Showing papers on "Job performance published in 2014"

Job Demands–Resources Theory

Abstract: This chapter outlines the building blocks of the job demands–resources (JD-R) theory, a theory that has been inspired by job design and job stress theories. Whereas job design theories have often ignored the role of job stressors or demands, job stress models have largely ignored the motivating potential of job resources. JD-R theory combines the two research traditions, and explains how job demands and (job and personal) resources have unique and multiplicative effects on job stress and motivation. In addition, JD-R theory proposes reversed causal effects: whereas burned-out employees may create more job demands over time for themselves, engaged workers mobilize their own job resources to stay engaged. The chapter closes with a discussion of possible JD-R interventions.

Examining workplace mindfulness and its relations to job performance and turnover intention

Abstract: In recent years, research on mindfulness has burgeoned across several lines of scholarship. Nevertheless, very little empirical research has investigated mindfulness from a workplace perspective. In the study reported here, we address this oversight by examining workplace mindfulness – the degree to which individuals are mindful in their work setting. We hypothesize that, in a dynamic work environment, workplace mindfulness is positively related to job performance and negatively related to turnover intention, and that these relationships account for variance beyond the effects of constructs occupying a similar conceptual space – namely, the constituent dimensions of work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption). Testing these claims in a dynamic service industry context, we find support for a positive relationship between workplace mindfulness and job performance that holds even when accounting for all three work engagement dimensions. We also find support for a negative relationship between workplace mindfulness and turnover intention, though this relationship becomes insignificant when accounting for the dimensions of work engagement. We consider the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and highlight a number of avenues for conducting research on mindfulness in the workplace.

Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Orientation, and the Job Performance of Frontline Employees.

Abstract: This study examines frontline employee responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a multisourced data set at a Global 500 financial services company. The authors find that frontline employees identify with the organization (i.e., organizational identification) and with customers (i.e., employee–customer identification) as a function of how much the employees perceive management and customers (respectively) to support the company's CSR activities. However, these respective effects are stronger among employees for whom CSR is already tied to their sense of self (i.e., CSR importance to the employee). In addition, both organizational identification and employee–customer identification are related to supervisor-rated job performance; however, only the effect of employee–customer identification is mediated by customer orientation, suggesting that these two targets of identification manifest through distinct mechanisms. The research empirically addresses the open questions of whether and when CSR ...

The Impact of Caring Climate, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment on Job Performance of Employees in a China’s Insurance Company

Abstract: This research uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the direct and indirect relationships among caring climate, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance of 476 employees working in a Chinese insurance company. The SEM result showed that caring climate had a significant direct impact on job satisfaction, organizational command, and job performance. Caring climate also had a significant indirect impact on organizational commitment through the mediating role of job satisfaction, and on job performance through the mediating role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. In addition, job satisfaction had significant direct impact on organizational commitment, through which it also had a significant indirect impact on job performance. Finally, organizational commitment had a significant direct impact on job performance.

Design Your Own Job Through Job Crafting

Abstract: Job crafting can be viewed as changes that employees initiate in the level of job demands and job resources in order to make their own job more meaningful, engaging, and satisfying. As such, job crafting can be used to complement top-down approaches to improve jobs in order to overcome the inadequacies of job redesign approaches, to respond to the complexity of contemporary jobs, and to deal with the needs of the current workforce. This review aims to provide an overview of the conceptualizations of job crafting, the reasons why individuals craft their jobs, as well as the hypothetical predictors and outcomes of job crafting. Furthermore, this review provides suggestions to organizations on how to manage job crafting in their processes, and how to stimulate more beneficial job crafting behavior. Although research on job crafting is still in its infancy, it is worthwhile for organizations to recognize its existence and to manage it such that it has beneficial effects on the employees and the organization at large.

Leading Mindfully: Two Studies on the Influence of Supervisor Trait Mindfulness on Employee Well-Being and Performance

Abstract: This research examines the influence of leaders’ mindfulness on employee well-being and performance. We hypothesized that supervisors’ trait mindfulness is positively associated with different facets of employee well-being, such as job satisfaction and need satisfaction, and different dimensions of employee performance, such as in-role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. We also explored whether one measure of employee well-being, psychological need satisfaction, plays a mediating role in the relation between supervisor mindfulness and employee performance. We tested these predictions in two studies using data from both supervisors and their subordinates. Results were consistent with our hypotheses. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of leadership by examining the foundation of supervisors’ effectiveness in their awareness and attention. It also contributes to our understanding of mindfulness by examining its interpersonal effects in a very important domain of human life: the workplace.

It's Not Fair … Or Is It? The Role of Justice and Leadership in Explaining Work Stressor–Job Performance Relationships

Abstract: We develop and test a theoretical model of multilevel moderated mediation in which organizational justice serves as an intervening mechanism that explains associations among two dimensions of work stressors (challenges and hindrances) and five dimensions of job performance (task performance, helping, voice, counterproductive behavior, and creativity) over and above the intervening role of strain. We also consider how leadership influences the intervening role of justice in the stressor–job performance relationships by virtue of the effect it has on how stressors are interpreted with regard to fairness. Results of a study of 339 employees and their supervisors provide support for this model across dimensions of performance. Somewhat unexpectedly, the moderating effect of leadership is found to be contingent on the type of leadership and the type of stressors. Transactional leaders reduce the negative effect of hindrance stressors on job performance because they weaken the negative link between hindrance stressors and justice perceptions. Alternatively, transformational leaders enhance the positive effect of challenge stressors on job performance because they foster a positive link between challenge stressors and justice perceptions. We discuss how this intriguing pattern of moderated mediation could be explained by using theory and research on regulatory focus

Daily job crafting and the self-efficacy – performance relationship

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether job crafting and work enjoyment could explain the well-established relationship between self-efficacy and job performance. The authors hypothesized that employees would be most likely to engage in proactive job crafting behaviors on the days when they feel most self-efficacious. Daily job crafting, in turn, was expected to relate to daily performance through daily work enjoyment. Design/methodology/approach – A daily diary study was conducted among a heterogeneous sample of employees (N=47, days=215). Participants completed the survey on five consecutive days. Findings – The results of multilevel structural equation modeling analyses were generally in line with the hypotheses. Specifically, results indicated that employees who felt more self-efficacious on a given day were more likely to mobilize their job resources on that day. Daily job crafting, in turn, was positively correlated to work enjoyment and indirectly associated with performance. Part...

Leading to Make a Difference: A Field Experiment on the Performance Effects of Transformational Leadership, Perceived Social Impact, and Public Service Motivation

Abstract: Scholars have recently begun to investigate job design as one of the contingencies that moderates 1 the performance effects of transformational leadership in public sector organizations. Drawing on this stream of research, we used a completely randomized true experimental research design to explore the potential of two extra-task job characteristics—that is, beneficiary contact and self-persuasion interventions—to enhance the effects of transformational leadership on public employee performance. The participants in our field experiment were 138 nurses at a public hospital in Italy. Whereas participants who were exposed to transformational leadership manipulation alone marginally outperformed a control group, the performance effects of transformational leadership were much greater among nurses who were also exposed to either beneficiary contact or self-persuasion interventions. Follower perceptions of pro-social impact partially mediated 2 the positive interaction of transformational leadership and each of the two job design features on job performance. Moreover, the performance effects of transformational leadership and the interaction effects of transformational leadership and each of the two job design features were greater among participants who self-reported higher levels of public service motivation. The implications of the experimental findings for public administration research and theory are discussed.

Employees’ Adaptability and Perceptions of Change-Related Uncertainty: Implications for Perceived Organizational Support, Job Satisfaction, and Performance

Abstract: The literature on organizational change has increasingly recognized that characteristics of change recipients influence their reactions to workplace change. Yet little is known about the influence of employees’ adaptability and change-related uncertainty on their interpretation of organizational actions. We examined these antecedents and the mediating role of perceived organizational support as explanations for employees’ job satisfaction and performance. A survey was administered to material handling employees from two organizations. Employees completed measures of individual adaptability, uncertainty experienced regarding changes in the workplace, support received from the organization, and job satisfaction. Performance data were collected from the records of one organization. Results from both samples support the role of perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relationship between employees’ adaptability and perceptions of change-related uncertainty and employees’ satisfaction and performance. Change is a frequent occurrence in today’s workplace; thus, improving employee satisfaction and performance requires the consideration of change-related perceptions and individuals’ dispositions relevant to change. The present study offers insights regarding how organizations may help improve perceptions of organizational support by reducing perceived uncertainty as well as identifying employees who may need assistance to adapt to workplace changes. Despite practitioners’ expressed interest, there is scant research examining employees’ adaptability and change-related uncertainty. We provide the first evidence explaining how and why these variables impact important workplace outcomes and extend existing theory by identifying appraisals of the organization (and not the self) as a mechanism explaining stressor–strain relationships.

Burnout and job performance : the moderating role of selection, optimization and compensation strategies

Abstract: The present study aims to explain why research thus far has found only low to moderate associations between burnout and performance. We argue that employees use adaptive strategies that help them to maintain their performance (i.e., task performance, adaptivity to change) at acceptable levels despite experiencing burnout (i.e., exhaustion, disengagement). We focus on the strategies included in the selective optimization with compensation model. Using a sample of 294 employees and their supervisors, we found that compensation is the most successful strategy in buffering the negative associations of disengagement with supervisor-rated task performance and both disengagement and exhaustion with supervisor-rated adaptivity to change. In contrast, selection exacerbates the negative relationship of exhaustion with supervisor-rated adaptivity to change. In total, 42% of the hypothesized interactions proved to be significant. Our study uncovers successful and unsuccessful strategies that people use to deal with their burnout symptoms in order to achieve satisfactory job performance.

The story of why we stay: A review of job embeddedness.

Abstract: In this article, we examine the history and development of job embeddedness, beginning with the story of the idea’s conception, theoretical foundation, and original empirical structure as a major predictor of employee voluntary turnover. We then consider more recent expansions in the theoretical structure and empirical measurement of job embeddedness, exploring job embeddedness as a causal indicator model versus a reflective model. Next, we review some promising expansions of embeddedness to new domains (e.g., family embeddedness) as well as important contingency factors that enhance or diminish its impact. Finally, we describe how job embeddedness affects important organizational outcomes beyond turnover, including job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, innovation, and the development of social and human capital. Throughout the article, we provide our opinions on how the theory and research on embeddedness have progressed as well as ideas on how it can be improved.

The effects of health worker motivation and job satisfaction on turnover intention in Ghana: a cross-sectional study

Abstract: Motivation and job satisfaction have been identified as key factors for health worker retention and turnover in low- and middle-income countries. District health managers in decentralized health systems usually have a broadened ‘decision space’ that enables them to positively influence health worker motivation and job satisfaction, which in turn impacts on retention and performance at district-level. The study explored the effects of motivation and job satisfaction on turnover intention and how motivation and satisfaction can be improved by district health managers in order to increase retention of health workers. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in three districts of the Eastern Region in Ghana and interviewed 256 health workers from several staff categories (doctors, nursing professionals, allied health workers and pharmacists) on their intentions to leave their current health facilities as well as their perceptions on various aspects of motivation and job satisfaction. The effects of motivation and job satisfaction on turnover intention were explored through logistic regression analysis. Overall, 69% of the respondents reported to have turnover intentions. Motivation (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.60 to 0.92) and job satisfaction (OR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.57 to 0.96) were significantly associated with turnover intention and higher levels of both reduced the risk of health workers having this intention. The dimensions of motivation and job satisfaction significantly associated with turnover intention included career development (OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.36 to 0.86), workload (OR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.34 to 0.99), management (OR = 0.51. 95% CI: 0.30 to 0.84), organizational commitment (OR = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.66), and burnout (OR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.39 to 0.91). Our findings indicate that effective human resource management practices at district level influence health worker motivation and job satisfaction, thereby reducing the likelihood for turnover. Therefore, it is worth strengthening human resource management skills at district level and supporting district health managers to implement retention strategies.

On the Relation of Job Insecurity, Job Autonomy, Innovative Work Behaviour and the Mediating Effect of Work Engagement

Abstract: European policy is focusing on innovation as a way out of the economic crisis. At the same time, job insecurity is rising as Europe is still in crisis. In this paper, we examine whether job insecurity affects the innovative work behaviour of employees by focusing on the relation between job insecurity, job autonomy, work engagement and innovative work behaviour (IWB). Using employee level survey data, we use structural equation modelling to disentangle the relations between these variables. The partially mediated model shows the best fit with the data. This model shows that job insecurity and autonomy are both directly and indirectly, through work engagement, related with IWB. For autonomy these relations are positive, while they are negative (and smaller) for job insecurity. Moreover, a negative covariance is observed between job insecurity and autonomy.

Representative Bureaucracy in Policing: Does It Increase Perceived Legitimacy?

Abstract: Drawing on the theory of representative bureaucracy, specifically the theory of symbolic representation, we examine whether or not gender representativeness in a police department’s domestic violence unit influences how citizens judge the agency’s performance, trustworthiness, and fairness. To examine this question, we use an online survey experiment in which we vary the representation of female police officers in a hypothetical domestic violence unit as well as the agency’s performance. Results suggest that gender representation does indeed influence the perceived job performance, trustworthiness, and fairness of the agency, as does the agency’s performance. Thus, this study suggests that the symbolic representativeness of the police does causally influence how citizens view and judge a law enforcement agency, and thus in turn perhaps their willingness to cooperate in the coproduction of public safety outcomes.

Academics job satisfaction and job stress across countries in the changing academic environments

Abstract: This study examined job satisfaction and job stress across 19 higher education systems. We classified the 19 countries according to their job satisfaction and job stress and applied regression analysis to test whether new public management has impacts on either or both job satisfaction and job stress. According to this study, strong market driven countries are in the high stress group and European countries are in the high satisfaction group. The classification implies that market oriented managerial reforms are the main source of academic stress while the high social reputation of academics in their society and academic autonomy are the source of job satisfaction. Our regression analysis also shows that the new public management which is measured by the performance-based manage- ment in this study is the main source of academic job stress. In addition, this study highlighted the higher education systems that are classified as the high satisfaction and high stress group. These countries represent the conflicting nature of current academic society—on the one hand they are satisfied, but on the other they are highly stressful.

What does team–member exchange bring to the party? A meta-analytic review of team and leader social exchange

Abstract: Summary Both leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) measure the quality of reciprocal exchange among employees in the workplace. Although LMX focuses on supervisor–subordinate relationships while TMX examines the relationships among team members, both have theory-based and empirically proven relations with workplace outcomes such as job performance, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. However, it is not yet known which has more of an impact on such workplace outcomes—specifically, it is not clear if an employee's time is best spent developing vertical relationships among supervisors and subordinates (LMX) or on the horizontal relationships among team members (TMX). Accordingly, this meta-analysis explores the incremental validity and relative importance of these two social exchange-based constructs. The theoretical logic underlying LMX and TMX is clarified, and the parameter estimates between LMX, TMX, and work outcomes are reported. Results demonstrate that TMX shows incremental validity above and beyond LMX for some outcomes (organizational commitment and job satisfaction), but not others (job performance and turnover intentions). Also, LMX shows greater relative importance across all four outcomes. In sum, the clarification of the theoretical and empirical landscape lays a foundation for recommendations for future research. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effectiveness of job search interventions: a meta-analytic review.

Abstract: The current meta-analytic review examined the effectiveness of job search interventions in facilitating job search success (i.e., obtaining employment). Major theoretical perspectives on job search interventions, including behavioral learning theory, theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, and coping theory, were reviewed and integrated to derive a taxonomy of critical job search intervention components. Summarizing the data from 47 experimentally or quasi-experimentally evaluated job search interventions, we found that the odds of obtaining employment were 2.67 times higher for job seekers participating in job search interventions compared to job seekers in the control group, who did not participate in such intervention programs. Our moderator analysis also suggested that job search interventions that contained certain components, including teaching job search skills, improving selfpresentation, boosting self-efficacy, encouraging proactivity, promoting goal setting, and enlisting social support, were more effective than interventions that did not include such components. More important, job search interventions effectively promoted employment only when both skill development and motivation enhancement were included. In addition, we found that job search interventions were more effective in helping younger and older (vs. middle-aged) job seekers, short-term (vs. long-term) unemployed job seekers, and job seekers with special needs and conditions (vs. job seekers in general) to find employment. Furthermore, meta-analytic path analysis revealed that increased job search skills, job search self-efficacy, and job search behaviors partially mediated the positive effect of job search interventions on obtaining employment. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Enterprise system implementation and employee: understanding the role of advice networks

Abstract: The implementation of enterprise systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, alters business processes and associated workflows, and introduces new software applications that employees must use. Employees frequently find such technology-enabled organizational change to be a major challenge. Although many challenges related to such changes have been discussed in prior work, little research has focused on post-implementation job outcomes of employees affected by such change. We draw from social network theory-- specifically, advice networks--to understand a key post-implementation job outcome (i.e., job performance). We conducted a study among 87 employees, with data gathered before and after the implementation of an ERP system module in a business unit of a large organization. We found support for our hypotheses that workflow advice and software advice are associated with job performance. Further, as predicted, we found that the interactions of workflow and software get-advice, workflow and software give-advice, and software get- and give-advice were associated with job performance. This nuanced treatment of advice networks advances our understanding of post-implementation success of enterprise systems.

Performance Appraisal, Performance Management, and Firm-Level Performance: A Review, a Proposed Model, and New Directions for Future Research

Abstract: There has been a long history in management and industrial/organizational psychology of studying methods to improve performance at work. These efforts have traditionally been concerned with individual-level performance (with some attention paid to team performance as well); even when research began to more broadly consider the topic of performance management instead of just performance appraisal. However, the often unstated assumption was that, if an organization could effectively improve the performance of individual employees, this would accrue to improvements in firm-level performance as well. A review of the literature suggested that this link had never really been established in a direct way. Instead, we found considerable support for relating “bundles” of human resource (HR) practices to firm-level performance, and several models for how these practices could create the transformation from individual-level to firm-level performance. We drew upon several of these models, from somewhat diverse...

Leader–member exchange, organizational identification, and job satisfaction: A social identity perspective

Abstract: This study examines the influence of leader�member exchange (LMX) on employee organizational identification and job satisfaction. Drawing upon the current literature of social identity theory, we propose a moderated mediation model with organizational identification as the mediator of the relationship between LMX and job satisfaction, and with job security as the moderator on such positive indirect link between LMX, organizational identification, and job satisfaction. We tested our hypotheses using a two-phase survey data collected from 306 employees of two companies in southern China. Implications of our findings for research and practice are discussed.

The relationship of Turnover intention with job satisfaction, job performance, Leader member exchange, Emotional intelligence and organizational commitment

Abstract: Turnover is a painful issue in the organizations, in the world of tough competition the organizations try to minimize their turnover ratio and save their cost, turnover cost consists of hiring, recruiting and selecting the employees. The purpose of current study to is to know the effect of some of the factors which affect the turnover intention of employees. We find the impact of organizational commitment, emotional intelligence, leader membership exchange, job performance and job satisfaction on turnover intention. We conducted a survey and took a sample of 200 employees. We used questionnaire method to collect information from the respondents. By using linear regression analysis method we found that Job satisfaction, job performance and leader membership exchange has a direct negative influence on the turnover intention. The results provide understanding that how these variables affect the turnover inten tion and how to reduce turnover rate.

Attribution Theory in the Organizational Sciences: The Road Traveled and the Path Ahead

Abstract: Individuals make attributions when they infer causes about particular outcomes. Several narrative reviews of attributional research have concluded that attributions matter in the workplace, but note that attribution theory has been underutilized in organizational research. To examine the predictive power of attributions in organizational contexts, we present a meta-analysis of existing attribution theory research. Our findings suggest that attributions have consistently demonstrated effect sizes that are comparable to more commonly utilized predictor variables of workplace outcomes. Expanding on these findings, we argue that attributions are an integral part of individuals' cognitive processes that are associated with critical organizational outcomes. We conclude with suggestions to help expand and optimize the contribution of attributional research to understanding and managing organizational outcomes.

Are job and personal resources associated with work ability 10 years later? The mediating role of work engagement

Abstract: Using a two-wave 10-year longitudinal design, this study examined the motivational process proposed by the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The aim was to examine whether work engagement acts as a mediator between job resources (i.e. supervisory relations, interpersonal relations and task resources) and personal resources (self-esteem) on the one hand and future work ability (i.e. a worker's functional ability to do their job) on the other. The second aim was to investigate the mediating role of engagement between past work ability and future work ability. Structural equation modelling was used to test the mediation hypotheses among Finnish firefighters (N = 403). As hypothesized, engagement at T2 fully mediated the impact of job and personal resources at T1 on work ability at T2. In addition, the effect of work ability at T1 on work ability at T2 was partially mediated by engagement at T2. These results indicate that job and personal resources may have long-term effects on engagement, and consequently...

Examining the effect of tour guide performance, tourist trust, tourist satisfaction, and flow experience on tourists' shopping behavior.

Abstract: This study contributes to a model describing the effect of tour guide performance on tourist shopping behavior by examining the mediating effects of perceived credibility trust, perceived benevolence trust, and tourist satisfaction as well as the moderating effect of flow experience. Our analysis confirms that tour guide performance has positive effects on perceived credibility trust, perceived benevolence trust, and tourist satisfaction. However, only perceived benevolence trust and tourist satisfaction mediate the relationships between tour guide performance and tourist shopping behavior. Nevertheless, tour guide performance, as evaluated through perceived credibility trust and tourist satisfaction, has the strongest effect on tourist shopping behavior when compared to other routes in the model. In addition, the moderating effect of flow experience is confirmed in the perceived benevolence trust and tourist shopping behavior relationship, but it does not have any effects on other links. In light of our ...