Job Incumbents Research Articles

Leveraging Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Human Resource Management: The AI Job Description Assignment

The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly changing the field of human resource management (HRM). Management educators are called to prepare students for the opportunities and challenges this new technology will bring. Thus, our aim is to provide management educators with an assignment to introduce students to the opportunities and limitations of using generative AI for writing job descriptions. The AI Job Description Assignment invites students to leverage generative AI to write a first draft job description and then refine that initial draft using information obtained from a mini-job analysis conducted with real people. The assignment exposes students to a new technology while simultaneously reinforcing the age-old importance of including job incumbents in the process through job analysis interviews or surveys. Students learn both the benefits and limitations of generative AI while re-imagining a traditional HRM method. A how-to guide is provided for instructors along with quantitative and qualitative evidence of effectiveness.

Personality profiles of 263 occupations.

While personality trait assessments are widely used in candidate selection, coaching, and occupational counseling, little published research has systematically compared occupations in personality traits. Using a comprehensive personality assessment, we mapped 263 occupations in self-reported Big Five domains and various personality nuances in a sample of 68,540 individuals and cross-validated the findings in informant ratings of 19,989 individuals. Controlling for age and gender, occupations accounted for 2%-7% of Big Five variance in both self-reports and informant reports. Most occupations' average Big Five levels were intuitive, replicated across rating methods, and were consistent with those previously obtained with a brief assessment in a different sociocultural context. Often, they also tracked the Occupational Information Network database's work style ratings and clustered along the International Standard Classification of Occupation's hierarchical framework. Finally, occupations with higher average levels of the personality domains typically linked to better job performance tended to be more homogeneous in these domains, suggesting that jobs with higher performing incumbents are often more selective for personality traits. Several personality nuances had intuitive occupational differences that were larger than those of the Big Five domains (explaining up to 12% variance) and replicated well across rating methods, providing more detailed insights into how job incumbents vary in personality. We provide an interactive application for exploring the results (https://apps.psych.ut.ee/JobProfiles/) and discuss the findings' theoretical and practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of employees' experience of high-performance work systems on innovative behavior in professional service firms.

This research examines the impact of employees' experience of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on their innovative behavior. The study draws upon social exchange theory to propose that employees' experience of HPWS influences their innovative behavior directly and through sequential mediation of social capital development and knowledge-sharing behavior. Additionally, the study uses the Elaboration Likelihood Model to highlight that individuals' need for cognition strengthens the relationship between employees' knowledge-sharing and innovative behaviors. The study employed a time-lagged quantitative research design with survey data from 262 job incumbents in professional service firms. The proposed model was tested using the PLS-SEM two-stage approach. The findings of the study confirm the proposed direct and indirect relationships. Moreover, the findings also confirm that the need for cognition strengthens the relationship between knowledge-sharing and individual innovation behaviors. The study posits that employees' experience of HRM systems can influence their innovative behavior as a reciprocal exchange toward the employer. Moreover, this study presents a comprehensive model that highlights the interplay of social and cognitive factors that can influence the relationship between HPWS and employees' innovation behavior. This study also fills a gap in the existing literature by highlighting the antecedents of innovative behavior in professional service firms.

Null effects of age and gender on worker well-being, work-family conflict and performance while working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic

PurposeA growing body of research has suggested that the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted vulnerable groups such as working women, parents and older adults. Accordingly, and via the lens of social role and identity theories on gender and age at work, the authors examined the intersection of age, gender and potential caregiving responsibilities on worker well-being, work-family conflict and performance while working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachIn all, 1,174 Turkish job incumbents working from home either full- or part-time responded to a survey measuring self-reported anxiety, depression, stress, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict and performance in the summer of 2020.FindingsDespite using Bayesian modeling, good sample variability on age, gender and caregiving responsibilities, data collection timing allowing for the maximization of variance in individual attitudes toward working from home during the pandemic, outcome measures that evidenced excellent reliability and reasonably good data fit, and the inclusion of appropriate covariates and stringent robustness tests, hypothesized effects were overall found to be null.Practical implicationsThe authors suggest that if remote work helps level the playing field, then that is impetus for organizations to further transition into such work arrangements.Originality/valueThe authors speculate on these counterintuitive results and suggest implications for future research and practice on the confluence of remote work and workplace diversity, including the potential benefits of remote work for women and older adults, the role of cultural values and the use of Bayesian methods to infer support for the null.

The influence of employees’ work-to-family experiences on their spouses’ intentions to provide social support

ABSTRACT According to the conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory, this paper explores how job incumbents’ work-to-family conflict and enrichment influence their spouses’ satisfaction with their work-family balance, which in turn impacts their spouses’ intentions to provide social support for the job incumbents’ work issues. We employed a mixed-method design. Study 1 involved a field study of a paired sample of 171 job incumbents and their spouses. Study 2 involved a scenario-based experiment (N = 274). The results showed that the relationship between job incumbents’ WFC and their spouses’ intentions to provide social support was mediated by the spouses’ satisfaction with the focal job incumbents’ WFB. We also found that job incumbents’ WFC interacts with WFE to influence their spouses’ intentions to provide social support via their spouses’ satisfaction with their WFB. This study offers new insights into the relationship between work-family experiences and social support.

Welcome to parenthood!? An examination of the far-reaching effects of perceived adoption stigma in the workplace

While there may be no difference in terms of the love, care, and bond shared between parent and child, relationships created through adoption are often viewed less favorably in our society compared with those that possess a biological tie. Integrating minority stress and family systems theories, we seek to better understand working adoptive parents’ experiences and how the perceived stigma of being an adoptive parent negatively impacts a variety of work and family outcomes. Using a sample of 501 couples that adopted a child, we find that work–family conflict mediates the relationship between perceived adoption stigma and primary effects (i.e. job satisfaction and depression) as well as spillover effects (i.e. family satisfaction and parent–child bonding) for the job incumbent. Further, we find that the employee’s perceived adoption stigma also has crossover effects to their spouse, negatively impacting the spouse’s depression, family satisfaction, and parent–child bonding. Implications for theory and practice, limitations, and future research are discussed.

Job Price Compensable Factors and Parameters: The Framework of the Job Evaluation System


 
 
 
 
 Purpose: This paper reviews how organizations establish the remuneration system by focusing on job evaluation methods. The goal of these article reviews is to identify the internal and external compensable factors in order to create a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee and to address any inconveniences that may arise regarding wage or pay consistency and equity.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: The comprehensive review of the job evaluation methods was conducted to justify its fairness and equality in determining the “right pay for the job”, considering the job incumbents and addressing the internal and external factors. The primary instrument used to construct the pay structure is job evaluation. However, measurement inaccuracy exists in job evaluations as a result of the system's inability to correctly identify the internal and external compensating elements.
 Findings: These compensable factors are typically linked to the organization's financial capacity and pay policy, the SKAOs held by job holders, the job tasks, and environmental factors like the local economy, geographic location, rules, regulations, market pricing and more.
 Implications/Originality/Value: Compensable factors are essential for figuring out the "appropriate pay" or "right pricing" for specific jobs.
 
 
 

Keeping up with the Joneses: Social comparison of integrating work and family lives

Does everyone around you seem to be juggling the work and family roles more successfully than you? This research examines the influence of social comparison of work–family balance in the work role overload to emotional exhaustion relationship through two paths – a spillover path to both job and family emotional exhaustion for the job incumbent and a crossover path to the spouse to their own family emotional exhaustion. Further, we examine whether the personality trait of social comparison orientation exacerbates these processes. We used matched responses over two time periods from 403 dual-earning, married couples living in the United States to test our hypotheses. We found support for all our hypothesized relationships. Social comparison plays a role in individuals’ perception of work–family demands, which may contribute to undesirable consequences for both the job incumbent and the spouse.

Understanding the role of job quality in the association of employees’ career change to self-employment and job satisfaction

Purpose– While researchers have discussed the association between career change to self-employment and job satisfaction, few have considered how the association is achieved. Therefore, in this study, the authors aim to explain this relationship from the perspective of job quality. The authors build on job design theory to propose and empirically test how fluctuations in job satisfaction as associated with the transition to self-employment can be explained by changes in job quality.Design/methodology/approach– The authors tested their propositions using a longitudinal, nationally representative database from Australia for the 2005–2019 period. The final sample included 108,384 observations from 18,755 employees.Findings– In line with the literature, the authors found that job incumbents experienced low job satisfaction in the years prior to their career change to self-employment and that their job satisfaction improved after the transition. More importantly, the authors found the same change pattern for job quality – measured as job autonomy and skill variety – and the statistical results demonstrated that job quality was the key determinant of job satisfaction during the process.Practical implications– This study advocates the importance of job quality in managing employee wellbeing and facilitating retention.Originality/value– The authors contribute to the literature by uncovering how job quality, represented by skill variety and job autonomy, can explain fluctuations in job satisfaction during individuals’ career change from paid employment to self-employment.

The Boss's Long Arm: The Differential Impact of Authoritarian and Benevolent Leadership on Spousal Family Satisfaction.

The extant studies on leadership are replete with employee, coworker, and leader outcomes, however, research is still nascent on leadership’s crossover into employees’ family members’ lives. To examine leadership’s impact on the work–family interface, we draw on conservation of resources theory (COR) and crossover theory and investigate how authoritarian leadership and benevolent leadership affect spousal family satisfaction. We examine the mediating influence of work–family conflict (WFC) and work-family facilitation (WFF), and the moderating impact of spouses’ need for control. Our model was tested with multisource, mutiwave data from 207 Chinese married dyads. The results suggest that, as expected, the positive relationship between benevolent leadership and spousal family satisfaction is fully mediated by WFF, and the negative relationship between authoritarian leadership and spousal family satisfaction is fully mediated by WFC. Findings further suggest that the negative relationship between employee WFC and spousal family satisfaction is stronger for spouses with a higher need for control. Thus, authoritarian leadership, through its negative influence on WFC appears to be universally detrimental for spousal family satisfaction, however, even more so for spouses with a higher need for control. These results underscore the importance of acknowledging leadership’s impact at work reaching far beyond the job incumbent.

In the Midst of Hiring: Pathways of Anticipated and Accidental Job Evolution During Hiring

In this paper, we examine the evolution of jobs in the midst of the hiring process: how jobs change between the decision to bring in someone to do a body of work and hiring someone. We analyze data from interviews, observations, and documents about start-up hiring and find that, during hiring, tasks are added and removed from jobs; jobs are abandoned, replaced, and moved; and hiring processes are relaunched. We describe two pathways that this evolution takes: the pathway of anticipated evolution, shaped by the unknown nature of the jobs being filled, and the pathway of accidental evolution, shaped by unanticipated factors surrounding jobs. Although the pathways lead to many of the same immediate consequences, there are differences in the longer-term consequences. Across the pathways, many jobs continue to evolve. On the pathway of anticipated evolution, many job incumbents leave within a year and are not replaced. On the pathway of accidental evolution, the longer-term consequences for job incumbents, structures, and organizations range from stability in structures and incumbents to ongoing conflict and incumbent departure. Not surprisingly, most evolving jobs are new to their organizations, but contrary to common conceptions, job evolution is not the product of managers who lack experience or use lax hiring practices. Our observations provide evidence of the emergent nature of jobs, hiring, and organizations.

My Partner Made Me Do It: The Crossover of a Job Incumbent’s Job Tension to the Spouse’s Workplace Incivility

ABSTRACT We propose a spillover-crossover-spillover process model of dual-career couples by which job incumbent job tension contributes to strain-based work-family conflict which motivates their work-based family undermining, that later relates to the spouse’s workplace incivility. Further, we propose the spouse’s job autonomy moderates the relationship between job incumbent work-based family undermining behaviors and spousal incivility at work. We test the proposed model using a sample of 420 dual-career couples’ survey responses collected over three time periods. Results indicate that job incumbent job tension relates positively to their work-based family undermining behaviors, which then associates with the spouse’s workplace incivility. These effects are moderated by the spouse’s job autonomy such that greater autonomy weakens the relationship between perceived work-based undermining behaviors and incivility at work.

Lookism in the Chinese Job Advertisements

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to explore lookism over a wide range of occupations in the Chinese workplace and investigate if the occurrence of lookism in job advertisements was associated to gender type of occupations and other occupation characteristics. Participants (N = 243) estimated the percentage of female job incumbents for each investigated occupation (N = 20). Content analysis was conducted to examine the occurrence of terms related to physical attributes in the job advertisements (N = 2000) across the 20 occupations. We found that Chinese employers explicitly specified what physical attributes are desirable among their potential employees. Lookism is markedly high in female-dominated occupations.

It takes a village: How organizational support for adoption positively affects employees and their families

Extending the integration of conservation of resources theory with the spillover–crossover model, we broaden the scope of types of organizational support by examining the influence of organizational support for adoption (OSFA) as a work resource that could benefit employees, their spouse, and their adopted child. Specifically, we examine how this resource of OSFA contributes to job incumbent work–family enrichment (WFE) and indirectly to a work outcome (i.e., affective commitment) and spills over to impact family outcomes (i.e., attachment, relationship tension, and family functioning). Further, we examine the crossover to the spouse through positive crossover transmission to his/her commitment to the job incumbent’s organization and his/her family outcomes. Using a matched sample of 592 couples that had adopted a child, we found that the resource of OSFA indirectly influences the job incumbent’s work and family outcomes as expected. Further, we found OSFA indirectly influences the spouse’s commitment to the job incumbent’s organization and the spouse’s family outcomes through WFE and positive crossover transmission. Evidence of the content and construct validity of OSFA is also presented. Implications, both theoretical and practical, and suggestions for future research are discussed.Practitioner points Employees who feel supported in their adoption by their organization are more committed to their organization. Organizations that provide support for adoptive employees indirectly influence their spouses’ commitment to the employees’ organization. Adoptive employees’ positive work experiences that result from organizational support for adoption spillover into their family domain. Children who are adopted can benefit indirectly from their parents’ employing organization when that organization supports the adoption in tangible ways.

Exploring the Measurement Invariance of the Calling Scale with College Students and Employees

The most widely used instrument to assess perceiving a calling, the CVQ(Calling and Vocational Questionnaire), is composed of three constructs: transcendent sermon, purposeful work, and prosocial orientation. Recently assessing perceiving a calling has received great attention and it is critical not only for job incumbents but also college students who are in the job search stage. The purpose of this study is to investigate measurement invariance of the Korean CVQ between employees and college students. 339 job incumbents and 252 college students participated in this study, and based on the multiple group confirmatory factor analysis from the structural equation model, we confirmed the measurement invariance between employees and college students at the scale level. Thus, the perceived calling scale is applicable to both employees and college students without biases. This study provided meaningful information in understanding calling, and we discussed limitations and future directions.

Abusive supervision and work-family conflict: an empirical investigation of Indian professionals

PurposeThe study aims to investigate the direct and indirect effect of subordinate’s perceived abusive supervision (AS) on his/her work–family conflict (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC). Although prior studies have empirically explored the direct effect, but the role of mediators like compulsory citizenship behavior, burnout and stress transfer explaining the indirect effect has seldom been reported.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws cross-sectional dyadic data from multiple sources (both job incumbent and the spouse). A final sample of 188 was used to test the hypotheses using SmartPLS.FindingsThe result reports positive relationship between AS and inter-role conflict (WFC and FWC). The findings also reported compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB) partially mediating the positive relationship between AS and WFC and AS and FWC. Also, the positive relationship between AS and WFC is partially (serial) mediated by CCB and burnout, and similarly, the association between AS and FWC is partially (serial) mediated by CCB and stress transmission.Originality/valueThe study makes several valuable contributions to the extant literature; first, it is the only study to explore the direct and indirect effect of AS on inter-role conflict (WFC and FWC) in Indian organizations. Second, the mediational role of CCB (as explained by the conservation of resources theory) and burnout and stress transmission (as explained by the spillover and crossover theory) offers rare insight about the process that explains the relationship between the focal constructs.

The content analysis of the Korean Journal of Industrial and Organizational Psychology from 1988 to 2018 and future suggestions

The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze the content of articles published in Korean Journal of Industrial and Organizational Psychology(KJIOP) which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2018. In this current study, we analyzed 625 out of 627 articles published in 85 volumes over the past 30 years since its first issue in 1988. These articles were analyzed according to analysis items and classification criteria: the demographic characteristics of authors, research topics, research settings, research methods, types of participants, and types and frequency of statistical analysis. It was found that most of authors, 1,027(83.9%) out of 1,401, belong to psychology and the I/O psychology department, and 1,265(90.3%) researchers were from universities. Also, the number of female researchers, 15 in the first 10 years, had gradually increased to 109(23.2%) in the mid-term and increased to 293(36.0%) in the recent 10 years. In regards to the topic of the articles, 376(60.2%) were related to organizational psychology, which is one of the sub-categories in I/O psychology. The results from the analysis of research settings show that the majority of studies were conducted in the industrial setting. In the research method, survey by questionnaire was the most common method with 74.1%(463). Most of the studies(66.4%) obtained data from job incumbents in industrial settings. Similar to the first 10 years, factor analysis, correlational analysis, and regression analysis were most frequently used over 30 years and the types of statistical analysis have become more diverse. Furthermore, the use of on-line questionnaires in research have been expanded in the recent 10 years. As research topics had been sophisticated, new methods of analysis such as multi-level analysis, survival analysis, and non-linear analysis were actively used. Finally, research results published over the past 30 years were summarized according to their research topics. Based on the content analysis, the direction of the future KJIOP and additional research topics were discussed.

Putting family first as a boundary management tactic

PurposeThe authors examine a boundary management tactic for managing the work–family interface: putting family first (PFF). PFF is a boundary management tactic defined as the voluntary behavior of intentionally putting family obligations ahead of work obligations in a way that violates organizational normsDesign/methodology/approachIn Study 1, The authors develop a theoretically derived measure of PFF and distinguish it theoretically and empirically from similar existing constructs, examining convergent and discriminate validity to demonstrate its uniqueness. In Study 2, the authors demonstrate PFF's predictive validity beyond the job incumbent using a three-way matched sample of 226 individuals, including the job incumbent's coworker and spouse.FindingsThe authors established and validated a measure of PFF, developing and replicating the nomological network. PFF crossed over to positively relate to coworker role overload, job frustration and work–family conflict and to spousal stress transmission and relationship tension. Similarly, PFF related negatively to spousal family satisfaction and organizational commitment.Originality/valueThe authors extend the work–family and boundary management literatures by proposing a new form of boundary management, PFF, which is a tactic for managing the work–family interface, and explore how its use influences not only the job incumbent but also the coworker and the spouse.

Assessing and Reconciling Between-Group Differences in Job Analysis Ratings

Job analysis is an important tool underlying several organizational functions including performance appraisals, selection, and training. Typical job analyses are conducted with a random, stratified sample of subject matter experts (SMEs). These individuals are often job incumbents who are asked to rate and make judgments concerning the frequency and importance of job tasks. It is presumed that incumbents who perform a job should evaluate it similarly. Accordingly, it may be concerning if there is significant variance in employees’ job analysis ratings depending on what is causing the differences. As such, job analysts must determine if rating differences are legitimate (“real”) or due to error. This review provides an overview of various statistical techniques that can be used to assess the significance of between-group differences in job analysis ratings and how they can be used by job analysis experts to determine the extent to which SME ratings are consistent. In addition to detecting rating differences among SME groups, we also provide practical recommendations for reconciling those differences, if necessary.

How do offshoring-related changes in job characteristics affect onshore managers’ affective organizational commitment? The moderating role of perceived organizational valence

Offshoring—the transfer of work activities to providers in offshore countries—has for some time affected the nature of work in onshore locations. Not much is however known about the reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes. In this article, we use a survey of UK firms to examine the relationship between perceived changes in onshore managers’ work characteristics induced by information systems offshoring and managers’ affective organizational commitment. We found that a perceived increase in onshore managers’ job complexity was associated with higher affective organizational commitment only if managers also perceived organizational valence, that is, only if they believed that information systems offshoring benefited their organization. A perceived increase in cross-cultural work was associated with higher affective organizational commitment, and this association was positively moderated by managers’ perceptions of organizational valence. Using the offshoring context, our findings provide insights into consequences of contemporary changes in the nature of work in developed countries and to explain the diverse reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes.