University at Buffalo School of Management

20 Buffalo Business Autumn 2017 insights News about faculty and their research envy pushes job seekers to fake their résumés Job seekers who stay in the search longer or see peers getting hired may falsify their résumés, according to a School of Management study. Published in the Academy of Management Journal, the study analyzed how the length of a job search and a person's career situation may lead to unethical behavior. "Envy can be a destructive emotion that makes you cut corners to get the same out- comes that others have," says study co-author KiYoung Lee, assistant professor of organi- zation and human resources. "But it can also be a motivator that encourages you to make constructive efforts." The researchers conducted two studies to measure job search envy at two different career points. The first study analyzed sur- vey responses from 335 unemployed job seek- ers from an internet job board serving the Southeastern United States. The second study tracked a cohort of 77 graduate students enrolled in a Master of Human Resources program at a large U.S. university. The researchers surveyed partic- ipants over the course of two years, tracking job search envy during both internship and job searches. Lee says that hiring managers and ca- reer counselors should take note of job seek- ers' situation to help identify and prevent résumé fraud. "If you're a hiring manager and appli- cants are coming from a very close cohort where they may feel competitive with each other, be aware of the possibility that envy may impact what's on their résumés," says Lee. "Also, if you're a career counselor and you know someone who is very competitive and may be experiencing envy, you can try to help them affirm their self-worth to channel that envy into more constructive efforts in ré- sumé and interview preparation." Lee collaborated on the project with Brian Dineen, associate professor of man- agement, Purdue University Krannert School of Management; Michelle Duffy, Board of Overseers Professor of Work and Organizations, University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management; and Christine Henle, associate professor of manage- ment, Colorado State University College of Business. x Rich get richer under new pension law A n a c t p a s s e d b y Congress in 2012 isn't stim- ulating the investment and job creation promised by its proponents, according to new research from Michael Dambra, assistant professor of accounting and law. A study forthcoming in The Accounting Review is the first to examine the conse- quences of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), which re- duced the minimum amounts that firms must contribute to their pension plans. Dambra found that rather than re- invest the funds, the average firm either holds the funds on its balance sheet as liq- uid assets or pays them out to shareholders. "Congress, trade groups and pension plan sponsors claimed that pension fund- ing relief would increase investment and facilitate job growth," says Dambra. "I find little evidence that MAP-21 encouraged such activity. But while Congress has ex- tended MAP-21 into 2023, firms are using the act to continue to underfund their pen- sion plans and transfer wealth from pen- sion holders to shareholders through stock repurchases." Dambra analyzed mandatory pen- sion contribution data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor immediately before and aer the passage of MAP-21 to examine how firms' capital budgeting and financing policies were affected. He found no average association between pension funding re- lief and capital expenditures, research and development, cash acquisitions, working capital or employment in the two years fol- lowing MAP-21. "Of the estimated $145 billion in pen- sion funding relief provided by MAP- 21, managers spent nearly $40 billion on stock repurchases and retained more than $52 billion on their balance sheets," says Dambra. x Dambra Lee

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