Strategic HRM and Organizational Behavior: Integrating Multiple Levels of Analysis

[Excerpt] A few trends have emerged in the field of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) over the past few years. First, and most obviously, has been the extensive effort to demonstrate a link between HRM practices and firm performance (Becker & Gerhart, 1996). Researchers such as Huselid (1995), MacDuffie (1995), Delery and Doty (1996), and Guthrie (2000) have published empirical studies showing a statistically significant linkage between HRM practices and some measures of organizational performance. A second trend has been to try to understand the mechanisms through which this relationship takes place. Authors such as Becker & Gerhart, (1996), Dyer and Reeves (1995), Guest, (1997) and Wright and Gardner (2003), have all called for research that uncovers some of the mediating relationships that must exist between the HRM practices and organizational performance. A final trend has been the recent interest in taking a multi-level approach to understanding SHRM. Wright and Boswell (2001) reviewed the SHRM literature and categorized this research as being differentiated along one dimension representing whether the focus was on single or multiple practices, and along a second dimension dealing with the unit of analysis, specifically the individual versus the group or organization. Ostroff and Bowen (2000) and more recently Bowen and Ostroff (2004) have developed the most extensive multi-level model of SHRM to date. Their theoretical approach argues that HR practices serve as communications mechanism signaling employees to engage in certain behaviors; relying on communications theory they contend that different aspects of HRM systems impede or facilitate this communication process. The purpose of this paper is related to these last two trends: we conceptually examine some of the mediating processes that might occur in the HRM – performance relationship, and try to make explicit their multilevel nature. In order to accomplish this, we will first explore the concept of variance, which is crucial to the analysis of any phenomena across multiple levels. We will show how virtually all existing SHRM research focuses on variance at one level of analysis while assuming constancy at other levels. We will next discuss the process through which HRM practices must act, and identify some of the relevant variables that have heretofore been virtually ignored in the empirical SHRM literature, specifically focusing on variance at different (unit vs. individual) levels of analysis. Finally, we will present some implications for theorizing and research in this area

Variability Within Organizations: Implications for Strategic Human Resource Management

[Excerpt] Strategic human resource management refers to the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals (Wright & McMahan, 1992). It involves all of the activities that are implemented by an organization to affect the behavior of individuals in an effort to implement the strategic needs of a business. Over the last decade or so, the field of strategic human resource management has witnessed a progression through a number of stages, including a) initial excitement and energy around the convincing argument that HR practices should be considered as a system that, when implemented appropriately, can enhance organizational performance; b) empirical tests of this argument, and c) critiques of the growing field accompanied by propositions for how thinking on the topic can be expanded and improved. Of the critiques that have been levied at the field, the most common contend that the “black box” through which HRM practices are thought to impact organizational performance remains insufficiently specified. Less common, but no less valuable, are critiques surrounding the conceptualization and measurement of fit or alignment, and the need to identify the boundary conditions that influence the effectiveness of “high performance” HRM systems. Even more critiques and proposed theoretical extensions to the field are likely, as it is through such endeavors that we will improve upon and advance our science (cf. Reichers & Schneider, 1990). In this chapter, we introduce and discuss another potential critique of the SHRM field, and, in so doing, hope to illuminate a number of important research questions for the future. In particular, we are concerned with the lack of attention which has been paid to variability within SHRM research. By variability we mean variability at all relevant levels of analysis, but particularly variability within organizations (i.e., individual and group levels). It is our contention that by failing to examine the potential role of variability in SHRM research, we miss a very interesting and important part of the picture

Research Brief: Inside the Workplace: Case Studies of Factors Influencing Engagement of People with Disabilities

Researchers are working to address the issue of disability discrimination in employment and discover ways to maximize disability inclusion. However, a more precise understanding of the experiences of individuals within the workplace is needed. The study examined the inclusiveness of work units, the quality of supervisor relationships with subordinates with disabilities, job characteristics and fit, access to mentoring, and coworkers’ attitudes as potential factors impacting the experiences of people with disabilities. It also looked at obstacles that may impede the effective implementation of disability practices. In addition, the issue of disability disclosure is currently receiving a great deal of attention. The recent revisions to the regulations for Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 mean that federal contractors will be expected to employ enough individuals with disabilities to comprise 7% of their workforce. Employers must rely on the willingness of employees to disclose their disability in order to meet these goals. Very little is currently known about the conditions that make it more or less likely that an individual with a disability will feel comfortable disclosing their disability, to whom they are most likely to disclose their disability, and whether individuals who do disclose their disability have positive disclosure experiences

Accommodating Employees With and Without Disabilities

Efforts to recruit and retain employees with disabilities are often tempered by employers’ concerns over potential workplace accommodation costs. This study reports on accommodations requested and granted in intensive case studies of eight companies, based on more than 5,000 employee and manager surveys, and interviews and focus groups with 128 managers and employees with disabilities. Two unique contributions are that we analyze accommodations for employees without disabilities as well as for those with disabilities, and compare perspectives on accommodation costs and benefits among employees, their coworkers, and their managers. We find people with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities to request accommodations, but the types of accommodations requested and the reported costs and benefits are similar for disability and non-disability accommodations. In particular, fears of high accommodation costs and negative reactions of coworkers are not realized; all groups tend to report generally positive coworker reactions. Multilevel models indicate granting accommodations has positive spillover effects on attitudes of coworkers, as well as a positive effect on attitudes of requesting employees, but only when coworkers are supportive. Consistent with recent theorizing and other studies, our results suggest the benefits from a corporate culture of flexibility and attention to the individualized needs of employees

Conducting Case Studies

[Excerpt] The purpose of case study research is to complement these cross-organization studies with in-depth data collected from employees within organizations (in the case of our own work, two organizations—one each from the federal and private sectors). The two primary advantages of within-organization research are that it allows for an examination of (a) the intrapsychic perceptions, attributions, and attitudes of employees with disabilities that are not (usually) captured in administrative, national, or cross-organization datasets; and (b) the interplay between these individual-level experiences and the particular organizational context within which employees are working. There have been a number of cross-organization surveys conducted to examine the attitudes and experiences of people with disabilities (for example, Schur et al. 2014; von Schrader, Malzer, and Bruyere 2013). Within-organization case studies offer the unique opportunity to examine how the experiences of individuals with disabilities are influenced by surrounding leadership, informational, task, and social attributes (Johns 2001). In this chapter, we will discuss the opportunities afforded by case study research in general and will also describe some of the specific approaches that we adopted in our own case studies, as well as associated research findings

Charged particle display

An optical shutter based on charged particles is presented. The output light intensity of the proposed device has an intrinsic dependence on the interparticle spacing between charged particles, which can be controlled by varying voltages applied to the control electrodes. The interparticle spacing between charged particles can be varied continuously and this opens up the possibility of particle based displays with continuous grayscale.Comment: typographic errors corrected in Eqs (37) and (39); published in Journal of Applied Physics; doi:10.1063/1.317648

Different photochemical behavior of bis(biphenyl)ethylenes and ethenes in solution and in the solid-state: Structurally controlled Z/E-photoisomerization in the solid-state

ArticleJOURNAL OF PHOTOCHEMISTRY AND PHOTOBIOLOGY A-CHEMISTRY. 184(1-2): 44-49 (2006)journal articl

Whiteboard Cleaning Task Realization with HOAP-2

The controller has a motion feedback control loop for the four arm joints and a force feedback control loop for the ankle joint. The desired motion/force trajectories are obtained via kinesthetic teaching by a human, followed by a learning phase. During skill demonstration, the arm joints are made compliant while the robot balances using ankle/hip strategies. Experimental data demonstrate the feasibility of the method