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Researchers in psychology have paid enormous attention to the influence of descriptivesocial norms on behavior of individuals. Asch (1951), for instance, shows that individuals agree withthe wrong answers of the other members of their group and that this effect is strengthened whenthe other group members are unanimous and show greater discomfort with deviations from theirunanimous answer. In a more recent study, Goldstein et al. (2008) finds that hotel guests complymore with the towel-reuse rate of the other hotel guests who had previously stayed in their roomthan with the towel-reuse rates of reference groups that are considered to be important andpersonally meaningful to the hotel guests. Also analytical researchers have begun to incorporatesocial norms in their models and find that behavior deviates from the behavior that can be expectedwithout incorporating the social norms (Fisher and Huddart 2008).Previous research has been inconclusive about the importance of the economic structureand the descriptive social norms for employee decisions. Maltz and Kohli (1996), for instance, findsthat formal mechanisms are more important than the descriptive social norms in directing employeedecisions, while Anand et al. (2009) and Cousins et al. (2009) observe that the reverse is true. Priorstudies often consider formal mechanisms as one coherent construct or assume that different formalmechanisms are always aligned with the firm’s best interest (Doerr et al. 1996). Thus, prior studiesfail to incorporate that combinations of formal mechanisms can be either aligned or misaligned,which is an important characteristic of combinations of formal mechanisms (Roberts 2004).We predict an interactive effect between combinations of formal mechanisms anddescriptive social norms. Recall that misaligned combinations of formal mechanisms provideemployees with mixed cues about how they are expected to behave. In other words, misalignedcombinations of formal mechanisms lead to an ambiguous situation. Theory in social psychologyposits that individuals are most likely to use the evidence of other’s behavior to decide about themost effective course of action when the situation is novel, ambiguous or uncertain (Cialdini andTrost 1998; Sherif and Murphy 1936; Deutsch and Gerrard 1955). Furthermore, an importantpostulate of the focus theory of normative conduct is that norms are likely to influence behaviordirectly to the extent that it is salient (Cialdini et al. 1990; Goldstein and Cialdini 2010; Kallgren et al.2000). Accordingly, misaligned combinations of formal mechanisms will lead to ambiguity that willmake the firm’s descriptive social norms a more salient source of information. Therefore, we expectthat the influence of descriptive social norms on employee decision-making will be larger whencombinations of formal mechanisms are misaligned compared to aligned combinations of formalmechanisms.10
Our theoretical reasoning assumes that employees will first consider the formal mechanismsand only consult the descriptive social norms when the combination of formal mechanisms ismisaligned. A decision-making strategy in which the decision-maker begins by identifying the mostimportant dimension and only considers other dimensions if the first dimension does not lead to aclear decision is called a lexicographic decision-making strategy. Such a strategy is often used indecisions that have multiple dimensions (Plous 1993). The assumption that the formal mechanismsare the most important dimension is consistent with Messick (1999) who posits that the underlyingeconomic structure of a situation is the most important cue to categorize the situation and todetermine appropriate behavior. Furthermore, individuals that enter a firm are often first informedabout the formal mechanisms by means of their contract or during information meetings about theworking procedures.Thus, employees confronted with a misaligned combination of formal mechanisms will beconfused about the expected behavior and look for a more solid base for decision-making. This willmake the descriptive social norms more salient and a more important driver of employee behavior.Conversely, it is less likely that employees confronted with aligned combinations of formalmechanisms will be confused and this will restrain them from consulting the descriptive social norms.This results in the following hypothesis:H2: The influence of descriptive social norms on the degree to which employee decisions arein the best interest of the firm will be larger for aligned combinations of formal mechanismsthan for misaligned combinations of formal mechanismsH1 and H2 are graphically represented in Figure 1. As predicted by H1, the degree to whichemployee decisions are in the best interest of the firm is lower when the combination of formalmechanisms is misaligned compared to aligned combinations of formal mechanisms. Following H2,the variation in descriptive social norms will lead to a difference between misaligned combinations offormal mechanisms but not between aligned combinations of formal mechanisms.Insert Figure 1 About Here11
Page 1 and 2: Vlerick Leuven Gent Working Paper S
Page 3 and 4: ABSTRACTEmployees often make decisi
Page 5 and 6: practice. Some firms, for instance,
Page 7 and 8: the firm’s interest. Our evidence
Page 9: often have a well-specified corpora
Page 13 and 14: supplier of wood, which is the most
Page 15 and 16: Revenues that a supplier will gener
Page 17 and 18: The descriptive statistics about th
Page 19 and 20: Overall, our results are consistent
Page 21 and 22: especially important in ambiguous s
Page 23 and 24: REFERENCESAnand, G., P.T. Ward, and
Page 25 and 26: Ivens, B.J., C. Pardo, and A. Tunis
Page 27 and 28: Wouters, M., J.C. Anderson, and F.
Page 29 and 30: TABLE 2: Quintile Distribution of t
Page 31 and 32: TABLE 4:Hypothesis 2: Degree of Fir
Page 33 and 34: FIGURE 1:Expected EffectsFigure 1 s
Page 35 and 36: FIGURE 3:Hypothesis 2: Degree of Fi
Page 37: APPENDIX 1Panel A: Information syst

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