Purpose – This paper examines the prevalence of purposeful and ethical leadership in a UK county police force – referred to by the pseudonym PoliceOrg. It also evaluates the extent to which officers feel their values fit with those of the organisation, and the outcomes achieved by purposeful and ethical leaders.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey, interviews and focus groups were conducted at PoliceOrg. Findings are compared with those from a public sector case study and with a representative sample of the UK working population.
Findings – Purposeful leaders at PoliceOrg have a positive impact on important outcomes for their direct reports, and provide a sense of direction and guidance to those who do not feel a strong fit between their values and those of their organisation.
Research limitations/implication – The study focuses on a new construct (purposeful leadership) that has not previously been explored in the academic literature. Consequently, our findings cannot be directly compared with those of other studies. The survey focused on the views of police sergeants and constables, and only one police force participated as a case study; hence, the generalisability of the findings is limited.
Practical implication – Police organisations should nurture and sustain workplace environments where leaders can translate their personal moral code and ethical values into their role behaviours to address the policing challenges of the future.
Originality/value – This study elucidates the concept of purposeful leadership in the context of a police force.
The use of systematic approaches to evidence review and synthesis has recently become more common in the field of organizational research, yet their value remains unclear and largely untested. First used in medical research, evidence review is a technique for identifying, evaluating and synthesizing existing empirical evidence. With greater demand for the best evidence about ‘what works’ in organizational settings, nuanced approaches to evidence synthesis have evolved to address more complex research questions. Narrative synthesis is perceived to be particularly suited to evaluating diverse evidence types spanning multiple disciplinary fields, characteristic of the HRM domain. This article evaluates the narrative evidence synthesis approach, explains how it differs from other techniques and describes a worked example in relation to employee engagement. We consider its strengths, the challenges of using it and its value in HRM research.
In this diary study, we examined a theoretical model in which the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, availability, and safety serve as mechanisms through which the work context during discrete situations within the workday influences ‘state’ engagement. We further theorised that a person’s ‘trait’ level of engagement would exert cross-level effects on the ‘state’ level relationships. Multilevel analyses based on a sample of 124 individuals in six organisations and 1,446 situational observations revealed that meaningfulness and availability (but not safety) mediated the relationships between perceptions of the work context and ‘state’ engagement. High levels of ‘trait’ engagement strengthened the within-person relation between availability and ‘state’ engagement, yet weakened the within-person relation between meaningfulness and ‘state’ engagement; suggesting two different processes may be at play. Overall, the findings advance our understanding of engagement as a multilevel and temporally dynamic psychological phenomenon, and promote a contextually-based HRM approach to facilitating engagement.
Meaningful work is important for employees and employers, yet managers seem to do more to destroy meaning than they do to create it. In this article, we identify how employers can create an environment where employees can find meaning and the benefits this can bring.
Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused on job design, leadership, HRM and culture. Employees can respond positively to employers' strategies aimed at raising their level of experienced meaningfulness when they are felt to be authentic. However, when meaningfulness is lacking, or employees perceive that the employer is seeking to manipulate their meaningfulness for performative intent, then the response of employees can be to engage in “existential labor” strategies with the potential for harmful consequences for individuals and organizations. We develop a Model of Existential Labor, drawing out a set of propositions for future research endeavors, and outline the implications for HRM practitioners.
This article examines power and engagement. Since Kahn first explained engagement as the way people invest themselves in their work roles based on influence and role status, the engagement movement has subsequently experienced particular momentum both in academic and practitioner circles. The extensive body of evidence on engagement suggests that it is linked to a range of organizational outcomes as well as work-related measures of individual wellbeing. However, this evidence draws mainly from concepts and theories grounded in psychology and therefore important issues of context are often neglected. Moreover, the way engagement has been conceptualized reflects a particular gap in relation to the concept of power and tends to gloss over the realities of organizational life. We consider this limitation of the evidence and its implications along with ways in which other approaches to researching engagement might help to create more accurate and authentic accounts of the lived reality of work engagement.
In this thought piece, Katie explores the differences in the way that academics and practitioners conceptualise and approach engagement – differences that do not seem to be lessening over time. She poses seven key areas that are ripe for future engagement research, starting with the fundamental question, ‘what is engagement?’. Employee engagement is a fascinating area for both quantitative and qualitative research, and it will be interesting to see if there will be greater convergence between academics and practitioners in the future.
The National Institute for Healthcare (NIHR) has conducted a review of the evidence on Staff Engagement within the NHS and have published a series of publications.
This document on Measuring Employee Engagement and Interpreting Results includes an extensive discussion of how to use data effectively.
The National Institute of Healthcare Research (NIHR) has been examining the impact and effectiveness of staff engagement with a particular focus on the NHS. The study reviewed a range of evidence on staff engagement and subseqently produced a series of publications.
The Review of Practitioner Studies of Engagement looks at the review of non academic evidence, such as published articles in healthcare media and on the web. It summarises the way this review was conducted and how the evidence was assessed.
As part of the National Institute of Healthcare Research (NIHR) major review of staff engagement within the NHS, the NIHR has produced a series of publications on key issues of staff engagement.
The Guide to Engagement in the NHS is aimed at HR leaders and examines the role they play in developing approaches to staff engagement.
The National Institute of Healthcare Research (NIHR) has produced a series of guides following a major review of the evidence of staff engagement within the NHS.
The Guide to Engagement for Line Managers focuses on the key role of first level supervisors and line managers. The guide highlights their important role of developing staff engagement within their teams, which is fundamental for organisational engagement. In particular it includes ideas for how line managers can develop their engagement skills.
The National Institute of Healthcare Research (NIHR) has undertaken a major review of the evidence on staff engagement in the NHS. As part of the review the NIHR has produced a series of publications on staff engagement.
The Guide to Engagement for Senior Leaders looks at the key role senior leaders can play in shaping organisational culture to support staff engagement. It summarises the evidence based review of the impact of leadership.
Engage for Success White Paper no. 2014-01
Meaningfulness in work has been established as an important factor at work, influencing motivation, and improving performance and satisfaction. In this two-part blog, Katie Bailey, professor of management at the University of Sussex, outlines the findings of her recent research with Adrian Madden into what gives work meaning. In the first, she reveals where people find meaning in work and the role of organisations in this, and in the second she warns of the ways in which the meaning of work can be destroyed.
Meaningfulness in work has been established as an important factor at work, influencing motivation, and improving performance and satisfaction. In this two-part blog, Katie Bailey, professor of management at the University of Sussex, outlines the findings of her recent research with Adrian Madden into what gives work meaning. In the first, she reveals where people find meaning in work and the role of organisations in this, and in the second she warns of the ways in which the meaning of work can be destroyed.
NHS Employers has collaborated with a research team to carry out a staff engagement project funded by the National Institute of Healthcare Research (NIHR).
In this webinar Dilys Robinson and Katie Truss, researchers from the Institute of Employment Studies, give an overview of the project which looks at the available evidence on the nature, impact and benefits of staff engagement in the NHS. The webinar outlines the emerging findings and the planned resources that will be produced to support staff engagement practitioners.
Steven Weeks chats to Dr Adrian Madden, research fellow at the University of Sussex about the links between employee engagement and health and wellbeing.
Steven Weeks chats to Dilys Robinson, principal research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies and Dr Katie Truss from the University of Sussex, about the drivers for staff engagement and what actions can be taken by line managers.
Steven Weeks chats to Dilys Robinson, principal research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies about a project analyzing the impact of staff engagement in the NHS.
Steven Weeks speaks to Professor Katie Truss from the University of Sussex about the importance of staff engagement.
Meaningful work is something we all want. The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously described how the innate human quest for meaning is so strong that, even in the direst circumstances, people seek out their purpose in life. More recently, researchers have shown meaningfulness to be more important to employees than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. Meaningful work can be highly motivational, leading to improved performance, commitment, and satisfaction. But, so far, surprisingly little research has explored where and how people find their work meaningful and the role that leaders can play in this process.
We interviewed 135 people working in 10 very different occupations and asked them to tell us stories about incidents or times when they found their work to be meaningful and, conversely, times when they asked themselves, “What’s the point of doing this job?” We expected to find that meaningfulness would be similar to other work-related attitudes, such as engagement or commitment, in that it would arise purely in response to situations within the work environment. However, we found that, unlike these other attitudes, meaningfulness tended to be intensely personal and individual; it was often revealed to employees as they reflected on their work and its wider contribution to society in ways that mattered to them as individuals. People tended to speak of their work as meaningful in relation to thoughts or memories of significant family members such as parents or children, bridging the gap between work and the personal realm. We also expected meaningfulness to be a relatively enduring state of mind experienced by individuals toward their work; instead, our interviewees talked of unplanned or unexpected moments during which they found their work deeply meaningful.
We were anticipating that our data would show that the meaningfulness experienced by employees in relation to their work was clearly associated with actions taken by managers, such that, for example, transformational leaders would have followers who found their work meaningful, whereas transactional leaders would not. Instead, our research showed that quality of leadership received virtually no mention when people described meaningful moments at work, but poor management was the top destroyer of meaningfulness.
Knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) need to encourage their employees to engage in knowledge exchange and combination (KEC) so as to create the new knowledge that is core to their success. Human resource management (HRM) has the potential to play a key role in encouraging KEC but relatively little is known about the microprocesses through which HRM and KEC are linked. Based on a sample of 498 knowledge workers in 14 KIFs in the pharmaceutical and ICT sectors in Ireland and the UK, this study focuses on the knowledge workers themselves and their perceptions of how HR practices influence KEC. In so doing, we drill down into the micro-foundations of the proposed linkages between HRM and knowledge creation, proffering reflexivity as a translation process in understanding these linkages.
The claim that high levels of engagement can enhance organizational performance and individual wellbeing has not previously been tested through a systematic review of the evidence. To bring coherence to the diffuse body of literature on engagement, we conducted a systematic narrative evidence synthesis involving 214 studies that focused on the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of engagement. We identified six distinct conceptualizations of engagement, with the field dominated by the Utrecht Group’s ‘work engagement’ construct and measure, and by the theorization of engagement within the ‘job demands-resources’ framework. Five groups of factors served as antecedents to engagement: psychological states, job design, leadership, organizational and team factors, and organizational interventions. Engagement was found to be positively associated with individual morale, task performance, extra-role performance and organizational performance, and the evidence was most robust in
relation to task performance. However, there was an over-reliance on quantitative, crosssectional, and self-report studies within the field which limited claims of causality. To address controversies over the commonly used measures and concepts in the field and gaps in
the evidence base, we set out an agenda for future research that integrates emerging critical sociological perspectives on engagement with the psychological perspectives that currently dominate the field.
Although some research suggests that perceptions of HRM practices are associated with lower levels of employee wellbeing, other research shows just the opposite. In the present study, we attempt to reconcile these discrepant findings by incorporating the role of HRM attributions. Our model posits that when employees perceive that their organisation’s HRM practices are intended to improve their job performance, they experience higher levels of job involvement, which leads to lower levels of emotional exhaustion. Conversely, when employees believe that their organisation’s HRM practices are intended to reduce organisational costs, they experience work overload, which translates into higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Parallel mediation analyses of survey data collected from employees of a construction and consultancy organisation at two time periods (n=180) supported this theoretical model.
Securing high levels of employee engagement has become a dominant concern for HR practitioners globally, and a lucrative survey and consultancy industry has grown up around the topic. Despite significant parallel interest within the scholarly community, it is questionable whether research published in peer-reviewed journals has had any impact on the practice of engagement. The divergent perspectives of academics and practitioners on engagement are explored within the wider context of evidence-based management and the ‘rigor – relevance’ debate, alongside consideration of the risks of presupposing a simplified binary divide between the two communities. Some suggestions for strategies aimed at creating a stronger connection between the interests of practitioners and those of academics are proposed, whilst bearing in mind academia’s broader and more critical remit.
The importance of meaningful work has been identified in scholarly writings across a range of disciplines. However, empirical studies remain sparse and the potential relevance of the concept of temporality, hitherto somewhat neglected even in wider sociological studies of organizations, has not been considered in terms of the light that it can shed on the experience of work as meaningful. These two disparate bodies of thought are brought together to generate new accounts of work meaningfulness through the lens of temporality. Findings from a qualitative study of workers in three occupations with ostensibly distinct temporal landscapes are reported. All jobs had the potential to be both meaningful and meaningless; meaningfulness arose episodically through work experiences that were shared, autonomous and temporally complex. Schutz’s notion of the ‘vivid present’ emerged as relevant to understanding how work is rendered meaningful within an individual’s personal and social system of relevances.
This article explores the ways in which employees may experience and respond to tensions inherent in the mix of potentially confl icting 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 manage-ment and employee voice practices on employee well-being, as exemplifi ed by engagement and emotional exhaustion, in a large public-sector organization in Ireland. Our fi ndings 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 deleteri-ous effects of emotional exhaustion. Our study extends understanding of hybrid models of human resource management (HRM) and of the ways in which employ-ees manage the contradictory signals that such models may send in terms of performance expectations.
Abstract Engagement is a positive psychological state that is linked with a range of beneficial individual and organizational outcomes. However, the factors associated with volunteer engagement have rarely been examined. Data from 1064 volunteers of a wildlife charity in the United Kingdom revealed that both task- and emotion-oriented
organizational support were positively related to volunteer engagement, and volunteer engagement was positively related to volunteer happiness and perceived social worth and negatively related to intent to leave the voluntary organization.
Consistent with theory, engagement acted as a mediator between these factors. The implications for future research and the relevance of the findings for voluntary organizations are discussed.
The claim that high levels of engagement can enhance organizational performance and individual well-being has not previously been tested through a systematic review of the evidence. To bring coherence to the diffuse body of literature on engagement, the authors conducted a systematic synthesis of narrative evidence involving 214 studies focused on the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of engagement. The authors identified six distinct conceptualizations of engagement, with the field dominated by the Utrecht Group’s ‘work engagement’ construct and measure, and by the theorization of engagement within the ‘job demands–resources’ framework. Five groups of factors served as antecedents to engagement: psychological states; job design; leadership; organizational and team factors; and organizational interventions. Engagement was found to be positively associated with individual morale, task performance, extra-role performance and organizational performance, and the evidence was most robust in relation to task performance. However, there was an over-reliance on quantitative, cross-sectional and self-report studies within the field, which limited claims of causality. To address controversies over the commonly used measures and concepts in the field and gaps in the evidence-base, the authors set out an agenda for future research that integrates emerging critical sociological perspectives on engagement with the psychological perspectives that currently dominate the field.
This article sheds new light on an understudied construct in mainstream management theory, namely, work alienation.
This is an important area of study because previous research indicates that work alienation is associated with important
individual and organizational outcomes. We tested four antecedents of work alienation: decision-making autonomy, task
variety, task identity, and social support. Moreover, we examined two outcomes of alienation: deviance and performance, the
former measured 1 year after the independent variables were measured, and the latter as rated by supervisors. We present
evidence from a sample of 283 employees employed at a construction and consultancy organization in the United Kingdom.
The results supported the majority of our hypotheses, indicating that alienation is a worthy concept of exploration in the
management sciences.
There has been an increasing focus on ‘work as calling’ in recent years, but relatively few empirical sociological accounts that shed light on the experience of performing calling work. Although callings have generally been referred to as positive and fulfilling to the individual and as beneficial to society, researchers have also suggested there is a ‘dark side’ to calling, and have drawn attention to the potential conflicts and tensions inherent in the pursuit of calling, especially for women. This article explores these themes through the first-hand experiences of one woman who felt called to work as a priest. Her narrative illustrates how callings draw the individual irresistibly towards a particular line of work. It also shows how calling work can be both satisfying individually and beneficial to the wider community but, at the same time, involves sacrifice, compromise and a willingness to defer personal rewards.
In recent years there has been a weight of evidence suggesting that engagement has a significantly positive impact on productivity, performance and organisational advocacy, as well as individual wellbeing, and a significantly negative impact on intent to quit and absenteeism from the work place.
This comprehensive new book is unique as it brings together, for the first time, psychological and critical HRM perspectives on engagement as well as their practical application. Employee Engagement in Theory and Practice will familiarise readers with the concepts and core themes that have been explored in research and their application in a business context via a set of carefully chosen and highly relevant original and case studies, some of which are co-authored by invited practitioners.
Written in an accessible manner, this book will be essential reading for scholars in the field, students studying at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as practitioners interested in finding out more about the theoretical underpinnings of engagement alongside its practical application
This study contributes to our understanding of the mediating and moderating processes through which human resource management (HRM) practices are linked with behavioural outcomes. We developed and tested a moderated mediation model linking perceived HRM practices to organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intentions. Drawing on social exchange theory, our model posits that the effect of perceived HRM practices on both outcome variables is mediated by levels of employee engagement, while the relationship between employee engagement and both outcome variables is moderated by perceived organisational support and leader–member exchange. Overall, data from 297 employees in a service sector organisation in the UK support this model. This suggests that the enactment of positive behavioural outcomes, as a consequence of engagement, largely depends on the wider organisational climate and employees' relationship with their line manager. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.
Despite the proliferation of studies of HR systems, there are still substantial gaps in our understanding of how such systems actually work. This article, by focusing on the neglected areas of HR philosophy and HR processes in the composition of HR systems, and by using a qualitative, employee-centred approach in the collection and analysis of data, provides new insights into the working of HR systems. Using data from interviews with 56 knowledge workers employed in the information and communications technology sector in Ireland and the UK, we explore employee-level reactions to two different types of HR systems. We highlight the various ways in which HR processes interact with HR practices and the different outcomes that may result, and we identify the key role of HR philosophy in HR system operation.
We theorized that absence from work is a resource-based process that is related to perceived meaningfulness of work, well-being, and engagement. Broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) and engagement theory (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, & Taris, 2008; Kahn, 1990) were used to develop a framework for explaining absence. Results of a study of 625 employees and human resource records of subsequent absenteeism data for a three-month period supported our hypotheses that meaningful work increases engagement with work, and that engagement is associated with low levels of absenteeism. Furthermore, data showed that engagement fully mediated the relationship between meaningfulness and absence, and that well-being strengthened the relationship between meaningfulness and engagement. The results have implications for understanding the role of individual-level resources in the workplace, and how meaningfulness, well-being, and engagement influence absence.
The present study examined a potential mediator of the job design–performance relationship, namely employee engagement. Data were obtained via a survey of 283 employees in a consultancy and construction firm based in the UK and from supervisors' independent performance evaluations. The results reveal that employees who hold jobs that offer high levels of autonomy, task variety, task significance and feedback are more highly engaged and, in consequence, receive higher performance ratings from their supervisors, enact more organizational citizenship behaviours and engage in fewer deviant behaviours. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
The development of mainstream human resource management (HRM) theory has long been concerned with how people management can enhance performance outcomes. It is only very recently that interest has been shown in the parallel stream of research on the link between employee engagement and performance, bringing the two together to suggest that engagement may constitute the mechanism through which HRM practices impact individual and organisational performance. However, engagement has emerged as a contested construct, whose meaning is susceptible to ‘fixing, shrinking, stretching and bending’. It has furthermore not yet been scrutinised from a critical HRM perspective, nor have the societal and contextual implications of engagement within the domain of HRM been considered. We review the contribution of the seven articles in this special issue to the advancement of theory and evidence on employee engagement, and highlight areas where further research is needed to answer important questions in the emergent field that links HRM and engagement.
This article examines the role played by line managers in the link between HRM practices and individual performance outcomes. Drawing on social exchange theory, the authors test a mediated model linking perceived line manager behavior and perceived human resource management practices with employee engagement and individual performance. The study focuses on two self-report measures of individual performance; task performance and innovative work behavior. Two studies with a total of 1,796 participants were conducted in service-sector organizations in the United Kingdom and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The data reveal that perceived line manager behavior and perceived HRM practices are linked with employee engagement. In turn, employee engagement is strongly linked to individual performance and fully mediates the link between both perceived HRM practices and perceived line manager behavior and self-report task performance (study 1), as well as self-report innovative work behavior (study 2). The findings show the significance of the line manager in the HRM-performance link, and the mediating role played by employee engagement. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Drawing upon interview data from three case study organizations, we examine the role of middle managers in UK public service reform. Using theory fragments from organizational ecology and role theory, we develop three role archetypes that middle managers might be enacting. We find that rather than wholesale enactment of a ‘change agent’ role, middle managers are balancing three predominant, but often conflicting, change-related roles: as ‘government agent’, ‘diplomat administrator’ and, less convincingly, ‘entrepreneurial leader’. Central government targets are becoming the main preoccupation for middle managers across many public services and they represent a dominant constraint on allowing ‘managers to manage’.
In the summer of 2006, the General Insurance (GI) division of Liverpool Victoria Mutual Insurance Association was in crisis, with financial losses of £22 million a year, customer attrition running at a rate of 10,000 a month and staff turnover as high as 60% in some areas. A radical transformation was needed to prevent the GI business from total collapse. This case study charts the transformation of this loss-making organization between 2006 and 2012 into a highly profitable, multi-award winning insurance division through the development and implementation of a radical new employee engagement strategy. Drawing on interviews with key senior managers and focus groups with frontline staff, this case study shows how the new senior management team worked with staff to develop new and more effective ways of working that radically improved customer service, employee morale, profitability and efficiency so that, by 2011, the division was returning profits of £72 million, had reduced average customer query resolution time from 48 hours to 3.5 minutes, and had risen to fourth ranked motor insurer in the UK.
Despite the proliferation of studies of HR systems, there are still substantial gaps in our understanding of how such systems actually work. This article, by focusing on the neglected areas of HR philosophy and HR processes in the composition of HR systems, and by using a qualitative, employee-centred approach in the collection and analysis of data, provides new insights into the working of HR systems. Using data from interviews with 56 knowledge workers employed in the information and communications technology sector in Ireland and the UK, we explore employee-level reactions to two different types of HR systems. We highlight the various ways in which HR processes interact with HR practices and the different outcomes that may result, and we identify the key role of HR philosophy in HR system operation.
The present study examines the interaction between perceived HRM practices and trust in the employer on employee performance and well-being. Specifically, the study tests whether trust in the employer moderates the relationships between perceptions of HRM practices and task performance (as rated by employees’ supervisors), organisational citizenship behaviour, turnover intentions and employee well-being. Support was found for the majority of the hypotheses using data from 613 employees and their line managers in a service sector organisation in the UK. Trust in the employer moderates the relationships between perceived HRM practices and task performance, turnover intentions and individual well-being, but not organisational citizenship behaviour. Implications of the findings for organisations and future research are discussed.
We theorized that absence from work is a resource-based process that is related to perceived meaningfulness of work, well-being, and engagement. Broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) and engagement theory (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, & Taris, 2008; Kahn, 1990) were used to develop a framework for explaining absence. Results of a study of 625 employees and human resource records of subsequent absenteeism data for a three-month period supported our hypotheses that meaningful work increases engagement with work, and that engagement is associated with low levels of absenteeism. Furthermore, data showed that engagement fully mediated the relationship between meaningfulness and absence, and that well-being strengthened the relationship between meaningfulness and engagement. The results have implications for understanding the role of individual-level resources in the workplace, and how meaningfulness, well-being, and engagement influence absence.
Effective measure of employee engagement is relevant to human resource development (HRD) theory and practice. We build on Kahn's (1990, Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work, Academy of Management Journal 33: 692–724) theory and develop a model of engagement that has three requirements: a work-role focus, activation and positive affect. This model was operationalized in a new measure: the Intellectual, Social, Affective Engagement Scale (ISA Engagement Scale) comprising three facets: intellectual, social and affective engagement. Data from Study 1 (278 employees from a manufacturing organization) showed that the scale and its sub-scales have internal reliability. Study 2 examined data from 683 employees in a retail organization. The internal reliability was confirmed and construct validity was demonstrated. The new scale had positive associations with three theoretically and empirically important outcomes: task performance, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and turnover intentions. Implications are considered for academic enquiry into the engagement process, and for HRD practices that enhance the experience of work.
Knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) have been the subject of growing interest from researchers. However, investigations into the comparative experiences of men and women in KIFs remain sparse, and little is known about women’s participation in the processes of innovation and knowledge exchange and combination that are core features of KIFs. We report on the findings of a study in the UK and Ireland involving 498 male and female knowledge workers in KIFs. Despite equal levels of qualification and experience, women are more likely to be in lower status and more insecure jobs. They also predominantly occupy roles featuring less variety and autonomy than men and, despite comparable levels of knowledge exchange and combination, are less likely to be in a position to translate this into the innovative work behaviours necessary for career advancement. Our findings suggest that women’s experiences of and participation in knowledge processes within KIFs differ fundamentally from men’s.
Prior studies have suggested that one of the main roles of a strategic human resources department is the management of change. Whilst there have been a considerable number of prescriptive recommendations about how human resources departments should go about this, there has been little empirical research that explores exactly the kinds of roles that Human Resources departments play in day-to-day practice in managing change programs. Such evidence as there is suggests that rhetoric has moved ahead of reality, with many human resources functions playing a very limited role in managing change. This article reports on the findings of a qualitative study of the role of the human resources function in managing change in two public sector organizations in the UK. It is argued that human resources functional contributions to managing change can be analyzed along two axes which capture the degree of proactivity of the human resources department in managing both the content and the process of change. This gives rise to four potential human resources roles: Change Driver, Responsive, Change Focused and Human Resources Focused. Two case studies illustrate alternative approaches along these two dimensions. Hence, for human resources departments to play a strategic role in managing change, they need to adopt a proactive approach along both dimensions and not just one. The article builds on prior research into change agency within a planned, functionalist approach to organizational change, and contributes to debates around the management of micro-level change processes. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.
This paper responds to calls for research that takes into consideration the broader ideologies underpinning the employment relationship within capitalist societies by building and testing a model of work alienation. We examine how three work-related factors identified originally by Karl Marx act as precursors of alienation, that is, a disconnection of oneself from work, that are experienced in the modern workplace, namely the extent to which voice behaviours are enacted, whether an individual perceives his or her skills to be used in the course of work, and a lack of perceived meaningfulness of work. Further, we investigate whether alienation leads to emotional exhaustion and stifles well-being. Data from 227 employees in a manufacturing organisation in the UK support this model, in that a lack of voice, person–job fit and meaningfulness lead to alienation at work, and emotional exhaustion and lower levels of well-being are its consequences. The present study demonstrates that alienation should be a focal point for human resource management scholars in the twenty-first century.
Secretarial work has been described as one of the most persistently gendered of all occupations. Historically, it has been characterized as a ghetto occupation with three key features: low status and poor pay, narrow and feminized job content and poor promotion prospects. Twenty years ago, when a major study last took place in the UK, it was thought that new office technologies might transform the role, leading to a newly defined occupation equally appealing to both men and women. In this article, we report on the findings of a questionnaire survey involving 1011 secretaries. We found evidence of continuity and change. Secretaries are now better qualified and generally well-paid. A minority is undertaking complex managerial tasks. However, most secretaries continue to perform traditional tasks and career prospects for all remain bleak. We conclude that processes of role gender-typing are deeply entrenched and that secretarial work remains largely a ghetto occupation.
This study contributes to our understanding of the mediating and moderating processes through which human resource management (HRM) practices are linked with behavioural outcomes. We developed and tested a moderated mediation model linking perceived HRM practices to organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intentions. Drawing on social exchange theory, our model posits that the effect of perceived HRM practices on both outcome variables is mediated by levels of employee engagement, while the relationship between employee engagement and both outcome variables is moderated by perceived organisational support and leader–member exchange. Overall, data from 297 employees in a service sector organisation in the UK support this model. This suggests that the enactment of positive behavioural outcomes, as a consequence of engagement, largely depends on the wider organisational climate and employees’ relationship with their line manager. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.
There is renewed interest in the state's role in the economic sphere but a lack of research on the viability and employment effects of alternative economic models, in particular from a ‘liberal market economy’ perspective. This article addresses this gap in the human resource management literature by undertaking a detailed case study of industrial policy in the Irish pharmaceutical sector. The proactive and resource-intensive industrial policy adopted by the Irish government and development agencies is found to have underpinned a significant strategic upgrading in this sector of the Irish economy. In turn this has facilitated the growth of high-wage, high-skill jobs. The findings highlight the potential for an active industrial policy to promote employment upgrading in liberal market economies.
Draws from the latest academic research and topical practice insights to offer comprehensive and up to date coverage of HRM at strategic level. Takes a unique and thematic approach to the subject, focussing on the key overarching themes of SHRM such as employee engagement, talent and knowledge management, change, and CSR. Adopts a user-friendly structure and includes a wide range of original case materials and pedagogical features such as end-of-chapter review questions, key concepts and critical reflection boxes to help students understand the subject in a real-world context. An Online Resource Centre accompanies the textbook providing a further learning platform for both students and lecturers of SHRM where the reader can find supplementary chapter support and additional case material studies and test materials. What makes good HR strategy and how do you develop it? These are questions commonly asked by HR professionals and are just two of the fundamental issues tackled by the authors in this comprehensive and innovative new textbook. Written in a clear and accessible style specifically for students, Strategic Human Resource Management is the perfect stand-alone text for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying modules in Strategic HRM. Drawing from the latest academic research and topical insights from the industry, it aims to build upon basic knowledge of the subject to provide students with a clear guide to the theory and practice of managing people strategically. The text adopts a user-friendly structure and is broken down into four key concepts to help students increase their understanding of SHRM theory and its prospective applications. Part One looks at the concept of SHRM and the relevance of environmental factors; Part Two then proceeds to examine theories of SHRM and the link between performance, the role of the HR department and HR strategy; Part Three of the book considers the overarching themes within SHRM such as employee engagement, corporate social responsibility, change management and knowledge management before identifying new forms of SHRM and key future trends in the fourth and final section of the book. Packed with case studies and useful pedagogical features such as end-of-chapter review questions, key concepts and critical reflection boxes, this textbook offers an engaging and insightful approach to all areas of Strategic Human Resource Management.
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to contribute to understanding the nature of specialist and generalist human capital by exploring the ways in which knowledge workers view their experience of working in specialist and generalist roles in pharmaceutical firms in Ireland and the UK. Design/methodology/approach – The findings are based on interviews with 55 knowledge workers employed in a range of scientific, technical and managerial positions in four Irish and two UK firms located in the pharmaceutical sector. Interviews were also conducted with nine human resource/training and development managers within these six firms. Findings – The findings suggest that the categorisation of human capital as either specialist or generalist is too rigid and does not take account of the fact that individuals may themselves choose to shape their careers by investing in a range of education, training and development opportunities that will enable them to move between specialist and generalist roles. Originality/value – The paper unpacks the concepts of specialist and generalist human capital from an employee perspective and challenges the sharp distinction that is made between specialist and generalist human capital.
Much has been written on the nature of gender segregation in the labour market, but it is only recently that researchers have turned to cross-national comparisons as a means of developing more sophisticated analyses. This paper presents the findings of one study of women's employment in three different countries, and argues that cross-national comparisons have a crucial role to play in theory-development in the area of women's employment. The paper focuses in particular on evaluating cross-national research methodologies.
It has been argued that gender segregation within the labour market leads to women being overrepresented in a narrow range of jobs that offer limited promotion prospects. Presents the results of a questionnaire and interview study of women working in one such occupation, secretarial work, in England, France and Germany, and in the sectors of management consultancy and publishing. The results confirmed that secretaries in all three countries experience poor and unsystematic promotion prospects, despite the fact that many secretaries aspire to leave secretarial work. Sectoral differences are not as great as had been anticipated, and barriers to promotion were found to be especially acute in France and Germany. Promotion within secretarial work itself is shown to lack real value, and the implications of this for organizations are discussed.
This paper reports the findings of a study on secretarial work in England, France and Germany, which aimed to discover whether secretarial work can justly be described as a female `ghetto' occupation. Questionnaires were issued to secretaries working in matched management consultancy and publishing firms in the three countries; 185 questionnaires were received and 61 interviews were carried out with bosses, secretaries and personnel representatives. It was found that promotion out of secretarial work is extremely rare, which corroborates the `ghetto' thesis. However, secretarial job content, especially in France and Germany, was found to be wide-ranging and varied, which runs counter to that thesis. Overall, conflicting evidence was found across the three countries, which suggests that women's work is not necessarily constructed in the same way in different countries, and points to the role played by national institutions in shaping patterns and experiences of women's employment.
Recent developments in cross-national comparisons of women's work have led to some new and challenging findings. This article aims to contribute to this debate by presenting one study which examined secretarial work in three European countries. The methodological issues connected with cross-national research on gender are addressed, and it is suggested that the ‘societal’ approach offers the most potential for cross-national gender research. Findings are discussed in the areas of demographics, education and training, job content and mobility, and interlinkages between national institutions and the secretarial occupation are explored. Differences between the national samples highlight the importance of carrying out cross-national research in this area.
In this paper conceptual issues associated with strategic human resource management are addressed. The rapidly expanding intemationai interest in strategic human resource management is first highlighted. The article then explores some of the broader issues around the debate on SHRM that can inform thinking at a macro level. Firstly, the progress made towards understanding the meaning of SHRM is analysed, then a brief overview of the major models of SHRM to date is presented. This overview is used to highlight the key variables and interrelationships that need to be included in a model of SHRM, and a more detailed critical analysis of the contribution of the literature in each of these areas follows. A summary of the most important research questions arising out of the literature is followed by a model of the SHRM process, which attempts to remedy the major weaknesses in existing models of SHRM. The ways in which this model may be used as a basis for empirical research are then noted.
Much has been written about the "gendered" nature of many occupations, especially to explain how they have developed and maintained their female-dominated identity. This article reports the findings of one study of women working as secretaries in England, France, and Germany, in an attempt to assess the validity of this explanation. Data were collected by questionnaire and interview from secretaries, and by interview from their bosses. It was found that secretarial work in all three countries does conform to some of the gender stereotypes, but that organizational and societal factors impinge on the social construction of secretarial work. Some consideration is given to the role of the secretary as agent, acting to shape her work identity, which has hitherto been ignored in the literature.
The prospects for devolving HR activities to the line are examined in this article. Evidence drawn from a wider study of HRM in practice suggests that, while line manager involvement is possible, their practices tend to be inconsistent in implementation and uneven in quality. A number of constraints on line management practice were identified. First, there is limited reinforcement of practice through institutional forces. Secondly, the short-term nature of managerial activity means that a greater priority is placed on the achievement of the numbers rather than the achievement of numbers through people. Finally, downsizing and delayering place tremendous pressures on the time which line managers could allow for people matters generally. These findings challenge much of the rhetoric associated with the idea of giving HRM back to the line by arguing that the quality of line management practice may distort the overall impact of HR policies.
This article examines the changing role of the HR function in large corporations in the 1990s. It draws on data collected from a multi-sector case study research project – the Leading Edge Forum Consortium. Activities are analysed along three dimensions: access to strategic decision making, shift of responsibilities to the line, and the function's perceived contribution to business performance. It concludes that devolution to the line remains problematic, and that access to strategic decision making is still contingent on the personal influencing skills of senior HR managers or directors. Nevertheless the recognition of the strategic importance of HRM as a contributor to business performance has risen.
Two of the most widely adopted models of human resource management are the hard and soft versions. These are based on opposing views of human nature and managerial control strategies. The hard model is based on notions of tight strategic control, and an economic model of man according to Theory X, while the soft model is based on control through commitment and Theory Y. We argue that because these assumptions are so divergent, they cannot both properly be incorporated within a single model of human resource management. Eight in-depth case studies were carried out, involving questionnaires, interviews and focus groups in order to find out whether organizations were practising either form of HRM. We found that no pure examples of either form existed. The paper concludes that the rhetoric adopted by Ae companies frequendy embraces the tenets of the soft, commitment model, while the reaUty experienced by employees is more concerned with strategic control, similar to the hard model. This distinction between rhetoric and reality needs to be taken into account in conceptualizations of human resource management.
During the last five years, a team of researchers has worked with the senior human resource (HR) teams of seven large companies with Great Britain operations. A key challenge facing organizations is how they continue to deliver sustained competitive advantage in the short-term while also preparing for longer-term success. It is widely acknowledged that the sources of sustained competitive advantage lie not only in access to finance or capital, but within the organization, in people and processes capable of delivering business strategies such as customer satisfaction or rapid innovation. This article builds on previous models of strategic HR processes and describes what role these processes play in linking business strategy and individual performance. The majority of models of the strategic human resource process are normative, in the sense that they map how human resource management should work and provide guidelines on best practice. The methodology and initial theory behind the mapping was guided by a number of implicit assumptions.
This paper addresses the question of whether human resource management can offer greater possibilities for training, development or career advancement for women. Data from two case-study organizations with contrasting approaches to HRM ('soft' and 'hard') are presented. It was found that events in the external environment had impacted on both organizations and led to a reconceptualization of careers which had affected men and women. In general, women at Lloyds Bank, which was characterized by a bias towards the 'hard' approach to HRM, fared less well than those at Hewlett Packard, where the rhetoric, at least, was of 'soft' HRM. However, women's presence at higher levels in both organizations was limited.
Our understanding of the way in which human resource management (HRM) is linked to organizational performance is still limited, despite recent advances that use a quantitative approach to argue for a strong positive relationship between 'High Performance Work Practices' and firm financial performance. These studies are limited by their reliance on a single informant in each organization, and their emphasis on financial performance at the expense of a broader range of outcome variables. This paper contributes to the debate by analysing in detail the human resource policies and practices of one case-study organization over a two-year time period, using a variety of methodologies and drawing on a broad range of informants across the organization. Instead of devising a list of 'best practice' HRM from the literature and testing its impact on performance, we instead invert the question and take a firm that is financially successful and ask what HR policies and practices it uses. We also examine the way in which these policies are enacted. This methodology enables us to show that even successful organizations do not always implement 'best practice' HRM, and that there is frequently a discrepancy between intention and practice. Outcomes at the individual and organizational levels are complex and often contradictory; we question the extent to which is it possible or meaningful to attempt to measure the interrelationship between HRM, at the level of the formal system, and organizational performance, without taking into consideration the role played by the informal organization in the process and implementation of HR policies.
NHS Trusts are under enormous pressure to change the way they deliver health care to patients, but there is often little information or guidance available to help Trusts achieve these changes successfully. Based on broader research in change management, we present the findings of a study into the context for change within one NHS Trust, and discuss the way in which the challenges identified in the study have been met.
HR directors are often exhorted to play a more 'strategic' role in their organisations. However, it is not necessarily clear what is meant by this, or whether it is possible for departments to change their role at a whim. In this article we examine the changing role of the HR function within two contrasting organisations - an NHS trust and a bank - over a period of seven years. Drawing on role-set theory and concepts of negotiated order, we illustrate how HR functional roles are located within a complex and dynamic social setting, and present a model that seeks to map these interrelationships.
The UK Government has frequently referred to the importance of strategic human resource management (HRM) to the success of the National Health Service (NHS). However, relatively little is known about whether HR departments within individual NHS Trusts play a strategic role and, if so, how this has been achieved. Reports on the findings of a unique study into HRM at the Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust over the period 1994-2000. In particular, focuses on the factors that have enabled or constrained the development of a strategic role over time. Whilst it was found that the NHS context often served as a constraining factor, also shows that much can be done at the level of the individual Trust to foster a strategic role for the HR function. Of particular importance were the HR director role, the attitudes of senior management towards HRM and the way in which HR interventions were implemented.
Everyone knows that good people management enhances corporate performance. Not so obvious is that successful people strategies are three-dimensional, each dimension requiring an equal amount of attention. Based on our ten-year study within seven different organizations, we propose a three-dimensional model that executives can use to determine the current state of their people strategies along the three dimensions, using a short questionnaire to aid in the diagnosis. Armed with this information, executives will then be able to address any apparent shortcomings along the three dimensions. A key factor to emerge is that the emphasis needs to be as much on making it happen in the day-to-day life of the organization as on developing good people strategies in the first place.
This paper is concerned with examining the implications of inter-organisational relationships for human resource management (HRM). To date much of the literature on human resource management has been inwardly focussed on the organisation and its employees. Yet increasingly complex organisational forms and more permeable boundaries may mean that employees working for one organisation are influenced by the HR policies and practices of another. This paper presents evidence from two such case studies, representing different forms of inter-organisational relationship. The implications for the HR function are discussed and it is argued that traditional conceptions of HRM are inadequate to encompass these developments.
The way in which organizations communicate with their employees during a change programme has been shown to have significant effects on the success of change initiatives, in particular on individual commitment, morale and retention. However, there have been few prior studies that have explored how organizations develop and deploy communication strategies in support of major change initiatives. In this article, we contribute to this discussion by showing how two organizations used a variety of communication strategies when implementing their change programmes and the effects these strategies had on their employees. The findings show that both the process and the content of the communication strategy are significant. In particular, the timing of change messages, matching communication strategies to the employee profile, the use of appropriate media, flexibility and the minimisation of uncertainty were especially significant. Based on our findings, we present a model of effective internal communication during the management of change programmes.
This article reports on the findings of a study within the automotive franchise retail sector which shows how employees' experiences of HRM can, under some circumstances, be influenced both directly and indirectly by third-party organisations. A model that describes these patterns of influence is put forward. These findings point to the way in which inter-firm relationships influence the employment relationship from the perspective of both the employer and the employee, and raise questions about the limits of control exercised by HR department policies and activities. The article also contributes to the relatively limited literature on the operation of franchising systems, in particular concerning the role played by HR policies and practices as a mechanism for inter-organisational control.
This is an overview of what the authors believe to be every empirical research article into the linkages between HRM and performance published in pre-eminent international refereed journals between 1994 and 2003. The analysis covers the design of the study, including the primary level of analysis and the identity of the respondents; the dominant theoretical framework(s) informing the article; how HRM is conceived and operationalised; how performance is conceived and operationalised; and which control and/or contingency variables are incorporated. Finally, the article examines how each study depicts the so-called ‘black box’ stage between HRM and performance. It reports wide disparities in the treatment of these components, but also some welcome commonalities and indicative trends that point towards a gradual convergence on how future research into this complex relationship might usefully be conducted. The findings are compared with previous reviews of the literature. The analysis should illuminate the ongoing debate about the linkages between HRM and performance, and prove valuable for future research designs.
As the public sector has modernized and sought to become more efficient and cost-effective, the effective and strategic management of people has received increasing prominence and there have been calls for the Human Resource (HR) function to play a more strategic role. However, not much is known about whether the role of the HR function has changed substantively. In this paper, we present empirical evidence from six matched-pair public sector organizations in the UK to assess whether HR functional roles have changed, as envisaged, into a model more akin to the private sector. The findings highlight the complex and often contradictory nature of HR functional roles, and suggest that new and more strategic roles have not replaced traditional approaches but, rather, have been grafted on, giving rise to a variety of hybrid HR forms.
This paper addresses the broad question of whether or not the UK SEN system works from the perspective of the parent and the child, at the moment when a need first becomes apparent. The sparse literature on this topic suggests parental experiences may differ substantially, but there is growing evidence from small-scale studies that parents are unhappy with the situation and children's needs are not being met. The findings of a longitudinal participant observation study are presented. It is argued that current conceptualisations of the SEN system are located exclusively or primarily within the educational domain and fail to take into account the full complexity of the system. To access support via the SEN system, a child and his/her parents have to interact within three distinct domains: educational, legal and medical, and in each of which the child occupies a qualitatively different space as “pupil”, “case” and “patient”. There is scope for errors and failings to occur within each domain, at multiple levels, and in the interstices between domains. Furthermore, at all levels, the system has both formal and informal dimensions. We argue that this alternative “whole systems” perspective on the SEN system transcends current conceptualisations and that existing “solutions” proposed to improve the SEN system will not work unless they take into account these complex dynamics.
Local authority HR departments have come under increasing government pressure to strengthen and professionalize their role. This article explores the perspectives of line and HR managers in two local authorities on how the HR function can best be organized to contribute to the development of their organizations. A new model of effective HR processes in local government is proposed.
Purpose – Under public sector reforms, HR departments are under increasing pressure to demonstrate how they add value to the organization. This paper seeks to contribute to our knowledge of HR functional roles in public sector organizations by considering how social capital may influence perceived HR department performance. Most prior research on HR functional performance has focused on what HR professionals do, rather than on how they do it, yet such process factors have been shown in the literature on organizational strategy to be crucial determinants of long-term effectiveness. This paper aims to use the framework of social capital as a means of conceptualizing HR processes, and investigates how these are played out in an exploratory study. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on four matched-pair case studies in public sector organizations in the UK. A total of 77 interviews are conducted. Findings – The research found that there appeared to be a link between HR social capital and perceptions of HR functional performance on the part of both HR staff and line managers. Research limitations/implications – This is a piece of case study based research in the UK public sector, and therefore the findings may not be generalizable. It would have been preferable to have had some hard metrics for HR department performance, but perceptual data was relied on instead. Further research is therefore recommended. Practical implications – The implication for HR practitioners is that attention needs to be paid to the structural and relational dimensions of how the HR department operates, as well as to what it does, if it is to be regarded as effective. Originality/value – This is a piece of original research on a topic that has received almost no prior attention. Previous research on the link between HRM and performance has focused almost exclusively on HR strategies and policies and has neglected process and implementation. This paper presents some evidence to show that HR processes in terms of social capital may be an important element.
While prior studies have enhanced our knowledge of the various kinds of roles HR functions may play, relatively little theorising has taken place to advance our understanding of why particular roles are adopted and what factors may enable or constrain the development of a strategic role. Earlier research has emphasised the importance of institutional isomorphism as the explanatory framework. We analyse the role of the HR function in six, matched-pair case studies in UK public sector organisations. We argue that the specific nature of the role played by the HR function can better be explained by a combination of isomorphic factors alongside strategic choice, social capital and co-evolution, leading to unique solutions developing over time in individual organisations.
The article focuses on a human resources study by the authors and colleagues Kerstin Alfes, Chris Rees, and Mark Gatenby. The classification of employees into four groups and the engagement programs which were developed in eight companies are discussed. The challenges and best practices for the employee categories of Grand Prix Drivers, Pole Vaulters, Long-Distance Runners, and Flatliners are mentioned. Companies noted include Nampak Plastics Europe and Mace Group.