Discretionary Effort Research Articles

When Caring Leaders Are Constrained: The Impact of LMX Differentiation on Leader Empathic Concern in Predicting Discretionary Work Behaviors

Empathic leaders often create high-quality relationships with their subordinates, and these relationships are suggested to increase several beneficial outcomes for employees and organizations alike. Yet leader–member exchange (LMX) theory suggests that leaders do not have such high-quality relationships with each of their subordinates, leading to varying levels of LMX differentiation. We examine how leaders’ empathic concern, a trait-based assessment of leader empathy, may incite additional discretionary efforts in the form of assisting coworkers with interpersonal facilitation and taking on additional tasks with job dedication. However, we suggest that when these empathic leaders are constrained, it reduces their ability to form high-quality relationships with all of their subordinates, resulting in high LMX differentiation. This LMX differentiation is expected to influence empathic leaders’ ability to motivate their followers to engage in altruistic behaviors. In a field study of workplace groups, we find that leader empathic concern positively affects interpersonal facilitation and job dedication only when LMX differentiation is low, providing support for our contention that the effects of empathic leadership may be situationally constrained. Findings and future directions are discussed.

Constructive Organizational Values Climate and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A Configurational View

The discretionary efforts of employees to go above and beyond illustrated by organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) provide an important path to organizational success. Organizational work environment characteristics, notably, organizational climates, serve as fundamental mechanisms for eliciting OCBs. However, existing research on organizational climate and OCBs frequently adopts a variable-centered approach that breaks down climate into individual dimensions. In contrast to past research, our goal is to respond to calls to more fully contextualize organizational climate by offering a configuration of climate attributes. Drawing on a typology of research problematizing, we replace the metaphor of individual dimensions with a metaphor of a climate configuration. To theorize and test the relationship between organizational climate and OCBs, we examine organizational values embodied in the competing values framework through a mesolevel organizational climate perspective. Building on the literature on managing paradox, we propose a constructive organizational values climate configuration, which captures how the different dimensions of the competing values framework coexist and work together. In turn, we propose that constructive organizational values climate predicts three types of OCBs: helping, taking charge, and creative behavior. Furthermore, drawing on regulatory focus theory and on the change-oriented and affiliative roots of OCBs, we offer two distinct mediators that shed light on the underlying processes. We test the proposed theory with data from 737 respondents residing in 166 work units in a wide variety of organizations.

Corporate Practices in Employee Engagement

Highly engaged employees are committed to their organisation and invested in its success. They are proactive in sharing their ideas, in promoting their company and organisation inside and out, and they exert discretionary effort - above and beyond what is required just to earn their salary and stay employed. Based on the review and analysis of the recent studies by major research firms around the world on employee engagement, there is clear, compelling and mounting evidence that employee engagement is strongly correlated to individual, group and corporate performance outcomes including recruiting, retention, turnover, individual performance and productivity, service and customer loyalty as well as to bottom-line results such as growth in operating margins, increased profitability and revenue growth rates. Employee performance indicates the financial and non-financial outcome of the employee that has a direct link with the performance of the organisation and its success. A number of studies show that an important way to enhance employee performance is to focus on fostering employee engagement. The presence of high levels of employee engagement enhances job performance, task performance and organisational citizenship behaviour, productivity, discretionary effort, affective commitment, continuance commitment, levels of psychological climate and customer service. This article intends to study the key drivers of employee engagement, highlighting some of the engagement models, and projects the employee engagement strategies in some of the leading Indian companies.

Life on the line: exploring high‐performance practices from an employee perspective

AbstractThrough a case‐based approach, this study addresses the call for employee‐focused research to help us understand whether the high‐performance causal chain is the result of discretionary effort or management control and work intensification. Findings highlight the role of the manager and workplace relationships and emphasise the need for ‘good practice’.

The Role of Professional Ethics in Individual and Organizational Outcomes

The Role of Professional Ethics in Individual and Organizational Outcomes

Understanding the System You Are in Is Key to Improving It.

Front-line ownership (FLO) is an approach to change that is consistent with what we know about complex adaptive systems (CAS), such as a healthcare organization. Traditional change approaches can fail because they are based in the "organization as a machine" metaphor of traditional, scientific management. Both metaphors have their application. It depends on how closely the work naturally resembles a predictable machine. Often, the drive for detailed standardization is a misguided effort to make a human CAS behave more like a machine, so that our traditional approaches to change will work. FLO is a more appropriate tool in a CAS, where shared agreement at the level of a few simple rules (minimum specifications) and allowing flexibility for adaptation within local context is more appropriate than detailed standardization. Because humans in a CAS maintain some control over their discretionary effort, change advocates desiring sustainable change must work with stakeholders to co-create cases for change that resonate with the values of those being asked to change. FLO facilitates the emergence of this level of understanding of shared values.

The Impact of Pay Differential Perception on Employee Job Attitudes

Social comparison theory suggests that employees tend to compare themselves with others in and out of the company they work for. This paper examines employee pay differential perception across industries and companies. We divide pay differential perception into three types: internal vertical perception, internal horizontal perception, and external perception. We investigate how these three types of pay differential perception are related to the two dimensions of employee job attitudes: cognitive affection dimension that includes job satisfaction and affective commitment, and behavioral intention dimension that includes turnover intention, interpersonal helping intention and discretionary effort intention. Furthermore, based on social exchange theory, we investigate how perceived organizational support moderates the relationship between employee pay differential perception and job attitudes. We collected survey data from four classes of part-time master’s and MBA students enrolling in a university campus in south China during 2012-2014, with a total valid sample of 137 responses. Through multiple regression analysis, we found that (1) internal vertical pay differential perception is weakly negatively associated with job attitudes; (2) internal horizontal pay differential perception is significantly negatively associated with job attitudes; (3) external pay differential perception is significantly negatively associated with job attitudes; (4) in comparison, vertical pay differential perception is less significantly related to job attitudes than horizontal pay differential perception. Perceived organizational support positively moderates some of the negative relationships between pay differential perception and job attitudes.

Employee Engagement Practices in IT Sector Vis-à-Vis Other Sectors in India

Employee engagement is an important notion built around the concepts of job satisfaction, employee commitment, retention of talent, that impacts organizational performance. The disengaged employees lead to loss of productivity, procedural imbalances, and decreased efficacy. Organizations are addressing the work force and their job performance, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, productivity, discretionary effort, effective commitment, and continuance commitment. Engaged employees are emotionally connected with their organization, and are enthusiastic about their job and success of the organization. The employment engagement practices are soulfully needed to understand the employee, give them healthier environment to work, let them grow professionally, award them, and keep them happy, irrespective of the business sector. This study intends to explore the employee engagement practices in Indian IT Sector and compare them with the engagement practices in other leading sectors in India. The study also assesses various engagement attributes in Indian IT organizations.

Exploration of difficult conversations among Australian paramedics.

Previous studies indicate that healthcare professionals find it challenging to engage in difficult conversations regarding concerning behavior of colleagues. As a result, these conversations are often avoided. The inability to have these difficult conversations is associated with poorer patient outcomes, staff commitment, discretionary effort, and employee satisfaction. This descriptive study used an online questionnaire to examine responses of paramedics employed by Ambulance Victoria (Australia) regarding difficult conversations between colleagues about concerning behavior of co-workers. The results suggest that, like other healthcare professions, many paramedics find it challenging to raise these concerns. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first study of its type to be undertaken within the paramedic profession and provides a platform for further research within this and other health professions.

The effects of construal level and small wins framing on an individual's commitment to an environmental initiative

Organizations are increasingly focused on improving the environmental sustainability of their operations, products, and services. To implement sustainability initiatives, organizations often seek commitment from their members to volunteer discretionary time and effort toward reaching the initiative's goals. This research sought to understand whether construal level and small wins strategy might affect goal commitment toward a sustainability initiative. Using a scenario-based 2 × 2 factorial design experiment with 133 university students, we manipulated construal level and small wins strategy while measuring participants' environmental concern, perceptions of organizational efficacy, and goal commitment. Goal difficulty, gender, and age were included as control variables. Individuals with higher environmental concern had higher commitment to the organization's initiative, but this relationship was moderated, with both a high level of construal and the use of small wins strategy strengthening that relationship. Perceived organizational efficacy was also found to increase goal commitment, and women exhibited greater goal commitment than men.

The effect of inter-organizational justice perceptions on organizational citizenship behaviors in construction projects

Abstract Project management literature has long argued that inter-organizational justice is a key driver of successful construction project delivery. It is argued that when people believe business transactions are fair, they are more likely to exhibit positive organizational citizenship behaviors such as working harmoniously, giving discretionary effort, respecting others, and collaborating to resolve problems. However, there has been little empirical evidence to support these assertions. To address this knowledge gap, an online survey of 135 consultants, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers from across the construction project supply chain was undertaken. The results show that project participants' organizational citizenship behaviors are influenced by their perceived interpersonal justice in business transactions. However, the findings also offer a more nuanced understanding of the complexities and inter-connectedness of these relationships in showing how one type of inter-organizational justice acts on another in influencing project organizational citizenship behaviors. The results indicate that interpersonal justice is a key ingredient in bringing about positive organizational citizenship behaviors in construction projects and that project performance can be enhanced if project managers treat project participants with politeness, respect, and dignity.

The Impact of Internal Communication on Employee Performance in an Organization

Communication is a very crucial and significant element in an organization and it is necessary for creating collaboration among workers and allowing the organization to function effectively. The flow of information and communication within an organization has its own effects on employees’ performance and decision making and hence a study on internal communications’ influence on employee performance towards attaining organizational objectives is thus essential. This paper seeks to demonstrate the influence of internal communication on employee job performance in an organization by looking at certain internal communication elements. A survey instrument (questionnaire) was used to assess employees’ perceptions of the communication climate, quality of information and communication, communication channels and discretionary effort. A qualitative\quantitative approach was used to describe and analyze data collected for the study from 17 respondents out of a sample population of 25 participants. The findings of the research revealed that internal communication has a significant impact on the overall performance and productivity of employees. Additionally, face to face communication or oral communication was an often utilized communication channel or form. From the study it was also discovered that employee performance in the organization was at certain times stifled due to communication structures that were poor and inadequately utilized and the non-involvement of all employees in the decision making process. However, the research also revealed a controversy between rhetoric and actual communication practices. Nonetheless some recommendations were offered by the researcher which included improving the quality of communication resources and designing a communication plan and strategy that will take into consideration the essential parameters of whom, how, when and what information is to be communicated so as to create a conducive and reliable communication environment that will get the best out of employees.

The Effectiveness of Reforms in Public Sector Accounting and Financial Management: The Case of Spain, 2010-2015

This paper interprets through theoretical lenses the public sector financial management reforms adopted in Spain between 2010 and 2015. In this period, coping with intense external pressure, the country passed many fiscally-oriented reforms to escape the 2008 crisis including a change in the constitution. We study the changes that have been adopted in three key public accounting and financial management areas: budgeting, reporting and auditing. Our main research question is whether this series of reforms are likely to have had both a disruptive and positive impact in the Spanish public sector management model. We approach the question in the light of three theoretical contexts: the resource dependence model, the logic of discipline and the leadership-task perspective. Our analysis does not support a strong affirmative answer to the question. The fiscal crisis has been averted but it appears that it is more because of discretionary consolidation efforts rather than the result of adopting structural policies. Our work also highlights some dimensions in which Spain is lagging behind leading practices in the EU. Value for money auditing and accountability standards are still low and the independence of certain critical bodies is not sufficiently protected.

Creating a Safety Culture: What It Is and How To Get There

This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 178251, “Creating a Safety Culture: What It Is and How To Get There,” by Daryl Wake, DEKRA Insight, prepared for the 2016 SPE/IADC Middle East Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition, Abu Dhabi, 26–28 January. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Safety culture can be distilled into nine characteristics predictive of safety outcomes. By tracking performance across these characteristics, companies can measure their performance against the world’s most successful safety organizations, both within the industry and without. More importantly, they can identify gaps in their culture and breakdowns in their safety performance, thereby establishing clear goals to overcoming them and achieving safety objectives. To improve safety performance and create lasting change in organizational culture, leaders can focus on developing 10 safety-specific leadership capabilities. Introduction A strong safety culture means more than just better injury rates. Organizations good at safety have been shown to do better across all performance areas. With improvements in safety comes greater employee commitment to company goals, more discretionary effort, better team functioning, and a healthier bottom line. A high-functioning safety culture is defined by a clear vision from leadership that articulates actionable steps and specific behaviors leading to the desired state. When people know the goal and what is required of them to achieve it, they will not get lost in vague mandates that fail to motivate or that fall short of galvanizing individuals around safety improvement. Culture change requires a leadership team that is committed to the vision and capable of guiding the organization through obstacles and the inevitable pushback that occurs with any initiative. Leaders can learn skills and develop capabilities that will move the organization in the desired direction and build performance across the nine culture characteristics indicative of world-class safety performance. With visible commitment to safety, leaders will gain credibility with the workforce and engage people in the process. Culture Characteristics Predictive of Safety Outcomes Procedural Justice. This characteristic reflects the extent to which the individual perceives fairness in the supervisor’s decision-making process. Leaders enhance perceptions of procedural justice when they make decisions characterized by consistency across people and time, lack of bias, accuracy (decisions are based on good information and informed opinion), correctability (decisions can be appealed), representativeness (the procedure reflects the concerns, values, and outlook of those affected), and ethicality.

A Study on Employee Engagement among the Bank Employees of Rural Area

Background/Objectives: Employee Engagement is an important factor in the organization to achieve the success and increase its productivity. EE is the key variable that brings employee and the management closer. There are many factors that influence Employee Engagement along with demographic factors. The researchers have identified some of variables and were grouped into a factor as Individual factor. Objectives: To study the relationship between demographic variables of the respondents and Employee Engagement; To understand the variation between the individual factors and Employee Engagement of bank employees; To study the effect of individual factors on Employee Engagement; To study the relationship between Employee Engagement and discretionary efforts as outcome variable and to understand the effect of Employee Engagement and retention as outcome variable. Methods/Statistical Analysis: 124 samples have been taken for this study and the statistical tools such as chi-square test, ANOVA and Regression were used for analysis. Findings: There is positive relationship between the factors viz. organizational and group factors with Employee Engagement. These factors are to be taken care and more importance for better performance. In addition to that, more involvement of employees is required to have better productivity in the organization. Applications/Improvements: The current study analyzes the factors influencing the Employee Engagement of the employees from rural areas and the key findings of the study will help banking organisation in rural areas to formulate HR policies which in turn promotes their engagement level.

Employee Engagement – A Study with Special reference to Postal Employees in Rural Areas of Thanjavur

Employee Engagement is a siginificant factor which is influencing the organization to achieve its target. Emotional and psychological attachment of an employee in a work environment are closely associated with an organisation. There are no. of factors contributing toward Employee Engagement. The researchers have identified certain factors to study the level of Employee Engagement among the employees of India post from selected rural brances. Objectives: The objectives of the study are to study the association between demographic factors and Employee Engagement; to understand the certain independent factors which are influencing Employee Engagement and to identify the relationship between Employee Engagement with its outcome factors. Method/Analysis: By applying structured questionnaire, primary data were collected from 120 respondents. The statistical tools such as Chi square test, one-way ANOVA and regression analysis were adopted for analysis purpose. The study factors such as demographics, Individual factors and few outcome factors. Findings: There is an association between certain demographic factors with the Employee Engagement. The Individual factor do not vary with the demographic factors viz. age, gender, marital status, position and experience of the respondents. There are significant effects of individual factors viz. Job, Growth and Development, Discretionary Efforts, Role Clarity, Emotional Energy, Learning Behaviour and Person - Organisation fit on Employee Engagement. Hence, there is significant effect of individual factors viz. Job, Growth and Development, Discretionary Efforts, Role Clarity, Emotional Energy, Psychological Feeling, Person-Organisation fit on Employee Engagement. The researcher found that there is a significant relationship between Employee Engagement and career satisfaction and retention as outcomes. Applications/Improvements: The current study portrays factors which affect the Employee Engagement of postal employees from rural areas. The study results will facilitate the organisation to strengthen the best practices towards Employee Engagement with positive outcome results.

Employee Engagement- A Study with Special Reference to Bank Employees in Rural Areas

Employee engagement is a high impact factor towards productivity of an organization. It is an emotional and psychological attachment of an employee towards his/her organization. An engaged employee is always more reliable, self-motivated and loyal to strengthen the organization towards sustainable position. There are many factors that influence an employee engagement in association with demographic factors. Here the researchers have taken individual factor upon grouping up various variables and tried to find the relationship between the demographic factors and the individual factors. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find out the contributing variables which are significantly influencing in the engaged workforce and to study the effect and relationship among the EE factors in association with output factors. Method/Analysis: The researchers have selected 124 respondents and collected primary data by adopting standard questionnaire. The statistical tools such as Chi square test, one-way ANOVA and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings: The predictor variables viz., Co-Workers, Department, Rewards and recognition, Opportunities, Team work and Immediate Supervisor are statistically significant factors towards employee engagement. The regression results also show that the variables such as Job, Superior, Organization and Communication are not statistically significant. There is a significant relationship between employee engagement and outcomes - discretionary efforts and retention. There is a statistical significant effect of employee engagement on Discretionary Effort which is one of the outcomes of the study. Applications/Improvements: The present study suggests the important factors contribute the employee engagement in a better way in banks. The study results will make certain impact oriented changes in banks.

Wellbeing and Engagement in Policing: The Key to Unlocking Discretionary Effort?

In a rapidly changing policing landscape in the UK, this research seeks to test the relationships between wellbeing, engagement, and discretionary effort. Data were garnered from the use of a wellbeing psychometric instrument known as A Short Stress Evaluation Tool, which measures job perceptions, attitudes towards work, and general health. It is also used to construct an engagement metric that draws out behaviours considered congruent with discretionary effort attributes. Regression models show that employees feel that if they have better Control, Job Conditions, and feel more Secure in their job, and that their job does not Change for Changes Sake; that they are more likely to offer up greater levels of discretionary effort. Interestingly, there were significant differences in the categories of Workload and Job Conditions dependent on age. In this study dimensions that had no significant effect on discretionary effort were found to be Resources and Communications, Work Relationships, and having a Balanced Workload. Rather than assume what seems to be the commonly accepted case, this research provides an evidence-base for policing that supports the notion that high levels of discretionary effort are an outcome of successful workplace wellbeing and engagement practices; giving police leaders a valuable insight into what works.

Exploring Employee Engagement—A Way to Better Business Performance

There is an unprecedented change in the job description as well as workforce diversity due to globalization of organizations. Employee engagement has emerged as an important management-focused activity in order to compete and perform in a dynamic and competitive environment, having linkage with the organization’s goals and objectives. This article aims to provide an exploratory study on employee engagement, its concepts and definitions as evolved through recent times, factors or drivers affecting it, its measures and importance for better business outcomes. The methodology used for this study includes selected literature reviews on employee engagement. Employee engagement is found to be a continuous process and is highly organization specific. There is no clear and widely accepted definition of employee engagement; however, it is found to be an integration of different behavioural components, such as commitment, involvement, attachment, discretionary effort, energy, positive attitude and psychological presence, that leads the employee potential into employee performance which is positively linked with organization success.

Fiscal multipliers in downturns and the effects of Euro Area consolidation

ABSTRACTWe estimate the impact of the fiscal consolidation actions in the Euro Area between 2011 and 2013 on output and public finances. We identify the discretionary fiscal consolidation effort based on new data by the European Commission. We combine these data with robust estimates from a rich meta-regression analysis on multipliers for various fiscal measures under different business cycle regimes. The frontloaded consolidation came at a considerable cost with an output loss of 7.7% and only a small gain to the primary balance of 0.2% of GDP. Backloading would have been much less costly due to lower multipliers.