Emotional intelligence,job satisfaction,well‐being and engagement: explaining organisational commitment and turnover intentions in policing

This study examines the effect of emotional intelligence upon the job satisfaction, well‐being and engagement of police officers in explaining their organisational commitment and turnover intentions. Survey responses from 193 police officers in Australia were analysed using partial least squares path modelling. As predicted, emotional intelligence leads to job satisfaction and well‐being, with positive path relationships leading to employee engagement and organisational commitment, thereby affecting turnover intentions. Organisational commitment was found to partially mediate the causal relationship between employee engagement and turnover intentions. The findings of this research have important theoretical and practical implications for police officer retention.     

Voices unspoken? Understanding how gay employees co-construct a climate of voice/silence in organisations

Abstract

This study aimed to understand how the individual actions of gay employees influence the development of a climate of voice/silence in the workplace. We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with male and female homosexuals. The results reveal two types of boundary tactics (micro-level and structural) that our research participants used to promote their ideal level of separation or integration of their personal and professional identities. Our grounded theory demonstrates that whereas structural boundary tactics promote respect and a climate of voice, micro-level boundary tactics soften conflicts in the short term but solidify a climate of silence from a long-term perspective. We also propose that the insufficiency of institutional mechanisms to support gay people’s right to have a voice at work reduce the likelihood that these workers will risk confronting those who attempt to silence them. The originality of this study is based on the fact that it focuses on actions that gay employees can perform to co-construct a climate of voice that positions them as active social actors and not merely passive recipients of organisational and institutional conditions.     

Contextual Factors Affecting Quality of Work Life and Career Attitudes of Gay Men

With the current political environment (such as new legislation recognising gay and lesbian couples) and societal changes (such as increasing disclosure of sexual identity in the workplace) in countries such as the USA and Australia, organizations are increasingly recognising the existence of their gay and lesbian employees. This paper reports on an on-line survey of 581 working gay men, examining their quality of work life and career attitudes. The findings of the research provide a strong indication that contextual factors affect the quality of work life and work attitudes of gay men.     

The impact of management on the engagement and well-being of high emotional labour employees

Australia, like many other countries, suffers high turnover of nurses and police officers. Contributions to effectively manage the turnover challenge have been called for, and there are few Australian studies of nursing/policing turnover intentions. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of supervisor–subordinate relationships and perceived organisational support (POS) upon engagement, well-being, organisational commitment and turnover intentions. Second, we examined the similarities and differences between nursing and policing work contexts. The retention of nurses/police has been investigated from traditional management perspectives; however, we used a different theoretical approach – social exchange theory – and evaluated its utility as a framework. Findings are from Australian data collected during 2010–2011 from 510 nurses and 193 police officers, using a survey-based, self-report strategy. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analyse these data. Results indicated that for both samples, engagement predicts well-being and then, well-being predicts affective commitment and intentions to leave. MANOVA results suggested that nurses had significantly higher levels of satisfaction with their supervisor–subordinate relationships, POS, engagement, well-being and affective commitment than police officers. Only the intention to leave was similar for both groups. Given that turnover can be influenced by supervisors/management, this study provides new knowledge about targeted retention strategies.     

“I Am My Body”. Physical Selves of Police Officers in a Changing Institution

Most studies on identity work have overlooked the corporeal quality of occupational life. Despite calls to attempt such engagement, little is known about the role of the body in occupations for which corporeal elements are central in the affirmation of identity. This study aims to answer such calls by providing a detailed ethnography of police work. Focusing on four bodily practices, we demonstrate how fitness, intimidation, cleanliness, and toughness are central elements to the officers’ construction of self. We thereby highlight the notion of physical selfhood as a way to understand the body/identity nexus among police officers and their capacity to resist new work requirements. We view bodies through a lens of resistance, rather than docility and compliance as much previous research has done. We aim to contribute to scholarship on identity work by portraying the politicization of bodies as a powerful component, thereby helping professionals to deflect some important institutional pressures affecting their work.     

Working here makes me sick! The consequences of sick building syndrome

This study investigates the consequences of sick building syndrome (SBS) by extending previous research on its impact on employee behaviours and attitudes. The article examines the effect of working in sick buildings on employees' organisational citizenship behaviours, absence, stress, burnout and job satisfaction. We report the findings from a survey of police officers working in air‐conditioned buildings in the Caribbean region. The study draws on social exchange and social relations theories to develop hypotheses on the impact of SBS on employee well‐being and extra‐role behaviours. The findings provide partial support for the hypotheses with SBS associated with reduced employee well‐being and absence but not with organisational citizenship behaviour. The implications of these findings, limitations of the study and further research considerations are discussed.     

Mediating ambiguity: Narrative identity and knowledge workers

Drawing on Paul Ricoeur's approach to narrative identity and a longitudinal case study of a graphic design firm, this paper explores identity work provoked by organisational changes for one group of knowledge workers, graphic designers. The approach to identity work developed in this paper illuminates how these knowledge workers use narrative to mediate between social and personal identities during a period of significant organisational change. The narrative identity approach, derived from Ricoeur, embraces the multiplicity, complexity and potential contradictions encountered by knowledge workers facing threats to their personal identity. In addition to developing Ricoeur's thinking to understand identity work in an organisational context, the impact of organisational change for knowledge workers is highlighted for practitioners.     

Change and stability in public workforce development: a 10-year study of new officers in an urban police department

ABSTRACT

Workforce development is central to public management theory and practice. However, little is known about the impact that organizations have on public workforce development. This paper contributes by examining the attitudes, identities, and motivations of an entering cohort of police officers over a 10-year period. Analysing survey responses, the paper shows little evidence that the department radically remade entrants or that the fit between entrants and the department was a key determinant of attrition. Because police socialization is particularly intense, these findings suggest that public workforce development may be more determined by pre-entry selection and recruitment than by post-entry influences.     

How social enterprises manage their organizational identification: a theoretical framework of identity management approach through attraction,selection, and socialization

Abstract

Social enterprises, as a typical type of hybrid-identity organization, face identification tensions among members, arising from the divergent identities. Prior research has focused on how hybrid identities can be managed at the organizational level. However, the process through which identification emerges in hybrid-identity social enterprises remains relatively unexplored. This study addresses these gaps and aims to contribute to identity and identification theory. This research has taken a qualitative (case study) approach, with in-depth interviews and archival data from nine social enterprises in Taiwan. Our findings reveal three different types of responses to hybrid identities of social enterprises: synthesis, integration, and deletion. It is observed that different hybrid identities management and organizational identification management practices will lead to members’ identification and dis-identification. This research proposes an attraction-selection-socialization model, suggesting that, to foster identification, social enterprises need to manage their hybrid organizational identities and embed the new common identity into members’ daily work through attraction, selection, and socialization processes.     

The Community Demand for Police Officers

A bstract . The nature and elasticity of the demand function for police officers is a major concern of local officials and police union leaders. Analysis of this demand function takes place within the context of the median voter model. The economics of clubs approach is employed to develop a theoretical model which is concerned with determining the utility maximizing number of police officers for a community. The empirical results indicate that the demand for police officers tends to be elastic relative to maximum base salary , which may be indicative of increased citizen sensitivity to salaries of municipal employees .     

Breaking the cycle of marketing disinvestment: using market research to build organisational alliances

Many marketers find their programmes fall victim to disinvestment, both financial and psychological. While most marketers are avid students of consumer psychology, they tend to overlook the dynamics of organisational psychology, just as the literature on market orientation often fails to emphasise the organisational identity politics and power struggles that frustrate marketing. Discussions of market orientation focus on leadership and team‐building issues, favouring highly visible cases of organisational success at the expense of analysing common factors in marketing failure, many of them grounded in organisational psychology. Allied with knowledge of organisational epistemology, market research can be used as a critical resource in marketers' internal marketing programmes to strengthen market orientation. Ongoing collaborative market research can build positive organisational alliances that contribute to the internal support needed to sustain a successful marketing programme. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Strategic integration of HRM and firm performance in a changing environment in China: the impact of organisational effectiveness as a mediator

In the context of dramatic changes in China, this paper investigates the role of organisational effectiveness as a mediator in the relationship between the strategic integration of human resource management (HRM) and firm financial performance. Our study is based on the survey responses of 618 managers in state-owned and private (domestic and foreign-invested) enterprises in China. While most studies of the linkage between HRM practices and firm performance in China have measured firm financial performance or used an ad hoc combination of financial and non-financial indicators, we argue for a distinction to be made between non-financial organisational effectiveness and financial performance. As hypothesised, controlling for sector (state-owned vs. private), we find positive relationships between perceived changing business environment and strategic integration of HRM, and between strategic integration of HRM and organisational effectiveness. Our research adds an important conceptual link by showing that organisational effectiveness plays an important role as a mediator in the HRM and firm financial performance relationship and reinforces the importance of the organisational and environmental context for HRM.     

How does perceived formality shape unheard challenging voices?

Abstract

It has been argued that upward challenge is important because it allows employees to have a say in organisational decision-making. Yet upward challenge may go unheard in organisations. Formal voice mechanisms are largely considered to be advantageous for encouraging employees to share their views and concerns. However, recent papers calling into question the distinction between formal and informal voice have prompted investigation into the value of formal voice mechanisms in encouraging upward challenge. This qualitative study attempted to understand in what ways formal voice mechanisms had the potential to create unheard voices by first establishing a working definition of formal voice mechanisms. Using a sample of 19 UK police officers, participants used a card sort to categorise formal and informal voice mechanisms. They subsequently identified, through semi-structured interviews, that formal voice mechanisms could be considered risky for upward challenge. The findings can be used by scholars and practitioners as a framework to identify where challenging voices may be going unheard.     

LGBTQs in the city, queering urban space

Since the 1960s, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) culture has developed in big cities and metropolises everywhere (not only in the West, but also in Asia, Latin America and indeed Africa). This essay examines how cities provide the spatial conditions necessary for the formation of such emancipatory movements based on identity politics and strategies which transcend binary gender dualism. The starting point of this investigation is my thesis that only urban life enables LGBTQ individuals to live their lives fully, realize their (sexual) identities, and furthermore organize themselves collectively, become publicly visible, and appropriate urban, societal and political spaces.     

Managing people across hospital networks in the UK: multiple employers and the shaping of HRM

Building on the insights from a growing number of studies on the HRM implications of inter-organisational relations, this article investigates the HR issues in two case studies of ‘best practice’, long-term collaborative working. It identifies three common challenges for HRM: (a) how to build employee commitment and identity to the partnership without putting at risk the employing organisation's goals; (b) how to establish attractive career pathways in a partnership context requiring some degree of sharing of skill standards and coordination of training provision; and (c) how to sustain partnerships in a changing policy and organisational context. The data point to inherent problems in managing employment when there is more than one employing organisation exercising influence. Differences in organisational goals and HRM approaches in hospital networks are an obstacle to long-term integration – especially in public–private arrangements where integration of goals and HRM is more difficult.     

Identifying the Predictors of Employee Health and Satisfaction in an Npm Environment

Abstract

The Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model is investigated in the context of police officers working within an organization that has relatively widespread uptake of New Public Management (NPM) practices. A survey of 479 police officers from two geographic regions was undertaken and the results indicate that the DCS offers a simple, yet powerful, framework for identifying the conditions to be managed in an NPM-oriented environment. Job control and work-based support predict all four target variables, strengthening the view that decision-making latitude and support from supervisors and colleagues represent critical resources for promoting the well-being, satisfaction and commitment of public sector employees.     

Comparing the impact of management support on police officers’ perceptions of discretionary power and engagement: Australia,USA and Malta

Abstract

This paper uses Social Exchange Theory as a lens for comparing the impact of management support upon police perceptions of discretionary power and employee engagement, across three countries. A survey-based, self-report process collected data from 193 police officers in Australia, 588 from the USA, and 249 from Malta. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The findings suggest a significantly different management support context across the three countries, as well as significantly different perceptions of discretionary power. Across the three countries, police perceived relatively poor satisfaction with organizational management support and only some engagement levels. However, USA police perceived significantly more discretionary power than the other country samples. These findings provide greater clarity about the link between management support, discretionary power and engagement for the police officers. Since employee engagement likely affects policing outcomes, the findings suggest that poor management support of police officers could negatively affect the provided service. Potential strategies to enhance police engagement include (a) training police managers about how to manage so as to promote greater engagement, and (b) modifying police managers’ performance indicators in line with achieving better police engagement.     

Lost in translation: exploring the link between HRM and performance in healthcare

Using data collected in 2004 from 132 Victorian (Australia) public healthcare providers, comprising metropolitan and regional hospital networks, rural hospitals and community health centres, we investigated the perceptions of HRM from the experiences of chief executive officers, HR directors and other senior managers. We found some evidence that managers in healthcare organisations reported different perceptions of strategic HRM and a limited focus on collection and linking of HR performance data with organisational performance management processes. Using multiple moderator regression and multivariate analysis of variance, significant differences were found in perceptions of strategic HRM and HR priorities between chief executive officers, HR directors and other senior managers in the large organisations. This suggested that the strategic human management paradigm is ‘lost in translation’, particularly in large organisations, and consequently opportunities to understand and develop the link between people management practices and improved organisational outcomes may be missed. There is some support for the relationship between strategic HRM and improved organisational outcomes. Implications of these findings are drawn for managerial practice.     

Statistical Disclosure Risk: Separating Potential and Harm

Statistical agencies are keen to devise ways to provide research access to data while protecting confidentiality. Although methods of statistical disclosure risk assessment are now well established in the statistical science literature, the integration of these methods by agencies into a general scientific basis for their practice still proves difficult. This paper seeks to review and clarify the role of statistical science in the conceptual foundations of disclosure risk assessment in an agency’s decision making. Disclosure risk is broken down into disclosure potential, a measure of the ability to achieve true disclosure, and disclosure harm. It is argued that statistical science is most suited to assessing the former. A framework for this assessment is presented. The paper argues that the intruder’s decision making and behaviour may be separated from this framework, provided appropriate account is taken of the nature of potential intruder attacks in the definition of disclosure potential.     

Nondiscrimination Policies and Sexual Identity Disclosure: Do They Make a Difference in Employee Outcomes?

Legal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation still persists in most parts of the United States. One avenue of localized protection has been corporate policies against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In a sample of N = 65 gay men, this paper examines whether differences exist on perceived workplace hostility, turnover intentions, perceived promotion opportunity, job and supervisor satisfaction and supervisor–subordinate relationship quality between the reports of men in organizations that have non-discrimination policies and those employed where they do not. Additionally, this paper examines if disclosure of sexual orientation to a supervisor affects the same variables. Findings suggest that the presence of a non-discrimination policy influences affective variables whereas disclosure influences career variables. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.