‘First,get to know them’: a relational view of organizational socialization

An important episode in workplace learning is the socialization of newly hired people into the organization. Typically, the literature conceptualizes the socialization of new employees as a learning process whereby the newcomer is responsible for learning to fit into the organization. This perspective seems to underestimate the social influences of co-workers and managers. Research and theorizing on social exchange and interpersonal relationships identify the quality of relationships between members of a group as a fundamental factor moderating the quality and outcomes of other interactions related to learning and work. This paper presents the findings of a recent study of organizational socialization experienced by new engineers recently hired into a large, global manufacturing company based in the US. Results of this qualitative case study explore and explain the socialization process from a relational perspective providing compelling evidence that relationship building is a primary driver of the socialization process in organizations.     

团队成员交换、社会因素策略与新员工社会化

团队工作方式在组织中日益普遍,团队成员成为影响新员工社会化的重要因素。探讨团队成员交换对新员工社会化结果的影响及其作用机制,尤其是社会因素策略这一组织社会化策略在其中的中介作用,选取201个入职时间在一年半以内的销售人员为调查样本,运用结构方程模型路径分析方法对研究模型进行检验。研究结果表明,团队成员交换对新员工社会化结果产生显著影响;新员工感知的社会因素策略在团队成员交换与任务掌握、角色清晰、工作满意度之间起部分中介作用,在团队成员交换与离职倾向之间起完全中介作用。这表明高质量的团队成员交换关系可以促进新员工感知更多来自组织的正向社会支持以及组织内部人的角色模范作用,最终帮助他们成功社会化。     

学习型组织的学习能力系统、学习导向人力资源管理系统及其相互关系研究——自然科学基金项目（70272007）回顾和总结

主要回顾了国家自然科学基金项目学习型组织的学习能力系统、学习导向人力资源管理系统及其相互关系研究(70272007)所提出的理论观点和实际应用成果,包括组织学习和学习型组织的概念、模型、组织学习能力测量问卷OLCQ;学习导向人力资源管理系统的概念、维度、测量问卷LOHRMQ;学习导向人力资源管理对组织学习能力的影响;其他与人有关的管理措施对组织学习能力的影响;所提出的组织学习和学习型组织、学习导向人力资源管理的理论在中国企业的应用研究及研究发现。最后,介绍了取得的学术成果和实践成就,指出了未来的发展方向。     

组织学习对员工—组织匹配的影响——知识惯性调节作用的实证研究

本文实证研究组织学习对员工—组织匹配的影响及知识惯性的调节作用。研究发现学习承诺、分享愿景和开放心智对一致性匹配和互补性匹配具有显著正向影响;经验惯性和学习惯性在学习承诺、分享愿景和开放心智对一致性匹配的影响有负向调节作用。     

Cross-cultural influences on organizational learning in MNCS: The case of Japanese companies in China

This paper draws on the social construction perspective and on social learning theory to examine the cross-cultural influences on organizational learning in MNCs. Social learning theory suggests that constructive engagement and member solidarity are key constituents of organization-based collective learning. Literature suggests, however, that cross-cultural differences in assumptions about social participation by organization members may impair organizational learning. The paper also reports a qualitative study, conducted at five Japanese-invested manufacturing companies in the Pearl River Delta, China. The research found that managers perceived Chinese frontline workers as lacking constructive engagement and member solidarity as compared with their Japanese counterparts, thus limiting organizational learning, and attributed these perceived differences to deep-seated cultural values. Attempts in two of the companies to ‘Japanize’ the workforces were reported to have had some impact, but appeared not to have substantially changed this picture. Urging caution regarding cross-cultural stereotyping and home country bias, we consider the implications for organizations with international manufacturing operations.     

Leader–member exchange and organizational dehumanization: The role of supervisor’s organizational embodiment

This research examined the negative relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and organizational dehumanization (i.e., employees’ perceptions that their organization treats them like tools), and specifically the consequences of this LMX–dehumanization relationship on employees’ emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and voice behaviors. Further, given that supervisors act as representatives of the organization, we argued that these relationships would be stronger for employees identifying their supervisor with the organization (i.e., high supervisor’s organizational embodiment). Across two samples, results showed that high-quality LMX was negatively associated with organizational dehumanization. Further, organizational dehumanization was found to mediate the relationships between LMX and outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion, affective commitment, and voice behaviors). Finally, the mediation model was moderated by supervisor’s organizational embodiment. More specifically, the negative effects of LMX on organizational dehumanization and its subsequent outcomes were stronger when leaders were perceived as sharing many characteristics with their organization. This research expands the recent and scarce knowledge on the determinants, boundary conditions and outcomes of organizational dehumanization. Our findings suggest that interpersonal relationships at work and, in particular, very common supervisor-related perceptions should be considered when examining organizational dehumanization.     

Behavioural Outcomes of Psychological Contract Breach in a Non‐Western Culture: The Moderating Role of Equity Sensitivity*

This study tests the effects of psychological contract breach on several employee outcomes: workplace deviant behaviours directed at the organization (WD‐O) and its organizational members (WD‐I), in‐role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviours directed at the organization (OCB‐O) and its co‐workers (OCB‐I). It also examines the moderating effects of equity sensitivity in the relationship between breach and these outcomes. Data were collected from 162 sales executives and their direct supervisors. We found that breach was related to all behavioural outcomes. Equity sensitivity and breach also interacted in predicting OCB‐I, OCB‐O and WD‐I. The negative relationships between breach and OCB‐O and OCB‐I were stronger for employees with an outcome‐focused approach to organizational relationships than for those with an input‐focused approach. In addition, breach had stronger positive effects on WD‐I especially for those individuals who are output‐oriented compared to those who are input‐focused.     

Understanding the Antecedents of Effective Knowledge Management: The Importance of a Knowledge‐Centered Culture*

Within the context of knowledge management, little research has been conducted that identifies the antecedents of a knowledge‐centered culture—those organizational qualities that encourage knowledge creation and dissemination. In this study, the existing literature on organizational climate, job characteristics, and organizational learning (in the form of cooperative learning theory) are linked with the current thinking and research findings related to knowledge management to develop a theoretical model explaining the relationships among organizational climate, the level of cooperative learning that takes place between knowledge workers, and the resulting level of knowledge created and disseminated as measured by team performance and individual satisfaction levels. The study goes on to empirically test the proposed research model by investigating the climate of organizations, and seeks to understand the linkage between a set of organizational and individual characteristics and knowledge‐related activities found in cooperative learning groups and the resulting work outcomes. The hypothesized research model is tested using LISREL with data collected from 203 information systems (IS) professionals engaged in systems development activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications the results have for future research and managerial practice.     

Knowledge Management and Balanced Scorecard Outcomes: Exploring the Importance of Interpretation,Learning and Internationality

The topics of shared interpretation, organizational learning and firm internationalization have been studied extensively. Though considered important factors that shape the international competitive landscape, research synthesizing these interrelated areas has been limited to date. We use the balanced scorecard as a framework for assessing how organizational learning and sensemaking influence actions relating to a global marketing strategy and subsequent financial performance. Using data from 169 multinational corporations, findings indicate that a specific set of knowledge activities is related to balanced scorecard outcomes (e.g. customer performance, innovation and learning performance, and internal process performance). The hypothesized importance of customer performance is confirmed as the only balanced scorecard outcome significantly related to financial performance. A post hoc analysis revealed further insights for future research opportunities. Overall, these results suggest that firms can improve their competitive position by emphasizing shared interpretation within the organization and including balanced scorecard elements when assessing performance.     

转型背景下企业有效应对组织复杂性的机理研究

如何借助不同类型的组织复杂性为企业创造效能已成为当前理论界及实践界研究的热点.本文基于文献研究提出了不同组织复杂性与组织效能的关系及影响这一关系的复杂适应性机理的假设.实证研究表明,转型经济环境下,结构复杂性与组织效能存在倒U型曲线关系,战略复杂性与组织效能存在U型曲线关系,目标复杂性与组织效能存在倒U型曲线关系;在复杂适应性的五个维度中,动态适应在组织复杂性与组织效能关系中起完全中介作用;自组学习及自主创新在这一关系中起部分中介作用;自发变革和柔性协作的中介作用不显著.研究结论对企业有效应对组织复杂性有重要指导意义.     

Measuring the Business Impacts of Community Involvement: The Case of Employee Volunteering at UL

The study presents findings from piloting a new framework for measuring the business impacts of corporate community involvement at UL. It focuses on evaluating the human resource (HR) outcomes of employee volunteering in three signature programs. Five business impacts were measured—job satisfaction, morale, organizational pride, belief in UL mission, and engagement. Using an employee survey, the research team compared signature program volunteers with others and found a positive correlation between volunteering and impacts on morale, organizational pride, belief in UL mission, and engagement. Employee awareness (without participation) of UL signature programs was also associated with increased morale and organizational pride. While the study did not prove causation, it confirmed previous research on the link between employee volunteering and positive HR outcomes. The authors provide recommendations for further research and how companies can use the impact measurement framework to evaluate the bottom‐line benefits of their community involvement programs.     

Perceived Support and Women's Intentions to Stay at a Sport Organization

Women remain underrepresented in upper management within sport organizations and more broadly. This research examines organizational factors that may affect women's (and men's) likelihood of remaining with their sport organization, which would presumably affect their willingness and ability to step into leadership roles. The research examines the effects of equity human resource management practices, top management support for gender equity and gender‐related barriers on organizational commitment and intent to stay with their sport organization, as well as whether changes in perceived organizational support would mediate the relationships. Results from a survey of current employees in Australian sport organizations generally support the hypotheses. Perceived top management support for gender equity is a strong and consistent predictor of outcomes, and the effect is mediated by perceived organizational support. Implications for top management's role in implementing gender equity practices are discussed.     

Market-based Organizational Learning and Market Performance Gains

Building upon the market orientation-performance thesis, many investigators are now concerned with broader organizational learning considerations and the antecedents that underlie the analytical properties of learning about competitors and markets. Described as a process of market-based organizational learning, an empirical test of a model is provided which indicates that: when organizations exhibit more favourable learning values (three value-based constructs), their market information processing behaviours and analytical capabilities improve (three knowledge-based constructs), which thereby directly impacts upon market-based outcomes (a market performance construct) that the organization is able to generate. This model is tested with a path-analytic approach from data generated in the UK financial services industry. Discussion of these findings is made in the light of pertinent literature streams, and several implications for future research are provided.     

企业环境下个人获取知识和输出知识能力对组织公民行为影响的研究

很多研究者关注企业组织环境下个体如何获取和输出知识、以及个体获取和输出知识与其前因和结果的关系,但是,这些研究至少在以下两方面有待进一步完善:一是未考察个体获取和输出知识对组织公民行为的作用机制,二是鲜有研究将获取知识和输出知识同时纳入研究范畴中。本研究的目的正是希望针对以上问题,考察企业环境中个体获取知识能力和输出知识能力对于组织公民行为的影响机制。对216个样本的实证研究结果表明,个人获取知识能力能够提升个人组织公民行为,而且这种影响是通过输出知识能力的完全中介作用实现的。本研究结果不仅丰富了个体学习和组织学习的相关理论,而且为企业推动组织学习提供了新的思路:企业管理实践中,只有在组织中对人们"获取知识"和"输出知识"齐抓共管,才能更好地促进个体组织公民行为,更好地建设学习型组织,推动组织的可持续生存和健康和谐发展。     

Perception of learning culture and concerns about the innovation on its use: a question of level of analysis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organizational members' perception of learning culture and the concerns about the innovation, and the influence of these factors on the use of one innovation (ISO 9000) in the Malaysian public sector. This study was guided by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) (Hall and Hord 1987) and the dimensions of the learning organization (Watkins and Marsick 1993, 1996b). The study involved 628 people from eleven government agencies that had been using the new system for at least a year. The study provided a model for operationalizing the assertions and theories of both organizational development and learning organization scholars especially that a more adaptive learning-oriented culture would facilitate the implementation of change. The examination of learning culture facilitated the understanding of how members within the organization perceived their learning culture, and subsequently its relationship to their use of the innovation. The analysis of concerns illustrated the fit between the innovation and feelings and perceptions of the individual members about the innovation. On an individual organizational basis, the regression analyses showed that the model was able to explain the variance in use of innovation in each organization. However, a comparison of regression weights across the organizations told a very different story. The results showed that the combination of variables that explained the use of innovation varied radically from organization to organization. The findings raised questions about appropriate levels of analyses for such studies. The study suggests that theories that try to explain organizational innovation implementation be tested across organizations and take into account organizational context. Otherwise, they could lead to inaccurate conclusions.     

A review of: “Basic Guide to System Safety.” By J. W. VINCOLI, (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993), £27 50. Market: Managers and novice safety engineers.

This paper explores the issue of loyalty and commitment of team workers in industrial collaboration. The similarities and differences between normal and extended or virtual teamwork are described. Extended teams are different from normal teams in terms of location, diversity and composition over time. A comparison of the antecedents of commitment in normal situations reveals that commitment seems to be stimulated by industrial collaboration, because of some enriching job characteristics. However, questions arise related to the focus (organization, work group/collaboration team, occupation) and the form (affective, continuance, normative) of commitment. Further research in this relatively under researched area is needed. Despite the lack of specific research, some organizational policies are pointed to that enhance commitment, such as employee involvement, shared values and socialization practices.     

Social antecedents of the role stress and career-enhancing strategies of newcomers to organizations: A longitudinal study

Newcomers experience uncertainty and stress following entry into an organization. Two features of socialization are important for reducing their stress: socialization tactics and relations with superiors and co-workers. The present study tests a structural equation model, including, first, the effects over time of initial institutional socialization tactics and, second, the association between social relations at the workplace on newcomers’ role stress and career-enhancing strategies, two years later, among a large (N=661) international sample of job and organization stayers. Using LISREL 8.3 the results indicate a good fit between the model and data on several fit indices. Institutional socialization tactics had a significant association with newcomers’ relations with both their superiors and co-workers, and a significant negative association with their role conflict. Newcomers’ relations with superiors had a negative relationship with their role ambiguity, and a positive relationship with two kinds of career-enhancing strategies that they use to aid in their adaptation to their work situation. The relations of newcomers with co-workers were positively related to role conflict and negatively related to role ambiguity. Co-worker relations were also positively related to immediate career-enhancing strategies. Role conflict was positively related to immediate and negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies, while role ambiguity was negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies. The results are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical importance.     

Cold wars and hot issues: management of responsibilities

This paper provides a review of the Ninth International Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development (Asia Chapter) that took place in Shanghai, China on 11–14 November 2010. In addition to providing a brief review of the pre-conference workshops and keynote addresses, this paper presents the outcomes of the conference using four main themes: (1) corporate training; (2) the development of key personnel; (3) career development and work-life balance; and (4) organizational learning and learning organization. In conclusion, the authors share their thoughts on the contributions of international conferences to the field of human resource development.     

Organizational learning and knowledge in public service organizations: A systematic review of the literature

This paper is a systematic review of the literature on organizational learning and knowledge with relevance to public service organizations. Organizational learning and knowledge are important to public sector organizations, which share complex external challenges with private organizations, but have different drivers and goals for knowledge. The evidence shows that the concepts of organizational learning and knowledge are under-researched in relation to the public sector and, importantly, this raises wider questions about the extent to which context is taken into consideration in terms of learning and knowledge more generally across all sectors. A dynamic model of organizational learning within and across organizational boundaries is developed that depends on four sets of factors: features of the source organization; features of the recipient organization; the characteristics of the relationship between organizations; and the environmental context. The review concludes, first, that defining 'organization' is an important element of understanding organizational learning and knowledge. Second, public organizations constitute an important, distinctive context for the study of organizational learning and knowledge. Third, there continues to be an over-reliance on the private sector as the principal source of theoretical understanding and empirical research and this is conceptually limiting for the understanding of organizational learning and knowledge. Fourth, differences as well as similarities between organizational sectors require conceptualization and research that acknowledge sector-specific aims, values and structures. Finally, it is concluded that frameworks for explaining processes of organizational learning at different levels need to be sufficiently dynamic and complex to accommodate public organizations.     

Social antecedents of the role stress and career-enhancing strategies of newcomers to organizations: A longitudinal study

Newcomers experience uncertainty and stress following entry into an organization. Two features of socialization are important for reducing their stress: socialization tactics and relations with superiors and co-workers. The present study tests a structural equation model, including, first, the effects over time of initial institutional socialization tactics and, second, the association between social relations at the workplace on newcomers' role stress and career-enhancing strategies, two years later, among a large (N=661) international sample of job and organization stayers. Using LISREL 8.3 the results indicate a good fit between the model and data on several fit indices. Institutional socialization tactics had a significant association with newcomers' relations with both their superiors and co-workers, and a significant negative association with their role conflict. Newcomers' relations with superiors had a negative relationship with their role ambiguity, and a positive relationship with two kinds of career-enhancing strategies that they use to aid in their adaptation to their work situation. The relations of newcomers with co-workers were positively related to role conflict and negatively related to role ambiguity. Co-worker relations were also positively related to immediate career-enhancing strategies. Role conflict was positively related to immediate and negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies, while role ambiguity was negatively related to intermediate career-enhancing strategies. The results are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical importance.