Sustainable Human Resource Management

The concept of sustainability is important for companies both in the case of SMEs and worldwide multinational companies. Some key factors to help a company achieve its sustainability objectives are based on human resource management. Sustainable human resource management is a typical cross-functional task that becomes increasingly important at the strategic level of a company. Industry 4.0 technologies, Internet of Things, and competitive demands, as signs of globalization, have led to significant changes across the organizational structures and human resource strategies of companies. The increasing importance of sophisticated human resource strategies in the life of companies and the intention to find optimal design and operation strategies for sustainable human resource management were a motivation for launching this book. This book offers a selection of papers which explain the impact of smart human resource management on economy. Authors from 14 countries published working examples and case studies resulting from their research in this field. The aim of this book is to help students at the level of BSc, MSc, and PhD level, as well as managers and researchers, to understand and appreciate the concept, design, and implementation of sustainable human resource management solutions

Beyond Disability Civil Rights

[Excerpt] This Article argues that to be effective, both domestic and international disability rights must adopt a disability human rights paradigm. Such a framework combines the type of civil and political rights provided by antidiscrimination legislation (also called negative or first-generation rights) with the full spectrum of social, cultural, and economic measures (also called positive or second-generation rights) bestowed by many human rights treaties.16 By acting holistically, this agenda accounts for factors normally exogenous to civil rights laws and ensures that individuals can flourish and participate in their societies. Accordingly, our intention is to share some thoughts on how to best provide disabled citizens with equal opportunity rather than “merely” equal treatment. Internationally, States and civil society organizations have been developing innovative and effective equality measures. We draw on their experiences in providing examples of how disability legislation and policy can be developed to implement a more holistic human rights approach. These lessons are also pertinent for invigorating the ADA

Leadership Skills, Promoting Flow and Generating Profit: A Study of Millennial Managers Through Gamification

An increased number or organizations are shifting away from traditional hierarchical, command and control business strategies which focus solely on generating profit to focusing on both people and profit. In this study, Csíkszentmihályi’s flow state (1975/2000) is considered to correspond with the people side of the social enterprise model, where organizations focus on both people and profit. Csíkszentmihályi (1990) describes the flow experience as a mental state which occurs when a person is motivated and fully immersed in an activity, resulting in feelings of energized focus and profound enjoyment. The current study analyzed secondary data from 1,184 millennial managers that played FLIGBY, a business simulation gamifying various leadership skills, flow in the workplace, and related profita outcomes. The results demonstrated strong collinearity between the eight leadership skills of interest, resulting in the factor load of a new singular variable. The new variable was found to have a predictive relationship between promoting flow and generating profit

Crushing the glass ceiling: relative group prototypicality and female strategies in disriminating organizational settings

The present dissertation thesis dealt with the social-psychological factors and implications of the so called „glass ceiling“ phenomenon which metaphorically describes the systematic underrepresentation of women in management positions. Gender stereotypes have been discussed to be one reason for this numerical imbalance of women and men in leadership positions (Bischoff, 1999; Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). Research has demonstrated that people hold traditionally stereotypical views about women and men at work while at the same time associating managerial roles more readily with typical male than with typical female features (Martell et al., 1998; Powell et al., 2002). In consequence, women are perceived as not fitting equally well at work as men do, thus there is a lack fit of women at work (Heilman, 1983, 1995, 2001). Lack of fit has been shown to be related to performance evaluations and recruiting decisions that discriminate against women (Heilman, 2001; Heilman et al., 2004; Sczesny & Stahlberg, 2002). However, a central assumption of the presented research was that women do not merely mismatch leadership stereotypes but moreover that they are lacking fit to the organizational culture which is represented by a prototype. This more general lack of fit is likely to be broadly effective in everyday interaction at work and thus to affect women themselves, their group-based self-definition and subsequent behavioural strategies at work. The aim of the present work was twofold. First, it intended to describe the processes that lead to the perception of women lacking fit at work. Second and most importantly, it intended to address the implications of perceived lack of fit on women themselves, their group-based self-definition and their behavioural strategies at work. More precisely, this second research question was thought to shed some light on the conditions under which women engage in collective behaviour in favour of the ingroup (e.g., networking) and thus, collectively challenge power relations at work, as well as engage in favour of the organization as a whole (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviour). These research questions were addressed within the framework of the Ingroup Projection Model (IPM, Mummendey & Wenzel, 1999). The IPM is a cognitive motivational model, which makes assumptions about the underlying processes resulting in the perception of different degrees of fit of two social groups in relation to a third inclusive social category (relative group prototypicality). This approach allows integrating propositions of research on gender stereotypes (Diekman & Eagly, 2000; Eagly & Kite, 1987; Sczesny, 2003a), the lack of fit model (Heilman, 1983, 1995, 2001) and the power of organizational prototypes (Hogg 2001a, 2001b) as well as connecting it with research in the tradition of the Social Identity Approach (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner et al., 1987). The first research aim was to describe the processes that lead to the perception of a lack of fit of women at work. Drawing on assumptions of research on gender stereotypes (Diekman & Eagly, 2000; Eagly & Kite, 1987; Sczesny, 2003b) it was hypothesized that females and males are perceived to be typical on different dimensions (i.e., task- versus team-orientation). Thus, males and females are perceived to be mutually typical in different areas. Despite this assumed mutual typicality it was hypothesized that males and females are not perceived as to complement each other at work, thus as being mutually prototypical (cf., Krell, 1994). Instead, drawing on assumptions of the IPM, it was predicted that females are perceived as being low in relative group prototypicality and thus as lacking fit with regard to the organizational standard. The second research aim was to test for implications of perceived relative group prototypicality (high fit vs. lack of fit) on ingroup identification and subsequent behavioural strategies. Drawing from research on self-prototypicality (Eisenbeiss & Otten, paper submitted; Kashima et al., 2000) and organizational identification (van Knippenberg & van Schie, 2000) it was argued that group-prototypicality affects ingroup identification. It was predicted that relatively high ingroup prototypicality leads to higher ingroup identification compared to relatively high outgroup prototypicality and equal subgroup prototypicality. Research in the tradition of SIT (Tajfel, 1978; Tajfel & Turner, 1979) has shown that ingroup identification is a key variable predicting intergroup differentiation, collective behaviour in favour of the ingroup as well as organizational behaviour. As the current research model predicts that relative group prototypicality affects ingroup identification it is furthermore hypothesized that relative group prototypicality indirectly affects intergroup differentiation, collective behaviour in favour of the ingroup and organizational behaviour. Four studies were conducted to test the outlined hypotheses. Two correlational studies shed some light on the assumed underlying processes that lead to the perception of lack of fit (relative group prototypicality). Study 1 (N = 84) was set up within the student context and found support for the hypothesis that male and female students are perceived to be mutually typical on different dimensions (task- versus team-dimension). Moreover, results provided evidence that both gender groups were indeed not perceived to be mutually prototypical on these dimensions. Instead, females were consensually perceived as being low in relative group prototypicality, i.e., as lacking fit within the student context. In order to test the applicability of these results to the field, Study 4 (N = 238) was conducted with a sample of female employees. Empirical evidence replicated the finding of Study 1 that male and female employees are perceived to be mutually typical but not to be mutually prototypical with regard to task- and team-orientation. Furthermore, results indicated that in organizations in which women constitute equal or less than 50% of the staff, female employees were perceived as being low in relative group prototypicality (lack of fit). However, in organizations in which women constitute more than 50% of the staff, female employees were perceived to be high in relative group prototypicality (high fit). Study 1 to Study 4 were conducted to test the hypothesis that relative group prototypicality affects ingroup identification and subsequent behavioural strategies in correlational and experimental studies. Study 1 tested the hypothesis that relative group prototypicality and ingroup identification are positively correlated. However, results did not support this assumption which might be due to some methodological drawbacks of this first study. Study 2 (N = 68) experimentally tested the hypothesis that relative high group prototypicality leads to stronger ingroup identification compared to relative high outgroup prototypicality and equal prototypicality. Results are indeed in line with this prediction. Study 3 (N = 103) aimed at experimentally replicating and extending this result. More precisely, it tested for indirect effects of relative group prototypicality on intergroup differentiation and collective behavioural strategies in favour of the ingroup. Results were in line with these assumptions. Finally, Study 4 (N = 238) was set up to test the applicability of the developed research model within the field. Thus, the hypotheses were tested that relative group prototypicality is positively related to ingroup identification and indirectly affects intergroup differentiation, collective behavioural strategies in favour of the ingroup as well as organizational behaviour. A path-analytic model empirically supported these predictions. Summing up, the presented research shed some light on the perception of a lack of fit of women at work and its resulting consequences on women themselves. Hence, it develops further the proposition that the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is based on gender stereotypes. It gives some insights under which conditions women are willing to collectively challenge status relations at work. Therefore, practical implications with regard to human resource management can be drawn from this research. Furthermore, the integrative theoretical approach of this research enlarges the perspective on gender relations at work. It provides implications for research on gender stereotypes as well as intergroup research. Most importantly, it undertakes a first step in the further theory development of the IPM, by showing that relative group prototypicality affects ingroup identification and subsequent behavioural strategies

Construction and impact of leader identity of dynamic work selves at social enterprises: Linkage of the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes with motivational work outcomes

Three empirical studies conducted for this Ph.D. project investigated the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes related to leader identity construction of employees working at the hybrid institutional work context of social enterprises. Identity work as an intrapersonal process, which is closely linked to leader identity development, has rarely been empirically investigated through experimental studies of leaders-to-be who have motivation to lead. The field experiments in Study 1 (N = 34) and Study 2 (N = 26) examined the employees’ leader-role claiming process that led to leader identity construction

Innovation and entrepreneurship: What professors from leading universities say

As innovation is essential for the competitiveness of enterprises and economic development there is a question which has been raised with some insistence: Do teaching practices make a difference to innovation and entrepreneurship in the work place? Experts were contacted for their views. They say yes, as long as the teaching method is adequate. So, in the USA, a naturally innovative society, a new concept of integrated teaching was developed - “hands-on” to increase innovation ever more in North America. This concept proved also to be successful in a non-innovative society as is demonstrated by the case of MIETE (a partnership between FEUP and FEP, University of Porto) in Portugal

Sustainable Information Security Sensitization in SMEs: Designing Measures with Long-Term Effect

This paper outlines an overall scenario for ongoing personnel development measures designed to increase information security awareness in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany and to help small businesses improve their security levels and defenses. The three-year project combines different actors and a multitude of methods, with a focus on conducting interviews and online surveys with companies, developing customized game-based awareness trainings, tests, and on-site attacks, and creating measurements and evaluations as well as maturity statements, guidelines, and low-threshold security concepts. A mix of analog/digital serious games and operational trainings with reviews are of key importance here. Compared with the findings from the applied scientific literature on behavioral research and design, the ultimate goal at project’s end is to extrapolate statements on the success and efficacy of the measures and their long-term effect