Challenged and satisfied: the role of organisational ownership and employee involvement

Abstract

This study aims to offer a more fine-grained approach to our understanding of the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. Building on organisational theory and Job Demand-Control model, we investigated an important institutional characteristic – organisational ownership – as an additional moderator to influence the interactive effects of job demands and control upon job satisfaction. Using data collected from 1838 Chinese retail sector employees, we found that this three-way interaction was strongest for employees working in foreign-invested firms, who experienced higher employee involvement at work and perceived a high level of challenge-related stress. The relationship was weakest for employees in state-owned enterprises who reported low levels of both employee involvement and challenge-related stress. Our study constitutes an early attempt to assess the impact of institutional characteristics such as ownership on aspects of human resources management, and highlights the need for further research to recognise the importance of such characteristics as contextual factors that influence the effect of organisational practices and the work environment upon individual work-related outcomes. The paper’s concluding sections elaborate on the contributions our research makes both to theory as well as to the practicalities faced by human resource managers in contexts such as China.     

A social exchange theory framework for understanding the job characteristics–job outcomes relationship: the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment

This study integrated the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and concept of psychological contract fulfillment into a social exchange theory process framework to improve our understanding how and when job characteristics interact to influence job outcomes. Using survey data (n = 334), we found evidence to support our hypothesized relationships between job characteristics (job demands and job resources) and job outcomes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment); and the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment (transactional and relational), such that when job resources (job control and support) were high, the negative effects of high job demands on psychological contract fulfillment were attenuated. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

The Effectiveness of Alternative Methods of Searching for Jobs and Finding Them: An Exploratory Analysis of the Data Bearing upon the Ways of Coping with joblessness

Abstract . Job search has profound implications for both the extent and duration of unemployment and hence for the efficient allocation of human resources. Yet, little is known about the relative effectiveness of alternative methods of job search. This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Market Experience to examine whether different methods influence the duration of job search and job satisfaction. Methods of search do seem to differ significantly in influencing duration of job search but not so in respect of job satisfaction, contrary to a widely held view. Some have held that informal channels of job search convey a particular type of qualitative information which makes for better and more efficient job choice and that this largely explains their extensive usage, but the data do not support this position. Both findings have potentially important implications for job search theory and government intervention in the labor market.     

Job characteristics,work–home interference and burnout: testing a structural model in the South African context

The aim of this study was to test a structural model that included job demands and job resources, negative work–home interference (WHI) and burnout (exhaustion, cognitive weariness and cynicism). A cross-sectional survey design was used. Random samples (n = 330) were taken of workers employed in the earthmoving industry in eight provinces of South Africa. Job characteristics (including job pressure, job control and job support) were measured by items that were adapted from the Job Content Questionnaire and a validated questionnaire on experience and evaluation of work. The Survey Work–Home Interaction – Nijmegen was used to measure negative WHI, while the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey and cognitive weariness scale were administered to measure exhaustion, cognitive weariness and cynicism. Structural equation modelling with Amos showed that job demands (e.g. job pressure) and job resources (job control, supervisor support and colleague support) contributed to negative WHI. Negative WHI mediated the relationship between job demands and burnout and partially mediated between job resources and burnout.     

Assessing job crafting competencies to predict tradeoffs between competing outcomes

We introduce the job crafting competency construct and apply it to predict tradeoffs between competing outcomes that are inherent in job crafting, like performance and well-being or engagement and withdrawal. Job crafting competencies are the clusters of individual knowledge, skills, and abilities that are necessary to achieve personal objectives through effective job crafting problem-solving. We create a framework of job crafting competencies consisting of comprehensive/simplistic heuristic information use and approach/avoidance problem-solving skills. In Study 1, we operationalize competencies as profiles demonstrated through an aptitude-oriented assessment that predicts differences in outcomes. Five distinct profiles emerged in a sample of 174 workers. The high-volume analytic problem-solving profile was associated with higher performance and strain, while the ambivalent acquiescence profile was associated with lower performance and strain. The practical problem-solving profile minimized tradeoffs between performance and strain. Rapid problem-solving and low-volume analytic problem-solving profiles were variants in between these other patterns. Study 2 used a survey of 323 workers to support the uniqueness of the five competencies, and their relationships with approach/avoidance job crafting, engagement, and withdrawal. The research identifies a new job crafting individual difference (job crafting competencies) to delineate outcomes and tradeoffs according to unique competency profiles.     

注册会计师职业倦怠“工作要求-资源”模型及其应用——基于资源保存理论的视角

职业倦怠是困扰注册会计师行业的现实难题之一。本文从注册会计师职业的特点出发,基于资源保存理论的视角,对已有的"工作要求-资源"模型进行修正,初步构建了注册会计师职业倦怠的"工作要求-资源"模型,全面解读了注册会计师职业倦怠的发展过程和作用机理,探讨了"工作要求-资源"模型如何应用于注册会计师职业倦怠的干预。     

Increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory

Most modern lives are complicated. When employees feel that their organization values the complexity of their entire lives and tries to do something about making it a little easier for them to balance all the conflicting demands, the employees tend to be more productive and stay with those organizations longer. Job embeddedness captures some of this complexity by measuring both the on-the-job and off-the-job components that most contribute to a person's staying. Research evidence as well as ample anecdotal evidence (discussed here and other places) supports the value of using the job embeddedness framework for developing a world-class retention strategy based on corporate strengths and employee preferences.To execute effectively their corporate strategy, different organizations require different knowledge, skills and abilities from their people. And because of occupational, geographic, demographic or other differences, these people will have needs that are different from other organizations. For that reason, the retention program of the week from international consultants won’t always work. Instead, organizations need to carefully assess the needs/desires of their unique employee base. Then, these organizations need to determine which of these needs/desires they can address in a cost effective fashion (confer more benefits than the cost of the program). Many times this requires an investment that will pay off over a longer term – not just a quarter or even year. Put differently, executives will need to carefully understand the fully loaded costs of turnover (loss of tacit knowledge, reduced customer service, slowed production, lost contracts, lack of internal candidates to lead the organization in the future, etc., in addition to the obvious costs like recruiting, selecting and training new people). Then, these executives need to recognize the expected benefits of various retention practices. Only then can leaders make informed decisions about strategic investments in human and social capital.

Selected bibliography

A number of articles have influenced our thinking about the importance of connecting employee retention strategies to business strategies:

• R. W. Beatty, M. A. Huselid, and C. E. Schneier. “New HR Metrics: Scoring on the Business Scorecard,” Organizational Dynamics, 2003, 32 (2), 107–121.

• Bradach. “Organizational Alignment: The 7-S Model,” Harvard Business Review, 1998.

• J. Pfeffer. “Producing Sustainable Competitive Advantage Through the Effective Management of People,” Academy of Management Executive, 1995 (9), 1–13.

• C. J. Collins, and K. D. Clark. “Strategic Human Resources Practices and Top Management Team Social Networks: An Examination of the Role of HR Practices in Creating Organizational Competitive Advantage,” Academy of Management Journal, 2003, 46, 740–752.

The theoretical development and empirical support for the Unfolding Model of turnover are captured in the following articles:

• T. Lee, and T. Mitchell. “An Alternative Approach: The Unfolding Model of Voluntary Employee Turnover,” Academy of Management Review, 1994, 19, 57–89.

• B. Holtom, T. Mitchell, T. Lee, and E.Inderrieden. “Shocks as Causes of Turnover: What They Are and How Organizations Can Manage Them,” Human Resource Management, 2005, 44(3), 337–352.

The development of job embeddedness theory is captured in the following articles:

• T. Mitchell, B. Holtom, T. Lee, C. Sablynski, and M. Erez. “Why People Stay: Using Job Embeddedness to Predict Voluntary Turnover,” Academy of Management Journal, 2001, 44, 1102–1121.

• T. Mitchell, B. Holtom, and T. Lee. “How To Keep Your Best employees: The Development Of An Effective Retention Policy,” Academy of Management Executive, 2001, 15(4), 96–108.

• B. Holtom, and E. Inderrieden. “Integrating the Unfolding Model and Job Embeddedness To Better Understand Voluntary Turnover,” Journal of Managerial Issues, in press.

• D.G. Allen. “Do Organizational Socialization Tactics Influence Newcomer Embeddedness and Turnover?” Journal of Management, 2006, 32, 237–257.

Executive SummaryEmployee turnover is costly to organizations. Some of the costs are obvious (e.g., recruiting, selecting, and training expenses) and others are not so obvious (e.g., diminished customer service ability, lack of continuity on key projects, and loss of future leadership talent). Understanding the value inherent in attracting and keeping excellent employees is the first step toward investing systematically to build the human and social capital in an organization. The second step is to identify retention practices that align with the organization's strategy and culture. Through extensive research, we have developed a framework for creating this alignment. We call this theory job embeddedness. Across multiple industries, we have found that job embeddedness is a stronger predictor of important organizational outcomes, such as employee attendance, retention and performance than the best, well-known and accepted psychological explanations (e.g., job satisfaction and organizational commitment). The third step is to implement the ideas. Throughout this article we discuss examples from the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For and many others to demonstrate how job embeddedness theory can be used to build human and social capital by increasing employee retention.     

Connecting ‘talent’ meanings and multi-level context: a discursive approach

Abstract

Through an in-depth, multilevel case study of a professional services firm, this paper illuminates what stakeholders mean when they use the term ‘talent’. The paper underlines how various contextual factors including, workforce composition, ownership structures and individual perceptions influence talent meanings within an organisation. Our analysis of talent phenomena at a multiplicity of levels illustrates that it is not only about the words, phrases, and terms employed when talking about talent that requires examination. There is a need to deliberate on the meanings that underpin the talk because while stakeholders may talk the same way they may mean different things. The paper makes a key theoretical contribution through specific recognition of the importance of thoughtful reflection of how stakeholders discursively construct meanings because ‘talent’ is a concept, which requires translation via talk to become meaningful within the material world and these meanings are influenced by context. Thus, we cannot infer, that talent meanings radiate within organisations, nor across organisational boundaries, industries or countries because discourses arise and materialise within specific contexts and we must acknowledge that talent discourses can not be removed from the context in which they operate.     

Labor Market Effects from Involuntary Job Losses in Layoffs, Plant Closings: The Role of Human Capital in Facilitating Reemployment and Reduced Wage Losses

Abstract . Wage loss and reemployment following involuntary Job loss are examined, using a nationally representative sample of young men and women in their late twenties. Workers with increased human capital are less likely to suffer wage loss and unemployment after job termination. Workers characterized as having little commitment to the labor market—low skill levels, clerical and sales workers, females, and low contributors to family income—are more likely to suffer unemployment and wage loss after job loss. This suggests that human capital characteristics serve as a signal of desirable, or undesirable, worker traits to a new firm.     

MNC practice transfer: institutional theory,strategic opportunities and subsidiary HR configuration

Human resource (HR) practice transfer is an important topic in the domain of strategic international human resource management (SIHRM). Previous research in practice transfer has emphasized the challenges arising from the institutional distance between the home and host countries. However, potential opportunities due to this distance have been largely overlooked. Shifting the focus away from looking at institutional distance as a constraint, we examine the possibilities of strategic opportunities that exist because of institutional distance. We argue multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries can exploit these opportunities to gain competitive advantage. Building upon SIHRM literature, institutional theory and the resource-based views, we propose a conceptual framework explaining how institutional environments present strategic opportunities. We argue that these strategic opportunities are most abundant in the case of moderate institutional distance between the two countries. Building upon the conceptualization of strategic opportunities, we propose a model of subsidiary HR configuration, and then we explain how an HR configuration could be a source of competitive advantage. Further, we examine the role of MNCs' overall SIHRM orientation in relation to the identification and exploitation of strategic opportunities.     

Accounting and Business Economics in Spain

Economía de la Empresa (Business Economics) emerged in Spain as a distinct academic discipline in the second half of the twentieth century. In its early years, Business Economics shared common influences with Accounting, particularly ideas and theories acquired from the translation of Italian and German works on Economia Aziendale and Betriebswirtschaftslehre. However, partly because of the institutional structure of Spanish universities, the two disciplines moved apart. During the Franco regime, Spanish accounting research was quite isolated, and with the return of democracy and the move towards greater European involvement much research was devoted to issues of financial accounting harmonization and standardization. This normative research was of little interest to Business Economics researchers, who were developing analytical approaches grounded in economic theory. More recently, academics working in the two disciplines have drawn on a wider range of theoretical approaches, from empirical studies to behavioural and organizational theory and institutional economics based on agency theory and transaction cost analysis. At present, the disciplines ‘walk separately down the same road’, but the new generation of researchers has the opportunity to bring Accounting and Business Economics closer together from an intellectual and scientific point of view.     

Effects of job stress on self-esteem,job satisfaction,and turnover intention

ABSTRACT

This study is focused on female inbound call center counselors who are easily exposed to emotional labor when customers express anger and hostility and use swear words toward invisible targets on the phone. Our study is based on 244 responses from female inbound call center counselors. Job stress has a significantly negative effect on job satisfaction and self-esteem. It was shown that self-esteem has a partially mediating effect, and turnover experience had a moderating effect. It is important to shed new light on the roles of self-esteem among determinants of job satisfaction.     

A Critical Review of Homo Economicus from Five Approaches

Neoclassical economics is based on and structured around the notion of homo economicus. The theory of consumer choice, the theory of the firm, industrial organization, and welfare theorems all require the assumption that agents act in accordance with the scheme of individualistic rational optimization. In this context, our contribution is threefold. First, we delimit the notion of homo economicus according to five characteristics or dimensions. Second, we critically review this anthropological scheme from five distinct approaches, namely, behavioral economics, institutional economics, political economy, economic anthropology, and ecological economics. Third, we conclude that the scheme of homo economicus is clearly inadequate and deficient. However, despite its inadequacies, it remains one of the fundamental pillars of the neoclassical paradigm in economics, which allows us to discuss why we have not yet overcome this paradigm.     

Why Do I Feel Valued and Why Do I Contribute? A Relational Approach to Employee's Organization‐Based Self‐Esteem and Job Performance

Drawing on the relational perspective and self‐consistency theory, we theorize how relationships involving work‐centric, off‐work‐centric, and/or personal components can affect an employee's organization‐based self‐esteem and job performance in Chinese organizational contexts. Matched data were collected from a multi‐source sample that included 219 employee–supervisor dyads from a Chinese bank. Results based on hierarchical regression analyses reveal that a high‐quality relationship with a supervisor through work and off‐work domains (leader–member exchange and guanxi) is positively related to organization‐based self‐esteem. Organization‐based self‐esteem plays a mediating role in the relationship between guanxi and job performance. Additionally, career mentoring from a supervisor (a work‐centric relationship involving personal components) moderates the relationship between organization‐based self‐esteem and job performance.     

Job evaluation systems and pay grade structures: do they match?

Job evaluation is usually applied in an organization in order to assess the relative value of jobs on the basis of which jobs are assigned to classes of pay grades. Thus, the assumption is that job value scores match with pay grade structures, and allow adequate predictions of basic job wages or salaries in practice. The validity of this assumption is questioned in this article. Data of five job evaluation systems (number of jobs: 16,809) were used to assess the effects of three system manipulations, concerning the number of anchors per scale (characteristic), the nature and the number of scales, and the weights of scales. Total job value scores of the manipulated data and the associated pay grades were compared with the non-manipulated ('original') scores. It turned out that even when two sets of job value scores are highly correlated (around 0.99), pay grade classification agreement was always less than 90 per cent, and in many instances much less. This result has important implications for the use of job evaluation in practice: when a fine grained system of pay grades applies, total job value scores may be deficient. Implications for a better match between total job worth values and pay grade classes are discussed.     

Analysis of the practice of job evaluation in the metal industry in Turkey

Job evaluation's main aim is to establish a fair wage structure. Its main principle is ‘equal pay for equal work’. ‘Metal Industry Job Grouping System’ (MIDS) has been in the metal industry in Turkey for more than 20 years. The results of the practice of the system were measured by the Gini coefficient. By the findings, the average wages of the job groups are different enough from each other by their job groups in the way the wage of the bigger number job group is higher than the smaller except the job group two in the industry. However, the wages are far from the principle ‘equal wage for equal job’ within the same job itself. In addition, the workers make use of bonuses and social benefits. The effect of social benefits of them on the wage structure is positive within the same job group and negative between different job groups within the same company. Nevertheless, the effect of both bonuses and social benefits on the wage structure is negative between the companies because, between them they are different from each other. Job group and seniority affect the wage structure. Seniority has a socio-psychological self-producing dynamic. The distribution of seniorities within the same job group has negative effects on the wage structure. However, this fact for each worker disappears for the long term since the worker of today who has short-term seniority will be the one of tomorrow who has long-term seniority. Therefore, for each worker, the wage structure gets closer to the principle ‘equal wage for equal job’ within the same job group itself over time.     

Strategic job analysis

The application of job analysis techniques makes the implicit assumption that information about a job as it presently exists may be used to develop programs to recruit, select, train, and appraise people for the job as it will exist in the future. Given a rapidly changing internal and external world it is likely that many jobs will change in the future. This article reviews some new techniques that, when added to traditional job analysis procedures, may facilitate strategic planning for the development of personnel procedures such as selection and training. Examples of the new technique are presented, followed by a discussion of some topics requiring future thought and research.     

Validation and measurement invariance of the multidimensional qualitative job insecurity scale

This contribution introduces the Multidimensional Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (MQJIS). Drawing from the qualitative job insecurity literature and addressing some of other scales’ limitations, a multidimensional model is proposed and investigated by means of confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis. Study 1 aims to explore the psychometric properties and factorial structure of MQJIS in an Italian sample of blue-collar workers (N?=?583), showing that a model with one higher-order factor (i.e., qualitative job insecurity) and four dimensions (i.e., social relationships, employment conditions, working conditions, and work content) shows a good fit to the data and good reliability indices. Study 2 aims to investigate MQJIS measurement invariance across several groups, based on country of origin, age, and gender. Results on a sample of Belgian and Italian workers (N?=?710) show that MQJIS met the criteria for uniqueness invariance across genders and scalar invariance across countries and age groups. Significance, implications, and future directions stemming from the initial validation and the confirmed measurement invariance of this scale are discussed.

     

Institutional Economics: Its Influence and Prospects

Abstract . The influence of institutional economics is determined more by the contributions of outstanding mainstream institutionalists such a Myrdal, Colm, and Galbraith than by the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) established to advance institutionalism. This association as a collective body has a clearcut theoretical image because its membership is largely made up of advocates of a vague evolutionary economics or of a proposed but not clearly defined new general theory of institutionalism regarded as a substitute for mainstream institutionalism regarded as a substitute for mainstream institutionalism. Mainstream institutionalists from Veblen to Myrdal have constructed a well-defined theory of the evolving industrial system, a technological interpretation of this evolving system, and a logic of industrialism that points in the direction of 'indicative’ national planning. Until AFEE builds upon this theoretical work of the mainstream institutionalists it will have neither a well-defined institutionalist image nor policy proposals appropriate to the coming post-industrial society.     

Revisiting the beauty is beastly effect: examining when and why sex and attractiveness impact hiring judgments

We contribute to the body of literature on the what is beautiful is good heuristic (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 285–290), the beauty is beastly effect (Heilman & Saruwatari, 1979, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 23, 360–372) and lack of fit theory (Heilman, 1983, Research in Organizational Behavior, 5, 269–298) by reconciling previous discrepancies in the literature and by examining the circumstances in which attractiveness may and may not be detrimental for female job applicants. First, we perform a review of studies which have previously tested the beauty is beastly effect, and we provide and test explanations for previous discrepancies in the literature. Next, we conduct two new studies on the beauty is beastly effect using corporate types of jobs, and empirically test Heilman's lack of fit theory (1983) as an explanation for the effect. We find support for the effect in a general population sample, and partial support for the effect in a sample of human resource professionals. We also provide support for a mediated moderation model showing that applicant sex is related to job suitability for a male-typed job through the indirect effect of perceived agency, which is moderated by applicant attractiveness.