Transitioning ageing workers from paid to unpaid work in non‐profits

Resource constraints and retention issues associated with an ageing workforce have challenged non‐profit institutions. Human resource management professionals in these organisations can stem the loss of organisational learning by developing strong social exchanges that encourage employees to pursue post‐retirement volunteering. This paper developed a conceptual model that described how ageing workers may evaluate and connect the quality of the relationships they build at work through social exchanges to their fit with the organisation, workgroup and vocation. Alignment of fit may create an intention to volunteer upon retirement, although we argue that this will be strengthened if the organisation is perceived to value volunteering activities. This value is also shaped through social exchange and might include attitudes toward the extra‐role activities of both employees and volunteers in the current organisation.     

The paradox of employee psychological well-being practices: an integrative literature review and new directions for research

Abstract

It is well established that many HR practices aimed at increasing employees’ psychological wellbeing (PWB) and organisational performance conflict and even contradict one another. We address this long-standing issue by undertaking an innovative integrative literature review using the paradox metatheory as a lens. Unlike the contingency approach, a paradox perspective deems real-world tensions as normal, which can also be harnessed, and benefit employees and the organisation. We make three contributions; firstly, we identify contradictory employee PWB and organisational performance HR practices; secondly, we offer a solution in addressing the inherent tension between PWB and organisational performance by developing a new sensemaking conceptual framework; and thirdly, we offer a more nuanced perspective of prevailing arguments by distinguishing endogenous factors that organisations can influence to enhance the synergies between employee PWB and organisational performance HR practices. The intended impact of this paper is to instigate a paradigm shift and shape a new trajectory of thinking about how employee PWB and organisational performance practices can exist side-by-side.     

‘Accounting Talk’ Through Metaphorical Representations: Change Agents and Organisational Change in Home-Based Elderly Care

This paper has analysed a change process within an organisation providing home-based elderly care. Using a theoretical framework from metaphor theory and insights from the literature on ‘accounting talk’, we followed how metaphorical representations of accounting were introduced and developed by the change agent. New core values and practices emerged within the home help unit that were in line with the ideas and inferences made by these accounting metaphors. The metaphorical representations of accounting concepts linked the unfamiliar domain of accounting to a more familiar domain, and provided rationales for organisational change. Our findings highlight the importance of change agents and ‘accounting talk’ for determining the trajectory of organisational change processes. The findings also suggest that metaphors are a potentially powerful tool for both changing organisational members’ general understanding of financial issues, and forging specific links between accounting concepts and work practices.     

Change within purchasing and supply management organisations – Assessing the claims from maturity models

It is a wide-held assumption that professional development and change within purchasing and supply management (PSM) organisations can be explained and guided by a maturity model. In this paper the guidance which the maturity model concept offers to understand a PSM organisation's performance is assessed. The methodology is based on the outcomes of a literature review of PSM maturity models, development of an organisational change framework and the learning from three qualitative case studies. An alternative understanding of the development of the PSM organisation is offered through an organisational change framework, composing 1) movement transitions, 2) scalability of change, 3) acceptability of change, and 4) the substantive element of change. The research found that extant PSM maturity models are too rigid for PSM managers to apply, and although maturity models are commonly accepted in PSM literature, in practice, they may produce the opposite effect of what is promised. The PSM maturity models suggest that their application will lead to increased status and influence of PSM within the organisation; expectations that may not be met. PSM organisations’ change processes are subjected to a range of situational and contextual power relations which must be considered in order to advance the specific PSM organisation roles and responsibilities.     

Responsibility accounting,managerial action and ‘a counter-ability’: Relating the physical and virtual spaces of decision-making

This study examines how the economic structures of responsibility accounting (RA) affect decision-making and managerial action. It analyses how decision rights transform and affect managerial action and argue that functionalist approaches to organising a company through RA principles are inexpedient. The argument is based on two spaces related to decision-making and managerial action – physical space and virtual space – and addresses the managerial effects of RA with respect to these spaces. The RA literature argues that the design of RA should be based on its context and its structure should be stable. However, the study presented here shows how the effects of RA emerge in a process of development and transformation of the organisation. When an organisation and its management control system cannot embrace the dynamism of the physical space, the resulting managerial actions and decision-making are tumultuous; accountability in this context means possessing ‘a counter-ability’, not being ‘accountable’. Accounting forms a virtual organisational space, and the relationships between physical and virtual spaces co-construct the organisational effects of RA.     

Shut the fridge door! HRM alignment,job redesign and energy performance

Anchored within the strategic HRM and alignment literature, and drawing on efficiency and legitimacy perspectives of organisational behaviour, we investigated a HRM intervention targeted at energy reduction goals in a large multinational retailer. The HRM intervention was focused on embedding the environmental and economic performance goals of the firm within the workplace through redesigning the job so that energy tasks were aligned with training and performance management systems, as well as organisational performance goals. Using a randomised control trial design, we tracked changes in energy behaviours and energy consumption in 769 retail stores (685 in the intervention condition, 84 in the control condition). The findings provide evidence that changing the alignment of HRM practices can influence both worker behaviour and organisational outcomes, including environmental outcomes. This work contributes to debates concerning the impact of HRM alignment on both the work and organisational performance context.     

Socialising employees’ trust in the organisation: an exploration of apprentices’ socialisation in two highly trusted companies

We present here our investigation into how corporate employers deliberately seek to foster and build employees’ trust in the organisation through socialisation tactics. Interestingly enough, such deliberate development of employees’ trust in the organisation has hitherto rarely been addressed in academic research. Using qualitative case study research methods, we have closely observed the trust socialisation process experienced by entrant employees, namely apprentices in two separate and highly trusted German companies. Our findings are consistent with former trust socialisation research in that they indicate the importance of high levels of perceived organisational support and of a convincing communication of organisational values and principles. However, our research emphasises further aspects of trust socialisation, such as psychological empowerment, the efficacy of formal organisational rules and especially sensegiving activities.     

Mind the gap: the role of HRM in creating,capturing and leveraging rare knowledge in hostile environments

Abstract

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly entered markets in less developed regions of the world afflicted with weak institutions and political conflict. Some are characterised by ‘extreme’ cases of institutional voids and terrorism, creating a hostile environment for the organisation and its people. This in-depth qualitative study of a service company, a European telecommunications joint venture in Afghanistan, seeks to shed light and build theory on the human resource management (HRM) dimension of managerial learning and knowledge acquisition in hostile environments, as part of the MNE’s organisational learning process. Specifically, we investigate how knowledge gaps can be addressed through supportive HR practices, and how knowledge classified as ‘rare’ can be captured and leveraged through HR interventions such as debriefing. We stipulate that HR practices and interventions adapted to hostile environments, together with expatriate willingness to learn and share new knowledge, play a critical role in the creation, capturing and leveraging of rare knowledge for subsequent use by the MNE in other hostile locations. The study has implications for international HRM and organisational resilience, under the proposition that competitive advantage can be gained through exploitation of rare knowledge acquired in hostile environments.     

Work‐life balance and the software worker

This article examines the impact of employer flexibility to work‐life issues and negative spillover from work to non‐work life on the attitudes of software developers. Software workers present an interesting case for work‐life balance issues – Ackroyd et al (2000) designate them the key occupation to examine in future studies of ‘knowledge workers’, and Barrett (2001) states that they are the ‘vanguard’ of new working practices, with the separation of work and life being substantially more ‘blurred’ than for more traditional occupations. Despite this general perception of the work‐life boundary, our results show that intrusion of work into private life for this group of workers still has a substantial impact on work‐related attitudes. Work‐life boundary variables affect trust in the organisation which plays a mediational role in these variables' relationship to job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Our results suggest that even within this industry, where employees are relatively individualistic in orientation, highly marketable and unlikely to show attachment to a single organisation, mutual gains for employee and employer can be attained by an accommodating approach to non‐work commitments which may lead to greater organisational attachment.     

Every flow has its ebb: The impact of flow on work–family conflict and adjustment in global careers

Despite an increase in research in psychology on the mental state of flow, little is known within the area of organisational studies about its “dark side.” Although prior organisational studies literature suggests that flow leads to generally positive work outcomes, we use conservation of resources theory to argue that expatriates in the state of flow can accumulate resources that lead to work adjustment but at the same time may experience unintended negative work–family conflict consequences. Specifically, we argue that being in the state of flow can improve expatriates' work adjustment because they can concentrate on the task at hand in an unencumbered way. Yet the exclusive concentration on work tasks and the distortion of time while in the state of flow may reduce psychological and time resources available to the family, resulting in work–family conflict. We explore whether flow theory needs to be altered to discover potentially negative work–family conflict outcomes inherent in the complex work regimes associated with global careers. Structural equation modelling analyses based on a sample of 230 expatriates in the United States and 169 expatriates in Brazil revealed that flow increased both work–family conflict and work adjustment.     

Intra- and interorganisational learning processes: an empirical comparison

The organisational learning literature has so far focused primarily on intraorganisational learning processes. However, during the last 10 years or so, a growing number of organisational learning studies have focused explicitly on interorganisational learning. So far this literature has concentrated on the requirements for such learning. Little attention has been devoted to examining the potentially unique dynamics of interorganisational learning processes. Consequently, few if any studies have examined whether interorganisational learning processes differ from traditional intraorganisational learning and, if so, in what respects. The purpose of this paper is to make an empirical comparison between intra- and interorganisational learning processes by drawing on a longitudinal qualitative case study of experiential learning processes within and between a business organisation and its partners, continued over a period of 3 years.     

Do social media enhance constructive employee voice all of the time or just some of the time?

Social media are becoming widely adopted by organisations to encourage collaboration and communication. We seek to understand how social media can enhance employee voice and employees' willingness to engage in constructive dialogue with both colleagues and managers. By drawing on literature on employee voice, signalling theory and personal control to analyse qualitative data from research into three strategic business units in a major global telecommunications corporation, we find that (a) employee perceptions of personal control and autonomy influence whether and how employees' exercise voice through social media, and (b) these perceptions vary according to different organisational/field‐level contexts evident in the corporation.     

Agile office work as embodied spatial practice: A spatial perspective on ‘open’ New Work environments

An increasing number of companies transform their traditional office spaces into open work environments, often as part of an effort for working relations to evolve away from rigid and hierarchical structures. Contrary to intentions, recent studies show how open office projects tend to re-produce social hierarchy and norms but say only little about how these socio-spatial structures come into being. In this study, we demonstrate how a workspace designed as ‘open’ is being (re-)produced and negotiated in everyday spatial practices. We investigate this question in an ethnographic research design using the example of office redesign at a German financial service company and from the perspective of social theories of space. First, we develop a critical perspective on the ‘new office’ by demonstrating that office work redesign is a political process. Through a focus on spatial practices of office work, we disclose movement and sound as crucial dimensions in the socio-political construction of ‘agile’ office work and of a social hierarchy in the open office. Second, based on our findings we propose that openness in organizational space, rather than being a design feature of a specific work environment, needs to be understood as a generative social process.     

Organisational ambidexterity and supply chain agility: the mediating role of external knowledge sharing and moderating role of competitive intelligence

The dynamic growth of a supply chain in an incessantly changing environment emanates from the dynamics of an organisation as well as its supply chain members. The primary aim of this research is to investigate the relationships between supply chain agility and its dynamic precursors including organisational ambidexterity and external knowledge sharing. The research further examines the moderating role of competitive intelligence for the relationship between organisational ambidexterity and supply chain agility. A sample of 381 respondents from chemical manufacturing companies in Vietnam produced the data for analysis. The research results shed light on the chain effect from organisational ambidexterity through external knowledge sharing to supply chain agility. The moderating role that CI plays in the relationship between organisational ambidexterity and supply chain agility was also verified. The findings from the research broaden supply chain literature through establishing the positive effect of organisational ambidexterity on supply chain agility with CI as a moderator for this effect.     

Towards a spatial perspective: An integrative review of research on organisational space

Although the notion of space has gained considerable attention in organisation studies, it remains vague, and the respective literature is fragmented. In this paper, we review the empirical literature on organisational space with the aim of synthesising the findings of existing research and thereby facilitating the development of cumulative knowledge in this field. We highlight three dominant concepts that define space: boundaries, distance and movement. Furthermore, we identify four major spatial themes: the distribution of positions in space, the isolation of space, the differentiation of spaces and the intersection of distinct spaces. On that basis, we develop a comprehensive research framework and propose an agenda for future research on organisations from a spatial perspective.     

The polyphonic spree: the case of the Liverpool Dockers

This paper is concerned with the possibilities opened up for Trade Unions by the internet age. The paper analyses forms of resistance, their preconditions and organisational backgrounds. It is argued that polyphonic organisation and, closely linked, new organisational forms, provide a strong basis for power relations and strategies of resistance. The paper starts with a brief introduction to the dispute between the Dockers of Liverpool and the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company. Contextualising the evolving issue in the broader picture of trade union crisis and renewal, the case study is theorised using linguistically informed approaches to management and organisation theory. Introducing these theoretical developments, the potential of new organisational forms for power relations and resistance are elaborated.     

HR,perceived organisational support and organisational identification: an analysis after organisational formation

Academic research has rarely investigated the role that people management plays in encouraging employees to identify with their employing organisation. This article reports on a study investigating the role that employee perceptions of the HR environment plays in encouraging organisational identification and the importance of perceived organisational support in this relationship. Two research surveys are discussed, one carried out shortly after the formation of the new organisation within the UK National Health Service, and one is a replication study undertaken 13 months later. The results show that key HR‐related factors predict organisational identification; this effect is both direct and indirect through perceptions of organisational support. The findings also demonstrate that, as the organisation matures, there are some interesting changes in which aspects of the HR environment predict identification and perceptions of organisational support.     

Knowledge and performance in an emerging telecommunication industry: The moderating role of organisational orientation

The ability of existing research to guide managerial decision making along a broad range of strategic orientations with which knowledge must be acquired, created, and utilised to improve organisational performance still remains an unfilled gap in the literature. Consequently, by adopting a wide range of organisational orientations that inherent knowledge‐based resources in the organisation can be applied, this paper examined the moderating effect of organisational orientation on the relationship between organisational knowledge and performance of telecommunication firms. Data were gathered using quantitative research approach. This involved the use of structured questionnaire from 230 managers and other administrative and technical employees of firms in the Global System for Mobile Communication submarket of Nigeria's telecommunications industry. The statistical analysis was subject to hierarchical multiple regression.     

The role of capital investment project teams in organisational learning

The management and organisation of capital projects in the British National Health Service (NHS) is dependent upon project teams. An analysis of four case studies shows how these teams also act as agents of learning for individuals and the organisation. This article considers the process by which learning came about. In particular it identifies the ability of the project teams to develop a parallel organisation within a wider organisational context. These teams develop specific rules, roles and relationships which help individual project team members to more effectively share their knowledge with others and their organisation.     

Winning at all costs: An exploration of bottom‐line mentality,Machiavellianism, and organisational citizenship behaviour

This study seeks to advance the bottom‐line mentality literature by exploring an antecedent and outcome of employee bottom‐line mentality. We build and test a moderated‐mediation model by arguing that the personality trait of Machiavellianism promotes an employee's adoption of a bottom‐line mentality. Moreover, drawing on trait activation theory, we argue that this relationship is fully activated when the employee perceives that the organisation endorses a bottom‐line mentality. To expand our theoretical model, we also suggest that employee bottom‐line mentality inhibits organisational citizenship behaviour directed towards co‐workers. Lastly, we investigate whether an employee's perception of an organisation's bottom‐line mentality conditionally moderates the indirect effect of Machiavellianism on organisational citizenship behaviour directed towards co‐workers through the mediated mechanism of employee bottom‐line mentality. Our theoretical model is tested across two distinct studies. Study 1, a field study conducted within a variety of organisations, provides evidence for our initial predictions (Hypotheses 1 and 2). Study 2, a multisource field study conducted in multiple industries, replicates and extends the findings from Study 1 by providing evidence for the entire moderated‐mediation model. We find support for our hypothesised model across both studies. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research are identified.