Relationships among organizational culture,knowledge acquisition,organizational learning,and organizational innovation in Taiwan's banking and insurance industries

This article investigates the relationships among organizational culture (OC), knowledge acquisition (KA), organizational learning (OL), and organizational innovation (OI) in Taiwan's banking and insurance industries. We use the top 100 financial enterprises in Taiwan published by Common Wealth Magazine in 2005 as the population and 23 of them are chosen as the sample in this study. A total of 785 questionnaires were issued and 449 valid replies were received. The research results indicate that OL serves as a partial mediator between OC and OI. In addition, this article finds that OC affects OL and innovation through KA. Furthermore, OL has a full mediation effect on KA and OI.     

Explaining the Relation Between Job Insecurity and Employee Outcomes During Organizational Change: A Multiple Group Comparison

We develop and test a mediation model linking job insecurity to affective commitment and psychosomatic complaints via two distinct theoretical mechanisms: fairness and energy depletion. Analyses were based on 6,268 Belgian bank employees facing organizational change. Results from structural equation modeling showed that fairness and exhaustion partially mediated the association of job insecurity with affective commitment and psychosomatic complaints, respectively. Multiple group analysis showed that the relation between job insecurity and fairness gradually decreased across the three change stages, and that the exhaustion process was most prominent amid the change. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Human resource management and developing proactive environmental strategies: The influence of environmental training and organizational learning

The need to implement advanced approaches to protect the environment is forcing companies to refocus their internal procedures and actions. To match employees' capabilities and the organization itself to these new requirements, the human resource management department can offer some key tools. This article analyzes whether environmental training (ET) and organizational learning (OL) positively influence the development of proactive environmental strategies (PESs) and compares the two processes, which differ in the time, costs, and difficulty required to implement them. Companies in the tourism sector are currently facing a highly dynamic environment where innovativeness is a decisive factor for achieving competitiveness. As such, we analyze whether the presence or absence of innovativeness influences the development of these two mechanisms. Using a sample of 252 tourism companies, we tested these relationships using structural equation modeling. The findings showed that (1) innovativeness is an antecedent of implementing ET and OL in the companies sampled, (2) both mechanisms promote implementing PESs, and (3) ET is equally as effective as OL for this purpose. Managers should take these findings into account when deciding which mechanism to apply when striving to achieve environmental proactivity.     

Elucidating the Relationship Between Satisfaction and Citizen Involvement in Public Administration

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationships between public administration satisfaction (PAS), political efficacy (PE), and active citizen involvement (ACI). The study group consists of 345 respondents residing in Taiwan. Respondents are interviewed by phone to obtain their perceptions regarding local municipality operations (i.e. professionalism and sympathy (PS), ambition to improve (AI), neutrality and morality (NM)), PAS, ACI, and PE). These relationships are verified by conducting path analysis. Results of this study demonstrate that AI and NM positively affect PAS, that PAS positively affects PE and ACI, and that PE plays a mediating role in the relationship between PAS and ACI.     

The Measurement and Structural Modeling of the Reasonableness of Workplace Accommodations

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) guarantees protection from discrimination for persons with a disability. The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for persons with physical and mental disabilities unless doing so would produce undue hardship on the organization. Fifteen years after the passage of the ADA, the question as to what is a reasonable accommodation remains controversial, especially for some types of disabilities. In this study, a reasonable accommodation scale is proposed and tested using structural equation modeling in hopes that such a scale will aid the courts and organizations in determining what is reasonable. Individuals’ level of awareness of disability issues is also examined in the model to examine the relationship between awareness and willingness to accommodate. Results indicate acceptable fit of the model to the data and provide support for the proposed scale. Furthermore, the relationship between awareness of disability issues and willingness to accommodate was significant. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Expanding Insights on the Diversity Climate–Performance Link: The Role of Workgroup Discrimination and Group Size

The present study extends knowledge of the performance consequences of workgroup diversity climate. Building upon Kopelman, Brief, and Guzzo's ( 1990 ) climate model of productivity, we introduce workgroup discrimination as a behavioral mediator that explains the positive effects of diversity climate on workgroup performance. In addition, we investigate group size as a moderator upon which this mediated relationship depends. We test these moderated‐mediated propositions using a split‐sample design and data from 248 military workgroups comprising 8,707 respondents. Findings from structural equation modeling reveal that diversity climate is consistently positively related to workgroup performance and that this relationship is mediated by discrimination. Results yield a pattern of moderated mediation, in that the indirect relationship between workgroup diversity climate (through perceptions of workgroup discrimination) and group performance was more pronounced in larger than in smaller workgroups. These results illustrate that discrimination and group size represent key factors in determining how a diversity climate is associated with group performance and, thus, have significant implications for research and practice. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Combining quality and quantity. A psychometric evaluation of the self-anchoring scale

In this study a psychometric comparison is made between a category rating scale with fixed anchors and a self-anchoring category rating scale where respondents themselves define the end anchors by referring to their personal experiences with the construct being measured. A student-satisfaction questionnaire was administered to 301 undergraduate students on two test moments separated by a 1-month period. Both types of category rating scales were crossed with both test moments according to a 2 ×  2 mixed factorial design. Our results show that respondents perceive the construct being measured in the same way with both rating scales. A comparison concerning different indicators of reliability, i.e. test–retest reliability, internal consistency and the error variances associated with each item, also failed to find a difference between both rating scales. In a last analysis it is demonstrated that using a self-anchoring rating scale or a rating scale with fixed anchors has a small but significant effect on the ratings of the respondents. In conclusion, a self anchoring scale may be the scale of choice if additional qualitative information from the anchors is warranted, but when quantitative comparisons between groups are required, rating scales with fixed anchors are preferable thanks to their ease of use.     

Social Capital Effects on the Career and Development Outcomes of HR Professionals

HR professionals’ roles require them to be responsive to both employee needs and top management strategies. However, the need to respond to the often competing employee and strategic agendas makes relationship‐building efforts challenging. This study examines the social capital characteristics of HR professionals and the impact on receipt of network benefits and career outcomes. Results indicate that HR professionals benefit from relationships with other HR professionals for career sponsorship and role‐related benefits. However, it is contacts who are in higher positions or in other organizations that transfer the most influential benefits, which in turn relate to objective career outcomes. Few benefits are obtained from contacts in non‐HR functions. The results illuminate relationship development opportunities for HR professionals. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.