Antecedents of Opportunity at Work: Evidence from White-Collar Employees in Turkey

Abstract

1. IntroductionOpportunity provided to employees at work include promotion opportunity, development opportunity, challenge (Kanter, 1977; Kanter & Stein, 1981), and recognition opportunity (Kanter, 1986; Wayne et al., 2002). Opportunity at work has been shown to be related to many important organizational outcomes, such as organizational commitment (Chew & Chan, 2008; Ganesan & Weitz, 1996; Landau & Hammer, 1986), job satisfaction (Appelbaum & Kamal, 2000) job performance (Allen et al., 1998), and organizational performance (Birdi et al., 2012) which shows that opportunity is significant for both employees and employers.In addition, opportunity at work is a positive phenomenon in itself. The Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) approach emphasizes enablers, motivations, and outcomes or effects of positive phenomena in (Cameron et al., 2003). Likewise, in this study, enablers of a positive phenomenon, i.e. opportunity, are examined. POS puts emphasis on positive organizational outcomes not only as means but also ends, which are believed to be worth explaining on their own (Dutton et al., 2006). Thus, although opportunity at work is significant as an enabler of important organizational outcomes, it is worth explaining on its own as well, since it is valuable in and of itself. Hence, antecedents of opportunity at work are of paramount importance.Although opportunity is a significant topic of research, its antecedents have been under-explored. The antecedents of opportunity that have been studied in previous research include socioeconomic status (Colarelli et al., 1987), employee tenure and demographic variables such as age (Landau & Hammer, 1986), gender (Cassirer & Reskin, 2000; Igbaria & Baroudi, 1995), and education (Tachibanaki, 1987; Zhao et al., 2006). However, more research is needed to cover all possible antecedents of opportunity. This study fills a gap in literature by exploring antecedents of opportunity at work, with important implications for both research and practice. The study focuses on high performance work practices and leadership types as antecedents of opportunity at work.2. Literature Review and Hypotheses2.1. Opportunity at WorkSome researchers have restricted definition of opportunity to promotion opportunities. For instance, Harlan (1989:766) defined opportunity in terms of in organizational hierarchy and as workers' perceptions of degree to which firm's administrative system awards promotions fair and open competition. Likewise, Baron et al. (1986) studied opportunity structures in in relation to promotion ladders, and Mano-Negrin and Tzafrir (2004) related opportunity in an organization to employees' perceptions regarding degree of internal recruitment for departmental and organizational positions.Kanter's (1977: 161) description of opportunity as the relationship of a present position to a larger structure and to anticipated future positions was balanced by her emphasis on importance of a job as a type of opportunity at work. Thus, her definition is not restricted to promotion, but covers movement from or growth through a specific job (p: 161) arguing that structure of opportunity in a job is determined by matters such as promotion rates, access to challenge, and skill increases. Similarly, Kanter and Stein (1981) argue that opportunity includes not just promotion but also other types of opportunity, such as development of professional skills and continual challenge. Parallel to these arguments, some scholars have argued that concept of opportunity at work should not be confined to promotion opportunity, since opportunities for upward mobility in workplace have been reduced in recent years. For instance, Iles (1997: 352) explained that opportunities for upward mobility have been reduced due to organizational restructuring, downsizing, outsourcing and delayering; he proposed that since organizations still need to recruit, retain and motivate people with potential to lead organization, fast-track programmes for high-potential employees should be re-evaluated. …