Areas of Expertise

Managerial Accounting, Non-Monetary Incentives, Employee Recognition, Performance Evaluation & Rewards

Academic Degrees

• Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
• MBA, Northern Arizona University, 2009
• B.S., Northern Arizona University, 2008

Professional Experience

• Senior Auditor at Deloitte Specializing in Energy Industries (Oil & Gas, Solar)

Awards, Honors & Certificates

• Indiana Trustees Teaching Award
• Herman B. Wells Teaching Award
• Sauvain Teaching Excellence Award
• CPA – Inactive
• CFE – Inactive
• AAA DEIB Certification (Level 1 and Level 2)
• AAA Inclusive Classroom Training Certification

Selected Publications

• Burke, J., Sommerfield,  R., and Wang. L. (2024). To Ask, or Not To Ask: The Effects of Broadly or Narrowly Adopted Peer-Recognition Systems on Help Seeking. Management Science, accepted.

  Abstract

  Abstract

  Many companies now use peer-recognition systems that allow employees to publicly recognize their peers for positive behaviors. Practitioners have touted the potential for these systems to increase helping among employees. However, the extent to which employees actually use these systems to recognize their peers varies across organizations; some are used broadly by many employees across all functional, specialty, geographic, and hierarchical subgroups of the organization while others are only narrowly used by some, but not all, subgroups. Across three experiments, we examine how peer-recognition systems impact employees’ propensity to ask others for help (i.e., help seeking) based on whether the system is broadly used by all subgroups or only narrowly used by specific subgroups. We predict and find that a peer-recognition system broadly used by all subgroups strengthens employees’ perception of a help-seeking norm. This perception increases employees’ propensity to seek help directly through norm conformity and indirectly by reducing the perceived psychological costs of help seeking. We also predict and find that the effect of peer-recognition systems that are narrowly used by specific subgroups is moderated by whether employees belong to the subgroups using the system; while it increases help-seeking propensity for members of the subgroups using the system, it decreases help-seeking propensity for nonmembers relative to when there is no peer-recognition system. Our theory and results suggest that peer-recognition systems can increase help seeking, but these same systems could decrease help seeking for employees belonging to subgroups that do not use the system.

• Andrassy, J., Burke, J., and Stern, M. (2024). Not Walking The Talk: The Effect of Prioritizing Profit or ESG Impact on Employee Behavior Across ESG-Impact and Shareholder-Value Focused Mission Statements. Journal of Management Accounting Research – Registered Report, accepted.
• Burke, J., Towry, K., Young, D., and J. Zureich. (2023). Ambiguous Sticks and Carrots: The Effect of Contract Framing and Payoff Ambiguity on Employee Effort. The Accounting Review, 98(1), 139-162. View Full Text
• Burke, J. (2022). The Role of Social Bonds in Understanding the Pre- and Post-Recognition Effects of Recognition Visibility. The Accounting Review, 97(5), 119–137.

  Abstract

  Abstract

  Distinguishing high-performing employees imposes choices on managers: Is recognition most effectively delivered publicly or privately? If delivered publicly, what setting is best? This paper broadens the accounting literature on the implications of these decisions. Via experiment, I examine how the social bond between recognized employees and those observing the recognition influences the effect of recognition visibility on employee behavior. I find that with weak social bonds, public recognition (versus private) does not result in more beneficial employee behavior. However, when social bonds are strong, employees provide greater pre-recognition effort and respond more positively to public recognition than to private recognition. Overall, my study supports the extensive use of public recognition in practice and helps clarify the collective results from prior accounting studies. My findings also have implications for implementing recognition programs—suggesting managers should consider employee relationships when deciding how and where to recognize their employees.

Edited on July 10, 2024