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1 – 10 of 37Providing health care services requires collaboration between several occupations. This study aimed to reveal how three occupational groups (nurses, physicians, and…
Abstract
Purpose
Providing health care services requires collaboration between several occupations. This study aimed to reveal how three occupational groups (nurses, physicians, and administrators) perceive human resources management practices (HRMP) and whether these practices are differently associated with trust in the clinic manager.
Design/methodology/approach
The study included 290 employees from 29 primary care clinics, all affiliated with a health care organisation that operates in the public sector. Self-reporting questionnaires measured participants’ perceptions of six HRMP across occupations and their association with trust in the clinic manager. Variation between occupational groups was analysed through one-way analysis of variance (for groups’ perceptions of HRMP and trust in manager) and t-tests (for the association between perceived HRMP and trust in manager).
Findings
The results indicate some differences in perceived HRMP and trust across groups. Also, some differences were found across occupations regarding the relationship between HRMP and trust in the clinic manager: Nurses’ perceptions significantly differed from those of physicians and administrators, yet there was no significant difference between the two latter groups.
Practical implications
Health care organisations should expand their human resources architecture and customise their HRMP for each occupational group based on that group’s perceptions of the workplace. This can nurture trust in managers and create a climate for trust as a mechanism that encourages employees from distinct occupational groups to work together for the benefit of their clinic, organisation, and patients.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the discussion about the contextualisation of HRMP, providing insights regarding perceptions of HRMP as an enabler of an organisation’s strategy.
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Aviv Kidron, Shay S. Tzafrir and Ilan Meshoulam
The purpose of this paper is to present a scale for measuring internal integration within human resource management (HRM) departments, which is developed and validated in this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a scale for measuring internal integration within human resource management (HRM) departments, which is developed and validated in this paper. Thus far, no valid, comprehensive operational instrument for measuring HRM internal integration has been introduced in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The scale items were developed on the basis of a qualitative analysis. The authors recruited 233 HRM professionals from 29 organizations to participate in the survey. In this paper, the authors present evidence of content validity, internal consistency reliability and construct validity that provides support for the use of an HRM internal integration scale. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the underlying factors that comprise HRM internal integration, while confirmatory factor analysis was used as a confirmatory test of the scale.
Findings
The results of this study led to the development of a standardized 34-item instrument that can be used for measuring HRM internal integration.
Originality/value
The use of the scale opens up a new research avenue by focusing on the nature of integration processes, particularly within HRM systems. The scale will allow studies to be compared across various contexts.
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Shay S. Tzafrir and Simon L. Dolan
This study investigates the conceptual and psychometric properties of trust in organizations. Critical review of recent literature led to the conclusion that there is no single…
Abstract
This study investigates the conceptual and psychometric properties of trust in organizations. Critical review of recent literature led to the conclusion that there is no single agreed upon definition of trust and that controversy exists as to its construct validity. We present empirical results based on a complex procedure for scale development, which includes a design made up of four separate stages of research. The construct of trust in employment relationships was ultimately refined to entail three dimensions: harmony, reliability, and concern (HRC). The final results of this study led to the development of a standardized 16‐item instrument that can be used to measure trust in the context of employment relationships. Evidence of the scale’s reliability, factor structure, and validity is also presented.
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Sagi Akron, Ofek Feinblit, Shlomo Hareli and Shay S. Tzafrir
The purpose of this study was to explore the relation between diversity in work group members’ employment arrangements and the actual performance of the work groups.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore the relation between diversity in work group members’ employment arrangements and the actual performance of the work groups.
Design/methodology/approach
A field study was conducted on 31 work groups in a public plant belonging to the industrial sector that constitute a unique data set. The 441 employees are contracted under four significantly different employment arrangements and are mixed together in heterogeneous work groups, but perform similar tasks.
Findings
The results indicated that the influence of employment arrangement diversity on work group performance is best represented as variation, and work arrangements diversity is positively correlated with improved work group performance.
Research limitations
The study design prevented assessment of employees’ opinions. Rather, the authors used objective type of employment arrangements as the basis for calculating diversity as separation. Using mean Euclidean distance as suggested by Harrison and Klein (2007), the authors arbitrarily set the distance between two different employment arrangements as one.
Practical implications
The research results help in the stages of recruiting, structuring and development and application of necessary work team. Formal emphasis of diversity in work arrangements improves performance.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies using unique data set analyzing real-life team diversity and performance in the public sector. The research highly contributes to organizational decision-making processes regarding the importance of incorporating non-standard work arrangements in organizations. Management’s implementation of formal diversity seems to alleviate the negative sides of diversity and increases its positive performance effects.
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Aviv Kidron, Shay S. Tzafrir and Ilan Meshoulam
This study aims to reveal the necessary human resource management (HRM) teamwork processes for achieving HRM integration.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to reveal the necessary human resource management (HRM) teamwork processes for achieving HRM integration.
Design/methodology/approach
A research survey was carried out among 233 HRM professionals from 29 HRM teams.
Findings
The findings revealed significant correlation between formal HRM aspects of HRM teams (HRM goals and strategy, formal communication and formalization) and informal HRM aspects (perceived proximity and trust). Another significant correlation was found between trust and HRM integration. Also, trust fully mediated the relationship between informal communication and centralization, on the one hand, and HRM integration, on the other.
Originality/value
The study contributed to the understanding of formal and informal aspects of HRM team (HRMT) processes.
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Amit Gur, Shay S. Tzafrir, Christopher D. Zatzick, Simon L. Dolan and Roderick Iverson
The purpose of the research was to develop a tool for measuring antecedents of customer aggressive behavior (CAB) in healthcare service settings, by identifying its roots in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research was to develop a tool for measuring antecedents of customer aggressive behavior (CAB) in healthcare service settings, by identifying its roots in organizational and interpersonal dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
Four studies were conducted. In Studies 1 and 2, antecedents of CAB were identified through analysis of internet reader comments and a questionnaire was distributed to students. In Study 3, scenarios were used to validate the findings of the previous studies. Finally, in Study 4, a scale was developed and validated for measuring organization- and person-related triggers of CAB using samples of 477 employees and 579 customers.
Findings
The concept of CAB was conceptualized and validated. In total, 18 items were identified across five dimensions: personal characteristics, uncomfortable environment, aggressive role models, reinforcement of aggressive behavior and aversive treatment. The scale demonstrated good psychometric results.
Research limitations/implications
The research relies mainly on customer perspective. Employees and additional stakeholders should be included to achieve more accurate information that could contribute to a better understanding of CAB and its roots.
Practical implications
Exploring social and organizational antecedents that trigger CAB could help healthcare managers evaluate and proactively manage CAB and its implications within their organization.
Originality/value
This measurement scale is the first comprehensive tool, based on Bandura’s social learning theory (1973), that may identify and measure antecedents of CAB, and could be used to reduce CAB in healthcare service settings.
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According to the universalistic perspective, organizations from different sectors, across industries, and through different time periods should use a series of select human…
Abstract
Purpose
According to the universalistic perspective, organizations from different sectors, across industries, and through different time periods should use a series of select human resource management practices (HRMP). The main purpose of this paper is to investigates whether there is any difference in the relationship between HRMPs and organizational performance across time (stable or not).
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this study are taken from two cross‐sectional surveys. The firms included in this research were selected from a sample of organizations from the public and private sectors based on firms that were included in Dun's Guide, Israel 1995/6 and 1999/2000, the Israeli Business Directory. In 1996, questionnaires were completed by 102 of the 230 designated companies. In 2000, using an identical sampling methodology and a similar questionnaire, the result was 104 useable responses of the 275 firms.
Findings
In general, results for both periods of time indicated that several HRMP contribute to enhanced organizational performance. Firms exhibited higher organizational performance when they treated their employees as assets and invested in their abilities, enhanced their power in the decision making process and used them as the main source for new employment.
Originality/value
From the theoretical perspective we suggest that researchers and HR managers have to take into account the culture context in each country when they try to export successful HRMP from one country to another. A major practical contribution of this research is that it demonstrates the importance of training and employee participation vis‐à‐vis organizational performance.
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Shay S. Tzafrir and Shlomo Hareli
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the interplay among promotion decision, emotions, and perceptions of organizational justice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the interplay among promotion decision, emotions, and perceptions of organizational justice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts Weiner's attribution theory of motivation and emotion, using it as a tool in the analysis. By using this framework, this paper analyses potential positive and negative emotional, and consequently, behavioral reactions of promoted and non‐promoted employees. The analysis focuses on emotional reactions as a function of the cause and the process for the decision in question from the subjective perspective of the employee whose fate is determined by that decision.
Findings
This paper suggests that the decision and the process of promotion can lead to the experience of a myriad of discrete emotional states. It contends that such emotional reactions are resulting from considerations of justice related to the perceived causes of the promotion decision and the process that lead to it.
Originality/value
By integrating attribution theory of emotion and motivation with considerations of justice, this paper analyses the conditions that lead to specific emotions in employees who are promoted and non‐promoted, showing that procedural and interactional justice serves as carriers of attributions (i.e. causal information).
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Hila Chalutz Ben‐Gal and Shay S. Tzafrir
The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between interpersonal and organizational factors in consultant‐client relationships and their contribution to the effectiveness of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the link between interpersonal and organizational factors in consultant‐client relationships and their contribution to the effectiveness of an organizational change process.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors designed two studies in order to gain insightful information, both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Study 1 is composed of semi‐structured one‐on‐one interviews conducted with pairs of clients and consultants. Study 2 is designed as a quantitative study and is a direct expansion of study 1. The sample, conducted between the years 2002 and 2007, is composed of departments within organizations that underwent an organizational change process, in which external consultants took part.
Findings
The authors found that a high level of commitment to change has a positive effect on the successful implementation of organizational change as a whole. Also, high levels of dyadic trust in the consultant‐client relationship result in higher levels of consultant commitment to the change process. Finally, consultant commitment to change partially mediates the relationship between trust and successful implementation of organizational change.
Originality/value
The paper explores the link between individual and organizational levels in pursuing organizational change processes and attempts to clarify this link.
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Keren V. More and Shay S. Tzafrir
The paper aims to fill a substantive gap in the trust literature by analyzing the mediating role of trust across different national groups. It presents a theoretical advantage…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to fill a substantive gap in the trust literature by analyzing the mediating role of trust across different national groups. It presents a theoretical advantage, from the human resource management perspective, is that the research model was examined within the context of a global pharmaceutical firm characterized by a multicultural workforce. This allowed for controlling organizational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
The research hypotheses were tested using data regarding only core team employees. Survey data obtained from employees of a pharmaceutical company in Israel, the UK, and Hungary. After the teams in each of the organization's three sites were mapped out, 205 employees working on 62 teams responded to the questionnaire resulting in a good quality of 61 percent response rate.
Findings
The results of zero‐order co‐relational and confirmatory factor analysis revealed the two trust foci to be interrelated, but distinct, constructs. This finding suggests that employees can develop trust in specific individuals, such as superiors, and generalized representatives, such as the organization. The mixed models analysis suggest that there are significant differences between the Israeli, UK, and Hungarian employees for three of the research variables: trust in the organization, turnover intentions, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).
Originality/value
The paper is one of the first cross‐national empirical studies of its kind to demonstrate the role of trust as a mediator between organizational justice and employee work attitudes and behaviors. In addition, it is one of the first cross‐national studies on trust that controlled both industrial characteristics and organizational culture.
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