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1 – 10 of 37Michael Halinski and Linda Duxbury
Drawing from the workplace flexibility and coping literatures, the purpose of this paper is to re-conceptualize the workplace flexibility construct as a coping resource that may…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing from the workplace flexibility and coping literatures, the purpose of this paper is to re-conceptualize the workplace flexibility construct as a coping resource that may help prevent work-interferes-with-family (WIF) from arising and/or assist employees manage such interference when it has occurred. A measure capturing this re-conceptualized view of flexibility is developed and tested using two samples of dual-income employees with dependent care demands.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1, the authors use LISERL to develop and test a new multi-dimensional measure of workplace flexibility (n1=6,659). In Study 2 (n2=947), the authors use partial least squares, a component-based structural equation modeling technique, to test a model that posits workplace flexibility that helps employees cope with WIF.
Findings
This research provides support for the idea that workplace flexibility helps employees cope with WIF by: preventing interference (i.e. negatively moderating the relationship between work hours and WIF), and managing interference that has occurred (i.e. negatively moderating relationship between WIF and perceived stress).
Originality/value
This study highlights the complexity of the relationship between workplace flexibility and work-to-family interference and offers guidelines on how employers and employees can use the workplace flexibility measure developed in this study.
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Michael Halinski, Laura Gover and Linda Duxbury
While there has been growing interest in how personal and work-related factors shape employees’ careers, we know little about how family demands affect career intentions. Drawing…
Abstract
Purpose
While there has been growing interest in how personal and work-related factors shape employees’ careers, we know little about how family demands affect career intentions. Drawing from role theory and boundary theory, we examine the indirect effect of family-role overload on career intentions via family-interferes-with-work (FIW), as well as the conditional indirect effect of boundary management on these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilizing two waves of panel data that were collected in the third and fourth waves of the pandemic in Canada (n = 433), we conducted a structural equation model to test our hypotheses.
Findings
Our analysis reveals that FIW mediates the relationship between family-role overload and (1) career change intention and (2) job turnover intention. The results also indicate that the effect of family-role overload on career intentions via FIW strengthens for employees with a low ability to enact preferred boundaries.
Originality/value
This research shows the indirect effect of family-role overload on career intentions via FIW. This research also highlights how boundary management can buffer the effects of family-role overload on career intentions.
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Gregory Dole and Linda Duxbury
To cope successfully with the pressures imposed by a devastating pandemic and other challenges, companies and policymakers need to look at how they conceptualize, define, measure…
Abstract
Purpose
To cope successfully with the pressures imposed by a devastating pandemic and other challenges, companies and policymakers need to look at how they conceptualize, define, measure and operationalize “value”. This paper aims to support this conversation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents a historical review of how the value construct has been conceptualized over time, demonstrating that its history is one of tension and debate with conceptualizations swinging between objective (i.e. the value of something exists independent of the observers) and subjective (i.e. the value of something depends on the personal response of the observer to what is being considered) views over time.
Findings
This paper outlines the implications to researchers of value’s low construct clarity, offering suggestions designed to exploit rather than ignore the duality of the value construct. Instead of thinking of the value construct as being subjective or objective, this study recommends that scholars consider value’s objectivity and subjectivity as being interrelated and complementary. The paper recommends that researchers use both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in studying this construct.
Research limitations/implications
A major limitation of this paper is the word count limitation restricting the extent to which this paper could explore a more comprehensive list of the conceptualizations of value throughout history.
Practical implications
This paper presents practitioners with a nuanced understanding of value that should assist those interested in examining the worth of investments with observable expenses but less quantifiable outputs.
Originality/value
The authors have not found a similar analysis of the various conceptualizations of value.
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Linda Duxbury and Michael Halinski
The aging of the workforce and the impending labour force shortage at the skilled end of the labour market increases the need for organizations to understand how to “re-engage”…
Abstract
Purpose
The aging of the workforce and the impending labour force shortage at the skilled end of the labour market increases the need for organizations to understand how to “re-engage” older workers with low commitment and reduce the turnover intentions of committed older knowledge workers. The current study addresses this issue by using employee commitment and intent to turnover scores to classify older knowledge workers into four groups: Disengaged-Exiters, Engaged-High-Performers, Retired-on-the-Job and Exiting-Performers. The purpose of this paper is to identify a set of work factors and practices that predispose older knowledge workers to fall into one or another of the four groups and offer suggestions on how organizations can increase commitment and decrease intent to turnover of their older workers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper used survey data (n=5,588) from a Canadian national study on work, family and caregiving to test the framework. Data analysis was performed using a MANCOVA with one independent variable (Boomer group), four dependent variables (job satisfaction, non-supportive culture, supportive manager, work-role overload) and one covariate (gender).
Findings
The results support the framework. The findings suggest organizations that wish to retain committed Baby Boomers need to address issues with respect to workload. Alternatively, organizations who wish to increase the commitment levels of Boomers who have “Retired-on-the-Job” need to focus on supportive management, organizational culture and career development.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on organizational commitment and intent to turnover by re-conceptualizing the relationship between these traditional concepts.
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Leslie T. Szamosi, Linda Duxbury and Chris Higgins
The focus of this paper is on developing an understanding, and benchmarking, human resource management (HRM) issues in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South‐Eastern Europe…
Abstract
The focus of this paper is on developing an understanding, and benchmarking, human resource management (HRM) issues in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in South‐Eastern Europe. The importance of SME's in helping transition‐based economies develop is critical, but at the same time the research indicates that the movement toward westernized business systems has a dramatic impact on the human resources within such businesses. Toward addressing this linkage, critical HRM issues related to work outcomes, measures of satisfaction, and managerial support were studied with a sample of nearly 300 employees from 21 SMEs in a country in South‐Eastern Europe (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The data suggest that SMEs are not currently giving their employees what they want from their job (e.g. career development, participation in decision making) and that women are treated differently than men creating an imbalance within the workforce. From these data recommendations are drawn for SMEs on how to move forward as transition unfolds.
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Ian Towers, Linda Duxbury, Christopher Higgins and John Thomas
This paper aims to investigate the shifting boundaries between two experiential categories – home and work – for office workers. The boundaries are both spatial and temporal, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the shifting boundaries between two experiential categories – home and work – for office workers. The boundaries are both spatial and temporal, and the paper seeks to analyse how certain kinds of mobile technology are being used in such a way as to make these boundaries increasingly permeable.
Design/methodology/approach
The research involved both the collection of quantitative data using a survey tool, and the gathering of qualitative data through in‐depth interviews.
Findings
The paper finds that the mobile technology discussed enables work extension – the ability to work outside the office, outside “normal” office hours. This provides flexibility with respect to the timing and location of work, and makes it easier to accommodate both work and family. But at the same time, of course, it also increases expectations: managers and colleagues alike expect staff to be almost always available to do work, which makes it easier for work to encroach on family time, and also leads to a greater workload. The ability to perform work extension is, then, a dual‐edged sword.
Practical implications
The paper provides both managers and non‐managers with insight into the effects of providing mobile technology to office workers, and suggests some mechanisms to mitigate negative effects.
Originality/value
The paper explores the impact of mobile technologies on non‐mobile office staff.
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Leslie T. Szamosi and Linda Duxbury
Discusses the use of the act frequency approach methodology to develop and validate a measure of organizational support of revolutionary change. A total of nine unique behaviors…
Abstract
Discusses the use of the act frequency approach methodology to develop and validate a measure of organizational support of revolutionary change. A total of nine unique behaviors, describing three constructs, were viewed by employees as supportive of revolutionary change; and 12 unique behaviors, describing two constructs, were perceived as being non‐supportive of revolutionary change. The measures developed were found to have high internal reliability. The measures were also found to be highly correlated with relevant individual and organizational outcome measures. These results provide empirical support for the idea that how an organization supports revolutionary change can have an impact on both the organization and its employees and that contextual variable may not influence perceptions.
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This chapter seeks to increase our understanding of health care employees' perceptions of effective and ineffective leadership behavior within their organization.
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter seeks to increase our understanding of health care employees' perceptions of effective and ineffective leadership behavior within their organization.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with 59 employees working in a diversity of positions within the case study hospital. Interviewees were asked to cite behaviors of both an effective and an ineffective leader in their organization. They were also asked to clarify whether their example described the behavior of a formal or informal leader. Grounded theory data analysis techniques were used and findings were interpreting using existing leadership behavior theories.
Findings
(1) There was a consistent link between effective leadership and relationally oriented behaviors. (2) Employees identified both formal and informal leadership within their hospital. (3) There were both similarities and differences with respect to the types of behaviors attributed to informal versus formal leaders. (4) Informants cited a number of leadership behaviors not yet accounted for in the leadership behavior literature (e.g., ‘hands on’, ‘professional’, ‘knows organization’). (5) Ineffective leadership behavior is not simply the opposite of effective leadership.
Research implications
Findings support the following ideas: (1) there may be a relationship between the type of job held by employees in health care organizations and their perceptions of leader behavior, and (2) leadership behavior theories are not yet comprehensive enough to account for the varieties of leadership behavior in a health care organization. This study is limited by the fact that it focused on only those leadership theories that considered leader behavior.
Practical implications
There are two practical implications for health care organizations: (1) leaders should recognize that the type of behavior an employee prefers from a leader may vary by follower job group (e.g., nurses may prefer relational behavior more than managerial staff do), and (2) organizations could improve leader development programs and evaluation tools by identifying ineffective leadership behaviors that they want to see reduced within their workplace.
Social implications
Health care organizations could use these findings to identify informal leaders in their organization and invest in training and development for them in hopes that these individuals will have positive direct or indirect impacts on patient, staff, and organizational outcomes through their informal leadership role.
Value/originality
This study contributes to research and practice on leadership behavior in health care organizations by explicitly considering effective and ineffective leader behavior preferences across multiple job types in a health care organization. Such a study has not previously been done despite the multi-professional nature of health care organizations.
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Michael Halinski and Linda Duxbury
– The purpose of this paper is to examine how the group decision-making process unfolds over time in a transorganizational system (TS) planning change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the group decision-making process unfolds over time in a transorganizational system (TS) planning change.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal qualitative case study was designed to enable researchers to identify different stages in the group decision-making process.
Findings
The findings from this case study indicated that the group decision-making process in a TS planning change could be conceptualized to include five distinct steps: working in solitude; starting a dialogue; finding a common goal; suggesting decision alternatives; and deciding among alternatives. The group proceeded through these steps sequentially over time.
Practical implications
The paper offers TS practitioners a framework to follow when making group decisions within TSs.
Originality/value
The study develops a conceptual framework that describes how the group decision-making process unfolds over time in a TS planning change. This framework can be tested in other contexts and advance theory in both the TS and group decision-making areas.
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