Kyle Mao

Assistant Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting Faculty profile

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April–June 2026

Illustration of an office where a ranking board with medals hangs on the wall and a deep chasm splits the floor between desks, as one employee reaches across the gap to hand a coworker a document.

Leadership3 min read

Firing the Bottom Performers Makes the Survivors Less Cooperative

Rank-and-yank systems raise short-term output, but employees who survive the cut become less generous, less cooperative, less trusting, and more willing to sabotage others. They also assume their coworkers cheated to get ahead.

Kyle Mao

January–March 2026

Illustration of an employee holding two versions of a sustainability report, one formal and one warm and hand-drawn, in an office full of plants and coworkers.

Accounting2 min read

How Formal Should a Company Sound When It Reports ESG Results to Employees

A forthcoming Contemporary Accounting Research paper by a McCoy College accounting professor and two co-authors asks whether the formality of a firm's language, when it reports environmental, social, and governance outcomes to its own employees, changes how employees relate to the firm.

Kyle Mao

Kyle Mao

April–June 2026

Firing the Bottom Performers Makes the Survivors Less Cooperative

January–March 2026

How Formal Should a Company Sound When It Reports ESG Results to Employees

One research-backed idea, every Thursday