Using performance management to win the talent war

The talent war is a 21^st-century reality whereby organizations of all sizes, across all industries, compete to hire and retain scarce human capital. The talent war is fierce because there are few individuals within each industry who are considered top human capital such that there is not enough to go around, and these top performers generate a great deal of revenues, profit, and overall success for their organizations. In this installment of Human Performance, we describe the nature of the talent war and reasons why winning it is crucial for organizational competitiveness, sustainability, and survival. We discuss how implementing a performance management system can help organizations win the talent war by retaining these coveted top performers. Specifically, we offer the following research-based recommendations for using performance management to (1) create and maintain individualized developmental plans; (2) ensure that work is challenging, interesting, and meaningful; (3) provide clear advancement opportunities, and (4) implement contingent rewards. Implementing these recommendations can turn performance management into an effective tool to retain top talent and prevent competitors from stealing a firm's crucial source of competitive advantage.     

Online food delivery companies' performance and consumers expectations during Covid-19: An investigation using machine learning approach

Online food delivery (OFD) businesses flourished during COVID-19; however, OFD companies experienced different challenges and customers' expectations. This paper uses social media data to explore OFD companies' performance and customers' expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most important topics in developed and developing countries are identified using machine learning. Results show that customers in India are more concerned about social responsibility, while financial aspects are more important in the US. Overall, customers in India are more satisfied with OFD companies during the COVID-19 pandemic than the US customers. We further find that factors such as OFD companies' brand, market size, country, and COVID-19 waves play a crucial role in moderating customer sentiment. The results of the study offer several managerial insights.     

The crisis cloud's silver linings: The effects of hope and gratitude on employee burnout and engagement

A crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic has a tremendous impact on organisations and their employees. Building on the job demands–resources model, conservation of resources theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we examined the influence of job stressors on employee burnout, as well as how positive emotions can help employees thrive in tough times. We collected data from 503 Australian employees during the transition period of the COVID-19 crisis, when the country had reached a high vaccination rate and was starting to prepare to return to pre-crisis normal. Our findings show that financial insecurity has a direct impact on employee burnout, whereas a health threat has only an indirect effect. Further, our findings highlight the importance of positive emotions. Hope for the post-crisis future was found to buffer the negative impact of financial insecurity and reduce employee burnout, and feeling gratitude at work was found to mitigate the effects of burnout and enhance employee engagement even when employees are emotionally exhausted.     

The contribution of macroprudential policies to banks' resilience: Lessons from the systemic crises and the COVID-19 pandemic shock

This study examines the effectiveness of macroprudential policies in reducing the banks' risk during the COVID-19 pandemic and compares these results with the systemic banking crises years. Based on a sample of 624 banks across 40 countries during the period 2006–2020, we find that loosening capital-aimed macroprudential policies effectively reduced banks' risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, while this behavior led to increased risk during the systemic crises years. In contrast, tightening the remaining macroprudential policies during the systemic crises years and during the pandemic proved effective in reducing banks' risk. Furthermore, we show that the magnitude of the impact of macroprudential policies was stronger during the systemic crisis than that during the pandemic. Finally, we show that the results are driven by the capital requirement prudential policy, both during the systemic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, although the conservation buffer and the leverage limit also contributes to the ineffectiveness of these policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The banks' leverage and loan growth also play an enhancing role of the effects of the macroprudential policies.     

The effect of COVID-19 on consumer shopping behaviour: Generational cohort perspective

The purpose of this research is to contribute to an understanding of the trends and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer buying behaviour. The results document changes in consumer behaviour patterns that came to dominate at the start of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of the Czech Republic. The questionnaire survey using an online panel in a selected country was conducted to identify how consumers from the Baby Boomers, X and Y generations changed their shopping behaviour and which needs they gave preference to during the pandemic crisis in relation to their fears. Using a multiple regression analysis, we demonstrated that fear appeal (fears for health and economic fears) are associated with the changes in customer behaviour and influence traditional and online shopping related to COVID-19. The findings demonstrate significant differences as well as similarities in consumer behaviour between generations. Through empirical investigation, this research supports and expands generation cohort theory in relation to changes in consumer behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic from a Central European perspective, and provides useful information for researchers and practitioners, particularly for retailers and marketers, to implement appropriate strategies.     

COVID-19 and corporate tax avoidance: International evidence

Governments across the globe initiated various tax reforms in the post- Global Financial Crisis period to rein in aggressive corporate tax avoidance for managing budget deficits. These developments created new realities in the international business environment by altering the costs and benefits of corporate tax management. Yet, we have a limited understanding of the effectiveness of tax reforms in controlling corporate tax avoidance at the global level. COVID-19 offers a litmus test for how corporates manage their taxes during the pandemic in light of past tax reforms. We use financial constraints and reputational costs as two contradicting theoretical perspectives to explain corporate tax avoidance during the crisis. Consistent with the financial constraints hypothesis, we find that firms avoid taxes amid COVID-19 to prevent liquidity crunches. Our study also highlights the role of country-level information and governance quality in curbing tax avoidance during extreme events like COVID-19. Our findings call for an immediate tax policy intervention to limit corporate tax avoidance during the ongoing pandemic phases.     

Business-to-business selling in the post-COVID-19 era: Developing an adaptive sales force

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how salespeople interact with customers and with business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Organizations must confront the shifts in how their salespeople operate. Recent research recommends firms develop an adaptive sales force to address disruptions like a pandemic and be prepared to meet such challenges in the future. Based on interviews with marketing and sales executives, we explore how firms have responded to these interconnected changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and offer insight into best practices deployed across industries.     

Business resilience: Lessons from government responses to the global COVID-19 crisis

This study explores the survival of firms across countries, and what factors contribute to their ability to withstand large-scale exogenous shocks, focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic. Using corporate default risk as a measure of non-resilience, our empirical results from 97 countries reveal that stringent COVID-19 containment measures created a significant resilience test for businesses worldwide. Further tests suggest that cash holdings, knowledge assets, international sales, and access to foreign capital markets are crucial for global businesses to pull through exogenous shocks. Country-level institutional qualities also play an essential role in shaping business resilience during a crisis. Our study is the first to comprehensively analyze the drivers of business resilience across diverse countries using the COVID-19 outbreak as a major global crisis, providing a nuanced understanding of this topic in international business.     

Promoting remote workers' psychological health: Effective management practices during the COVID-19 crisis

The aim of this study was to identify specific management practices that promote the psychological health of remote workers in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. A two-round Delphi study was conducted among 28 teleworkers and 22 managers. A list of 60 specific management practices was presented and participants had to identify whether each one could be used in the current remote working context and, if so, how useful it was to promote psychological health at work. Results indicate that most specific management practices usually used in a face-to-face setting can also be used in a remote context (85%). Practices that show consideration, establishing work structure, and allowing flexibility were also identified as the most useful to promote remote workers' psychological health during the pandemic. This study contributes to the advancement of knowledge about specific management practices, remote working, and crisis management. It also suggests specific practices that managers can adopt to promote the psychological health of their employees during a period of crisis, even while managing from a distance.     

How to prevent and combat employee burnout and create healthier workplaces during crises and beyond

Burnout results from chronic work-related stress. People who are burned out are emotionally drained and feel negative and detached from work, which leads to decreased performance, inhibited creativity and innovation, workplace accidents, absenteeism, and physical and mental illnesses. Burnout is widespread, pernicious, and costly to human life, firm profits, and society—especially during a global crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic but also during a broader set of pan-global crises yet to come. Fostering healthier workplaces is a necessity at any time, but particularly during a crisis that has intensified job demands and drained job resources. Based on a review of the evidence, we provide five recommendations and implementation guidelines that can help organizations prevent and combat burnout: (1) provide stress management interventions, (2) allow employees to be active crafters of their work, (3) cultivate and encourage social support, (4) engage employees in decision-making, and (5) implement high-quality performance management. Overall, our evidence-based recommendations, together with the implementation guidelines we provide, will help business leaders promote and create sustainable wellness at work during crises and beyond.     

Crisis challenges of small firms in Macao during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research develops a framework that combines crisis stages, stakeholder engagement, and crisis challenges. The framework is applied to small firms in Macao during the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic crisis. We conduct a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with the leaders of six small firms in Macao. The findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a “normal” context, which blurs the traditional crisis termination stage. We also find that participating firms engage more with internal stakeholders than external ones. The strategies adopted by small firms include flexible human resource (HR) practices, cost reduction, enhancing customer relations, and using government support schemes. These strategies are effective in the short term; firms need to pay attention to diversity and learning for the long term.     

COVID-19 and business renewal: Lessons and insights from the global airline industry

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the fortunes of multiple companies around the globe. Accordingly, questions are increasingly being asked about how organizations can revitalize during and after a crisis. Yet, we have limited understanding of how organizations renew themselves during crises over time. We explore this question through the lens and examination of two South-Asian airlines: Pakistan International Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines. The cases offer important insights into the reasons behind underperformance of state-controlled enterprises and renewal activities. We shed light on strategic renewal (SR) in the wake of increasing liberalization and deregulations in the global airline industry. To this end, we propose a four-stage approach towards renewing such underperforming organizations to respond effectively to black swan events and external shocks.     

Global talent management during the COVID-19 pandemic? The Gods must be crazy!

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought terrifying effects for labor markets all around the world. Just as we witness rapid changes in terms of the ways of working (working from home), we are also observing an increase in unemployment. The ways in which major corporations with international operations process their global talent management (GTM) already represents a challenge in relatively stable times and clearly, in a period of such great and sustained turbulence as current experienced, this task becomes still more difficult. Hence, our research aims to study the impact of GTM on the international performance of major companies during the COVID-19 pandemic period. To this end, we surveyed a sample of 59 large companies that act in external markets. Through recourse to multiple linear regressions, we conclude that GTM practices return positive impacts on levels of international performance. Our research returns theoretical implications in terms of the application of integrated GTM models and with the results of significant relevance to corporations operating internationally, and thus enabling them to better understand which strategic human resource management policies will return the best GTM results.     

Rise up: Career empowerment,adaptability and resilience during a pandemic

The present article examines employee resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, which created a major career disruption and a psychological strain for many individuals worldwide. Resilience is an essential psychological resource for coping with setbacks and maintaining mental health. Using a time-lagged survey design, we test a theoretical model that links career empowerment, a motivational cognitive construct, with resilience, mediated by career adaptability. Our findings support these hypotheses. In addition, we investigate the moderating role of neuroticism and authentic leadership in the relationship between the career empowerment and career adaptability. Findings show that while authentic leadership moderates this relationship, the hypothesis regarding neuroticism was not supported. Our research provides insights regarding resilience during crisis, which has both theoretical and practical implications.     

Tail-event driven NETwork dependence in emerging markets

This paper employs the Tail Event NETwork (TENET) to identify financial markets with greater potential risk, and simultaneously investigate the interdependence between them. We find strong time-varying connectedness across 23 emerging markets during the main crisis episodes, including the most recent COVID-19 pandemic, using data from January 1995 to May 2021. The network analysis revealed that emerging European markets are top risk transmitters, whereas emerging Asian markets are top risk receivers. China showed disconnection from the network, reflecting its diversification potential for investors. Our findings offer several policy and regulatory implications.     

Global work in a rapidly changing world: Implications for MNEs and individuals

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a great “reset” and has challenged many assumptions about work and life in general. Our focus in this paper is on the future of global work in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We take a phenomenon-based approach to describe the important trends and challenges affecting the where, who, how and why of global work. As we highlight implications for organizations and individuals, we offer a set of research questions to guide future research and inform IHRM practitioners.     

Hands-off? Lessons from high-touch professionals about going virtual

The COVID-19 crisis has fundamentally changed how many businesses operate and connect with their customers. Previously unheard-of government restrictions and sheltering-in-place requirements forced most professional services to transition to remote delivery methods (e.g., email, telephone, video consults, Shopify storefronts). Providers of low-touch services (e.g., lawyers, accountants) naturally lent themselves to remote delivery; however, those that offer high-touch services, particularly those in healthcare (e.g., doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists), experienced a drastic change in working conditions when going virtual. Despite a long history of resistance to virtual delivery, the pandemic created an unprecedented incentive for these high-touch professionals to experiment with underutilized care models such as telehealth: the provision of healthcare services remotely using telecommunications technologies. We examine the rapid adoption of telehealth during COVID-19 through the coming together or convergence of previously unrelated technologies, spaces, and practices. Our analysis reveals opportunities and challenges associated with going hands-off that apply to many other professionals providing high-trust services. Specifically, we offer nine guiding principles for building and protecting cognitive and affective trust in virtual and hybrid delivery models. This is important given the pace of compounding technology convergences that lie ahead for service professionals.     

Unveiling the influence of COVID-19 on the online retail market: A comprehensive exploration

The global economy has experienced significant disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, profoundly impacting production and consumption patterns. This paper examines the effect of the pandemic on consumer goods prices, focusing on a sample of hand sanitizers, soap, disinfectants, and baking yeasts. The selection of these products was motivated by multiple and comprehensive criteria, where we considered various factors such as changes in consumption patterns during the pandemic, the relevance of these products in household consumption, consumer behavior, availability of historical price data, their significance in daily domestic life, and their utility in the prevention of the disease. Employing a time-series analysis, the study investigates the relationship between product prices and the S&P 500 index, as well as the presence of structural breaks in the time series. The results reveal a significant correlation between all prices in the sample and the S&P 500 index, indicating the index's efficacy as an indicator of the overall economic state. Moreover, the study identifies a single structural break in each price time series, coinciding with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, hand sanitizers, soap, and disinfectants exhibit particularly substantial price jumps near the time of the break. These findings offer crucial insights into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer prices, which can guide policy decisions aimed at mitigating the pandemic's economic consequences.     

A dynamic segmentation of U.S. women during the COVID-19 pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a vast, but uneven, influence on consumers. Diversity in consumer reactions, and the extent to which those reactions lead to lasting preference and lifestyle changes, present challenges for implementing effective marketing strategies during a period of societal crisis. To address this, we conducted a dynamic segmentation analysis involving over 14,000 U.S. women by assessing relevant psychological, experiential, and other personal factors at multiple time points during the pandemic. This analysis identified seven unique consumer segments who varied in their current and future degree of change, and who indicated responsiveness to specific forms of brand and advertising content. This seven-segment clustering was highly stable over time, suggesting that certain segmentation approaches hold continuing value for marketers even as widespread events like pandemics evolve.     

Ad creativity in a negative context: How a thanking message frame enhances purchase intention in times of crisis

Traditionally, advertising relies on creativity to increase its effectiveness. However, little is known about the use of creativity in negatively-valenced situations. For instance, in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, how should retailers engage in advertising? Should they strive to deliver creative advertising, or not? We investigate the role of ad creativity during times of crisis, based on 43,459 consumer responses to 49 retail and service brand ads. To do so, we investigate the separate effects of the two dimensions of ad creativity: originality and appropriateness. Results indicate that creativity works differently in a crisis context, with originality and appropriateness having different effects on consumers. Further, we find that originality and appropriateness trigger emotions in opposite ways. However, ads that engage thanking - be it of employees, customers, or frontline emergency workers - strengthen these effects.