The implementation of a workload allocation system in pursuit of employee health outcomes

Abstract

The impact of increasing global competitiveness and the ensuing decisions taken by organisations to adjust, often have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of employees. Increasing workloads, time and resourcing constraints are contributing factors to changing dynamics and psychosocial characteristics in many workplaces. There is ample evidence about the cost to organisations, society and individuals when financial performance objectives are prioritised over employee health and well-being. Human resource management (HRM) studies commonly address organisational performance outcomes overshadowing the importance of workplace health policies and procedures. Yet, extant literature reviewed from a variety of disciplines suggest effective HRM requires consideration of equity, fairness, job design, work stress and role expectations are important variables for employee health and well-being. Significantly for this study, the psychological health of employees, like physical safety, has gained increasing focus with legislation protecting employees against psychosocial hazards. Excessive workloads, work intensification, reduced recovery time and technology based systems supporting employees to work from home are all hazards associated with poor employee health and blur the boundaries between work and home. The Australian higher education sector has not been spared the impacts of global competitiveness. Over the last four decades, the notion of a collegial, autonomous academic profession has gradually transitioned to an environment more aligned with corporatisation and managerialism. As a result, the sector has morphed into a highly competitive international market for higher education resulting in poor health and well-being outcomes for academic employees. There is much debate in the literature about the health of academics, increasing workloads and associated effectiveness of workload allocation systems utilised in many universities. Yet there is minimal examination about how the systems could be positively utilised to support health and well-being outcomes for academics. Equally important, yet also not adequately understood is the role of frontline managers in higher education, their implementation of HR practices, the challenges they face in that, and the support they are afforded by senior management. This thesis addresses the issues highlighted above with an integrated HRM and workplace health perspective applied to a large Australian university (The University). A work profile system (WPS) is the HR practice of allocating work to academic employees at The University and is the unit of analysis for this study. An inductive, multi-level case study approach was adopted for this thesis where qualitative data was collected from 52 semi-structured interviews. A review of documentation (both publicly available and confidential to the organisation) contributed to the data collection process. Senior management/HR personnel representatives comprised Study A (Designers) so as to gain a retrospective understanding of the factors considered by The University in its initial decision to introduce a WPS. Secondly, frontline managers (FLMs) comprised Study B (Implementers) providing insights into the implementation challenges and opportunities of the system. Thirdly, full time tenured academic employees (Study C - Experiencers) provided first-hand accounts of working within the stipulations of the WPS. The research design enabled cross study analysis of data, and an investigation of the progression of policy development to implementation of a key HR practice at The University. This is an important contribution to knowledge providing a more holistic understanding of the why (the intention behind the WPS), the how (implementation practicalities) and the what (the actual experiences of the WPS). The thesis also finds internal contextual factors such as The University’s psychosocial climate; unique job design of an academic’s role; unique role of FLMs in academia and the power and authority delegated to them, all have significant influence on how the WPS can support better health outcomes of academic employees. Two theories were used to guide the study. The process model of strategic HRM (Wright and Nishii, 2007) provided a framework for data collection. The Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) theoretical model (Dollard & Bailey, 2014) incorporating the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) was the overarching theoretical guide for the study. The PSC theory also provided a foundation for the development of the sub-research questions for each of the three studies. Application of the PSC theory highlighted how management driven HR policies, practices and procedures for the protection of worker health can determine employees’ perceptions of an organisation’s psychosocial safety climate. Additionally, how the PSC can impact the level of receptivity of HR practices by employees. However the PSC theory failed to explain a number of findings including why the PSC at The University can be misinterpreted when there is some evidence health and well-being concerns were behind The University’s decision to introduce the WPS. The PSC theory was also unable to explain how external drivers had contributed to the decision to introduce the WPS. The findings did however highlight the spectrum of views among Designers in Study A suggesting a lack of consensus about the WPS. The JD-R component of the PSC theory was also unable to explain a disconnect between the views of some Designers that the WPS was a useful resource for academics to manage their workloads and the views of most Study B and Study C participants who perceived the WPS as a job demand. As would be expected from the relevant theories and other research, many findings from this study are consistent and support the extant literature. However, due to the PSC theory being unable to fully answer the research question, an extension to the PSC theoretical model is proposed as the contribution to this study. If the principles of the HRM systems strength model, developed by Bowen and Ostroff (2004), are applied as an antecedent to the PSC theory, with more focus on HRM system design, implementation and feedback processes it is proposed both theories combined can provide the answer to the RQ: How can a WPS support health and well-being outcomes of academics? People acting in the role of FLM in academia perform the role, often on a short term basis with the intention of reverting back to a frontline academic position. This arrangement often leads to a perceived lack of relevance of the WPS for operational needs and consequently a lack of consistency in implementation practices. While requiring a high level of management skills in implementing the WPS and managing their teams, FLMs are often not skilled to do so or do not have management inclinations. This was reflected in the data obtained from academic employees where they perceived their FLMs lacked authority in their role and therefore were not able to formally make adjustments to better support the health and well-being of their teams. This study also identified that FLMs did not always have the required support of senior management to formally adjust resourcing where necessary. This resulted in frustrations and many time consuming work arounds often impacting negatively on their own health and well-being. The general view expressed by participants of Study C was the WPS does not accurately reflect all the responsibilities of their role. More so however, reduced autonomy over their work, their FLMs unable to make necessary adjustments to workloads and perceptions senior management were not listening suggested a low psychosocial safety climate. In summary, this thesis identifies the need to adopt the principles of the HRM systems strength approach when introducing and implementing new HR practices. Consensus and consistency in messaging amongst HR/senior management; ongoing support for implementers of the practice; and a perceived distinctive relevance of the HR practice by employees are factors required to achieve intended outcomes. It was also identified improved management driven opportunities for academics to provide feedback about workloads, their workplace health and input for process improvements would contribute to a positive psychosocial safety climate at The University.