Human Relations recent issues

Bringing avoidance and anxiety to the job: Attachment style and instrumental helping behavior among co-workers

Geller, D., Bamberger, P. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:44 PST

While social psychologists have widely explored the link between adult attachment styles and interpersonal relating behaviors such as caregiving in intimate relationships, organizational researchers have yet to examine the generalizability of such findings to employee interrelating behaviors at work. Addressing this gap in the research, we extend attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) to the work context in order to generate and test hypotheses regarding the way in which helping behavior may be explained on the basis of the help provider’s level of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Data collected from 320 call center employees of a large Israeli telecommunications company suggest that while attachment anxiety is inversely associated with instrumental helping, it also attenuates the inverse effects of attachment avoidance on such helping. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Multiple organizational identities and legitimacy: The rhetoric of police websites

Sillince, J. A.A., Brown, A. D. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

This article analyses how multiple organizational identities are constructed through rhetoric to maintain and enhance the legitimacy claims made by organizations. Our theorizing is founded on an investigation of the 43 geographically based English and Welsh constabularies. The research contribution of our study is threefold. First, we show that officially sanctioned web-based organizational identity claims are multiple and discuss their implications for identity theory. Second, we consider how these multiple identity claims are constituted using particular rhetorical strategies. Third, we argue that the multiple identity claims constituted aspects of constabularies’ selfpresentation strategies by which they attempted to exert control over stakeholders’ perceptions and establish pragmatic, cognitive and moral claims to legitimacy. This is contrary to some previous research that has suggested that organizations seek to reconcile or redefine multiple claims, and that has ignored them as a resource for satisfying sceptical audiences. The principal argument we make is that organizational identities are often multiple, are phrased using specific rhetorical schemes, and that identity multiplicity supports claims for legitimacy.

Person-career fit and employee outcomes among research and development professionals

Cha, J., Kim, Y., Kim, T.-Y. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

This study aims to examine the effects of person-career (PC) fit on employee outcomes. It is based on a sample of 1128 research and development (R&D) professionals and 222 project managers in 15 South Korean organizations. The results revealed that a managerial PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and a technical PC fit has a curvilinear relationship with job satisfaction. For example, job satisfaction increased as career orientation increased toward career development opportunities, then decreased when career development opportunities exceeded career orientation. In addition, as expected, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are higher when career orientation and career development opportunities are both high rather than low. For work performance, contributions to organizations increased as managerial career orientations increased toward managerial career opportunities, then decreased when managerial career opportunities exceeded managerial career orientation.

'Girls' working together without 'teams': How to avoid the colonization of management language

Learmonth, M. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Many of us increasingly experience our personal and working lives through a range of categories and classifications that have come to be strongly associated with the formal management of organizations, the effect of which has been explained as a subtle colonization of our minds and imaginations. This article presents insights from an organizational ethnography based in a UK hospital’s medical records library where participants rarely used management discourses, the only managerial terms they used at all being teams and teamwork, and then mostly by way of parody, while strongly preferring an alternative collective identity, the girls. This article therefore illustrates and analyses how these workers shunned, if not entirely avoided, management language’s colonizing incursions.

Review article: Low-wage work in high-income countries: Labor-market institutions and business strategy in the US and Europe

Appelbaum, E., Schmitt, J. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

This article provides an overview of low-wage occupations in five industries (nursing assistants and cleaners in hospitals, cashiers and stock/sales clerks in food and electronics retail trade, process operatives in meat processing and confectionary, housekeepers in hotels, and in-coming sales/service operators in call centers) in six countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States), based on a large-scale, multi-year research project funded and coordinated by the Russell Sage Foundation in New York. Low-wage work varies substantially both across and within countries, with large increases in the 1980s and 1990s in the Netherlands and the UK and, since the mid-1990s, in Germany. The US has the highest incidence of low-wage work, with Germany close behind. Denmark and France have much less low-wage work. Institutions (and their deterioration) play a large role in explaining these and other differences.

Human Relations special issue call for papers: Sensemaking, organising and storytelling

Colville, I., Brown, A. D., Pye, A. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Human Relations Reviewer of the Year Award 2009 and thanks to our reviewers

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:01:45 PST

Considering context in psychological leadership research

Liden, R. C., Antonakis, J. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:40:04 PDT

Despite Lewin’s identification of the importance of context in behavioral research over 70 years ago, leadership psychology tended to ignore the context. Only in the past 10 years has context been more routinely included in psychological leadership research. We provide examples of leadership research that has explored the context, introduce the special issue articles, and provide suggestions for future research on the context of leadership.

Considering context in discursive leadership research

Fairhurst, G. T. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:40:54 PDT

In addition to leadership psychology, there is another journey to understand the context of leadership that takes as its starting point the linguistic turn in the social and the organizational sciences. Those impacted by the linguistic turn are broadly social constructionist, discursive, and more qualitative than mainstream leadership scholars. In varying degrees, these scholars view context as multi-layered, co-created, contestable, and locally achieved. This article explores a constellation of perspectives united by these themes, introduces the qualitative special issue articles, and suggests directions for future research on the context of leadership.

Understanding team-level career mentoring by leaders and its effects on individual team-source learning: The effects of intra-group processes

Williams, E. A., Scandura, T. A., Gavin, M. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:02 PDT

Team-level career mentoring by supervisors is conceptualized as mentoring that provides career support for all team members. A new model of mentoring and individual team-source learning is presented. Data from 192 individuals in 37 intact work groups in the banking industry were used to examine how intra-group processes might influence the team mentoring process. Team-level leader-member exchange, peer mentoring, and proactive member behavior were examined for their influence on team-level career mentoring by supervisors. Our results suggest that aspects of the team context (represented by mean leader-member exchange and mean peer mentoring) influenced team-level career mentoring. Team-level career mentoring (TCM) had a positive effect on individual team-source learning and had mediating effects on the relationships between the team contextual factors and individual team-source learning. The implications of this research for studying supervisory team-level career mentoring are discussed.

Towards a theory of being-centered leadership: Multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership

Fry, L., Kriger, M. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:09 PDT

This article proposes and develops a theory of leadership that utilizes five levels of being as context for effective leadership: 1) the physical world; 2) the world of images and imagination; 3) the level of the soul; 4) the level of the Spirit; and 5) the non-dual level. We first explore how each of the five levels of being provides a means for advancing both the theory and the practice of leadership. Second, we utilize these five levels to create the foundation for a theory of leadership based on being that goes beyond current theory which emphasizes having and doing — either having appropriate traits and competencies or doing appropriate actions depending on the situation. We present propositions for future research as we discuss each of the five levels of being. Finally, we discuss implications for leadership development and future research that arise from such a being-centered leadership theory.

Social distance as a moderator of the effects of transformational leadership: Both neutralizer and enhancer

Cole, M. S., Bruch, H., Shamir, B. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:11 PDT

Following recent interest in contextual factors and how they might influence the effects of transformational leadership, we consider the social distance between leaders and followers as a cross-level moderator of the relationships between senior level managers’ transformational leadership and individual-level outcomes. Our sample comprised 268 individuals in 50 leader-follower groups. Results revealed that high social distance reduced or neutralized transformational leadership’s association with followers’ emulation of leader behavior. In contrast, high levels of social distance between leaders and followers enhanced the effects of transformational leadership on individuals’ perceptions of their units’ positive emotional climate and individuals’ sense of collective efficacy. Results not only highlight the importance of social distance as a contextual variable affecting leader-follower relations but also suggest that the same contextual variable may have differential effects, enhancing some relationships and neutralizing others.

The institutionalization of distributed leadership: A 'Catch-22' in English public services

Currie, G., Lockett, A., Suhomlinova, O. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:12 PDT

Distributed leadership is promoted as being well suited to public service organizations because of their multiple goals, less pronounced managerial authority and presence of powerful professional groups. Drawing on qualitative evidence we analyse the complex process of the institutionalization of distributed leadership in English schools. Our analysis suggests that competing institutional forces simultaneously foster and stymie the adoption of distributed leadership. Consequently, the school principals find themselves in a classic Catch-22 situation, which they resolve by enacting a weak form of distributed leadership. Ironically, the implementation of distributed leadership is the most difficult in the schools located in socially deprived areas, that is, the very context where policy-makers expect distributed leadership to make the most impact. Moving beyond our specific case, we argue that distributed leadership, and leadership more generally, cannot be divorced from its institutional context and that the relative influence of divergent institutional forces depends upon the immediate organizational environment.

The challenge of leading on unstable ground: Triggers that activate social identity faultlines

Chrobot-Mason, D., Ruderman, M. N., Weber, T. J., Ernst, C. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:14 PDT

Today’s leaders face unprecedented challenges in attempting to manage interactions between social identity group members with a history of tension in society at large. Research on faultlines suggests that social identity groups often polarize in response to events that make social identity salient, resulting in negative work outcomes. The current research extends the faultlines literature by examining precipitating events (triggers) that activate a faultline. Qualitative interview data were collected from two samples of employees working in multiple countries to identify events that had resulted in social identity conflicts. In the first study (35 events), an exploratory approach yielded a typology of five types of triggers: differential treatment, different values, assimilation, insult or humiliating action, and simple contact. A second qualitative study (99 events) involved a more geographically varied sample. Research findings are discussed in terms of implications for the faultlines literature and for practicing leaders.

Human Relations special issue call for papers: Sensemaking, organising and storytelling

Colville, I., Brown, A. D., Pye, A. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:41:19 PDT

Top management credibility and employee cynicism: A comprehensive model

Kim, T.-Y., Bateman, T. S., Gilbreath, B., Andersson, L. M. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:53:33 PDT

By combining quantitative and qualitative methods of study, we develop a comprehensive model of top management behaviors, perceived management credibility, and employee cynicism and outcomes. Specifically, we identify managerial behaviors that affect employees’ perceptions of two components of top management’s credibility — trustworthiness and competence — and examine how each of those components relates to employee cynicism. Top management competence and trustworthiness relate to different components of employee cynicism (cognitive, affective, and behavioral cynicism), and these dimensions of cynicism differentially relate to organizational commitment and self-assessed job performance. Content analysis of critical incidents revealed that different sets of managerial behaviors generate attributions of competence, incompetence, trustworthiness, and non-trustworthiness. This study and the resulting model open the door to more finely distilled research on management credibility and employee cynicism.

Is work--family balance more than conflict and enrichment?

Carlson, D. S., Grzywacz, J. G., Zivnuska, S. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:53:33 PDT

This study deepens our theoretical and practical understanding of work—family balance, defined as the ‘accomplishment of role-related expectations that are negotiated and shared between an individual and his/her role-related partners in the work and family domains’ (Grzywacz & Carlson, 2007: 458). We develop a new measure of work—family balance and establish discriminant validity between it, work—family conflict, and work—family enrichment. Further, we examine the relationship of work—family balance with six key work and family outcomes. Results suggest that balance explains variance beyond that explained by traditional measures of conflict and enrichment for five of six outcomes tested: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, family satisfaction, family performance, and family functioning. We conclude with a discussion of the applications of our work.

How other people shape our careers: A typology drawn from career narratives

Bosley, S. L.C., Arnold, J., Cohen, L. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:53:33 PDT

From a constructionist perspective, we examine how non-managerial employees make sense of the part played by other people in shaping their careers. Taking as our starting point the methodological limitations of existing research into career shapers and arguing for a perspective that starts with actors’ situated understandings, we use a life story method to develop a new typology of career shapers. Grounded in our data, we distinguish and contrast the shaper categories of adviser, informant, witness, gatekeeper and intermediary in terms of their perceived impact on individuals, including their career aspirations, career enactment, and their career world-view and career self-concept. At the level of practice, locating themselves within this framework will enable line managers, human resources staff and professional careers advisers to be explicit about the career support they can offer, and to identify other potentially valuable career shapers.

New human resource management practices in knowledge-intensive business services firms: The case of outsourcing with staff transfer

Grimshaw, D., Miozzo, M. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:53:33 PDT

This article investigates the human resource management practices that underpin a specific model of organizing knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Drawing on data from four countries, it examines HR practices in two global IT services firms — EDS and IBM. The market for IT services depends very much on outsourcing and the transfer of IT workers from the client to the IT firm. This has theoretical and empirical implications for how IT firms manage recruitment, skill development and job security. The evidence supports an alternative framework for understanding four key influences on HRM in large specialist KIBS firms: i) inter-organizational relations (tight inter-linkages with client organizations); ii) contract performance conditions (outsourcing contracts); iii) knowledge flows (inter-organizational transfers of highly skilled IT workers); and iv) the economic and institutional context (industrial relations institutions). The article demonstrates that these internal and external conditions generate new tensions and conflicts in the design and implementation of HR practices.

Enterprise contested: Betwixt and between the discourses of career and enterprise in a UK bank

McCabe, D. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:53:33 PDT

This article analyses the ‘enterprise’ discourse (Miller & Rose, 1990; Rose, 1989) that endeavours to reinvent employees as responsible, autonomous, self-regulating, customer-focused, team players. In this study of a major UK bank, the staff both endorsed and turned the enterprise discourse back on management and so the boundaries between dissent and consent are blurred. The case study highlights that enterprise does not arrive fully formed and can be a weapon of employees rather than simply a tool of those who seek to exercise power. It is argued that whilst enterprise is a contemporary discourse, it reproduces aspects of a much older ‘career’ (McKinlay, 2002; Tempest et al., 2004) discourse in UK financial services. The continuity and discontinuity between the two discourses fuelled resistance, whilst oiling and obscuring, the reproduction of enduring inequalities, that straddle both discourses.

Human Relations special issue call for papers: Sensemaking, organising and storytelling

Colville, I., Brown, A. D., Pye, A. — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:53:33 PDT

Socially constructing safety

Turner, N., Gray, G. C. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

Social scientific perspectives on occupational safety largely characterize it as a disembodied, tangible, and easily quantifiable phenomenon. Recent research efforts have focused on exploring organizational conditions that predict occupational safety outcomes, resulting in top-down, often de-contextualized prescriptions about how to control safety in the workplace (e.g. ‘management should promote a culture of safety’). There is growing interest in how social processes of organizing, wider socio-cultural considerations, and the situated production of safety can contribute to the appreciation of the ‘lived experience’ of life and death at work. This Special Issue focuses on the socially constructed nature of occupational safety and the insight it provides in understanding broader social and organizational processes. In this article, we first describe how various social scientific disciplines share an interest in occupational safety and organizational behavior, yet rarely speak to another. We provide an overview of the five articles that comprise the Special Issue, and briefly highlight some ways forward for studying safety in organizations.

If human errors are assumed as crimes in a safety culture: A lifeworld analysis of a rail crash

Chikudate, N. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

This study reanalyses the commuter train incident that involved the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The incident, which occurred on 25 April 2005, claimed 107 lives (passengers and the train driver) and injured 562 passengers. The delay in using the brake and the train driver’s inattention generated confusion and serious errors. The train driver’s inattentiveness may be attributed to his grave concern over reporting personal mistakes to company authorities as it is mandatory for erring JR West crew members to go through ‘learning practices’. The phenomenological analyses showed how the unintended consequences of such learning practices played a key role in the train incident. This study also draws on Foucault’s concepts on discipline to analyse the learning practices in JR West, and employs the concept of collective myopia to account for the reasoning of JR West managers.

Reclaiming resilience and safety: Resilience activation in the critical period of crisis

Powley, E. H. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

When external events disrupt the normal flow of organizational and relational routines and practices, an organization’s latent capacity to rebound activates to enable positive adaptation and bounce back. This article examines an unexpected organizational crisis (a shooting and standoff in a business school) and presents a model for how resilience becomes activated in such situations. Three social mechanisms describe resilience activation. Liminal suspension describes how crisis temporarily undoes and alters formal relational structures and opens a temporal space for organization members to form and renew relationships. Compassionate witnessing describes how organization members’ interpersonal connections and opportunities for engagement respond to individuals’ needs. And relational redundancy describes how organization members’ social capital and connections across organizational and functional boundaries activate relational networks that enable resilience. Narrative accounts from the incident support the induced model.

Overcoming dysfunctional momentum: Organizational safety as a social achievement

Barton, M. A., Sutcliffe, K. M. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

Research on organizational safety and reliability largely has emphasized system-level structures and processes neglecting the more micro-level, social processes necessary to enact organizational safety. In this qualitative study we remedy this gap by exploring these processes in the context of wildland fire management. In particular, using interview data gathered from 28 individuals involved in wildland firefighting, we explore the validity of the idea that a deterrent to organizational safety is an inability to redirect ongoing actions once they are underway. The findings suggest four major themes. First, individuals and groups redirect ongoing action as a result of re-evaluating that action. Second, noticing early warning signs, while necessary, is not sufficient to drive change. Third, two social processes — giving voice to concerns and actively seeking alternative perspectives — appear to be key drivers of re-evaluation. Fourth, the process of redirecting action is moderated by two social factors: institutional pressures and self-interest. We discuss the implications of these patterns for organization theory and for future research.

Normal Accident Theory versus High Reliability Theory: A resolution and call for an open systems view of accidents

Shrivastava, S., Sonpar, K., Pazzaglia, F. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

We resolve the longstanding debate between Normal Accident Theory (NAT) and High-Reliability Theory (HRT) by introducing a temporal dimension. Specifically, we explain that the two theories appear to diverge because they look at the accident phenomenon at different points of time. We, however, note that the debate’s resolution does not address the non-falsifiability problem that both NAT and HRT suffer from. Applying insights from the open systems perspective, we reframe NAT in a manner that helps the theory to address its non-falsifiability problem and factor in the role of humans in accidents. Finally, arguing that open systems theory can account for the conclusions reached by NAT and HRT, we proceed to offer pointers for future research to theoretically and empirically develop an open systems view of accidents.

What's needed is application, not reconciliation: A response to Shrivastava, Sonpar and Pazzaglia (2009)

Perrow, C. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

Normal accident theory says nothing about the time dimension that triggers human failures and thus is not appropriately applied by Shrivastava et al., in their article. Indeed, the theory focuses upon system aspects rather than human behavior, thus no reconciliation is needed with those that focus upon human behavior, it just more economically explains a subset of accidents.

Reconciliation can lead to better application: A rejoinder to Perrow (2009)

Shrivastava, S., Sonpar, K., Pazzaglia, F. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

In his brief commentary, Perrow raises four issues. First, he alludes to how the misuse of bureaucratic power could explain some accidents. Second, he reiterates that normal accidents occur owing to the characteristics inherent in a system, and such accidents, irrespective of whether high reliability practices are followed or not, are inevitable. Third, Perrow asserts that complexity and coupling are independent of time of operation. The time dimension’s irrelevance, he claims, ought to be apparent from his analysis of normal accidents in systems such as the air transport and chemical industry (see Perrow, 1984). Fourth, Perrow implies that High Reliability Theory (HRT) cannot explain the sub-class of accidents that Normal Accident Theory (NAT) concerns itself with. He thus makes a case for retaining NAT alongside other theories and finds little value in our reconciliation. In fact, he finds the reconciliation inappropriate because we supposedly err in implicating time. We respond to the four issues in turn.

Leveraging functionality in safety routines: Examining the divergence of rules and performance

Bruns, H. C. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT

This study advances our understanding of why and how the performance of standardized safety routines varies. Based on six months of field research and interviews in a molecular biology laboratory, this study examines the divergence of safety regulations and actual routine performance. It identifies distinct routine components that address different aspects of safety. While safety regulations and training aim at preventing adverse effects of hazardous substances on the scientists, the scientists are concerned about potential contamination of their experiments. This study investigates the relationship between organizational and scientific objectives. It argues that organizational objectives fall behind scientific objectives in safety routine performance to the extent that their pursuit requires a set of actions separate from those actions that suffice to meet the scientists’ professional concern.

Human Relations special issue call for papers: Sensemaking, organising and storytelling

Colville, I., Brown, A. D., Pye, A. — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:38 PDT