Examining transformational leadership,job satisfaction,organizational commitment and organizational trust in Turkish hospitals: public servants versus private sector employees

Leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and trust have become important processes for healthcare management in recent years. One of the contemporary human resource management functions in the organizations involves engaging in leadership development, improving organizational trust and organizational commitment and increasing job satisfaction. Considering the rapidly changing healthcare technology and higher levels of occupational complexity, healthcare organizations are increasingly in need of engaging in leadership development in any given area of expertise to address ever-changing nature of the industry and the delivery of quality of care while remaining cost-effective and competitive. This paper investigates the perceptions of both public servants and private sector employees (outsourcing) on transformational leadership, organizational commitment, organizational trust and job satisfaction in Turkish healthcare industry. Additionally, the paper analyzes the predictability of organizational commitment based on employee – both public servants (physicians, nurses, administrative personnel and other healthcare professionals) and private sector employees (outsourcing) (auxiliary services such as administrative assistants, security personnel, kitchen, laundry and housekeeping employees) – perceptions of transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust. Using a survey instrument with items adopted from the transformational leadership inventory (TLI) [Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 1, 107–142], the organizational commitment questionnaire [Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], the organizational trust inventory (OTI) [Cummings, L. L., & Bromiley, P. (1996). The occupational trust inventory (OTI): Development and validation. In R. Kramer & T. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research (pp. 302–330). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] and job satisfaction survey (JSS) [Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job satisfaction survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 693–731], this quantitative study was conducted among 2108 healthcare employees (public servants and private employees) in two large government hospitals in Turkey. The study findings indicate a significant difference between the public servants and private sector employees in terms of their perceptions on two dimensions of transformational leadership (being an appropriate model, providing individualized support), overall transformational leadership and one dimension of job satisfaction (communication). The two dimensions of job satisfaction – operating procedures and communication – as well as organizational trust were the significant predictors of organizational commitment of public servants, whereas the two dimensions of leadership – individualized support and fostering the acceptance – as well as the two dimensions of job satisfaction – promotion and contingent rewards – and organizational trust were the significant regressors of organizational commitment of private sector employees. In addition, there is a significant difference between the predictors of the dimensions of organizational commitment (transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust) in terms of public servants versus private sector employees. Finally, organizational trust has a significant effect on overall organizational commitment as well as its three dimensions for public servants and private employees.     

Education,job satisfaction and gender in Kuwait

This study explores the relationship between education (level and field) and job satisfaction among Kuwaiti women employees in the Kuwaiti private banking sector. The analysis is focused on the responses of the female employees to their own jobs as indicated by their level of job satisfaction. Specifically, the research involved a stratified sample of the Kuwaiti women employees in the whole private banking sector in Kuwait. This study differs from previous investigations of job satisfaction in two principal ways: in dealing with the private sector (rather than the more common public sector in studies of the Middle East) and in taking into account education (level and field) in the privatesector work setting. The major findings of this research indicate that a much broader approach towards increasing satisfaction than focusing on the job itself is required. The study shows that the respondents' education background is of substantial importance in affecting job satisfaction.     

Guanxi and high performance work systems in China: evidence from a state-owned enterprise

Abstract

Existing high performance work system (HPWS) research has rarely considered cultural influences. This study investigates the relationships between guanxi, HPWS and employee attitudes in China. A data-set consisting of 226 employees in a Chinese state-owned enterprise in the railway sector was used to test the hypotheses. Using structural equation modelling as an analytical tool, we found that guanxi was positively related to HPWS and trust. Similar to research in the Western context, HPWS was found to be positively related to trust and job satisfaction. Moreover, the results also revealed that HPWS mediated between guanxi and both trust and job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are both discussed.     

Employee perceptions of performance appraisals: a comparative study on Indian banks

Performance appraisal is the most critical human resource practice and an indispensable part of every organization; however, the practice continues to generate dissatisfaction among employees and is often viewed as unfair and ineffective. Indian banking sector is one of the biggest and fastest growing financial service sectors. The post-liberalization era has witnessed significant changes in the structure and operations of banks operating in India. Arrival of new private and foreign banks has given a cause to public sector banks to be more competitive, effective and innovative in their approach. Past researches have compared public and private sector banks and have indicated that new private sector banks are outscoring public sector banks in terms of technical and economic efficiency parameters. However, no study could be found that compared public and private banks in India on fairness perceptions of performance appraisal system. Therefore, this research studied the differences between public and private sector banks with respect to perception of fairness of the performance appraisal system and performance appraisal satisfaction. Perception of fairness of the performance appraisal system has been studied through nine factors. The study used independent samples t-test and qualitative analysis to study the mean differences between the two banks. Results indicated that private sector bank employees perceive greater fairness and satisfaction with their performance appraisal system as compared to public sector bank employees.     

Investment in staff development within an emergency services organisation: comparing future intention of volunteers and paid employees

Path models were evaluated to explore the impact of job satisfaction as mediator of the relationship between perceived investment in employee development (PIED) and the adequacy and availability of training on turnover intention. Models were compared for volunteers (n = 2,306) and paid employees (n = 274) within the one emergency services organisation. Results indicated that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between PIED and intention to stay for both volunteers and paid employees. PIED was a stronger predictor of job satisfaction for paid employees, while support and recognition was a stronger predictor of job satisfaction for volunteers. Results highlight the indirect role of PIED on turnover intentions. Findings also support the notion of tailored employee development programmes that enhance job satisfaction. Further, PIED may be more salient to the turnover intentions of paid employees, while support and recognition may be a key motivator of volunteers' ongoing commitment to the organisation.     

Unit-level linkages between employee commitment to the organization,customer service delivery and customer satisfaction

Service profit chain and service climate research identifies the importance of employee attitudes and employee service behavior as mediating between organizational practices and customer satisfaction. While the importance of employee attitudes and customer service performance are acknowledged, there are calls to more precisely specify proximal mediators between employee attitudes and customer satisfaction. We propose a model in which the relationship between unit-level organizational commitment and customer attitudes is not direct but mediated via employees' customer service delivery including queuing time, serving time and service quality. We conducted a longitudinal unit-level analysis (N = 39) aggregating employee (N over 893) organizational commitment and customer (N over 1248) satisfaction data, and customer service behavior drawn from organizational records. Our model received reasonable support from basic tests of the predictive associations between unit-level organizational commitment, customer-relevant employee behaviors and customer satisfaction; however, organizational commitment was not found to be an important predictor in more rigorous change analyses. The findings as a whole therefore suggest that organizational commitment is a feature of units delivering fast, quality service, but its causal role is as yet unclear.     

Predictors of flexible working arrangement provision in small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

SMEs comprise 99.7% of all private sector businesses in Australia and employ 70% of the private sector workforce. They are therefore important to policies on flexible work arrangements (FWAs). The provision of FWAs has been found to usually contribute positively to employee well-being and business performance. However, the majority of studies focus on large firms and it is unclear whether these associations apply equally to SMEs. Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Longitudinal database for 2007–2011(n = 2788), this study investigates the extent to which factors such as firm size, industry sector, terms of employment, employees’ skills and use of the internet at work affect the provision of FWAs in SMEs. The findings show that smaller businesses are constrained by resources to provide FWAs, but do so in pursuit of industry norms and/or as a result of the profile of their employees. It is also easier to provide FWAs in certain industries than in others and use of the internet facilitates the provision of FWAs.     

Trust in the supervisor and the development of employees’ social capital during organizational entry: a conservation of resources approach

Abstract

This article aims to understand how trust in the supervisor contributes to the development of employees’ social capital using Conservation of Resources theory as a theoretical framework and networking ability as an indicator of social capital development. We hypothesize that the relationship between newcomers’ trust in the supervisor and networking ability will be mediated by feedback seeking from the supervisor and moderated by emotional exhaustion. Based on a three-wave time-lagged study of newcomers (N = 224), we found trust in the supervisor to be indirectly and positively related to networking ability through the mediating influence of feedback seeking from the supervisor. In addition, feedback seeking interacted with emotional exhaustion in predicting networking ability such that it was more positively related to it at high levels of emotional exhaustion. The indirect relationship of trust to networking ability as mediated by feedback seeking was also stronger at high levels of emotional exhaustion. We discuss this study’s implications for our understanding of supervisors’ role and newcomers’ experience during entry, as well as for social capital research.     

A comparative study of the effects of ‘best practice’ HRM on worker outcomes in Malaysia and England local government

This paper presents the findings of a cross-cultural comparison of the effects of ‘best practice’ HRM using employees from a matched sample of local government service departments in England and Malaysia (England n = 569, Malaysian n = 453). The paper tests the universal ‘best practice’ thesis, and also assesses the perceived level of up-take of HR practices in the two samples. The research also considers the effects of the psychological climate and employees' perceptions of trust on five work-related outcomes, namely job satisfaction, motivation, organizational citizenship behaviour, stress and quit intentions. The findings reveal that the Malaysian workers perceived the up-take of HR practices to be higher in comparison to their counterparts in England. A less consistent pattern emerged with regards to perceptions of climate. OLS regression revealed that consistent with the universal thesis, a bundle of HR practices significantly predicted employee outcomes in the hypothesized directions in both samples. Therefore, these findings provide strong support for the universal thesis.     

The mediating effects of cognition-based trust and affect-based trust in transformational leadership's dual processes: evidence from China

In this study, we proposed and tested a dual process model in which cognition-based trust and affect-based trust mediate the relationships between transformational leadership and followers' task performance and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 175 sales and service employees and their supervisors in two private companies located in Southeast China. The results show that cognition-based trust mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' task performance, while affect-based trust mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' job satisfaction. Implications for the theory and practice of leadership are then discussed.     

Knowledge is power: why public knowledge matters to charities

• The nonprofit sector is grappling with public perceptions of trust, accountability, and transparency. From the perspective of the sector, public ratings of accountability and transparency are often lower than expected, and as a result, the public's trust and its ensuing support may be dwindling. What appears to be missing from these discussions, however, is the role of knowledge. Drawing on theories and frameworks from consumer behavior and advertising, this study anticipates knowledge will moderate the effects of trust, transparency, and accountability on public support. Using telephone survey data from 3853 members of the Canadian public, the findings of this study demonstrate that knowledge does in fact have a moderating effect—for those respondents who reported high levels of knowledge about the sector, measures of trust, accountability, and transparency reliably predicted donation amount and volunteer status over and above the effect of demographic variables. For those respondents who reported low levels of knowledge, donation amount and volunteer status were predicted by demographic variables alone.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of social relationships on international students' intentions to remain abroad: multi-group analysis by marital status

International graduate students are regarded as highly educated global human resources who are necessary for many organizations to survive the global competition. Even though it is regarded that being married is a key factor influencing international mobility, there is little research on differences in intentions to remain abroad between the single and the married. The purpose of this study was to examine how international graduate students' intentions to remain in the USA after graduation differ by marital status. Using a multi-group path model analysis, the hypothesized model was individually tested by marital status, and relationships between the variables were compared. Data from a self-report survey (n = 451) provided that single students' relationships and married students' relationships differed. There was a negative significant relationship between home country family ties and intention to remain for single students. The relationship between satisfaction with the university and intention to remain was positively significant only for single students. There was a positive significant indirect relationship between social support and intentions to remain for single students. The significance of this study can be found in the contributions to research and practices in recruiting and retaining international graduates.     

Employee Voice,Supervisor Support,and Engagement: The Mediating Role of Trust

Developing employee engagement has been one of the major areas of interest in the field of human resource management (HRM), and research identifies the positive effect that engagement has on both employee and organizational performance. However, while research on engagement has been substantial, there have been limited studies on key variables such as supervisor support, voice, and trust. We examined the role of supervisor support and direct voice on engagement experienced by nurses and the mediating role trust plays in those relationships. Data were collected though an online survey of 1,039 Australian nurses and analyzed using structural equation modeling. As hypothesized, results showed that both supervisor support and direct voice are positively associated with employee engagement, and these relationships are mediated by supervisory and senior management trust, respectively. The implications of the results for human resource (HR) practitioners are discussed and include the challenge of resourcing effective direct voice systems and enlisting the support of supervisors in order to impact on the engagement of nurses who are the “front line” of the health sector. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

New public management and organisational commitment in the public sector: testing a mediation model

This paper focuses on the attitudes of learning professionals towards New Public Management (NPM). In a survey of the UK further education sector (n = 433), NPM beliefs were found to be positively associated with both affective and normative organisational commitment. However, as expected, NPM beliefs were not found to be related to continuance organisational commitment. The results also show that although perceived organisational support mediates the relationship between NPM beliefs and affective organisational comment, it is only a partial mediator of the relationship between NPM beliefs and normative organisational commitment. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings, and potential directions for future research, are discussed.     

Subjective fit with organizational culture: an investigation of moderating effects in the work stressor-employee adjustment relationship

Occupational stress has been a concern for human resource managers in light of research investigating the work stressor-employee adjustment relationship. This research has consistently demonstrated many negative effects between stressors in the workplace and employee adjustment. A considerable amount of literature also describes potential moderators of this relationship. Subjective fit with organizational culture has been established as a significant predictor of employee job-related attitudes; however, research has neglected investigation of the potential moderating effect of subjective fit in the work stressor-employee adjustment process. It was predicted that perceptions of subjective fit with the organization's values and goals would mitigate the negative effect of work stressors on employee adjustment in an employee sample from three organizations (N = 256). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed support for the stress-buffering effects of high subjective fit in the prediction of physical symptoms, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.     

How do I trust thee? The employee‐organization relationship,supervisory support,and middle manager trust in the organization

Given the assumption that most employers would like to gain the trust of their employees, what would initiate this trust? This study explores the joint role of the employee‐organization relationship (EOR) and supervisory support in initiating trust among middle managers. The results from a study of 545 middle managers in China show that both EOR and supervisory support are important in creating trust, with supervisory support having a stronger influence than EOR. Further, supervisors play a synergistic role by accentuating the positive influence of the mutual investment EOR approach and attenuating the negative influence of the quasi‐spot contract EOR with the managers. Results reinforce the importance of both formal structure and social processes in cultivating employee trust in the organization. We discuss implications of these findings for future research and human resource management practices. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Citizenship behavior in project-based organizing: comparing German and Portuguese project managers

This study seeks to understand the possible relationship between citizenship behavior and project managers' performance in a comparative context. The sample consists of German (n = 119) and Portuguese (n = 128) project managers working in various sectors. The results support the hypotheses derived from the discourse on effectiveness in temporary organizations and show a significant contribution of citizenship behaviors to project goal achievement and future personal and organizational opportunities. When comparing the samples, results substantiate that this contribution was higher in Portuguese project managers. Interpretations of this finding are offered, limitations of the study addressed and suggestions for future research discussed.     

Work–family enrichment and satisfaction: the mediating role of self-efficacy and work–life balance

Although the direct effects of work–family enrichment on satisfaction are well-documented, previous theoretical predictions and empirical findings of the relationship have been inconsistent. Drawing on social cognitive theory, the current research examined how work–family enrichment contributes to job and family satisfaction by exploring the mediating mechanisms of self-efficacy and work–life balance. This study also empirically validated a new self-efficacy measure using the work–life interface nomological network. A heterogeneous sample of Australian employees (N = 234) from four different organisations responded to two waves of data collection separated by a 12-month interval. Using structural equation modelling, the results of the statistical analysis provided preliminary support for the hypothesised chain mediation model and the newly developed five-item self-efficacy to regulate work and life scale. Specifically, work-to-family enrichment and family-to-work enrichment were positively related to self-efficacy, which in turn had a positive effect on work–life balance. Similarly, work–life balance had a positive impact on job and family satisfaction. Evidence of these relationships over time was demonstrated, thereby emphasising the importance of person–cognitive resources (e.g. self-efficacy) in influencing life outcomes. Validation of the self-efficacy scale also demonstrated robust psychometric properties and criterion validity. Implications of these results were subsequently discussed.     

Disability status,individual variable pay,and pay satisfaction: Does relational and institutional trust make a difference?

Although prior research suggests that disabled employees have different needs in the context of some HRM practices, we know little about their reactions to reward systems. We address this gap in the literature by testing a model using the 2011 British Workplace Employee Relations Survey (disabled employees, n = 1,251; nondisabled employees, n = 9,959; workplaces, n = 1,806) and find that disabled employees report lower levels of pay satisfaction than nondisabled employees, and when compensated based on individual performance, the difference in pay satisfaction is larger. We suggest that relational (derived from trust in management) and institutional (derived from firm‐wide policies and HRM practices, both intended to provide equitable treatment to disabled employees) forms of trust play important roles. The results of multilevel analyses show that when trust in management is high, the difference in pay satisfaction under variable pay is reduced. We find just the opposite for employees who work in organizations with a formal disability policy but without supportive HRM practices; the gap in pay satisfaction is exacerbated. However, the combination of the presence of a firm‐wide policy and HRM practices reduced the difference in pay satisfaction. Implications of the findings for theory, future research, and management practice are discussed.     

A social exchange theory framework for understanding the job characteristics–job outcomes relationship: the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment

This study integrated the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and concept of psychological contract fulfillment into a social exchange theory process framework to improve our understanding how and when job characteristics interact to influence job outcomes. Using survey data (n = 334), we found evidence to support our hypothesized relationships between job characteristics (job demands and job resources) and job outcomes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment); and the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment (transactional and relational), such that when job resources (job control and support) were high, the negative effects of high job demands on psychological contract fulfillment were attenuated. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.