Research Seminar with Pier Vittotio Mannucci (Bocconi University)

Place : Sophia Antipolis Campus
Time : 11.30AM - 01.00PM 
Speaker : Pier Vittotio Mannucci (Bocconi University) 

Abstract : Contemporary knowledge work is imbued with problems that can be approached in different ways. Research on intellectual endeavors has shown that these differences in approaches engender variations in the time required to achieve significant outcomes, which in turn can create disadvantages. However, we have a limited understanding of why workers choose one approach over another. In our research, we bridge research on the approaches to work with sociological and psychological effects of social class to argue that childhood social class can shape one’s approach to work. We theorize that members from lower social class backgrounds are socialized into less abstract construal, which leads them to adopt a less conceptual approach to work, delaying significant achievement and reducing chances of early career recognition.   The results of an archival study of Nobel Prize laureates, a survey of working professionals, and a preregistered experiment provide support to our overall model. These findings illuminate the need to examine approach to work as a possible mechanism that can reproduce inequality in organizations.