Mobile Employees Research Articles

Career agency and person-environment fit: female globally mobile employees in Japan

Career agency and person-environment fit: female globally mobile employees in Japan

Missed connections: A resource-management theory to combat loneliness experienced by globally mobile employees

AbstractAll globally mobile employees (GMEs) share a common propensity to experience loneliness when they relocate to a new country where they have yet to establish social connections. To better understand how GMEs combat this feeling, we offer a conceptual process model grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory to describe how they achieve social integration. The process begins with an assessment of GMEs’ desired versus perceived social relations, with most perceiving a relational deficiency or loneliness. This then triggers an audit of available social resources, which we differentiate in terms of source (personal vs. contextual) and stability (enduring vs. transient) to develop a typology of resources. Depending on the availability of resources, GMEs will follow one of three resource-management pathways to become socially integrated. Those who choose an expansion pathway will achieve what we refer to as deep-level (authentic) social integration and those who follow a protection pathway will attain surface-level (functional) social integration. The underutilization pathway is an interim route that may lead to either a resource-expansion or resource-protection pathway depending on changes in the availability of resources. Our iterative and recursive cyclical process model has implications for international management research, workplace loneliness studies, and COR theory.

Gender, careers, and kids: a qualitative study of the partners of international employees

ABSTRACT This paper examines the relocation experiences of sixteen women and men who moved with their children to Aotearoa New Zealand when their partners took up career positions in that country. It analyses the relative weight they gave to their careers and their relationships with their partners as they responded to the challenges posed by these transitions. Attention to the interests of children is also identified as significant in their career decisions. Interviews with similar numbers of women and men whose partners were globally mobile employees enables analysis of the diverse ways in which gender shapes career pathways during a period of transition. The findings contribute to a complex analysis of the situation of those previously referred as a ‘trailing’ or ‘accompanying’ spouse when a dual career couple engages in international relocation.

Collaboration and Knowledge Spillovers by Mobile Inventors

This paper examines how collaboration influences knowledge spillovers by mobile inventors. Although prior research has offered many insights on mobility-induced knowledge spillovers, whether mobile employees can transfer the knowledge generated by other employees in their previous firms remains underexplored. In this paper, I propose that pre-mobility and post-mobility collaboration jointly affect knowledge spillovers by mobile inventors. Using a difference-in-differences approach with matching, I find that collaborators’ knowledge is more likely than non-collaborators’ knowledge to be transferred by mobile inventors, and this effect is strengthened by the intensity of the post-mobility collaboration of the mobile inventors and the knowledge similarity between their pre- and post-mobility collaborators. The results of this paper make important contributions to the literatures on collaborative innovation and employee mobility.

Co-mobility, Emergence, and New Firm Performance

This paper addresses the endogenous nature of employees sorting into a group of similar others. Many studies have focused heavily on successful ventures using ex post metrics of early-stage firms to then, in turn, explain the existence of differences in organizational growth. In this paper, we measure the new firm performance outcomes as a function of the heterogeneity and the dynamics of (co-)mobile employees. Our results show that the nature of employee co-mobility provides an important initial condition for understanding the emergence and success of new organizations. Moreover, we find that firms attracting others become an intermediate self-selection of the survival of new organizations. By looking at the ex ante factors that contribute to the performance of new organizations, we make a contribution to understanding entrepreneurial (co-)mobility and its strategic implications.

LIMITING EFFECT OF NETWORK RESOURCES ON VPN IMPLEMENTATION

In the modern conditions of developed information systems, the advantages of creating virtual private networks cannot be underestimated. But before mentioning the clearest and most useful ways to create virtual private networks, it is necessary to understand its meaning. Nowadays, the question of how to communicate with the corporate information system is important for users. Here they will need a broadband connection, regardless of whether they use a fixed network or Wi-Fi, as it is not uncommon for users to work on the road. Today, virtual technologies are becoming more popular, they occupy a high place in modern companies. Because they allow you to prevent the voice server from connecting to one workplace. It is not always necessary to keep employees in the office to get information about the services, there is no need to be there, it is enough to use a remote connection. Many institutions have implemented a fixed or mobile solution, which provides effective connection of mobile employees through the terminal. Many networks are now connected via the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary to take certain measures for the security of such a large system, because any computer can gain access to the network of any institution, the risk of breaking the computer is much higher without any physical effort

OWebSync: Seamless Synchronization of Distributed Web Clients

Many enterprise software services are adopting a fully web-based architecture for both internal line-of-business applications and for online customer-facing applications. Although wireless connections are becoming more ubiquitous and faster, mobile employees and customers are often offline due to expected or unexpected network disruptions. Nevertheless, continuous operation of the software is expected. This article presents OWebSync: a web-based middleware for data synchronization in interactive groupware with fast resynchronization of offline clients and continuous, interactive synchronization of online clients. To automatically resolve conflicts, OWebSync implements a fine-grained data synchronization model and leverages state-based Conflict-free Replicated Data Types. This middleware uses Merkle-trees embedded in the tree-structured data and virtual Merkle-tree levels to achieve the required interactive performance. Our comparative evaluation with available operation-based and delta-state-based middleware solutions shows that OWebSync is especially better in operating in and recovering from offline settings and network disruptions. In addition, OWebSync scales more efficiently over time, as it does not store version vectors or other meta-data for all past clients.

(Non-)Star Struck: Internal Mobility and the Network Evolution of B- Performers

Despite growing recognition that non-star performers play a greater than expected role in organizational effectiveness, we know surprisingly little about how so called “B-Performers” add value to firms. Integrating theory from socialization and social capital literatures, we assert that the value of non-star performers comes from their proclivity to develop complex social networks over time following internal job transfers. We derive and test a novel theoretical model of non-star internal mobility and network evolution in a medium sized US healthcare system, leveraging a multi-source, longitudinal data set comprised of email communications and personnel performance records. Supporting our model, we find evidence of a negative association between performance and internal mobility, and that internally mobile employees expand their incoming but not outgoing network ties over time relative to their immobile counterparts.

Globalization as a challenge for professional education

<p>Niniejszy artykuł dotyczy edukacji zawodowej jako elementu globalizacji we współczesnym świecie. Celem artykułu jest ustalenie podstawowej problematyki w zakresie miejsca edukacji zawodowej w czasach globalizacji. W artykule skoncentrowano się na takich kwestiach, jak specyfika edukacji zawodowej w Polsce i na świecie, znaczenie edukacji zawodowej dla współczesnego świata, pojęcie i cechy globalizacji, jak również determinanty/ uwarunkowania globalizacji we współczesnym świecie i edukacja zawodowa jako efekt globalizującego się świata. Człowiek, z obywatela danego państwa, stał się obywatelem świata. Fakt ten niesie ze sobą zarówno dużo zalet, jak i zagrożeń, w tym w sferze edukacji zawodowej, dla której wszechobecne przemiany przyniosły wiele nowych wyzwań. Dotyczy to zwłaszcza przystosowania programów nauczania do potrzeb społeczeństw funkcjonujących w nowych warunkach gospodarczych, społecznych i kulturowych, w tym podjęcia działań zmniejszających dysproporcję między opanowywaną przez uczniów wiedzą a umiejętnościami czy rozszerzenia kształcenia specjalistycznego. Szkolnictwo zawodowe musi zmierzyć się z koniecznością zmiany priorytetów, aby zgodnie z trendami globalizacyjnymi kształcić mobilnych pracowników gospodarki rynkowej, aktywnych i zdolnych do ciągłego samokształcenia.</p>

“#Australia in the morning, #Thailand by midday, #America in the afternoon”

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to generate insights into how multinational companies (MNCs) promote global mobility in their Employer Branding (EB) messages on Facebook.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed 13.340 EB messages found on the Facebook career pages of 30 major MNCs (10 of each in the US, UK and Germany) drawing on a methodological approach combining Grounded Theory and text-mining.FindingsBuilding on the perspective of psychological contracts as sensitizing concept, the analysis of the overall sample reveals a range of core themes in EB messages across all MNCs studied. With regards to global mobility, MNCs emphasize relational, i.e. socio-emotional, contents, particularly, highlighting opportunities of experience and personal development. While global mobility is an overall marginal theme, German MNCs extensively promote global mobility, whereas US- and UK-based MNCs do not explicitly make it a subject of their messages. The findings are discussed in the light of institutional theory.Originality/valueDespite mega-trend, little is known about social media EB, especially when it comes to the contents that MNCs communicate to (potential) employees. Applying an innovative methodological approach, the authors offer insights into these contents. Discussing the findings in the light of institutional theory, it is concluded that promoting global mobility in socio-emotional terms seems of high importance to reduce uncertainties associated with living and working abroad. This might help firms to hire internationally mobile employees, especially in countries where job mobility is generally low.

When suppliers shift my boundaries: Supplier employee mobility and its impact on buyer firms' sourcing strategy

AbstractResearch summaryBuyer firms respond to supplier employee mobility by reshuffling work among suppliers. However, the extant literature has not considered plural‐sourcing firms which can bring work back in‐house. In this paper, we develop a governance framework in which buyers engage in a comparative assessment of the costs associated with different sourcing modes following supplier employee mobility. Due to the imperfect transferability of social capital and associated uncertainty, buyers face increased contracting costs when supplier employees move. This prompts plural‐sourcing buyers to increase their reliance on insourcing when the costs of adjusting in‐house capacity are relatively low and when the costs of switching to alternative suppliers are relatively high. The analysis of data on patent prosecution activities and patent attorney mobility provides support to our theory.Managerial summaryThis study provides a decision framework for buyer firms when their suppliers experience employee departures. Buyers may choose to (a) stay with the suppliers suffering employee losses or (b) follow mobile employees to their new suppliers. However, in both cases contracting becomes more difficult due to the disruption in supplier relationships or the need to work with new suppliers. There is a third option (c) though which is to bring work in‐house. We explain that buyers opt for option (c) when it is easy to expand in‐house capacity and when the costs of switching to alternative suppliers already in use are relatively high. Thus, supplier employee mobility may lead buyer firms to adjust their reliance on outsourcing even when there are no buyer employee departures.

The stay-behind family: living with contemporary global mobility

The global mobility literature almost exclusively focuses on the traveller, neglecting the experiences of the family. This is particularly the situation with families who stay behind. Using the Job Resources-Demand Model, this study seeks to address this issue. We concentrate on the partners and children of professional sailors, in order to develop insight into how the stay behind family adjusts to the demands created by international travel. The findings enhance knowledge of the demands borne by those who stay behind, and the resources they utilise to manage their ever-evolving situation. The recurring departures and repetitive repatriations of the traveller create the greatest stress. In the absence of organisational support, the partners relied on extended family and empathetic friends. Contemporary digital communication technologies serve to buffer the demands and facilitate the re-integration of the traveller into the family home. The enduring absence of formal organisational support for globally mobile employees and their families has been attributed to a lack of understanding of the ramifications of this mobility, and in this study, respondents provide suggestions of support from the organisations that would assist in work–home balance.

Estimating personal exposures from a multi-hazard sensor network.

Occupational exposure assessment is almost exclusively accomplished with personal sampling. However, personal sampling can be burdensome and suffers from low sample sizes, resulting in inadequately characterized workplace exposures. Sensor networks offer the opportunity to measure occupational hazards with a high degree of spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we demonstrate an approach to estimate personal exposure to respirable particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3), and noise using hazard data from a sensor network. We simulated stationary and mobile employees that work at the study site, a heavy-vehicle manufacturing facility. Network-derived exposure estimates compared favorably to measurements taken with a suite of personal direct-reading instruments (DRIs) deployed to mimic personal sampling but varied by hazard and type of employee. The root mean square error (RMSE) between network-derived exposure estimates and personal DRI measurements for mobile employees was 0.15 mg/m3, 1 ppm, 82 ppb, and 3 dBA for PM, CO, O3, and noise, respectively. Pearson correlation between network-derived exposure estimates and DRI measurements ranged from 0.39 (noise for mobile employees) to 0.75 (noise for stationary employees). Despite the error observed estimating personal exposure to occupational hazards it holds promise as an additional tool to be used with traditional personal sampling due to the ability to frequently and easily collect exposure information on many employees.

Are lower social class origins stigmatized at work? A qualitative study of social class concealment and disclosure among White men employees who experienced upward mobility

Despite recognizing that socioeconomic standing can influence workplace behavior, minimal research in psychology has explored social class as a stigmatized and potentially manageable identity in the workplace. Compared to women and people of color, White men who moved up from low-income backgrounds may be especially likely to experience their previous class status as a concealable stigma at work. In this study, we used qualitative methods to investigate whether having a lower social class background might be experienced as a stigmatized identity for some employees, using a sample of 20 White men who self-identified as having moved up in social class. Individual interviews were used to assess the nature of participants' social class concealment and disclosure at work. Thematic analysis revealed five reasons why these White men concealed their former, lower-income status at work: Judgment, Nobody understands, It's personal, Pity, and Don't want to feel embarrassed or vulnerable. Our analysis also revealed five reasons why participants disclosed their previous class identity at work: being Forced to, To relate, To motivate/help somebody, Noticing class cues, and Becoming close. Results indicate that having a lower social class background can be experienced as stigmatizing at work. Moreover, while disclosure of one's lower-income background is more common than concealment for men in this group, that disclosure is often unintentional or unwanted. Our results also indicate that, like other potentially concealable identities, social class disclosure is an ongoing process that happens unevenly across time and across people. Future research should expand on this work by examining the experiences of upwardly mobile employees from other identity intersections.

From walls to experience – servitization of workplaces

PurposeNew ways of working challenge workplace management: increasing mobility and diminishing organizational boundaries require re-evaluation of both workplace design and service delivery. However, structures and processes of workplace management are still traditional, and managers, together with outsourced facility service providers, often do not succeed at fulfilling the needs of mobile employees. The aforementioned changes stimulate discussions in many areas in both industry and academy. Nevertheless, workplace literature from business perspective seems to be scarce. In this paper, the focus is on workplace service offering for mobile knowledge workers. This paper aims to study the current state of workplace servitization. To answer this, the authors identify value offering elements that are used in office business market to deliver workplace as a service.Design/methodology/approachThis study follows multiple case study methodology including five case studies. Primary data were collected through interviews with workplace service providers. Secondary data included observations and publicly available data. The authors took business model design approach to study selected business offerings.FindingsThe results indicate that workplace business models include elements of servitization on various levels. Physical space is no longer the central offering in the office business; instead, it acts as a component on which the service portfolio is built. The highest value from workplace comes from experience-related service offerings.Originality/valueAcademically, research contributes to the workplace management studies by providing servitization perspective to a topic previously approached with a more technical and psychological point of view. This study can also support service providers and customer organizations in their quest to make service provision more flexible and experience-oriented.

Survey of prevalence and types of bacterial contamination of mobile phones of personnel employed in major wards of educational hospitals in Yasuj

Background: Nosocomial infections are a growing cause of illness and death in humans that a high percentage of them are caused by bacteria. Contaminated surfaces of Environment play an important role in the pathogenesis of nosocomial infections. Mobile phone as a tool widely used in hospitals and due to high temperature and humidity act as a microbial source And creates an environment for microbial growth. The aim of the present study was to investigate the contamination of mobile phones and health personnel in major ward of Yasuj hospitals. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study was completely random on 93 subjects. Sampling were with a wet and sterile swab from personnel departments of major hospitals Yasouj And to evaluate the possibility of bacterial growth, the cultures were obtained, and ultimately the growth of microorganisms were identified by biochemical tests. Results: The results showed that 88.2% of mobile phones by major department staff have been contaminated by bacteria. Most organisms have been found coagulase-negative staphylococci (69.9 percent) and Staphylococcus aureus has been found in 18.3% of cases. Also, 18.3 percent of mobile employees who were infected with Gram-negative bacteria Ecoli (12.9 percent) most Gram-negative bacteria were found the Klebsiella (1.1%),Enterobacter (1.1%) and Proteus mirabilis (3.2%). Conclusion: The results of this study prevalence of mobile staff of Yasuj hospitals high and according to the everyday use of mobile phones in hospitals and their role in the reproduction and transmission of microbial agents in the role of a public health threat is more pronounced. So, employing different ways to control the growth of bacteria, including restricting the use of mobile phones in hospital and washing hands after using the cell phone is necessary.

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Inventor Mobility and the Formation of Technology-Oriented Alliances

We link the hiring of R&D scientists from industry competitors to the subsequent formation of collaborative agreements, namely technology-oriented alliances. By transferring technological knowledge as well as cognitive elements to the hiring firm, mobile inventors foster the alignment of decision frames applied by potential alliance partners in the process of alliance formation thereby making collaboration more likely. Using data on inventor mobility and alliance formation amongst 42 global pharmaceutical firms over 16 years, we show that inventor mobility is positively associated with the likelihood of alliance formation in periods following inventor movements. This relationship becomes more pronounced if mobile employees bring additional knowledge about their prior firm’s technological capabilities and for alliances aimed at technology development rather than for agreements related to technology transfer. It is weakened, however, if the focal firm is already familiar with the competitor’s technological capabilities. By revealing these relationships, our study contributes to research on alliance formation, employee mobility, and organizational frames.

Social Support and Life‐Domain Interactions among Assigned and Self‐Initiated Expatriates

Based upon conservation of resources theory, this study is the first to explore (1) the relations between life‐domain support received by internationally mobile employees (IMEs) from their organization, supervisors, coworkers, and family and friends and their life‐domain conflicts and enrichments in two directions: work life → personal life (WL → PL) and personal life → work life (PL → WL) and (2) whether these links are different between assigned expatriates (AEs) and self‐initiated expatriates (SIEs). The questionnaire data were collected from 182 SIEs and 102 AEs. Results from multivariate analyses show that (1) the more IMEs perceive receiving life‐domain support from their family and friends and their organization, the less they report life‐domain conflicts and (2) the more IMEs perceive receiving life‐domain support from their coworkers, the more they report life‐domain enrichments. Finally, it appears that AEs' perceived life‐domain organizational support is positively related to their perceived WL → PL enrichments and that SIEs' perceived life‐domain coworker support is negatively related to their life‐domain conflicts in both directions.

Seconded National Experts and global mobility—Extending the paradigm

Global mobility is an expanding field of academic research, which identifies an increasing range of modern variants of people working abroad. The community of Seconded National Experts (SNEs) in the institutions, bodies, and agencies of the European Union (EU) is a distinct category of internationally mobile employees, which has so far been neglected. This article assesses the features of this influential group of people and compares them to other communities within the generally recognized expatriate community. The unique nature of SNEs and hence the challenges that need to be considered by human resource (HR) practitioners to ensure they achieve their desired goals at organizational and individual levels are identified. The findings suggest that expatriate typologies should be extended to include this unique community and provide further guidance to HR practitioners. Finally, areas for additional research are offered, with the aim of learning from SNEs to extend international assignment theory.

Are Employees More Mobilized After Job Mobility?

The antecedents of voluntary employee turnover are well studied, but little is known about the consequences or outcomes of this voluntary job mobility. We address this gap through a survey study of 121 banking employees who have changed their employer in the last 3 years. We hypothesized that job change, whether self-initiated or imposed, may improve organizational commitment, work engagement, and well-being. These positive effects are expected when the job change is perceived as professionally and personally beneficial. Regression analyses revealed that employer change that is perceived as successful, whether voluntary or not, predicts an increase in general well-being, work engagement, and, to a lesser extent, affective organizational commitment. These results suggest that employer change may help employees to be more mobilized in their new work. Misconceptions about highly mobile employees and advantages of job change for both employees and organizations are discussed.