Timothy Bartram, Tse Leng Tham, Hannah Meacham, Beni Halvorsen, Patricia Pariona-Cabrera, Jillian Cavanagh, Peter Holland and Leila Afshari
Pre-pandemic research demonstrated the challenges of the nursing workforce and the provision of quality of patient care. Such challenges have been significantly intensified during…
Abstract
Purpose
Pre-pandemic research demonstrated the challenges of the nursing workforce and the provision of quality of patient care. Such challenges have been significantly intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, not least in the workplace and fear of staff catching and transmitting COVID-19. We draw on conservation of resources (COR) theory to examine the impact of the fear of COVID-19 on nurses and the role of well-being-HRM (WBHRM) in negating the fear of COVID-19 and its impact on job stress and perceived quality of patient care.
Design/methodology/approach
We collected data from 260 nurses (treating COVID-19 patients) employed in US hospitals across two-waves. Data were analyzed using mediated regression and moderated mediation.
Findings
The results indicated that when nurses report higher levels of fear of COVID-19, this translates into higher levels of nursing job stress. This, in turn, reduces nurses’ perceptions of quality of patient care they can provide. As previous research has found, decreased perceptions of quality of patient care is a significant factor driving intentions to leave the profession. The results demonstrated that WBHRM practices buffer the negative impact of fear of COVID-19 on job stress, and in turn, the perceived quality of patient care.
Originality/value
Our paper contributes to new knowledge for healthcare managers on WBHRM bundles and their efficacy in buffering the effects of fear on job stress and quality of patient care. We contribute new knowledge on fear at work and how to manage employees’ fear through WBHRM practices.
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Hannah Meacham, Jillian Cavanagh, Timothy Bartram and Katharina Spaeth
Peter Boxall, Meng-Long Huo, Keith Macky and Jonathan Winterton
High-involvement work processes (HIWPs) are associated with high levels of employee influence over the work process, such as high levels of control over how to handle individual…
Abstract
High-involvement work processes (HIWPs) are associated with high levels of employee influence over the work process, such as high levels of control over how to handle individual job tasks or a high level of involvement at team or workplace level in designing work procedures. When implementations of HIWPs are accompanied by companion investments in human capital – for example, in better information and training, higher pay and stronger employee voice – it is appropriate to talk not only of HIWPs but of “high-involvement work systems” (HIWSs). This chapter reviews the theory and practice of HIWPs and HIWSs. Across a range of academic perspectives and societies, it has regularly been argued that steps to enhance employee involvement in decision-making create better opportunities to perform, better utilization of skill and human potential, and better employee motivation, leading, in turn, to various improvements in organizational and employee outcomes.
However, there are also costs to increased employee involvement and the authors review the important economic and sociopolitical contingencies that help to explain the incidence or distribution of HIWPs and HIWSs. The authors also review the research on the outcomes of higher employee involvement for firms and workers, discuss the quality of the research methods used, and consider the tensions with which the model is associated. This chapter concludes with an outline of the research agenda, envisaging an ongoing role for both quantitative and qualitative studies. Without ignoring the difficulties involved, the authors argue, from the societal perspective, that the high-involvement pathway should be considered one of the most important vectors available to improve the quality of work and employee well-being.
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Zhanming Liang, Peter F. Howard, Sandra Leggat and Timothy Bartram
The importance of managerial competencies in monitoring and improving the performance of organisational leaders and managers is well accepted. Different processes have been used…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of managerial competencies in monitoring and improving the performance of organisational leaders and managers is well accepted. Different processes have been used to identify and develop competency frameworks or models for healthcare managers around the world to meet different contextual needs. The purpose of the paper is to introduce a validated process in management competency identification and development applied in Australia – a process leading to a management competency framework with associated behavioural items that can be used to measure core management competencies of health service managers.
Design/methodology/approach
The management competency framework development study incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods, implemented in four stages, including job description analysis, focus group discussions and online surveys.
Findings
The study confirmed that the four-stage process could identify management competencies and the framework developed is considered reliable and valid for developing a management competency assessment tool that can measure management competence amongst managers in health organisations. In addition, supervisors of health service managers could use the framework to distinguish perceived superior and average performers among managers in health organisations.
Practical implications
Developing the core competencies of health service managers is important for management performance improvement and talent management. The six core management competencies identified can be used to guide the design professional development activities for health service managers.
Originality/value
The validated management competency identification and development process can be applied in other countries and different industrial contexts to identify core management competency requirements.
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Panagiotis V. Kloutsiniotis and Dimitrios M. Mihail
This study aims to provide an up-to-date theoretically based qualitative review regarding the “high-performance work systems” (HPWS) approach in the area of the tourism and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide an up-to-date theoretically based qualitative review regarding the “high-performance work systems” (HPWS) approach in the area of the tourism and hospitality management. The aim is to classify the so-far studies between those that examine the general “black-box” issue and those that investigate the actual process of the “black-box.” Finally, this study identifies the “gaps” in the literature and provides avenues for further research.
Design/methodology/approach
This review is based on a systematic critical analysis of the HPWS research that has been conducted explicitly on the tourism and hospitality industry during the years 2004-2019 (N = 28), published in core HRM and management journals.
Findings
This study identifies a significant gap in the progress of the HPWS research in the tourism and hospitality sector, contrary to the so-far research in the generic human resource management (HRM) literature. Hence, recommendations and suggestions are provided for advancing the HPWS research in the particular sector, including the need for more advanced conceptual and statistical models by focusing specifically on the process of the “black-box.”
Practical implications
The present review contributes considerably to the HPWS research in the tourism and hospitality sector and recommends avenues for further research in enhancing the overall HPWS literature.
Originality/value
This is the first study that reviews the HPWS literature in the tourism and hospitality sector, in an effort to reconcile the differences between the present sector and the generic HRM literature.
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Suzanne Young, Timothy Bartram, Pauline Stanton and Sandra G. Leggat
This paper aims to explore the attitudes of managers and employees to high performance work practices (HPWS) in a medium sized rural Australian hospital.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the attitudes of managers and employees to high performance work practices (HPWS) in a medium sized rural Australian hospital.
Design/methodology/approach
The study consists of two stages. Stage one involved a qualitative investigation consisting of interviews and focus group sessions with senior, middle and line management at the hospital. Bowen and Ostroff's framework was used to examine how strategic HRM was understood, interpreted and operationalised across the management hierarchy. Stage one investigates the views of managers concerning the implementation of strategic HRM/ HPWS. Stage two consisted of a questionnaire administered to all hospital employees. The mediation effects of social identification on the relationship between high performance work systems and affective commitment and job satisfaction are examined. The purpose of stage two was to investigate the views and effects of SHRM/HPWS on employees. It should be noted that HPWS and strategic HRM are used inter‐changeably in this paper.
Findings
At the management level the importance of distinctiveness, consistency and consensus in the interpretation of strategic HRM/HPWS practices across the organization was discovered. Findings indicate that social identification mediates the relationship between HPWS and affective commitment and also mediates the relationship between HPWS and job satisfaction.
Practical implications
High performance work systems may play a crucial role facilitating social identification at the unit level. Such practices and management support is likely to provide benefits in terms of high performing committed employees.
Originality/value
The paper argues that team leaders and managers play a key role in building social identification within the team and that organizations need to understand this role and provide recognition, reward, education and support to their middle and lower managers.
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Karthik Padamata and Rama Devi Vangapandu
By following the “employee-centric” approach, this study aims at identifying the impact of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on specific employee attitudinal outcomes such as…
Abstract
Purpose
By following the “employee-centric” approach, this study aims at identifying the impact of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on specific employee attitudinal outcomes such as work engagement, job satisfaction and affective commitment in the Indian healthcare industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The target population for this study includes the nurses working in large private multi-specialty tertiary care hospitals in India. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) techniques are used on a sample of 152 nurses working in two large specialty hospitals.
Findings
In the Indian healthcare industry context, the nurse's perception of HPWS has shown a significant positive effect on their attitudinal variables such as work engagement, job satisfaction and affective commitment. When checked for mediation of work engagement and job satisfaction variables in HPWS – affective commitment relationship, nurse's job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship, but nurse's work engagement has shown no mediation effect.
Originality/value
This is one of the pioneering studies conducted in the Indian healthcare industry context, especially on the nurse's sample in identifying the impact of high-performance work systems on their attitudinal outcomes. Underscoring the paucity of HPWS research in the Indian healthcare industry, this study's findings will be an addition to the HPWS literature and also to the nursing research in the Indian healthcare settings.
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Dushar Kamini Dayarathna, Peter John Dowling and Timothy Bartram
This paper aims to examine the implications of high performance work system (HPWS) strength from a managerial perspective and the impact of economic, cultural, political, legal…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the implications of high performance work system (HPWS) strength from a managerial perspective and the impact of economic, cultural, political, legal and technological factors on the operationalization of HPWSs in the banking industry in Sri Lanka.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this study were collected from three licensed commercial banks in Sri Lanka. This research used a case study approach for data collection with archival analysis of records and semi-structured interviews with the CEO, head of HR, two board members and three focus groups (top, middle and lower level managers across various functional areas) in each bank which altogether covers 66 key informants.
Findings
The findings supported the research proposition that to gain positive outcomes on organizational effectiveness, there should be a strong HPWS, resulting in a positive attitudinal climate among employees. Further, the findings provide evidence of the global applicability of HPWSs, although more research is needed to clearly specify the contextual boundaries of HPWS effectiveness.
Originality/value
Contemporary research provides ample evidence to endorse the contribution of high performance work systems toward organizational effectiveness. However, there is a dearth of literature on how high performance work systems are operationalized across the management hierarchy and support the achievement of organizational effectiveness. Few studies have been conducted on high performance work system strength and organizational effectiveness in emerging economies.
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Jillian Cavanagh, Timothy Bartram, Patricia Pariona-Cabrera, Beni Halvorsen, Matthew Walker and Pauline Stanton
This study examines the management rostering systems that inform the ways medical scientists are allocated their work in the public healthcare sector in Australia. Promoting the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the management rostering systems that inform the ways medical scientists are allocated their work in the public healthcare sector in Australia. Promoting the contributions of medical scientists should be a priority given the important roles they are performing in relation to COVID-19 and the demand for medical testing doubling their workloads (COVID-19 National Incident Room Surveillance Team, 2020). This study examines the impact of work on medical scientists and rostering in a context of uncertain work conditions, budget restraints and technological change that ultimately affect the quality of patient care. This study utilises the Job-Demands-Resources theoretical framework (JD-R) to examine the various job demands on medical scientists and the resources available to them.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a qualitative methodological approach, this study conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with managers and trade union officials and 9 focus groups with 53 medical scientists, making a total 76 participants from four large public hospitals.
Findings
Due to increasing demands for pathology services, this study demonstrates that a lack of job resources, staff shortages, poor rostering practices such as increased workloads that lead to absenteeism, often illegible handwritten changes to rosters and ineffectual management lead to detrimental consequences for medical scientists’ job stress and well-being. Moreover, medical science work is hidden and not fully understood and often not respected by other clinicians, hospital management or the public. These factors have contributed to medical scientists’ lack of control over their work and causes job stress and burnout. Despite this, medical scientists use their personal resources to buffer the effects of excessive workloads and deliver high quality of patient care.
Originality/value
Findings suggest that developing mechanisms to promote sustainable employment practices for medical scientists are critical for the escalating demands in pathology.
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Sandra G. Leggat, Timothy Bartram and Pauline Stanton
Studies of high‐performing organisations have consistently reported a positive relationship between high performance work systems (HPWS) and performance outcomes. Although many of…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies of high‐performing organisations have consistently reported a positive relationship between high performance work systems (HPWS) and performance outcomes. Although many of these studies have been conducted in manufacturing, similar findings of a positive correlation between aspects of HPWS and improved care delivery and patient outcomes have been reported in international health care studies. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the results from a series of studies conducted within Australian health care organisations. First, the authors seek to demonstrate the link found between high performance work systems and organisational performance, including the perceived quality of patient care. Second, the paper aims to show that the hospitals studied do not have the necessary aspects of HPWS in place and that there has been little consideration of HPWS in health system reform.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a series of correlation studies using survey data from hospitals in Australia, supplemented by qualitative data collection and analysis. To demonstrate the link between HPWS and perceived quality of care delivery the authors conducted regression analysis with tests of mediation and moderation to analyse survey responses of 201 nurses in a large regional Australian health service and explored HRM and HPWS in detail in three case study organisations. To achieve the second aim, the authors surveyed human resource and other senior managers in all Victorian health sector organisations and reviewed policy documents related to health system reform planned for Australia.
Findings
The findings suggest that there is a relationship between HPWS and the perceived quality of care that is mediated by human resource management (HRM) outcomes, such as psychological empowerment. It is also found that health care organisations in Australia generally do not have the necessary aspects of HPWS in place, creating a policy and practice gap. Although the chief executive officers of health service organisations reported high levels of strategic HRM, the human resource and other managers reported a distinct lack of HPWS from their perspectives. The authors discuss why health care organisations may have difficulty in achieving HPWS.
Originality/value
Leaders in health care organisations should focus on ensuring human resource management systems, structures and processes that support HPWS. Policy makers need to consider HPWS as a necessary component of health system reform. There is a strong need to reorient organisational human resource management policies and procedures in public health care organisations towards high performing work systems.