Employee-organization Relationship Research Articles

A Situational Perspective on Employee Communicative Behaviors in A Crisis: The Role of Relationship and Symmetrical Communication

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the intertwined effects of the employee-organization relationship (EOR), internal communication, and employees’ situational perceptions on individuals’ communicative behaviors – seeking and voicing – during periods of organizational crisis. Using the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS), the current study investigates employees’ cognitive reactions as well as how their communicative behaviors are affected by the pre-crisis EOR and organizations’ symmetrical communication effort in a crisis. An online survey was conducted with 410 full-time U.S. employees working in large corporations. Results indicated that a favorable pre-crisis relationship between an organization and its employees significantly affects how they perceive a crisis and their communicative behaviors. Employees’ perceived symmetrical communication strengthens the relationship between the pre-established relationship with employees and their crisis perceptions. Findings provide a comprehensive picture of the process by which the EOR directs employee behaviors in a crisis, as well as the positive effects of symmetrical internal communication. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Employee-Organization Relationships and Team Performance: Role of Team Collective Efficacy.

Besides the previous social relationship perspective of employee–organization relationship (EOR) research, this study takes the social cognitive perspective to explore the role of team collective efficacy in mediating the relationship between EORs and team performance. This study further contends that team cohesion moderates the positive relationship between collective efficacy and team performance, thereby moderating the indirect relationship between EORs and team performance through collective efficacy. Data analyses of 231 teams in Study 1 and 63 teams in Study 2 support the hypotheses. Therefore, this study provides theoretical contributions to the EOR literature by introducing a new perspective at the team level and to the social cognitive literature by discussing a boundary condition of the effect of collective efficacy on team performance.

Motivations of employees' communicative behaviors on social media

PurposeGiven that an increasing number of social media platforms allow employees to share company-related information, the present study seeks to understand their complicated motivations for social media behaviors. Specifically, this study explores the antecedents of employees' positive and negative company-related information-sharing intentions on two distinctive social media platforms, personal (e.g. Facebook) and anonymous social networking sites (e.g. Glassdoor).Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted with 419 full-time employees in the United States from various industry sectors.FindingsIndividual (enjoyment, venting negative feelings, and self-enhancement), interpersonal (bonding and bridging ties), and organizational (organization–employee relationship and perceived external prestige) factors are considerably and distinctly associated with employees' behavioral intentions on different social media platforms.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to understand employees' communicative behaviors on social media (sECB) by linking diverse levels of motivational factors: individual, interpersonal, and organizational using a theoretical framework of socioecological model (SEM). This study also provides significant practical guidelines for organizational leaders and platform operators by explicating the dynamics of employee motives in engaging in a variety of social media platforms.

When Relationships Meet Situations: Exploring the Antecedents of Employee Communication Behaviors on Social Media

Grounded in the relationship management theory and the situational theory of publics, this study examines the effects of employees’ perceived relationships with their organization on their situational perceptions and how these perceptions influence their communication behaviors on social media. An integrated model of situational organization–employee relationship is proposed and tested. The study was based on a national survey of 449 employees working at large organizations in the United States. Organization–employee relationships were found to facilitate employees’ problem recognition and level of involvement and to weaken their constraint recognition. Employees with low constraint recognition and high levels of involvement were more likely to seek, process, and share information on social media, whereas those with high problem recognition tended only to process information. This study is one of the first to integrate the relational perspective with the situational perspective. It also offers practical suggestions for large organizations on how to build and maintain quality relationships with employees and improve their communication behaviors on social media.

Nurses’ satisfaction with the use of communication channels by their managers in Croatia and Slovenia

Previous studies rather neglected the issue of how nurses are satisfied with the usage of communication channels by their managers. This paper aims to discover how nurses in Croatia and Slovenia are satisfied with their managers’ usage of communication channels, and also how this satisfaction is associated with the employee-organisation relationship. A self-administrated electronic questionnaire was conducted with 272 nurses in Croatia and Slovenia. The study results show that top nurse managers most commonly use mediated communication channels, while middle and executive nurse managers use more interpersonal communication channels. Employees are most satisfied when top nurse managers use emails, middle nurse managers face-to-face communication, emails and phone calls, and executive nurse managers face-to-face communication, emails, phone calls, instant messaging and internal social networks to communicate with them. Younger employees are significantly more satisfied with nurse managers’ use of new communication and information technologies. The study also shows that satisfaction with interpersonal communication used by the executive nurse managers is positively associated with employee-organization relationships and satisfaction with middle and top managers’ utilization of email in that relationship.

The value of internal communication in enhancing employees’ health information disclosure intentions in the workplace

This study explores organizations’ communication practice as the antecedent of employees’ health-related perceptions and intentions to disclose their health information in the workplace. In particular, this study tests the impact of transparent internal communication and the quality of employee-organization relationship (EOR) on employees’ perceived risks and benefits of information disclosure for their health information. The results of an online survey with full-time employees in the United States showed that a positive EOR influenced by transparent communication increased the employees’ perceived benefits and decreased the employees’ perceived risks for disclosing their health information to their supervisor. Perceived risks and benefits were both significantly associated with employees’ intentions to disclose their physical health problems, while perceived benefits were significantly related to their intentions to disclose mental health problems. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and health communication were discussed in this study.

Promoting perceived insider status of indigenous employees

PurposeWhile companies in developed countries are increasingly turning to indigenous employees, integration measures have met with mixed results. Low integration can lead to breach of the psychological contract, i.e. perceived mutual obligations between employee and employer. The purpose of this paper is to identify how leadership and organizational integration measures can be implemented to promote the perceived insider status (PIS) of indigenous employees, thereby fostering fulfillment of the psychological contract.Design/methodology/approachA search for relevant literature yielded 128 texts used to identify integration measures at the level of employee–supervisor relationships (leader-member exchanges, inclusive leadership) and at the level of employee–organization relationships (perceived organizational support, pro-diversity practices).FindingsMeasures related to leadership included recruiting qualified leaders, understanding cultural particularities, integrating diverse contributions and welcoming questions and challenges. Organizational measures included reaching a critical mass of indigenous employees, promoting equity and participation, developing skills, assigning meaningful tasks, maintaining good work relationships, facilitating work-life balance, providing employment security, fostering support from communities and monitoring practices.Originality/valueWhile PIS has been studied in western and culturally diverse contexts, it has received less attention in indigenous contexts. Yet, some indigenous cultural values are incompatible with the basic assumptions of mainstream theories. Furthermore, colonial policies and capitalist development have severely impacted traditional indigenous economic systems. Consequently, indigenous people are facing many barriers to employment in ways that often differ from the experiences of other minority groups.

Employees’ Perception towards Effectiveness of Induction Program

The induction program in an organization becomes effective only if it fulfills the objectives and minimizes the gap between employees’ perception to that of organization’s goals. Previous research studies conclude that, employees’ effectiveness has a significant effect on job competence, which in turn emphasizes on the induction programs. Hence, there is a need to understand the synergy between employees’ perception towards induction program and the effectiveness of the same. Keeping in view, the researcher conducted an empirical study in a renowned IT Enabled Services firm in Chennai, having branches in USA, UK and Australia. The primary aim of the study is to understand the perception of employees’ towards the effectiveness of induction program conducted in their organization. The hypotheses have been formulated to find the existence of relationships between dependent variables. The study administered a structured questionnaire to collect primary data, comprising of 120 samples. The collected data has been analyzed using descriptive research method. The study concludes that the induction program is an integral part in building organization-employee relationship in accordance with job competence

To leave or not to leave: the effects of perceptions of organizational justice on employee turnover intention via employee-organization relationship and employee job engagement

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of perceptions of organizational justice on the quality of relationships between employees and organizations, employee job engagement, and subsequent effects on employee turnover intention. Drawing from two complementary approaches (relationship management and human resources management perspectives), the current study proposed a model of employee turnover intention as the ultimate negative outcome of the relationship quality that employees perceive to have developed with their organization, which is predicted by perceptions of organizational justice. Additionally, the current study incorporated employee job engagement as the mediator connecting the EOR with the turnover intention. The results of an in-person survey of 438 salespeople for a South Korean company revealed that organizational justice perceptions had a significant and direct influence on the EOR quality. The findings further revealed that high perceptions of organizational justice by employees affected job engagement, which in turn negatively influenced turnover intention. Employee job engagement was also found to mediate the direct effects of justice perceptions and EOR on turnover intention.

Leveraging human touch in service interactions: lessons from hospitality

PurposeWith the ever-increasing adoption of technology and automation radically changing the nature of service delivery, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of human touch, introducing hospitable service as an enhancement for value creation in service organizations.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on management, social sciences and hospitality literatures, a four-configuration model is presented to illustrate dimensions which arise from the confluence of different degrees of relationship orientation – shared mental models held by the host organization (self- or other-oriented), and guests’ service preferences (transactional or relational).FindingsA theoretically grounded model of configurations resulting from variations on three key dimensions is offered. These are: employee organization relationships – social exchange processes governing the interactions between employees and their employers; HRM systems – internally consistent combinations of HR practices; and tech-touch trade-off – prioritization of technology vs employees to deliver services.Research limitations/implicationsEmbedding hospitable service as a construct to support the leveraging of human touch in service organizations opens up new research opportunities including avenues to further conceptualize the nature and dimensions of hospitable service. Future research that supports further understanding about the role of human touch and value creation in service organizations is proposed.Practical implicationsThrough the value-enhancing capability of human in the service encounter, firms can be enabled to accurately position themselves in one of the four relational configurations on offer and then identify opportunities for managers to leverage human touch to combat the diminishing role of the human touch in a technology-ubiquitous service context.Originality/valueThis is among the first papers to explore the influence of technology on the degree of human touch in the interface between hospitality employee and customer, and to develop a configuration model through which researchers and practitioners can operate during this declining era of human to human service interactions.

Is the employee-organization relationship dying or thriving? A temporal meta-analysis.

There is controversy concerning whether, in recent years, organizational failures to act benevolently toward employees have lessened employees' social-exchange relationship (SER) with their work organization or whether, on the contrary, organizations' more favorable treatment of employees has strengthened the SER. With samples of U.S. employees, we examined changes over the past 3 decades in three key elements of the SER: perceived organizational support (POS: 317 samples, including 121,469 individuals), leader-member exchange (LMX: 191 samples, including 216,975 individuals), and affective organizational commitment (383 samples, including 116,766 individuals). We considered both how the average levels changed over time and how the associations of these 3 elements with the antecedents of procedural and distributive justice and the consequences of in-role and extra-role performance have changed. We found that the average levels of indicators of the SER have remained steady except for an increase in POS. LMX and affective commitment show levels near neutral, and POS has increased to only a moderately positive level. In contrast, the relationships between these elements with distributive and procedural justice and extra-role performance remain substantial. These findings suggest that employees on average do not currently have strong exchange relationships with their work organization but remain ready to more fully engage based on perceived voluntary favorable treatment by the work organization and its representatives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding the impacts of issue types and employee–organization relationships on employees’ problem perceptions and communicative behaviors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of different types of corporate issues and employee–organization relationships (EORs) on employees’ perceptions of the issues and on their communicative actions. Specifically, this study investigates how employees who have experienced an internal or an external issue within their organizations differently perceive the organizational issue and engage in positive and/or negative communicative behaviors.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was conducted with 363 full-time employees in large-sized companies in the USA who have experienced any internal or external issues within the past six months.FindingsEmployees are more cognitively aware of and feel more involved and less constrained in solving an internal company issue than an external one. Experiencing internal issues has led employees to share negative information about their organization externally. The quality of EORs pre-issue significantly increases employees’ involvement and positive communication behavior and decreases constraint levels and negative communication behaviors regarding an issue.Practical implicationsCorporate communication and public relations practitioners should incorporate strategic internal communication strategies to preemptively manage internal issues and to avoid them from evolving into internal crises.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to distinguish internal and external issues perceived by internal stakeholders and to examine their impacts on employees’ issue-specific perceptions and communicative behaviors. This study also provides significant practical guidelines for corporate communication practitioners and leaders by explicating the strategic role of issue type and employee behaviors in issue management.

The belonging model of trust

AbstractAlthough we know that high‐quality employee–organization relationships are beneficial, these relationships are complex and not fully understood, especially among employees of nonprofit organizations. In particular, we know little about how these employees perceive trust, which may overlook an important contributor to effective management. We begin to address this issue by testing a new theoretical model that conceptualizes perceived insider status, psychological ownership, and organizational identification as foundations for the perception of justice and subsequent trust. Our results indicate that psychological ownership and perceived insider status relate to trust through procedural and interpersonal justice. These results contrast those typically found in for‐profit contexts in that organizational identification did not predict justice and that distributive and informational justice did not predict trust.

Toward a Communality with Employees: The Role of CSR Types and Internal Reputation

The aim of this study is to examine the impacts of organizations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) types from internal perspectives. By building linkages among CSR, organization–employee relationship, and internal reputation, the current study investigates how organizations’ CSR practices influence the communal relationship between an organization and employees as well as their perceived external prestige (PEP) of an organization. An online survey was conducted with 507 current full-time employees working in large-sized companies in the United States. Results show that four dimensions of CSR activities—discretionary, ethical, legal, and economic CSR—are significantly related to employees’ perceived external prestige. Furthermore, the study found that employees’ PEP is positively related to their perceptions of communal relationships, as well as their communal willingness to the companies. Different direct impacts of CSR activities on the communal relationship between an organization and its employees are also investigated. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Exploring crisis communication in the internal context of an organization: Examining moderated and mediated effects of employee-organization relationships on crisis outcomes

This study seeks to foster a greater understanding of effective crisis communication from the internal context of organizations. The present research conducted an online experimental study of 640 full-time employees in the United States. Results through OLS multiple regression and path analysis indicated 1) employee-organization relationships (EOR) and timing strategy of self-disclosure (stealing thunder) were positively associated with the positive internal reputation and employees’ supportive behavioral intentions, 2) the positive effects of EOR on the employees’ supportive behaviors appeared differently according to whether or not stealing-thunder was used, and 3) the effects of EOR and message strategy (accommodative response) on the positive internal reputation were varied when the negative emotions (anger and anxiety) intervened.

Supervisor humor styles and employee advocacy: A serial mediation model

This study examines how supervisor humor styles influence employee advocacy by building the linkage between affiliative humor, aggressive humor, supervisor authenticity, employee-organization relationships, and employee advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, the study’s results indicated that the relationship between supervisor humor style and employee advocacy is fully mediated by supervisor authenticity and employee-organization relationships. Significant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Impact of Loyalty and Self‐Determination on Managerial Coaching Outcomes

This research expands the understanding of underlying psychosocial impacts of managerial coaching in the employee–organization relationship (EOR). Researchers examined the mediating effects of loyalty and employee self-determination (ESD) on organizational-based self-esteem (OBSE) and employee impact. Testing of direct effects indicate a significant, positive relationship between managerial coaching and both OBSE and employee impact. However, after testing for mediation, results showed that loyalty and ESD mediated the relationship between managerial coaching and OBSE, ESD mediated the relationship between managerial coaching and employee impact. These mediated results have implications for the coaching relationship's dyadic nature and how it establishes relationship-enhancing interactional processes supported by social exchange, psychological contract, and relational-richness theories.

Work Group Climate and Behavioral Responses to Psychological Contract Breach.

Drawing on theories of social exchange and social information processing, we examined whether the influence of psychological contract breach on in-role performance and organization-directed citizenship behavior (OCBO) depends on work group climate levels, specifically procedural justice climate and power distance climate. The findings supported our hypothesis that psychological contract breach more strongly influences in-role performance and OCBO among members of units with favorable procedural justice climates. Support for a hypothesized moderating role of power distance climate was less conclusive. We discuss the implications of our model and findings for theories of employee–organization relationships and practice.

Shaping Corporate Character Through Symmetrical Communication: The Effects on Employee-Organization Relationships

This study investigates how corporate character is shaped by organizational symmetrical communication and its effects on the quality of employee-organization relationships. Results of an online survey with 314 working adults in the United States showed that symmetrical internal communication plays an important role in defining the organization’s positive character of agreeableness (i.e., warmth, empathy, and integrity), enterprise (i.e., modernity, adventure, and boldness), and competence (i.e., conscientiousness, drive). Symmetrical internal communication positively influences the quality of employee-organization relationships. The ruthless corporate character showed significant negative effects on employee trust, control mutuality, commitment, and satisfaction. The theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Closeness or Distance? An Investigation of Employee-Organization Relationships: From a Psychological Distance Perspective.

It is of great significance to grasp and control the relationship between organizations and employees for the healthy development of an organization. This paper measured the closeness and distance of the employee–organization relationship. The results were based on an investigation of 554 employees. (1) The mean value of the employee–organization psychological distance (EOPD) was 3.51, indicating that the relationship between the employee and organization was not optimistic. (2) 48.79% of the 554 interviewees maintained “existence” relationships with their organizations, 28.13% of people maintained “exclude” relationships with their organizations, 20.44% had a “loyalty” relationship, while only 2.64% had an “integrated” relationship with their organization. (3) EOPD showed significant differences in terms of age, marital status, education, career, position and area of residence. (4) Detailed analysis was undertaken to explore the distribution characteristics of four relationships, and specific rules were found. Our research provided a new perspective and related references for the further study of organizational management.