About

Professor Bradley Kirkman is a member of the People Management Advisory Board at NC State University's Poole College of Management. The purpose of this advisory board is to support faculty in providing relevant, effective education and meaningful research related to modern business environments. The board's interactions aim to assist faculty in developing a deep understanding of enterprise management, including strategy formulation, staffing, and resourcing. Specific details about Professor Kirkman's research focus, background, or key contributions are not provided in the page text.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Knowledge management
• Social psychology
• Political Science
• Engineering ethics
• Mechanical engineering
• Medicine
• Management science
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Empowering Leadership

  2025-07-22

  reference-entry1st authorCorresponding

  Today’s business environments are increasing in volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Such increasing dynamism presents many challenges for leaders in organizations. One of the ways leaders have been encouraged to handle such challenges is to push responsibility and authority downward to frontline workers, as the latter are the closest to various organizational challenges as well as to customers and clients. Granting employees more autonomy has taken many forms over the last several decades (e.g., employee involvement initiatives, participative management, delegation), but over the last 25 years a more encompassing leadership style has emerged and proliferated in today’s organizations: empowering leadership. Empowering leadership is defined as behaviors leaders enact to enhance employee motivation and self-direction by promoting autonomy and participation; sharing power and control; and expressing confidence, high expectations, and trust. Empowering leadership is broader than earlier forms of leaders granting employees more autonomy. In contrast to employees having a say in their work or decision-making, with the leader still retaining the ultimate authority, empowering leadership involves a transfer of power from leaders to subordinates. That is, employees often become the ultimate decision-makers and take control over a large portion (or all) of their work processes. Our review includes research over the last 30 years that has attempted to build the nomological network of empowering leadership, including antecedents, consequences, moderators, conceptualization, and measurement issues, as well as how national culture influences empowering leadership in the workplace.

  PublisherDOI

• Why do bootlickers get empowered more than boat-rockers? The effects of voice and helping on empowering leadership through threat and goal congruence perceptions.

  Journal of Applied Psychology · 2025-07-24 · 1 citations

  article

  As empowering leadership becomes increasingly needed in today's complex organizations, so does the need to understand what motivates leaders to give more (or less) empowering leadership to followers. We draw on threat rigidity theory to examine how followers' challenging and supportive voice differentially impact the extent to which leaders empower their followers. We argue that leaders perceive followers' challenging voice as more threatening and tend to empower them less, whereas leaders perceive followers' supportive voice as reflective of their goal congruence with followers, which motivates leaders to give them more empowering leadership. We further leverage threat rigidity theory to explain how leader-directed helping moderates the degree to which leaders respond to each type of voice in terms of threat and goal congruence perceptions and ultimately, with empowering leadership. We argue that leader-directed helping buffers challenging voice's positive effect on perceived threat and amplifies supportive voice's positive effect on leaders' perceptions of goal congruence with followers, which, subsequently, affects leaders' willingness to empower them. We mostly find support for these predictions in a time-lagged, multisource field study and a scenario-based experiment conducted across different countries and cultures. We discuss our theoretical contributions to the literature and practical implications for followers and leaders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Too womanly or not manly enough? A review of work consequences experienced by counter-normative men

  Human Relations · 2025-06-17

  reviewSenior authorCorresponding

  For decades, precarious manhood theory has suggested that men are expected to prove their masculinity, given that it is a hard-won, tenuous state requiring continual social proof and constant validation. However, there is an emergent body of research that challenges these tenets and indicates that some men do not adhere to gendered expectations of their biological sex at work—which we refer to as counter-normativity. We conducted a systematic review to organize and synthesize this literature, thereby extending precarious manhood theory. Our review suggests the hegemonically masculine roots of precarious manhood theory are not uniformly idealized or revered as previously theorized, because counter-normative men do not necessarily value enacting the associated norms. In addition, women are often the punitive party, which is of note given that men’s counter-normativity is typically described as their acting like a woman, and is purportedly one of the worst things a man can do. Finally, although counter-normative men are largely punished in their organizations for breaking gender stereotypes, there are instances where they experience positive or neutral outcomes. We conclude by guiding forthcoming scholarship on masculinity at work, suggesting important implications for managing gender complexities in today’s work settings.

  PublisherDOI

• Through the Lens of Class: How Social Class Shapes Leadership Experiences

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  While scholars have advanced our understanding of how social class can shape leadership experiences within organizations, there is still work to be done to further this research. For instance, most research has focused on leaders at the highest level of organization (CEOs), but we know less about how social class shapes the experiences of early career leaders or executives on top management teams’ experiences and behaviors. Additionally, most current research is based on classed experiences among Whites, but it is unclear whether findings generalize across racial differences. This proposed symposium aims to increase understanding of how perceived social class background may influence leaders’ behaviors, communication styles, perceptions of leadership fit, and performance, as well as provide insights on different levels of leadership and racial backgrounds. We brought together four empirical papers, with a variety of methods, that provide insights into how social class origins (whether perceived or real), race, and leadership level (first-level leaders or senior leaders) can influence behaviors (e.g., managing the boss, prosocial) and perceptions of performance (i.e., leadership effectiveness, leader fit). In doing so, we seek to provide a richer view of how social class imprints from one’s background manifest in organizations. Social Class Background, Managing Your Boss, and First-time Leader Effectiveness Author: Saleem Mistry; University of Delaware Author: Bradley L. Kirkman; North Carolina State University Author: Kristie Moergen; Iowa State University The Voices of Mobility: How Career Trajectories Shape the Communication Patterns of Top Executives Author: Aten Zaandam; Author: Timothy David Hubbard; University of Notre Dame Author: Jose R. Beltran; Rutgers University-Camden Racial and Class Differences in Prosocial Behavior Among Elite Professionals Author: Richard Burgess; University of Pittsburgh Author: Marla L. White; Virginia Tech Author: Herrison Chicas; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Links that Bind: How Social Class, Race, and Leadership Shape Evaluations of Women Leaders Author: Marla L. White; Virginia Tech Author: Alison V. Hall; The University of Texas at Arlington Author: Wendy J. Casper; The University of Texas at Arlington Author: Yasmine Elfeki; Author: Emily H. Kim; Virginia Tech Author: Ivan Hernandez;

  PublisherDOI

• Team Empowerment and Team Resilience

  Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior · 2025-09-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  As business environments remain increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, both team empowerment and team resilience have increased in importance for teams in organizations worldwide. We review the literatures on both team empowerment and team resilience over the past 15 years to uncover what has been learned about these two important team constructs. We discuss patterns and advancements in each area followed by a brief review of their intersection, including both commonalities and important differences. We then highlight directions for future research for each, followed by practical implications emanating from our review. In doing so, we provide a crucial roadmap for theoretical and empirical advancements for team empowerment and team resilience over the next decade.

  PublisherDOI

• Motivation in Virtual Teams: A Dynamic Exploration of Trajectories and Contextual Associations

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024-07-09 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Engaging effectively in a virtual team demands a high level of motivation from team members. Yet, little is known about how the motivation of individuals in virtual teams changes over time, particularly in connection to various facets of team context. Employing a problematization approach and social motivation theory, this research adopts a sequential mixed-methods design to delve into the trajectories of motivation of individuals working in virtual teams and their associations with the team context – distinguished between team characteristics and team dynamics. First, a latent class growth analysis on 3,428 individuals nested in 639 virtual teams revealed three distinct trajectories of individual motivation - consistently high, decreasing, and increasing motivation patterns. Whereas varying team dynamics were significantly linked to the diverse motivational trajectories, team characteristics displayed no association with the distinct patterns of individual motivation. Second, findings from a subsequent qualitative study uncovered underlying rationales for these quantitative results. Findings suggest that team characteristics were less consequential for the motivation of virtual team members due to their diminished salience during task-oriented activities. The evolvement of team dynamics and concurrent motivation was contingent on the perceived proximity between individuals and their virtual team. We discuss implications for both theory and practice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Study of Work Motivation across Cultures

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2024-01-23 · 3 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Abstract Despite decades of scholarly attention to theories of motivation, relatively little focus has been placed on cultural differences in motivation theories and constructs. To address this problem, we selectively review the motivation literature, focusing on theories and concepts involving goal-related processes and their antecedents. We then review research examining the main and moderating effects of national culture at individual and collective (i.e., team, organizational, national) levels of analysis. We offer five theoretical insights: (1) Motivation involves many complex, interrelated processes; (2) cultural differences affect various motivational processes and outcomes in distinct ways; (3) individualism–collectivism and power distance have dominated attention related to motivation compared to other cultural values; (4) cultural differences are not well integrated with comprehensive motivation models; and (5) there is a pressing need to better understand both cultural influences on self-regulation (i.e., goal-striving) processes and the role of collective-level cultural differences in motivational processes.

  PublisherDOI

• Examining Multiculturals’ and Multilinguals’ Paradoxical Bridging Behaviors in Overcoming Cultural and Language Barriers in Organizations

  Journal of Management · 2024-10-08 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Research has identified the usefulness of multicultural and multilingual employees in overcoming cultural and language barriers in international work contexts, but still needs to clarify why and how these employees engage in bridging behavior. Based on in-depth analyses of 154 interviews, we inductively develop a comprehensive model of bridging behaviors with novel and counterintuitive insights. We show that bridging behaviors are not only based on individual strengths, which multiculturals and multilinguals possess, but also—paradoxically—on their weaknesses. Multiculturals’ and multilinguals’ strengths and experience with weaknesses result in different determinants and enactments of bridging. Grounded in our inductive theory building, we propose four bridging behaviors: cultural teaching, language teaching, cultural facilitating, and language facilitating. Multiculturals and multilinguals cycle between these bridging behaviors depending on their capabilities and motivations in specific situations. We provide theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Leadership in a Crisis: A Social Network Perspective on Leader Brokerage Strategy, Intra-Organizational Communication Patterns, and Business Recovery

  Journal of Management · 2024-03-27 · 10 citations

  article

  Catastrophic events can significantly disrupt businesses and, as a result, understanding how organizations adapt to a crisis is critical. Undeniably, leaders often play a crucial role in times of great uncertainty. Yet, it is unclear exactly how leaders can effectively guide organizations through a crisis. Extending theories of network brokerage and organizational adaptation research, we posit that compared to leaders creating structural holes in intra-organizational communication networks, those leaders bridging structural holes can build more effective communication networks with greater cohesion and higher efficiency. In turn, greater cohesion and higher efficiency subsequently drive organizational adaptation and business recovery in a multi-unit enterprise during the early outbreak of COVID-19. Our hypotheses are supported using multi-wave network surveys in 111 chain restaurants with over 3,000 employees. We demonstrate that, during a crisis, leaders can serve as a key architect to shape communication patterns to facilitate organizational adaptation to crises and drive business recovery with faster customer growth and continually decreasing personnel costs.

  PublisherDOI

• When Does Entrepreneurs’ Impression Management Enhance Their Networking Performance? The Cross-Level Moderating Role of Collective Altruism

  Group & Organization Management · 2024-08-29 · 2 citations

  article

  There is debate in the literature regarding when impression management motivates networking performance for self and others, and how well individuals perform tasks when the driving motivation is to look good. We take a novel approach to this quandary, integrate social exchange with sensemaking theories and research, and examine how networking group characteristics enable entrepreneurs to make sense of, and interpret, their collective environment and subsequently determine how they should behave to look their best. We identify collective altruism as an important group characteristic affecting how impression management tactics influence entrepreneurs’ willingness to help fellow group members. Findings from a sample of entrepreneurs ( n = 189) engaged in Business Network International (BNI) groups ( k = 24), illustrate that the relationship between entrepreneurs’ exemplification and the revenue they generate for others’ ventures and their own was more strongly positive when collective altruism was higher. Similarly, the effects of entrepreneur supplication and intimidation on revenue generated for others’ ventures were positive in groups with higher collective altruism. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jess H. Chua

  University of Calgary

  21 shared

• Debra L. Shapiro

  University of Maryland, College Park

  21 shared

• Benson Rosen

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  20 shared

• Luis R. Gómez‐Mejía

  Jönköping University

  19 shared

• T. Brad Harris

  HEC Paris

  17 shared

• Yat-sen Sun

  Conference Board

  16 shared

• Xinchun Li

  16 shared

• John E. Mathieu

  University of Connecticut

  14 shared

Labs

• People Management Advisory BoardPI

Education

• Ph.D., Organizational Behavior

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1991

• M.S., Industrial and Systems Engineering

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  1986

• B.S., Industrial Engineering

  University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  1984

Awards & honors

• Research Leadership Award in the Poole College of Management…
• Departmental winner of the Research Leadership Award in the…
• Research Impact Award in the Management, Innovation, and Ent…
• Fellow of the Academy of Management (2022)
• Member of the Society for Organizational Behavior (2019)