Family-supportive organizations and supervisors: how do they influence employee outcomes and for whom?

In the present study, we examine a model which seeks to specify the process through which work-family supportive organizations and supervisors influence important organizational outcomes, including commitment and performance. Findings indicated that family-supportive organization perceptions are best conceptualized as influencing family-supportive supervisor behaviors, which in turn influence subordinate self-efficacy, subordinate affective commitment to the organization and subordinate perceptions of supervisor work effort. Subordinate self-efficacy and affective commitment were also both found to independently mediate the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviors and self-rated performance. Interestingly, the model functioned similarly for employees with and without dependent care responsibilities, indicating that work-family policies and support are important for all employees, regardless of their familial status. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Development or maintenance? Dual-oriented human resource system,employee achievement motivation,and work well-being

Drawing on the person–organization fit theory, this study elaborates a dual-oriented human resource (HR) system and explores when and how two HR bundles (development vs. maintenance) influence work well-being. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of 1,946 supervisors from a Chinese high-tech firm show that the dual-oriented HR model fits the data better than a holistic HR system. In another study with a multilevel sample of 64 corporate branches and 434 employees, the findings confirm the proposed joint effect of the dual-oriented HR system and achievement motivation on well-being. Specifically, development-oriented HR practices are more positively related to work well-being only when individual achievement motivation is high; by contrast, maintenance-oriented HR practices are more positively related to work well-being only when individual achievement motivation is low. Work meaning mediates these effects. These findings provide guidance on the effective design of HR practices.     

Which work characteristics predict employee outcomes for the public-sector employee? An examination of generic and occupation-specific characteristics

The wide-ranging changes that have occurred in the public sector over recent years have placed increasing demands on public-sector employees. A survey of employees within a relatively commercially-oriented public-sector organization in Australia was used to test a demand-oriented generic model of employee well-being and a variety of situation-specific variables. The presence of support at work and the amount of control an employee had over their job were found to be key predictors of employee-level outcomes. Perceptions of pay and the perception of a lack of human resources (HR) were also found to predict employee outcome variables. The results emphasize the impact that middle managers and HR managers can have in terms of reducing the detrimental employee effects that can be caused by the introduction of new public management (NPM) and the potential for a positive impact on employees. In particular, public-sector managers can use the design of jobs and the development of social support mechanisms, such as employee assistance programmes, to maintain, if not improve, the quality of working life experienced by their employees. More broadly, this study has found that the job strain model is a useful tool in a public-sector environment and is likely to be of increasing utility with the continuing introduction or consolidation of NPM over time. Managing these issues in the new public sector could be a key means of protecting the key resource of the Australian public sector – the employees.     

Depletion or expansion? Understanding the effects of support policy use on employee work and family outcomes

Past research on the effects of employees' use of work–family support policies tends to draw on a depletion perspective suggesting that using these policies may reduce work–family conflict. The emphasis on depletion fails to consider the expansion perspective that assumes that using work resources may enrich family functioning. Using a sample of 113 matched employee–supervisor pairs and a 1‐month separation between predictor and criterion measurement, we found support for the expansion rather than the depletion perspective. Specifically, the relationships between support policy use and employee job satisfaction and family efficacy (but not organisational citizenship behaviour) were mediated by work‐to‐family enrichment; these effects were realised only for employees with high levels of family identity. In contrast, no support was found for family‐to‐work conflict as a mediator of the model.     

How are internally oriented HRM policies related to high-performance work practices? Evidence from Singapore

This examination of policies relating to the internal cultivation of human resources and high-performance work systems among a sample of Singapore-based organizations shows that the HRM practices under consideration reflect three distinct dimensions: internal staffing, employee development, and employment stability. Of the three dimensions, only employee development was significantly and positively related to high-performance work systems. Contrary to the arguments in the literature relating to internal labour markets, mutual commitment HRM, and high-performance work systems, policies involving internal staffing and employment stability were not found to be necessary components of the internally oriented HRM package.     

Impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on Australian employee well-being

This paper examines several individual coping strategies and employees' perception of organisational provision of work–life balance (WLB) programmes with a sample of 700 Australian employees. The combined effects of individual coping strategies and organisational provision of WLB programmes on employee affective well-being are examined, using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that individuals with positive attitudes and life coping strategies were more capable of achieving overall well-being. Both monetary- and non-monetary-based organisational WLB provision had no direct association with employee well-being, but had indirect effects via individual coping strategies to help employees achieve better well-being. Employee well-being was found to have a stronger association with individual effort than organisational deliberation in providing WLB programmes. Theoretical and practical implications of these study outcomes are discussed.     

Does contingent pay encourage positive employee attitudes and intensify work?

This article explores the relationships between three dimensions of contingent pay – performance‐related pay, profit‐related pay and employee share‐ownership – and positive employee attitudes (job satisfaction, employee commitment and trust in management). The article also examines a conflicting argument that contingent pay may intensify work, and this can detract from its positive impact on employee attitudes. Of the three contingent pay dimensions, only performance‐related pay had direct positive relationships with all three employee attitudes. Profit‐related pay and employee share‐ownership had a mix of negative and no significant direct relationships with employee attitudes, but profit‐related pay showed U‐shaped curvilinear relationships with all three employee attitudes. The results also indicated that performance‐related pay is associated with work intensification, and this offsets some of its positive impact on employee attitudes.     

Does supervisor-perceived authentic leadership influence employee work engagement through employee-perceived authentic leadership and employee trust?

The issue of authentic leadership has been generating increased interest in both practical and academic domains. This study examines the influence of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee work engagement from the dyadic supervisor–employee viewpoint. The sample data consists of responses from 77 team supervisors and 345 employees in 36 companies. We utilize hierarchical linear modeling to test the hypotheses. The cross-level results show that employee trust fully mediates supervisor-perceived authentic leadership and employee work engagement, and that employee-perceived authentic leadership fully mediates the relationship between supervisor-perceived authentic leadership and employee trust, as well as the relationship between supervisor-perceived authentic leadership and employee work engagement. On the individual level, employee trust has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between employee-perceived authentic leadership and employee work engagement.     

How is work group inclusiveness influenced by working virtually?

In human resource management research it has become a highly relevant issue to try to understand the challenges that an online work environment pose for the inclusion of marginalized employees. In this regard, inclusiveness scholars have focused on the role that dissimilarities play for organizational inclusion of employees but rarely on how this takes place through technology-mediated interaction. We integrate notions of identity and communication from inclusiveness and virtual work research to develop a theoretical model depicting two variants of social distance (targeted and diffuse). Subsequently we discuss how these forms of social distance affect different dimensions of inclusiveness. Our analysis suggests that the virtual work environment may weaken some negative aspects of bias and discrimination while strengthening others. Based on such findings we argue for the development of a greater sensitivity to the context in inclusiveness research.     

Associations between perceived employability,employee well-being,and its contribution to organizational success: a matter of psychological contracts?

We investigated interactions between perceived employability and employees' perceptions about psychological contract obligations made by the employer in relation to life and job satisfaction, self-rated performance, and turnover intention. We hypothesized that perceived employability relates positively to job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and self-rated performance and negatively to turnover intention under the condition of many promises. Conversely, perceived employability relates negatively to job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and self-rated performance and positively to turnover intention under the condition of few promises. Analyses using a sample of 463 workers from seven Belgian organizations showed that perceived employability was positively related to all outcomes except job satisfaction. The number of promises was positively related to job and life satisfaction, and to self-rated performance, and negatively to turnover intention. Contradictory to our expectations, with the exception of turnover intention, the relationships between perceived employability and the outcomes were relatively stronger and positive under the condition of few promises compared with many promises.     

Employee share ownership and investment concentration: which employee shareholders fail to diversify?

Using data from a survey of employees in three UK companies, the article examines concentration of savings in employer shares. It is found that a substantial minority of employees hold most of their savings in employer shares despite the risks. The article examines the distribution and determinants of portfolio concentration. It is found that portfolio concentration is more likely to be found among men, those on higher incomes, and those who are in early middle-age. Regression analysis indicates that organisational commitment and the duration of participation in the share ownership plan also affects the probability of having a concentrated portfolio. There is no clear evidence that those with substantial concentrations of employer shares take active steps to monitor their investments more closely than those with smaller shareholdings.     

Fetal protection policies: A threat to employee rights?

Corporations utilizing toxic substances in the workplace are faced with the possibility that the use of those substances will cause reproductive damage in their employees. In the face of complex and confusing government regulation on the issue and scientific uncertainty about the effects of many substaces, several major corporations have sought to minimize legal liability for any potential reproductive damage by excluding the fertile female worker from the workplace, Yet, by adopting such fetal protection policies, corporations have opened themselves up to a host of new problems and threatened the rights of workers.     

How important is family background for labor-economic outcomes?

This paper uses Swedish register data to examine four classical outcomes in empirical labor economics: IQ, noncognitive skills, years of schooling and long-run earnings. We estimate sibling correlations – and the variance components that define the sibling correlation – in these outcomes. We also estimate correlations for MZ-twins, who share all genes. We also extend the variance-component decomposition by accounting for birth order. We find that conventional intergenerational approaches severely underestimate the role of family background, and that future research should follow a more multidimensional approach to the study of family background.     

How do high-involvement work processes influence employee outcomes? An examination of the mediating roles of skill utilisation and intrinsic motivation

How do high-involvement work processes influence employee outcomes? In this paper, we use Vandenberg et al.'s [Vandenberg, R. J., Richardson, H. A., & Eastman, L. J. (1999). The impact of high involvement work processes on organisational effectiveness: A second order latent variable approach. Group and Organisational Management, 24, 300–339] elaboration of Lawler's [Lawler, E. E. (1986). High-involvement management: Participative strategies for improving organizational performance. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass] model to test direct links and to explore skill utilisation and intrinsic motivation as mediators. Survey data were collected from a large New Zealand organisation providing distribution services and results were analysed through structural equation modelling. While there are important direct effects, the results demonstrate that both skill utilisation and intrinsic motivation transmit high-involvement processes into valuable outcomes for employees. The benefits to employees of such processes are direct but also lie in the way they make the work itself more motivating and enable them to deploy and grow their skills. This implies that forms of work organisation and supervision that offer workers greater opportunity for discretion, and involvement in the decisions that concern them, create the conditions for greater learning and, in turn, contribute to their well-being.     

How and when do prior international experiences lead to global work? A career motivation perspective

While research suggests a link between individuals' prior international experiences and their future participation in global work, we know little about how and the conditions under which this relationship occurs. Drawing on career motivation theory, we conceptualize global identity as a mediator between individuals' density of prior international experiences—defined as the extent to which time spent in culturally novel countries has provided individuals with developmental opportunities—and their global work aspirations, which in turn leads to their global work involvement. Further, this multi-stage mediation model holds mainly when individuals receive positive feedback regarding their intercultural competencies (i.e., cultural intelligence) from their peers. We test our model using a multi-wave multi-source dataset spanning 6 years. We discuss implications for the literatures on prior international experiences and global careers.     

Part‐time work for women: Does it really help balance work and family?

Results of this study suggest that the differential response of women to part‐time work as opposed to a career may be a function of motivational and work‐context differences between career and non‐career women. Part‐time work was associated with lower work‐to‐family interference, better time management ability, and greater life satisfaction for women in both career and earner‐type positions. Role overload, family‐to‐work interference, and family time management, however, were dependent on job type with beneficial effects for earners but not for career women. Job type also played a role: Career women reported higher life satisfaction and lower depressed mood than did women in earner positions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Do high performance work systems generate negative effects? How and when?

A high-performance work system (HPWS) is defined as a series of performance-enhancing human resource management practices. Many studies have demonstrated the positive relationship of HPWSs with organizational, group, and individual performance. However, evidence has indicated that HPWSs can also exert negative effects. In this paper, taking a dialectical view, we elaborate several propositions regarding why HPWSs have negative effects and when these negative effects occur, mainly from the perspective of employees. We also propose several research directions enriching knowledge of the relationship between HPWSs and organizational outcomes.     

Are high-performance work practices related to individually perceived stress? A job demands-resources perspective

This study investigates the relationship between high-performance work practices (HPWP) and individually perceived stress. Contrary to most past research, which evaluates HPWPs positively, this study emphasizes the potential downside of HPWPs, and suggests that some HPWPs are more strongly associated with enhanced stress than others. Drawing on the job demands-resources model, we differentiate between challenge demand HPWPs (i.e., performance evaluation systems, continuing education) and job resource HPWPs (i.e., flexible working hours, participation in decision-making). We then analyze 197 employees and their work environments, demonstrating that there is a positive relationship between challenge demands and individual stress among employees. Contrary to what we predicted, no empirical evidence indicates that the two analyzed job resources relate negatively to stress.