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Past research identifies many positive outcomes associated with workplace exercise initiatives. Realizing these outcomes is, however, dependent on securing sustained employee participation in the initiative. This study examines how organizational factors influence employee participation in workplace exercise initiatives.

The study utilizes data from 98 employees who were provided with the opportunity to participate in a workplace exercise initiative. Data were collected via an online survey as well as semi-structured interviews.

The paper shows that organizational, rather than individual-level, factors had the greatest impact on employee participation in workplace exercise initiatives. Leadership support for well-being was particularly important and had a significant effect on participation frequency. This relationship was moderated by employee perceptions of employer intentions, such that the more genuine and caring an employer’s intentions were perceived to be, the more likely employees were to participate. Our findings also show that perceived employer intentions have a significant direct effect on employee participation.

We extend research on employee participation in well-being initiatives by considering the influence of organizational, rather than individual-level, factors.

This research is of practical significance as it highlights the importance of positive leadership in fostering physical well-being in the workplace. It reinforces that sustained participation in workplace exercise initiatives requires deliberate planning, promotion and support from organizational leaders.

Most studies of workplace exercise and well-being initiatives focus on individual barriers to participation. Our study highlights the important role of leadership support and perceived intentions as organizational influences on employee participation.

This study examines challenges to cross-sector collaboration in disasters. The authors use Malaysian flooding as the context for the study and offer a framework to understand different types of collaborators in disaster settings.

Data were collected with semi-structured interviews, complemented with secondary data from government documents and news reports. The authors interviewed a total of 30 participants including six disaster aid recipients and 24 strategic and operational participants from 12 disaster management organizations. Thematic analysis was conducted including two cycles of coding, memoing and constant comparisons.

The authors present two key theoretical contributions: key barriers to cross-sector collaboration and a typology of collaboration in disasters. Key barriers include leadership approach and central vs local decision-making, differing levels of motivation to collaborate and the organizations' ability to collaborate in disasters. Despite these barriers, collaboration does occur in disaster settings. The authors suggest that the forms of collaboration may be driven primarily by differing motivations to collaborate and differing perceptions of others’ ability to collaborate, resulting in four types of collaboration: (1) enthusiastic, (2) mandate-driven, (3) reluctant and (4) non-collaboration.

The authors show that although the command-and-control model was dominant, organizations also attempted to improve disaster management efficacy through collaborative approaches. Central institutional agencies and their wider external partners are capable of using cross-sector collaboration as a strategy to tackle the complex problems post-disaster. However, pre-disaster relationship building will likely help organizations to collaborate more effectively when a disaster occurs.

Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to establish growth-oriented management (GOM) as a key management capability to support employee growth. It also identifies employee resilience as a mechanism for growth in employees and examines its role in mediating the relationships between GOM and key employee outcomes: well-being and work engagement.

This study draws on survey data (n = 751) from white-collar employees in Australia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the study variables.

Findings show GOM influenced well-being and work engagement, both directly and indirectly through employee resilience. This reveals more broadly that the unique combination of behaviors that comprise GOM plays a pivotal role in supporting growth-oriented outcomes in employees.

This is the first empirical study on the impact of GOM on well-being and engagement, as well as on the mediating mechanism of employee resilience in these relationships. GOM is an innovative contribution to scholarship on employee and organizational development, reflecting the changing nature of management, and responding to the increasingly diverse development needs of employees.

This paper presents a large sample study of fire service volunteer motivations in Finland. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the differences between initial motivations to begin volunteering vs motivations to continue volunteering; and second, to examine the differences in motivations as a function of demographic variables and geographic region of the fire brigade (rural vs urban).

An online survey was completed by 747 fire service volunteers throughout Finland.

The initial motivations for joining the brigade differed from those that motivated volunteers to continue in their roles. Significant differences between male and female volunteers’ initial motivations, as well as differences in motivations to continue volunteering as a function of age and region, were found.

The findings support integrating a psychological, functional perspective with contextual and situational factors when considering volunteer motivations.

This study suggests a comprehensive understanding of fire service volunteer motivations and informs improved recruitment and retention practices.

The anticipation of organizational change and the transition process often creates uncertainty for employees and can lead to stress and anxiety. It is therefore essential for all organizations, especially those that operate in high-demand working environments, to support the well-being of staff throughout the change process.

Research on how employees respond to the organizational change of relocating to a new work space is limited. To fill this gap in the research, we present a case study examining the well-being of clinical and health care employees before and after a disruptive change: relocation in workplace facilities. In addition, factors that enabled successful change in this high-stress, high-demand working environment were investigated. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants before the relocation and 11 participants after relocation. Following an inductive approach, data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key themes.

Our findings suggest that a supportive team, inclusive leadership and a psychologically safe environment, may buffer negative employee well-being outcomes during disruptive organizational change.

This research contributes to the literature on successful organizational change in health care by highlighting the resources which support well-being throughout the change process and enabling the successful transition to a new facility.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new measure of employee resilience. Employee resilience is a key capability enabling employees to manage and adapt to continually changing circumstances. While there is an increasing body of research on how to best promote resilience among employees in organizations, the measurement of the construct has received less research attention. The measure introduced in this paper focuses on employee resilience as a work-related capability that can be developed.

This paper presents three survey-based studies describing the development of a new measure, the Employee Resilience Scale and its preliminary validation. Study 1 concerns the scale development and testing, along with a confirmatory analysis of the measurement structure in a different sample. Study 2 investigates the discriminant validity of the scale in relation to a well-known measure of personal resilience, the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale. Study 3 was concerned with work-related outcomes of employee resilience (e.g. job engagement).

Support was found for the unidimensionality of the scale in Study 1. Study 2 showed a clear differentiation between the two measures of resilience: employee resilience and personal resilience, supporting the discriminant validity of the measure. Study 3 provided evidence for the criterion-related validity of the scale.

The three studies presented here provide preliminary support that the Employee Resilience Scale can be used to measure resilience among employees.

While the concept of employee resilience has gained attention in the literature, a measure of the construct has lacked. The study presents a valid measure of employee resilience which can be used to diagnose and develop a more adaptive workplace.

Natural disasters and other crises present methodological challenges to organizational researchers. While these challenges are well canvassed in the literature, less attention has been paid to understanding how distinct crisis events may present, not only unique challenges, but also important opportunities for research. In this chapter, we draw on our collective experience of conducting post-earthquake research and compare this with the COVID-19 pandemic context in order to identify and discuss the inherent vulnerabilities associated with disaster studies and the subsequent methodological challenges and opportunities that researchers might encounter. Adopting a critical perspective, the chapter grapples with some of the more contentious issues associated with research in a disaster and crisis context including aspects of stakeholder engagement, ethics, reciprocity, inequality, and vulnerability.

Past research has found meaningful differences between job and organisational engagement. However, research to date has mainly focused on job engagement, whereas the construct of organisational engagement has been largely neglected. The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents of organisational engagement and its influence on withdrawal attitudes.

Using an on‐line survey, the authors investigated employees’ perceptions of fairness and trust in senior management, 12 months prior to the measurement of organisational engagement and withdrawal attitudes. The study was conducted in a professional services public organisation, characterised by frequent change and uncertainty.

The authors showed that perceptions of procedural justice and trust in senior management predicted organisational engagement 12 months later. In addition, organisational engagement partially mediated the relationship between procedural justice perceptions, trust in senior management, and withdrawal attitudes.

The authors’ research suggests that monitoring and influencing employees’ levels of engagement can benefit organisations, and that leaders in particular can influence employees’ level of engagement. Indeed, the present research showed that employees who had trust in senior management and felt that they had a voice in the organisation showed higher levels of engagement and lower intentions to exit the organisation.

This research contributes to our understanding of the drivers of engagement, and demonstrates the importance of organisational‐level, in addition to job‐level engagement.

This paper highlights the Partnership Model as an apposite approach to the planning and implementation of learning in organizations.

The authors provide a brief overview of the changing context for learning and development in organizations, followed by a discussion on the need for a shift in our approach to training. The authors draw attention to the Partnership Model as a solution to move forward.

The knowledge‐driven economy demands new skills sets for employees and new approaches to learning in organizations, yet trainer‐centric models such as ADDIE still dominate the training literature and practice. As a result, potentially more suitable approaches, such as the Partnership Model, have not gained traction with practitioners. The authors suggest that this is in part due to the practical challenges involved in establishing learning cultures and partnerships in organizations.

The paper offers practical suggestions for developing a more learner‐centric, strategically aligned learning and development function through partnership and conversation with key stakeholders in the organization.

The paper offers practical suggestions for developing a more learner‐centric, strategically aligned learning and development function through partnership and conversation with key stakeholders in the organization.