Leadership and Succession Center Seminar with Prof. Rebecca Greenbaum (Rutgers) – Durham University

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

Summary

We integrate the original bottom-line mentality (BLM) theory with threat rigidity theory to propose that family financial pressures (ie, inability to meet the family’s financial demands) cause anxiety, which then provokes BLM’s employees at work. In turn, we theorize that employee BLM leads to the desired outcome of advancing financial goals as a way to reduce the threat of family financial pressure, but simultaneously leads to the undesired outcome of family withdrawal as a secondary, less functional way to alleviate a threat. Additionally, we propose a research question to leverage threat firmness theory in relation to our theoretical model. We hypothesize that BLM serves as a cognitive threat state that is necessary to drive the favorable outcome of financial goal progress in response to family financial pressure and related anxiety. In this regard, we ask whether the mediating role of concern alone (ie, without BLM) can lead to the positive outcome of advancing financial goals. We test our theoretical model in two studies, the first of which is an experiment, followed by a second multi-wave survey-based field study. Our hypotheses were generally supported and our research question was answered with additional analyzes suggesting that BLM is necessary 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 University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business Administration in 2003. She then worked for two years as a claims adjuster for a fast-growing insurance company. She returned to school and earned a Masters in Human Resource Management from the University of Central Florida in 2008, followed by a Doctorate in Business Administration in 2009. In 2009, Rebecca also began her first academic appointment at the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. In 2018, Rebecca was promoted to Professor of Human Resource Management in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

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 Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision-Making Processesand Personnel psychologyby the way.