Do I Really Want to Work Here? Testing a Model of Job Pursuit for MBA Interns

Job pursuit refers to the intentions, decisions, or behaviors indicative of a candidate's interest in a particular employer. This study develops and tests a process model of job pursuit for MBA interns with data collected before, during, and after their internships. Our model integrates theory from the person‐environment fit and organizational socialization literature. Results show pre‐entry person‐organization (P‐O) fit and social aspects tactics jointly motivate proactive information seeking about the employer (from those inside and outside the assigned department) during the internship, and interactively motivate information seeking outside the assigned department. Yet, only information seeking inside the assigned department is related to learning about the employer. Learning about the employer also predicts job‐acceptance intentions, which in turn predicts job‐acceptance decisions. The model developed in this study should serve as a guide to help human resource managers understand job pursuit and acceptance in internships and other similar employment relationships. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Self‐Determined Feedback Seeking: The Role of Perceived Supervisor Autonomy Support

We use self‐determination theory (SDT) as a framework for investigating how perceived autonomy‐supportive supervision positively influences conditions that motivate newcomer subordinates to engage in feedback seeking. Based on data collected from MBA interns at two time periods, perceived autonomy support predicted task autonomy, informal supervisor feedback, and subordinate relationship building, and the latter two mediated the relationship between autonomy support and feedback seeking. Our study provides an SDT perspective on newcomer socialization by highlighting the important role supervisor support for autonomy can play in motivating feedback seeking as a proactive socialization tactic. Organizations and human resources management professionals should consider including training around autonomy support in supervisory training programs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Interns’ perceptions of HR practices and their influence on fit and intentions to join

Abstract

This study examines interns’ perceptions of HR practices and their influence on person–organization fit, person–job fit, and intentions to join the organization. The hypotheses are developed with signaling theory and attraction, selection, attrition (ASA) theory. Utilizing a time lagged study design of 71 interns employed in a United States based service firm, we found positive perceptions of HR practices rated early in the internship were related to increased person–organization fit, person–job fit, and intentions to join the organization at the end of the internship. Our findings also showed that person–organization fit and person–job fit fully mediated the relationship between HR practices and intentions to join the organization.     

How does distributive justice affect work attitudes? The moderating effects of autonomy

Organizational justice has been a frequently used lens for understanding employee attitudes, particularly towards the fair distribution of rewards. This study of 184 New Zealand employees found distributive justice relating to pay, benefits, and rewards to be significantly linked to job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Further, job autonomy was found to significantly interact with these relationships. While employees with high job autonomy reported higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when distributive justice was high, employees with little job autonomy registered significantly larger changes in work attitudes. The findings highlight the importance of felt independence and autonomy over work in the role that justice perceptions play in organizations.     

When do employer awards pay off and when do they not? The impact of award familiarity on applicants’ job pursuit intentions and the moderating role of corporate brand awareness

Abstract

Employer awards are increasingly utilized in the recruitment context in order to provide positive signals to potential applicants. However, the impact of employer awards on applicants’ job pursuit intentions still requires empirical proof. This study elaborates on this impact and assumes that it is contingent upon corporate brand awareness. We show that employer awards only positively impact applicants’ job pursuit intentions if the award is well-known and the recruiting firm is not. Well-known employers however do not profit from the placement of an award, on the contrary, if the award is unfamiliar, its influence on job pursuit intentions is even deleterious.     

高等职业学校商务英语专业学生实习就业意向调查、分析及对策——以扬州商务高等职业学校2011级商务英语专业实习生为视角

为了解商务英语专业实习生就业意向,本人对扬州商务高等职业学校2011级商务英语专业实习生进行调查,并对调查结果进行分析和探讨,发现学生就业定位不够准确,职业期望不切实际,创业精神不够,对所学专业兴趣不够,并提出调整商务英语人才培养方案,提高学生就业信心,转变学生就业观念,开展创业教育,加强就业指导,实现顺利就业的对策。     

基于心理契约的人力资源管理探析

现代企业管理中,人力资源作为企业竞争的主导力量,其中员工心理契约问题受到越来越多地关注。大量阅读文献资料后,发现人力资源管理活动(如:招聘、培训、绩效等)对员工心理契约的影响深远。文章通过对心理契约理论的介绍,结合心理契约与人力资源管理的影响关系,从人力资源管理六大模块的角度出发,分析提出防止员工心理契约违背的有效措施,提高其工作满意度,以此来长效保障企业管理活动的顺利进行,战略目标的长远发展。     

Worker mobility,employer-provided general training,and the choice of graduate education

This paper links inherent mobility to observed schooling choices. A job search model with graduate education predicts that more mobile workers are more likely to enroll in full-time MBA programs. Adding to the literature on employer-sponsored general training, the model predicts that employers are likely to provide tuition assistance to workers who find quits costly. I use a panel survey of GMAT registrants to test some of the empirical implications of the model. I show that observable measures of job attachment are correlated with the probability of attending part-time and, conditional on part-time attendance, with the likelihood of receiving tuition reimbursement.     

Autonomy as a key resource for women in low gender egalitarian countries: A cross‐cultural examination

Relying on Conservation of Resources theory and a sample of 23,439 workers in 26 countries, we develop and test a multilevel moderated mediation of the effects of perceived job autonomy on work–life balance, engagement, and turnover intentions, depending on employee gender and country‐level gender egalitarianism (GE), and indirectly through stress. We find that perceived job autonomy relates to these outcomes indirectly through stress such that these effects are stronger for women in lower GE countries compared with women in higher GE countries and are not significant for men. Practical implications for engaging and retaining global female talent are discussed.     

案例教学知识转移机理研究

随着管理学科的不断发展，管理知识的情境性与实践性日益突显，对管理学科的教学提出了更高的要求。作为一种基于案例创设情境，鼓励学生主动实践、互动讨论的教学方法，案例教学法逐渐成为管理学科教学中不可或缺的方法。本文以高校管理学科案例教学为研究对象，通过结构方程模型的实证研究方法探究了案例教学特征通过影响学习者行为从而促进管理知识转移效果的作用机理。实证研究结果表明，案例教学的情境模拟性特征既能够直接促进管理知识的转移，同时也能通过提升学习意愿间接提升管理知识的学习效果，而师生平等性特征则通过影响学〉-7意愿影响管理知识的转移效果，为高校管理学科案例教学的有效开展提供了新的理论依据。     

Person–organization fit and the war for talent: does diversity management make a difference?

This study investigates the importance of diversity management in applicants' job choice decisions. According to the person–organization fit theory, individuals make assessments of fit between their personal values and the values of the organizations, and they make job choice decisions based on these assessments. A survey of 113 MBA job seekers concluded that women and ethnic minorities found diversity management to be important when accepting offers of employment. In addition, high achievers and new immigrants rated organizations with diversity management as more attractive as potential employers. The findings suggest a need to place a higher emphasis on diversity management in women and minority applicant attraction.     

Learning in a competitive field: MBA students' improvised case studies of IHRM

Recent management research on improvisation has sought to identify ways that unplanned change and structure are linked when novel solutions appear and develop during action. This article examines an improvised learning approach to the traditional case study method, in which Master of Business Administration (MBA) students learn through preparing and delivering their own case studies. The process of improvised learning is explained within the context of teaching international human resource management/organizational behaviour and analysed by applying Bourdieu's theory of practice which understands the participants' learning to be situated within a competitive social field.

It is concluded that MBA students learn from this improvised approach provided that the professor's role accommodates being a case study expert with the roles of teaching and learning consultant. The concept of competitive field is recommended as a tool for management educators' reflection upon enabling MBA students to develop their capabilities in designing and delivering management learning sessions.     

基于网络的实习生关怀系统的设计

职业学校传统的实习生管理模式虽然引入了现代化的管理手段,但基本上是管理人员追着学生的被动管理状态,管理效果差,管理过程难以形成连续性的记录。基于以上原因,职业学校采用传统模式加网络化的实习生主动注册系统将有效改善管理效果。基于网络的实习生关怀系统,通过学生定期注册、系统自动记录分析、管理人员及时跟踪反馈的管理流程,做到将所有实习生的实习动态记录在案,对实习生所遇到的问题及时发现并解决,提高管理水平。     

Test of the MBA knowledge and skills transfer

In view of the growing popularity of the MBA degree as a management development tool, there is a need to examine knowledge and skills transfer among MBA graduates. This study then developed and tested a parsimonious model of perceived transfer of knowledge and skills of MBA graduates to the job. Respondents were those who had completed part-time MBA programmes in Hong Kong for at least one year but not more than five years. LISREL results revealed a modest fit of the model to the data. The path coefficients further revealed that seven of the fifteen predicted relationships were statistically significant and in the predicted direction. Specifically, self-efficacy, Type A personality, transfer climate, and transfer rewards were positively related to motivation to learn, while organizational commitment was negatively related to motivation to learn. The results also indicated that motivation to learn, continuous-learning culture, and utility of MBA programme were positively related to perceived knowledge and skills transfer.     

Effects of performance measurement system inconsistency on managers’ role clarity and well-being

In this paper we explore the impact of PMS inconsistency on managerial role clarity and well-being. In addition, we investigate if problems with PMS inconsistency can be dealt with by convincing superiors to loosen their control reactions to variances, giving managers job autonomy and providing managers with support from superiors, peers and staff functions. Based on survey responses from 799 managers in one public sector organization and 187 managers in one private sector organization we conclude that PMS inconsistency has negative effects on managers’ role clarity and well-being. This situation does not improve if superiors practice loose control; on the contrary, it seems to make managers’ work situation worse. Job autonomy and support appear to be better coping methods since they have direct positive impacts on managers’ role clarity and well-being that counteracts the negative effects of PMS inconsistency.     

基于虚拟团队的MBA学习模式探究

随着通讯信息技术的不断发展,国外的MBA教育已逐渐将竞争的焦点投射在如何在信息社会中,借助现代通讯信息技术提升MBA教育的有效性上。虽然中国的MBA教育从无到有取得巨大成绩,但在信息沟通技术飞速发展的今天却比较忽视信息沟通对MBA教育的影响。本文首先对国内MBA教育发展的现状进行了回顾,然后对应用虚拟团队于MBA学习的特征和作用进行了分析,对提高基于虚拟团队的MBA学习的有效性提出了建议。文章最后显示应用基于虚拟团队的MBA学习模式,对我国MBA教育质量的改善将会起到积极的影响作用。     

Delivering Customer-Oriented Behaviour through Empowerment: An Empirical Test of HRM Assumptions

Organizational initiatives to strengthen customer orientation among front-line service workers abound, and have led many commentators to speak of the reconstitution of service work. These interventions rest on managers' assumptions about what engenders the desired customer-oriented behaviours among employees. We evaluate those assumptions in the context of a major change initiative in a supermarket firm. The logic of the programme mirrors key precepts in the contemporary management literature. These are that management behaviour, job design and values-based training can produce a sense of empowerment among employees, and that empowerment will generate prosocial customer-oriented behaviour. Using data from a large scale employee survey, we test the validity of those assumptions. Employees who perceived management behaviour in a positive light and who had participated in values-based training were more likely to feel empowered (i.e. to have internalized prosocial service values and to feel a sense of competence and autonomy on the job). Psychological empowerment was, in turn, positively related to the customer-oriented behaviour of workers. This study, therefore, provides support for key assumptions underlying HRM theory and practice in services.     

The duality of algorithmic management: Toward a research agenda on HRM algorithms,autonomy and value creation

This study proposes the ‘duality of algorithmic management’ as a conceptual lens to unravel the complex relationship between human resource management (HRM) algorithms, job autonomy and the value to workers who are subject to algorithmic management. Against tendencies to present algorithmic management as having predetermined, undesired consequences (e.g. restriction of job autonomy, poor financial compensation and deteriorating working conditions), our ‘duality of algorithmic management’ perspective offers two amendments to the dominant thinking on HRM algorithms and their outcomes to workers. First, we showcase how algorithmic management simultaneously restrains and enables autonomy and value to workers – with the latter referring to both use (i.e. non-monetary benefits) and exchange value (i.e. monetary benefits) that workers derive from working (under algorithmic management). In doing so, we make the case that the desired consequences of HRM algorithms to workers co-exist alongside the undesired consequences that the literature has mostly reported on. Second, we argue that algorithmic management is shaped by, as much as it shaping, the autonomy and value to workers. We do so by highlighting the ‘recursivity’ of algorithmic management that occurs when software designers and/or self-learning algorithms reinforce or limit worker acts for (re)gaining job autonomy and/or creating value out of HRM algorithms. We conclude this paper with the presentation of avenues for future research into the duality of algorithmic management, which sets the stage for a future line of inquiry into the complex interrelationships among HRM algorithms, job autonomy and value.     

Algorithms as work designers: How algorithmic management influences the design of jobs

We review the literature on algorithmic management (AM) to bridge the gap between this emerging research area and the well-established theory and research on work design. First, we identify six management functions that algorithms are currently able to perform: monitoring, goal setting, performance management, scheduling, compensation, and job termination. Second, we show how each AM function affects key job resources (e.g., job autonomy, job complexity) and key job demands (e.g., workload, physical demands); with each of these resources and demands being important drivers of worker motivation and their well-being. Third, rejecting a deterministic perspective and drawing on sociotechnical systems theory, we outline key categories of variables that moderate the link between AM on work design, namely transparency, fairness and human influence (e.g., whether workers can control the system). We summarize our review in the form of a model to help guide research on AM, and to support practitioners and designers in the creation and maintenance of meaningful jobs in the era of algorithms.