A physical examination of health care's readiness for a total quality management program: a case study

Initiating a total quality management (TQM) effort can be a time-consuming and costly effort for a hospital. Perceptions of management and employees are important in initiating TQM because people function as if perceptions are fact. Assessing these perceptions and determining the levels of readiness or resistance to change are important steps in reducing costs, thus increasing organizational ability to address proactively challenges to the implementation and ultimate success of a TQM effort. Key assessment criteria are discussed including a comparison of management and employee perceptions in one hospital.     

The Interactive Effects of Psychological Contract Breach and Organizational Politics on Perceived Organizational Support: Evidence from Two Longitudinal Studies

We explore the effects of the social context on the relationship between psychological contract breach (PCB) and perceived organizational support (POS) in two studies. We build on the premise that psychological contract breach (i.e. the organization's failure to fulfil the obligations employees believe they are owed) signals to employees that they are not cared for and valued by the organization (i.e. reduces POS). In support, a longitudinal study of 310 employees shows that PCB at Time 1 explains significant variance in POS at Time 2 (beyond that explained by POS at Time 1). Building on this result, we advance the argument that employees' perceptions of organizational politics serve as a heuristic for the overall benevolent or malevolent character of the organization and its agents. Accordingly, we expect that when employees perceive PCB and high levels of organizational politics, they will be more likely to hold the organization responsible for PCB and thus report lower levels of POS in response to breach. This line of reasoning received support in a second study of 146 employees which showed that perceptions of organizational politics moderate the PCB–POS relationship. Our results suggest that the social context in which psychological contract breaches occur matters and that managers should consider the organization's perceived political landscape when anticipating how employees will respond to broken promises.     

Employee perceptions of corporate partnership: An affective-moral quid pro quo

An affective-moral quid pro quo model provided the framework to test the relationship between worker satisfaction, perceptions of employees' citizenship behavior, and corporate commitment to moral-ethical ideals. A total of 198 full-time employees from a wide variety of work settings anonymously completed questionnaires. More than half of the respondents held management or supervisory positions; the number of males and females was nearly equal. Participants who indicated high satisfaction with work, promotions, and co-workers, and who viewed employees in their work setting as altruistic, perceived their organization as committed to employee welfare, employee rights, product quality, and as good corporate citizens.     

Friend or Foe? The effects of contingent employees on standard employees' work attitudes

Using data from a large-scale national survey of employers and employees in Britain, we examine the impact of the presence of contingent employees on work attitudes of standard (full-time, indefinite-term) employees. Drawing on differing explanations for the increased use of contingent employment arrangements, we derive competing hypotheses about how this use affects standard employees' work perceptions and attitudes, and explore the impact of a number of potentially intervening factors. We find that contingent employees have little effect on standard employees' perceptions of work overload, but strongly reduce perceived job security, which in turn, mediates the negative effects of contingent employees on job satisfaction and organizational loyalty.     

Open door policies: Measuring impact using attitude surveys

This study examines employee perceptions of an Open Door Complaint System from both those who have filed claims and those who have not. The sample includes over 4000 employees working in a Fortune 100 company. These perceptions are examined through an organization-wide employee attitude survey. Situation-specific perceptions are analyzed, and their relationship with overall fairness, satisfaction, and intent to remain with the organization are examined. Results suggest that a positive Open Door incident raises both distributive and procedural justice perceptions. In turn, fairness perceptions influence satisfaction levels. Finally, results indicate that satisfaction has a strong effect on the intent to remain with the organization. Implications are discussed for both complaint systems and employee opinion surveys. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The effects of IT-enabled supply chain process change on job and process outcomes: A longitudinal investigation

Prior research on information technology (IT)-enabled supply chain management (SCM) has primarily focused on macro-level issues (e.g., IT capabilities related to SCM, and SCM design and optimization) and outcomes (e.g., firm performance). There has been limited research that focuses on micro-level outcomes related to employees who actually execute SCM processes in organizations. These employee-level outcomes are important because successful implementation of SCM systems and processes hinges on SCM employees’ support and commitment. I develop and test a model positing that SCM employees’ perceptions of changes in their work process characteristics, i.e., process complexity and process rigidity, following a new SCM system implementation will influence their job outcomes, i.e., job performance, job satisfaction, job anxiety, and job security, and their perceptions of process outcomes, i.e., process performance and relationship quality. The model incorporates a holistic appraisal of the extent of change—change radicalness—as a mechanism between work process characteristics and outcomes. The model is supported in three studies conducted in the context of three different SCM system implementations (N = 278, 282, and 304, respectively). In particular, I found that individuals perceived a significant change in their work process characteristics following an SCM system implementation, and changes in work process characteristics had a significant impact on job and process outcomes. These findings contribute to the information systems and operations management literatures and their intersections by offering insights on challenges related to IT-enabled SCM innovation implementation in organizations.     

Effective HR implementation: the impact of supervisor support for policy use on employee perceptions and attitudes

Abstract

Effective implementation of human resource (HR) policies appears to depend on supervisors’ active involvement in the intervention process. Following recommendations of a recent intervention evaluation framework, we examine how perceived supervisor support during the implementation of a work-life intervention helps to change participants’ perceptions of organizational family supportiveness, and how this ultimately changes participants’ engagement and turnover intentions. A three-wave longitudinal study in a professional services firm (N = 434) that has formally involved supervisors in the process of a work-life intervention showed support for our study hypotheses. Supervisor support for policy use influenced employees’ positive work–home culture perceptions, which in turn strengthened employees’ work engagement and diminished their turnover intentions over time. We discuss practical implications and give recommendations on the future design of HR interventions and related policies.     

Settling the Score: The Role of Organizational Justice in the Relationship Between Psychological Contract Breach and Anticitizenship Behavior

This study investigated the role of psychological contract breach, procedural justice, and interactional justice in influencing employees' anticitizenship behaviors. It was posited that the association between contract breach and these negative employee outcomes would be moderated by perceptions of both procedural and interactional justice. In particular, employees' anticitizenship behaviors are hypothesized to be higher following a breach when both procedural and interactional justice are low. One hundred and sixty-five employees from a variety of organizational settings completed measures of contract breach, procedural justice, and interactional justice whereas their respective supervisors completed a measure of anticitizenship behavior. Results revealed a 3-way interaction between contract breach, procedural justice, and interactional justice on anticitizenship behavior. The nature of the interaction was further investigated through simple slope analyses. Consistent with the study's propositions, anticitizenship behavior was higher following a contract breach when both procedural and interactional justice were low. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

The implications of turning down an international assignment: a psychological contracts perspective

Previous research has generally focused on employees’ willingness to accept international assignments and the rewards that are often associated with them. Little is known, however, about the potential career consequences of declining an international assignment. In this conceptual paper, psychological contract (PC) theory is used to develop propositions outlining factors that are likely to determine whether employees who turn down an international assignment will be viewed as having failed to live up to their obligations, by both the organization and themselves. Our theoretical model suggests that when the PC is breached due to the refusal of an international assignment, it may lead to reduced investments in the employee and, in turn, lower levels of objective and subjective career success for those who have spurned the offer to work abroad. We also address how the consequences of declining international assignments will affect perceptions of choice and international assignment refusal rates within organizations. We close by discussing directions for future research that can further examine the ideas and propositions developed in this paper.     

Employee affective and behavioral reactions to the spatial density of physical work environments

This field study of a medical clinic found that employees in spatially dense work areas (i.e., those with little space available per person) experienced higher levels of perceived crowding, transfer intentions, and tardiness, as well as lower work area satisfaction, than employees in low‐density areas. Crowding perceptions explained the relations between spatial density and the measures of work area satisfaction and tardiness. Finally, when employees had high workloads and their jobs required physical movement, spatial density had weaker relations to crowding perceptions and area satisfaction than in other conditions. Implications of these findings for human resource practitioners are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Corporate conditions conducive to employee voice: A subordinate perspective

Employees' voice is conceptualized as a necessary condition for organizational success. A model of employee voice is proposed that encompasses employee predispositions, receptivity to employee voice in the microstructure, and affirmative norms for voice in the societal macrostructure. The model was examined by testing the hypothesis that subordinates' satisfaction will be greater when corporate conditions are receptive to employee voice and when the organization is perceived to be committed both to quality in product and quality of employees' work life. a study with 150 employees from a variety of organizations is reported. The results produced rather strong support for the research hypothesis.     

Influence Costs, Structural Inertia, and Organizational Change

This paper builds an economic model of the relationship between influence activity and resistance to change in organizations. I show that influence activity can create harmful barriers to change and that the influence costs of change are positively related to the firm's prospects. The model rationalizes the widely held view that firms often must endure a survival-threatening crisis before meaningful change can be achieved. I show that employees' choices of whether to engage in influence activity can depend on their beliefs as to whether the firm will choose to change its organizational form. If employees expect change, their best response is to try to affect the form of the change in their favor.     

Superior–subordinate communication during organizational change: under which conditions does high-quality communication become important?

Restructuring and organizational change have become ever-present across all industrial countries. Based on conservation of resources theory, this study explored a buffering effect of superior–subordinate communication (SSC) in the relationship between management support for the change and both job satisfaction and work-related irritation. It was also assumed that dispositional resistance to change (RTC) would further impact this buffering effect. We tested these assumptions in a sample of 119 employees from eight organizations in which change had occurred. A buffering effect of SSC was supported for job satisfaction but not for irritation. In case of irritation, an interaction effect of RTC, SSC and management support was found. For irritation, the quality of SSC and the degree of management support are relevant only under the condition of high RTC. In our study, RTC was found offer a valuable approach for a successful implementation of organizational change. Practical approaches should refer to communication processes between superior and subordinates, especially when employees are high in RTC.     

福利满意度对员工工作态度的影响机理分析

福利满意度作为员工对企业福利制度和措施的一种感受和评价,对员工的工作态度和行为产生很重要的影响。文章分析了福利满意度对企业员工工作态度及行为的影响机理,并指出人力资源管理者在提高员工福利满意度,端正员工的工作态度,减少员工离职行为的过程中应当注意的问题。     

Why Do Employees’ Perceptions of their Organization's Change History Matter? The Role of Change Appraisals

In this article, we identify employees’ change history in an organization as a key antecedent of their appraisals about organizational change (i.e., threat, harm, and challenge). We argue that these change appraisals are associated with psychological contract violation, which in turn is associated with intentions to leave the organization, and, ultimately, with voluntary employee turnover. In 2009, we collected data over three measurement periods from 252 full‐time, permanent employees from a manufacturing organization in the Philippines that was just about to undergo an organizational‐wide restructuring. At Time 1 (T1, the change announcement), employees completed a survey assessing their change history in the organization and change appraisals. At Time 2 (T2, six months after the announcement), employees completed a survey assessing psychological contract violation and turnover intentions. Two years later (Time 3, T3), we collected data on voluntary employee turnover. Results suggest that a poor change history in an organization was negatively associated with challenge appraisals and was positively associated with threat and harm appraisals. Challenge and harm appraisals were significantly associated with psychological contract violation. These appraisals, in turn, were associated with turnover intentions and, ultimately, with voluntary employee turnover. In addition, T1 threat appraisals were directly positively associated with T3 voluntary turnover. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

提高山区养路工人技能素质的探索和思考

企业各项工作能否顺利推进,目标任务能否圆满完成,关健在于职工思想技能素质的高低和工作责任心的大小;技术创新能力能否提升,科技能否转化为现实生产力,关健在于职工的主观能动性和创造性的发挥。文章通过分析融水苗族自治县公路管理局职工技能素质现状,探索提高职工技能的方法,并总结了提高公路职工技能素质的体会。     

基于竞争力视角的西部瓷都企业薪酬满意度研究

2005年,西部瓷都产业进入行业大洗牌的重要转折点,37%的企业员工对现行薪酬体系有不同程度的不满。分配政策的公平性、岗位价值的体现程度、浮动薪酬的激励和工资的层级差别显著影响了企业员工的薪酬满意度。建议应适当增大浮动薪酬的比例;浮动薪酬的决定因素应体现岗位价值和激励思想;实行公开化的薪酬支付。     

The role of assessment centers in job satisfaction and organizational commitment: a case of the Korean government

While many studies have shown how assessment centers affect employees’ career success or job performance, these studies do not demonstrate how employees’ attitudes are affected by their perception of assessment centers. This study aims to investigate the influence of employees’ perception of assessment centers on their job satisfaction and organizational commitment, which are the key elements in predicting working behaviors, such as job performance, job involvement, and turnover intentions. To analyze the nature of the influence, 306 employees who had been evaluated by an assessment center in the Korean Rural Development Administration (KRDA) were surveyed. Regression analysis revealed that although there is no influence on their organizational commitment, employees with a positive perception of assessment centers experience higher levels of job satisfaction (p < .01). These results suggest that the positive perception of assessment centers affects the general feeling of organizational members about their work even though it does not affect their emotional attachment to the organization or dedication to organizational values. Thus, assessment centers can be used as a tool not only to select capable candidates but also to yield positive effects on organizational members’ job attitudes.     

Gaps between managers' and employees' perceptions of work–life balance

Research on work–life balance (WLB) practices has increased in recent years. Academics affirm that the implementation of WLB practices helps to achieve better organizational results and improve employee outcomes such as higher satisfaction and commitment, and reduce turnover intentions. However, some authors have argued that there are differences between the availability of WLB practices in companies and employees' perceptions of access to such practices. The literature on the differences in perceptions between managers and employees in relation to WLB and its effects is sparse. Using two samples of 229 managers and 511 employees from the same firms, we in this paper contribute to our knowledge of the existence of the perception gaps between managers and employees and their influence on the take-up of WLB. Implications for academics and practitioners are discussed.     

Team Rewards: How Far Have We Come?

Although many organizations find teams to be important to their success, few have implemented reward systems that encourage team effort. This study examines the practices of 35 firms using team‐based reward programs and identifies some features of these programs that improve their effectiveness. The results indicate that the most valued programs were those associated with (1) high levels of communication to employees about the specifics of the plan, (2) strong worker involvement in the plan's design and implementation, and (3) team members' perceptions that the pay system was fair. HR managers considered more complex plans more beneficial than simple plans. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.