More Class in Management Research : The Relationship between Socioeconomic Background and Managerial Attitudes

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.