Employee Involvement Programs Research Articles

How do changes in human resource programs lead to innovation: an organizational entrainment perspective on the temporal mechanisms in HRM

PurposeThe current study aims to investigate the temporal mechanisms in HRM systems by focusing on how HRM systems evolve over time and how such changes affect organizational innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on organizational entrainment theory to examine how pace of change in employee involvement programs (EIPs) influences innovation via data from an eight-year longitudinal survey collected by Statistics Canada. The final sample includes 15,679 workplace–year observations.FindingsThis research shows that the effects of HRM programs on performance are more than just the mean effect – the pace of change by which changes are implemented in HRM programs matters in the long run. The optimal level of change pace occurs when the EIPs are changing at a pace that entrains (or synchronizes) with organizational rhythm of strategic changes. Results suggest that change pace in EIPs has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with both pace and quality of innovation. The curvilinear effect is more pronounced for organizations with relatively lower mean level of EIPs.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, this study captures only key measures of the EIPs and may not be generalizable to other dimensions of the HR systems. Second, the results of this paper should be interpreted at the HR program level or bundles of HR practices – the findings may not be generalizable to lower levels of analysis. Third, as a result of annual measurement, this study cannot capture short-lived minor dynamic HR misfits where workplaces quickly adjust to regain alignment. Fourth, to attain meaningful and consistent measures of strategic HR change, this study only includes surviving workplaces with at least five years of observations.Practical implicationsThis paper provides insights to managers and business leaders on how to implement strategic changes in HRM systems effectively to attain sustained innovation outcomes in the long run. To achieve an optimal level of innovation, organizations need to consider not only what and how many EIPs should be used but also how to strategically change EIPs to meet dynamic internal and external changes.Originality/valueThe current research introduces organizational entrainment theory to explain and empirically test the conflicting predictions of the universalist and contingency perspectives on the effects of strategic changes in HRM.

Implementation of employee suggestion programme: a case study of the Middle East health-care service company

Learning outcomes After studying this case, the students should be able to: explain the importance of employee engagement; illustrate the role of the participatory management style in an organizational context; discuss why managers may use engagement practices to operate effectively in businesses to lead change and innovation; identify the critical success factors, barriers and outcomes of employee involvement in driving high performance; and discuss the dilemma faced by the managers in the emerging economies while driving the momentum of excellence in the long run. Case overview/synopsis This is a real case about a leading health-care service company located in the Middle East. The health-care organization’s name is changed to NOVA for reasons of confidentiality. The NOVA is an independent, public joint stock company created to meet the curative needs of the public health-care system in Middle East. The company introduced the Employee Suggestion Scheme named Minara in 2011 in a Federal Government decree, introducing innovation as a major pillar of management in 2013 with intent to encourage organizations build innovative solutions and pioneer initiatives and apply it effectively in services, processes and programmes. Making the Minara programme work in line with the national health agenda, Ms. Fatima who headed the Excellence and Innovation Department took the initiative of accelerating the innovative Programme (Minara). The case data were collected based on both primary and secondary sources. Although the case is based on the real data, it has been ammonised. The case describes the transformation of the innovation process at NOVA through the employee engagement programme (Minara) in meeting the disruptive challenges. This case addresses the challenges faced by the Excellence and Innovation manager who used effective employee engagement practices through the Employee Suggestion Programme in a creative way to bring about innovation in the health-care sector. The case outlines the dilemma faced by the Excellence and Innovation manager in bringing about innovation through the Employee involvement programme in the emerging economic scenario. The case will focus on the analysis of the different aspects of the issues pertaining to employee engagement, employee motivation and the framing of empowerment strategies to bring about innovation and continuous improvement through an effective employee suggestion programme. The case is intended to give budding managers an insight into innovation and employee engagement practices that impact performance in the organization. Complexity academic level This case will be suitable to be used in Human Resource Management and Management of Change and Innovation course at undergraduate and Master’s level. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance

Two benefits firms derive from unionized workforces

PurposeThe purposes of this paper are to discuss why firms are resistant to unionization of their employees and to discuss the potential benefits firms derive if their employees are unionized. There are benefits to firms if their employees are unionized, however, and firms whose workforces are unionized should take advantage of these benefits.Design/methodology/approachAnalysis and discussion of the drawbacks and benefits of unionization to firms.FindingsFirms benefit in two ways if their workforces are unionized. First, unionization reduces employee turnover. Second, employee involvement programs are generally more effective in unionized firms, while they are often held to be illegal in nonunion firms. Therefore, managers in unionized firms should work with the unions representing their employees to further reduce turnover and make Employee Involvement programs even more effective.Originality/valueAs employees sometimes opt to unionize despite firms’ wishes to the contrary, this paper discusses the benefits of unionized workforces and advocates that management in unionized firms develop positive relations with unions to derive these benefits.

Maximizing the Benefits of Internationalization: The Moderating Role of Labour Flexibility

Using the large-scale Korean Workplace Panel Survey, this study examines the interplay between international diversification, labour flexibility, and workplace-level performance in the context of advanced emerging markets. Filling the gap in the literature on the international diversification-performance (IDP) relationship, which focuses primarily on firm-level characteristics and overlooks the role of labour factors as contingent variables, we draw attention to the workplace level dynamics by exploring how the two types of labour flexibility—functional and numerical flexibility—moderate the impact of international diversification on performance. The results show that when workplaces invest in training for job enlargement and employee involvement programs that lead to the enhancement of functional flexibility, the link between international diversification and performance can be strengthened. This finding supports the assertion in the international HRM literature that, in the ever-globalized business environment, investment in human capital is a better strategy for improving financial performance in the long run. Furthermore, we find that numerical flexibility, as measured by in-house subcontracting arrangements, has a negative impact on the IDP relationship. Overall, our study suggests that the quality of human resources and a well-designed workplace configuration may still help improve performance in the context of international diversification, whereas excessive dependence on employment externalization for cost reduction is likely to hurt not only financial performance but also long-term sustainability. We also believe that our findings on the advanced emerging market economy complement insights from previous studies, which are largely based on Western developed economies, thus enriching current theories on labour flexibility.

An Analysis of the Factors Affecting the New Generation Employee Engagement in the Manufacturing Industry in China

Employee engagement was one of the core topics in academic research and management headlines. The purpose of this paper was to examine the effects of contextual variables, which include the career development planning, flexible welfare policy and employee involvement programs, towards employee engagement of the new generation employees under the China’s manufacturing industry. The results showed that the career development planning, flexible welfare policy and employee involvement programs would positively impact the new generation employee engagement in the manufacturing industry in China. Furthermore, the results provided suggestions for managers to motivate new generation employee engagement in China.

Modelling, assessment and deployment of strategies for ensuring sustainable shielded metal arc welding process – a case study

The welding process is viewed as an environmentally vulnerable due to its energy intensive nature, human hazards and environmental burden. But, the deployment of sustainable manufacturing strategies (SMSs) can improve the sustainability of the welding processes. In this study, shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process is considered as a candidate process for which the influence of implementing SMSs on sustainable performance was studied. Using the graph theory approach, interdependence among the Sustainable Manufacturing Measures (SMMs) was modelled to assess the SMSs. Based on the study, two SMSs, namely, employee skill training and involvement program, and waste minimization and disposal strategies were resorted to. The waste minimization and disposal strategy resulted in improved environmental performance and conservation of materials. Based on the findings, manufacturing organizations will be motivated to initiate sustainable manufacturing practices in their processes. This study also appreciates the application of modelling approach in sustainability studies from an economic point of view. Further, the study extends the scope of welding research to sustainable process optimization and redesigning.

Small firm innovation performance and employee involvement

It is known that small firms rely mainly on the CEO’s individual knowledge for developing innovations. Recent work suggests that this approach is inefficient since it underutilizes other employees’ knowledge. We study to which extent using CEOs, managers and non-managerial employees’ ideas enhances small firms’ innovation performance. A Heckman selection model on 305 small firms shows that not only CEO’s and managers’, but also non-managerial employees’ ideas contribute to innovation performance. However, contributions depend heavily on the individuals’ area of expertise and on whether product or process innovation is desired. Our findings enrich the current view on the entrepreneurial team, but also warn against the implementation of one-size-fits-all employee involvement programs in small firms.

A Roadmap for Implementing Total Quality Management Practices in Medium Enterprises

This paper describes a seven point framework for effective total quality management (TQM) implementation in medium enterprises (MEs). This framework shows that top management commitment and involvement is indispensable in the formulation and implementation of various quality adoption steps. The significant steps of the framework include development of mission and vision statement, formulating implementation plan, ensuring employee involvement, establishing education and training programs and starting implementation phase. At the last, continuous improvement is required to maintain the implementation effort for excellence orientation. The primary objective of this study was to prescribe a roadmap for TQM practicing MEs to adopt excellent quality practices in a simplified way. The author also tried to highlight the theoretical background while emphasizing the importance of steps of quality improvement practices. The idea behind taking MEs for adopting TQM practices is that the characteristics of MEs are most suited for it. However, TQM is a modern quality management practice which can be applied successfully to any type of enterprises, irrespective of their affiliation.

Keeping the Commitment Model in the Air during Turbulent Times: Employee Involvement at Delta Air Lines

This study provides a four‐decade review and analysis of the commitment model of employment relations at Delta Air Lines and the role played in it by employer‐created structures of employee involvement (EI) and voice. The company has undergone wrenching changes, including deregulation, 9/11, bankruptcy, mergers, and entrance of numerous low‐cost competitors. This study chronicles the resulting ups and downs in the company's fortunes and its efforts to maintain a positive win–win relationship with its employees despite the burden of management missteps, tens of thousands of layoffs, repeated pay and benefit cuts, and merger with conflict‐embittered Northwest Airlines. The fact the company survives today and still has a discernible “spirit of Delta” among employees is not solely or perhaps even principally due to its advanced EI program; on the other hand, without it the company would probably no longer exist.

The Employee Suggestion System: A New Approach Using Latent Semantic Analysis

AbstractEmployee suggestion systems are often used as a way to improve participation from members of the organization to help solve problems that cannot be solved through traditional organizational practices. In the government sector, employee involvement programs are the most difficult to implement mainly because management regularly changes with new administration and these changes bring about many short‐term management practices and systems. Toyota's approach to employee suggestion programs has been widely benchmarked and studied, yet there is little research to show that these practices can be applied or are successful in the public sector. This work uses a statistical data‐mining technique to compare which types of human resource management practices are prevalent in employee suggestion programs at Toyota and a target government organization. This work shows that Toyota emphasizes organization‐centered factors to stimulate employee participation in solving small problems that relate to an employee's job. On the contrary, government organizations tend to emphasize employee factors that make conditions right for employees to make larger improvements in their jobs that lead to improvements outside their work areas. Findings suggest that Toyota's approach to employee suggestion programs is not a way to weaken management's obligation to perform problem solving, but instead is another medium to highlight problems that do not require management's intervention. These new insights and others provide an increased understanding of employee suggestion programs in the public sector that are unique to manufacturing. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Small Firm Innovation Performance and Employee Involvement

It is known that small firms rely mainly on the CEO's individual knowledge for developing innovations. Recent work suggests that this approach is inefficient since it underutilizes other employees' knowledge. We study to which extent using CEOs, managers and non-managerial employees' ideas enhances small firms' innovation performance. A Heckman selection model on 305 small firms shows that not only CEO's and managers', but also non-managerial employees' ideas contribute to innovation performance. However, contributions depend heavily on the individuals' area of expertise and on whether product or process innovation is desired. Our findings enrich the current view on the entrepreneurial team, but also warn against the implementation of one-size-fits-all employee involvement programs in small firms.

Adoption and Termination of Employee Involvement Programs

Using an interview survey of manufacturing establishments that provide 10 years of retrospective data on labor practices, we investigate factors associated with the adoption and termination of employee involvement programs and the relation between these and other human resource policies. In the period studied, more firms introduced than terminated such programs but a sufficiently large number chose to eliminate such programs to indicate that employee involvement does not fit in all business settings. Our results show that business strategy and the use of other complementary human resource policies affect the dynamics of employee involvement use in US manufacturing establishments.

How To Motivate Knowledge Workers To Impact The Bottom Line

<p style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Budget reductions, less volunteerism, increased needs for services, new governmental regulations, and downsizing have left non-profit organizations struggling to meet goals and objectives with fewer resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>One way non-profit organizations can increase effectiveness is to tap into their own <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">intellectual resources</span> and implement an employee suggestion/involvement program. The labor force has emerged from a ‘hired hands’ concept to one of knowledge workers. It is estimated that approximately 35% of suggestions submitted by employees save time, money or identify strategies and/or processes for increased effectiveness (“Promote Your Employee Involvement Program”, 2003). Every workforce has creativity and experience within its ranks and if leaders properly tap their employee talent pool, there is potential to increase productivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Many organizations have downsized and re-engineered to the point that the next evolution of productivity gains will emerge from an organization’s own pool of knowledge workers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This article provides examples from various organizations that have benefited from using employee suggestions, provides 15 strategies to build an effective program, and offers ideas to increase employee participation.</span></span></p>

Small Firm Innovation Performance and Employee Involvement

It is known that small firms rely mainly on the CEO’s individual knowledge for developing innovations. Recent work suggests that this approach is inefficient since it under-utilizes other employees’ knowledge. We study to which extent using CEOs, managers and non-managerial employees’ ideas enhances small firms’ innovation performance. A Heckman selection model on 305 small firms shows that not only CEO’s and managers’, but also non-managerial employees’ ideas contribute to innovation performance. However, contributions depend heavily on the individuals’ area of expertise and on whether product or process innovation is desired. Our findings enrich the current view on the entrepreneurial team, but also warn against the implementation of one-size-fits-all employee involvement programs in small firms.

Employee Involvement Programs and Collective Bargaining: The Role of Labor Relations Climate

Employee Involvement Programs and Collective Bargaining: The Role of Labor Relations Climate

The Ethnographic Contribution to Understanding Co‐worker Relations

AbstractRelations among co‐workers are becoming both more important and more complex in modern workplaces as authority over job decisions is shifted from supervisors to quasi‐independent teams. The author develops a model of co‐worker relations that recognizes these changes and evaluates this model using data content coded from the full population of published book‐length workplace ethnographies (N = 204). Confirmatory factor analysis techniques support the existence of three distinct aspects of co‐worker relations: cohesiveness, conflict and peer supervision. The most important determinants of co‐worker relations are employee involvement programmes and management behaviour. Returning to specific case studies allows a theoretical elaboration of how employee involvement and management behaviour condition co‐worker relations. The author concludes by noting the importance of intellectual exchanges between qualitative and quantitative methods for generating new advances in the study of work and employment relations.

Corporate social performance: Creating resources to help organizations excel

AbstractThe most commonly employed theories of corporate social performance (CSP) tend to ignore firm‐level processes and structures as sources of competitive advantage. But, by taking a resource‐based view (RBV), and by enhancing a firm's capability to engage in socially responsible activities, it can potentially create its own competitive advantages. We examine four major components of CSP—community relations, the environment, diversity, and employee relations. And we show that the ability of a firm to develop its knowledge and skills—as well as policies and implementation plans and procedures—in each of these areas is a potential resource that may in fact provide competitive advantages and higher organizational performance, bringing benefits to both society and the firm.The community dimension evaluates the firm's performance in relationship to philanthropic giving and community support. The environmental aspect considers such firm stewardship activities as pollution prevention, global warming, and recycling. The diversity component measures CSP considering such factors as board member diversity and a firm's hiring, evaluation, training, and promotion policies concerning women and minorities. The employee relations dimension examines such socially responsible human resource practices as innovative employee involvement programs and profit sharing. Together, these capabilities can provide tangible and intangible resources that can provide the firm with competitive advantages. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Relationship between Employee Involvement and Workplace Dispute Resolution

This paper examines the relationship between employee involvement programs and workplace dispute resolution using data from the Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) conducted by Statistics Canada. The results provide support for a link between employee involvement and lower grievance rates in unionized workplaces. This link existed for establishments in both the goods and service sectors, but the practices involved differed between industrial sectors. By contrast, in nonunion workplaces, results of the analysis provided support for a link between the adoption of employee involvement programs and formal grievance procedures, but not between employee involvement and lower grievance rates.

The Benefits and Costs of Employee Suggestions under Gainsharing

Using data for the years 1985–92 from a discontinued suggestion program at a manufacturing plant in the United States, this study examines the benefits and costs of suggestions under gainsharing. The implemented suggestions are found to have improved labor productivity and reduced grievances and disciplinary actions, but more robust evidence suggests that they also incurred transaction costs and implementation costs. The author speculates that substantial transaction and implementation costs may be a factor responsible for the typically modest outcomes and generally short longevity of employee involvement programs and high-performance work practices.

Employee participation and involvement in korea: evidence from a new survey and field research

This paper provides evidence on the incidence, scope and nature of employee participation in Korea. The key findings include: (i) the incidence of works councils (WCs) is higher than in most other countries; (ii) not all WCs are functioning well with a little less than 70% of Korean firms having functioning WCs; (iii) WCs may be a substitute for traditional collective bargaining; (iv) there are complementarities between EI (Employee Involvement) programmes and trade unions (especially FKTU-affiliated unions); between EI programmes and training; and between representative participation at the top and direct participation at the shopfloor; (v) there is evidence of dysfunctional and weak quality circles; and (vi) consistent with our hypotheses, firms with EI programmes (especially effective EI programmes) are generally larger, more capital intensive, spend more on training and more productive than other firms. Finally, we use qualitative data from two large manufacturing firms to explore further the use of employee participation and involvement programmes in Korea.