Franz J. Gellert and Ben S. Kuipers
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of age in work teams on short‐term team consequences, such as satisfaction, involvement, mutual learning, decision making and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of age in work teams on short‐term team consequences, such as satisfaction, involvement, mutual learning, decision making and feedback, and long‐term team consequences, such as quality, sick leave and burnout, and to consider their implications for team management and human resource management (HRM) policies in team‐based organizations facing an ageing work force.
Design/methodology/approach
The study elaborates on the framework of Milliken and Martins, further examining the effects of both average age and age differences. The authors collected objective data as well as data through questionnaires among 150 work teams with more than 1,500 white‐collar and blue‐collar workers from an automotive company in Sweden. With these data the authors conducted correlation and step‐by‐step hierarchical regression analyses.
Findings
The analyses showed significant positive effects of average age on both short‐term and long‐term consequences. No significant effects of age differences were found.
Research limitations/implications
Conducting a longitudinal study in an automotive company in Sweden resulted in monocultural findings. The use of a sample from one organization may limit the generalization of our findings. Future research should pay more attention to effects of age in teams, compared to individual age effects in organizations and to explore more advanced models that help to understand the dynamic processes of age in teams.
Practical implications
The results have implications for management of teams and HRM policy in organizations relating to recruitment, early retirement, training developments and team composition in general.
Originality/value
The paper suggests positive effects of age in work teams and contributes to the literature about the ageing workforce working in teams.
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Mélia Djabi and Sakura Shimada
The purpose of this article is to understand how academics in management deal with the concept of generation in the workplace. We begin by conducting an interdisciplinary…
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to understand how academics in management deal with the concept of generation in the workplace. We begin by conducting an interdisciplinary literature analysis, thereby elaborating a conceptual framework concerning generational diversity. This framework consists of four levels of analysis (society, career, organisation and occupation) and three dimensions (age, cohort and event/period). We then conduct a meta-analysis using this conceptual framework to analyse papers from the management field. The results from this analysis reveal the existence of a diversity of generational approaches, which focus on the dimensions of age and cohort on a societal level. Four factors seem to explain these results: the recent de-synchronisation of generational dimensions and levels, the novelty of theoretical models, the amplification of stereotypes by mass media and the methodologies employed by researchers. In sum, this article contributes to a more realistic view of generational diversity in the workplace for both academics and practitioners.
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Franz Josef Gellert and René Schalk
This paper aims to examine the influence of age and age‐related attitudes on relationship factors. In addition, it seeks to assess how both factors affect care service work…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the influence of age and age‐related attitudes on relationship factors. In addition, it seeks to assess how both factors affect care service work performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the influence of age and age‐related attitudes on the relationship quality among employees, affecting performance in mentally and physically demanding work settings. The authors conducted the research in six residential homes for the elderly in Germany (152 respondents) and collected the data with questionnaires. Data are analyzed by multi‐hierarchical regression analyses.
Findings
Results show that age‐related attitudes (intergenerational cooperation and the perception of older employees' capabilities) are important factors influencing the perceived quality level of in‐group cooperation. Both age‐related attitudes and relationship factors influence perceived employee performance, and job satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The findings contribute to understanding how age‐related attitudes influence relationships among employees, the relationship between employees and supervisor, and the effect on service performance. The mono‐cultural sample might be a limitation, as well as the composition of the sample: The majority of respondents were female.
Practical implications
For leaders, supervisors and managers the results contribute to understanding how employees' age‐related attitudes, in mentally and physically demanding work settings, influence the quality level of relationships and outcomes. This is relevant in the context of leaders/supervisors promoting followers' individual development and group/team development.
Originality/value
The paper shows that in care service work with an increasing number of older employees, the positive perception of age‐related attitudes influences relationship quality and performance positively.
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Franz Josef Gellert and René Schalk
This paper seeks to examine age‐related perceptions of the quality of relationships at work and performance in mentally and physically demanding care service work settings.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to examine age‐related perceptions of the quality of relationships at work and performance in mentally and physically demanding care service work settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted in six residential homes for the elderly in Germany. Data of 150 respondents were analyzed using multiple hierarchical regression and mediation tests. The mediating role of relationship quality in the relationship between age and employee performance was examined.
Findings
It was found that older employees experienced better exchange relationships with their supervisors, and that this mediated the relationship between age and job satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is female dominated. Organizations are in transition from conventional organizational structure to team structure with employees' high company and job tenure.
Practical implications
A higher relationship quality suggests a higher quality of older workers' job appraisal, which might be a starting point for older followers to rethink career perspectives and start further individual development.
Originality/value
The findings extend earlier studies and provide more insight into the relationship between age, relationship quality, and employee performance from a follower's point‐of‐view.
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Matthew K. Wynia, Jacob F. Kurlander and Shane K. Green
Physicians are instrumental to our national defense against epidemics, whether natural or bioterror-related. Broadly speaking, they are obligated to help rapidly identify threats…
Abstract
Physicians are instrumental to our national defense against epidemics, whether natural or bioterror-related. Broadly speaking, they are obligated to help rapidly identify threats, prevent the spread of disease, and care for infected patients. Each task presents ethical challenges, including the need to address access to care, balance the medical needs of individuals and communities, and ensure that health professionals continue to treat infectious patients in spite of the risk they present. If physicians can acknowledge these duties and meet these challenges, they have an opportunity to strengthen medicine's public trust and professional identity.
Angela Franz‐Balsen and Harald Heinrichs
Sustainability communication is evolving as a new interdisciplinary field of research and professional practice. The purpose of this paper is to point out the advantage of…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainability communication is evolving as a new interdisciplinary field of research and professional practice. The purpose of this paper is to point out the advantage of applying theoretical frameworks and related research instruments for an adequate sustainability communication management on campus. It also aims to highlight the normative constraints and challenges (participation) that differentiate sustainability communication from public relations.
Design/methodology/approach
An interdisciplinary theoretical framework and empirical studies (quantitative/qualitative; audience research) were used for the design of a context‐sensitive sustainability communication management concept for the University of Lüneburg‐
Findings
Empirical data clearly showed that disciplinary cultures (including their gender specificity) are highly relevant for sustainability attitudes. Continuous visibility of sustainability efforts on campus is critical for people's attitudes and engagement. Campus community members can be characterized by degrees of “sustainability affinity” vs “sustainability distance”. Too much sustainability‐campaigning is counterproductive, whereas listening to campus community members' ideas and needs seems appropriate.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need for qualitative data to assess “communication culture”
Practical implications
A balanced theoretically, empirically and normatively grounded communication management is recommended in order to establish a participatory communication culture.
Originality/value
The application of sustainability communication theory, including participation research, in the context of higher education for sustainable development is overdue; thesis: sustainability communication wants to initiate structural changes on campus, but is itself dependent on visible structural change in order to be effective.
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Using the global financial crisis as a critical event and based on institutional theory and stakeholder theory, this paper aims to explore the relationship between corporate…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the global financial crisis as a critical event and based on institutional theory and stakeholder theory, this paper aims to explore the relationship between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The question is how stakeholders can influence corporate responses to societal change by using their position in the governance structure.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on a historical analysis of data collected mainly between 2002 and 2004. The historical perspective enables an understanding of the response of the company to environmental changes.
Findings
The approach enables researchers to relate the normative component of CSR to specific governance mechanisms. These governance mechanisms are specified in direct and indirect influence pathways. Historical data shed light on how, in the upbeat of the crisis, stakeholders have influenced the principles and policies of the ING Group, a Dutch financial company.
Research limitations/implications
The paper suggests that stakeholders influence principles – normative assumptions that guide corporate decisions – mainly in dialogue-based meetings (direct influence pathways). Companies are made accountable in indirect influence pathways such as regulations. The author also demonstrates that a historical approach enables an understanding of long-term historical developments and the linking of corporate policies to the normative assumptions of stakeholders.
Practical implications
If stakeholders wish to assess the social responsibility of a company, then they should assess the governance structure in relation to the principles and policies. The power structure within a company and that within the institutional framework in which the company operates (the governance system) strongly influences how a company executes its social responsibilities.
Social implications
The paper demonstrates how stakeholders can use the governance structure to influence a bank. If society – or a specific group in society – wants banks to play a different role, this paper points to what could be the levers of change in the governance system and the governance structure.
Originality/value
Insights into the complex relationship between corporate governance and the processes in which the social responsibilities of a company are developed.