Burnout and reciprocity: Towards a dual-level social exchange model

A tentative dual-level social exchange model of burnout and organizational commitment is proposed that includes social exchange relationships at the interpersonal level (i.e. between human services professional, or caregiver, and recipient) as well as at the organizational level (i.e. between employees and organization). The model was tested and cross-validated in two independent samples that consisted of 220 and 142 student nurses, respectively, by using linear structural modelling with LISREL VII. The hypothesized model assumes that lack of reciprocity at both levels is positively related to burnout, whereas poor organizational commitment is exclusively related to lack of reciprocity at the organizational level. This model fitted reasonably well to the data of both samples. The limitations of the study and its practical implications are discussed, and directions for future research on the dual-level social exchange model are proposed.     

How high-commitment HRM relates to PC violation and outcomes: The mediating role of supervisor support and PC fulfilment at individual and organizational levels

Psychological contract (PC) constitutes a theoretical framework for; explaining labor relationships, and it has been considered as a; mediation step between structural variables and processes and work and; organizational outcomes. Whereas PC (un)fulfillment; showed consistent relationships with variables such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance, or absenteeism, the effects of PC; violation (emotional answers that develop after perceptions of PC; breach) have been less investigated. In addition, structural antecedents; of PC constructs had included Human Resources (HR) practices. This paper aims to extend; research on PC and its role as a mediator between HR practices and work; outcomes, both at individual and organizational levels. Specifically, we; examined the impact of human resource practices on employee performance; and sickness absences through a sequence of supervisor support, PC; fulfillment and PC violation. In a sample of 4648 employees from 214; companies of seven different countries, our results indicate that high-commitment; human resource practices were significantly and negatively; related to PC violation through supervisor support and positively to PC; fulfillment; in turn, PC violation was negatively related to employee; performance and positively to sick leave. These relationships at the; individual level were partially replicated at the organizational level, developing partial homologous models and showing that shared perceptions; about HR practices lead to shared perceptions on PC affecting collective; outcomes. Therefore, the findings shed new light on PC theory, regarding; the mediating role of PC constructs and negative emotions in the; relationships between HR practices and support from supervisors and performance at individual and organizational levels.     

The social responsibility of organizations: Perceptions of organizational morality as a key mechanism explaining the relation between CSR activities and stakeholder support

Prior research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has documented how specific CSR activities relate to responses of relevant stakeholders, mainly examining employees. However, it is as yet unclear whether these findings generalize to other types of CSR activities or to responses of other stakeholder groups. In fact, results from studies to date also show inconsistent effects in need of further explanation.In this contribution we offer a new perspective on this literature. We extend current insights on organizational CSR activities and stakeholder support, by elaborating on the psychological mechanisms that can explain these relations. We draw together recent developments on organizational anthropomorphism with insights on organizational identification, to argue that the impact of CSR activities on a broad range of stakeholder responses depends on perceptions of organizational morality. We connect prior work on organizational ethics, CSR, and stakeholder support, to social psychological theory and research on impression formation, impression management, and impression updating. This new perspective allows us to broaden the current debate on CSR and stakeholder support.Building on this analysis, we propose a new model that offers a roadmap for future research. We explain the impact of organizational CSR on stakeholder responses, by highlighting perceived organizational morality as a key mediating variable. We then proceed to consider likely moderators of this relation distinguishing between (a) characteristics of the organization, (b) characteristics of (communications about) CSR activities, and (c) characteristics of the perceivers. On the basis of this extended model we develop specific predictions, and review initial evidence supporting these prediction.     

The relationship of organizational and social coping resources to employee coping behaviour: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Research on the determinants of coping behaviour has focused primarily on stressor-specific influences and on personal attributes and skills that serve as coping resources. However, coping resources can also include aspects of the organizational and social environment. This study investigates the role of supportive work relationships and of participation and influence in decision-making in determining the coping behaviour of employees in a manufacturing plant. Since the relationships between worksite coping resources and employee coping behaviours may be causally reciprocal, longitudinal models were analysed to sort out causal priorities. Results showed that organizational and social coping resources did influence subsequent coping behaviour. Perceiving oneself to have influence over decision-making at work predicted increases in active, problem-solving coping attempts and decreases in resignation in response to worksite stressors. Also, employees who perceived their co-workers and supervisors to be supportive were more likely to increase their mobilization of that support when faced with worksite stress. In addition, the use of certain employee coping behaviours influenced subsequent levels of participation in decision-making, as well as the quality of relationships with co-workers and supervisors.     

The relationship of organizational and social coping resources to employee coping behaviour: A longitudinal analysis

Research on the determinants of coping behaviour has focused primarily on stressor-specific influences and on personal attributes and skills that serve as coping resources. However, coping resources can also include aspects of the organizational and social environment. This study investigates the role of supportive work relationships and of participation and influence in decision-making in determining the coping behaviour of employees in a manufacturing plant. Since the relationships between worksite coping resources and employee coping behaviours may be causally reciprocal, longitudinal models were analysed to sort out causal priorities. Results showed that organizational and social coping resources did influence subsequent coping behaviour. Perceiving oneself to have influence over decision-making at work predicted increases in active, problem-solving coping attempts and decreases in resignation in response to worksite stressors. Also, employees who perceived their co-workers and supervisors to be supportive were more likely to increase their mobilization of that support when faced with worksite stress. In addition, the use of certain employee coping behaviours influenced subsequent levels of participation in decision-making, as well as the quality of relationships with co-workers and supervisors.     

Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts on social media can help firms to attract new talent

In a similar way as consumers use social media to spread word-of-mouth about brands and firms, employees perform similar activities when posting company-related content on social media. Such posts can be of significant importance for future employees who use them as supposedly unbiased information of firm attractiveness. Hence better understanding such activity is a crucial element of many HR managers. In this study we rely on signaling theory to explore the relationships between corporate brand strength, corporate social media activity and company-related posts by employees on social media channels. To analyze those relationships, we apply variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS SEM) based on data from a survey among scholars who published in A-journals. Our results show that corporate brand strength alone is not sufficient to mobilize employees to upload company-related posts. However, corporate brand strength influences corporate social media activity, which, in turn, impacts company-related posts by employees on social media. We highlight the crucial role of employees as spokespeople and influencers for firms, especially vis-à-vis applicants and prospective employees.     

The impact of social power and influence on the implementation of innovation strategies: A case study of a UK mega infrastructure construction project

Influence plays a key role in reaching consensus among multiple actors involved in project-based decision-making processes. While prior literature devotes considerable attention to describing influence, little attention has been paid to influence at the individual level of the strategic project manager within the context of megaprojects. This research intended to fill this knowledge gap by identifying and describing the influence strategies that a strategic project manager applies when implementing innovation strategies on megaprojects. A qualitative case study was used to examine the complex social processes involved in a major UK capital investment programme. The findings underline a critical subset of influence strategies, notably higher-management support, inspirational appeal and bargaining. The study proposes a utilitarian structure of social power comprising selective, supportive and executory power bases.     

The availability of personal and external coping resources: Thier impact on job stress and employee attitudes during organizational restructuring

This study examines the relationships among personal coping resources, social support, external coping resources, job stressors and job strains in a sample of 110 American Telephone and Telegraph employees undergoing a major organizational restructuring. The study expanded on a model suggested by Ashford (1988) by defining another category of coping resources that employees may draw upon to deal with the stressors and strains which occur during major organizational changes. External coping resources were defined as those which provided employees with a sense of 'vicarious control' in stressful situations. Results indicated that personal coping resources, social support and external coping resources had a direct effect upon job stressor and strain levels. No 'buffering' effect of these coplng resources was found. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that external coping resources added to the prediction of job stressors and strains even when pertonal coping resources and social support were entered first into the prediction questions.     

化被动为主动:共享型领导对员工主动变革行为的影响及作用机制研究

如何让员工将其工作角色外的行为,如主动变革行为,视为其角色内的行为越来越受到学者和管理者的关注。主动变革行为是指个体通过自愿的和建设性的努力来影响组织功能改变的行为,属于一种挑战性的组织公民行为。尽管以往研究对员工主动变革行为的影响因素进行了一些探讨,但主要聚焦于正式垂直领导和个体因素,鲜有研究关注团队情景因素对其的作用效果。通过问卷调查法,以69个部门和262名员工的配对数据为样本,本研究考察了共享型领导对员工主动变革行为的影响及作用机制。跨层次分析结果表明:(1)共享型领导对员工主动变革行为有积极影响;(2)主动变革行为的角色定义与和谐工作激情会分别中介共享型领导与员工主动变革行为之间的关系;(3)领导-成员交换质量会分别调节共享型领导与员工角色宽度自我效能与和谐工作激情之间的关系,领导-成员交换质量越高,共享型领导对员工角色宽度自我效能与和谐工作激情的积极作用越显著;(4)领导-成员交换质量会调节共享型领导通过角色宽度自我效能对员工主动变革行为的间接作用,领导-成员交换质量越高,这一间接作用越显著。     

An evaluation of social learning and learner outcomes in a massive open online course (MOOC): a healthcare sector case study

ABSTRACT

This paper responds to calls for new inquiries into the use of technology in HRD. We examine how, and to what extent, social media tools contribute to learner experiences and learner outcomes in an HRD intervention in a workplace context. We analyse qualitative and quantitative data relating to a massive open online course (MOOC) in a healthcare sector case study setting. We examine the interaction between the MOOC programme, social learning through social media tools and learner outcomes. The results of our evaluation show that usage of social media tools does not significantly affect knowledge outcomes but social media usage enhances affective outcomes. We conclude that social media tools can foster productive social learning processes. We also find evidence of some reluctance to engage with the technologies and declining patterns of interactivity using social media over the duration of the MOOC programme. We conclude that a more nuanced theorization to take account of personal and professional workplace context is necessary to explain how learners regulate their engagement with social media tools and the effect of social technologies for sustained social learning in HRD interventions.     

The impact of a workplace terrorist attack on employees' perceptions of leadership: A longitudinal study from pre- to postdisaster

A terrorist attack targeting a workplace represents an organizational crisis that requires the leaders to manage emerging threats. The changing roles and expectations of the leaders are reflected in the employees' perceptions of them over time. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the 2011 Oslo bombing attack affected the targeted employees' perceptions of the leadership behaviors of their immediate superiors or the organizational managers' interest in the health and well-being of their workers. Ministerial employees (n ≈ 180) completed questionnaires on fair, empowering, and supportive leadership, in addition to human resource primacy, on two occasions several years prior to the terrorist attack. Assessments were then repeated one, two, and three years after the attack. Changes in the course of perceived leadership from predisaster to postdisaster were examined using bootstrapped t-tests and latent growth curve models. Furthermore, the general course of perceived leadership was compared with a nonexposed control sample of matched employees. Results showed that employees with high levels of posttraumatic stress perceived their immediate leader to be less supportive. However, overall perceptions of leadership were remarkably stable, which suggests that the effects of critical incidents on perceptions of leadership may be negligible.     

Uncertainty,pluralism, and the knowledge-based theory of the firm: From J.-C. Spender’s contribution to a socio-cognitive approach

J.-C. Spender’s award-winning, knowledge-based theory of the firm is based on four premises: (1) The firm can be sufficiently understood as a system of knowledge, (2) explicit and implicit knowing can be clearly dissociated, (3) organizations are conceived as cognizing entities, and (4) intuition shaped by shared cultural practices is a superior source of managerial knowledge. This line of reasoning represents a social constructionist view of the enactment, transfer, and storage of knowledge according to which managerial knowledge is largely tacitly shaped by industry recipes and the firm’s socio-cultural conventions and other social processes. Although comprehensive in scope, we argue that a knowledge-based theory of the firm needs to integrate a cognitivist approach that includes the synergetic production of tacit and explicit knowledge, the role of reflective thinking in resolving strategic uncertainties, and the interaction between the individual and the social. This socio-cognitive theory of the firm posits that sustained competitive advantage of a firm is founded on the ability to align knowledge internally within the firm as well as externally with its stakeholders through the individual sense-making of feedback from other individuals.     

Motivating deference: Employees' perception of authority legitimacy as a mediator of supervisor motivating styles and employee work-related outcomes

The two studies presented here examine the extent to which perceived authority legitimacy mediates the association between supervisors' motivating styles and subordinates' work-related outcomes. From the perspective of the self-determination theory (SDT), we examined two supervisory motivating styles: the autonomy-supportive style that nurtures employees' inner motivational resources and the controlling style in which supervisors pressure their employees to behave in specific manager-directed ways. Perceived authority legitimacy was defined according to the Relational Model of Authority (RMA). The results of Study 1 (n?=?191) showed that the autonomy-supportive motivating style, but not the controlling style, was associated with employees' work satisfaction, commitment, and burnout through legitimacy. These results were replicated in Study 2 (n?=?314), even after controlling for task-autonomous and controlled motivation, and extended to other reported employee behavioral outcomes such as organizational citizenship behavior, deviant behavior, and conflicts within the workplace. Taken together, the results suggest that the effectiveness of the autonomy-supportive motivating style is partly due to its association with volitional deference to authority. The paper concludes by discussing theoretical implications of integrating SDT with RMA and the practical implications of the findings.     

Testing the 3-factor model of occupational stress: the impact of demands, control and social support on a mail sorting task

This study tests a 3-factor model of occupational stress, which predicts that job demands, job control and social support influence levels of strain. In a laboratory simulation of mail sorting, task demands, control and social supports were manipulated systematically. Pre- and post-task measures of self reported stress and arousal were compared across groups. Performance was measured continuously during the computer task and all 120 participants reported their perceived performance afterwards. Stress was found to be higher and perceived performance was lower in conditions of high demand; this pattern was also observed in conditions of low social support. Contrary to the hypotheses put forward in this paper, task control did not affect stress and the manipulations did not interact to produce elevated stress. However, task performance was poorer in conditions of high demand and in conditions of low control, and there was a significant interaction between demand and control for performance. Work preference measures indicated that the level of fit between ideal and actual social support influenced stress and perceived performance.     

The Moderating Role of Power Distance on the Reaction of Consumers to the CEO as a Spokesperson During a Product Harm Crisis: Insights From China and South Korea

During a crisis the corporate message is not the only issue facing the company. The role of the spokesperson is an under-researched area which is examined in this paper. In studies conducted in South Korea and China we examine the reaction of consumers to the CEO as a spokesperson during a product harm crisis. We find in both countries that consumer responses to the CEO was contingent on the consumers' level of power distance. When consumers had high levels of power distance they had higher future purchase intentions when compared with consumers who had low levels of power distance when the CEO was the spokesperson during the crisis. In addition, in a study conducted in South Korea we find that higher levels of power distance generate increased levels of brand trust when the CEO is the spokesperson, which in turn increases future purchase intentions. Our studies have important theoretical and managerial implications which are discussed in the paper.     

Attracting talent through diversity at the top: The impact of TMT diversity and firms' efforts to promote diversity on employer attractiveness

At a time where firms encounter a “race for talent”, it is crucial for many MNCs to present themselves as attractive employers. Failing to position themselves in the international labor market can reduce firms' ability to acquire valuable international human capital, thereby generating disadvantageous organizational effects. Against this backdrop, drawing on signaling theory and employer branding literature, our paper aims to shed light on the association between nationality diversity in the executive suite and MNCs' employer attractiveness. Our lines of argument build on the notion that top management team composition can affect MNCs' efforts to promote diversity among their employees. This focus on diversity, in turn, can affect MNCs' employer attractiveness. Examining firms from various European countries, we find that top management team nationality diversity is positively associated with firms' employer attractiveness for foreign job seekers. We also show that a firm's efforts to promote diversity mediate the relationship between TMT nationality diversity and employer attractiveness. We therefore advance the academic debate on diversity as an employer branding tool and a means to enhance employer attractiveness. In practical terms, we also provide valuable insights for firms wishing to transform into (more) diverse entities.     

Developing the eclectic paradigm as a model of global strategy: An application to the impact of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on MNE performance levels

We expand the eclectic paradigm into a model of global strategic management and apply the latter to the analysis of the impact of the Sep. 11th terrorist attacks on the MNEs' performance to investigate the effect of exogenous shocks on the global strategies of firms. First, we integrate MNE resources and capabilities, strategy, and structure with the eclectic paradigm. Then we focus specifically on location attractiveness to examine how MNEs adjust internal factors with the exogenous distortions caused by an extreme environmental shock. We suggest that this adjustment is carried out at four levels: resources and capabilities, strategy, structure, and choice of location which jointly determine MNEs' performance. Although we restrict the application of this model of global strategic management to the post-Sep. 11th, our model may be applied to other extreme events that change, at least partly, the worldwide, or regional, economic order.     

守安身立命之地,走继往开来之路——简评《管理学报》近期的系列争鸣文章

《管理学报》近期的系列争鸣文章,提出了管理学发展的方向问题。西方管理学在学术研究和企业实践上存在双轨制,中国则演化为学术、咨询、实业的"三岔口"。如何使"三岔口"变为"铁三角",影响着管理学在中国的发展方向。圣吉作为非学术的咨询家,对其进行剖析可以更清楚地分析咨询和学术的关系。管理学的安身立命之地,在于学术本位,而学术本位的活力来源于面向实践和哲学思考。学术讨论和争鸣有利于推动学术共同体的形成和健全:管理学界应以中外学术争鸣为范例,继往开来,奠定管理学在中国发展的良好根基;《管理学报》这一平台应在其中发挥重要作用。     

Communicating with the Public About Marauding Terrorist Firearms Attacks: Results from a Survey Experiment on Factors Influencing Intention to “Run,Hide, Tell” in the United Kingdom and Denmark

Effective risk communication is an integral part of responding to terrorism, but until recently, there has been very little pre‐event communication in a European context to provide advice to the public on how to protect themselves during an attack. Following terrorist attacks involving mass shootings in Paris, France, in November 2015, the U.K. National Police Chiefs’ Council released a Stay Safe film and leaflet that advises the public to “run,” “hide,” and “tell” in the event of a firearms or weapons attack. However, other countries, including Denmark, do not provide preparedness information of this kind, in large part because of concern about scaring the public. In this survey experiment, 3,003 U.K. and Danish participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: no information, a leaflet intervention, and a film intervention to examine the impact of “Run, Hide, Tell” advice on perceptions about terrorism, the security services, and intended responses to a hypothetical terrorist firearms attack. Results demonstrate important benefits of pre‐event communication in relation to enhancing trust, encouraging protective health behaviors, and discouraging potentially dangerous actions. However, these findings also suggest that future communications should address perceived response costs and target specific problem behaviors. Cross‐national similarities in response suggest this advice is suitable for adaptation in other countries.