Actions speak louder than words: how employees mind the implementation gap

Abstract

Integral to employees’ working lives are the HR policies and more importantly, the practices that follow those and their implementation, which employees experience directly. To date, research on HR implementation considers how HRM is ‘done to’ employees by management and therefore ignores the agency of individuals to shape how HRM is ‘done to them’. Taking the perspective of employees, in a qualitative study of female lawyers, this paper examines employees’ roles in shaping HR implementation, addressing a lack of understanding about the role of ‘others’ in the process. Drawing on the concept of social power, the article focuses on the implementation of agile working practices within UK-based law firms. It finds that despite lacking legitimate position power to influence processes, employees draw on a variety of other power sources (e.g. referent, information, coercive) and tactics (e.g. leveraging membership of professional networks) in order to influence their working environment with respect to HR policy and practice, particularly in response to perceived implementation gaps. The current study underlines that employees may be integral to bridging the gap between policy and practice and therefore to ensuring the link between HRM and organisational performance. It also proposes that behavioural responses to HR practices should be considered in future theorising of the HRM-performance relationship.     

企业高管人员基于联合基数法的年薪制设计

目前我国许多企业对高管人员都采用了年薪制的激励方式,但由于信息的不对称,确定合理的业绩基数成为影响年薪制激励效果的主要问题。文章对此设计了基于联合基数法的年薪制,并指出实施中应注意的问题,希望借此能对企业的高管人员的激励以及企业业绩水平的提升起到促进作用。     

Understanding public support for the US federal bureaucracy

Abstract

While a number of scholars have examined citizens' satisfaction with specific encounters with government agencies, few studies have assessed explanations of the public's overall evaluations of bureaucratic performance, especially accounts that address sources of variation over time. We address this gap with a new annual time series measure of aggregate assessments of the US federal bureaucracy. We find that public approval of bureaucratic performance varies markedly over time. We then test a number of prior explanations for this movement focusing on both broad contextual forces in the political environment and more specific variables more closely associated with the federal bureaucracy. While data limitations preclude developing a fully specified model tapping all of the explanations simultaneously, we are able to rule out a wide range of ‘usual suspects’ as free standing or sufficient accounts of variations in aggregate bureaucratic approval over time. But we also isolate a number of promising explanations.     

基于问卷调查的薪酬满意度实证分析

在现时代的中国,对员工满意度影响最大的就是薪酬。对薪酬制度的调查分析是企业一项必不可少的工作。做好企业的薪酬满意度调查分析为企业改进薪酬制度提供依据,帮助企业激励现有员工的工作热情,更可以为企业吸引、留住核心员工。因此,薪酬调查分析对企业的发展起到至关重要的作用。本文通过一个具体案例,运用相应的统计工具,介绍了影响薪酬满意度的几个重要因素。     

Exploring the fluid boundary between ‘legitimate performance management’ and ‘downward bullying’: an experimental approach

Using an experimental design, this research examines the extent to which managers and employees perceive management behaviours differently. Eight simulated employment scenarios were presented to an aggregated sample of managers and non‐managerial employees (n = 435), and the respondents were asked to evaluate the extent to which the behaviours depicted are seen as bullying. It was found that employees are more likely than managers to perceive ‘legitimate performance management’ as bullying but also that managers are more likely than employees to perceive more overt bullying as bullying per se. This divergence in perceptions suggests that what constitutes bullying, ontologically speaking, depends on one's point of view and implies that reality is socially constructed. The research has important implications for organisations and trade unions in the development of bullying policies and procedures.     

Who does what in enabling ambidexterity? Individual Actions and HRM practices

Abstract

In this paper, we explain how ambidexterity, the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation, is enabled at the individual level of analysis. Research on ambidexterity has been dominated by theoretical approaches focusing on the organisational level; however, we know little about how ambidexterity is enacted by employees. There is also limited work on the multilevel aspects of individual employee actions, for example, particular roles and specifically the level of seniority of the role. We address these gaps by asking: Which individual actions are undertaken by employees at particular levels of seniority in the organization to enable ambidexterity? In order to answer this question we draw on previous research to construct reliable measures of the individual actions that enable ambidexterity. The hypothesized mediation effect of these individual actions is confirmed on the basis of survey data from 212 employees from a UK-based Professional Service Firm. The findings indicate that senior employees are more likely to use ‘integration’, ‘role expansion’ and ‘tone setting’, whilst employees with specialist knowledge about their clients use ‘gap filling’ to enable ambidexterity. Finally, we draw together these findings with 35 interviews conducted to present the HRM practices which support ambidexterity.     

Work values preferences of Generation Y: performance relationship insights in the Australian Public Service

Empirical research to date has provided few insights into the values and performance norms of Generation Y in the workplace. Our exploratory qualitative study treats work values preferences as inferred performance behavior in an attempt to shed light on the Generation Y performance relationship in the Australian Public Service (APS). Adopting a person–organization values fit framework, our study draws attention to how Generation Y employees (N = 60) and older managers (N = 20) shape key aspects of performance around their own different values judgments of APS operational procedures (i.e. ‘unnecessary bureaucracy’ vs. ‘legitimate governance’) and merit-based promotion (i.e. ‘it’s just wasting people’s time’ vs. ‘younger employees expect too much, too soon’). Findings suggest areas of work supportive of an efficient Generation Y performance relationship (i.e. Generation Ys’ work ethic), as well as inefficient areas of performance where managers and Generation Y hold different work values preferences (i.e. unrealistic expectations; underperforming colleagues; decision-making processes). Performance implications associated with how managers may respond to the work values preferences of Generation Y are discussed.     

薪酬激励在企业人力资源管理中的运用效果研究

随着我国经济的快速发展,当前行业竞争愈加激烈。为了不断提升企业自身核心竞争力,企业在发展过程中需要充分重视人力资源管理工作。由于薪酬激励作为激励企业员工的一种管理方式,激励机制作为驱动力,通过完善薪酬激励机制,能够对企业资源进行合理配置,并有效提高企业人力资源管理工作质量。基于此,论文详细分析企业人力资源管理工作应用薪酬激励的意义,并结合企业自身实际情况,制定完善的应用措施。     

Line managers’ AMO to manage employees’ performance: the route to effective and satisfying performance management

Abstract

Performance management systems are used to increase employees’ performance with the ultimate aim of increasing organizational performance. Organizations rely on line managers to implement performance management systems and to engage in a continuous process of goal-setting, feedback, coaching and performance appraisal with their employees. Drawing on the AMO theory, we predict that the effectiveness of performance management implementation will be a function of three factors. First, line managers should have the Ability to enact the activities that are involved in performance management. Secondly, they should be Motivated to perform these activities. Thirdly, line managers should have sufficient Opportunity to fulfill these activities on top of the demands from other organizational. If not, they could experience role conflict. We developed several cross-level hypotheses. The data came from 71 line managers and 318 employees working in Flemish education. Hierarchical linear modelling found that line managers’ AMO to implement performance management systems was positively related to employees’ satisfaction with the system. These relationships were mediated by employees’ perceptions that the performance management system is strong. A strong system signals that its features are salient across employees and that the system is clear and understood. This study has several theoretical and practical implications.     

Reducing Organizational Politics in Performance Appraisal: The Role of Coaching Leaders for Age‐Diverse Employees

We examined whether a supervisor's coaching leadership style predicts the perception of organizational politics in performance appraisal (OPPA) reported by the collaborators. Additionally, we drew on social cognition and motivational life‐span development theories to hypothesize age‐related differences in perceived OPPA and its link with the coaching leadership style. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) on a sample of 576 employees and 112 leaders, we found that coaching leaders are perceived as less manipulative in their performance ratings, especially by older employees. This article includes a discussion of the implications these results have for performance management of an age‐diverse workforce. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

More voice after more exit? Unstable industrial relations in Central Eastern Europe

The article examines the industrial relations developments in the post‐communist countries that entered the EU in 2004. Rather than introducing the ‘European Social Model’, EU accession has led to some social tensions, in spite of relatively strong economic growth, because of deregulation, European Monetary Union conditions and the enduring need to compete for foreign investment. EU institutional promotion of social dialogue through the Directive on Information and Consultation of Workers, sector social dialogue committees and the European Employment Strategy has only had limited effects in increasing the ‘voice’ of employees in employment relations. National‐level social dialogue has produced poor results and has even been weakened in Slovenia (where it was originally strong) and, initially, in Slovakia. The lack of ‘voice’ for employees has led to increased ‘exit’ through political populism/abstention and migration. A double paradox emerges. Pro‐labour policies are being developed not by the EU, but rather by its opposite, Euro‐sceptical governments (in Poland and Slovakia), while in the workplaces, employers are forced to concessions not by their employees, but by those who leave and cause labour shortages. However, there is also some evidence of a resurgent ‘voice’ from below, through strikes, organising campaigns, informal collective protests and collective bargaining innovations. Drawing on both theory and history of industrial relations, it is concluded that some preconditions for more stable social compromises including more ‘voice’ are emerging.     

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.     

Ties that blind? How strong ties affect small business owner-managers’ perceived trustworthiness of their advisors

This research investigates how a strong personal relationship (strong tie) between a small business owner-manager and his professional or informal advisor affects the relationship between the advisor's recent performance and the owner-manager's perceptions of the advisor's trustworthiness in terms of ability, benevolence and integrity. A negative moderating effect could point to a ‘tie that blinds’: the owner-manager may be less critical in evaluating the advisor's perceived trustworthiness in light of their recent performance, because of the existing personal relationship. A conceptual model is constructed and examined with survey data comprising 153 young Finnish businesses. The results show that strong ties increase the owner-manager's perception of the advisor's integrity, disregarding their recent performance. For professional advisors, strong ties reduce the impact of recent performance in the owner-manager's evaluation of their ability. For informal advisors, a strong tie makes it more likely that their benevolence will be evaluated highly in light of their recent performance. While the results show that ‘ties can blind’ under certain circumstances, the limitations of the study raise the need for further research to specify these contextual factors and examine the causal link between the choice of advisor and business performance.     

谈施工企业如何发挥薪酬管理的激励作用

薪酬是人力资源管理非常重要的工具。尽管薪酬不是激励员工的唯一手段,但薪酬激励却是最容易被管理者运用的一种激励方式。文章通过对薪酬管理在施工企业激励机制中的作用、存在的问题进行分析,对施工企业如何发挥薪酬管理的激励作用提出了建议。     

Britain,EMU and the European economy

In January 1999, 11 member countries of the European Union ‘irrevocably’ locked the foreign exchange values of their currencies to the euro, and they committed themselves to abandon their currencies in favour of the euro in 2002. As a result, these countries ceased to operate independent monetary policies. Monetary policy for the whole euro‐zone became the responsibility of the European Central Bank (ECB), whose primary objective is to maintain a low and stable rate of price inflation for the euro currency. The rules governing Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) were laid down in the treaty of Maastricht in 1992. As conditions for entry to EMU, the treaty specified ‘convergence criteria’ which consisted of upper limits for several macroeconomic aggregates including, notably, a 3 per cent maximum for the ratio of the public sector deficit to GDP and 60 per cent for the ratio of public debt to GDP.1 In February 1998 the 11 applicant countries submitted statistical analyses relating to their satisfaction of these conditions. Despite doubts as to whether some of them had strictly met the conditions, the European Commission deemed them all eligible, and the euro was launched.2 The British government, though more clearly eligible than most other EU countries on the basis of the convergence criteria, decided to defer its decision on entry. In this paper we consider the arguments for and against Economic and Monetary Union, and in particular whether it would be in Britain’s interest to join. We begin with a brief review of the state of the European economy and an analysis of the first year performance of the new Euro currency. 1 Upper limits were also set on the rate of inflation, at 1.5 percentage points above the average inflation rate of the three countries whose inflation was the lowest, and on long term interest rates, at 2 percentage points above the average of the rates prevailing in the three low inflation countries. An additional condition applied to exchange rate stability relative to the EU average for the two years prior to entry.
1 Notable cases were Belgium and Italy with debt to GDP ratios of 122.2 per cent and 121.6 per cent, respectively. Presumably, these countries were allowed membership under Article 104c(2) of the treaty which allows the debt to GDP ratio to be exceeded if ‘. . . the ratio is sufficiently diminishing and approaching 60 per cent at a satisfactory pace’. The reader is left to judge whether Belgium and Italy fell within the ‘spirit’ of this article.
     

Explaining Sales Pay Strategy Using Agency,Transaction Cost and Resource Dependence Theories*

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate, using data gathered from 325 French‐Canadian organizations, the influence of key constructs related to agency, transaction cost and resource dependence theories on the proportion of salary in sales compensation. Usefulness analysis showed that performance information (9 per cent), uncertainty (8 per cent) and dependence resource (5 per cent) constructs have a significant incremental contribution to sales compensation. Regarding specific hypothesis tests, results of full model show that the capacity to observe behaviour, team sales and financial resources offered are associated with an increased use of salary pay. In contrast, adaptability of product/service‐related resources, salesforce experience and high marginal salesforce productivity are associated with decreased use of the salary component. However, the results of full model have failed to support the direction or influence of relationships between programmability, span of control, market and selling uncertainty, the predominance of salespeople and TCA measures on proportion of salary. The results support the argument that integration of multiple theoretical perspectives better explains pay policy.     

Union density and determinants of union membership in 18 EU countries: evidence from micro data, 2002/031

Using representative individual-level data from the first round of the European Social Survey fielded in 2002/03, this article provides an empirical analysis of unionisation in 18 countries of the EU. We show that union density varies considerably in Europe, ranging from 84 per cent in Denmark to 11 per cent in Portugal. Estimating identical models for each country, we find that individuals’ probability of union membership is significantly affected by their personal characteristics, their attitudes and the characteristics of their workplace, whereas social factors seem to play a minor role. The presence of a union at the workplace and employees’ attitudes concerning strong unions are the two variables most strongly associated with unionisation.     

Accommodating a Foreign Object: Federalism,coordination and performance management in the reform of German employment administration

Abstract

This paper uses the case of the reform of the German employment administration to explore the usage of performance management approaches within multi-level governance settings. It traces the adoption and accommodation of the performance management approach to govern the joint service centres (called ‘Jobcenter’) at the local level within the multi-level administrative coordination regime in Germany’s federal system. A contribution is made to nascent debates about the potential of managerial tools in systems of negotiated decision-making. The paper shows how performance management is adapted to the institutional logic of multi-level administrative coordination and serves as a facilitator of cross-level coordination.     

A profitable model for predicting the over/under market in football

The over/under 2.5 goals betting market allows gamblers to bet on whether the total number of goals in a football match will exceed 2.5. In this paper, a set of ratings, named ‘Generalised Attacking Performance’ (GAP) ratings, are defined which measure the attacking and defensive performance of each team in a league. GAP ratings are used to forecast matches in ten European football leagues and their profitability is tested in the over/under market using two value betting strategies. GAP ratings with match statistics such as shots and shots on target as inputs are shown to yield better predictive value than the number of goals. An average profit of around 0.8 percent per bet taken is demonstrated over twelve years when using only shots and corners (and not goals) as inputs. The betting strategy is shown to be robust by comparing it to a random betting strategy.     

Workgroup Salary Dispersion and Turnover Intention in China: A Contingent Examination of Individual Differences and the Dual Deprivation Path Explanation

The present study generalizes previous pay dispersion research to the Chinese context by examining the cross‐level relationship between workgroup salary dispersion and employee turnover intention contingent on individual differences. Field survey data including annual objective salary and self‐reported attitudes among 370 Chinese employees in 51 organizational workgroups supported our cultural predictions by showing that the relationship between workgroup salary dispersion and turnover intention was positive only among employees with higher rather than lower levels of Chinese traditionality and among those with lower rather than higher salary levels. Furthermore, the results of mediated moderation analyses suggest that a dual‐deprivation path model can explain the above relationships. We discuss the theoretical, cultural, and practical implications of these findings for organizations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.