Managing Employee Relations Research Articles

THE IMPACTS OF RESPONSIBILITY ON EMPLOYEE’S JOB PERFORMANCE AT WORKPLACES

The article aims to discover and focus on responsible leadership. The problem is approached from the perspective of a dyadic relationship between managers and employees. Answers to the following study questions: What concepts do managers and employees believe are important in the manager–employee relationship for responsible leadership? What social conditions in the relationship necessitate the application of the principles?

The Effect of Gender and Work Experience on Psychological Attributes at Workplace

For the past few years,the focus of the organizational psychologist is to work on creating a positive workplace environment and focusing on studying the perceived positive psychological attributes at the workplace. One of the primary reasons behind it is to develop and maintain a cordial and positive work climate for employees to have better interpersonal relations, violence-free climate, manager-employee relations, organizational policies, motivators, etc. All these psychological factors may influence the work environment in both a positive and negative manner. One of the perceived positive psychological attributes at the workplace is work locus of control, which describes whether employees reason out internal or external factors as the reason behind their actions and decisions. This might be leading to aggression and violence at the workplace, and thereby their personal growth might get influence. Hence, the present study aimed to explore the effect of gender and years of experience on the psychological constructs- violence prevention climate, work locus of control, and personal growth initiative using a 2x2 factorial design. For standardized scales pertaining to work locus of control, violence prevention climate and personal growth were administered on a sample of 200 employees (both male and female). The findings of the study highlighted that there was no significant gender difference on the three psychological constructs. However, years of experience did have a substantial effect on personal growth initiative and work locus of control. Additionally, a significant difference between years of experience on “practices and response” and “pressure for unsafe practices” dimension of violence prevention climate was also obtained.

Acting the part: how social and organisational factors shape managers' actions towards employees with repeated short-term sickness absence

PurposeThe aim of the study was to understand the social and organisational factors in the workplace that shape managers' actions and attitudes towards workers with repeated short-term sickness absence.Design/methodology/approachThis was a qualitative interview study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 managers at 15 different workplaces. The analysis had an abductive approach, using thematic analysis which focused on the latent content of managers attitudes towards employees with repeated short-term sickness absence.FindingsResults indicate that the managers' views of people on short-term sick leave shift and move through several phases, which was analysed as they were acts in a play, where their given roles are prescribing which actions to take given the available resources for acting these parts. These acts depict an increasingly controlling attitude, where the sick leave is ultimately seen as an individual problem best managed by repressive tactics.Originality/valueRole theory offers the possibility to analyse managers' attitudes and behaviours by considering the workplace and the manager-employee relationship as regulated by norms and organisational factors.

Talent Management in the Organization: How to Build an Efficient Performance Management System?

Talent Management contributes to improved performance within the organization, this study examines the moderation effect of effective performance management systems as well as the relationship between talent management and organizational performance. This research was conducted in the field of public services and specifically aimed at public service officials in the city of Bandung. The research focused on 26 subdistricts. The survey of 430 respondents, consisting of Structural officials, was used for analysis. This study uses SEM in AMOS's statistical analysis package. Research explains that performance management systems moderate the relationship between talent management and organizational performance showing that performance management systems can be used as strategies to identify talented employees; integrate, restructure strategies and strengthen employee-management relationships to improve their organizational performance.

When do women receive managerial support? The effects of gender congruence and the manager-employee relationship

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of manager-employee gender similarity on supportive leadership behaviours by public managers. Following prior research, we hypothesize that women with female managers are likely to report more leadership support than women with male managers and that this relationship will be moderated by the quality of the manager-employee relationship. Analysing multi-source survey data collected from a state agency, we find support for the gender-similarity effect. We also find a positive relationship between manager-employee relationship quality and supportive leadership behaviour. However, we do not find any support for the hypothesized moderation effect of the manager-employee relationship quality.

Engaging to innovate: an investigation into the implications of engagement at work on innovative behaviors in healthcare organizations

PurposeOrganizational innovation relies on the employees' active participation in improving extant processes and practices. In particular, it has been argued that employees' engagement triggers innovation-oriented behaviors at work. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of evidence of the implications of work engagement on the health professionals' innovation propensity. The article intends to push forward what we currently know about this issue, providing some food for thought to scholars and practitioners.Design/methodology/approachA path analysis based on ordinary least square (OLS) regression and 10,000 bootstrap samples was designed to investigate the direct and indirect implications of employees' engagement on innovative behaviors at work in a large sample of health professionals operating in Europe. The quality of employee–manager relationships and the organizational climate were included as mediating variables affecting the relationship between work engagement and propensity to innovation-oriented behaviors.FindingsThe research findings highlighted that being engaged at work fosters the willingness of health professionals to partake in the improvement of organizational processes and practices. The positive implications of employees' engagement on innovative behaviors at work are catalyzed by good employee–manager relationships and a positive organizational climate.Practical implicationsHealthcare organizations should uphold the health professional's engagement to enhance their innovation potential. Targeted interventions are needed to merge work engagement with the enhancement of the organizational environment in which health professionals accomplish their activities. A positive organizational climate enacts an empowering work environment, which further incentivizes innovation.Originality/valueThe article adopts a micro-level perspective to investigate the triggers of innovative behaviors among healthcare professionals, providing evidence which is relevant for theory and practice.

Effect Of Human Resource Management Practices to Maturity Knowledge Management

Human resources are an asset for the company. Therefore, to get the best employees, human resource management is important to take the first steps in selecting prospective workforce, maintaining, developing, evaluating, and managing employee relations. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of human resource management practices on knowledge management maturity. This study used a population of 125 education staff (permanent lecturers), with a total sample of 62 respondents or 50% taken. The results showed that human resource management practicesSimultaneously, the effect of 0.59 affects the maturity of knowledge management. However, partially, there are two variables that have a significant effect, namely recruitment and compensation, while the three variables of training and development, performance management and employee relations have a negative influence or do not contribute to the maturity of knowledge management. Keywords : Human Resources Management Practices, recruitment, training and development, compensation, performance management, employee relations, knowledge management.

AI vs “AI”: Synthetic Minds or Speech Acts

The observation that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted workplace relationships and working practices is trite; it is nonetheless true. One significant change has been that the massive increase in call-center employment in the past 20 years has been mirrored during the pandemic by a corresponding increase in remote working or working-from-home. However, the call-center sector is, at least anecdotally, characterized by pressurized, target-driven completion of routine tasks often performed by temporary, over-qualified personnel with little personal control, investment, and engagement. Consequently, manager–employee relationships are often strained and, in particular, mistrustful.

The Nature of Employee–Organization Relationships at Polish Universities under Pandemic Conditions

(1) Background: The aim of this study is to describe manager–employee and employee–employee relations during the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on measures of the likely use of elements of remote teaching by university employees in the future. (2) Methods: The study used a descriptive-correlation research design with a survey as the primary instrument for data gathering. A total of 732 personnel took part in the survey, selected by a convenience sampling technique. The researchers used an adapted and modified instrument to gather data. The instrument underwent a reliability test. This study used structural equation modeling to confirm hypotheses. (3) Results: It was shown that manager–employee relations at Polish universities during the COVID-19 pandemic were of low quality. However, employee–employee relations were of above-average quality, and have a significant positive impact on intentions to use elements of remote working in the future. (4) Conclusions: Based on the results of the study, some general recommendations are presented for change management and relationship-building.

Does digitizing involve desensitizing? Strategic insights into the side effects of workplace digitization

ABSTRACT Digital technologies profoundly reshape working arrangements in the public sector. Digitization may trigger a depersonalization of workplaces, desensitizing the social organizational climate. However, it facilitates people-centred human resource management practices. The article sheds light into the manifold implications of work digitization on organizational climate. The findings of a serial mediation analysis suggested that digitization had side effects on social organizational climate. However, its indirect effects mediated by employee–manager relationships and employee involvement were positive. Tailored interventions are needed to address the drawbacks of digitization on social organizational climate and to exploit its positive implications in terms of employees’ centredness.

Türkiye'deki BT Projelerinin Çalışan Motivasyonunu Ne Etkiler? Lider İletişiminin, Ücret Memnuniyetinin ve İş Fırsatlarının Etkisi

This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing employee motivation and performance of information technology projects in Turkey and the perception of employee motivation next to it and investigate the effect of redundancy request. The employee on different IT projects was selected in Turkey for this study. Seven hypotheses were developed and tested by using literature studies and survey data obtained together. For the hypothesis tests, structural equation modeling was performed by using SPSS and AMOS programs. As a result of the application, five hypotheses were accepted, and two hypotheses were rejected. According to the results of the analysis, it is seen that employee-manager relationships and wage satisfaction have a positive effect on employee motivation. In addition, the hypothesis that the relationship between employee and manager affects performance other than motivation was supported. Also, perceived alternative job opportunities were found to have a positive effect on willingness to leave and a negative impact on employee motivation. The results were interpreted in support of the literature, and suggestions were made to shed light on future studies, and the study was completed in this way.

Work Flow Experience in the Light of Leader-Member Exchange and Person-Job Fit Theories.

Based on the positive psychology approach, the present study claims that Leader-Member Exchange Theory and Person-Job Fit Theory could be significant antecedents of flow experience in the workplace, as individuals living in the 21st century spend most of their lives at work. Flow experience is a source of high motivation for employees in terms of both cognitive and emotional functions. Therefore, the concept can cause many psychological states of well-being, such as having fun, feeling happy, or optimism. For this reason, it is quite important for the organizational behavior discipline to define the concept in detail and to focus on possible antecedents. In accordance with this purpose, a cross-sectional research study has been performed in Turkey with the participation of 711 white-collar employees from various companies in the service sector in Istanbul, Turkey. The findings of the research show that high quality manager-employee relationships had significant positive impacts on employees' flow experience (β = 0,801; t = 35,664; p = ,000). In addition, a good match between person and job had significant positive impacts on employees' flow experience (β = 0,559; t = 17,968; p = ,000). Thus, the proposed hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 of the study were supported. The results indicated that leader-member exchange and person-job fit are antecedents of flow experience in the workplace (p < 0,05). In the present study, all study variables are reviewed and the possible relationships among the study variables are discussed in the literature review part. Finally, the implications of the study for both the individual and the organization are presented in the conclusion and discussion section.

Public responses to employee posts on social media: the effects of message valence, message content, and employer reputation

PurposeThis study examines the effects of employees' personal social media posts on external publics' online engagement and offline word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions about a company. Specifically, it investigates how employee post characteristics including valence and content and employer reputation jointly influence publics' online and offline behaviors.Design/methodology/approachA 2 (post valence: positive vs. negative) × 2 (post content: organization-related vs. job-related) × 2 (employer reputation: good vs. bad) between-subjects experiment was conducted. Participants were asked to view a stimulus social media post created by a fictitious company employee, reflecting one of the eight experimental conditions on a random basis. After viewing, they were requested to report their online engagement intentions (i.e., “like,” “share” and “comment”) with the post and offline WOM intentions about the company.FindingsThe experimental results showed that participants expressed more “like” intentions when they viewed a positive post than a negative post. Further, they were more likely to “comment” on a job-related post as opposed to an organization-related post. In addition, a significant interaction effect between post valence and employer reputation on publics' online engagement was found, which in turn influenced their offline WOM intentions about the company.Originality/valueThis study is among the first empirical attempts to examine the effectiveness of employees' personal social media posts on external publics' online and offline behaviors. The experimental findings highlight the importance of managing employee relations from a corporate reputation perspective.

Responsible Leadership in the Manager–Employee Relationship

Research questions:The aim of this study is to explore and conceptualize responsible leadership. The topic is viewed from the viewpoint of the dyadic level between managers and employees. The following research questions are answered: What principles do managers and employees perceive as being significant for responsible leadership in the manager–employee relationship? What social contexts in the relationship call for the principles to occur? To whom do the parties place responsibility for the advancement of the principles?Theory:The study draws on relational leadership theory as well as literature on responsible leadership. Responsible leadership is understood as a dynamic and contextual process of social construction through relationships between managers and employees rooted in principles, which guide the parties’ actions.Type of the case:An explorative case study strategy was adopted. Two executive MBA groups are the cases through which the research phenomenon, responsible leadership, is explored. The data consists of a sample of 22 participants in the groups. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.Basis of the case:The participants in the executive MBA groups offer real-life data from which the results can be built. The participants represent professionals who have a broad and versatile perspective to leadership issues from the viewpoint of employee and manager. In general, an executive MBA programme advances its participants’ competency to reflect and analyse leadership topics.Findings:Conceptualization that shows the principles of responsibility in leadership—fairness, empowerment, openness, trust and caring—and their contextual and dynamic nature in the manager–employee relationship was formed.Discussions:This case study implies that exercising responsible leadership is produced differently in different social contexts: in some contexts the manager is expected to take the lead and be in charge, while at other times it is expected that practising responsible leadership principles will be shared between partners. A limitation is that this study explored its topic only at the dyadic level between manager and employee.

Religious accommodation in France: decoding managers' behaviour

PurposeThis research aims to explain, in the secular French context, the intention of managers to accommodate religious expression at work (REW) when they are not obliged to do so. This paper seeks to understand the determinants of managerial positions on REW. Building on previous studies on how organisations and managers deal with religious expression, this research seeks to extend the evidence on this important aspect of managerial behaviour in relation to accommodating REW.Design/methodology/approachThe hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in diversity management (N = 151 French managers). This method highlights attitudinal and organisational determinants favourable to the intent to accommodate.FindingsThe present research provides new insight by identifying two main direct factors affecting managers' accommodation, namely, organisational flexibility (flexible hours, autonomy) and perceived consequences (advantages, disadvantages) and one indirect factor, religiosity. In line with the contradictions within diversity management, the perceived consequences are ambivalent and highly context dependent. One issue to explore is that managers seek to deal with religious expression by making it invisible.Research limitations/implicationsIn the French context, the explanatory social norm might not be “religiosity” but rather “perceived secularity”. The authors recommend that future studies use qualitative methods with interviews and photo elicitation to extend this first study. Indeed, the complexity of the managerial position requires an in-depth understanding of managers' attitudes and behaviours with regard to religion. How do managers apply a common ground strategy and create unity despite differences? Is the desire to make arrangements invisible with a view to inclusive neutrality specific to France, or can it be generalised to managers in other countries? Does the intention to accommodate not essentially depend on the manager-employee relationship dynamic? This research raises questions for scholars about the relationship with the other and ethical managerial conduct.Practical implicationsFrance is a secular country where a debate is emerging on cases of discrimination due to REW. The results contribute to approaches to drafting company guidelines for managers and may help organisations anticipate the risks associated with REW. The discussion of the results reveals the importance of social norms in the sense of hypernorms (religiosity) and undoubtedly of secularism, nondiscrimination and gender equality in the decision-making process on accommodation. These inclusive norms should therefore be handled with care in the various guidelines that have been developed.Originality/valueREW is increasing but is a neglected dimension of diversity management. This study helps explore this new field by promoting an understanding of managers' intention to accommodate in a specific secular context.

Acting the part – managers view on employees with repeated short-term sickness absence

Abstract Background Repeated short-term sickness absence has been identified as a risk factor for long-term sickness absence. This association indicate the need for workplaces to pay attention to employees' sickness patterns and has led to guidelines which encourages employers to acknowledge frequent short-term absence so early interventions may be put in place. It is likely that employer attitudes have an impact for these employees, and for the development into sickness absence. One way of making sense of the employer relationship is to identify which roles they act upon, and how the setting influences these actions. By applying role theory, the aim of the study was to explore managers view of employees with repeated short-term sickness absence. Methods The study is a qualitative interview study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers, health- and safety/union representatives and HR-managers at 17 different workplaces, a total of 44 individuals participated in the study. The material was analysed inductively using thematic analysis, focusing on the latent content. Results The results suggest that managing repeated short-term sickness absence is viewed as troublesome by the managers and it is not uncommon to express negative attitudes towards these employees. The results indicate that the managers' views of people on short-term sick leave goes through several phases, which we analyse as acts in a play, where their given roles are prescribing which actions to take, and which resources they have available for acting these parts. These acts describe an increasingly controlling attitude, where the sick leave is seen as an individual problem best managed by repressive tactics. Conclusions Great responsibility is put on the manager without enough decision latitude for them to handle the sick leave and rehabilitation process, leaving them with the option of focusing on individual actions. Key messages Role theory offers the possibility to analyze managers' attitudes and behaviours by considering the workplace and the manager-employee relationship as regulated by norms and organizational factors. The conditions within the organization influence how the managers deal with sickness absence and have an impact on how they view the employees with repeated short-term sickness absence.

The Paradox of Workplace Anger: How Women Can Level the Playing Field

While male leaders are rewarded for expressing anger in the workplace, female leaders are punished through negative characterizations and employee-manager relationship outcomes. Research has demonstrated that one mechanism that accounts for this differential treatment of male and female leaders who express anger is the attribution made about their anger (Brescoll & Uhlmann, 2008). As compared to male leaders, female leaders anger expression is attributed more to internal factors (e.g., personality) and less to external factors (e.g., situation with colleague). The purpose of the current study is to examine whether a pre-existing relationship between a leader and an employee can buffer female leaders who express anger from employees’ negative characterizations and backlash through changing the attribution of the anger expression so that it is attributed more to external factors and less to internal factors. Participants were given scenarios in which they were depicted as employees and their manager (either a male or a female) had expressed anger at them. In addition, half of the participants were told they had a pre-existing relationship with their manager while half were told they did not know their manager well. As hypothesized, a pre-existing relationship buffered female managers who expressed anger from employees’ negative characterizations (competence, communality and interpersonal hostility, advancement potential and boss desirability) and employee-manager relationship outcomes (trust toward the manager, intention to quit the manager, and retaliation toward the manager) through attributing the anger more to external factors and less to internal factors.

How do Employees Respond to Workplace Injustice? New Insights from Ranked Ordinal Employee Preferences

Research suggests that employees who perceive distributive and interpersonal injustice at the workplace seek to restore equity and/or retaliate. While the literature in organizational psychology has focused on workplace deviance as a function of psychological traits and the individual management-employee relationship, the industrial relations and critical management literatures have focused on coordinated, mobilized worker actions. This article suggests that these two literatures need to be better integrated and that individual worker actions should not be considered in isolation; rather the full range of actions available to the employee should be taken into consideration. This, we argue, would allow for a more integrated understanding of the cognitive processes at work when the affected employee is faced with injustice at work. Using a unique sample of nearly 800 working Americans, this article examines responses to injustice in terms of preference rankings, using insights derived from a more fulsome reading of the decision sciences literature. We find that in response to high perceptions of distributive injustice, employees are most likely to “voice their grievances” directly to management. When this occurs in an employee-oriented workplace culture, managers can reduce the likelihood of covert responses such as production deviance. While voice is the dominant form of response, “exit” is the most likely outcome when employees face interpersonal injustice. Our findings add to the literature on deviance by showing that deviance is not the first preference of employees. Employees are less likely to choose deviance when faced with other attainable choices.

Impact of Talent Management on Organizational Performance: The Moderating Role of an Effective Performance Management System

Despite the theoretical and empirical evidence that talent management improves organizational performance it is still one of the main challenges facing organizations worldwide and specifically in the health sector. This study examines the moderating effect of an effective performance management system on the relationship between talent management and organizational performance. This study was carried out on the public health sector and was specifically focused on public health workers in Jordan. The study focused on 30 public hospitals in Jordan. A survey of 430 respondents that were made up of public health workers was used for the analysis. SEM in AMOS statistical analysis package was used is this study. The findings showed that a performance management system moderates the relationship between talent management and organizational performance. This suggests that performance management system can be used as a strategy to identify talented employees; integrate, re-strategize and strengthen management-employee relationship to improve their organizational performance.

Managing Employee Relations and its Effect on Organizational Success

Employees in an organization form the most important segment of productive capacity. Therefore, effective employee relations management is essential to achieve organizational success. In modern organizations employees need counselling, mentoring, and involvement, among other intrinsic drivers to motivate and boost their morale for necessary superior performance. Managing employee relations has deep psychological perspectives and requires that management uses recognition as a powerful tool to encourage organizational citizenship behaviour, job satisfaction, and employee happiness to promote career and organizational success. The exploratory research design was used for the study involving 108 respondents. Data generated through primary and secondary sources were analyzed through descriptive and regression statistical techniques and the result showed very strong positive relationship between managing employee relations and organizational success. The study was not exhaustive; therefore, further study could examine the relationship between organizational commitment and employee performance. It was suggested that modern organizations must cultivate the culture of open communication to enhance employee motivation and performance.