The differential effects of job design on knowledge workers and manual workers: A quasi‐experimental field study in China

When Taylorism was discarded long ago, job enrichment emerged as a good alternative. Recent research, however, has pointed out the ineffectiveness of job enrichment. This study suggests that both approaches could be effective and looks at job nature as the moderator that can affect how the two approaches are applied. The authors' longitudinal quasi‐experimental field study in China found a significant interaction between worker type (knowledge workers [KWs] versus manual workers [MWs]) and job characteristics on employee outcomes. After enrichment, KWs experienced higher satisfaction and task performance, whereas for MWs, satisfaction and performance declined. This pattern of results suggests that both job enrichment and Taylorism are applicable depending on the job nature. In addition to contributing to job design theory, the present study also explored the unique attributes of KWs and provides practical suggestions as to how human resource managers can better motivate KWs. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Doing it for themselves? Performance appraisal in project‐based organisations,the role of employees,and challenges to theory

We explore performance appraisal in project‐based organisations and provide novel insights into appraisal processes in this context. These include the central role of employees in orchestrating the appraisal process, the multiple actors that have input to appraisal including project managers, the distance between employees and their official line managers, and the weak coordinating role of human resource specialists in these systems. We draw attention to the drawbacks of current theorising on appraisal to predict and explain outcomes from appraisal systems that are not premised on stable line manager/employee dyads. Theorising based primarily on social exchange theories needs to be reconsidered in this context and new theories developed. We also question how human resource specialists can better support employees, and managers of all kinds, in their implementation roles in polyadic human resource management systems to ensure transparency, equity, and fairness of appraisal processes in a project‐based organisational context.     

Front‐line managers as agents in the HRM‐performance causal chain: theory,analysis and evidence

Research on the link between HRM and organisational performance has neglected the role of front‐line managers, yet it is these managers who are increasingly charged with the implementation of many HR practices. Using an employee survey in 12 ‘excellent’ companies we explore the extent to which employee commitment towards their employer and their job are influenced by the quality of leadership behaviour and by satisfaction with HR practices. Both have a strong effect on employee attitudes. The article concludes with a case study of a planned effort to improve front‐line managers' skills in people management.     

Empowered self‐development and continuous learning

Organizational changes are creating the need for continuous learning environments that support employees' self‐development. Self‐development means seeking and using feedback, setting development goals, engaging in developmental activities, and tracking progress on one's own. This assumes that people are capable not only of monitoring their own behaviors, but also of recognizing which behaviors and outcomes are most favorable and desirable. Drawing on self‐determination theory, this article shows how organizations can encourage self‐development by providing nonthreatening performance feedback, ensuring behavioral choices for learning, encouraging feedback seeking, and rewarding participation in learning activities and other self‐determined behavior. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Fits,misfits and interactions: learning at work,job satisfaction and job‐related well‐being

The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm has focused attention on the importance of aligning employees' needs with the requirements of the jobs they do. This article focuses on how these needs and requirements interact in terms of learning. It does so in two ways. First, it develops new survey instruments to capture the learning demands of jobs and the learning dispositions of workers and uses them for the first time in a survey of 2,810 employees. Second, it examines how these person and job characteristics correlate with specific aspects of job satisfaction and job‐related well‐being. The results show that although learning alignment is associated with high levels of satisfaction and well‐being, not all learning misalignments are associated with the reverse.     

The role of employee HR attributions in the relationship between high‐performance work systems and employee outcomes

Although research has shown that the use of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) is associated with employee outcomes, our knowledge of the meanings employees attach to HPWS systems and how these shape employee outcomes is still limited. This study examines the signalling impact of enacted HPWS on HR well‐being and HR performance attributions, and how these influence happiness‐ and health‐related outcomes. Using multilevel data (1,065 employees nested within 150 work units) obtained from multiple sources (line managers and employees), our results show that coverage of HPWS was positively associated with the two HR attributions. In addition, HR well‐being attributions were associated with higher levels of commitment and lower levels of job strain. HR performance attributions were associated with higher levels of job strain. The findings of this study highlight the importance of taking into account how employees attach meaning to enacted HPWS in order to predict employee outcomes.     

Exploring possible trade‐offs between organisational performance and employee well‐being: The role of teamwork practices

There is growing evidence linking teamwork practices to performance outcomes. However, critics have raised concerns that such outcomes are achieved at the expense of increased job demands and stress among workers. Using large data from a representative sample of British workplaces (N = 4,311 workers in 664 workplaces), this study explores the pattern of relationships between teamwork practices, organisational performance, and employee well‐being. The study draws on a mutual gains model linking teamwork practices to organisational performance via affective commitment, and a conflicting outcomes model associated with high job demands and job‐related anxiety. The study also examines an interactive outcomes model that integrates the mutual gains and conflicting outcomes models. The study reports evidence that the performance gains of teamwork practices may actually come at the cost of increased job demands and job‐related anxiety. Nevertheless, these adverse outcomes tend to weaken at higher levels of affective commitment.     

Thriving of employees with disabilities: The roles of job self‐efficacy,inclusion, and team‐learning climate

With the growing global emphasis on welfare‐to‐work policies, an increasing number of people with disabilities (PWD) have entered the workforce. However, studies on PWD have focused primarily on company practices to accommodate PWD, with a limited understanding of factors affecting psychological integration of PWD into the workplace. This scarcity in research makes it difficult for managers to utilize the full work potential of PWD. To fill this research gap, the current study focuses on the job self‐efficacy of PWD and investigates how employee disability interacts with inclusion and team‐learning climate to affect job self‐efficacy, and in turn thriving at work. Using a sample of 485 employees in 114 teams, surveys found job self‐efficacy was a key intervening mechanism linking employee disability to thriving at work. These results suggest high workplace inclusion can buffer potential negative effects of disability at the individual level, strengthened further by a high team‐learning climate. The data supported a three‐way cross‐level interaction effect of disability, inclusion, and team‐learning climate on the thriving of employees with disabilities, through job self‐efficacy. Our results demonstrate the importance of inclusion and team‐learning climate to foster employee thriving in a diverse workforce.     

Company‐based education programmes: what's the pay‐off for employers?

This article addresses the question of whether company‐based programmes of education repay employer investment in terms of learning transfer to the workplace. Building on earlier work by the authors, we use an in‐depth longitudinal case study of a long‐standing programme of continuous education sponsored by the US‐based NCR corporation in Scotland. As educators, we expected to find that the programme would have been associated with positive outcomes, based on the belief that 'embrained' or formal, abstract knowledge can be transferred to the workplace. We were aware, however, that research in this area has not been promising in demonstrating learning transfer, in part because such a process is mediated by the quality of the transfer climate. Drawing on survey data and in‐depth interviewing of a sample cohort, we found that the programme of company‐based education had significant implications for learning transfer. Surprisingly, however, transfer climate had little influence on the willingness of employees to use their knowledge to make improvements or generate innovations at work. Finally, we found that these data supported situated learning theory, stressing the importance of tacit knowledge, informal learning, the communal nature of workplace learning and the difficulties in evaluating learning transfer. We believe that these results have important implications for the literature on the evaluation of HRD interventions, for human resource development (HRD) specialists interested in developing programmes of so‐called lifelong learning and for practitioners working in the area of organisational learning and learning organisations.     

Reproducing low‐wage labour: capital accumulation,labour markets and young workers

Drawing on evidence from Greater Manchester, this article examines how structural changes in capital accumulation have created particular labour market outcomes, which have led to young people becoming a source of cheap labour for the growing low‐wage service economy. Greater Manchester has been selected as a case study because of the sectoral composition of its labour market and because levels of low pay for young workers are above the national low‐pay average of 40 per cent. The research reveals that it is necessary to move beyond sociological explanations that concentrate on the ‘essential youthfulness’ of young people and instead draw on analytical categories from political economy in order to understand the structural causes of young people's material circumstances.     

Management Control as an Employee Resource: The Case of Front‐line Service Workers

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the conception of management control as an employee resource can enhance critical understandings of front‐line service work. The argument is developed first through a critique of the contemporary control literature and its prominent worker images of smiling docility and haggard exhaustion. Seeking to encourage accounts more sensitive to the subjectivity and agency of service workers, the paper calls for more research attention to the question of how these employees experience and evaluate management control in relation to their self‐defined interests. Analysis of the nature of contemporary service work suggests that one such perceived interest is likely to be interactive control, or the capacity of workers to control and influence those parties with whom they directly interact. Based on a close reading of the emerging empirical literature on services, the article explores various ways in which the bureaucratic, technical and normative regulation designed by management to control service workers is used in turn by workers to further their own control and influence over managers and customers.     

Environmental issue management: towards a multi‐level theory of environmental management competence

The continuity and profitability of business firms are under constant threat from environmental issues – forthcoming developments in the environmental domain or involving environmental stakeholders that are likely to have an important impact on the ability of the enterprise to meet its objectives. Managers must forge responses to such issues, but must they respond in an ad hoc fashion to every issue or can they develop more coherent environmental management competences? Empirical evidence was collected from a case study of the environmental issue management practices of Unilever, one of the largest food and personal care companies in the world. This company's approach to dealing with the issue of genetically modified ingredients reveals that issue managers face a complex level‐of‐analysis problem when confronting environmental issues: how to translate individual‐level knowledge into organization‐level outcomes? The theory developed here suggests that once firms learn how to span this chasm, they are able not only to address discrete environmental issues, but also to build competitive environmental advantages through the development of integrative organizational competences. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The non‐professionally affiliated (NPA) worker as co‐producer of public services: how is the role experienced in UK mental health services?

Recent workforce reforms have led to the widespread expansion of non‐professionally affiliated (NPA) support and assistant roles within UK public services. Research into these roles has been confined to a limited range of settings, with a focus on the consequence of change for professional workers. This article explores the emergence of ‘co‐production’, whereby NPA workers contribute alongside the professional in a distinct, complementary way. Findings are drawn from semi‐structured interviews with frontline workers and managers within the context of mental health workforce reform. The results build a picture of NPA working life characterised in part by autonomy and responsibility. At the same time, NPA workers rely on colleagues for support and are subject to being used indirectly by professionals. Contextual influences are considered. The conceptual implications of the analysis are brought out, both for the NPA role itself and for the broader issues involved in front line service work.     

Training older workers: Lessons learned,unlearned, and relearned from the field of instructional design

Changing workforce demographics have highlighted the need to provide training and development opportunities for older workers. This article critically examines the current state of research on the use of systematic instructional design procedures to develop work‐related training that is inclusive of older workers. The review reveals a disconnect between what the literature recommends to achieve age‐inclusive design and what is offered as evidence of age‐inclusive design. Age‐related generalizations about cognition and learning capacity often serve as the basis for design decisions, with little attention paid to the role of training context and content. The article recommends that this disconnect be resolved and offers some specific suggestions about how human resource managers can integrate sound instructional design principles into the training and development component of their talent management strategies. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Developing integrated management systems using an AHP‐Fuzzy VIKOR approach

Integrated management systems (IMSs) involve a strategy to manage multiple systems while meeting the needs and expectations of stakeholders. There are various management standards used for the development of IMS. This study aims to undertake research focused on how to develop an IMS. In this context, management standards, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), consider alternatives and integration potential at multiple levels (i.e., strategic, tactical, and operational). We assess criteria including continuous improvement, systematic management, integration, organizational learning, standardization, and ability to cut through bureaucracy before a deeper dive into 28 subcriteria. We then use an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach to prioritize the main criteria and subcriteria. Next, we include the use of fuzzy VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (F‐VIKOR) methods to prioritize alternatives. The contributions of this study reveal that systematic management and standardization are the most influencing criteria among six guiding principles. The ISO standard and GRI are the most suitable standards for the development of dynamic IMS. This study is the first of its kind to prioritize guiding principles of IMS. The outcomes of this study will assist business managers, organizations, and policymakers in their decision making regarding management standards for IMS development as well as improve sustainable business practices. Researchers will find new IMS insights and constructs for further empirical investigation.     

Recruitment and retention in front‐line services: the case of childcare

This article highlights how problems of recruitment and retention in front‐line services create a particular challenge to traditional HRM models and solutions. Private day nurseries make an interesting example of the challenges facing managers in the service sector as the combination of a feminised workforce, a price‐sensitive service, public–private competition and state regulation create particular difficulties. We report on a study of 33 day nurseries involving interviews with managers and employees over an eight‐month period. Our findings show that childcare providers have to cope with recruitment and retention problems associated with high‐end interactive service provision compounded by gender segregation and small business characteristics. Our analysis of employer and employee perspectives examines labour market issues affecting recruitment, and categorises the reasons for staff turnover into internal ‘push’ factors, external ‘pull’ factors, outside factors and functional turnover.     

The Effect of Customer‐Centric Green Supply Chain Management on Operational Performance and Customer Satisfaction

This study explores the links of implementing customer‐centric green supply chain management (GSCM) with its antecedent factors (i.e. customer pressure) and performance outcomes (i.e. operational performance and customer satisfaction). Data for this study were obtained through a survey of 126 automobile manufacturers in China. Results suggest that customer pressure has a positive effect on the implementation of customer‐centric GSCM, which, in turn, leads to multiple operational performance improvements (i.e. flexibility, delivery, quality and cost). While production flexibility and cost appear to have no significant impact on customer satisfaction, product quality and delivery are significantly and positively associated with customer satisfaction. On the practical front, this paper provides guidelines for managers in implementing customer‐centric GSCM to respond to customer pressures and improve firm performance, and for policy‐makers to encourage partner‐focused GSCM efforts in environmental policy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Sense‐giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment

In this article, we examine line manager prioritisation of HR roles and the consequences for employee commitment in a health‐care setting. Our analysis is based on a quantitative, multi‐actor study (509 employees and 67 line managers) in four Dutch hospitals. Using sense‐giving as a theoretical lens, we demonstrate that, in addition to the effects of high commitment HRM, prioritising the Employee Champion role alone and the Employee Champion and Strategic Partner roles in combination is associated with higher employee commitment. We argue that through performing roles that are evocative of deep‐seated values, such as excellent patient care and concern for others, line managers can have a positive effect on staff attitudes. In a sector often beleaguered by staff turnover, exhaustion and burnout, we offer an important, empirically based framework that has the potential to improve employee commitment and, from there, enhance performance.     

Under‐funded and overwhelmed: the voluntary sector as worker representation in Britain's individualised industrial relations system

The majority of British workers are non‐unionised. They face grievances at work alone. For the low paid among them, the main source of advice and support is the voluntary sector, in particular the Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres. This article presents findings from a survey of front‐line employment advisers in Citizens Advice Bureaux and Law Centres that show how under‐funding by government at a time of rising demand from workers has affected the service they are able to provide and the quality of their own working life.     

Valuing and value in diversity: the policy‐implementation gap in an IT firm

The focus of UK‐based research on diversity theory and diversity managers has led to a relative dearth of studies focusing on the critical issue of line managers' agency in policy implementation. This article provides a context‐sensitive organisational case study of the policy‐implementation gap in the UK base of one multinational IT company. The article explores male and female managers' perspectives on valuing diversity at a level of general abstraction, and the extent to which they see value in diversity for the effectiveness of their project teams. In the context of a White, male‐dominated industry, the case study shows how the gap is sustained rather than bridged despite the implementation of numerous diversity initiatives.