HRM in healthcare: The role of work engagement

Purpose: Due to increasing cost pressures, and the necessity to ensure high quality patient care while maintaining a safe environment for patients and staff, interest in the capacity for HRM practices to make a difference has piqued the attention of healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study is to present and test a model whereby engagement mediates the relationship between four HRM practices and quality of care and safety in two different occupational groups in healthcare, namely, nurses and administrative support workers. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modelling was used to analyze questionnaire data collected by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom as part of their 2011 Staff Survey (n=69,018). We tested the hypotheses for nurses and administrative support workers separately. Findings: Training, participation in decision-making, opportunities for development, and communication were positively related to quality of care and safety via work engagement. The strength of the relationships was conditional on whether an employee was a nurse or administrative support worker. Originality/value: This is the first paper to examine the mediating role of engagement on the relationship between four relevant HRM practices in the healthcare context, and outcomes important to healthcare practitioners. We also add value to the HRM literature by being among the first to use the Job Demands Resources Model to explain the impact of HRM practices on performance outcomes. Moreover, we provide insight into how HRM practices affect outcomes in the world’s largest publicly funded healthcare service

Testing additive versus interactive effects of person-organisation fit and organizational trust on engagement and performance

Purpose: To date, most research has assumed an additive relationship between work-related predictors and engagement. The present study contributes to the refinement of engagement theory by exploring the extent to which two predictors – person-organization fit and organizational trust – interact to influence employees’ engagement, which in turn, positively influences their task performance. Design: A test of moderated mediation was conducted using survey data collected from 335 employees and matched performance records from the Human Resource department in a support services organization in the United Kingdom. Findings: Engagement was best predicted by the interactive model, rather than the additive model, as employees who felt a close fit with their organization and who trusted their organization were most engaged with their work. Further, engagement mediated the relationship between the interaction and task performance. Originality: This paper contributes to a refinement of engagement theory by presenting and testing a model that explains the synergistic effect of work-related factors on engagement

Reducing perceptions of overqualification and its impact on job satisfaction: The dual roles of interpersonal relationships at work

A sizeable portion of the working population perceives that they are overqualified for their jobs. This is problematic given that research consistently shows that such beliefs translate into lower levels of job satisfaction. Hence it behoves human resource management scholars to identify factors that influence perceptions of overqualification, and also moderators that may reduce the negative effect of perceived overqualification on job satisfaction. In this study, we present a moderated path model that posits that the quality of the relationships that employees hold with their leader and with their team are not only antecedents of perceived overqualification, but they also are hypothesised to weaken the negative relationship between perceived overqualification and job satisfaction. Survey data that was gathered from two organisations in the Netherlands (n=183) supported the model. Implications for theory and practice in human resource management are discussed

Benefitting or suffering from a paradoxical leader? A self-regulation perspective

Why do followers’ reactions to perceived paradoxical leader behavior (PLB) differ? To answer this question, we draw from self-regulation theory and argue that making sense of a paradoxical leader’s seemingly contradictory behavior can pose a challenge for followers and requires specific cognitive traits and abilities that enable them to navigate such complex and dynamic environments. We propose that followers who lack these cognitive traits and related abilities find it more difficult to make sense of and navigate their paradoxical leader’s behavior, thereby perceiving them as behaviorally unpredictable. This, in turn, impairs followers’ self-regulation when working with such leaders, and leads to lower well-being. Conversely, followers endowed with appropriate cognitive traits can make sense of PLB and thrive in these environments. To test our propositions, we conducted two multi-wave field studies. In Study 1, we examine the role of followers’ trait cognitive flexibility in interpreting PLB; whereas Study 2 explores the role of followers’ trait self-regulation. The findings from these studies support our hypotheses, with an important implication: the efficacy of PLB may not only solely depend on a leader’s ability to enact these behaviors but also on their followers’ ability to interpret and make sense of them

The mismanaged soul: existential labor and the erosion of meaningful work

Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused on job design, leadership, HRM and culture. Employees can respond positively to employers' strategies aimed at raising their level of experienced meaningfulness when they are felt to be authentic. However, when meaningfulness is lacking, or employees perceive that the employer is seeking to manipulate their meaningfulness for performative intent, then the response of employees can be to engage in “existential labor” strategies with the potential for harmful consequences for individuals and organizations. We develop a Model of Existential Labor, drawing out a set of propositions for future research endeavors, and outline the implications for HRM practitioners

Strong signals in HR management: How the configuration and strength of an HR system explain the variability in HR attributions

In explaining the effectiveness of a human resource (HR) system within an organization, scholars have turned their attention to HR attributions, which capture employees' perceptions about the intentions behind their organization's HR practices, and have demonstrated that an HR system's content and process of communication drive employees to form specific HR attributions. However, current research has not yet explained why HR attributions differ among employees. We investigate the variability in HR attributions among individuals and the organizational factors that influence this variability. Using signaling theory and the concept of situational strength, we argue that employees' HR attributions vary less when signals sent by HR management are unambiguous and the conveyed information is consistent. Using an online scenario-based experiment with 760 participants, our findings reveal that the configuration and the strength of an HR system as well as their combination have significant effects on the variability in HR attributions among employees, and these effects differ for the different HR attributions

Mind the context gap: a critical review of engagement within the public sector and an agenda for future research

In this review paper, we critically examine the evidence base relating to engagement within the public sector given a wide range of public services have faced acute human resource challenges over recent years. Our review of 188 empirical studies reveals that much of the evidence focuses attention on individual and job level factors, such that specific public sector contextual contingencies have rarely been considered. Through identifying significant ‘context gaps’, we present a future research agenda addressing the following key areas: i) clarifying the relationship between engagement and public service motivation, ii) further contextualizing general engagement models, iii) exploring cultural, socio-political, and institutional factors in more depth, iv) encouraging a more critical perspective on engagement, v) understanding the variation in the experience of engagement across different public services/delivery models, and vi) connecting more strongly with practical concerns and initiatives within public organizations. In presenting this agenda, we highlight how engagement and HRM scholars can more strongly embed their research within a sectoral context

Attribution theories in human resource management research: a review and research agenda

There is no doubt that attribution theories have made their mark in social psychology and other related disciplines, but their application and extension to the field of HRs is in its infancy. Indeed, HR scholars have recently realized that understanding the process by which individuals explain the causes of behaviors and events provides insight into a host of HR-related issues. In our review of 65 papers, we identified three research streams with different foci – those that focused on HR system strength, on attributions that influence judgements and behaviors within functional HRM domains, and on the attributions employees make of the intent of HR practices. Notably, despite shared foundations, these three streams of literature rarely overlap. We summarize and provide theoretical and empirical directions for future research within each research area to help steer courses in these areas. Importantly, we also draw connections among the three streams to inspire future research to stretch the bounds of current theorizing on attributions in the field of HR

Deadly combinations: how leadership contexts undermine the activation and enactment of followers’ high core self-evaluations in performance

Employees with high core self-evaluations (CSE) generally perform well in their jobs. The enactment of CSE in performance occurs within contexts, and leadership is one form of context that influences the activation and expression of CSE. Drawing on theories of CSE and leader–member exchange (LMX), we characterized the leadership context as the interaction between leader CSE and LMX quality. Examination of 173 followers and their 31 leaders in a manufacturing organization showed a positive association between follower CSE and performance when the context comprised high leader CSE and high LMX. Conversely, leadership contexts comprising high leader CSE and low LMX, or low leader CSE and high LMX, resulted in a negative relationship between follower CSE and performance. We also show that low CSE followers have relatively high performance under some circumstances. Thus, we contribute to understanding how some leadership contexts undermine high CSE followers’ performance and promote low CSE followers’ performanc

The management of volunteers – what can human resources do? A review and research agenda

There is an increasing interest from scholars and practitioners in understanding how non-profit organizations can design and implement human resources (HR) practices to enhance desirable volunteer attitudes and behaviors. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of existing studies on the relationship between HR practices and volunteering outcomes. We use the ability-motivation-opportunity model (AMO) as a guiding framework to systematically integrate current knowledge on this topic. We identify gaps in existing research and offer detailed suggestions on how scholars can further enhance knowledge on how HR practices can lead to beneficial outcomes for both volunteers and non-profit organizations