Perceived Trustworthiness of Supervisors,Employee Satisfaction and Cooperation

Abstract

This study examines the value of trustworthiness of supervisors within US federal agencies. Although public administration scholars have paid attention to trust as a managerial resource, more empirical evidence is still needed. The authors test whether perceived trustworthiness of supervisors works as a valuable managerial resource within federal agencies. Following Mayer et al. (1995 Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H. and Schoorman, D. 1995. An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 709–34. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), this study assumes trustworthiness as a multi-dimensional concept composed of ability, benevolence and integrity. Drawing on data from a large-scale survey of US federal employees, the research first tests whether these factors constitute the elements of supervisory trustworthiness of federal agencies by second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Then, using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, the research examines whether trustworthiness has positive associations with employee satisfaction and cooperation within work units. The analyses confirm that the three factors constitute trustworthiness as Mayer et al. (1995 Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H. and Schoorman, D. 1995. An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 709–34. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggest and that supervisory trustworthiness is substantially associated with the two outcomes.     

A GRAS VARIANT SOLVING FOR MINIMUM INFORMATION LOSS

The fundamental idea in Junius and Oosterhaven (2003) Junius, T. and Oosterhaven, J. 2003. The Solution of Updating or Regionalizing a Matrix with both Positive and Negative Entries. Economic Systems Research, 15: 87–96. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] is to break down the information contained in the a priori data into two parts: algebraic signs, and absolute values. This approach is well grounded in information theory, and provides a basis on which to solve the problem of adjusting matrices with negative entries. However, Junius and Oosterhaven (2003) Junius, T. and Oosterhaven, J. 2003. The Solution of Updating or Regionalizing a Matrix with both Positive and Negative Entries. Economic Systems Research, 15: 87–96. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] have formulated a target function that is not equivalent to the Kullback and Leibler (1951) Kullback, S. and Leibler, R. A. 1951. On Information and Sufficiency. Annals of Mathematical Statistics, 4: 99–111.  [Google Scholar] cross-entropy measure, and so is not a representation of the minimum information loss principle. Neither is the alternative target function proposed by Lenzen et al. (2007) Lenzen, M., Wood, R. and Gallego, B. 2007. Some Comments on the GRAS Method. Economic Systems Research, 19: 461–465. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar]. This paper develops the exact Kullback and Leibler cross-entropy measure. In addition, following the constrained optimization approach, this paper applies the same principle to solve adjustment problems where row-sums, column-sums or both are constrained to zero.     

Average employee tenure,voluntary turnover ratio,and labour productivity: evidence from Japanese firms

Using Japanese firms' data, this study shows that voluntary turnover ratio is negatively related to firm labour productivity. While recent studies have reported the negative influence of turnover on organizational performance (Kacmar et al., 2006 Kacmar, K.M., Andrews, M.C., van Rooy, D.L., Steilberg, R.C. and Cerrone, S. 2006. Sure Everyone can be Replaced… But at What Cost? Turnover as a Predictor of Unit-Level Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 133–44. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Shaw et al., 2005a Shaw, J.D., Gupta, N. and Delery, J.E. 2005a. Alternative Conceptualizations of the Relationship between Voluntary Turnover and Organizational Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 48: 50–68. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), they analysed only US samples. Our study contributes to researchers' efforts to generalize the relationship between voluntary turnover and organizational performance. Turnover is detrimental to labour productivity as it reduces the stock of firm-specific human capital that a firm retains. Findings suggest that firm average employee tenure mediates the relationship between voluntary turnover and labour productivity.     

The effects of HRM practices and antecedents on organizational commitment among university employees

This paper examines which factors affect organizational commitment among Dutch university employees in two faculties with different academic identities (separatist versus hegemonist, Stiles, 2004 Stiles, D. 2004. Narcissus Revisited: The Values of Management Academics and their Role in Business School Strategies in the UK and Canada. British Journal of Management, 15(2): 157–75. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The analyses of Web survey data reveal that in the separatist faculty decentralization, compensation, training/development, positional tenure and career mobility have significant effects. Age, organizational tenure, level of autonomy, working hours, social involvement and personal importance significantly affect the employees' organizational commitment in the hegemonist faculty. Participation, social interactions and job level are factors that are important in both faculties. The findings indicate that the set of factors affecting the organizational commitment of employees differs between the separatist and hegemonist faculties. The findings empirically support the argument that different configurations or ‘bundles’ of HRM practices (Delery and Doty, 1996 Delery, J.E. and Doty, D.H. 1996. Modes of Theorizing in Strategic Human Resource Management: Tests of Universalistic, Contingency, and Configurational Performance Predictions. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4): 802–35. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Guest, 1997 Guest, D.E. 1997. Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review and Research Agenda. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8(3): 263–76. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) are suited for organizations with different identities. Explanations for the observed relationships, implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Experiential regret in service failure: The role of service justices

ABSTRACT

Regret is so common as to be the second most frequently named emotion in a study of the use of emotions in everyday language (Shimanoff, 1984 Shimanoff, S. B. (1984). Commonly named emotions in everyday conversations. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 514. doi:10.2466/pms.1984.58.2.514[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Regret is a negative, cognitively based emotion that we experience when realizing or imagining that our present situation would have been better had we acted differently (Zeelenberg, 1999 Zeelenberg, M. (1999). The use of crying over spilled milk: A note on the rationality and functionality of regret. Philosophical Psychology, 12, 325–340. doi:10.1080/095150899105800[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Meanwhile, complaint handling takes an important role in raising the retention rate of the customers who experience service problems (Hart, Heskett, & Sasser, 1990 Hart, C. W. L., Heskett, J. L., & Sasser, W. E., Jr. (1990). The profitable art of service recovery. Harvard Business Review, 68(4), 148–156.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Customers anticipate that enterprises will remedy their service failure. The complaining process enhances the relationship between dissatisfied customers and enterprises (Chebat & Slusarczyk, 2005 Chebat, J. C., & Slusarczyk, W. (2005). How emotions mediate the effects of perceived justice on loyalty in service recovery situations: An empirical study. Journal of Business Research, 58, 664–673. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2003.09.005[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). One of the strategies to retain customers is to recover justice from failures (Blodgett, Hill, & Tax, 1997 Blodgett, J. G., Hill, D. J., & Tax, S. S. (1997). The effects of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice on postcomplaint behavior. Journal of Retailing, 73(2), 185–210. doi:10.1016/s0022-4359(97)90003-8[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This study intended to explore the impact of customers’ experiential regret in service failure on customers’ behavioral intention and investigate whether the service justice perceived by customers moderates the relationship between these two.     

Special Issue on Tax Research

Abstract

This paper is motivated by the links that continue to be forged between security pricing and accounting, building on recent findings that firms tend to be asymmetrically conservative in the timeliness of earnings recognition. The evidence is that firms in the European Union tend to recognise unrealised losses more quickly in their earnings than unrealised gains (Giner and Rees, 2001 Giner, B. and Rees, W. 2001. On the asymmetric recognition of good and bad news in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 28(9/10): 1285–1331.  [Google Scholar]; Raonic et al., forthcoming), and there is evidence of even greater accounting conservatism in the USA (Basu, 1997 Basu, S. 1997. The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 24: 3–37. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Ball et al., 2000 Ball, R., Kothari, S. P. and Robin, A. 2000. The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 29: 1–51. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Givoly and Hayn, 2000 Givoly, D. and Hayn, C. 2000. The changing time-series properties of earnings, cash flows and accruals: has financial reporting become more conservative?. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 29: 287–320. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This paper investigates whether the Czech market exhibits conformity with the behaviour that has been documented elsewhere by examining the earnings/returns relationship, focusing to begin with on the impact of losses on earnings response coefficients and then considering the asymmetric timeliness of income recognition in the Czech market. The findings indicate that the Czech market is similar to more developed markets, at least in one respect: there is statistically significant evidence of different market effects of profits and losses, in that profits are more persistent than losses. However, contrary to the findings in more developed markets, there is no statistically significant evidence of earnings conservatism in the Czech market. These results are most probably due to the continuing influence of restrictive tax regulations that mitigate any tendency towards conservatism, as well as the transitional nature of the economy. A further reason is likely to be that the regulatory environment in the Czech Republic is close to the kind of stakeholder corporatism that is described by Ball et al. (2000) Ball, R., Kothari, S. P. and Robin, A. 2000. The effect of international institutional factors on properties of accounting earnings. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 29: 1–51. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], who show that conservatism tends to be less pronounced in such regimes where there are fewer managerial incentives to bias current earnings. In conclusion, if changes in market prices signal good news and bad news about future risky outcomes, there is no evidence of asymmetry in the Czech market in accounting for such risks.     

Some Comments on the GRAS Method

Junius and Oosterhaven (2003) Junius, T. and Oosterhaven, J. 2003. The solution of updating or regionalizing a matrix with both positive and negative entries. Economic Systems Research, 15: 87–96. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] present a RAS matrix balancing variant that can incorporate negative elements in the balancing. There are, however, a couple of issues in the approach described – the first being the handling of zeros in the initial estimate, and the second being the formulation of their minimum-information principle. We present a corrected exposition of GRAS.     

When knowledge management meets HR strategy: an exploration of personalization-retention and codification-recruitment configurations

The resource-based view and the knowledge-based view are important developments in strategic management theory, and ‘knowledge management’ has exploded in the popular management literature. There is, however, little empirical literature that explores the connections between firms' attempts at knowledge management and their HR strategies. In this paper, we focus particularly on links between knowledge management and staffing practices. High-technology manufacturing was selected as the site of our research, as high-technology firms rely on highly skilled employees to innovate and develop new products and are therefore an ideal environment for exploring the strategies employed for both managing knowledge, and recruiting and retaining employees. Drawing particularly on the work of Hansen et al. (1999 Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T. 1999. What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?. Harvard Business Review, March–April:, : 106–16. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), this paper identifies and explores two fits between knowledge management and HR strategy or what we call KM-HR configurations: ‘personalization-retention’ and ‘codification-recruitment’. We argue that there is no one way to manage knowledge and its links to HRM and build a simple framework of potential KM-HR configurations with propositions for future research.     

GRAS versus minimizing absolute and squared differences: a comment

Junius and Oosterhaven (2003) Junius, T. and Oosterhaven, J. 2003. The solution of updating or regionalizing a matrix with both positive and negative entries. Economic Systems Research, 15: 87–96. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] developed the GRAS algorithm that minimizes the information gain when updating input–output tables with both positive and negative signs. Jackson and Murray (2004) Jackson, R. W. and Murray, A. T. 2004. Alternative input–output matrix updating formulations. Economic Systems Research, 16: 135–148. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar], however, claim that minimizing squared differences in coefficients produces a smaller information gain, which is theoretically impossible. In this comment, calculation errors are sorted out from differences in measures, and it is shown that the information gain needs to be taken in absolute terms when increasing and decreasing cell values occur together. The numerical results show that GRAS outperforms both sign-preserving alternatives in all but one comparison of lesser economic importance. Moreover, as opposed to the result of Jackson and Murray, they show that minimizing absolute differences consistently outperforms minimizing squared differences, which overweighs large errors in small coefficients.     

Variability in the Organizational Climate of Government Offices and Affective Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This study examined the shared perceptions of 739 professional and technical employees regarding organizational climate and the strength of affective commitment in fifty-one geographically dispersed offices of an agency of state government. The results indicated that the level of affective commitment in these offices could be predicted reliably (adjusted R 2 2James and colleagues (James et al., 1978 James, L. R., Hater, J. J., Gent, M. J. and Bruni, J. R. 1978. Psychological Climate: Implications fromCognitive Social Learning Theory and Interactional Psychology. Personnel Psychology, 31: 783–813. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Jones and James, 1979 Jones, A. P. and James, L. R. 1979. Psychological Climate: Dimensions and Relationships of Individual andAggregated Work Environment Perceptions. Organization Behavior and Human Performance, 23: 201–50. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) initially identified five domains of climate, but in subsequent work they included only four domains. Aspects of the fifth domain, organizational and subsystem attributes, were included in the first (i.e. role stress and lack of harmony) and fourth domains (i.e. social environment characteristics) of their model.  = .75) from three of the eight dimensions of organizational climate included in the study: goal ambiguity, social cohesion and fairness and equity. Implications of these results with respect to developing effective human resource management strategies in public sector organizations are discussed in detail.     

The contribution of corporate social responsibility to organizational commitment

This study investigates the relationship between organizational commitment and employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within a model that draws on social identity theory. Specifically, we examine the impact of three aspects of socially responsible behaviour on organizational commitment: employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility in the community, procedural justice in the organization and the provision of employee training. The relationship between organizational commitment and each aspect of CSR is investigated within a model that distinguishes between genders and includes a set of control variables that is drawn from the commitment literature (Meyer et al., 2002 Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Herscovitch, L. and Topolnytsky, L. 2002. Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the Organization: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents, Correlates, and Consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61: 20–52. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The analysis is based on a sample of 4,712 employees drawn from a financial services company. The results emphasize the importance of gender variation and suggest both that external CSR is positively related to organizational commitment and that the contribution of CSR to organizational commitment is at least as great as job satisfaction.     

Augmenting the Input–Output Framework for ‘Common Pool’ Resources: Operationalising the Full Leontief Environmental Model

In its initial formulation, the full Leontief (1970) Leontief, W. 1970. Environmental repercussions and the economic structure: an input–output approach. Review of Economics and Statistics, 52: 262–277. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] environmental model augments the conventional Input–Output (IO) table by introducing pollution generation and separately identified pollution elimination sectors. Essentially it extends IO analysis to incorporate the use of a ‘common pool’ resource. Subsequent literature has either been analytical in nature or has concentrated on pollution generation but not cleaning activity. In this paper we generate an empirical full Leontief environmental IO system, based on augmenting the existing Scottish IO tables through endogenising waste generation and waste disposal activity. Due to weaknesses in data, our empirical results need to be treated with some caution. However, the construction of the extended IO system and the interpretation of the output and price multiplier results raise a number of interesting practical and conceptual issues. The analysis undertaken here can be extended to other ‘common pool’ resources such as the use of highways and irrigation systems.     

Human resource systems and employee performance in Ireland and the Netherlands: a test of the complementarity hypothesis

A central claim of strategic HRM is the notion that the way a firm manages its workforce affects its corporate performance. In particular, ‘high performance human resource management’, a systematic approach toward HR management consisting of internally consistent HR dimensions that develop the skill and motivation of the workforce, is considered to contribute to the ‘bottom-line’ of companies. The benefits are attributed generally to ‘complementarities’ among the constituent dimensions. In the theoretical part of this paper we distinguish between three different processes resulting in such complementarities: reinforcement, flanking and compensation. These different processes are exemplified for five areas of high performance human resource management, incentives systems, training, sharing arrangements, guidance and selective recruitment. In the empirical part of this paper we examine whether the effect at the employee level can be traced to the complementary relationships among the five high performance HR dimensions. The core hypothesis to be tested in this study is that the complementarity effect of the high performance HR management system enhances employee performance over and above the sum of the effects of the five practices. This complementarity hypothesis is tested using a methodology for the test of systems effects suggested by Ichniowski et al. (1997 Ichniowski, C., Shaw, K. and Prennushi, G. 1997. The Effects of Human Resources Management Practices on Productivity: A Study of Steel Finishing Lines. The American Economic Review, 87(3): 291–314. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The data come from a matched establishment survey in two European countries, Ireland and the Netherlands. These datasets comprise data from nearly 400 establishments. Key findings are that the complementarity hypothesis is fully supported by the Irish data but rejected by the Dutch data.     

New careers for old? Organizational and individual responses to changing boundaries

Much has been written about the implications for employees in the post-corporate era of boundaryless careers. Much less has been written about the problems and challenges facing employers within a boundaryless career context. This paper contributes to both levels of analysis. At the level of the individual employee, focusing upon the middle of the organization, we suggest that there has been a differential impact upon individuals with some ‘losers’ and some ‘winners’. Skilled specialist employees and younger employees may welcome changing career boundaries, whereas those with more generic skills and older employees may be less enthusiastic. At the employer level, our research suggests that the rise of new career boundaries has left employers marginalized in unforeseen ways from the emerging new social structures that individuals are increasingly reliant upon to support the development of their skills and professional networks. We agree with Van Buren (2003 Van Buren, H.J. 2003. Boundaryless Careers and Employability Obligations. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13(2): 131–49. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) that the demise of the organization-career poses challenges at the organization and industry level in terms of developing and leveraging knowledge. However, the emergence of new boundaries has compounded the difficulties that organizations and industries now face. Thus it may be that even if employers were willing and eager to tackle the employability challenge, the shifting form of career boundaries make this a significant strategic human resource challenge.     

The performance effects of major workforce reductions: longitudinal evidence from North America

This paper investigates the performance effects of major job cuts.1 1 Like Wayhan and Werner (2000 Wayhan, V. and Werner, S. 2000. The Impact of Workforce Reductions on Financial Performance: A Longitudinal Perspective. Journal of Management, 26: 341–63. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), we interchangeably use the expressions ‘workforce reduction’ and ‘job cuts’ instead of the broad concept of ‘downsizing’ which is subject to multiple confusing definitions (DeWitt, 1998 DeWitt, R.L. 1998. Firm Industry and Strategy Influences on Choice of Downsizing Approach. Strategic Management Journal, 19: 59–79.  [Google Scholar]). Using data from Compustat S&P database, we examined the longitudinal impact of workforce reductions on labour productivity and operational indebtedness of 239 US and Canadian companies. Repeated measures analysis showed that firms that substantially cut jobs failed to improve their labour productivity and their operational indebtedness. Then, taken a step further, statistical analysis surprisingly revealed that firms that cut the highest proportions of their workforce had a significant deterioration of their operational indebtedness and a non-significant change of their labour productivity. These results call into question the economic legitimacy of major workforce reductions increasingly institutionalized to the detriment of the strategic approach of HRM.     

Unwrapping the HRM bundle: HR system design in an Irish power utility

This article considers the way in which new HR systems were designed for three power stations within Ireland. The study provides insights into how choices are made about which practices are included in or excluded from the HR bundle and considers the factors that can lead to or prevent the successful implementation of new HR systems. The research suggests that all HR practices are not necessarily of equal importance in the bundle that comprises an HR system. Instead, it may be useful to view such a system as comprising both core and ancillary HR practices and as dependent on the existence of appropriate HR processes if it is to operate successfully. In addition, the study suggests that new HR systems may fail because insufficient attention is paid to the impact of ‘deadly combinations’ (Becker et al., 1997 Becker, B., Huselid, M., Pickus, P. and Spratt, M. 1997. HR as a Source of Shareholder Value. Human Resource Management, 36(1): 389–447.  [Google Scholar]) and that changing an existing system will require the elimination of old practices before new practices can be introduced successfully.     

An Explanation of Differences Between Government Offices in Employees' Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) includes employees' discretionary actions not explicitly recognized by formal reward systems that in the aggregate promote the effective functioning of the organization (Organ, 1988 Organ, D.W. 1988. Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome, Lexington, MA: Lexington. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). The present study was the first group-level investigation of OCB antecedents in governmental organizations using the office or bureau, not the government employee, as the primary unit of analysis. The hypotheses foundational to the investigation posited that aggregate employee perceptions of the importance and challenge of work assigned in an office would predict, in part, the degree of overall job satisfaction, and that all three variables would be associated with the level of OCB reported in an office. The present study was conducted with an organizational survey of all employees in geographically dispersed offices of a state government agency. Altogether 2136 usable questionnaires were returned for an overall response rate of 82 per cent and subsequently partitioned into sixty-five distinct office groups. Results based on a multivariate path model suggested that the overall levels of job importance and job challenge in an office had positive relationships with collective job satisfaction and explained over two-thirds of the variability observed. Job satisfaction did not fully mediate the connection of work importance and work challenge to OCB; all three independent measures were linked directly to the amount of OCB reported in these offices (R ² = .45). One important implication of the study is that OCB may serve as a compensatory mechanism in government offices for the assignment of somewhat inconsequential tasks and responsibilities.     

Knowledge-sharing in R&D departments: a social power and social exchange theory perspective

Sharing knowledge in an R&D team is one of the crucial ways of sustaining a competitive advantage. According to the social power theory, managers have five types of power to influence subordinates' behavior (French and Raven 1959 French, J. and Raven, B.H. 1959. The Bases of Social Power. Studies in Social Power, Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.  [Google Scholar]). This study examines managers' social power influencing R&D employees' knowledge-sharing behavior. The empirical model formed two nested models, one to assess the direct effect of managers' social power on employees' knowledge-sharing behavior, and the other to examine the indirect effect of using the mediated variable of trust.

Data gathered from 105 R&D employees were employed to examine the relationship. The results indicate that manager's reward power and expert power have direct effects, while reference power and expert power have indirect effects.     

PROJECTION OF SUPPLY AND USE TABLES: METHODS AND THEIR EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT

We present eight existing projection methods and test their relative performance in estimating Supply and Use tables (SUTs) of the Netherlands and Spain. Some of the methods presented have received little attention in the literature, and some have been slightly revised to better deal with negative elements and preserve the signs of original matrix entries. We find that (G)RAS and the methods proposed by Harthoorn and van Dalen (1987 Harthoorn, R. and J. van Dalen (1987) On the Adjustment of Tables with Lagrange Multipliers. NA-024. Central Bureau of Statistics, The Netherlands, National Accounts Research Division  [Google Scholar]) and Kuroda (1988 Kuroda, M. 1988. “A Method of Estimation for the Updating Transaction Matrix in the Input–Output Relationships”. In Statistical Data Bank Systems. Socio-Economic database and model building in Japan, Edited by: Uno, K. and Shishido, S. Amsterdam: North Holland, 43–56.  [Google Scholar]) produce the best estimates for the data in question. Their relative success also suggests the stability of ratios of larger transactions.