Corporate social responsibility and employee attitudes: The moderating role of employee age

This study examines the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement and job satisfaction. Using 322 responses from employees of selected companies in Ghana, and employing hierarchical regression analysis, the study examines the direct impact of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices on employee satisfaction and engagement in organisations. The study further explores the moderating role of employee age on the relationship between CSR and employee engagement and satisfaction. The results provide evidence that economic, legal, ethical and discretionary CSR practices influence higher employee engagement and satisfaction levels at work. However, the study finds no evidence of employee age moderating the association between each of the four CSR dimensions and employee job attitudes (engagement and satisfaction). These findings are insightful and provide a response to calls for research on these issues. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that ethical CSR practices strongly influence employees' satisfaction and engagement levels; legal and discretionary CSR activities also have an influence, though to a lesser extent; and the economic dimension of CSR activities has the least impact. The managerial, practical and further research implications of these findings are discussed.     

Managerial competency appraisal: A cross-cultural study of American and East Asian managers

This paper reports on the use of managerial commpetency assessment method to appraise 1436 managers from four East Asian countries and 3193 managers from the United States. The results of this research suggest that the assessed competencies of managers from the different nationalities are subject to cultural factors that shape personality and behavioural choices. Outcomes of assessed managerial competencies are likely to be influenced by perceptions of status, the need for consultation and the degree of openness of communication between managers and their subordinates. The study also points to the need for organisations to distinguish the more stable technical skills from the culturally-sensitive people skills when assessing and developing managers of different nationalities and cultures.     

Individual and contextual influences on the affective commitment of retail salespeople

Abstract

Salesperson characteristics as well as managerial approaches have been found to play an important role in the development of positive attitudes by salespersons towards an organisation. This study integrates these two research areas to investigate the personal and contextual antecedents of affective organisational commitment of retail salespeople. Fit theory and the literature on person–situation interaction provide the theoretical bases for explaining how salesperson selling skills, job liking, and empowerment individually and jointly influence affective commitment. A multilevel modelling approach is used to analyse data from 105 sales managers and 419 salespeople. Findings reveal that salespersons' affective commitment is influenced by their selling skills, degree of job liking, tenure, and empowerment. The results also indicate that the impact of selling skills on affective commitment is higher when empowerment is high. Based on the study's findings, implications for managing salespeople as well as limitations and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Sales employees’ polychronicity and sales-service ambidexterity: Mediation of work engagement and moderation of store manager support

Sales employees are encountered with increasing job demands and volatile changes in the retail environment. In particular, the adoption of smart technologies in the retail sector has pressurized sales employees to be versatile and agile in the new marketplace. In this sense, performing multiple tasks within a limited time frame has become an important quality required for sales employees. Grounded in the job demands-resources model, we proposed that sales employees’ individualized resource (i.e., polychronicity) would be positively related to their sales-service ambidexterity though work engagement. We further posited that an organizational resource (i.e., store manager support) synergistically interacted with polychronicity to predict work engagement and subsequent sales–service ambidexterity. To test propositions, we collected multilevel data from 292 sales employees in 43 home-furnishing stores in India. Results demonstrated that the positive association among work engagement, polychronicity, and sales–service ambidexterity was more pronounced when store manager support was high than when it was low. These findings offer implications to overcome challenges faced by retail stores by indicating factors predicting sales–service ambidexterity in retail.     

Feeling Good by Doing Good: Employee CSR-Induced Attributions, Job Satisfaction, and the Role of Charismatic Leadership

Interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining momentum in academic and managerial circles. However, prior work in the area has paid little attention to how CSR initiatives should be implemented inside the organization. Against this backdrop, this study examines the impact of CSR initiatives on an important stakeholder group—employees. We build and test a comprehensive multilevel framework that focuses on whether employees derive job satisfaction from CSR programs. The proposed model predicts that a manager’s charismatic leadership influences employees’ interpretations about the motives underlying their companies’ engagement in CSR initiatives (intrinsic and extrinsic CSR-induced attributions) which, in turn, influence employee job satisfaction. Hierarchical linear modeling of data from 47 organizational units comprising 438 employees from three world-leading manufacturing organizations shows that when employees think that their manager possesses charismatic leadership qualities, they tend to attribute the organization’s motives for engaging in CSR activities to intrinsic values, which, in turn, are positively associated with job satisfaction. Also, the extent to which managers are perceived as charismatic leaders relates positively to job satisfaction. Interestingly, CSR-induced extrinsic attributions are neither explained by charismatic leadership nor do they predict job satisfaction. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.     

Engaging and marketing to stakeholders in World Heritage Site management: a United Kingdom multiple case study perspective

ABSTRACT

This research addresses the limited studies which apply stakeholder theory to World Heritage Site (WHS) management and managerial theory to heritage management. WHS management highlights a context where sites rely on numerous interests uniting through goodwill. This is intensified by the multiple-ownership patterns which characterise many WHSs, necessitating a need for collective action. This study aims to explore how managers attempt to manage stakeholders and generate involvement and support. This study adopts a multiple case study approach, exploring three United Kingdom WHSs. Data were collected through interviews, documentation and physical artefacts. The analysis found that through representation, raising awareness and support, managers were able to generate stakeholder patronage. However, this required managers to look beyond informative engagement toward participatory means. Furthermore, the findings highlight the importance of the facilitators, time and money in successful stakeholder engagement. Lastly, conclusions, limitations and future research are offered. Underpinned by stakeholder theory, this paper contributes to the understanding of stakeholder engagement within WHS management and adds to limited empirical studies on multiple sites. This investigation found that engagement is constrained by managers’ limited time and resources. Furthermore, participatory engagement is essential in fostering stakeholders’ responsibility for site management and developing relationships with managers.     

Effects of characteristics of in-store retail technology on customer citizenship behavior

This paper investigates the effect of the characteristics of in-store retail technology on customer citizenship behavior (CCB) by adapting the job demands-resources theory, and explores how customer education moderates these relationships. Survey responses from 196 retail shoppers show that perceived complexity and perceived risk lead to customer exhaustion, resulting in decreasing CCB; while perceived advantage and perceived compatibility lead to customer engagement, resulting in increasing CCB. All these paths were found to be moderated by customer education. Managers could use the characteristics of in-store technology to increase CCB in their retail stores.     

Drivers of brand community engagement

Brand community engagement is evolving as a prominent relationship marketing variable that yields promising outcomes for the firms. Drawing upon the relevant premises of social exchange theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model portraying the role of online brand community based benefits (experience based and self-esteem based) and the community relationship investment in predicting the levels of brand community engagement.Data collected through a survey questionnaire technique from 925 members of the firm created online brand communities was employed to test the measurement and structural theory using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling respectively. The empirical results reveal that the customers’ experiential and self-esteem based benefits drive their brand community engagement. The perceived community relationship investment of the members also drives their brand community engagement positively. The sequential structural model also supported a positive impact exerted by brand community engagement on brand community commitment and brand loyalty. Additionally, it is observed that the focal brand ownership moderates the effect of community benefits and community relationship investment on brand community engagement.This study contributes to the nascent academic research on online brand communities and to the existing understanding of the brand community managers in managing customer engagement in online brand communities, thereby of profound theoretical and managerial relevance.     

家庭式迁移农民工工作特征和家庭特征的量表开发及其应用——基于浙江省的调研

在文献阅读、访谈研究的基础上,基于工作要求—资源模型设计出用来测量家庭式迁移农民工工作特征和家庭特征的量表,并用它对由外省以家庭形式迁移至浙江省及以家庭形式在浙江省内跨县(市)迁移的农民工进行调查,研究结果表明:他们的工作要求、工作资源、家庭要求都包括四个维度,家庭资源则包括三个维度;工作要求各维度的平均值普遍小于工作资源各维度的平均值,家庭要求各维度的平均值均小于家庭资源各维度的平均值,但工作资源、家庭资源平均值都只处于中偏高水平。     

Modeling Job Pursuit Intention: Moderating Mechanisms of Socio-Environmental Consciousness

Many scholars have suggested the relationship between corporate social performance and its ability to attract a large number of high-quality job applicants, because previous literature indicates that employees with strong social awareness help create a high-performance organization. For that reason, an important issue for successful business recruitment is how to boost the pursuit intention of job seekers. This study discusses such issue by proposing a model based on signaling theory and cognitive dissonance theory. In the proposed model of this study, the positive relationships between four dimensions of corporate social performance and job pursuit intention are hypothetically moderated by socio-environmental consciousness. The proposed hypotheses of this research were empirically tested using the data from graduating students seeking a job. The empirical findings of this study complement previous literature by discussing how corporate social performance benefits business firms from a perspective of strengthened human resources and recruitment. Finally, managerial implications for business managers based on the findings herein are provided.     

Modeling Corporate Social Performance and Job Pursuit Intention: Mediating Mechanisms of Corporate Reputation and Job Advancement Prospects

An important issue for successful recruitment is to increase the pursuit intention of job seekers. This study discusses such issue by proposing a research model based on the signaling theory and the expectancy theory. In the model, this study hypothesizes that the perceived corporate social performance of job seekers positively affects their job pursuit intention and recommendation intention indirectly via the mediation of corporate reputation and job advancement prospects. The proposed hypotheses of this research are empirically tested using the data from people seeking a job. The empirical findings of this study complement previous literature by discussing how corporate social performance benefits business organizations from a perspective of human resources and recruitment. Last, managerial implications for business leaders and managers are provided.     

Training corporate managers to adopt a more autonomy‐supportive motivating style toward employees: an intervention study

Management style is treated in a variety of ways across the training and development literature. Yet few studies have tested the training‐based malleability of management style in a for‐profit, authentic work context. The present research tested whether or not training intervention would help managers adopt a more autonomy‐supportive motivating style toward employees and whether or not the employees of these managers would, in turn, show greater autonomous motivation and workplace engagement. Using an intervention‐based experimental design, 25 managers from a Fortune 500 company received training consistent with self‐determination theory on how to support the autonomy of the 169 employees they supervised. Five weeks after the managers in the experimental group participated in the training, they displayed a significantly more autonomy‐supportive managerial style than did nontrained managers in a control group. Further, the employees they supervised showed, 5 weeks later, significantly more autonomous motivation and greater workplace engagement than did employees supervised by control‐group managers. We discuss the malleability of managers' motivating styles, the benefits to employees when managers become more autonomy supportive, and recommendations for future training interventions and research.     

Revisiting the Purpose of Selling: Toward a Model of Responsible Selling

Selling as a profession and sales management as an organizational function have undergone major changes that were driven by the evolutionary journey of the marketing discipline. The extant value cocreation paradigm is recrafting the purpose of selling. This paper explores the conceptual development of a selling paradigm that is more responsible to its customers. Specifically, in Business-to-Business (B2B) context, the cost of any selling behavior that compromises customer interest could be of disastrous proportions. Building on the theoretical foundations of self-regulation and job demands-resources theory, this paper develops a conceptual model of responsible selling by integrating self-leadership literature with the emerging paradigm of value-based selling. The conceptual model outlines several research propositions for empirical validation and discusses its potential implications for sales managers and sales organizations.     

Employees' work-family conflict moderating life and job satisfaction

The top-down perspective (i.e., life satisfaction influences job satisfaction) and the dispositional perspective are the focuses of the current study's research on life-work spillovers. This study investigates the impact of life satisfaction on job satisfaction under different situations of work-family conflict. The results of a field survey reveal responses from 121 sales managers from 26 hotels in China to test the moderating effects of work-family conflict on the relationship between life and job satisfaction. Analysis involves hierarchical regression with follow-up examination utilizing simple slope analysis. The results imply that employees facing less conflict between work and family tend to carry positive aspects from daily life to the workplace. The results also support the value of managerial efforts to have an organizational climate welcoming to employees' families. Even in China, where labor resources are abundant, family-friendly policies would help to increase the business success of hotels.     

Artificial intelligence as a boundary-crossing object for employee engagement and performance

The study proposes AI-powered tools and applications as boundary-crossing objects to examine how AI performance can affect employees' job engagement, service and job performance. Job security is modelled as a moderator in the boundary-crossing process. Several theories including boundary crossing, goal setting and self-regulation are drawn on to posit these relationships. The study was undertaken with Australia-based full-time employees who had experience with AI-powered tools at work. The results show that AI performance had a significant effect on job engagement, and employee service performance, which were significantly related to job performance appraisal. Job engagement and service performance exhibited significant mediation effects between AI and job performance. The moderation effect exerted by job security was significant in enhancing employees’ job engagement and service performance. The study contributes to service research and human resource management literature. The findings have implications for service marketers and human resource practitioners.     

How managerial attitudes toward the natural environment affect market orientation and innovation

This study investigates natural environmental attitude linkages held by strategic decision makers and hypothesizes that the interaction between market orientation and managerial natural environmental attitudes serves to enhance the effect of market orientation on firm innovativeness. Using questionnaire responses from 284 owners or chief executive officers residing in the food processing industry, the findings establish evidence of (1) a positive linkage between market orientation and firm innovativeness, and (2) the moderating effect of managerial attitudes of top managers toward the natural environmental in the market orientation to firm innovativeness relationship. The results provide insight into the nature of the cultural values on which a market orientation is based in relation to the natural environment.     

Determinants of employees’ attitudes toward union membership in India

Drawing on data from a survey of 252 unionized full-time employees from large Indian organizations, this study examined whether individual level job related variables and individual cultural value dimensions of individualism–collectivism (I–C) were predictive of employees’ attitudes toward union membership. Using regression analysis, the author found that over and above the effects of demographic and job-related variables, work situation dissatisfaction and perceived work stress were able to predict union attitudes significantly and positively for the sample. The relationship of union attitude was highly significant and negative with a consultative managerial style. Collectivism was able to predict the union attitudes positively, whereas individualism was negatively related to the union attitudes. The interaction between employees’ perceived work stress and work situation dissatisfaction are found to have a positive influence on their union attitudes. The results and implications of findings are discussed in the paper with reference to the literature on role of cultural dimensions (I–C) and job related factors in relation to organizational outcomes like union membership.     

Flexibility,labour segmentation and retail superstore managers: the effects of Sunday trading

Research into retail employment relations has focused largely upon the shop floor worker. Relatively little has been written on the role of store management. This paper focuses upon managerial attitudes to one of the major contemporary retail issues- Sunday trading. It examines the composition of the managerial workforce within the DIY and grocery superstore sectors and analyses their attitudes towards Sunday opening. It concludes that, compared to other job categories, these superstore managers perceive there to be greater disadvantages with Sunday working. The implications of this are assessed both in retail management terms and also in the context of debates about restructuring retail employment, labour market segmentation and flexible workforces     

Background and work experience correlates of the ethics and effect of organizational politics

Empirical studies exploring managerial views of organizational politics (OP) are scarce. Furthermore, the literature is replete with inconsistent results regarding the correlates of OP. In this paper, data collected from 302 managers were used to examine the association between seven background and work experience variables and managerial attitudes regarding the ethics, locus, affect of OP on the organization, and the motives behind political maneuvering in the workplace. The results, however, show that association between managers' background and work experience factors and attitudes regarding OP is weak. The results suggest several promising lines of inquiry for future research. Shaker A. Zahra is Assistant Professor of Management at the School of Business Administration of the Old Dominion University, Norfolk, virginia. His research focuses on the role of political factors in strategy development.     

Customer deviance in retailing: Managers’ emotional support and employees’ affective wellbeing

Retail employees are increasingly under pressure as they are confronted with the dark side of customer behaviour: Customer deviance (NCD). Consequently, retailers face difficulties retaining employees in the job leading to workforce shortage in the industry as more and more retail workers leave their jobs. While some academic research displays the impact of NCD in retail, it leaves its effects on employees, their intentions to leave the job, including the mitigating factor of managerial support structures unexplored. Applying the job demands-resources model, this research fills this gap by investigating NCD in store-based retail, by identifying a series of employees' responses in correspondence with such behaviours and by revealing various support factors as moderators of NCD's effects on employees. Structural equation modelling of data obtained from surveying 108 retail employees in stores confirms the mediation of emotional exhaustion, affective ill-being and job (dis-)satisfaction, in the context of employees facing NCD and their leaving intention. The research raises awareness for emotional care in the form of managerial strategies targeting emotions, the supervisor's role and trust-enhancing mechanisms in retail care management, in order to attenuate NCD's negative effects on retail employees.