A research paper by Terry College of Business management professor Scott Graffin received the 2019 Award for Scholarly Contribution from Administrative Science Quarterly, a top 5 journal in the field of management.
The paper, “Falls from Grace and the Hazards of High Status: The 2009 British MP Expense Scandal and Its Impact on Parliamentary Elites,” won the award, which is annually presented to the paper judged to have the greatest scholarly impact during the past five years.
The paper explores the political fallout of a scandal involving several members of the British Parliament whose expense claims abuses were exposed. It found that high-status MPs, despite being just as likely as their counterparts to have inappropriate expense claims, were more likely to leave government service following the scandal in part because they were more scrutinized by the press. Elite MPs who were not implicated in the scandal, however, were more likely to remain in Parliament than their lower-status counterparts, suggesting the media coverage played a significant role in shaping reaction to the scandal.
Graffin, who holds the Synovus Chair in Servant Leadership, is a highly regarded scholar. He earned the 2017 Research Excellence Award from the Terry College and serves on the editorial board of the Academy of Management Journal. He has published papers in the highest-ranked journals in his field, including theJournal of Management, Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Administrative Science Quarterly.
Graffin’s co-authors on the British MP study were Terry College Ph.D. graduate Jonathan Bundy, Arizona State University; Joseph Porac, New York University; James B. Wade, George Washington University; and Dennis P. Quinn, Georgetown University.