American Employees Research Articles

Can everyone get interesting jobs? Estimating interest fit across gender, ethnicity, and education

AbstractAlthough research and policy efforts have attempted to “even the hiring playing field” and progress equal opportunities, systemic employment patterns based on gender and ethnicity remain prevalent. An unexplored avenue of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is the degree to which all people can obtain jobs that fit their interests. The present study used a large, diverse sample of over 250,000 American employees to estimate the average vocational interest fit that people have with their jobs and differences in fit across race/ethnicity, gender, and education. Overall, employees showed moderate positive vocational interest fit with their jobs, with an average profile correlation of .20 between person and job interests. There were small gender differences in vocational interest fit favoring men, especially White and Hispanic men, with minimal differences across other race/ethnicity groups. However, the largest group differences emerged for education, as employees with higher educational attainment showed greater vocational interest fit, particularly among women. Further intersectional analyses added greater nuance to these results, including how various groups achieve vocational interest fit across different types of jobs. Altogether, this work provides important fit benchmark estimates for researchers, counselors, organizational placement, and theory refinement.

Does Leaders’ Impression Management Help or Hurt? It Depends on the Perspective of the Follower

To contribute to the debate on whether leaders’ use of impression management is helpful or not, we examine the role of follower perceptions. We argue that followers who share a similar perspective as their leader about the value of impression management, as evidenced by their own use of these behaviors, come to identify with their leader and see them as having greater consistency between their words and actions, even though leaders’ impression management likely creates noticeable word-deed misalignments. In turn, the greater word-deed consistency attributed to the leader, also known as behavioral integrity, helps followers perform better. Our empirical test of these ideas confirms our reasoning and includes a multi-source field study with 89 triads of Korean managers, associate managers, and employees, a construct validation study with multi-source data (employees N = 160; manager N = 149), and an experimental study involving 189 American employees. Specifically, we found that leaders' use of impression management positively relates to followers’ attributions of their leaders' behavioral integrity which boosts follower performance but only for those followers who also engage in impression management. We confirm that when both followers and leaders engage in impression management, followers identify with their leader and thus view them as having behavioral integrity. These results demonstrate robustness across different research methodologies, different measures and tactics of impression management, and populations. We discuss the implications of this research to the fields of leadership, impression management and behavioral integrity.

Racial discrimination against Asian American employees: impact of employee coping strategies on employee competence and work quality of life

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effects of workplace racial discrimination among Asian American (AA) employees in the restaurant industry and examines what kinds of employee coping responses can mitigate its detrimental effects on their work behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach, starting with a qualitative study using the critical incident technique followed by a quantitative between-subjects experiment to examine the impact of employee coping responses to racial discrimination on employee competence and work quality of life (WQOL).FindingsThe study reveals that customer-perpetrated racial discrimination is the most common form of racial discrimination that AA employees face in the restaurant industry. In addition, confrontation is the most effective coping strategy to increase employee’s self-competence. Also, the severity of discrimination moderates the effect of coping strategies on employee’s self-competence. Employees’ self-competence mediates the relationship between their response strategy against discrimination and their WQOL.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study suggest that confrontation is an effective coping strategy for targeted employees, compared to support-seeking or avoidance. Confrontation was perceived as competent, compared to other coping strategies, and in turn, enhanced WQOL.Originality/valueThis study expands the scope of racial discrimination research in the hospitality literature for the growing diversified hospitality workforce. In addition, this study provides practical insights into competent ways of coping with racial discrimination.

Examining career and technical education (CTE) pathways in historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)

Career and technical education (CTE) is considered a key academic pathway for sustainable careers in several high-growth industries. However, African–American employees are underrepresented in these industries. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) may represent invaluable options to address this inequality. Our analysis of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) suggests that HBCUs provide fewer CTE options than a matched sample of non-HBCUs. The most commonly available CTE programs appear in less than one-quarter of HBCUs, and nearly one-quarter of CTE industries are unrepresented. Although some programs are well-positioned to address African–American employee underrepresentation, others are completely absent. Findings connecting HBCU CTE programs to occupations with high projected growth or living wage salaries are also mixed. Overall, these results may be informative for academic policymakers, administrators, and students.

HRM PRACTICES AND TURNOVER INTENTIONS IN SMES: A BANGLADESH-USA COMPARISON AMONG GEN Y

This comparative analysis investigates Generation Y's perceptions of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) within Bangladesh and the USA's distinct cultural and economic contexts, employing a mixed-methods research design that combines quantitative surveys with qualitative semi-structured interviews. The study meticulously selects a stratified sample of SMEs across both nations to capture a wide array of HRM practices and organisational cultures, followed by rigorous comparative analysis and statistical examination to identify the impact of these practices on turnover intentions. Key findings highlight that while Generation Y employees universally value work-life balance, professional growth opportunities, and supportive work environments, regional differences are pronounced; American employees exhibit a strong preference for flexible working conditions and immediate feedback as key to job satisfaction and retention, whereas Bangladeshi counterparts prioritise job security and clear advancement pathways, underscoring the nuanced influence of cultural and economic factors on employee expectations. These insights emphasise the critical need for SMEs to customise their HRM strategies to meet the specific aspirations of Generation Y, advocating for a context-aware approach that transcends a one-size-fits-all model. The research underscores the strategic importance of understanding and integrating local cultural and economic nuances into HRM practices for SMEs, suggesting that such tailored strategies are pivotal in fostering a motivated, engaged, and loyal Generation Y workforce, thereby enhancing SME competitiveness in a globalised business environment.

Why Do Supervisors Abuse Certain Subordinates? Goal Orientation and Leader–Member Exchange as Antecedents

In this study, we draw from moral exclusion perspective to theorize leader–member exchange (LMX) and subordinate goal orientation as antecedents of abusive supervision. In addition, we integrate LMX theory to propose LMX as a mediating mechanism through which goal orientation influences abusive supervision and consequently task performance. We tested our hypotheses through two cross-cultural multi-method studies. In a field study with South Korean employees (Study 1), we found that LMX and abusive supervision serially mediated the relationship between performance-prove goal orientation (PPGO) and task performance. In an online vignette study with American employees (Study 2), we found that LMX and learning goal orientation were negatively associated with abusive supervision. Furthermore, we found support that LMX mediated the relationship between all three dimensions of goal orientation (learning, performance-prove, and performance-avoid) and abusive supervision. Combing both studies, we found strong evidence that subordinates with high PPGO form positive relationships with their supervisors which elicit less supervisory abuse. Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.

Examining Mobile Health App Engagement In A North American Employee Population: A One-year Longitudinal Observational Study

Examining Mobile Health App Engagement In A North American Employee Population: A One-year Longitudinal Observational Study

Relationships and identity fusion: Understanding antecedents of employees' megaphoning behaviours in response to corporate misconduct‐related crises

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to understand employees' cognitive and communicative reactions to allegations of corporate misconduct levied against their organization, and identify factors that may impact employees' reactions to such allegations. Specifically, this study focused on the idea of identity fusion as a key factor in helping buffer the organization against the negative cognitive and communicative impacts of corporate crises. Surveys conducted among American employees of large corporations revealed that identity fusion indeed mitigated their negative cognitive and communicative reactions to misconduct allegations, and encouraged positive megaphoning behaviours. Furthermore, identity fusion experienced by employees also mediated the relationship between employee–organization relationships and positive and negative megaphoning intentions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Guidance sources at work

This study aimed to statistically test the influence of employees’ sociodemographic characteristics on their use of sources of guidance at work in the United States and Brazil. To achieve this objective, 220 employees from a Brazilian university and 166 employees from an American university filled out a paper-and-pencil questionnaire comprised of a previously-validated scale. Correlations and multiple linear regressions were run to test this influence. Among other results, American employees with higher education levels are more likely to use Informal Rules as sources of guidance at work. In turn, Brazilian employees with previous experience in managerial positions are more likely to use their Own Experience as a source of guidance at work. The results yielded from the tests suggest to managers, human resource professionals, and psychologists which sociodemographic characteristics are relevant to predicting the use of guidance sources at work, contributing, for instance, to recruitment and selection processes.

Does Religiosity Buffer the Adverse Mental Health Effects of Work-Family Strain? Examining the Role of an Overlooked Resource

North American employees face substantial challenges in managing their work and family lives. Drawing from Hobfoll’s 2001 conservation of resources (COR) theory, work-family scholars have argued that some resources can be effective in buffering conflict in the work-family interface. We analyze data from a national sample of Canadian workers ( N = 3,431) to assess how two components of religion/spirituality—religious attendance and divine control—buffer the mental health effects of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC). Results suggest that both work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict were associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Our results further reveal that religious attendance buffered the pernicious effects of both WFC and FWC for psychological distress, while divine control only buffered the effects of FWC. These patterns did not appear to differ by gender. Given increasing rates of work-family strain in the North American context, out findings call for a broadening of the literature on the work-family interface, one that takes into consideration the overlooked role of religion and spirituality.

Corporate Income Tax: We Tried the Stick, How About the Carrot?

Due to their ongoing focus on tax planning and continuous efforts to find new tax minimization strategies, multinational corporations have not been paying their fair share of taxes for a long time. As a result, the federal government is unable to generate much revenue through taxes levied on corporations. The government’s response to this problem has always been the same: introduce new tax laws and regulations, revise old tax laws to close “loopholes,” and hope that this will solve corporate tax evasion. For decades, this approach has failed. This Article examines the history of the corporate income tax in the United States and the parallel evolution of an industry dedicated to helping corporations avoid those taxes. This Article finds that the development of this industry has had significant influence on the federal government’s decisions with respect to how it taxes corporations, usually opting to adopt anti-abuse, -avoidance rules in an effort to crack down on perceived bad actors. These policy choices, though, have had little success over the years. Instead, tax revenue generated from large-scale corporate groups has been modest, and there appears to be a consensus that these entities don’t pay their fair share. We propose a different course. Instead of anti-abuse and -avoidance rules, the tax code should use tax and other economic incentives to encourage entrepreneurs and corporations to invest in the domestic economy. Economic activity creates positive externalities in the domestic economy specifically and United States generally. Congress should amend the tax code to better allocate the proceeds of these positive externalities between the Internal Revenue Service, corporations, and stakeholders. Since the Internal Revenue Code for corporations was enacted in 1909, Congress has attempted to block abusive tax planning. However, its chosen method–deterrence– has had little positive impact on the U.S. economy. In many instances, deterrence has even had a negative impact, encouraging corporations to shutter their U.S. plants and dismiss hundreds of thousands of American employees in favor of foreign operations. Such legislative measures have “trapped” billions of dollars overseas by making the distribution of these profits to U.S. shareholders too costly. Instead, Congress should adopt tax incentives that balance the positive externalities of economic activity on local communities with the need to protect small- and medium-sized businesses’ ability to compete with the entities that will be most advantaged by these favorable incentives. This approach would reduce the advantages built-in to existing complex corporate structures that enable the largest corporations to easily shift revenue and profits to lower-tax jurisdictions. This approach, however, does not jeopardize recent attempts to set a global minimum tax aimed at reducing the tax incentive driving corporations to move operations overseas in search of a lower tax rate. Instead, this Article’s recommendation focuses on rewarding the positive externalities such operations create for domestic communities.

Threatened humanity in a tight world: Cultural tightness results in self-objectification

Self-objectification can be considered as a specific kind of self-dehumanization that consists of a perception of oneself as more instrument-like than human-like and a decreased self-attribution of mental states. Self-objectification is commonly observed, and its contributing factors need to be better understood. In the present research, we examined whether cultural tightness, which entails strong social norms and punishments for deviant behaviors, is an antecedent to self-objectification. Our hypotheses were confirmed by four studies, involving quasi-experiments and fully controlled experiments ( N = 2,693). In particular, Chinese college students living in a region with a tight culture (compared to a loose culture, Study 1), American employees working in an industry with a tight corporate culture (compared to a loose culture, Study 2), American participants who were induced to support cultural tightness (vs. cultural looseness, Study 3), and those who were situated in a simulated tight culture (vs. a loose culture, Study 4) all showed increased levels of self-objectification. As such, they acknowledged their personhood less and focused more on their instrumentality. Implications are discussed.

TURNING PLATFORM WORKERS INTO OWNERS: ESOP-TYPE BUYOUTS OF LABOUR-BASED PLATFORMS

Platform work is often characterised by economic insecurity, dehumanising control procedures, isolation, deepening racial, economic and gender inequalities, and other socio-economic problems. There are lively debates underway concerned with how to regulate or limit the negative effects of platform capitalism. This article reviews two of the most common calls for action – regulation and platform co-operatives. We argue that there is also an unexplored, complementary option, which uses the network effects of platforms to provide greater benefits for platform workers. To understand this alternative, we introduce the American Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) mechanism for employee buyouts, redefine the model according to the main cooperative values, and apply it to the platform economy. We conclude that there is a third option is available to governments and municipalities, namely to require an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in the local subsidiary of the platform company. Keywords: Platform economy, platform co-operativism, employee buyouts, platform ESOP

Awareness of and Confidence to Address Equity-Related Concepts Across the US Governmental Public Health Workforce.

To assess the governmental public health (GPH) workforce's awareness of and confidence to address health equity , social determinants of health ( SDoH ), and social determinants of equity ( SDoE ) in their work. A nationally representative population of US local and state GPH employees (n = 41 890) were surveyed through the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS 2021). Self-reported awareness and confidence were explored by self-identified racial and ethnic group identity, public health degree attainment, and supervisory status. GPH employees reported higher levels of awareness across concepts ( health equity -71%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 70.5-71.6; SDoH -62%, 95% CI: 62.3-63.5; SDoE -48%, 95% CI: 47.2-48.4) than confidence ( health equity -48%, 95% CI: 47.8-49.0; SDoH -46%, 95% CI: 45.4-46.7; SDoE -34%, 95% CI: 33.4-34.6). Self-identified Black or African American employees reported higher confidence across all concepts ( health equity -56%, 95% CI: 54.3-57.6; SDoH -52%, 95% CI: 50.8-54.1; SDoE -43%, 95% CI: 41.3-44.6) compared to other self-identified racial groups. Employees with a PH degree reported higher confidence across all concepts ( health equity -65%, 95% CI: 63.8-68.8; SDoH -73%, 95% CI: 71.3-74.1; SDoE -39%, 95% CI: 36.9-40.1) compared with employees without a PH degree ( health equity -45%, 95% CI: 44.8-46.1; SDoH -41%, 95% CI: 40.6-41.9; SDoE -33%, 95% CI: 32.6-33.8). We found an inverse relationship between supervisory status and confidence to address SDoE : Nonsupervisors reported higher confidence (35%, 95% CI: 29.2-31.9) than supervisors (31%, 95% CI: 29.2-31.9), managers (31%, 95% CI: 28.8-32.6), and executives (32%, 95% CI: 27.5-34.4). PH WINS 2021 reveals that GPH employees are aware of equity-related concepts but lack confidence to address them. Public health agencies should build employees' confidence by prioritizing and operationalizing equity internally and externally in collaboration with communities and partners.

The Burden of Hate: How Nonwork Discrimination Experienced During the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts Asian American Employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a sharp increase in prejudice and discrimination targeting Asian Americans in the USA. Thus, in addition to the public health risks associated with the virus, exposure to discrimination poses a unique threat to the health and well-being of Asian Americans. Indeed, empirical evidence has documented the linkage between experiencing anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic and health decrements among Asian Americans. The goal of this study was to expand that research to also consider the ways experiencing discrimination in a nonwork context may spill over to affect the general and job-related well-being of Asian American employees as well as the potential mitigating role of coworker compassion. Results from a sample of 311 Asian American employees demonstrated that experiencing nonwork discrimination was associated with decrements in physical health and increased depression and job-related exhaustion. Further, there were significant interactions between nonwork discrimination and coworker compassion for engagement, emotional exhaustion, and depressive symptoms such that nonwork discrimination was more strongly related to each outcome when coworker compassion was low. The findings from the current study suggest that experiences of racial derogation, even those that occur outside the workplace environment, are detrimental to the well-being of employees and that coworker compassion is a positive resource that may foster healthier and more inclusive work environments.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10869-022-09848-6.

Asian American Burnout Experiences in Local Government

How the Paradoxical Treatment of Asian Americans as Model Minorities and Perpetual Foreigners Shape Their Burnout Experiences in Local Government Abstract: Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States. This trend signals a need for greater representation and retention of Asian American employees in local government to ensure this growing population is well-represented in bureaucratic decision-making processes and public service provisions. In our study, we examine burnout and emotional labor among Asian Americans in local government through a mixed-methods approach. Our sample consists of local government workers from a large and diverse county in California. We surveyed participants in 2018 and surveyed and interviewed a subset in 2020. We find that Asian Americans in the public sector are dealing with emotional stressors from multiple sides: internal expectations and collectivist values, external pressures from interpersonal relationships at work and from residents, and racialized collective trauma from the public display of anti-Asian acts that only heighten feelings of being perpetually foreign. The interaction of these stressors is leading Asian Americans in the public sector to experience burnout and its many dimensions in greater intensity than non-Asians employees in general.

Author Response

Author Response

Assessment of Healthcare Professionals' Wellbeing During a Peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Healthcare System in Ohio.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate multiple indices of wellbeing in healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsHealthcare professionals were invited to participate across the University Hospitals healthcare system in Ohio, USA. Participants (N = 6397) completed online questionnaires on their wellbeing, including healthy behaviors, safety and security, mental and physical health concerns, and social support. Differences in wellbeing across demographics were also assessed.ResultsOverall, healthcare professionals’ mean subjective wellbeing was 7.98 (1.50) and their future health score was 3.98 (1.13). Room for improvement was noted for diet, sleep, and positive thinking. Males reported significantly higher levels of overall wellbeing and future health scores, including fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity, and alcohol use, whereas females reported higher levels of positive thinking and tobacco use. Of the three largest racial groups, White and Asian employees scored significantly higher on future health, M = 4.00 (1.17) and M = 4.10 (1.13), than Black or African American employees, M = 3.74 (1.10).ConclusionsThis cross-sectional study assessed the wellbeing of healthcare workers during the initial peak of the COVID-19 pandemic prior to vaccine delivery. Future work will implement strategies to improve healthcare workers’ wellbeing in an individualized way based on our findings, as well as evaluate changes in wellbeing and future health scores across time.

How the Paradoxical Treatment of Asian Americans as Model Minorities and Perpetual Foreigners Shape Their Burnout Experiences in Local Government

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States. This trend signals a need for greater representation and retention of Asian American employees in local government to ensure this growing population is well-represented in bureaucratic decision-making processes and public service provisions. In our study, we examine burnout and emotional labor among Asian Americans in local government through a mixed-methods approach. Our sample consists of local government workers from a large and diverse county in California. We initially surveyed over 6,000 participants in 2018 with nearly 3,200 fully completed and included in our statistical analyses, 16% of whom self-identified as Asian. We subsequently surveyed and interviewed a subset of 181 participants in 2020 with 7% who self-identified as Asian. We find that Asian Americans in the public sector are dealing with emotional stressors from multiple sides: internal expectations and collectivist values, external pressures from interpersonal relationships at work and from residents, and racialized collective trauma from the public display of anti-Asian acts that only heighten feelings of being perpetually foreign. The interaction of these stressors is leading Asian Americans in the public sector to experience burnout and its many dimensions in greater intensity than non-Asian employees in general.

Corporate American Employees Prefer Transformational Leaders with Integrity and Trust

Understanding what leadership styles of corporate American leaders display integrity and trust is essential to organizational stakeholders, stockholders, the American public, and the business world. The study focused on why some corporate American leadership lacked integrity and trust from 2000-to 2012 which resulted in organizational failures. A quantitative research was developed from the theoretical framework of leadership styles and their respective associations with integrity and trust, organizational performance, and the impact of leadership behaviors on employees and the public. A correlational design was employed using transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire validated leadership frameworks and their respective subscales. The study examined the relationships between leadership styles of corporate American leaders, integrity, and trust. Participants in the eastern United States completed the internet administered survey questionnaire and Spearman’s Rho Correlation Coefficient. Analyses of data revealed statistical significance of both positive and negative relationships between different leadership styles, integrity, and trust as hypothesized from the two researched questions. Recommendations are made from the various themes of resulted from the relationship in leadership styles that positively correlate with integrity and trust. One such recommendation from the study results and findings showed transformational leadership style most positively correlated with integrity and confidence as the preferred leadership style of corporate American employees.