The need to accumlate human capital across levels of export intensity : activating resources that are increasingly difficult to mobilise

With increasing levels of export intensity, firms begin to face new demands. The first set of resources brought to bear on the issues, and those resources that are most quickly mobilised, are the employees. Indeed, higher levels of exporting require activating relatively less mobile resources through the building of organisational structures and mechanisms for managing repositories of knowledge (particularly organisational specialisation and selectively hiring appropriately skilled staff). This paper explores the management of human capital across different levels of export activity in Australian manufacturing firms. Analyses were based on 90 Australian-headquartered manufacturing exporters that responded to a survey. Overall, the results support the notion that firms need to accumulate knowledge as they internationalise. These results are discussed in terms of their consequences for HRM practices.<br /

Strategic HRM in for-profit and non-profit organizations in a knowledge-intensive industry

This article examines the adoption of strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) by for-profit and non-profit knowledge-intensive health services (HS) organizations in the Australian context. Survey data collected from senior executives are used to test the relationships between a strategic HRM model and firm performance. Path analysis found that for HS firms, irrespective of whether for-profit or non-profit, adopting strategic HRM could increase organizational performance. Strategic HRM could be achieved through the cultivation of an external orientation to customers\u27 demands and a commitment to employees. Building an external orientation with internal structural dimensions such as commitment to employees, allows HS organizations to develop a strategic HRM approach with human capital-enhancing HRM practices. Public and non-profit organizations in the HS industry facing or undergoing health sector reform need to be aware of both of these orientations in order to adopt strategic HRM and improve their performance.<br /

Psychosocial work environment, work engagement, and employee commitment: A moderated, mediation model

This paper contributes to the growing body of literature on the wellbeing of hospitality employees from a perspective of strategic human resource management. The role of high performance work systems (HPWS) in enhancing the affective commitment of hospitality employees is examined. The study found work engagement to mediate the relationships between HPWS, perceived organizational support, and affective commitment. Workplace bullying, a highly prevalent phenomenon in the hospitality sector, was found to mediate the relationship between HPWS and affective commitment, while psychosocial safety climate moderated this mediating impact. We will suggest the implications for managing psychosocial work hazards in hospitality organizations

Leader humility and knowledge sharing intentions: A serial mediation model

Purpose: This paper examines the influence of leader humility on knowledge sharing intention. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET), we test the direct and indirect mechanisms to explain the influence leader humility has on knowledge sharing intention. Design/Methodology/Approach: A two-wave, time-lagged field study was conducted. We surveyed 252 professional employees from Australia. Findings: Results show a significant direct, positive association between leader humility and knowledge sharing intention. While leader humility had a direct, positive association with affective trust in supervisor and work engagement, it did not directly impact on organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward the individual (OCB-I). There were three SET-related, serial mediators in the relationship between leader humility and knowledge sharing intention. These were affective trust, work engagement, and OCB-I. Research Limitations/Implications: Future studies should collect multi-source data such as peers’ or supervisors’ ratings of the focal respondents’ work engagement, OCB-I, and knowledge sharing behaviors to augment single-source data. Future studies could adopt an affect theory of social exchange to further explore the relationships tested in this study. Originality/Value: This study contributes to the affect SET and knowledge management literature on how leadership behaviors impact the intention to share knowledge. Our study highlights the preference of the willingness to share knowledge with their co-workers is mediated by affective trust in their immediate supervisors, work engagement, and OCB-I that are equally important as treating their subordinates with humility

Work characteristics and employee outcomes in local government

The overall objective of this study was to examine the work characteristics that make significant contributions to extra-role performance (as measured by the helping dimension of citizenship behaviour) and employee wellbeing (measured by job satisfaction and psychological health) in a local government. The work characteristics examined were based on the demand-control-support (DCS) model, augmented by organization-specific characteristics. The results indicate that characteristics described in the core DCS are just as relevant to extra-role performance as they are to more traditional indicators of job stress. Although the more situation-specific conditions were not predictive of citizenship behaviour, they made unique contributions to job satisfaction<br /

Editorial special issue: The impact of organizational change on public sector employee outcomes

Organisational change is a fundamental theme of most public sector workplaces. Examples of the kinds of changes that are taking place include workplace flexibility enhancing initiatives (Newton et al. 2013), the need to engage in greater collaboration and enhance networks (Osborne and Brown 2013), and, the devolution and delegation of authority and autonomy (Christensen and Lægreid 2011). These trends are evident in a range of public sector con-texts including Australia (Newton et al. 2013),the USA (Yang and Kasserkert 2009), the United Kingdom (Osborne and Brown 2013),and Scandinavia (Ibsen et al. 2011). Despite the fact that most public sector workplaces are experiencing these types of changes, the reality remains that more fail than are successful (e.g., Vakola et al. 2013). Hence, the depth and breadth of change is a reality in public sector organisations, however, this does not mean that researchers or practitioners understand the processes and effectiveness of change

Same strategic HRM issues predict performance in both for-profit and non-profit organizations in a key knowledge-intensive industry

This paper examines the adoption of strategic human resource management (HRM) by for-profit and non-profit knowledge-intensive health services (HS) organisations in Australia. Survey data collected from senior executives is used to test the relationships between a strategic HRM model and firm performance. Path analysis found that, irrespective of whether for-profit or non-profit, adopting strategic HRM could increase organisational performance. Strategic HRM could be achieved through the cultivation of an external orientation to customers&rsquo; demands and an internal orientation highlighting commitment to employees. Public and non-profit organisations in the HS industry facing or undergoing health sector reform need to be aware of both of these orientations in order to adopt strategic HRM and improve their performance.<br /