a backlash effect against minorities that would induce their turnover. We suggest the paradox that these two approaches might be compatible if the effect of demographic composition is nonlinear. Our data analyses show that individuals' likelihood of turnover decreases as the proportion of employees in a job from one's own race increases. Furthermore, this relationship is nonlinear: Members of minority groups with very small representation benefited more from the increased presence of their own race than minorities who already had a substantial presence. This finding suggests a potential backlash effect at higher minority proportions. Results also show that turnover decreases as the proportion of employees from one's own race increases in the level above an employee's job. Overall, these findings suggest that working with others of the same race reduces the likelihood of minority exits. Interestingly, the proportion of other minorities in a job has a marginally significant, negative effect on employees' voluntary turnover. Thus, increasing racial diversity from one's own race and other minorities appears to strengthen minority workforce retention.

We examine how "top management team (TMT) misfit," or discrepancies between the TMT's functional roles and the qualifications of the managers who fill those roles, affects the evolution of TMT composition and structure in a longitudinal study of entrepreneurial ventures. We distinguish two types of misfit-overqualification and underqualificationand study how each is associated with TMT changes. We further consider the moderating effect of firm development. Results reveal that underqualified TMTs hire new managers to reinforce existing capabilities whereas overqualified TMTs elaborate their role structures. However, achieving developmental milestones (i.e., obtaining venture capital funding and staging an initial public offering) is a critical contingency to TMT change: absent these milestones, firms neither hire new managers nor add roles, even when they seemingly need to do so. These findings contribute to knowledge of how TMTs and new ventures evolve by underscoring the importance of simultaneously attending to TMT composition and structure.

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