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1 – 8 of 8Ting Deng, Chunyong Tang, Ang Zhou and Yanzhao Lai
Drawing upon the needs–supplies fit theory, this study aims to examine how the expected and perceived algorithmic autonomy support (AAS) influences platform workers’ work stress…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the needs–supplies fit theory, this study aims to examine how the expected and perceived algorithmic autonomy support (AAS) influences platform workers’ work stress and incivility, with a focus on the moderating role of self-direction.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data collected from 422 platform workers in China through multiple waves, the model is tested through polynomial regression and response surface analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that a mismatch between expected and perceived AAS is associated with higher levels of incivility among platform workers, and this relationship is mediated by work stress. These findings are particularly salient when self-direction is emphasized.
Practical implications
This study suggests that a universally high level of AAS may not necessarily reduce workers’ stress and incivility. Instead, it is important for platforms to ensure that their workers’ expectations of autonomy support are met and for workers to be given the space to exercise self-direction.
Originality/value
Previous studies have highlighted the need to pay attention to workers in mobile and ambiguous environments, and this study adds to this literature by focusing specifically on platform organizations and workplaces. This study provides valuable insights into the relationship between AAS, work stress and platform workers’ incivility.
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Ting Deng, Chunyong Tang and Yanzhao Lai
How to improve continuance commitment for platform workers is still unclear to platforms' managers and academic scholars. This study develops a configurational framework based on…
Abstract
Purpose
How to improve continuance commitment for platform workers is still unclear to platforms' managers and academic scholars. This study develops a configurational framework based on the push-pull theory and proposes that continuance commitment for platform workers does not depend on a single condition but on interactions between push and pull factors.
Design/methodology/approach
The data from the sample of 431 full-time and 184 part-time platform workers in China were analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA).
Findings
The results found that combining family motivation with the two kinds of pull factors (worker's reputation and algorithmic transparency) can achieve high continuance commitment for full-time platform workers; combining job alternatives with the two kinds of pull factors (worker's reputation and job autonomy) can promote high continuance commitment for part-time platform workers. Particularly, workers' reputations were found to be a core condition reinforcing continuance commitment for both part-time and full-time platform workers.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that platforms should avoid the “one size fits all” strategy. Emphasizing the importance of family and improving worker's reputation and algorithmic transparency are smart retention strategies for full-time platform workers, whereas for part-time platform workers it is equally important to reinforce continuance commitment by enhancing workers' reputations and doing their best to maintain and enhance their job autonomy.
Originality/value
This study expands the analytical context of commitment research and provides new insights for understanding the complex causality between antecedent conditions and continuance commitment for platform workers.
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Ting Deng, Chunyong Tang and Yanzhao Lai
Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the relationship between organizational developmental human resource (HR) practices and employees'…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the relationship between organizational developmental human resource (HR) practices and employees' commitment to the organizational career (COC), while considering the mediating role of psychological availability and the moderating effects of links and fit.
Design/methodology/approach
A hierarchical linear modeling analysis was conducted to analyze the data from a 3-wave time-lagged study with 394 employees and 65 supervisors in ten Chinese firms.
Findings
The study's findings suggest that organizational developmental HR practices have a positive and indirect impact on employees' COC, with psychological availability serving as a mediator. The indirect effects were stronger for employees with stronger links and better fit.
Practical implications
This study provides managers with guidelines to improve employees' COC. Managers should also focus on supporting employees' psychological resources. Furthermore, organizations should be aware that employees with varying levels of links and fit may respond differently to psychological availability.
Originality/value
The study offers a new understanding of how and under what conditions organizational developmental HR practices can increase employees' COC. It also highlights the role of psychological availability as the psychological mechanism mediating this relationship and adds to the limited literature on the potential positive impact of strong links and fit.
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Nan Xu, Chunyong Tang, Chengchuan Yang and Yanzhao Lai
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In addition, it examines the moderating role of involuntary teleworking in this context.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the diary study method, this study used 543 questionnaires collected from 122 teleworkers in China.
Findings
The findings indicate that working time demands mediate the relationship between work boundary violations and teleworker CWB, and threats to family roles mediate the relationship between family boundary violations and teleworker CWB. In addition, involuntary teleworking positively moderates the relationship between work boundary violations and working time demands, as well as the relationship between family boundary violations and threats to family roles.
Originality/value
The study makes several valuable contributions to the extant literature. First, it enhances research on the antecedents of teleworker CWB. Second, by introducing two mediating variables corresponding to two types of boundary violations, the paper provides new insights and a fresh understanding of the effects of boundary violations in teleworking situations. Third, by considering the moderating role of involuntary teleworking, this research adds to the current knowledge on the impact of discussing boundary violations solely on teleworking or traditional office days.
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Chengchuan Yang, Chunyong Tang, Nan Xu and Yanzhao Lai
This study aims to draw on social exchange theory and reciprocity norm to examine the direct effects and mechanisms through which developmental human resources (HR) practices…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to draw on social exchange theory and reciprocity norm to examine the direct effects and mechanisms through which developmental human resources (HR) practices influence employee knowledge hiding behaviors. Additionally, the authors investigate the mediating role of psychological collectivism and the moderating role of affective organizational commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the research model, the authors employed a three-stage time-lagged study design and surveyed a sample of 302 employees in China. The authors utilized confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression analysis and the bootstrapping method using statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) and analysis of moment structures (AMOS) to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings indicate the following: (1) Developmental HR practices are negatively associated with playing dumb and evasive hiding, but positively linked with rationalized hiding; (2) Psychological collectivism serves as a mediating factor in the relationship between developmental HR practices and knowledge hiding; (3) Affective organizational commitment not only moderates the relationship between developmental HR practices and psychological collectivism, but also reinforces the indirect impact of developmental HR practices on knowledge hiding.
Originality/value
This study offers a fresh perspective on previous research regarding the impact of developmental HR practices on employee behavior. Furthermore, it provides practical recommendations for organizations to enhance knowledge management by fostering stronger emotional connections between employees and the organization.
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Ting Deng, Yanzhao Lai and Chunyong Tang
Drawing from impression management theory, this study examines how the leader's negative feedback affects the employees' creative process engagement (CPE) and whether impression…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing from impression management theory, this study examines how the leader's negative feedback affects the employees' creative process engagement (CPE) and whether impression management motivation plays a mediating role in this process. In addition, the moderating role of face consciousness is analyzed in the relationship between negative feedback and impression management motivation.
Design/methodology/approach
A time-lagged design with three data-collection points was implemented based on a dataset of two studies of follower–leader pairs (Ns = 165, 30 and 682, 89) in China. Ordinary least squares regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The leader's negative feedback positively affected employees' CPE via impression management motivation. The relationship was stronger when face consciousness salience was high.
Practical implications
This study suggests that negative feedback is also valuable. Supervisors should learn how to stimulate employees' impression management motivation when delivering negative feedback and ensure that employees know that CPE can bring help and status rewards. Moreover, supervisors may consider using face strategies when providing negative feedback.
Originality/value
This study provides new insights into the association between the leader's negative feedback and employees' CPE by impression management as a psychological mechanism and face consciousness as an important boundary condition. It lays a foundation for further systematic research on CPE based on sociological theory.
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Yanzhao Lai and Nicholas S. Vonortas
Universities have become both increasingly entrepreneurial and international over the past few decades. We still, however, know little about the relationship between the two…
Abstract
Purpose
Universities have become both increasingly entrepreneurial and international over the past few decades. We still, however, know little about the relationship between the two trends. This paper investigates the effect of international exposure of university faculty members on university entrepreneurial culture.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a specially constructed dataset of the entrepreneurial activities of 507 computer science faculty members—among whom 138 are returnees—from 21 research-intensive universities in China during 2007–2017, the study empirically investigates the relationship between foreign experience and academic entrepreneurial activity back home. We control for characteristics of the faculty member and the location of the university.
Findings
Academic tenure overseas is found to positively affect academic entrepreneurship. The length of stay abroad also affects the relationship: returnee academics with foreign Ph.D. degrees are more likely to start new businesses than returnee academics with shorter postdoc experience overseas. The economic gap between the host (foreign) and home country (China) does not have a statistically significant effect on returnee academic entrepreneurial activity.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to empirically investigate returnee academic entrepreneurship. It provides indications on how foreign educational background affects academics entrepreneurial activities.
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Zhiguang Li, Yaokuang Li and Dan Long
From the perspective of cause and effect, the operational processes of property insurance companies can be considered as historical events. The purpose of this study is to measure…
Abstract
Purpose
From the perspective of cause and effect, the operational processes of property insurance companies can be considered as historical events. The purpose of this study is to measure the operating efficiency of China's property insurance industry, explore the determinants that affect technical efficiency and outline the path to achieving high-quality development.
Design/methodology/approach
We chose 44 Chinese property insurance companies as research objects. The data were obtained from the Chinese Insurance Yearbook and China Statistical Yearbook 2015–2017. First, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was used to calculate the technical efficiency of property insurance companies. Then, Tobit regression and quantile regression were adopted to explore the influencing factors of technical efficiency. Finally, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was employed to summarize the path to improving the operating efficiency of property insurance companies.
Findings
The empirical results in the first stage suggested that the operation efficiency of China's property insurance industry was technically inefficient, and the scale efficiency was relatively better than the pure technical efficiency. In the second stage, we observed that the drivers for firm size, reinsurance rate, claim ratio and equity restriction were important determinants of an insurance firm's efficiency.
Research limitations/implications
We also put forward four applicable, targeted and proven ways to improve the technical efficiency of property insurance companies. These configurations are verified by cases of existing property insurance companies, which can provide practical references for the insurance industry.
Originality/value
Our research enriches the insurance literature and efficiency methods, particularly regarding the specific paths of improving the technical efficiency. The relationship between elements and results is analyzed from a systematic perspective, and the research results are not only more consistent with what logic might imply but also more instructive for the improvement of reality.
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