Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage

AbstractPurpose - The purpose of this paper is to argue in support of a model that shows how four key HRM practices focused on engagement influence organizational climate, job demands and job resources, the psychological experiences of safety, meaningfulness and availability at work, employee engagement, and individual, group and organizational performance and competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approach - This conceptual review focuses on the research evidence showing interrelationships between organizational context factors, job factors, individual employee psychological and motivational factors, employee outcomes, organizational outcomes and competitive advantage. The proposed model integrates frameworks that have previously run independently in the HR and engagement literatures.Findings - The authors conclude that HRM practitioners need to move beyond the routine administration of annual engagement surveys and need to embed engagement in HRM policies and practices such personnel selection, socialization, performance management, and training and development.Practical implications - The authors offer organizations clear guidelines for how HR practices (i.e. selection, socialization, performance management, training) can be used to facilitate and improve employee engagement and result in positive outcomes that will help organizations achieve a competitive advantage.Originality/value - The authors provide useful new insights for researchers and management professionals wishing to embed engagement within the fabric of HRM policies and practices and employee behaviour, and organizational outcomes.<br /

Not Just Efficiency: Insolvency Law in the EU and Its Political Dimension

Certain insolvency law rules, like creditors’ priorities and set-off rights, have a distributive impact on creditors. Distributional rules reflect the hierarchies of values and interests in each jurisdiction and, as a result, have high political relevance and pose an obstacle to reforming the EU Insolvency Regulation. This paper will show the difficulty of reform by addressing two alternative options to regulate cross-border insolvencies in the European Union. The first one is the ‘choice model’, under which companies can select the insolvency law they prefer. Although such a model would allow distressed firms to select the most efficient insolvency law, it would also displace Member States’ power to protect local constituencies. The choice model therefore produces negative externalities and raises legitimacy concerns. The opposite solution is full harmonisation of insolvency law at EU level, including distributional rules. Full harmonisation would have the advantage of internalising all externalities produced by cross-border insolvencies. However, the EU legislative process, which is still based on negotiations between states, is not apt to decide on distributive insolvency rules; additionally, if harmonisation includes such rules, it will indirectly modify national social security strategies and equilibria. This debate shows that the choice regarding power allocation over bankruptcies in the EU depends on the progress of European integration and is mainly a matter of political legitimacy, not only of efficiency

Examining the Role of Narrative Performance Appraisal Comments on Performance

Despite their prevalence in performance appraisal systems and purported importance in theory, narrative performance appraisal comments have been rarely examined. This study aimed to contribute to the literature by developing and testing a theory of quality narrative feedback. The author argues that managerial feedback that is both directive (i.e., lengthy, specific, and includes goals) and motivational (i.e., positive and high in interactional justice) would be related to year-lagged performance. Negative and positive emotions are also proposed as mediators of this relationship. Performance appraisal comments were coded for a sample of 1,019 clinical nurses. The structural equations modeling results provided preliminary evidence that feedback favorability and interactional justice demonstrated significant direct and indirect (through positive and negative emotion) effects on year-lagged employee performance. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Assessment of Narrow-Body Transport Airplane Evacuation by Numerical Simulation

This paper presents the results obtained with a new agent-based computer model that can simulate the evacuation of narrow-body transport airplanes in the conditions prescribed by the airworthiness regulations for certification. The model, described in detail in a former paper, has been verified with real data of narrow-body certification demonstrations. Numerical simulations of around 20 narrow-body aircraft, representative of current designs in various market segments, show the capabilities of the model and provide relevant information on the relationship between cabin features and emergency evacuation. The longitudinal location of emergency exits seems to be even more important than their size or the overall margin with respect to the prescribed number and type of exits indicated by the airworthiness requirement

Corporate governance compliance and disclosure in the banking sector: using data from Japan

Using regression model this study investigates which characteristics of a bank is associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure in Japan. The findings suggest that on average 8 banks out of a sample of 46 disclose optimal corporate governance information. The regression model results reveal in general that non-executive directors, cross-ownership, capital adequacy ratio and type of auditors are associated with the extent of corporate governance disclosure. Of these four variables, non-executive directors have a more significant impact on the extent of disclosure contrary to total assets and audit firms of banks in the context of Japan. The findings of this paper are relevant for corporate regulators, professional associations and developers of corporate governance code when designing or updating corporate governance code

Accessing routinely collected health data to improve clinical trials: recent experience of access.

BACKGROUND: Routinely collected electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to enhance randomised controlled trials (RCTs) by facilitating recruitment and follow-up. Despite this, current EHR use is minimal in UK RCTs, in part due to ongoing concerns about the utility (reliability, completeness, accuracy) and accessibility of the data. The aim of this manuscript is to document the process, timelines and challenges of the application process to help improve the service both for the applicants and data holders. METHODS: This is a qualitative paper providing a descriptive narrative from one UK clinical trials unit (MRC CTU at UCL) on the experience of two trial teams' application process to access data from three large English national datasets: National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR) and NHS Digital to establish themes for discussion. The underpinning reason for applying for the data was to compare EHRs with data collected through case report forms in two RCTs, Add-Aspirin (ISRCTN 74358648) and PATCH (ISRCTN 70406718). RESULTS: The Add-Aspirin trial, which had a pre-planned embedded sub-study to assess EHR, received data from NCRAS 13 months after the first application. In the PATCH trial, the decision to request data was made whilst the trial was recruiting. The study received data after 8 months from NICOR and 15 months for NHS Digital following final application submission. This concluded in May 2020. Prior to application submission, significant time and effort was needed particularly in relation to the PATCH trial where negotiations over consent and data linkage took many years. CONCLUSIONS: Our experience demonstrates that data access can be a prolonged and complex process. This is compounded if multiple data sources are required for the same project. This needs to be factored in when planning to use EHR within RCTs and is best considered prior to conception of the trial. Data holders and researchers are endeavouring to simplify and streamline the application process so that the potential of EHR can be realised for clinical trials

Placing relationships in the foreground: the role of workplace friendships in engagement

We explore the role of workplace friendships as a lens for understanding the emotional element and relational context for personal engagement (Kahn, 1990). The review of engagement theory differentiates personal engagement, recognising the role emotions play in enabling individuals’ ‘preferred selves’. Workplace relationships and friendship provide a conceptual discussion of individuals in social and workplace roles in engagement, drawing on friendship, emotion, attachment theories, particularly Kahn’s work. A case study drawn from recent research illustrates our discussion before concluding with ideas for the development of a future research agenda in answer to recent calls for work on the social context of engagement

Automated pattern-guided principal component analysis vs expert-based immunophenotypic classification of B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders: a step forward in the standardization of clinical immunophenotyping

Immunophenotypic characterization of B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (B-CLPD) is becoming increasingly complex due to usage of progressively larger panels of reagents and a high number of World Health Organization (WHO) entities. Typically, data analysis is performed separately for each stained aliquot of a sample; subsequently, an expert interprets the overall immunophenotypic profile (IP) of neoplastic B-cells and assigns it to specific diagnostic categories. We constructed a principal component analysis (PCA)-based tool to guide immunophenotypic classification of B-CLPD. Three reference groups of immunophenotypic data files—B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemias (B-CLL; n=10), mantle cell (MCL; n=10) and follicular lymphomas (FL; n=10)—were built. Subsequently, each of the 175 cases studied was evaluated and assigned to either one of the three reference groups or to none of them (other B-CLPD). Most cases (89%) were correctly assigned to their corresponding WHO diagnostic group with overall positive and negative predictive values of 89 and 96%, respectively. The efficiency of the PCA-based approach was particularly high among typical B-CLL, MCL and FL vs other B-CLPD cases. In summary, PCA-guided immunophenotypic classification of B-CLPD is a promising tool for standardized interpretation of tumor IP, their classification into well-defined entities and comprehensive evaluation of antibody panels