Fine‐tuning what we know about employees' experience with flexible work arrangements and their job attitudes

Prior research has generally found positive relationships between flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and employee attitudes. However, we know relatively little about organizational contingencies that affect the strength of these relationships, as there is little multilevel, multicompany research on FWAs. This study explores three aspects of employees' experience with FWAs—perceived availability of the number of FWAs, different types of FWAs, and actual use of FWAs—and their corresponding effects on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Using a large multicompany data set (1,799 companies, 17,895 workers), we found that employees who perceive more FWAs available to them have higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment, especially in organizations that report offering fewer formal FWA policies. Among different types of FWAs, perceived availability of flexible scheduling is more positively associated with job satisfaction than flexible location and hours, and both flexible scheduling and location are more positively associated with organizational commitment than flexible number of hours. We also found that employees who actually use flexible scheduling have lower job satisfaction and organizational commitment than those who have it available but do not use it. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Held captive in the office: an investigation into long working hours among Korean employees

Although working long hours is a common practice, scholars still know little about what really causes employees to work long hours. Drawing on social information processing and social learning theory, this study examines the role of social contextual antecedents (i.e. supervisor working hours and the perceived overtime climate of one’s workgroup) in influencing employee working hours, after controlling for individual background and job characteristics. Further, we examine whether such relationships are contingent on employees’ individual differences in their identification with leader and a collectivist tendency. A field study of 200 supervisor-subordinate dyads in South Korea revealed a strong positive relationship between the contextual antecedents and employees’ working hours, as well as the moderating effects of the two individual difference variables. Specifically, we found that the relationship between supervisor working hours and employee working hours was more positive for low identifiers than for high identifiers, while the relationship between the perceived overtime climate and employee working hours was more positive for those low in collectivism than for those high in collectivism. Finally, we found that working long hours was associated with lower job satisfaction, higher psychological distress, lower in-role performance, but not with organizational citizenship behavior.     

Putting employee involvement in context: a cross-level model examining job satisfaction and absenteeism in high-involvement work systems

The current study examines how high-involvement work systems (HIWS) influence employee responses to involvement initiatives. While existing research has linked HIWS to individual attitudes, we predict that an organization's HIWS moderate the relationship between employee involvement and job satisfaction and absenteeism. Using multilevel data (8454 employees from 1429 workplaces), we found that employee involvement and HIWS are positively related to employee job satisfaction. Additionally, the results support a cross-level interaction: at high levels of HIWS, employee involvement is negatively related to absenteeism, whereas at low levels of HIWS, the negative relationship is weaker. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Responses to work intensification: does generation matter?

Work intensification can be an organisational tool to increase the productivity of an existing workforce. We investigate employee reactions to three levels of sustained extensive work intensification (long work hours over two consecutive time periods) of the two most prevalent generational groups in the labour market: Generation X and Baby Boomers. Boomers have been characterised as ‘workaholics’ who ‘live to work’, while Gen Xers are ‘slackers’ who ‘work to live’. We investigate, using a nationally representative sample of employees, whether these generational differences in work attitudes impact employee reactions (measured by employee reports of job satisfaction and work–life balance) to sustained extensive work intensification. The results show that perceptions of job satisfaction and work–life balance are reduced by sustained extensive work intensification but the differences between the two generations are minimal, suggesting that organisations do not need to tailor their employment practices to fit the work values of different generations.     

Benefits and Disadvantages of Individuals’ Multiple Team Membership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Tenure

Many employees in today’s organizations are involved in more than one team at the same time. Building on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study investigates potential benefits and disadvantages of such multiple team membership (MTM) for individual employees. Furthermore, we extend this framework with insights from the job demands-resources model to propose that, depending on an employee’s organizational tenure, individual MTM will differentially shape his or her perceptions of work challenge and role ambiguity, subsequently influencing the employee’s job performance and absenteeism. We tested our conceptual model using time-lagged multi-source data from a large organization of applied research (N = 1211). Our results demonstrate that, for employees with relatively low organizational tenure, MTM was negatively associated with perceived work challenge and positively associated with perceived role ambiguity, which in turn associated with lower job performance and higher absenteeism. For employees with higher organizational tenure, by contrast, MTM associated positively with their work challenge perceptions and subsequent performance outcomes, whereas MTM was unrelated to perceived role ambiguity as well as absenteeism. These findings identify relevant psychological mechanisms and a key contingency factor that explain when and why MTM may have positive or negative individual-level consequences.     

Flexible Working,Individual Performance,and Employee Attitudes: Comparing Formal and Informal Arrangements

In the context of a wider trend to individualize human resource management, this article examines the relationship between flexible working arrangements and individual performance. Drawing on a range of theories, this article also examines potential indirect effects on employee performance via job satisfaction and organizational commitment and analyzes whether these relationships vary according to whether the arrangement was set up through a formal process or negotiated informally between the employee and his or her line manager. Extant research has tended to focus on formal arrangements, however, informal arrangements are widespread and may better accommodate work‐life preferences, thereby potentially fostering more positive attitudes from employees. Survey data from 2,617 employees in four large organizations with well‐established flexible working policies are analyzed. Results from structural equation models show average positive indirect effects from informal flexible working, but also negative direct effects from formal flexible working. When two forms of flexible working amenable to being set up by both formal and informal means are examined separately, formal arrangements for flexibility over working hours are found to be negatively associated with performance, but also a source of greater job satisfaction; informal remote working arrangements have positive indirect effects via organizational commitment and job satisfaction on worker performance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Sickness Presenteeism, Sickness Absenteeism, and Health Following Restructuring in a Public Service Organization

abstract    This study examined the relationship between sickness presenteeism, sickness absenteeism, organizational outcomes and employee health. In particular, we wanted to investigate to what degree employees were substituting sickness presence for sickness absence. Three hypotheses were tested to formalize this 'substitution proposition'. We surveyed a Canadian public service organization which was involved in a large scale downsizing initiative. For this study, 237 Personnel Corporation (pseudonym used) employees responded to the survey, representing a 66 per cent response rate. Survey results indicated that, while the workforce was of average health, sickness absenteeism was less than half that of the national average. The difference could be accounted for by sickness presenteeism – the average number of days employees attended work while ill or injured was greater than the number of days of sickness absence. The pattern of results supported the notion that employees were substituting presenteeism for absenteeism. The frequency and type of self-reported health problems were highly similar for presenteeism and absenteeism. Work factors (e.g. job security, supervisor support and job satisfaction) tested were significantly correlated with presenteeism. Presenteeism appears to be a stronger predictor of health than absenteeism, suggesting that efforts to improve workplace health may have a more immediate impact on presenteeism than on absenteeism.     

A meta‐analysis of the non‐monetary effects of employee health management programs

This study was undertaken to review the literature on employee health management programs (EHMPs). We explored the history and characteristics of systematic organizational efforts to improve workforce health and well‐being. We believe that a historical perspective provides some insight into the economic, political, and social factors that have influenced the trend toward organizationally sanctioned health‐promotion efforts. Further, we investigated the likely effects of these programs on valued‐behavioral organizational outcomes such as employee performance, employee satisfaction, absenteeism, and voluntary turnover. Our findings show that voluntary general‐focus programs are unrelated to job performance, and voluntary programs are negatively related to absenteeism, but effects on absenteeism wane when the program is not voluntary. Moreover, EHMPs are minimally related to job satisfaction and slightly related to turnover. These results, examining behavioral outcomes of EHMPs, question the ability of EHMPs to provide desired behavioral changes in employees, changes that organizations seek to maximize such as increased performance. Are EHMPs more than just socially acceptable programs that help individuals with health problems? © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Investment in staff development within an emergency services organisation: comparing future intention of volunteers and paid employees

Path models were evaluated to explore the impact of job satisfaction as mediator of the relationship between perceived investment in employee development (PIED) and the adequacy and availability of training on turnover intention. Models were compared for volunteers (n = 2,306) and paid employees (n = 274) within the one emergency services organisation. Results indicated that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between PIED and intention to stay for both volunteers and paid employees. PIED was a stronger predictor of job satisfaction for paid employees, while support and recognition was a stronger predictor of job satisfaction for volunteers. Results highlight the indirect role of PIED on turnover intentions. Findings also support the notion of tailored employee development programmes that enhance job satisfaction. Further, PIED may be more salient to the turnover intentions of paid employees, while support and recognition may be a key motivator of volunteers' ongoing commitment to the organisation.     

In the eye of the beholder: Employee sexual orientation,perceived supervisory support for life beyond work and job satisfaction

We adopt congruence theory to compare perceptions of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual employees between perceived supervisory support on life beyond work (LBW) and job satisfaction and the effect of life‐to‐work conflict (LWC). Using the 2011 UK WERS data and applying multilevel modelling, we find no incongruence between the two groups of employees on job satisfaction. We find a significant perceptual incongruence in the relation between supervisory support on LBW and job satisfaction. While the relation was positive for both groups, it was stronger for heterosexual than LGB employees. We also find significant perceptual incongruence when we add LWC. Specifically, as LWC increases, the positive relation between supervisory support on LBW and job satisfaction becomes stronger for LGB than heterosexual employees. This last finding may be the most interesting as it may place the concept of identity‐based conflict primarily in the life‐to‐work domain of LGB employees.     

Unions and the economic basis of attitudes

Unions make differences to employee satisfaction that correspond to their effects on individual economic advantage. Panel data reveal how changes in economic circumstance and changes in job satisfaction are linked to changes in union coverage. When individuals move into a union covered job they receive a wage mark‐up and express enhanced pay satisfaction. Conversely, those moving from a union covered job on average lose any mark‐up and have significantly reduced satisfaction. Similar findings emerge for working hours. On average individuals prefer shorter hours, something they tend (not) to achieve on moving (out of) into a unionised job, resulting in higher (lower) satisfaction. Switching into union coverage lowers satisfaction with job security, even though coverage has no effect on the risk of unemployment. This is because covered employees suffer greater costs of re‐employment for a given level of unemployment risk, partly because of loss of the union mark‐up.     

Examining the link between flexible working arrangement bundles and employee work effort

Empirical evidence regarding the link between flexible working arrangements (FWAs) and work effort is mixed, with the literature showing that some practices are linked to more while others to less work effort. In this study, we argue that this discrepancy may be due to the existence of different types of FWA bundles with potentially distinct effects on work effort. Using Understanding Society, a British national survey, and building on theories related to social exchange, the study examines the link between employee‐centered and employer‐centered FWA bundles, and work effort. This study further tests whether these relationships differ depending on employees' family responsibilities. Based on a sample of 13,834 employees, results show that both employee‐centered and employer‐centered FWA bundles are negatively associated with work effort, and findings for the latter bundle are more pronounced. These negative associations are somewhat stronger for employees with fewer family responsibilities. We infer that employees appear to use employee‐centered FWAs for their intended purpose, that is, to balance life and job demands, while they might perceive employer‐centered FWAs as unfair, resulting in less work effort in an attempt to restore fairness.     

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.     

Job Assignments under Moral Hazard: The Peter Principle Revisited

We show that inefficient job assignments arise in organizations even if there is full information about employees’ types and complete contracts are possible. Our model also provides a new perspective on the Peter Principle: the output of an employee who is promoted into a job for which he is not well suited need not decline postpromotion, because he is pushed to exert more effort. Although promotions are desirable for most employees, they make the least able in a hierarchy level worse off: for them earnings increase only because they work harder to compensate for their “incompetence.”     

Task Conflict and Employee Creativity: The Critical Roles of Learning Orientation and Goal Congruence

We add to human resource literature by investigating how the contribution of task conflict to employee creativity depends on employees’ learning orientation and their goal congruence with organizational peers. We postulate a positive relationship between task conflict and employee creativity and predict that this relationship is augmented by learning orientation but attenuated by goal congruence. We also argue that the mitigating effect of goal congruence is more salient among employees who exhibit a low learning orientation. Our results, captured from employees and their supervisors in a large, Mexican‐based organization, confirm these hypotheses. The findings have important implications for human resource managers who seek to foster creativity among employees. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impacts of shiftwork on employees

This study examines the impacts of shiftwork on shift workers with regard to their employment, health, family and social lives, and explores the moderating effects of demographic variables. It is argued that shiftwork attracts many people because shift workers receive competitive income, without requiring tertiary education, that can be increased by long shifts and weekend work. Generally, although shiftwork does not lead to increased employee turnover the retiring age of shift workers is relatively younger than in other sectors. Shiftwork contributes to increased absenteeism, especially among younger employees and those who have been doing shiftwork for only a short period. It is unlikely for shift workers to moonlight. Shiftwork affects employee health, family and social lives, personal and workplace relationships, and communication skills. While older workers become tired more easily and less motivated, younger workers tend to experience higher rates of absenteeism. Employees who have been in the workplace longer are likely to have higher turnover. Married employees with children are likely to be affected the most in terms of family life and marriage. Gender and type of job do seem to be moderating factors. The contributions to literature and practical implications are also discussed.     

The relationship between ‘high-performance work practices’ and employee attitudes: an investigation of additive and interaction effects

In order to improve our understanding of mediating variables inside the ‘black box’ of the firm's labour management, this paper examines the relationship between high-performance work system (HPWS) practices and employee attitudes. Using a randomly selected, national population sample, clear evidence was found for a positive relationship between HPWS practices and the attitudinal variables of job satisfaction, trust in management, and organizational commitment, implying that HPWS can provide win-win outcomes for employees and employers. However, the study also tests – from an employee perspective – the ‘complementarities thesis’ and finds negative interaction effects among HPWS practices. This strengthens the argument that there are likely to be limits to the positive outcomes of HPWSs for employees. Evidence of sequencing in the employee attitudinal responses to HPWSs was also found, with job satisfaction as the key mediating variable.     

Reducing employee turnover through customer contact center job quality

Despite the rapid growth of customer contact centers (CCCs), high-quality jobs for employees of such centers remain a challenge, as evidenced by the high employee turnover rates in this industry. This study, therefore, conceptualizes and operationalizes a CCC job quality construct to determine its impact on job satisfaction, affective commitment and employee turnover, using a sample of 577 CCC employees of B2C service industry organizations in the Netherlands. An extensive quantitative study using structural equation modeling reveals that CCC job quality has a direct, positive impact on job satisfaction and affective commitment and a strong indirect negative effect on employee turnover. Thus, job quality is crucial for reducing employee turnover rates; this study offers managers clear guidelines on how to improve that quality.     

Moderating effect of employee perception of responsible downsizing on job satisfaction and innovation commitment

Abstract

Firms strive to innovate and enhance their competitive advantage. However, firm innovation relies on employee willingness to innovate. Therefore, how job satisfaction motivates employees to innovate has become a crucial topic. Additionally, for firms implementing a downsizing strategy to achieve a competitive edge, employee perception of downsizing may moderate the effect of employee job satisfaction on innovation commitment. To investigate the relationships between critical variables and employee innovation, we studied 277 nonsupervisory employees and three groups of stakeholders in a company and employed quantitative and qualitative methods to examine our research construct. The results revealed that job satisfaction regarding direct supervisors, pressure at work, peer relations, support of family, and health substantially affected employee innovation commitment. Employee perception of responsible downsizing strategy altered the influence of these factors. The findings of this research construct can guide organizational research and managerial practices.     

Person or Job? Change in Person-Job Fit and Its Impact on Employee Work Attitudes over Time

Fit is generally conceptualized as a dynamic construct, but most research on person-environment fit has focused on fit in the current moment. We addressed this oversight by examining the dynamic relationships among person-job (PJ) fit, demand-ability (DA) fit, need-supply (NS) fit, and employee work attitudes over time using a three-wave survey design over a 12-month period. Results from 168 employees revealed that change in PJ fit was significantly related to changes in job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. In addition, DA and NS fit changes were significantly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction and commitment changes through PJ fit change. We also found that increases in job demands and employee abilities significantly decreased DA fit, and increases in employee needs significantly decreased NS fit whereas increases in job supplies significantly increased NS fit. Finally, we examined age as an important moderator for employees’ reactions to PJ fit changes, and found that younger employees reacted more strongly to increases/decreases in PJ fit than did older employees.