The relationship between employee performance management and civil servants’ turnover intentions: a test of the mediating roles of system satisfaction and affective commitment

In search of maximizing efficiency, public organizations found solace in the adoption of employee performance management (EPM) systems. While research supports that managing employees’ performance has favourable outcomes, it is still unclear why and under which conditions. Moreover, EPM systems might even create additional pressures and therefore increase turnover intentions and undermine public organization’s quest to maximize efficiency. We argue that when EPM systems are carried out consistently (i.e. internal consistency) and when they link civil servants’ individual goals to the organization’s strategic goals (i.e. vertical alignment), civil servants will be less likely to leave the organization. Hierarchical linear regression analysis shows that internal consistency relates to increased satisfaction with the EPM system and affective commitment to the organization. Vertical alignment relates to lower levels of turnover intentions. This relationship was mediated by EPM system satisfaction and affective commitment. These findings that contribute to our understanding of EPM systems can lead to favourable outcomes.     

The returns to formality and informality in urban Africa

This paper addresses the questions as to the size and causes of earnings differentials in two urban African labor markets, those of Ghana and Tanzania. We have panel data so we can ask how far time invariant unobservables, market ability for short, matters in the determination of earnings. We also have information on whether the individual is own self-employed, self-employed with employees, a private or public sector wage employee and the size of the enterprise in which wage employees work or which the self-employed owns. We find, mirroring work on developed economies, that unobserved individual market ability is by far the most important factor explaining the variance of earnings. With controls for such ability the gap between private wage employment and civil servants is about 50%. With controls for enterprise size we find that wage employees earn the same as the self-employed in both Ghana and Tanzania. Enterprise size matters. At most half of the OLS effect of size on earnings can be explained by unobservable ability. Workers in the largest firms are the high earners with wage rates which exceed those of civil servants. These results all assume exogenous movement. We find evidence that endogeneity bias may be serious and may be understating the extent of both the size effect and the private sector wage (negative) premium. The implications of our results for understanding the nature of formal and informal employment in Africa are discussed.     

Downsizing and survivor reactions in Malaysia: modelling antecedents and outcomes of psychological contract violation

This study provides an empirical test of a model of antecedents and consequences of psychological contract violation (PCV) caused by the experience of downsizing. A longitudinal survey method was used to collect data at two different points in time (a month after downsizing, and eight months later) from a sample of 281 survivors from a large Malaysian organization going through downsizing. Respondents were from the headquarters (HQ), factories and subsidiaries located across the country and were employed across hierarchical positions including managers, supervisors, technical, operating and administrative staff. A causal model is proposed and tested. The model proposes that the perception of justice and negative affectivity at time 1 (T1) predict PCV, which in turn predicts three attitudinal and behavioural outcomes of commitment, organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) and turnover intentions at time 2 (T2). Three variations of the model (fully-mediated, partially-mediated and unmediated) were tested with structural equation modelling. The results show that both the perception of justice and negative affectivity significantly predict PCV, and that there is a direct effect between PCV and commitment, an indirect effect between PCV and OCBs, and both direct and indirect effects between PCV and turnover intentions. The findings demonstrate the utility of psychological contact framework in explaining survivor reactions to downsizing.     

The nature of employee engagement: rethinking the employee–organization relationship

Research interest in the new concept of employee engagement has grown dramatically in recent years. Employee engagement represents a work-related state of mind characterized by feelings of vigor, fulfillment, enthusiasm, absorption and dedication. However, scholars are still ambivalent about its theoretical contribution to explaining the employee–organization relationship. The goal of the study is to strengthen the theoretical foundation of the employee engagement concept in light of this relationship. We first compared employee engagement to other close concepts such as psychological empowerment and psychological contract. We then examined its contribution to the explanation of work centrality over and above psychological empowerment and psychological contract. Our study is based on an interactive sample of 593 employees from both private and public organizations in Israel. Our findings demonstrate that employee engagement is distinct from psychological empowerment and psychological contract and has an incremental value for work centrality over and above psychological empowerment and psychological contract. Implications of our findings are discussed the light of the employee–organization relationship.     

Organizational Justice and Individuals' Withdrawal: Unlocking the Influence of Emotional Exhaustion

This study examined the relationships between organizational justice and withdrawal outcomes and whether emotional exhaustion was a mediator of these linkages. Data were obtained from 869 military personnel and civil servants; using structural equation modelling techniques, we examined an integrative model that combines justice and stress research. Our findings suggest that individuals' justice perceptions are related to their psychological health. As predicted, emotional exhaustion mediated the linkages between distributive and interpersonal (but not procedural and informational) justice and individuals' withdrawal reactions. Results showed that distributive and interpersonal justice negatively related to emotional exhaustion and emotional exhaustion negatively related to organizational commitment which, in turn, negatively influenced turnover intentions. These findings were observed even when controlling for the presence of contingent‐reward behaviours provided by supervisors and individuals' psychological empowerment.     

Public–private wage gap in Latin America (1992–2007): A matching approach

Using matching methods, we estimate the public–private wage gap for urban workers in eleven Latin American countries for the 1992–2007 period. These methods do not require any estimation of earnings equations and hence no validity-out-of-the-support assumptions; furthermore, this approach allows us to estimate not only the average wage gap but also its distribution. Our main findings indicate that the average public sector worker earns more than his/her private counterpart, and that this differential increased over the 1992–2007 period. Important differences along the wage distribution are also shown in the results; in fact, public servants in the highest percentiles of the wage distribution generally earn less than their private sector equivalents. Nonetheless, the percentile at which a positive wage gap becomes a wage penalty shifted over the period as the average wage gap experienced by most countries widened. Still, the most qualified public sector workers do face a wage penalty. Furthermore, indicators of government effectiveness show no relationship with the country ranking according to the public–private wage gap.     

Layoff victim's employment relationship with a new employer in Korea: effects of unmet tenure expectations on trust and psychological contract

Existing studies of psychological contract have largely focused on the effects of contract breach on employees' attitudes and the contract itself involving the same employer. Given that both workforce mobility and downsizing activities are increasing, it is important to understand how individuals' past employment experiences shape their relationships with their employers. The present study focuses on the effect of prior layoffs on relationships with new employers. We posit that furloughed workers experience layoff as a breach of the psychological contract of job security they have entered into with their employer. Longitudinal data collected from individuals who were re-employed following a layoff revealed that unmet tenure expectations in an employment relationship result in reduced trust in a new employer, which in turn negatively impacts the quality of psychological contracts with the new employer. The results also show that the relationship between unmet tenure expectations and trust was moderated by individual attributions regarding the cause of the layoff. The present findings suggest that the negative impact of contract breach experienced with one organization may carry over to subsequent organizational contexts.     

Firm-specific wage growth and changes in the labor market for managers

This paper analyzes recent changes in the employment relationships between managers and firms. In both Becker's and Lazear's models of firm-specific wage growth, compensation is deferred from early in an employee's tenure with a firm until later in the contract. The deferred compensation bonds the worker to the firm. Based on cross-sectional data from Current Population Surveys, rates of firm-specific wage growth are estimated for the managerial labor market. The findings show that the rate of wage growth that is firm-specific for managers in manufacturing industries declined significantly during the early 1980s. It is estimated, for example, that a manager with 12 years of tenure in a manufacturing firm enjoyed, on average, a 25% wage premium in 1979 over an otherwise similar manager who was a new hire in a firm. By 1983 the firm-specific wage premium for a manager with 12 years of tenure was only 5%. These changes represent a significant reduction in the strength of the employment bond between firms and managers, and a reduction in the incentive effects previously enjoyed by firms from the use of deferred-compensation schemes. This change is consistent with the significant increases in the displacement rates of managers that occurred during the 1980s.     

我国公务员远程培训的机遇和挑战分析

我国正处于社会转型期,新形势对政府公共服务及管理提出了新的要求。大规模培训公务员、大幅度提高公务员队伍的素质和能力时不我待。远程培训以它独特的优势将成为公务员培训的发展趋势。但是,开展公务员远程培训既面临着机遇,也面临着挑战……     

Dual roles in psychological contracts: When managers take both agent and principal roles

Departing from the long-espoused assumption that managers act only as agents in employees' psychological contract with the organization, this paper asserts that in addition to the agent role, some managers, in an attempt to further their own self-interests, form and enact their own psychological contracts as principals with select employees. The combination of these dual roles often yields unacknowledged but significantly negative consequences for the employing organizations, the managers who choose a principal role, and the select employees with whom they form a psychological contract. Drawing upon agency, psychological contract, and social exchange theories, we develop the distinctive characteristics of the agent vs. principal roles, identify the antecedents that motivate managers to assume a principal role, develop four archetypes for combining the dual roles, and suggest the potentially harmful consequences for the above three parties mentioned. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications and suggestions for future research.     

Inclusive human resource management in freelancers' employment relationships: The role of organizational needs and freelancers' psychological contracts

This study aimed to advance our understanding of inclusive human resource management (HRM) in freelance employment. We examined organizational needs and freelancers' psychological contracts with a qualitative interview study among eight dyads of HR managers and freelancers. Although the findings showed that organisations and freelancers have different interests, both parties agreed on what inclusive HRM entails in freelancers' employment relationships. However, within the dyads, the content of the psychological contract was not always viewed the same by HR managers and freelancers. Hence, negotiating mutual expectations when implementing inclusive HRM to avoid psychological contract breach appeared important. Furthermore, organizational needs did not seem to be considered when designing inclusive HRM. Due to this lack of strategic fit, organisations may waste opportunities of tapping into the full potential of hiring freelancers. The findings provide organisations insight in considering freelancers as potential sources of competitive advantage.     

Psychological contracts and reciprocity: a study in a Finnish context

Existing research has demonstrated how the norm of reciprocity operates as a general principle in exchange relationships. However, limited explicit theoretical and empirical attention has been paid to its role in the functioning of the psychological contract. Using a sample of Finnish public sector employees, this study investigated the impact of perceived employer fulfilment of psychological contract on employee perceptions of the form of reciprocity underlying the exchange relationship. The potential mediating role of the reciprocity perceptions between perceived contract fulfilment and its outcomes (affective commitment, continuance commitment and intention to leave) was also examined. The results show that perceived employer fulfilment is positively associated with employee perceptions of the generalized form of reciprocity, and negatively with perceptions of the balanced form of reciprocity. Further, perceptions of generalized reciprocity were found to mediate the relationship between perceived contract fulfilment and affective commitment and intentions to leave the organization. Results and implications are discussed.     

Employees' perceptions of HR investment and their efforts to remain internally employable: testing the exchange-based mechanisms of the ‘new psychological contract’

This study investigates the relationship between perceived investment in employee development (PIED) and the internal employability efforts that such perceptions are assumed to influence under the terms of the ‘new psychological contract’. A cross-sectional survey among 238 employees in a Norwegian IT and management consulting firm provides support that PIED relates positively to employees' openness to develop themselves and adapt to changing work requirements (‘internal employability orientation’) and their active pursuit of new competencies and career trajectories within the organization (‘internal employability activities’). However, our findings challenge widely held claims that investment in employee development elicits these responses by way of the reciprocal mechanisms of a social exchange relationship. While PIED is found to relate positively to employees' perceptions of a social exchange relationship with their organization, these positive exchange experiences are not supported to influence internal employability outcomes. Our findings do support, however, that PIED relates negatively to perceived economic exchange relationships that in turn undermine internal employability orientations. Suggestions for future research and implications for practice are discussed.     

员工心理契约契合度及其评价

作为维系员工与组织关系的心理纽带,员工心理契约的主观期望与实际感知的吻合程度直接影响到员工对于组织的态度与行为。以往文献中对员工心理契约主观期望与实际感知吻合程度的研究缺乏系统性。本文引入心理契约契合度概念,对员工心理契约主观期望与实际感知吻合程度进行测量,提出了构建心理契约契合度评价指标体系的思路及测量方法,最后结合某军工研究所某研发团队的实际情况,对成员心理契约契合度进行了评价。该研究为组织衡量员工心理契约主观期望与实际感知一致性的度量提供了科学依据,增强了心理契约在实际管理工作中的应用性。     

Linking job insecurity to well-being and organizational attitudes in Belgian workers: the role of security expectations and fairness

The aim of this study was to investigate how perceptions of job insecurity and fairness associate with individual well-being (job satisfaction and general health) and organizational attitudes (organizational commitment and turnover intention), under the condition that the psychological contract as perceived by the employee includes a promise on job security, or not. More specifically, we suggest that (H1) job insecurity is negatively related to individual well-being and organizational commitment and positively related to turnover intentions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H2) that job insecurity is negatively related to fairness perceptions when job security is expected as part of the psychological contract, (H3) that fairness associates positively with individual well-being and organizational commitment and negatively with turnover intentions and (H4) that the association between job insecurity, individual well-being and organizational outcomes is mediated by fairness under the condition that job security is expected as part of the psychological contract. Thus, we propose a model of mediated moderation. Results based on a sample of Belgian employees (N = 559) supported our hypotheses for organizational outcomes. For individual well-being, the mediation framework was not conditional upon a perceived promise of job security as part of the psychological contract. We conclude that employees' perceptions of job insecurity and fairness are important factors in employees' well-being and their attitudes towards the organization. More importantly, these perceptions can in part be shaped by organizational agents such as managers and supervisors. Additionally, the active utilization of the psychological contract in management strategies seems to have favourable results for the fostering of pro-organizational attitudes among employees.     

Human resource practices as communications and the psychological contract

This article examines the psychological contract and human resource practices as communications relevant to that contract. We argue that employees, at certain times only, systematically analyze their employers' HR practices for meaning vis-ri-vis their psychological contract. Judgments about the adequacy with which their psychological contracts are fulfilled result from such systematic analyses, and these judgments have important effects on employee commitment. Practical implications of our analysis are also discussed.     

Challenges and prospects of HRM in developing countries: testing the HRM–performance link in the Eritrean civil service

In this article, the authors examine how, when and to what extent HR practices affect performance at the employee level. As performance is a multi-faceted and complicated concept, HRM outcomes were used as mediating factors between HR practices and employee performance. The data were collected among civil servants in Eritrea, Africa's youngest and poorest country. Although the results generally are in line with previous studies using Western data, their implications in this particular country may be different. Therefore, the challenges and prospects of HR practices in Eritrean civil service organizations are critically analysed and discussed. In the authors' opinion, that the Eritrean economic and political environment within which HR practices operate has not been conducive in maximizing the impact of HR practices on performance. These findings highlight the situation of most developing countries.     

Academic scholarship,organization prestige,and the earnings of U.S. business school deans

This study models the market for business school deans as an outcome of a differential game between a university's central administration and the job candidates in the market for business school deans. In our model, the ability of a business school dean to advance the organization is enhanced by his or her own scholarly reputation, such that a job candidate chooses an optimal level of scholarship that relates to his or her marketability. In this way, the supply of scholarship (by job candidates) can be seen as the supply of job candidates in the market for business school deans, whereas the demand for scholarship can be seen as the demand for business school deans. The main features of our game‐theoretic model are tested using data from both national and regional business schools and colleges in the U.S. Econometric results indicate that each additional scholarly contribution by a business school dean generates a wage premium ranging from $1,000 to $1,200, whereas in the case of national institutions, each additional student enrolled at the doctoral (master's) level raises the wage by $671 ($56). Lastly, the production of between nine and 10 scholarly contributions is found to be necessary in order to face a 50% probability of holding a business school deanship at a national institution, whereas production of about 37 scholarly contributions leads to a 50% probability of holding a deanship with a named business school at a national institution.     

Profiling the desirable psychological contract for different groups of employees: evidence from Greece

This study aimed to examine potential variations in employees' perceptions of the desirable psychological contract, based on gender, age, and educational level. A total of 1145 employees – 642 of whom were female – aged between 18 and 64, who had attended all educational levels, participated in the study. T-tests and analyses of variance suggest that there is no uniform view of the psychological contract content among different groups of employees. With the exception of involvement with decision-making affecting the organization, women tend to expect more from their employment relationship. As for age groups, the ‘new generation’ emphasizes balance in personal life, the ‘old generation’ is rather indifferent, while the ‘desert generation’ is the most demanding and attached to the ‘old psychological contract’. Finally, individuals with at least college education have relatively increased expectations, with the exception of co-worker support for personal problems and continuous training.     

Challenges to the psychological contract in Hong Kong

This study investigates empirically the psychological contract of a sample of 205 Hong Kong junior and senior managers. It determines the perceptions of factors that employers and employees see as relevant to the employment relationship, and then analyses perceptions of and attitudes towards recent changes in the Hong Kong business environment. In addition to exploring the nature and content of manager's psychological contracts in Hong Kong, the study explores how contracts are related to and affected by both the external environment and internal management practices. A survey questionnaire is used to measure the promises and commitments perceived to have been made by organizations, and the obligations that employees perceive they owe to their employer. In addition, the actual policies and practices of the employing organizations are determined. The impact of the HRM climate of the employing organizations (actual policies and practices) and the attitudes, expectations and feelings of organizational members about ongoing changes in the business and management environment on this exchange relationship are isolated. The study makes two contributions to the psychological contract literature: it examines the relevance of a psychological contract approach in a nonWestern geographical region; and it moves the concept of HRM preferences more centrally into the psychological contracting literature. This enables a better understanding of the construct in relation to the comparative management literature. The content of the psychological contract is shown to be multi-dimensional. Perceptions of organizational commitments and promises focus around four judgements: an intrinsically satisfying and challenging environment; a secure and rewarding job; equity; and supportive leadership. By Western standards the employee side of the employment relationship 'deal' is more one-sided. The proportion of managers who believe employees are strongly obligated to do certain things for their employers is very high. The study examines the factors that predict employees' psychological contracts. Actual HRM practices are shown to predict perceived commitments and obligations, and the strength of obligation is related to perceived promises and commitments. In contrast to the emphasis on the internal cognitive and individualized conception of the psychological contract in much of the literature, this study indicates that this decontextualizes psychological contracts. The true nature of a psychological contract is shown to be an exchange relationship firmly linked to a culture's reciprocity norms.