Engaging New Social Movements

Organizations involved in the development ofinnovative social programs are coming under increasingpressure to establish structures through which theusers, targets, or beneficiaries of program activities can be involved in program planning andimplementation. The dynamic that this sets up betweenthe program and its wider environment, particularly inareas in which new social movements areoperating, can be quite challenging. This article seeks toexamine these dynamics, particularly in the context ofprogram evaluation. It is argued that an engagedevaluation approach (drawing on an action research orientation) has particular strengths in sucha situation, although the limitations and challenges ofsuch an approach are also outlined. It may, for example,require careful management in terms of the dynamics of the evaluation team. The discussionis illustrated by examples drawn from the evaluation ofa European program for disabled people in which theauthor as member of a research team from The Tavistock Institute was involved.     

Participation in the Performance Appraisal Review: Inflexible Manager Behavior and Variable Worker Needs

A survey of 137 employees provided data onperformance appraisal reviews conducted by 38 managers.Participation in the review was influenced more by whichmanager conducted the review than the circumstances of the specific review. The effect ofparticipation was greater for variables measuring futurerelationship (potential in the firm and seeking feedbackfrom manager) than immediate decisions (self-evaluation and intention to stay). Reaction to the reviewwas moderated by subordinate experience and priorfeedback. The results indicate the importance ofunderstanding the context in which the review occurs and the limited degree to which managers altertheir own behavior in the review.     

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT: AN EXAMINATION OF SERVICE STRATEGY IN A HIGH‐CONTACT SERVICE ENVIRONMENT

A critical component of service strategy in high‐contact environments is service encounter management. Effective service encounters are a result of the quality of employee development, including systems for work and job design, training and development, and attention to employee well being. Results of empirical analysis indicate that service strategies reflecting the dimensions of employee development drive employee outcomes such as productivity and satisfaction. Employee outcomes are significantly associated with customer satisfaction, but only some linkages to financial performance are significant. This study illustrates the importance of employee development in service strategy design for managing service encounters in high contact service environments.     

Voicing by Adapting and Innovating Employees: An Empirical Study on How Personality and Environment Interact to Affect Voice Behavior

This article reports two studies exploring howcognitive style preferences for adaption innovationaffect the likelihood that employees will voice ideasfor organizational change toward their supervisors. As hypothesized, Study 1 demonstrates thatinnovatively compared to adaptively predisposed policeofficers are less likely to voice conventional ideas andmore likely to voice novel ideas for solvingwork-related problems. Besides a replication of thesefindings, Study 2 shows how work satisfaction and thequality of the supervisor as voice manager shape theimpact of adaption innovation on employee likelihood to voice. That is, compared to innovators,adaptors are more likely to voice conventional ideaswhen they are dissatisfied rather than satisfied withwork and perceive their supervisors as effective rather than ineffective voice managers. On the otherhand, innovators compared to adaptors report greaterlikelihood to voice novel ideas when they are satisfiedrather than dissatisfied with work and perceive their supervisors as effective rather thanineffective voice managers. Theoretical and practicalimplications of the findings are discussed.     

LEAN,GREEN, AND THE QUEST FOR SUPERIOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

We examine the relationship between lean manufacturing practices and environmental performance as measured in terms of air emissions and resource use. We draw on two unique surveys of 31 automobile assembly plants in North America and Japan, which contain information on manufacturing practice and environmental performance, as well as in‐depth interviews with 156 plant level employees at 17 assembly plants. Our survey results and interviews suggest that lean management and reduction of air emissions of volatile organic compounds (vocs) are associated negatively. Lean manufacturing practices contribute to more efficient use of paints and cleaning solvents, but these in‐process changes are not sufficient to meet the most stringent air regulations. We found some evidence to support the link between lean practices and resource efficiency. While our survey results were in hypothesized direction, they were not statistically significant. In‐depth semi‐structured interviews, however, suggest a more robust relationship, and we use them to describe some mechanisms by which all three aspects of lean management (buffer minimization, work systems, and human resource management) may be related to environmental management practices and performance.     

Personal and Organizational Determinants of Perceived Absence Norms

A two-phase study employed a combination ofqualitative and quantitative methodology to studyabsenteeism in a complex, hospital setting. The primaryfocus was to identify the bases of employees' beliefs about what is acceptable and expected in termsof absence behavior. Through a series of employeeinterviews, two different absence cultures wereidentified. We found evidence that employees' normativeperceptions were influenced by their prior personalabsence, and by the average level of absence within boththeir immediate work group and the absence culture towhich they belonged. Perceived norms were also shown to predict future individual absence (totaldays absent) 1 year later. Theoretical and practicalimplications of this research were discussed.     

Making Employee Involvement Work: Cooperative Goals and Controversy to Reduce Costs

Organizations are involving employees to helpreduce costs to succeed in the intensely competitivemarketplace. However, many researchers have beenskeptical of the value of participation. This study uses Deutsch's theory of cooperation and competitionto examine the critical mediating variable of theinteraction as employees discuss how to reduce costs.Results of structural equation analyses on datacollected from interviews when employees participated inreducing costs indicate that cooperative goalscontributed to constructive discussion among employeesthat resulted in productive work and strongerrelationships, which in turn led employees to be committed toreducing costs. Competitive goals were negativelycorrelated with dynamics and outcomes. These resultssuggest that researchers and managers can agree that employee involvement has potential butemployees need cooperative goals and skills to discussissues open-mindedly and constructively to realize thesebenefits.     

Participative Decision-Making: An Integration of Multiple Dimensions

Few topics have resulted in as much theory,empirical study, controversy, and practical applicationas participative decision-making (PDM). Although mostpast empirical research has assumed that thedecision-making process in PDM was unidimensional, this paperexplores a multidimensional view and examines theintegration of degree of participation anddecision-making processes and their relationship withsatisfaction and performance. The results suggest that thedegree of involvement in generating alternatives,planning, and evaluating results are relatedsignificantly to satisfaction and that degree ofinvolvement in generating alternatives and planning arerelated significantly to performance.     

Supervisor Intervention with Troubled Workers: A Social Identity Perspective

Supervision has evolved from managing anddirecting workers to supporting workers. Supervisors arekey people that workers go to for assistance withpersonal problems. This article reviews thecontributions of various theoretical models to ourunderstanding of supervisor intervention with troubledworkers and identifies factors that have been leftunexplored in the research. From this analysis, Iexplain how social identity theory may provide a frameworkthat overcomes many of the limitations of the existingknowledge in this area. Social identity theory has thepotential to capture the more personal aspects of the helping process between supervisors andworkers that go beyond workers job performance andproductivity, including supervisors beliefs andattitudes, personal experiences, and socialidentification with the organization and the workgroup.