Using extracurricular activity as an indicator of interpersonal skill: Prudent evaluation or recruiting malpractice?

There is widespread agreement that success in organizations requires more than high intellect. Thus, college recruiters commonly examine job candidates' extracurricular activities in search of “well‐rounded,” emotionally intelligent, and interpersonally skilled students. Intuitively, extracurricular activities seem like valuable student experiences; however, research evidence is sparse, suggesting far more questions than answers. Is participation in extracurricular activity truly linked to interpersonal skill performance? Does leadership experience make a difference? Do extracurricular experiences yield higher skill development? Six hundred eighteen business students and the relationship of their extracurricular involvement to four interpersonal skills were examined. Significant relationships were found and recruitment implications are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Institutions and human resource practices in European countries

Abstract

Stemming from differences between approaches to new institutionalism, this paper analyses the impact of institutions on the adoption of human resource practices (HRP) in organizations. With this aim in mind, two opposing hypotheses are presented: should configurations of national institutions be related to the actual implementation of HRP by organizations or not? This empirical analysis uses a sample of 29,959 employees who work in organizations established in 27 European countries and takes into account the employees’ perception about the HRP used in their organizations and which affect them. The results support the approach to new institutionalism that emphasizes legitimacy and isomorphism, since these results show empirical regularities when countries are compared. Specifically, a country’s configurations of regulative, normative and cognitive institutions are related to the actual implementation of HRP, such as internal promotion, job participation, job design, work-life balance, job training, assessment and teamwork. These results suggest relevant practical implications for human resource managers and policy-makers.     

Organizational work–family support as universal remedy? A cross-cultural comparison of China,India and the USA

In both industrialized and emerging countries, organizations increasingly seek to support employees’ efforts to maintain a healthy work–family balance. Research has identified two types of organizational support in this context: formal work–family programs and informal work–family cultures. This study examines the relative effects of work–family programs versus work–family culture on employees’ job satisfaction and performance in various cultural environments. Drawing on the individualism–collectivism cultural dimension introduced by Hofstede, it is argued that employees’ cultural background may affect family models, which in turn determine employees’ need for formal organizational work–family support, but are not related to employees’ need for informal support. In line with this notion, the results from comparisons of an industrialized country (the USA) with two emerging countries (China and India) show that work–family culture has positive effects in all three contexts. However, formal work–family programs positively affect job satisfaction and job performance only in India and the USA, whereas they exhibit no significant effect in the more collectivist setting of China.     

When and why employees of non-profits promote their organizations: Determinants of positive staff-word-of-mouth

Employees represent a credible source of information for prospective job applicants of non-profit organizations. However, less is known about when and why staff actively promote their organizations. The authors develop a parsimonious model of determinants of positive staff-word-of-mouth (SWOM) and test this model on the data from a survey of employees of a major Scandinavian missionary organization (Normisjon). The findings show that identification with the organization, organizational climate, and task satisfaction are significant determinants of positive SWOM. The pattern of effects differs for employees with and without formal leadership responsibility. For employees with such responsibilities, organizational identification has a greater effect and organizational climate a weaker effect on SWOM than for employees with no leadership responsibility. Based on the current findings and the broader literature on employer branding and recruitment, the authors offer tentative guidelines for how to increase positive SWOM for nonprofits.     

Transformational leadership and job involvement in the Middle East: the moderating role of individually held cultural values

This study examines whether individually held cultural values moderate the relationship between transformational leadership behavior of supervisors and the job involvement of subordinates in the Middle Eastern organizational context. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze survey data from 229 employees of 10 organizations in the United Arab Emirates. In line with the findings of studies in Western countries, transformational leadership was found to influence job involvement positively. In addition, the cultural value orientations of individuals were found to moderate this relationship. Collectivism positively influenced the relationship between transformational leadership and job involvement, whereas uncertainty avoidance had a negative effect. These findings provide an insight into how transformational leadership may be used to motivate culturally diverse groups of employees within the Middle East. To enhance job involvement, organizations need to realize that the attitudinal response of subordinates to transformational leadership can depend on their cultural values. This has significant implications regarding the training and effective deployment of transformational leaders within Middle Eastern organizations.     

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.     

Accounting Students and Communication Apprehension: A Study of Spanish and UK Students

ABSTRACT

Accounting is about measuring and communicating. Accounting bodies and employers have expressed opinions, which have been supported by research results, advocating that greater emphasis is placed on the development of communication skills throughout the education and training of accountants. Consequently, an increasing number of accounting programmes now include communication skills as educational objectives or learning outcomes, and have integrated activities into the curriculum specifically to develop these skills. It is important to recognise that certain factors can severely restrict the development of communication skills; a major factor is communication apprehension. Research suggests that the existence of high levels of communication apprehension will make efforts to improve communication skills ineffective. Previous research findings indicate that accounting students have high levels of communication apprehension. This paper compares and contrasts the levels and profiles of communication apprehension exhibited by accounting students at the (UK University) and those at the (ESP University). The levels of communication apprehension are also compared with those of students from other disciplines at the same institutions. The results confirm the high levels of communication apprehension in European accounting students. There are notable differences between the two countries however in certain underlying factors.     

White‐collar reactions to job insecurity and the role of the psychological contract: Implications for human resource management

Are insecure employees actually less loyal to their companies, more concerned about their careers, and less willing to go the extra mile at work? Do employees who view job insecurity as a violation of their psychological contract have more severe reactions to being insecure? This article empirically examines these and other commonly held beliefs about the consequences of job insecurity among white‐collar employees. The critical role human resource professionals play in helping organizations to understand the consequences of actions that create job insecurity (i.e., restructuring) and finding ways to minimize negative outcomes is highlighted. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development through management development: What can be learned from international service learning programs?

In this article, we discuss how the human resource development (HRD) function can support corporate sustainability strategy by designing and implementing leadership development programs incorporating international service learning assignments. We describe “Project Ulysses,” an integrated service learning program that involves sending participants in teams to developing countries to work in cross‐sector partnerships with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social entrepreneurs, supporting them in their fight against pressing global problems. We present the findings of a narrative analysis of learning stories produced by Ulysses participants. Understanding how participants make sense of, and learn from, their experiences abroad provides us with insights into how service learning programs can help managers to develop the knowledge, skills, and mind‐set that will enable them to successfully support a company's global sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. We conclude by discussing the implications for leadership development, specifically how organizations can incorporate a responsibility and sustainability focus in their management development programs.     

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to Internal Stakeholders: Walking the Walk or Just Talking the Talk?

As organizations recognize the need to engage in CSR and sustainability initiatives, it is integral to success to communicate that they are doing so. However, the research focus is more often on communicating with external stakeholders to draw attention to corporate responsibility initiatives. Internal stakeholders as employees are not researched as often, despite their integral role in communicating the organization's CSR vision and sustainability as they interact with external stakeholders. In order to explore employee perceptions of CSR communication, a two‐phase mixed‐method study was undertaken, including semi‐structured interviews with 20 CSR managers in NZ organizations to provide content to inform an online questionnaire survey to seek feedback from employees in these same organizations. This paper contributes to research on internal stakeholders in revealing the influence of the perceived value congruence between managers and employees in influencing internal stakeholder perceptions of CSR and sustainability initiatives. The findings have implications for public policy, enhancing organizational communication, the need for authenticity and managerial recognition of their role in facilitating employee commitment to CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

On‐the‐job training: a skill match approach to the determinants of lifelong learning

A recurrent finding in on‐the‐job training research is the ‘training gap’ in formal training: the positive correlation between initial education and continuing training. This finding is here examined from the perspective of two important distinctions: (i) between employee skill supply and job skill demand and (ii) between formal and informal training. Less‐educated workers may hold jobs with low skill requirements demanding little further formal training because the use of high skills is irrelevant, jobs that moreover provide little informal training. Exploring these issues on representative Swedish survey data using the educational mismatch (overqualified, the rightly qualified and the underqualified) model, we find that job requirements are strongly correlated with the incidence of both formal and informal training. Rather than, as has previously been argued, employee training decisions being the cause of the gap, this suggests that employer decisions regarding how to structure jobs and whom to hire are the primary factors behind the training gap.     

Role overload,knowledge acquisition and job satisfaction: An ambidexterity perspective on boundary-spanning activities of IT employees

Abstract

Building upon the ambidexterity perspective, this study conceptualizes boundary-spanning activities as both transactional and learning to illuminate their different effects on IT employees’ job satisfaction. Specifically, we offer an overarching theoretical framework rooted in ambidexterity by connecting the role theory and knowledge acquisition perspective to reconcile the inconsistency of extant findings. Role overload has a mediating effect on the relationship between boundary-spanning activities (both transactional and learning) and job satisfaction, whereas knowledge acquisition mediates the relationship between learning boundary-spanning activities and job satisfaction. Furthermore, high achievement motivation and learning goal orientation moderate the positive effect of learning boundary-spanning activities on job satisfaction. The quantitative analysis of IT employees in Chinese state-owned enterprises largely supports our hypotheses. We conclude this paper by discussing theoretical and managerial implications for ambidexterity, boundary spanning, and job satisfaction.     

Inclusion climate: A multilevel investigation of its antecedents and consequences

This study investigates the antecedents and consequences of organization‐level inclusion climate. A national sample of human resource decision‐makers from 100 organizations described their firms' formal diversity management programs; 3,229 employees reported their perceptions of, and reactions to, their employers' diversity management. Multilevel analyses demonstrate that identity‐conscious programs (programs that target specific identity groups) generate an inclusion climate. Moreover, the analyses provide evidence of multilevel mediation: In organizations with an inclusion climate, individual employees perceive the organization as fulfilling its diversity management obligations and respond with higher levels of affective commitment. This study represents an important step toward understanding how a shared perception of organizational inclusiveness develops and how inclusion climate facilitates the achievement of diversity management objectives. The findings also shed light on the important role of identity‐conscious programs in promoting organizational commitment within a diverse workforce.     

Stress and turnover intents in international organizations: social support and work–life balance as resources

Abstract

This study investigates whether work opportunities have an impact on stress and the related turnover intentions of employees working in intergovernmental international organizations (IOs). It contextualizes the job resources and demands model within IOs’ specific work conditions. The empirical test is based on original data from a survey administered in four major organizations of the United Nations system. Results demonstrate that social work opportunities and work–life balance are organizational levers reducing stress and willingness to quit for employees who are facing red tape or the stresses of being an expatriate. In this context, the relationships between these work opportunities and turnover intention are partially mediated by stress. Contextualized HR management propositions are made to help organizations coping with these management challenges.     

Job satisfaction and employee perception of the learning environment in the health care management industry

This study examines the relationship between job satisfaction and perception of the learning environment of administrative employees and differences in job satisfaction in terms of age, education, ethnicity, gender, location, marital status, position classification, and years of service. A total of 261 administrative employees of a national health care management organization participated in the survey. Major findings of this study revealed significant differences in some subcategories of job satisfaction and perceptions of learning environment in the respondents' ethnicity, age, and office location. Significant relationships were also found between job satisfaction, the perceived learning environment, and facets of the learning environment.     

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention: the mediating role of work attitudes

Abstract

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.     

Examining transformational leadership,job satisfaction,organizational commitment and organizational trust in Turkish hospitals: public servants versus private sector employees

Leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and trust have become important processes for healthcare management in recent years. One of the contemporary human resource management functions in the organizations involves engaging in leadership development, improving organizational trust and organizational commitment and increasing job satisfaction. Considering the rapidly changing healthcare technology and higher levels of occupational complexity, healthcare organizations are increasingly in need of engaging in leadership development in any given area of expertise to address ever-changing nature of the industry and the delivery of quality of care while remaining cost-effective and competitive. This paper investigates the perceptions of both public servants and private sector employees (outsourcing) on transformational leadership, organizational commitment, organizational trust and job satisfaction in Turkish healthcare industry. Additionally, the paper analyzes the predictability of organizational commitment based on employee – both public servants (physicians, nurses, administrative personnel and other healthcare professionals) and private sector employees (outsourcing) (auxiliary services such as administrative assistants, security personnel, kitchen, laundry and housekeeping employees) – perceptions of transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust. Using a survey instrument with items adopted from the transformational leadership inventory (TLI) [Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 1, 107–142], the organizational commitment questionnaire [Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], the organizational trust inventory (OTI) [Cummings, L. L., & Bromiley, P. (1996). The occupational trust inventory (OTI): Development and validation. In R. Kramer & T. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research (pp. 302–330). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] and job satisfaction survey (JSS) [Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job satisfaction survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 693–731], this quantitative study was conducted among 2108 healthcare employees (public servants and private employees) in two large government hospitals in Turkey. The study findings indicate a significant difference between the public servants and private sector employees in terms of their perceptions on two dimensions of transformational leadership (being an appropriate model, providing individualized support), overall transformational leadership and one dimension of job satisfaction (communication). The two dimensions of job satisfaction – operating procedures and communication – as well as organizational trust were the significant predictors of organizational commitment of public servants, whereas the two dimensions of leadership – individualized support and fostering the acceptance – as well as the two dimensions of job satisfaction – promotion and contingent rewards – and organizational trust were the significant regressors of organizational commitment of private sector employees. In addition, there is a significant difference between the predictors of the dimensions of organizational commitment (transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust) in terms of public servants versus private sector employees. Finally, organizational trust has a significant effect on overall organizational commitment as well as its three dimensions for public servants and private employees.     

The management of professional employees: linking progressive HRM practices,cognitive orientations and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

The present research examines the relationships between progressive HRM practices and the organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) of professional employees. Drawing on recent HRM literature, our research model includes a perceived organizational support (POS)-commitment mediation hypothesis. Taking into account previous studies on professional employees, a job satisfaction-commitment pathway is also integrated. We tested both mediational pathways as part of a single structural equation model using a sample of 329 professional employees. Our results show that the relationship between recognition and OCB is mediated by the POS-commitment pathway, while the relationships between fairness of rewards, skills development and OCB are mediated by the job satisfaction-commitment pathway. The specificities of the HRM of professional employees related to their multiple cognitive orientations are discussed.     

How do lean management organizations behave regarding training and development?

This paper analyses the role of training and development in lean management organizations. The hypothesis is that organizations characterized by lean management have a distinctive profile in terms of training and development. Specifically, it is hypothesized that lean organizations have the following features to a higher extent than non-lean organizations:

? employee involvement in training and development

? use of work groups for quality, product development and task flexibility

? attribution of importance to training in quality, customer orientation and people management

? line management responsibility for training and development of the employees

? use of job enlargement

? information of employees about management decisions

? use of team briefings and quality circles.

The analysis shows that it is possible to identify a relationship between lean management and training and development, although the statistical results could have been more significant. It is also discussed in the paper to what extent country-specific variables dominate (or are dominated by) company-specific characteristics. The general finding is that company-specific impact seems to be stronger than country-specific variables.

In general, it can be said that the lean management pattern as a company-specific variable is characteristic for most countries analysed (although to a varying degree). It is, however, sometimes confounded by country-specific variables. For instance, Turkey does not follow the general pattern, and the hypothesis can be supported only in selected minor areas. Hence, in this case country-specific variables outweigh company-specific variables. In most other countries, this is not the case.