Confessions of a neoliberal scholar

One of the central claims I have made in my recent work, is that neoliberalism has infiltrated deeply in my scientific discipline, and that a majority of research is profoundly influenced by the beast thatis neoliberalism –the rhetoric of freedom that captures anyone in the prison of capitalism

Why we should stop measuring performance and well-being

In this essay, I argue that work and organizational psychology needs to move beyond measuring performance and well-being as the only outcomes relevant to our research. I outline the main difficulties with a narrow focus on performance and well-being, and argue that we need to broaden our scope of outcomes to stay relevant in a rapidly changing society. One example includes a dignity-paradigm, which postulates that there may be other outcomes in work and organizational psychology research which are relevant for both researchers, practitioners and society

Why we should stop measuring performance and well-being

As Organizational Behavior scholars (or anyone active in work psychology, HRM, or management), we are trained and socialized to take into account two possible outcomes in our research: performance and well-being. This is notable not only in our theoretical models, our reviews and meta-analyses, our choice of variables when collecting data, but also more implicitly in our thinking, personal and professional ideologies, and the ways we reason about our field of research and how we justify and argue our theories as analysts of human behavior in the workplace. On the one hand, it has been argued that the sole purpose of Organizational Behavior (and I use this term loosely, as it easily translates to related disciplines like the ones mentioned above) is to enhance performance of organizations. This is not merely a marginalized perspective but appears in our mainstream and most prestigious journals, such as Journal of Applied Psychology (Dalal, 2005). On the other hand, it is widely acknowledged that our focus on organizational performance is insufficient and that it is also worthwhile to look at well-being of people, and in particular employees while researching workplace behaviors (see e.g., the review from Karina van de Voorde et al., 2012). This dichotomy of performance and well-being has served us quite well, and provided a space to differentiate ourselves from each other in our research purposes, thereby even pretending that we can take a ‘critical’ perspective on our field

Why do employees negotiate idiosyncratic deals? An exploration of the process of i-deal negotiation

This study investigated why employees negotiate idiosyncratic deals with their organizations, and interviews with 31 employees who successfully negotiated i-deals showed that three main themes could be identified in the i-deal negotiation process: motives for negotiating (i.e., earned and problem solving), enablers (i.e., relationships and flexibility), and inhibitors (i.e., secrecy, and culture and structure). The study shows that people may have different motives for negotiating i-deals, and subsequently also experience different enabling and inhibiting factors in the process of obtaining i-deals

Het psychologisch contract tussen oudere werknemers en de organisatie.

Door recente reorganisaties binnen en fusies en overnames tussen organisaties veranderen de relaties tussen werkgevers en werknemers drastisch. De oude relatie tussen werkgevers en werknemers die bestond uit de (impliciete) belofte van de werkgever om een werknemer voor de duur van een loopbaan aan te nemen in ruil voor loyaliteit en hard werken, is voorbij. Werkgevers bieden in mindere mate de zekerheid van een vast contract, en gaan meer over op tijdelijke contracten. Hierdoor ontstaat een nieuwe relatie tussen werkgever en werknemer. Om de impliciete onderdelen van deze relatie te beschrijven is de term ‘psychologisch contract’ geïntroduceerd. In dit artikel wordt uitgelegd wat het psychologisch contract is, en welke relaties het psychologisch contract heeft met gedrag en organisatie-uitkomsten. Verder wordt ingegaan op de vraag waar het psychologisch contract voor gebruikt kan worden in organisaties, met name met het oog op vergrijzing van de arbeidsmarkt

Post-pensionados. Hoe worden 65-plussers gemotiveerd om te werken?

Nu de vergrijzing begint toe te slaan en organisaties steeds meer moeite moeten doen om goed gekwalificeerd personeel te werven en te behouden, wordt het aanspreken van onze stille arbeidsreserve steeds belangrijker. 65-plussers vormen een interessante groep potentiële werknemers. Ze zijn vaak ervaren, gedreven en loyaal, en zijn graag bereid zich flexibel op te stellen als de werkgever oog heeft voor hun specifieke behoeften

Voorbij neoliberalisme in de arbeids- en organisatiepsychologie: Menselijke waardigheid en organisatiedemocratie

In this article, I explore the relation between neoliberalism and work and organizational psychology. This article explains how the neoliberal paradigm has influenced the way research is conducted in the field of work and organizational psychology. The article continues by providing an alternative paradigm based on human dignity, which is translated into the concept of organizational democracy. The article finishes with the implications of the human dignity paradigm for research in the field of work and organizational psychology, as well as with an agenda for future research on the new paradigm

Age-related differences in the relations between individualised HRM and organisational performance: a large-scale employer survey

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between individualised HRM practices and several measures of organisational performance, including the moderating role of employee age in these relationships. A large-scale representative study among 4,591 organisations in the Netherlands showed support for the relationships between individualised HR practices with organisational performance. Employee age moderated the relationships between the use of individualised practices and sickness absence and turnover, such that organisations with a high percentage of older workers benefited from work schedule practices, and organisations with high percentage of younger workers benefited from development practices

Age-related differences in the relations between individualized HRM and organizational performance

The current study investigated the relations of individualized HRM with multiple organizational performance indicators. Based on signaling theory and social exchange theory, it was predicted that the availability and use of different individualized HRM practices in organizations would be positively related to performance growth and negatively related to employee absence and employee turnover. Moreover, we investigated the moderating role of employee age in these relationships. Based on lifespan theory of aging, we expected that individualized work schedule practices would be more strongly related to outcomes for older workers while individualized development and financial pay practices would be more strongly related for younger workers. A large-scale representative study among 4,591 organizations in the Netherlands showed support for the relationships of individualized HR practices with organizational performance. Moreover, employee age moderated the relationships between the use of individualized practices and sickness absence and turnover, such that organizations with a high percentage of older workers benefited from work schedule practices, and organizations with high percentage of younger workers benefited from development practices

The older the better?: age-related differences in emotion regulation after psychological contract breach

Purpose: The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of emotion regulation and age in reactions to psychological contract breach towards positive and negative affect. We expected that in the context of contract breach, reappraisal emotion regulation mitigate the negative relation with affect. Moreover, based on lifespan theory, suppression emotion regulation was expected to be important for younger workers, because older workers have learned how to express themselves appropriately at the workplace. Consequently, suppression would mitigate the relations of contract breach with well-being only among younger workers, while it strengthened the relation for older workers. Design: Data were collected among 163 employees working in various Dutch organizations. Moderated regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings: Reappraisal mitigated the relation of contract breach with positive affect, and suppression mitigated the relations of contract breach with positive affect only among younger workers, while for older workers with high suppression the relations were accentuated. We also found that contract breach was more strongly related to negative affect for younger workers than for older workers. Research Implications: Reactions towards psychological contract breaches are influenced by the emotion regulation strategies people employ. Especially reappraisal is important to maintain optimal levels of affect, while suppression is detrimental especially for older workers. Originality/value: This paper is the first study in which emotion regulation strategies are investigated in the context of psychological contract breaches. The paper presents novel insights into how reactions to contract breaches are modified through emotion regulation strategies and age