Multi-Level Issues in International HRM: Mean Differences, Explained Variance, and Moderated Relationships

[Excerpt] While neither denying that differences in HR systems exist, nor that some of the variety of practices is due to real differences across countries, we will attempt to dissect the issue of International HRM using ideas, concepts, and models emerging from multilevel theory and research. We posit that three ideas are critical to this line of research: Mean differences in the use of HR practices across countries, the amount of variance in HR practices that is explained by countries, and the extent to which countries (or specifically culture) moderates the relationships between HR practices and outcomes. Our conclusion is that these differences may not be as large as we think they are, and may in fact be due less to differences in culture and more to differences in institutional contexts

Wellbeing in line managers during mandatory working from home:How work and personal factors combine

The pandemic, particularly the aspect of forced working from home, has had a major impact on the workforce. Previous studies show that line managers have also experienced severe mental strain during this period. Since it is expected that hybrid working will be more the new normal than the exception in future, this study further examined line managers' work-related wellbeing in terms of engagement and exhaustion. Following the job characteristics model (JCM), we explore the mediating role of meaningful work between workplace innovation before the pandemic and line managers' work-related wellbeing during forced working from home. The underlying idea is that organizations that already adopted workplace innovation practices before the pandemic, give teams and employees more control, thus allowing a more meaningful role for line managers, which positively impacts line managers' work-related wellbeing during the pandemic. In addition, building upon Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory and the role of personal resources therein, we explore digital leadership skills and work–life segmentation preference as moderators between meaningful work and work-related wellbeing. Our findings show that workplace innovation is positively associated with engagement via its effect on meaningful work, but not associated with exhaustion. Second, we found that work–life segmentation preference amplifies the relation between meaningful work and engagement (positive link) as well as exhaustion (negative link). This indicates that line managers with a high work–life segmentation preference who have a low score on meaningful work, experience less engagement and more exhaustion than line managers with a high score on meaningful work when working from home. No support was found for the moderation of digital leadership skills in the relationship between meaningful work, engagement, and exhaustion. Based on these results, we discuss implications for research and we provide practice recommendations

A needs–supplies fit perspective on employee perceptions of HR practices and their relationship with employee outcomes

This study explores the employees’ views on the effectiveness of HR practices for their job performance, drawing from a needs-supplies (N-S) fit approach. Findings based on 465 employees show a positive association between the N-S fit of present HR practices (i.e., employees perceiving supplied practices as needed) and engagement and proactive behaviour. The N-S fit of absent HR practices (i.e., employees indicating they do not need the non-offered practices) is positively associated with engagement and negatively with proactive behaviour. Additionally, proactive behaviour and engagement are higher when employees experience present practices as effective and absent practices as irrelevant for their functioning. Also, these outcomes are higher when employees experience supplied practices as effective while missing essential practices, than when the supplied practices are ineffective and absent practices are irrelevant. Organizations can use this approach to revisit HR practices that waste organizational resources and introduce HR practices that improve employee functioning

Exploring the nature and antecedents of employee energetic well-being at work and job performance profiles

While it is generally assumed that employees who feel well are also productive, research has shown that this is not always the case. Specifically, some employees seem to experience low well-being while performing, and vice versa. As employee well-being and performance are both required to achieve corporate sustainability, the purpose of this research was to identify energy-related well-being/job performance profiles among 5729 employees from the Dutch division of a large bank and identify their antecedents. Using latent profile analysis, we found five profiles: 1. low well-being/low performance, 2. low well-being/medium performance, 3. high well-being/medium performance, 4. high well-being/high performance, and 5. high well-being/top performance. Using multinomial regression, we found that more learning and development opportunities, more social support from colleagues, more autonomy, and less role-conflict were related to the high well-being profiles. Second, more role clarity, more performance feedback, more autonomy, and less work-pressure were related to the high- and top-performance profiles. Finally, communication and social support from the manager were found to be relatively weak antecedents of the different profiles. This study thus highlights that the job demands and resources of employees may affect their well-being and performance

Stimulating job crafting behaviors of older workers:The influence of opportunity-enhancing human resource practices and psychological empowerment

Since job crafting behaviour is of profound importance for the retention of older workers, we examined how organizations can stimulate job crafting behaviour among older workers with opportunity-enhancing Human Resource (HR) practices. We introduced three job crafting behaviours: accommodative, utilization, and developmental job crafting. We hypothesized that opportunity-enhancing HR practices increase psychological empowerment among older workers and therefore their job crafting behaviour. We conducted a survey study with two waves among 125 Dutch older workers (65+) affiliated with a temporary employment agency aiming to employ older workers and found that changes in perceptions of opportunity-enhancing HR practices are positively related to changes in psychological empowerment and, in turn, to changes in utilization and developmental crafting behaviours. Unexpectedly, changes in psychological empowerment were not associated with changes in accommodative crafting and changes in opportunity-enhancing HR practices perceptions were not directly associated with changes in job crafting behaviour. With this study, we contribute to the literature on job crafting and human resource management by showing that opportunity-enhancing HR practices influence job crafting behaviour through psychological empowerment

Why the employee experience of HR practices is important

Hoe werknemers HR-activiteiten beleven, is belangrijk voor organisaties. Uit wetenschappelijke litera- tuur blijkt namelijk dat de werknemersbeleving van HR-activiteiten van cruciaal belang is om beoogde doelen van geïmplementeerd HR-beleid te behalen. In dit artikel, dat gebaseerd is op de belangrijkste resultaten van een promotieonderzoek, wordt ingegaan op vier uitdagingen waarmee (HR-)managers en onderzoekers worden geconfronteerd als het gaat om de werknemersbeleving van HR-activiteiten. De vier uitdagingen, geformuleerd in vraagvorm, zijn: (1) wat verstaan we onder de werknemersbele- ving van HR-activiteiten? (2) hoe beïnvloedt de werknemersbeleving van (bundels van) HR-activiteiten werknemersuitkomsten (bijvoorbeeld bevlogenheid en betrokkenheid van de werknemer bij de organi- satie)? (3) hoe beïnvloedt de aansluiting van de aangeboden HR-activiteiten op de behoeften van de werknemer de werknemersuitkomsten? en (4) hoe beïnvloedt overeenstemming tussen de HR-beleving van werknemers en managers de werknemersuitkomsten? Tot slot worden de praktische implicaties van de resultaten van het proefschrift besproken

High-performance work systems and individual performance: a longitudinal study of the differential roles of happiness and health well-being

As a part of the growing strand of employee-centered HRM research, employee well-being is suggested to be a key mechanism that may help to explain the relationship between HRM and performance. To investigate how an employee’s well-being mediates the HRM-performance relationship, we distinguish between two types of well-being identified in prior work, happiness well-being and health well-being, and present arguments for differences in their effects on individual performance. Building on Job Demands-Resources (JDR) theory, we propose that happiness well-being positively mediates the relationship between perceived High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) and individual task performance, while health well-being negatively mediates this focal relationship. Thus, happiness well-being fits the “mutual gains” perspective. In contrast, health well-being fits the “conflicting outcomes” perspective, and thus may be harmed by the HPWS to enhance the performance. We find partial support for our arguments in an analysis of longitudinal survey data of 420 participants spanning a total of four waves of data collection

Human resource management–well‐being–performance research revisited: Past, present, and future

The authors provide an up‐to‐date theoretically based qualitative review of research dealing with the relationship between HRM, employee well‐being, and individual/organisational performance (HRM‐WB‐IOP research). The review is based on a systematic critical analysis of all HRM‐WB‐IOP studies (N = 46) published in 13 core HRM and management journals in the 2000 to 2018 period. The authors first identify different theoretical models of the HRM‐WB‐IOP relationship, which they then use to map research in the area. The results show that mutual gains conceptualisations play a dominant role in extant HRM‐WB‐IOP research, at the expense of alternative conflicting outcomes and mutual losses models, which are also shown to receive very limited empirical support across the 46 studies. As part of this mapping exercise, the authors identify important knowledge gaps in the area and conclude by setting out a number of key recommendations for future research to address these gaps