On‐the‐job Innovation: The Impact of Job Design and Human Resource Management through Production Ownership

A growing number of practitioners and academics endorse that the ability of organizations to foster, develop and use the innovative potential of their employees contributes to organizational success. Yet empirical investigation of individual innovation processes is lacking. In this research we address the question of whether both more flexibility in an employees’ job design and commitment‐oriented HRM activities promote individual innovative work behaviour. Findings suggest that a multifunctional job design and the perceived HRM system promote employee involvement in innovative activities through increased feelings of ownership for work‐related issues and problems.     

Is overparenting harmful to creativity?

Heavy parental involvement is widely believed to inhibit creativity. On the basis of this rationale and the self‐creativity literature, this study collected paired data to examine the effects of overparenting (which includes the parental arrangement of daily life affairs and parental involvement in schooling), team learning, and coaching by immediate supervisors on employee creativity (i.e., the creativity of Chinese only‐child millennial employees). The findings are described as follows. First, parental involvement in schooling had a significant and positive effect on employee creativity, and the parental arrangement of daily life affairs was inversely related to employee creativity, as in a U‐shaped relationship. Second, supervisors' coaching behaviours improved employee creativity and partially moderated the relationship between overparenting and employee creativity. Third, team learning moderated the interrelationships between overparenting, coaching behaviours, and employee creativity. This paper discusses the complex factors that shape creativity and provides recommendations regarding the parenting and recruitment of Chinese millennials.     

Put down your phone and listen to me: How boss phubbing undermines the psychological conditions necessary for employee engagement

This study investigates the impact of an increasingly common behavior by supervisors, namely boss phubbing (phone-snubbing). We define boss phubbing (BPhubbing) as the extent to which a supervisor uses or is distracted by his/her cell phone while in the presence of subordinates, and examine its impact on supervisory trust and the psychological conditions necessary for employee engagement. Three studies were conducted to test the research hypotheses, using both a continuous measure and a situational prime of BPhubbing. The results reveal that BPhubbing has a negative indirect effect on employee engagement. Specifically, BPhubbing reduces employee engagement by undermining supervisory trust which, in turn, lowers employee engagement via the psychological conditions of meaningfulness and availability. This research offers both theoretical and practical implications regarding how smartphone use, and BPhubbing in particular, may undermine job-related outcomes. The results provide a rich theoretical understanding of the psychological processes through which BPhubbing impacts employee engagement. The findings suggest a need for supervisory training and clear corporate policies regarding smartphone use.     

Dialogue‐Based Evaluation as a Creative Climate Indicator: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry

This paper examines how different forms of performance evaluation relate to aspects of the creative climate in a major pharmaceutical company. The study was based on a large employee‐attitude survey that was distributed to all company employees. The study analyses survey results from 5,333 employees at five R&D sites. The results indicate that management's evaluation of employees (either dialogue‐based or control‐based) relates to the type of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) that drives employees, to their style of thinking (value‐focused thinking) and on their attitudes to organizational creativity. The paper then discusses implications of these findings for HRM.     

An agent based modeling approach in the strategic human resource Management,including endogenous and exogenous factors

Human Resource (HR) takes a dominate place in the life of an organization knowing that it becomes one of the competitive factors, it is also considered an important preoccupation of governments who try to control the wage bill and the HR structure evolution. The current trend in HRM is to enhance it to the strategic level.The HR field is a complex system, its management is affected by the HR behavior in the way that it is very tough to predict or analyze the preferences and decisions of an employee; HRM is a dynamic discipline highly linked with people behavior, which interact freely without anyone's guidance. This analysis named bottom-up starts by focusing on the characteristics of each agent at a micro-level, because the agents behaviors and interactions each other and with the external environment lead to new laws and changes that occur on the macro-level.For this reason an Agent Based Modeling (ABM) is proposed in this paper to integrate this property (behaviorism) in modeling the HR structure evolution. This approach takes into consideration the endogenous conditions of an employee in his work and the exogenous shocks that can affect his behavior; the goal is to get closer to the HRM aspects reality and predict the future patterns of the HR structure.     

Exploring HRM Meta‐Features that Foster Employees' Innovative Work Behaviour in Times of Increasing Work–Life Conflict

Today, employees' innovative work behaviour (IWB) is critical for companies' success. However, employees increasingly experience work–life conflict (WLC) which negatively influences performance at work. Human resource management (HRM) has the potential to foster employees' engagement in innovative activities and to reduce tensions between work and private life simultaneously. Our paper aims to advance understanding under which conditions these relations occur by exploring HRM meta‐features. These are defined as overall characteristics of an HR system helping companies to communicate the content of HR practices in a way that leads to desired interpretations by employees. Using a qualitative, interview study approach, we find that HRM contributes to IWB and diminishes feelings of WLC mainly through the four meta‐features ‘individual orientation’, ‘discretion orientation’, ‘effort orientation’ and ‘expectancy orientation’. We link our findings to extant literature and provide suggestions for managers how these meta‐features can be put into organizational practice.     

Standing in others' shoes: The role of leader prosocial motivation in facilitating employee creativity

By reference to social learning theory, this research examines the effect of leader prosocial motivation on employee creativity through investigating the mediating role of employee perspective taking and the moderating role of leader performance. Using a dyadic sample of 262 subordinates and their direct supervisors, the results reveal that leader prosocial motivation positively relates to employee perspective taking and employee perspective taking can mediate the correlation of leader prosocial motivation with employee creativity. Meanwhile, leader performance can moderate the correlation of leader prosocial motivation with employee perspective taking. Moreover, the perspective taking's mediating role between leader prosocial motivation and employee creativity can be moderated by leader performance. Finally, according to the findings and limitations of the study, its future research and managerial implications are discussed.     

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

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

Psychological capital and self‐reported employee creativity: The moderating role of supervisor support and job characteristics

Although the positive effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on employee performance is well documented, the conditions under which PsyCap exerts the most influence on creativity warrant further research. Complementing and extending prior studies, we theorize and examine how two critical contextual factors (supervisor support for creativity [SSC] and job characteristics) effectively activate PsyCap associated with self‐reported employee creativity. Drawing on an interactional perspective, we use trait activation theory to examine the moderating effects of SSC and job characteristics on the relationship between PsyCap and self‐reported employee creativity. Through rigorous hypotheses testing (N = 356 individuals from multiple industries in Chinese firms), our results demonstrate that both SSC and job characteristics positively moderate the PsyCap–creativity relationship. Additional analyses reveal that PsyCap is most effective at enhancing creativity when both SSC and job characteristics are high. Implications of these findings for theory, future research and practice are discussed.     

Activating constructive employee behavioural responses in a crisis: Examining the effects of pre‐crisis reputation and crisis communication strategies on employee voice behaviours

This study explores how organizational management can promote employee voice behaviours, as positive behavioural reactions with constructive ideas, in responding to organizational crisis. Using an experimental study (N = 640) among full‐time employees in the United States, the study found that pre‐crisis internal reputation and crisis communication strategies—accommodative response and stealing thunder—positively and directly affected constructive employee voice behaviours in a crisis situation. Furthermore, the study revealed how post‐crisis internal reputation mediates the influences of pre‐crisis internal reputation and stealing thunder on positive/constructive and negative/destructive employee voice behaviours. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical development of crisis communication in the internal context of an organization, especially with respect to employee voice behaviours. The study also highlights an important practical implication for crisis managers who can activate and promote positive employee behaviour voices, thereby influencing leadership's strategic decision‐making in an organizational crisis.     

Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and innovation: A test of competing hypotheses

In this paper, we address the relation between Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX; the quality of the relationship between leader and subordinate), employee creativity (the generation of novel and useful ideas), and employee innovation (the promotion and implementation of these ideas). In the current set of studies, we test the competing hypotheses that LMX will either have a direct effect on employee innovation, or an indirect effect through employee creativity. In a field study of leader–subordinate dyads (N = 118), we found that LMX had no direct effect on employee innovation, and that employee creativity fully mediated the relationship between LMX and innovation. In a follow‐up two‐wave field study of employees (N = 398), we found that the LMX dimension professional respect predicted innovation through creativity, while the other dimensions did not. The results of this work indicate that research on LMX and innovation requires a multidimensional perspective, and that it may be valuable to differentiate between creativity and innovation.     

Do Intelligent Leaders Make a Difference? The Effect of a Leader's Emotional Intelligence on Followers' Creativity

This research investigates the connection between emotional intelligence (EI) and creativity. This was studied by exploring: (i) an association between leaders' EI and their followers' creative output; (ii) an association between six sub‐dimensions of EI and creativity; and (iii) a mediating role of climate in the link between EI and creativity. Two questionnaires (one for leaders and one for employees) were used to collect data in a hospital. Sixty‐six usable leader‐employee dyads were collected. The findings confirmed a positive relationship between leaders' EI and employees' creativity. At an EI's sub‐dimensions level, the current research showed an association between creativity, on one hand, and self‐encouragement and understanding of own emotions, on the other. Finally, no mediating effect of climate was observed. The absence of a mediating effect is interesting, since it suggests a direct link between leaders' EI and employees' creativity, regardless of the climate. This is important, since it calls attention to the paramount role of leaders in shaping individual and organizational behaviours as far as creativity is concerned. The paper also discusses implications for management and practice.     

Adapting technology: effect of high-involvement HRM and organisational trust

This study is designed to empirically test a model of high-involvement human resource management (HIHRM), organisational trust, and technology adaptation grounded on social exchange theory in the context of the private banking sector. The proposed model intends to add to the understanding of the effect of HIHRM on technology adaptation via the mediating influence of organisational trust. Frontline employees were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. Results from partial least square-structural equation modelling suggest that there is a significant influence of HIHRM on technology adaptation. Organisational trust further mediates the relationship. Thus, this paper finds an answer to the ‘black box’ of human resource management (HRM) practices, explaining how HIHRM influences employees’ attitudes towards technology adaptation. The study can help management have a better understanding of the importance of employee involvement-oriented HRM in introducing and implementing a new technology through the integration of trust processes in the organisation.     

Innovation and HRM: Towards an Integrated Framework

This paper explores the connection between innovation (management) and human resource management. Much has been written about the both concepts separately, but there is no integrated conceptual framework available for the combination of the two. Our goal here is to develop such a framework. We do this in a number of steps, starting with a presentation of the existing approaches and models with respect to innovation (management) and HRM. This is followed by a search for the linkage between the two traditions, as a starting point for an integrated model and an in‐depth case study regarding the link between innovation and HRM, in order to further develop our model. We conclude with the presentation of our model and with suggestions for further research.     

Dimensions of Employee Satisfaction as Determinants of Organizational Commitment in the Hotel Industry

In today's dynamic environment, the role of employees and their level of organizational commitment are becoming increasingly important for business success, which is especially relevant for the service industry in general and for the tourism sector in particular because of problems associated with employee turnover, loyalty strategies with the customer, and so forth. Employee satisfaction is considered an essential ingredient for developing organizational commitment. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of different facets of employee job satisfaction, that is, job conditions, reward system, relations with superiors and co‐workers, organizational human resources (HR) policies, on employees’ organizational commitment in the hotel industry. The research hypotheses are tested with a sample of 760 hotel employees on Gran Canaria, Spain. The results show the relevance of the working conditions, direct rewards, relationships with managers, and the HR policies in order to develop a high level of organizational commitment.     

Effectiveness of vendor-managed inventory in the electronics industry: determinants and outcomes

This study used the extended limits-to-value model to frame four research hypotheses related to the effects of organizational size, employee involvement, and logistics integration on the expected and perceived values of vendor-managed inventory (VMI) as implemented in the electronics industry. Most of the findings supported the hypotheses. Specifically, that supply chain members working for organizations with high levels of employee involvement and logistics integration were more likely to realize the potential values of VMI. However, contrary to the notion that large organizations have more slack resources in technology adoption and implementation, VMI benefited small organizations most.     

Dimensions of Employee Energy and Their Differences: Evidence from Chinese Insurance Companies

The purpose of this research is to explore the structure of employee energy and analyze its differences in demographic variables as well as the differences between groups. The study collected 294 questionnaires of employees in Chinese insurance companies. Confirmatory factor analysis and one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the data analysis. The results showed that employee energy is a three‐dimensional concept that comprises basal energy, growing energy, and behavioral energy. Employee energy only has significant differences on monthly income and the level of positions, and the employees who have high employee energy share the characteristic of both high monthly income and the level of positions. Respondents were divided into four groups: 1) high‐positive‐energy, 2) low‐positive‐energy, 3) low‐negative‐energy, and 4) high‐negative‐energy employees. High‐positive‐energy employees showed the characteristics of high basal energy, high growing energy, and high behavioral energy, showing a feature of plump wings. Finally, this research put forward suggestions to provide a reference for energy management. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Finding the crack in everything: Exploring the causal promise in science education

Abstract:

The author argues that there is a causal promise in pedagogic assumptions about the teaching and learning of science. That is, if teacher educators convince pre‐service teachers a concept is important, they will use it. As a result of a study of five beginning teachers, the author came to question this promise, through a critical ideological frame. In this study, the beginning teachers, who were taught critical science education as pre‐service students, claimed that they embraced this approach in their own teaching practices. However, on investigation, it was found that the teachers were not doing critical science education, as presented in their pre‐service course. This presented a paradox: What does it mean when the dualism of either taking up a theory or resisting it is shattered? Using a feminist post‐structuralist analysis to explore this paradox, the author critiques modernist notions of self, language, and desire to offer another way of making sense of what these teachers discussed. Upon reflection, the author outlines how feminist post‐structuralism has influenced her own practice teaching critical science education.     

Sustainable development of a suggestion system: Factors influencing improvement activities in a confectionary company

Although the use of continuous improvement (CI) is widespread today, many organizations face problems maintaining high and sustained employee involvement in such programs. The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing employee involvement in submitting suggestions within a suggestion system in a Swedish production company. The company had maintained a successful suggestion system for about 10 years. The study builds on a database containing all the suggestions submitted (2343 in number) within the suggestion system. The following factors were identified to influence employee involvement in submitting suggestions and hence the sustainability of the suggestion system as well: (a) Situations when the employees had a personal benefit from submitting suggestions, e.g., concerning their own work environment, contributed to long‐term sustainability of the system; (b) campaigns emphasizing different themes encouraged employees to become more active within the suggestion system; (c) employees having some of their suggestions rejected were more active in submitting suggestions than employees having most suggestions rejected or accepted; (d) a high monetary reward (80 euros and above) was not found favorable for submitting new suggestions, compared to lower rewards; (e) increased support of group suggestions contributed to a sustained and high level of activity of the suggestion system. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 17: 79–94, 2007.