Organizational change cynicism: The role of employee involvement

Organizational change efforts can bring about a range of outcomes: some intended, such as organizational survival and profitability, and some unintended, such as heightened levels of organizational change cynicism (OCC) among employees. This article focuses on processes for managing OCC: we examine the role of information sharing and involvement in decision making as ways to lessen employee reports of OCC. While both of these strategies have the potential to be effective, they rest on a significant assumption—namely, that employees will enthusiastically embrace any opportunities to become involved. In this research, we investigate this assumption through an analysis of the relationship between an employee's willingness to become involved (”active orientation”) on employee reports of their OCC. We find, using data from 1,214 public‐sector employees, that an active orientation toward involvement plays a significant role as a moderator in reducing employee reports of OCC. The findings suggest that HR practitioners concerned about OCC should encourage their line managers to adopt a participatory style of management (information sharing, involvement in decision making), especially in those workplaces where employees are more likely to embrace the opportunities for involvement. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Learning organization and work engagement: the mediating role of employee resilience

Abstract

As automation and structural transformations mark the new digital realities of the twenty first century, contemporary organizations demand a highly resilient and engaged workforce to sustain their competitive edge. Despite an eminent literature revolving around learning organization in the management discourse, there is a lack of research investigating the effect of learning organization on employee resilience and work engagement. With this precept in mind, this study developed and tested a mediation model linking learning organization to employee resilience and work engagement. The present study draws on the tenets of Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory and conservation of resource theory for supporting the study results. This study used cross sectional surveys of 300 IT professionals in India. Structural equation modeling was used for empirically testing the study hypotheses. Additionally, the study utilized Preacher and Hayes mediation analyses to investigate the mediating effect of employee resilience on the relationship between learning organization and work engagement. The results revealed significant relationship between variables of the study and shows that learning organization positively effect employee resilience and work engagement. The findings suggest that employee resilience partially mediate the effect of learning organization on work engagement. This study offers concrete insights to HR managers for fostering employee resilience which in turn can play a key role in building a highly engaged workforce. Future implications for theory and HRM practitioners are discussed.     

Organizational public value and employee life satisfaction: the mediating roles of work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior

Abstract

Building on Meynhardt’s public value concept, which has been developed to make transparent an organization’s contributions to the common good, we investigate the influence of organizational common good practices in the perceptions of employees (measured as public value) on employees’ work attitudes and life satisfaction. The proposed model is tested on a sample of 1045 Swiss employees taken from the 2015 Swiss Public Value Atlas data-set. Study findings reveal that organizational public value is positively related to employee life satisfaction, and that this relationship is partially mediated by work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Further, we show that employee common good orientations strengthen the positive impact of organizational public value on employee work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. Results also provide evidence that the indirect effects of organizational public value on employee life satisfaction via work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior are stronger at higher employee common good orientation levels.     

Where hukou status matters: analyzing the linkage between supervisor perceptions of HR practices and employee work engagement

This paper highlights the interaction between intended human resource (HR) practices as perceived by supervisors and status similarity between supervisors and employees as a key source of variation in employee work engagement among 298 employees reporting to 54 supervisors at a luxury Chinese hotel. Using a multi-level, process-oriented approach to examine the relationship between intended HR practices by supervisors and engagement as perceived by employees, we show (1) that the interaction of supervisor perceptions of HR practices and supervisor–subordinate hukou (place of origin) status similarity is positively related to employee reports of Leader–member exchange (LMX), HR practices and work engagement; (2) that the interaction of supervisor perceptions of HR practices and hukou status similarity influences employee perceptions of HR practices through LMX; and (3) that the interaction of supervisor perceptions of HR practices and hukou status similarity influences work engagement through employee perceptions of LMX and HR practices. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Relationship between perceptions of corporate social responsibility and organizational cynicism: the role of employee volunteering

This study explores the role of positive corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions of employees in reducing cynicism toward the organization. As employee involvement in CSR activities through volunteering could influence the perceptions of CSR among employees, the moderating impact of employee volunteering on the relationship between CSR perceptions and cynicism is also tested. Considering that managers and non-managers can have different perceptions of CSR and organizational realities, the relationship between CSR and organizational cynicism is compared among managerial and non-managerial staff working in large organizations. The analysis of 348 questionnaires collected from 191 managers and 157 non-managers showed that positive perceptions of CSR were negatively correlated with organizational cynicism for both managers and non-managers, with significantly stronger negative correlations among managers. Employee volunteering did not significantly moderate the relationship between CSR and organizational cynicism in both groups. The implications of these results on human resource management theory and practice are discussed.     

Caring human resources management and employee engagement

Research on employee engagement has demonstrated that human resource management (HRM) practices and systems are positively related to employee engagement. However, it is not clear what HRM practices or system of practices is most important for employee engagement or the theoretical mechanisms that intervene and explain the link between HRM and employee engagement. In this paper, I provide answers to these two important questions by developing a model of caring HRM and employee engagement based on the engagement, organizational climate, and strategic HRM literatures. The model indicates that a system of caring HRM practices (job design, training and development, flexible work arrangements, work-life balance, participation in decision making, health and safety, career development, and health and wellness programs) will result in an organizational climate of care and concern for employees that employees will respond to by caring for the organization which they will enact with higher levels of engagement. This model provides many avenues for future research and practice on HRM and employee engagement and introduces the notion of a caring HRM system and an organizational climate of care and concern for employees to the literature on employee engagement.     

The effects of employee engagement and self-efficacy on job performance: a longitudinal field study

Abstract

Self-efficacy’s influence on individual job performance has been well documented in laboratory studies. However, there have been very few rigorous field studies of self-efficacy’s relationship with objectively measured individual job performance in organizational settings. This research history might account for the low take-up of self-efficacy within the business literature as well as within business itself. When it comes to studies of employee engagement, the same lack of rigorous individual studies applies, although several organizational-level studies link employee engagement to organizational performance, while its claimed benefits have been widely discussed in the business literature. Finally, the degree to which employee engagement and self-efficacy have independent and additive effects on individual-level job performance remains unknown. In order to address these issues, a longitudinal field study was undertaken within an Australian financial services firm. Using survey data linked to objectively measured job performance, we found the additive effects of self-efficacy and employee engagement explained 12% of appointments made and 39% of products sold over and above that explained by past performance. This finding suggests human resource management (HRM) practitioners should address both self-efficacy and employee engagement in order to boost job performance while encouraging HRM scholars to incorporate both measures when conducting job performance studies.     

Mapping the relationships between high-performance work systems,employee resilience and engagement: a study of the banking industry in China

Abstract

There is now growing interest in employee resilience in the organizational context and its contribution to organizational performance. However, little is known the extent to which high-performance work systems (HPWS) contributes towards enhancing employee’s resilience as well as their levels of engagement. This study examines the relationships among HPWS, employee resilience and engagement, using a sample of 2040 employees in the Chinese banking industry. Drawing on the job demands-resources model and strategic/high-performance human resource management theory, we develop three hypotheses to test the relationship between HPWS and employee resilience, resilience and employee engagement, and the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between HPWS and engagement. All hypotheses are supported and suggest that HPWS can be used as a job resource to positively affect resilience and subsequently employee engagement. The key message of the paper is that employee resilience can be viewed as a set of skills and attributes that can be developed through the effective use of HPWS to benefit both individuals and the organization.     

The significance of employee skill in flexible work organizations

Pressures for flexibility among enterprise employees have been explained in previous studies to be largely the result of exogenous factors driven by market pressures for improved product variety, quality and service. This paper derives new insights into the concept of flexibility based on the premise that manufacturing systems based on traditional hierarchical control have significantly given way to enterprise practices that stress a direct connection between employee skill enhancement, market outcomes and rewards. Through an analysis of the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WER98) the study provides a more substantive explanation of the variables associated with flexibility, which have become significant in the transition process towards modern enterprise practices. Flexibility is demonstrated to be not only market driven but also dependent on endogenous factors directly promoted by management that stress workforce participation, collaborative working and multifaceted skills development. We provide empirical support for these arguments from an analysis of WERS98.     

Investigating the incremental validity of employee engagement in the prediction of employee effectiveness: A meta-analytic path analysis

The current study used meta-analytic estimates and path analysis to examine whether the construct of employee engagement (EE) shows incremental validity in the prediction of employee effectiveness (a broad measure of performance-related behaviors) over other job attitudes such as job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Meta-analytic estimates between EE and various employee effectiveness indicators were computed from 49 published correlations representing a total of 22,090 individuals. We combined these estimates with published meta-analytic estimates between employee effectiveness and job attitudes to produce a meta-matrix representing 1,161 unique correlations. Using this meta-matrix, a series of path model comparisons produced two results: (1) EE bears low to moderate incremental validity over individual job attitudes (R² change of 0.02 to 0.06), and (2) EE bears low incremental validity over a higher-order job attitude construct representing the combination of other job attitudes in the prediction of a higher-order employee effectiveness construct (R² change of 0.01). Given the brevity of popular EE measures, the results suggest EE is better conceptualized as a higher-order measure of job attitudes that is an effective and concise predictor of employee effectiveness.     

Gossip in the workplace and the implications for HR management: a study of gossip and its relationship to employee cynicism

Gossip is a common phenomenon in the workplace, but yet relatively little is understood about its influence to employees. This study adopts social information theory and social cognitive theory to interpret the diverse literature on gossip, and to develop and test hypotheses concerning some of the antecedents of gossip, with an aim of developing knowledge of the relationship between gossip and employee behaviour in the workplace. The study analysed survey data in a two-stage process, from 362 employees across a range of industries in Taiwan. The findings revealed that job-related gossip predicted employee cynicism and mediated the relationship between psychological contract violation and cynicism, and that non-job-related gossip showed a similar but weaker effect to employee cynicism. The contribution made by this paper is of value to both the academic subject domain and managers in Human Resources. First, we have identified two constructs of gossip, job-related and non-job-related gossip not previously reported and a validated scale has been created. Second, we have confirmed that these different constructs of gossip impact differently on employee behaviour and therefore HR managers should be cautious about gossip in the workplace, as it can cause cynical behaviour amongst employees.     

Workplace bullying and absenteeism: The mediating roles of poor health and work engagement

Workplace bullying is a major problem that affects the well‐being and productivity of employees. Some previous studies have found that workplace bullying is associated with absenteeism, which is a major contributor to lost workplace productivity. However, a comprehensive understanding of how different workplace bullying experiences are associated with absenteeism is currently lacking. In particular no previous studies have examined potential mediators of these relationships. The present article aimed to provide new insights into the relationship between workplace bullying and absenteeism. In a 12‐month prospective study of 500 Australian employees, we identified 5 distinct subtypes of workplace bullying experiences using a person‐centred approach. These bullying subtypes were found to be associated with absenteeism via health impairment and lower work engagement. The findings can be used to inform HR strategies to prevent and manage workplace bullying.     

Embedding employee involvement and participation at work

Most quantitative studies analysing the nature and impact of employee involvement and participation (EIP) have used data that differentiate between its absence and presence. However, the application of EIP practices varies substantially, and impact may depend on how embedded EIP is at workplace level. Developing the concept of ‘embeddedness’ as a combination of measures of the breadth and depth of EIP practices, we use WERS98 to examine the impact of EIP on employee perceptions. Our results show support for propositions that greater breadth and depth of EIP practices are associated with higher levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction.     

Gendered work engagement: qualitative insights from Jordan

Abstract

Work engagement is assumed, implicitly, to be gender-neutral where women and men have equal opportunities to demonstrate their engagement in the workplace. This paper questions this assumption and integrates gender into the notion of work engagement by investigating and contextualising the factors that affect the genderedness of work engagement. It uses gendered organisation theory and engagement theory to expose the gendered nature of work engagement. Interviewing thirty-six employees from three telecommunication companies in Jordan, it is found that the notion of work engagement is neither gender neutral nor universal, and that the presence of inequality regimes means that women may have less opportunity to experience engagement, and certainly the opportunity will vary across contexts.     

An integrative literature review of employee engagement and innovative behavior: Revisiting the JD-R model

The purpose of the current literature review is to (a) provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between employee engagement and innovative behavior through the lens of the JD-R model; (b) identify and revisit the guiding theories underpinning employee engagement studies; and (c) construct an integrated conceptual framework based on empirically validated factors and their relationships, along with relevant theories. An integrative literature review of 34 empirical studies indicates that employees perceive a mix of reasonably high demands and high resources to be ideal for their engagement, innovative behavior is a consequence of these delicate interactions, and engaged employees are more likely to behave innovatively by activating coping strategies to deal with challenges. Together, these findings suggest an integrated conceptual framework that refines the original JD-R model and that in doing so, better explicates the dynamics surrounding employee engagement and innovative behavior. Key implications for research and practice are provided.     

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.     

The life satisfaction of teachers at work place,research of structural equation modelling regarding general and organized cynicism

This research aims to determine both the predictive role and level of teachers’ life satisfaction, as well as general and organizational cynic perceptions in their workplace. The study sample was composed of 457 teachers who worked in the middle schools in the center and districts of Konya in 2016, who were randomly selected by group sampling. Analysis of the research data was conducted using the statistical program AMOS 18.0, according to structural equation modeling. In the research, loneliness in teachers’ professional lives was considered in two dimensions: as “emotional deprivation” and “social friendship.” According to the research findings, it is evident that organizational cynicism is the most important variable affecting teachers’ emotional deprivation and social companionship levels. The second most important variable affecting teachers' levels of emotional deprivation is general cynicism, while social companionship levels are more affected by life satisfaction. It is also seen that there is a negative relationship between the emotional deprivation and social friendship and life satisfaction variables. The results also demonstrate a slight but statistically significant relationship between the general cynicism and the social friendship levels of teachers.     

The Relevance of Mission Statements: Analysing the antecedents of perceived message quality and its relationship to employee mission engagement

Although mission statements are deemed effective tools for communicating the goals of public organizations, there is a dearth of research examining how employees perceive mission statements and their effect. Data from 1,418 employees of a Belgian public organization indicate that although perceived mission statement quality and employee mission engagement are positively related, individual acceptance of the mission statement varies within the analysed organization and can be, partially, explained by cognitions and attributes of the message receiver (hierarchical position, perceived self-efficacy and person–organization fit), and employee cognitions regarding the message sender (behavioural integrity) and the message (mission ambiguity).     

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention: the mediating role of work attitudes

Abstract

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.