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The purpose of this paper is to investigate a moderated mediation model of innovative work behaviour enhancement. Perceived firm (organizational and market) performance was assumed to moderate the relationships between leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), on the one hand, and employability, on the other hand. In a preciously validated human resources management (HRM) model, employability appeared to be a full mediator in the relationship between LMX and OCB, and innovative work behaviour, being the outcome measure.

Data were collected from a sample of 487 pairs of employees and their immediate supervisors working in 151 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to confirm the factor structure of the baseline model variables, including LMX, OCB, employability, and innovative work behaviour. The moderating effect of firm performance was tested using multi-group SEM.

Results indicated that firm performance had a substantial influence on the baseline model's relationships. More specifically, firm performance appeared to moderate partially a mediation model wherein LMX was assumed to be associated with innovative work behaviour, through employability, being the mediator. Moreover, firm performance also appeared to moderate conclusively a model with employability as a mediator in the relationship between OCB and innovative work behaviour.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the very first study that investigates a mediation model of innovative work behaviour enhancement moderated by firm performance. It appears that high- vs low-performance firms present very different organizational environments for an employee to work in. Obviously, these situational factors affect workers’ employability. This study adds particular knowledge to the scholarly literature in this field since not much is known about the science and practice of HRM within SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update of the Special Issue's field of research, give the structure of the Special Issue and introduce the papers in the collection, including management issues.

A review of the Call for Papers and further research and a presentation of papers in the Special Issue paying attention to original contribution, research and management recommendations.

This Special Issue is making a solid contribution to the field in not only addressing ageing and the ageing generation, but focusing strongly on the way both the ageing generation and other generations such as Gen Y and Gen X affect organisational dynamics, structure and career management.

Original research brought together in a multi-faceted way outlining the challenges as well as management agendas for the organisation.

This study tested whether person-job fit (PJ-fit), person-group fit (PG-fit) and person-organization fit (PO-fit) relate to exposure to and enactment of workplace bullying (WB), mediated by strain and conflict.

Data from 1,077 employees were analysed using multiple mediator structural equation modelling (Mplus 8.0).

PJ-fit, PG-fit and PO-fit all related to WB. PG-fit accounted for most explained variance. PJ-fit, PG-fit and PO-fit related to bullying through strain; only PG-fit also related to bullying through conflict.

PE-fit is valuable to parsimoniously investigate WB's multi-causal nature; and strain and conflict partially explain the associations. Future research may shed more light on the direction of these effects.

So far, scholars assumed that job design prevents WB (work-environment hypothesis). This study revealed that prevention should also focus on the fit between employee and group/organization.

WB has high societal costs. The authors introduce a new angle to WB prevention. To counteract WB, practitioners should also look at PJ-fit, PG-fit and PO-fit. This is not only important for recruitment, but also for tenured employees (e.g. because of changes in employees' needs, the job, the group or the organization).

This study was the first to investigate the multi-causal nature of both WB exposure and enactment, by applying the lens of PE-fit, and testing explanatory mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which emotional experiences mediate the relationships between employees’ perception of considerate and/or tyrannical leadership behaviors and their work engagement and intention to leave the organization. The notion of symmetric and asymmetric relationships between specific kinds of leadership behavior, emotional reactions, and followers’ attitudinal outcomes is also examined.

Employing a survey design, the variables were assessed in a cross-sectional sample of 312 employees.

The study confirmed the notion of symmetric relationships between specific kinds of leadership behavior, emotional reactions, and followers’ attitudinal outcomes. Contrary to the general notion that “bad is stronger than good,” the results indicated that positive emotions were equal or stronger mediators than the negative ones regarding the two outcomes measured in the present study.

The paper is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first paper which examines simultaneously how constructive and destructive leadership styles, and positive and negative affects, are related to employee attitudes outcomes, and evokes a discussion when bad is stronger than good or vice versa regarding leadership outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible role of job insecurity climate as a moderator in the relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs).

Questionnaire data were collected from 466 employees working in 14 organizations from both the private and public sector. Following the core tenets of social exchange theory and occupational stress theories, the authors argue that ideally job insecurity is studied as a climate-level construct, given the fact that intra-group social exchange processes strongly influence the formation of employee perceptions about specific aspects of their work context (e.g. job insecurity).

In line with one of the hypotheses, multi-level analyses revealed that LMX is significantly and positively related to OCBs. In addition, the authors found support for a negative moderation effect, such that LMX has a less strongly positive relationship with extra-role behaviors that are beneficial to the organization when job insecurity climate is high.

The study contributes to the limited empirical scholarly research on job insecurity climate and its correlates. Management and HR professionals in working organizations are advised to focus on preventive measures (e.g. to invest in the professional development of their employees, that is focus on employability enhancement, in order to reduce job insecurity) as well as on participation-based interventions.

The purpose of this current study was to investigate the moderating effect of autonomy (individual-level job resource) and social supportive climate (group-level job resource) on the negative relationship between job insecurity and work engagement.

Cross-sectional data were gathered and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling from 3,812 participants nested in 116 work units.

A significant interaction between job insecurity and autonomy offered support for the buffering hypothesis of autonomy. Hypotheses regarding both the direct and the buffering effect of social supportive climate were also supported, suggesting that shared perceptions of a supportive environment can reduce the negative impact of job insecurity on work engagement.

Focus on unit climate can aid practitioners in designing interventions that take into account the effects, and make use of resources that are shared in the work-group.

This study extends the job demands-resources theory, showing that resources exist not only at the level of the individual but also a group-level phenomenon, and interact with demands across levels.

The present investigation aimed to evaluate the influence of envy on the predisposition to innovative behavior, starting from a conceptual model that considers not only the direct influence of envy but its indirect influence through ostracism and alignment with the negative behaviors of superiors.

Using a survey applied to 168 individuals, a conceptual model was developed based on the relationship ignored in the literature between envy and innovative behavior. The model was validated using the multivariate statistical technique of structural equation modeling with partial least squares estimation (Partial least squares structural equation modeling [PLS-SEM]).

The results of the study suggest that envy not only has a direct positive influence on alignment with negative boss behaviors and ostracism, but also an indirect influence on ostracism mediated by alignment with negative boss behaviors. Another important result of the present investigation refers to the negative effect of envy on the predisposition to innovative behavior. The results suggest that the greater the envy, the lower the innovative behavior.

This research provides evidence that envy can act as a barrier to innovation by triggering counterproductive behaviors such as ostracism and a decrease in predisposition to innovative behaviors, either due to innovative individuals prematurely exiting the organization or due to them lessening/dampening their innovativeness to avoid the negative consequences. Given this scenario, it becomes necessary to increase managerial awareness on the subject to manage negative emotions to promote the conditions for organizational innovation.

The present research contributes in both practical and theoretical ways to understanding the effects of envy on the predisposition to innovative behavior. Adding to this, this research represents a conceptual advance by linking envy to innovative behavior, providing a promising avenue for extending the psychological relevance of the envy construct to organizational and management studies, which are generally positive, normative and outcome-oriented.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership and a transactional leadership component (management by exception‐active), and fulfillment of the basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness.

The paper is based on cross sectional data from 661 employees who completed validated questionnaires such as the the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) and the basic need satisfaction at work (BNSW). The data were analysed using structural equation modeling in AMOS 18.0.

The results show that both transformational leadership and the transactional behavior management by exception active are significantly related to fulfillment of the basic needs. Significant regression weights of 0.50 (p<0.01) 0.46 (p<0.01), and 0.21 (p<0.01) from transformational leadership to relatedness, autonomy and competence were also found. Negative and smaller paths were revealed from management by exception to relatedness (=−0.12, p<0.01), competence (=−0.12, p<0.05), and autonomy (=−0.18, p<0.01). Squared multiple correlations (R²) for relatedness, competence and autonomy were 0.28, 0.06, and 0.27, respectively.

The paper empirically addresses the theoretically suggested link between transformational leadership and need fulfillment.

Bullying affects at least one-third of the workers through either direct exposure or witnessing, both of which lead to compromised health, and as a result, reduced organizational effectiveness or productivity. However, there is very little evidence that organisations provide effective protection from bullying, and in fact, the converse appears to the case. The purpose of this paper to explore the role of both individual and organisational power in the creation and maintenance of the problem. Such an approach moves away from the specific practice of identifying “bullying” that typically engages targets and perpetrators in a dance that is really just around the edges (Sullivan, 2008) of a larger problem; a culture that permits the abuse of power and ill-treatment of workers, in both practices and through organisational politics.

This paper elucidates key problems with organisational response as identified in the literature and critically examines weak organisational response to workplace bullying using the power theory, arguing that while overt approaches to addressing bullying appear to be underpinned by a simplistic, functionalist understanding of power, practices on the ground are better explained by more sophisticated “second-dimension” theorists.

There is a need for organisations to move beyond the current individualistic understanding of bullying towards a more nuanced understanding of how anti-bullying policies and procedures are themselves an exercise in institutional power protecting and reinforcing dominant power structures.

The literature from which this paper is drawn is limited to studies published in English.

The authors advocate a realistic assessment of the role of both individual and organisational power in the creation and maintenance of workplace bullying, as a way forward to plan appropriate intervention.

Workplace bullying is problematic for organisations at several levels, and therefore for society.

That power is relevant to workplace bullying has been apparent since the work of Brodsky in 1976 and Einarsen's early work, this paper builds on a the more nuanced work of McKay (2014), D'Cruz and Noronha (2009), Liefooghe and MacDavey's (2010) and Hutchinson et al. (2010), exploring the organisational response to the raising of bullying issues by individual employees as an exercise of power.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection of competency and bullying behaviors, not yet reported in the literature.

The approach is an examination of the literature available on both topics, and development of a framework related to both.

The theory is that there is a strong mediating relationship between the victim’s self-perception of competency and outcomes (the victim’s reactions) to bullying behaviors. There are multiple impacts of bullying behaviors, but the authors believe this mediation action of competency might be crucial. There is little research on competency or expertise in terms of behaviors resulting from these self-assessments. Future research should seek to examine the link empirically, and there are implications about the competency levels of bullies themselves that might arise.

As this is a newly developed research stream, the authors plan to continue with work on the topic.

By developing competency, individuals may develop some protection or coping mechanisms when confronted by bullying behaviors. Managers need to be aware of the need to allow employee development to reduce the incidence of such behaviors.

Bullying behaviors have become rampant in society. In trying to determine where the problem might be best addressed, the authors feel that they have made a significant impact to allow managers to address competency among those victimized by these behaviors. This should have a flow-on effect for organizational and societal culture.

This is an intersection that has not been explored but holds significant explanatory power in the area. These bullying behaviors are on the rise; therefore, it is an exceptional opportunity to present new ideas in a forum that is well read by both academics and practitioners.