It is all about the bottom line: Group bottom‐line mentality, psychological safety, and group creativity

• Author: Marcus M. Butts,Mickey B. Smith,Mary B. Mawritz,Rebecca L. Greenbaum,Julena M. Bonner
• Date: 01 July 2020
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2445

RESEARCH ARTICLE

It is all about the bottom line: Group bottom-line mentality,

psychological safety, and group creativity

Rebecca L. Greenbaum

1

| Julena M. Bonner

2

| Mary B. Mawritz

3

|

Marcus M. Butts

4

| Mickey B. Smith

5

1

Human Resources Management, School of

Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers

University, Piscataway, New Jersey, U.S.A.

2

Department of Marketing & Strategy,

Huntsman School of Business, Utah State

University, Logan, Utah, U.S.A.

3

Drexel University, Department of

Management, LeBow College of Business,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

4

Management and Organizations, Cox School

of Business, Southern Methodist University,

Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

5

Management, Mitchell College of Business,

University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama,

U.S.A.

Correspondence

Julena M. Bonner, Department of Marketing &

Strategy, Jon M. Huntsman School of

Business, Utah State University, Logan, UT,

U.S.A.

Email: julena.bonner@usu.edu

Summary

We examine bottom-line mentality (BLM) at the group level and examine the effect

of group BLM on group psychological safety and subsequent group creativity. We

draw on goal shielding theory to suggest that groups high in BLM narrowly focus on

bottom-line outcomes, which encourages them to eliminate distracting consider-

ations from their work processes. Because the group's high BLM encapsulates goal

shielding, these groups are deficient in fostering psychological safety as an important

interpersonal process that facilitates group creativity. We also couple goal shielding

theory with arguments related to situational strength to examine group BLM agree-

ment (i.e., the standard deviation of the mean of group BLM) as a first stage modera-

tor. We contend that high-BLM agreement (vs. low agreement) strengthens the goal

shielding effect of group BLM, which is reflected by a stronger detrimental effect on

group psychological safety that then reduces group creativity. We found support for

our theoretical model using multisource, multiwave field data from a diverse sample

of workgroups and their supervisors. We discuss the theoretical implications of our

research and provide practical suggestions for limiting the deleterious consequences

of group BLMs in the workplace.

KEYWORDS

behavioral ethics, bottom-line mentality, creativity, psychological safety

1|INTRODUCTION

“… a world in which it is all about the ends—and the

only outcome that matters is money—is a spiritually

and morally impoverished place.”- Jeffrey Pfeffer

Pfeffer's (2013) contribution to BloombergBusinessweek's “The Man-

agement Blog”laments the trend of businesses to operate as if “it's all

about the money.”Such a statement may seem obvious given that

businesses primarily exist to make money (Freeman, Wicks, &

Parmar, 2004). Yet, Pfeffer's review of articles from the popular press

illustrates a concerning point. News articles entitled When a Winning

Record Trumps a Checkered Past (Schonbrun, 2012) and When Wall

Street Investors Favor Performance Over Ethics (Eisinger, 2012) demon-

strate that in business, bottom-line outcomes can be viewed as para-

mount, often to the detriment of other important considerations that

help the organization to run effectively (e.g., caring about employees

and upholding ethics) (Pfeffer, 2013, 2016; Wolfe, 1988). Indeed, a

number of recent corporate scandals (e.g., Wells Fargo and

Volkswagen) point to the detrimental effects of a singular focus on

maximizing profits above all else (e.g., Egan, 2016).

To understand the effects of organizational members narrowly

focusing on the bottom line, Greenbaum, Mawritz, and Eissa (2012)

introduced the concept of bottom-line mentality (BLM), defined as “…

one-dimensional thinking that revolves around securing bottom-line

outcomes to the neglect of competing priorities”(p. 344). A growing

body of research suggests that BLMs in organizations are related to

Received: 16 January 2019 Revised: 20 March 2020 Accepted: 31 March 2020

DOI: 10.1002/job.2445

J Organ Behav. 2020;41:503–517. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 503