Joana Story and Filipa Castanheira
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between hybrid HR systems in call centers and their effect on workers' performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between hybrid HR systems in call centers and their effect on workers' performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a sample of 337 call center operator-supervisor dyads, the authors analyzed how the joint perceptions of monitoring and high-performance work systems (HPWS) are associated with workers' authenticity to explain performance, rated by supervisors.
Findings
The authors found that when monitoring is perceived as low, HPWS is not associated with authenticity, suggesting that it requires the joint effect of monitoring and HPWS to communicate HR management priorities in call centers. In addition, the authors found that high ratings of monitoring combined with low perceptions of HPWS were associated with the lowest levels of authenticity, whereas the highest levels of authenticity at work were found when high monitoring was combined with high HPWS. The results supported a conditional indirect effect through authenticity to explain when and how hybrid HR systems are associated with better supervisor-rated performance.
Originality/value
This is the first study to test the interaction effects between HPWS and monitoring practices to explain authenticity as a key strategic component of performance in call centers.
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John E. Barbuto and Joana S. Story
This study examined the relationships between emotional intelligence, locus of control, and mental boundaries. Three hundred and eighty-two county employees were sampled using a…
Abstract
This study examined the relationships between emotional intelligence, locus of control, and mental boundaries. Three hundred and eighty-two county employees were sampled using a cross-sectional survey design. The results indicated internal locus of control and thin mental boundaries are positively related to emotional intelligence. A hierarchical regression revealed that internal locus of control and thin mental boundaries together explained 18% of the variance in emotional intelligence for this population. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
John E. Barbuto, Joana S. Story, Susan M. Fritz and Jack L. Schinstock
Developmental and prescriptive advising styles have been the focus of the academic advising literature for the past 35 years. Academic advising scholars have called for a new…
Abstract
Developmental and prescriptive advising styles have been the focus of the academic advising literature for the past 35 years. Academic advising scholars have called for a new paradigm in the field. Drawing from leadership theory, a new model for academic advising is proposed. Full range advising encompasses laissez-faire, management-by-exception, contingent rewards, and transformational behaviors. The long-term impact of transformational advising is one that will likely take years to fully realize, however measures of transformational leadership are both reliable and valid. These measures can be used to determine whether advisors’ use of transformational advising behaviors is related to positive student outcomes.
Joana Story, Filipa Castanheira and Silvia Hartig
Talent management is a twenty-first-century concern. Attracting talented individuals to organizations is an important source for firm competitive advantage. Building on signaling…
Abstract
Purpose
Talent management is a twenty-first-century concern. Attracting talented individuals to organizations is an important source for firm competitive advantage. Building on signaling theory, this paper proposes that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be an important tool for talent recruitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Across two studies, this paper found support for this hypothesized relationship. In Study 1, a job advertisement was manipulated to include information about CSR and tested it in two groups of 120 master’s degree students who would be in the job market within the year. It was found that CSR was an important factor that increased organizational attractiveness. In Study 2, with 532 external talented stakeholders of 16 organizations, our findings were replicated and advanced by testing whether perceptions of CSR practices (internal and external) influenced perceptions of organizational attractiveness and if this relationship was mediated by organizational reputation.
Findings
This study found that perceptions of internal CSR practices were directly related to both organizational attractiveness and firm reputation. However, perceptions of external CSR practices were related only to organizational attractiveness through organizational reputation.
Research limitations/implications
The article’s one of the main limitations has to do with generalizability of the results and the potential common method variance bias.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate that CSR can play an effective role in attracting potential employees, through enhancement of organizational reputation and organizational attractiveness. If organizations are willing to implement practices that protect and develop their employees, along with practices that improve the quality of the natural environment and the well-being of the society, they can become an employer-of-choice.
Originality/value
This study expands on previous studies by including an experimental design, including two types of CSR practices and a mediating variable in this field study.
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Luisa Helena Pinto and Regina Caldas
– The purpose of this study is to examine how international workers engage into and make sense of expatriation and how sense-making enacts further action.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how international workers engage into and make sense of expatriation and how sense-making enacts further action.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the corporate influence over expatriation, empirical data were collected from a single case study organization, a well-established Portuguese retail company. The primary data sources were the in-depth interviews with 13 international workers, while other secondary data sources included company documents that provided the background information required to understand the interviewees and describe the organization. The experiences of expatriation through the accounts and stories of these workers were subject to thematic content analysis.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that international workers act as sense-makers and sense-givers vehicles about expatriation. By doing so, they enact a plausible and dominant story that ultimately bounds the perception of divergent cues and limit their own action. While this ongoing dialogue between expatriation meaning and action can raise organizational actors’ capacities to negotiate and influence further meaning and action, it also validates existing practices and generates further compliance.
Originality/value
Despite being limited to a single organizational context, this study offers a contextualized approach to the study of expatriation that complements earlier research and highlights sense-making dynamics and related outcomes, further extending the applications of the sense-making perspective. This study suggests new research avenues exploring the politics and negotiation bonds from which expatriation sense-making can emerge as well as the opportunities for disruptive sense-making.
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The purpose of this essay is to highlight the journey of the author in her early career, along with her main challenges and ways she found to overcome them.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this essay is to highlight the journey of the author in her early career, along with her main challenges and ways she found to overcome them.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an inductive account of the main experiences that the author has encountered or has observed.
Findings
This essay highlights three academic adaptation phases and steps that indicate how these can be worked to your advantage. It also depicts research opportunities and success factors.
Originality/value
This essay informs potential research opportunities for Ibero‐American scholars alongside key success factors for effective research.
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Adilson Aderito da Silva, Dimária Silva e Meirelles and Elvio Correa Porto
The purpose of this paper is to examine the development cycle of Brazilian banking sector during the lengthy period between 1889 and 2009, also identifying an equilibrium number…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the development cycle of Brazilian banking sector during the lengthy period between 1889 and 2009, also identifying an equilibrium number of financial institutions based on the carrying capacity of the environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The number of institutions in equilibrium is calculated based on the population density dependence model adopted under the organizational ecology theory. Quantitative data of founding and failure and qualitative data (interviews with the directors, officers and chief executive officers (CEOs) of selected companies) were used.
Findings
In all three bank segments (commercial, investment and multiple), the total number of banks in operation on December 31, 2009 was below the carrying capacity. However, in the multiple bank segment, the gap between the actual and potential figures is slightly smaller. As indicated by the respondents, there is almost no room for newcomers in the major bank segments. In counterpart, there is still space for new arrivals in the mid-market bank sector.
Research limitations/implications
The findings presented here may change, as carrying capacity is determined by political, legal and economic factors, including the availability of resources in niches and constraints imposed through laws, rules and other regulatory aspects. However, raising the life cycle of the entire population offers opportunities for future research on individual organizational trajectories, using new theoretical and methodological perspectives, such as dynamic capabilities and process theory.
Practical implications
The main contribution of this paper lies in indicating the growth potential for banking institution populations in Brazil, and may be used not only by potential newcomers eager to enter the sector, but also as a tool for assessing anti-trust policies.
Originality/value
The development cycle of Brazilian financial institution populations is unknown, and carrying capacity is a construct less explored by academic literature, particularly in Brazil. This is a unique study since a demography of an entire banking population in a developing country does not exist, besides there is not such a financial institution like the multiple bank in Brazil.
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Li Jingjing, Nuno Guimarães Costa and Pedro Neves
– This paper aims to analyze the adjustment experience of Chinese expatriate managers in Portugal.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the adjustment experience of Chinese expatriate managers in Portugal.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study is based on the qualitative analysis of 12 semi-structured, open-ended interviews to Chinese expatriate managers in Portugal. Expatriates varied in terms of international experience, stage of career and industry. All expatriates had at least one-year working experience in Portugal. The coding process followed a reflexive approach between data and existing theory.
Findings
The process of adjustment of Chinese expatriate managers to the Portuguese context is arranged in five dimensions: perception: expatriates tend to perceive the differences between China and Portugal as not significant; guanxi replication: similarities between the two countries raised the question of whether the guanxi model could be replicated; resistance: although the two countries are perceived as close, there are significant differences, namely, in terms of some cultural aspects, the legal framework and the level of acceptance of the guanxi; adaptation: given these resistances, it is necessary for expatriates to change some practices that are commonly used in the Chinese context; and identity construction: Chinese expatriates are particularly concerned by their identity as foreigners and of the corresponding need to adjust.
Originality/value
This exploratory study revealed that guanxi should not be seen as a purely cultural product grounded in the Confucian tradition but instead should be taken as a business strategy that depends on the existence of specific factors, such as the relevance and quality of interpersonal relationships in a business context.
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Breno de Paula Andrade Cruz and Delane Botelho
The purpose of this study is to identify, in the context of virtual social networks (VSNs), other types of boycott which have not yet been addressed in the literature. We relate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify, in the context of virtual social networks (VSNs), other types of boycott which have not yet been addressed in the literature. We relate the boycott(s) emerged on the VSNs with those found in the literature (economic, religious, of minorities, ecological and labor boycott), and verify the motivation that must be unique to such context.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded theory was used in triangulation with netnography (interacting with 183 customers), non-participant observation (68 postings/47 complaints, from 2009 to 2012) and in-depth interview (15 consumers).
Findings
A new classification of boycott was proposed, which emerged on the basis of company service quality, named “relational boycott”, which can generate additional acts of repudiation, such as interaction, unity of the group and encouragement of third parties.
Research limitations/implications
The model of relational boycott proposed was not empirically tested, but insights for future test are provided.
Practical implications
A model of how the relational boycott is structured is provided, being a deliberate, primary act of the consumer resulting from the management problems of a company generating backlash actions.
Social implications
Since boycott represents a mechanism of protesting, it is a way that consumers pressure companies to provide better services and products, which may improve consumer’s wellbeing in the long range.
Originality/value
A new type of boycott emerges in the research, named relational boycott, structured in a model that can be tested empirically.