HRM, Strategic Climate and Employee Outcomes in Hospitals: HRM Care for Cure?

The hospital sector – and more broadly the healthcare sector - is increasingly under pressure to operate more efficiently and effectively and has to respond to the challenges of increased market orientation, changed legislation and providing demand driven care. The most crucial factor in taking up these challenges involves the people (managers, professionals, specialists, nurses etc.) working in this sector. Although policy makers in healthcare increasingly recognize that a well-motivated, appropriate skilled and deployed workforce is crucial for the success of health system delivery, empirical research focused on the added value of HRM in healthcare remains scarce. This thesis aims to fill this gap and is focused on enhancing our understanding of the process through which Human Resource Management influences performance in hospitals. The thesis builds on the strategic HRM literature, HRM process models, and climate literature and bridges ‘macro’ (organizational level) and ‘micro’ (individual level) research. More specifically, the thesis is focused on the mediating role of strategic climate in the relationship between HRM and outcomes. According to the strategic climate approach a strategic climate should encourage employees to respond and behave in ways that support the strategic objectives of the organization. The results in this thesis show that multiple strategic climate types can be distinguished (i.e. climate for quality, safety, and innovation) across the participating hospitals. Moreover, the results show that employee perceptions of the HR system help to create strategic climate perceptions, which in turn affect relevant employee outcomes. In order to take into account the specific characteristics of the hospital context, and to bridge the gap between research and practice, a contextually based research approach is applied

Duurzaam werken in de zorg: Noodzaak, maar de kansen staan onder druk

Contains fulltext : 175405.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)De zorgsector is steeds meer in beweging. De sector wordt gekenmerkt door een stijgende vraag naar zorg (mede als gevolg van de vergrijzing), meer marktwerking, bezuinigingen, en technologische en medische innovaties. Daarnaast worden kwaliteitsnormen, in het kader van transparantie, steeds belangrijker en strenger gehandhaafd. Voor werknemers in de zorg betekent dit dat ook de werkomgeving en werkinhoud voortdurend veranderen. Er ontstaan nieuwe manieren van werken en samenwerken, zowel met andere professionals (binnen en buiten de zorg) als met patiënten, cliënten en hun families (bijvoorbeeld in de rol van mantelzorgers). Daarmee wordt werken in de zorg complexer en uitdagender. Daarbij zijn er overigens wel verschillen tussen subsectoren als het gaat om de impact van de trends aangaande vergrijzing en innovaties.5 p

HRM, climate and employee well-being : comparing an optimistic and critical perspective

A growing number of studies investigating the linkage between HRM and employee well-being largely supports a positive perspective on HRM (HRM positively affects employee well-being). There is only a limited body of empirical evidence that supports a critical perspective (HRM negatively affects well-being), or combines both perspectives. The present paper contributes to an understanding of the relationship between HRM and well-being, by testing both perspectives simultaneously. Following a positive perspective, we explore how HRM may enhance employee well-being via a climate for well-being; following a more critical perspective, we explore how HRM may negatively affect employee wellbeing via a climate for efficiency. Data from a Long-Term Care organization (N = 415 employees; 52 wards), provided support for the mediating role of a climate for well-being in the relation between HRM, ward commitment and need for recovery. In addition, climate for efficiency partially mediated the relationship between HRM and ward commitment, however the direction of the mediation was different than expected. Although the results of this study support a more optimistic perspective on HRM, it is argued that organizations need to be aware of the critical pathway in order to enhance employee well-being