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Job burnout is a popular topic for researchers and a pressing issue for employees and employers. However, the most popular measure has become widely critiqued, and a new construct – the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) – has been offered as a better way to assess burnout.

The study uses data from 1,022 employees across a wide range of occupations, sectors and industries. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and odds ratio calculations are explored.

The present psychometric properties of the BAT construct are supported. Overall, 11.1% of employees met the high burnt-out risk threshold. Determinants of burnt-out risk were explored, with significant findings from high perceptions of organizational support, large firm-size, young age and long work hours found. No gender differences. The odds ratio provides greater insights into the risks associated with factors, especially working 55+ hours/week, which resulted in 580% higher risk of burnt-out risk.

The findings highlight the danger of burnt-out risk and provide a useful benchmark for those exploring the burnt-out risk rate.

The BAT has not been tested in New Zealand across a sample of employees. Given the large size and breadth of employees, this provides useful generalizability to the BAT-NZ. The determinants tested here are all unique to the literature and provide new insights.

Supporting employees’ work–life balance (WLB) has been a standard human resource management practice, thus the concern is now shifted toward its outcomes. The present study predicts that while WLB can boost organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), this positive effect may depend on the quality of leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships. The study seeks evidence to clarify how the WLB–OCBs relationship can be moderated by the LMX quality.

A sample of 216 frontline employees in New Zealand was used to test two moderation models using SPSS, AMOS and PROCESS macro.

WLB was found to have substantial effects on OCBs-individual (OCBs-I) and OCBs-organization (OCBs-O) if the quality of LMX was high. Under low LMX quality, however, WLB failed to boost OCBs-I and OCBs-O. Thus, the influence of WLB on OCBs seems to be conditional on the leader–subordinate relationship as a boundary factor.

Supporting low-LMX-quality employees to balance their work–life roles seems insufficient to push OCBs. Managers and organizations need to improve the quality of leader–subordinate relationships to unblock the desired effects of WLB toward OCBs, and, ultimately, organizational effectiveness and performance.

The findings extend the research stream around the boundary impact of LMX relationships on the employees’ WLB – OCBs link in which the OCBs construct was especially examined in terms of OCBs-I and OCBs-O.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the study of work-life balance (WLB) by exploring the influence of WLB amongst older workers. Theoretically, this study suggests that the psychological benefits of age on relationships between WLB and well-being might be stronger for those “younger” older workers than those working toward or beyond retirement age. This study tests a moderated mediation model whereby the effects of WLB on anxiety and depression (through job stress) are moderated by age.

Survey data from 512 New Zealand employees in three older age cohorts (55–59 years, 60–64 and 65+ years).

This study finds that WLB reduces job stress and leads to lower anxiety and depression. Job stress positively influences anxiety and depression and partially mediates the influence of WLB. Significant interaction effects are found by age, with the lower age cohort (55–59 years) reporting the strongest benefits from WLB and this effect reduces as employees get older but remains significant.

Even when focusing on older workers, the findings show younger older workers elicit stronger benefits from WLB toward well-being, although all age groups find WLB beneficial.

This paper offers novel insights into the question of whether the importance of WLB for well-being differs among older workers.

High-performance work systems (HPWSs) are linked to performance, but few studies explore creativity behaviours (CBs). The present study includes job satisfaction as a mediator, and firm size and competitive rivalry as moderators to better understand the context.

Data were collected using a sample of 310 New Zealand managers. Data analysis was a moderated mediation analysis in structural equation modelling using Mplus.

The authors find HPWSs are directly related to CBs and job satisfaction, with job satisfaction fully mediating HPWS effects. Two-way moderation effects show managers in small firms report the highest CBs with high HPWSs, and a significant moderated mediation effect is found with firm size, showing a strong positive indirect effect from HPWS, which diminishes as firm size increases.

HPWSs hold the key to providing managers with opportunities for enhancing their CBs. Exploring the distinct bundles of HPWSs in the present study provides avenues for firms to understand and expand their influence on managers.

The findings of firm size as a boundary condition provides unique insights that aid our understanding of the effectiveness of HPWSs on CBs, and how small-sized New Zealand firms might extract better advantages from HPWSs. A major contribution is testing external firm factors (size and the business environment) to understand what roles they may play on managers’ creativity.

An effective firm strategy is key to sustained financial performance, while interactions between strategy, employee retention and top talent retention have been seldom explored. We test hypotheses using New Zealand SMEs which are defined as having up to 250 employees. We initially explore firm strategy using Porters competitive advantage model predicting employee retention (including top talent), with study 1 (n = 208) using firm size as a moderator, finding a direct significant relationship from firm strategy toward employee retention. Next, we explore firm strategy predicting firm performance with employee retention mediating and include firm size as a moderator, testing a moderated mediation model in study 2 (n = 474) and study 3 (n = 300, with time-lagged performance).

There are no open databases holding NZ firms’ performance data and thus data was sourced from a Qualtrics survey panel. Such panels have become more common (e.g. Haar et al., 2021a, b) and a recent meta-analysis by Walter et al. (2019) showed that this type of panel data was no different from data sourced through conventional means (i.e. mail survey). We focused on NZ private sector SMEs using senior managers across a range of industries and geographic locations. Because the influence of firm strategy on employee retention remains unknown in the literature, we conducted study 1 (n = 208) to test the initial part of our overall model. Study 2 (n = 474) and study 3 (n = 300) tested the full model (with organizational performance), with study 3 having organizational performance time-lagged by one month.

All direct effect hypotheses are supported, although firm size interacted significantly with firm strategy showing smaller not larger-sized firms leverage firm strategy to achieve superior retention benefits. This was against hypothesis 5a in all three studies. Studies 2 and 3 supported the moderated mediation hypothesis, with firms of larger size having a stronger indirect effect from firm strategy on firm performance while employee retention mediated the influence of firm strategy on firm performance. Finally, dominance analysis found that a quality differentiation strategy was the key strategy across all studies and outcomes. We discuss the implications for organizations.

The first managerial implication from the study is that small and medium sized firms would benefit both from developing a deeper understanding of the strategic alternatives open to them and placing a greater emphasis on the implementation of their selected strategic approach. A second managerial implication relates to findings indicating that retention generally, and top talent retention specifically, is positively related to firm strategy and firm performance. Given the importance and challenges of staff retention, particularly in the current environment where there are significant skill shortages, these results suggest that small and medium sized business would benefit from considering how strategy can create an organizational environment that is attractive to employees and support stronger retention outcomes as a mechanism for driving both retention and performance.

The study makes three major contributions. First, it examines firm strategy and extends the focus on firm performance by including not only employee retention but also top talent retention, responding in part to the call to develop and refine performance measures (Lieberman, 2021). Second, beyond using retention as a mediator, firm size is included as a moderator and a moderated mediation model is ultimately tested. Third, we conduct dominance analysis to identify the key firm strategy that influences firm performance and retention. Ultimately, this paper asks: what is the role of firm strategy on New Zealand SME performance, and what influence does retention and relative firm-size play.

This study aims to identify the variables which influence user perceptions of cloud-based small business accounting software.

This study used the end-user computing satisfaction (EUCS) model developed by Doll and Torkzadeh. Responses to open-ended questions informed these findings.

The findings from this study suggest that user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness were more strongly influenced by content and accuracy than the variables format, ease of use and timeliness.

There were a small number of participants (122) from a single city in New Zealand evaluating a single software application.

Given the increased availability and range of accounting applications for small business, these findings help explain factors which might influence software selection decisions. This study also provides a platform for researchers to extend this research to other cloud-based accounting software applications in their academic research. These findings may also provide software developers with functionality suggestions to be included in future software development.

These findings identify the perceived importance of the factors used to evaluate cloud-base accounting software.

There has been very little research undertaken to identify factors which influence user perceptions of cloud-based accounting software using a structured EUCS framework.

The purpose of this paper is to explore impostor syndrome or impostor phenomenon (IP), which is defined as high-achieving individuals' failure to internalize accomplishments. Despite the wide study of IP, the role of the context beyond the individual is largely ignored, although recently, calls have been made for such scrutiny. In this study perceived organizational support (POS) is included as a contextual factor.

Using a large and representative sample (n = 1,042) of New Zealand employees, the study seeks to investigate IP using the standard Clance IP scale test, and the frequency of IP is calculated. Next, it assesses the links between IP and mental health, specifically job anxiety and job depression, are explored. POS is included as a moderator.

Overall, the study finds solid evidence of the psychometric properties of the scale, with the following frequencies across categories: few IP issues (14.0%), moderate IP issues (37.3%), frequent IP issues (39.7%) and intense IP issues (8.9%). Regression analysis shows that IP is positively related to job anxiety and job depression. The interactions between POS and IP support the hypothesized buffering effect. Additional tests suggest that IP is a widespread workplace phenomenon irrespective of individual or organization demographics.

The findings of this study highlight the common nature of IP in the workplace and its role in mental health. However, POS clearly can play a key role in its management in the workplace.

The IP literature has a limited focus on workplaces, and mental health, including POS as a moderator, and provides additional value.

Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand and have a history of experiencing discrimination, which occurs similarly for Pacific peoples. While both ethnic groups have lower pay and higher unemployment issues, their workplace experiences around perceived discrimination are seldom explored. Consequently, this study tests the influence of perceived discrimination on work outcomes (job satisfaction and work engagement) and well-being outcomes (job stress, job anxiety and job depression). Further, potential buffering effects of perceived organizational support (POS) and gender are conducted to test the symbolic interaction perspective (gender differences towards the potential buffering effects of POS).

The study uses data from Māori employees (n = 437) and Pacific employees (n = 148) for a total sample of 585 employees across a wide range of occupations and industries. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the data was used, and two-way and three-way moderations were conducted.

Overall, perceived discrimination was detrimentally related to all outcomes. Further, significant three-way interactions were found towards all well-being outcomes. This supported the symbolic interaction perspective, whereby high POS buffered perceived discrimination best for females, but low POS was key for males.

This research is important because the authors provide much-needed empirical evidence around ethnic discrimination in Aotearoa/New Zealand workplaces and extend the outcomes explored in the discrimination literature. Implications for organizations include establishing the rate of discrimination and developing human resource management (HRM) practices to address this.

Beyond the unique findings towards Māori and Pacific employees, the strong support for the symbolic interaction perspective provides useful insights into understanding that support benefits differ by gender.

Using the conservation of resource theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the potentially positive influence of job stress on creativity through the resource caravan approach. The influence of job stress directly and as a moderator of psychological capital (PsyCap) is explored. Finally, the influence of stress on creativity is investigated as a boundary condition that impacts on the PsyCap-creativity relationship via job satisfaction.

Relationships were tested on two samples: (1) an international employee cohort (n = 269) and (2) a New Zealand employee sample (n = 475) and similar effects were found in both studies.

PsyCap was found to influence job satisfaction and creativity, with job satisfaction partially mediating this direct effect. Job stress has a positive moderation effect with PsyCap toward creativity, supporting Conservation of Resources theory, which suggests that high PsyCap individuals would have the psychological resources to leverage stress beneficially, making their behaviors more creative. Significant moderated mediation effects indicate complex indirect effects with PsyCap on creativity (via job satisfaction) increasing as job stress gets higher.

This study calls for researchers' attention toward potentially positive influences of stress when considered in combination with high psychological resources. Practical implications focus manager's and leader's attention toward the enhancement of employees' psychological resources for its stress and creativity related benefits.

The findings provide new theoretical support for understanding how stress can positively influence creativity. The use of two samples improves confidence in these findings.

The study maps workplace stakeholders’ perceptions of living wage (LW) impacts in New Zealand. Empirical findings inform an inaugural model of LW impacts and contingent factors at individual, organisation, sector/industry and national levels.

Data from a national employee survey, semi-structured interviews with business sector representatives, and staff in two LW organisation cases were subjected to thematic content analysis.

Informants emphasised anticipated LW impacts amid complex workplace and regulatory dynamics. Employers/managers stressed its cost effects. However, employees, human resource (HR) advocates and other LW proponents highlighted employee “investment” impacts that improve worker productivity and societal circumstances.

This study highlights the need for further context-sensitive LW analysis. An initial model of LW impacts provides a framework for comparative and longitudinal work in other national contexts.

The proposed model categorises perceived LW effects and can inform policy development. Findings also stress a need for cross-agency initiatives to address LW concerns, including a key role for HR.

The findings highlight perceptions of a LW impacting within and beyond the workplace. Whilst higher-quality management is seen to encourage better-informed decisions about “going living wage”, a LW's positive socio-economic impacts require multi-lateral initiatives, suggesting that those initiatives are is part of wider obligations for policy makers to encourage decent living standards.

This study provides a much-needed and inaugural focus on the intertwined workplace and wider impacts of a LW, extending extant econometric analyses. The paper also synthesizes different data sources to develop an inaugural, context-sensitive model of perceived LW effects.