Social expectations,gender and job satisfaction: Front‐line employees in China's retail sector

This study aims to enhance our understanding of gender and employment in China. Analysing data collected from over 1,800 employees at 22 foreign‐invested and locally owned retail stores in eight Chinese cities, it firstly explores whether, like their counterparts in Western countries, female employees have higher levels of job satisfaction than their male colleagues. Secondly, it distinguishes the key differential predictors of female and male employees' job satisfaction levels. This article extends gender role theory on job satisfaction by showing how traditional values, the structure of work and a nation's dominant gender ideology combine to shape women and men's job satisfaction and work experiences in a transitional context.     

External communication behaviour of purchasers—effects on supplier management performance

This article presents findings of a research effort that focuses on the relationships among the external communication behaviour of purchasers, individual and contextual factors and the performance in supplier management. Communication quantity, openness and friendliness were identified as dimensions of individual communication behaviour. Information and relationship quality were used as the two dimensions of communication quality. The results, based on structural equation analysis, provide support for the positive influence of individual communication behaviour on communication quality and supplier management performance. Results suggest that relationship quality appears to be of great significance in the model. Oral communication capability and purchasers’ attitudes towards individual communication with suppliers also play important roles in explaining external communication behaviour of purchasers.     

A framework for understanding the effects of past experiences on justice expectations and perceptions of human resource inclusion practices

As organizational diversity becomes increasingly common, human resource departments must learn to effectively manage heterogeneity through the development of inclusionary practices. Although HR diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices seem like an adequate solution to workplace diversity, employee past experience and anticipatory justice regarding the fairness of HR initiatives may offer an explanation as to why such practices are not always successful at leading to positive perceptions and outcomes across employees. To begin to address this question, we use theory on uncertainty management to describe the role of cognitive biases on recollections of past experiences, and the role of anticipatory justice on fairness perceptions. Moreover, we argue for several moderators of the past experience—justice expectations and of the justice expectation—justice perceptions relationships. The contributions of this proposed framework are discussed as are directions for future research and practical implications.     

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.     

Examining the impacts of community and organization embeddedness on self-initiated expatriates: the moderating role of expatriate-dominated private sector

With a newly developed dimension of the job embeddedness construct and the aim to better understand turnover, this study investigates the relationships of job embeddedness with shocks and turnover intention for an important emerging group in the worldwide workforce – self-initiated expatriates (SEs). We consider three embedding factors: individuals' community embeddedness towards their home country (home country community embeddedness – HomeCCE – newly developed), embeddedness towards the organization in which they are employed in the host country (host country organization embeddedness – HostCOE) and embeddedness towards the host country community (host country community embeddedness – HostCCE). Structural equation modelling is applied to a sample of SEs from 10 three-star to five-star hotels in the Macau SAR of China. This research shows that HostCOE plays a mediating role between a SEs' HomeCCE and turnover intention and willingness to accept unsolicited job offers; and these mediated relationships are moderated by the variables: expatriate-dominated private sector and the SEs' HostCCE. These findings shed light on factors that affect the retention of SEs and have implications for management and future research.     

Exploring the determinants of anti-mafia entrepreneurial behaviour: an empirical study on southern Italian SMEs

This study analyses organized crime from an economic perspective and highlights the crucial role of extortion in mafia activities. From an economic viewpoint, we debate the conditions that lead companies to resist mafia extortion. To study the reactions of firms to extortion, we adopt an institutional perspective and consider the contribution of different theories in the socially responsible behaviour and organized crime literature, in an attempt to understand this complex entrepreneurial behaviour better. A sample of 116 southern Italian SMEs, whose entrepreneurs have publicly opposed mafia extortion, was selected. By adopting a matched-pair design, anti-mafia firms were subsequently matched against a control sample. Determinants of anti-mafia behaviour were investigated by using both unconditional and conditional logistic regression models, in order to regress the anti-mafia choice on a set of economic, demographic, governance, and control variables. The results show that both financial and governance variables are significant determinants of anti-mafia entrepreneurial behaviour (AEB), whereas demographic variables are not relevant.     

Evaluating the prospective effects of alternative regulatory policies on the investment behaviour and environmental performance of a newly liberalised electricity industry in Taiwan

The research explores the potential effects of alternative regulatory policies for electricity market liberalisation on the investment behaviour and environmental performance of the electricity industry in Taiwan. The results provide insights into how the electricity market might evolve under the proposed reform scheme and other possible scenarios. This paper begins by reviewing the characteristics of the industry and how it has developed so far, and follows by studying the planned liberalisation agenda and the main purposes of the regulatory policies. Whether the liberalised electricity market will develop in a desirable direction is investigated by analysing investors’ aspirations for the market and their possible reactions to regulatory policies. The paper focuses on the investment decisions of the generation sector and concludes with assessments of the implications for security of supply, fuel diversity, electricity price and the environment.     

Embeddedness across contexts: A two‐country study on the additive and buffering effects of job embeddedness on employee turnover

Despite the growing body of literature on the effects of job embeddedness on turnover, there are few studies on how job embeddedness operates in different countries. This study, based on the Conservation of Resources theory, addresses this research gap by investigating both the additive and the buffering effects of on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness using employee data from China (n = 373) and Switzerland (n = 268). Results showed that on‐the‐job embeddedness reduced the likelihood of turnover more strongly in Switzerland than in China (additive effect). Additionally, in China, the unsolicited job offer–turnover relationship was stronger when employees had lower levels of off‐the‐job embeddedness (buffering effect). This research contributes to the understanding of the relative role of on‐the‐job and off‐the‐job embeddedness for turnover in different countries.     

Unhappy with well-being research in the temporary work context: mapping review and research agenda

Abstract

While temporary workers’ specific employment circumstances strongly suggest negative consequences for their well-being, research on temporary workers’ well-being shows serious inconsistencies. To identify possible reasons, we provide an overview of previous well-being research in the temporary work context. The mapping review shows that inconsistencies are caused both by the use of the umbrella term temporary work to describe a wider range of employment forms with divergent characteristics and the use of the buzzword well-being for various well-being indicators. In addition, the portfolio of employment-specific antecedents used is insufficient to gain a comprehensive view of temporary workers’ well-being situation. Based on these findings, we propose an agenda for future well-being research in the temporary work context. A first key implication is that analyses considering country-specific circumstances and employment-specific characteristics of particular atypical employment situations are needed. Secondly, a more comprehensive portfolio of employment-specific and individual antecedents would help with gaining deeper insights into temporary workers’ well-being situation. In addition, effects of well-being on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes should be analyzed to demonstrate the return on investment of organizations’ well-being enhancing activities. Finally, well-being oriented HR practices and their implementation in the temporary work context are part of the proposed research agenda.     

Personality and the creativity of frontline service employees: linear and curvilinear effects

Abstract

Previous studies have investigated the relationship between the Five-Factor model of personality and creativity. As this model has been criticised for providing a limited account of an individual’s personality, this study considers additional personality traits that have recently been investigated in the literature as determinants of employee behaviour. Moreover, we also contribute to the existing body of literature by conducting this study in a service setting, for which we predict personality traits will exert differentiated effects on creativity when compared to other settings. Finally, while past research has focused on linear effects, this study examines the existence of non-linear effects between personality and creativity. The results indicate that personality traits apart from the Five-Factor model have an impact on creativity and that the effects of several personality traits on the creativity of frontline service employees differ from those obtained in other settings. Lastly, the findings also show that five of the personality traits have non-linear effects on creativity, and this may be a stimulus for a new stream of research in the human resources literature.     

The challenge of responsibilities: Confronting the revolution in workplace rights in modern organizations

The contemporary world of work is experiencing a revolution in workplace rights thinking and practices. Included among factors related to this are professionalization and technocracy, management orthodoxy, corrupt organizational structures, the moral ineptitude of business education, the increasing size of the working population, worker mobility, worker diversity and the variegated cultural milieu, the growth of highly paid and very powerful workers, favorable solons, and supportive justices. Demands for protection and respect of rights are expressed in a variety of ways ranging from the statutory or economic to the ethical or psychological. Because of the correlative link between rights and responsibilities, organizational researchers and practitioners should be concerned with identifying various responsibilities implied by various employer and employee rights. Of equal importance is the challenge of examining in detail these responsibilities and how the strategies suggested by them can be used to manage specific employee rights in the contemporary workplace.     

At the Expense of others: Altruistic helping behaviour,performance management and transformational leadership

This article explores the influence of performance management (PM) and transformational leadership (TL) on altruistic helping behaviour (AHB). We argue that PM and TL provide alternative value frameworks against which employees will evaluate costs associated with AHB, and that consequently their influence may be interdependent. The results of regression analysis suggest that TL exerts a stronger influence on AHB in organizations that also have strong PM-based human resource systems, and that PM’s negative effects are stronger when leadership is weak. We conclude that leadership may be an important factor in determining whether public organizations can reap the benefits of PM.     

Human resource management practices and voluntary turnover: a study of internal workforce and external labor market contingencies

We tested relationships between employee quit rates and two bundles of human resource (HR) practices that reflect the different interests of the two parties involved in the employment relationship. To understand the boundary conditions for these effects, we examined an external contingency proposed to influence the exchange-based effects of HR practices on subsequent quit rates – the local industry-specific unemployment rate – and an internal contingency proposed to shape employees’ conceptualization of their exchange relationship – their employment status (i.e. full-time, part-time and temporary employment). Analyses of lagged data from over 200 Canadian establishments show that inducement HR practices (e.g. extensive benefits) and performance expectation HR practices (e.g. performance-based bonuses) had different effects on quit rates, and the former effect was moderated by unemployment rate. The effects of HR practices on quit rates did not differ between FT and PT employees, but a different pattern of main and interactive effects was found among temporary workers. These findings suggest that employees’ exchange-based decisions to leave may be less affected by the number of hours they expect to work each week, and more by the number of weeks they expect to work.     

Theorising determinants of employee voice: an integrative model across disciplines and levels of analysis

This article critiques organisational behaviour (OB) research on employee voice and presents a broader‐based conceptual model that integrates ideas and concepts across employment relationship disciplines and levels of analysis. OB studies err by taking an overly individualistic, psychological, managerialist and de‐institutionalised perspective on employee voice. This criticism is documented and illustrated with numerous examples from the OB literature. To provide a constructive step forward, the article presents an enlarged model of employee voice that not only includes OB but also brings in important contributions from the HRM, industrial relations, labour economics and labour process fields. The model provides an integrative framework for theoretical and empirical studies of voice and yields a number of research and practice implications.     

Circular economy and sustainability: The role of organizational behaviour in the transition journey

Implementing circular economy (CE) requires complex and dynamic changes in technical and behavioural aspects. Few studies spend efforts to understand the organizational behavioural side of CE transition. Thus, this study proposes a theoretical framework that addresses the requirements for the transition towards CE from the organizational perspective. We conducted a systematic review aiming to identify the relations between CE and organizational culture. As a result, we developed a theoretical framework composed of five building blocks (mindsets, values, behaviours, capabilities and competences) that guide the transition towards a CE-oriented culture aiming to achieve sustainability in business. We also identified several gaps for future researches. We concluded that the framework could enrich the literature discussion in the field and be used by practitioners for the identification of paths to implement CE from the organizational culture perspective. In addition, the use of this framework could lead to the achievement of the sustainable development.     

研究生就业观的调查与思考——以西安电子科技大学为例

研究生就业竞争日趋激烈,就业工作面临严峻挑战。就业观是研究生就业的基本导向。调研发现研究生在择业过程中心态积极、地域选择理性、单位选择多元、薪资期望偏高、个人主义倾向严重,同时创业意识淡薄,期望深入有效的就业指导。因此,就业工作中应进一步通过思想政治教育、精细化的就业指导服务、开设创新创业教育和做好信息服务体系建设,帮助研究生树立高远的职业理想、建立合理的就业期望、搭建良好的就业平台,提升研究生就业满意度。     

Agent-based simulation of consumer purchase behaviour based on quality,price and promotion

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the influence factors in consumer purchase behaviour. First, through reading and analysing the related paper, the authors summarise a lot of influence factors. Second, combined with the theme of the study, experts and scholars discuss these influence factors and choose quality, price and promotion of commodity as the object of this paper. Third, this paper presents an agent-based model and simulation method on the consumer purchase behaviours based on quality, price and promotion of commodity. The utility function is used to describe the model, which is implemented under NetLogo simulation environment. The results show that the proposed model can analyse and predict the effects of different quality, price and promotion strategies by the emergence of consumer purchase behaviour.     

Gender and organisational position: predicting victimisation of cyberbullying behaviour in working life

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible predictors of cyberbullying behaviour in working life by examining previously known predictors of face-to-face bullying as well as demographic variables such as gender and formal position in the work organisation. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on a random sample of 3371 respondents. The results show that a poor social climate at work predicted exposure to cyberbullying behaviour. The study also found differences related to gender and organisational position. While low support from managers was related to higher exposure to cyberbullying behaviours for men managers, men non-managers and women non-managers, this relation did not apply to women managers. For women managers alone, low support from colleagues was associated with exposure to cyberbullying behaviours. Further, only for women managers age had no protective effect of exposure to cyberbullying behaviour. These findings imply that men and women have different social experiences in terms of holding power in working life. As women managers are in a minority in working life, other factors may be involved in predicting exposure to cyberbullying behaviour for women managers than for the other three groups. This article contributes to the sparse knowledge on cyberbullying in working life by recognising triggering factors.     

Encouraging employees to co-operate: the effects of sponsored training and promotion practices on employees' willingness to work overtime

The ‘mutual-investment’ model argues that when employers invest more in the social exchange relationship between them and their employees, their employees will show more effort. In this paper we relate the ‘mutual-investment’ model to training and promotion (possibilities) and examine if these kinds of career-enhancing measures influence the willingness of employees within organizations to work overtime. To test this hypothesis, a vignette experiment was conducted in five organizations (N = 388; 1,531 vignettes). Multilevel analyses show that employees are more willing to work overtime when their employer has provided for training, when the employee recently was promoted, when the supervisor was supportive in the past and when co-workers approve of working overtime and behave similarly. But we did not find that future promotion chances affect willingness to work overtime.     

The effects of HRM practices and antecedents on organizational commitment among university employees

This paper examines which factors affect organizational commitment among Dutch university employees in two faculties with different academic identities (separatist versus hegemonist, Stiles, 2004 Stiles, D. 2004. Narcissus Revisited: The Values of Management Academics and their Role in Business School Strategies in the UK and Canada. British Journal of Management, 15(2): 157–75. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The analyses of Web survey data reveal that in the separatist faculty decentralization, compensation, training/development, positional tenure and career mobility have significant effects. Age, organizational tenure, level of autonomy, working hours, social involvement and personal importance significantly affect the employees' organizational commitment in the hegemonist faculty. Participation, social interactions and job level are factors that are important in both faculties. The findings indicate that the set of factors affecting the organizational commitment of employees differs between the separatist and hegemonist faculties. The findings empirically support the argument that different configurations or ‘bundles’ of HRM practices (Delery and Doty, 1996 Delery, J.E. and Doty, D.H. 1996. Modes of Theorizing in Strategic Human Resource Management: Tests of Universalistic, Contingency, and Configurational Performance Predictions. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4): 802–35. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Guest, 1997 Guest, D.E. 1997. Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review and Research Agenda. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8(3): 263–76. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) are suited for organizations with different identities. Explanations for the observed relationships, implications and limitations of the study are discussed.