Mind the context gap: a critical review of engagement within the public sector and an agenda for future research

Abstract

In this review paper, we critically examine the evidence base relating to engagement within the public sector given a wide range of public services have faced acute human resource challenges over recent years. Our review of 188 empirical studies reveals that much of the evidence focuses attention on individual and job level factors, such that specific public sector contextual contingencies have rarely been considered. Through identifying significant ‘context gaps’, we present a future research agenda addressing the following key areas: i) clarifying the relationship between engagement and public service motivation, ii) further contextualizing general engagement models, iii) exploring cultural, socio-political, and institutional factors in more depth, iv) encouraging a more critical perspective on engagement, v) understanding the variation in the experience of engagement across different public services/delivery models, and vi) connecting more strongly with practical concerns and initiatives within public organizations. In presenting this agenda, we highlight how engagement and HRM scholars can more strongly embed their research within a sectoral context.     

Power logics of consumers’ gendered (in)justices: reading reproductive health interventions through the transformative gender justice framework

ABSTRACT

Global gender asymmetries in marketing and consumer behavior were recently exemplified by the Transformative Gender Justice Framework (TGJF). The TGJF, however, lacks an explicit reference to power – an aspect that becomes apparent when it is used to assess a consumer phenomenology. In this article we augment the TGJF by building out the power logics and by empirically testing it through an assessment of the reproductive market in Uganda. We capture macro-, meso-, and micro-level power asymmetries, and explore how bio-power and control over resources melds with local gender relations and agentic practices that (i) leave social marketing efforts misaligned with embodied realities, and (ii) result in dichotomies and tensions in the reproductive health market as the North–South strive to define the modern-traditional, medical-pleasurable, and women-men nature of contraceptives.     

Fair value accounting: Current practice and perspectives for future research

A fundamental issue debated in the accounting literature centres on the appropriate basis for measuring firms’ assets and liabilities. During the last several decades, scholars have generated a growing body of important insights about the use of the fair value measurement attribute in financial reports around the globe. In this paper, we provide an overview of the institutional background of fair value accounting and the associated accounting standards that prescribe the use of fair value measurements under International Financial Reporting Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the US. We discuss and document the extent to which firms across different industries and accounting regimes recognize and disclose in their financial reports assets and liabilities measured at fair value and we reflect on aspects of the fair value accounting literature. In doing this, we identify several areas in which additional research can further our understanding of fair value measurements and disclosures.     

Perceived human resource system strength and employee reactions toward change: Revisiting human resource's remit as change agent

Although scholars have highlighted human resource's (HR's) important role as a change agent, we know little about the extent to which HR influences the change context to foster positive employee responses and support organizational changes. This study positions perceived HR system strength as an important internal context factor that influences employees' reactions toward change. Drawing on emotion theory and social exchange theory, we analyze the mechanisms through which employees' perceptions of HR system strength lead to positive employee responses to organizational change. Data from 704 employees in a UK police force showed that employees' perceptions of HR system strength were positively related to their ability to cope with organizational change and that this relationship was simultaneously mediated by state positive affect and perceived organizational support. Moreover, our findings demonstrated that coping with organizational change was positively related to employees' change‐supportive behavior. This study is important because it broadens the remit of HR's role as change agent and provides valuable insight into how HR positively influences employee outcomes during organizational change.     

Demands or Resources? The Relationship Between HR Practices,Employee Engagement,and Emotional Exhaustion Within a Hybrid Model of Employment Relations

This article explores the ways in which employees may experience and respond to tensions inherent in the mix of potentially conflicting human resource (HR) practices that compose hybrid models of employment relations. By drawing on the job demands–resources (JD‐R) literature and viewing HR practices as “demands” and “resources,” we explore the impact of performance management and employee voice practices on employee well‐being, as exemplified by engagement and emotional exhaustion, in a large public‐sector organization in Ireland. Our findings suggest that employee voice mechanisms may act as a resource in both enhancing engagement and in counterbalancing the demands presented by a performance management system, thus reducing the deleterious effects of emotional exhaustion. Our study extends understanding of hybrid models of human resource management (HRM) and of the ways in which employees manage the contradictory signals that such models may send in terms of performance expectations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

个体与组织情景因素对旅游服务员工创新行为的影响

在竞争激烈的市场环境中,创新越来越受到旅游企业的重视.由于组织创新往往植根于员工个人的创意,并依赖员工创意的实施,员工是组织创新的微观载体,因此研究旅游服务提供商员工创新行为的驱动力就显得十分重要.研究关注个体与组织情景因素对员工创新行为的影响,同时探讨市场导向、组织学习氛围、自我效能感对员工创新行为的影响.通过对国内某旅游服务提供商320名员工进行问卷调查,对数据进行结构方程模型和回归分析,研究发现自我效能感和组织学习氛围对员工创新行为有正向的影响,市场导向正向调节自我效能感与员工创新行为的关系.研究结论为旅游服务提供商如何促进员工创新行为提供了启示.