Discussion: View Thread

Apologies for any cross-posting.

A new issue of Human Relations is available online:  Human Relations December 2016; 69(12) − we hope you enjoy reading these articles. 

____________________________________

DECEMBER ISSUE ARTICLES

____________________________________

GLOBAL FREE ACCESS:

Temporal issues in person–organization fit, person–job fit and turnover: The role of leader–member exchange

Corine Boon and Michal Biron

Human Relations, December 2016, 69(12): 2177-2200

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/12/2177?etoc

Abstract

Person–environment fit has been found to have significant implications for employee attitudes and behaviors. Most research to date has approached person–environment fit as a static phenomenon, and without examining how different types of person–environment fit may affect each other. In particular, little is known about the conditions under which fit with one aspect of the environment influences another aspect, as well as subsequent behavior. To address this gap we examine the role of leader–member exchange in the relationship between two types of person–environment fit over time: person–organization and person–job fit, and subsequent turnover. Using data from two waves (T1 and T2, respectively) and turnover data collected two years later (T3) from a sample of 160 employees working in an elderly care organization in the Netherlands, we find that person–organization fit at T1 is positively associated with person–job fit at T2, but only for employees in high-quality leader–member exchange relationships. Higher needs–supplies fit at T2 is associated with lower turnover at T3. In contrast, among employees in high-quality leader–member exchange relationships, the demands–abilities dimension of person–job fit at T2 is associated with higher turnover at T3.

Keywords: leader–member exchange, person–environment fit, person–job fit, person–organization fit, turnover

GLOBAL FREE ACCESS:

Compositions of professionalism in counselling work: An embodied and embedded intersectionality framework

Maria Adamson and Marjana Johansson

Human Relations, December 2016, 69(12): 2201-2223

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/12/2201?etoc

Abstract

This article explores the embodied compositions of professionalism in the context of the counselling psychology profession in Russia. Specifically, we develop an embodied intersectionality framework for theorizing compositions of professionalism, which allows us to explain how multiple embodied categories of difference intersect and are relationally co-constitutive in producing credible professionals, and, importantly, how these intersections are contingent on intercorporeal encounters that take place in localized professional settings. Our exploration of how professionalism and professional credibility are established in Russian counselling shows that, rather than assuming that a hegemonic 'ideal body' is given preference in a professional context, different embodied compositions may be deemed credible in various work settings within the same profession. An embodied intersectionality framework allows us to challenge the notion of a single professional ideal and offer a dynamic and contextually situated analysis of the lived experiences of professional privilege and disadvantage.

Keywords: embodiment, intercorporeality, intersectionality, professional work, professionalism, Russia

Mixed feelings, mixed blessing? How ambivalence in organizational identification relates to employees' regulatory focus and citizenship behaviors

Sebastian C Schuh, Niels Van Quaquebeke, Anja S Göritz, Katherine R Xin, David De Cremer, and Rolf van Dick

Human Relations, December 2016, 69(12): 2224-2249

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/12/2224?etoc

Abstract

Recent conceptual work suggests that the sense of identity that employees develop vis-a-vis their organization goes beyond the traditional notion of organizational identification and can also involve conflicting impulses represented by ambivalent identification. In this study, we seek to advance this perspective on identification by proposing and empirically examining important antecedents and consequences. In line with our hypotheses, an experimental study (N = 199 employees) shows that organizational identification and ambivalent identification interactively influence employees' willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behavior. The effect of organizational identification on organizational citizenship behavior is significantly reduced when employees experience ambivalent identification. A field study involving employees from a broad spectrum of organizations and industries (N = 564) replicated these findings. Moreover, results show that employees' promotion and prevention focus form differential relationships with organizational identification and ambivalent identification, providing first evidence for a link between employees' regulatory focus and the dynamics of identification. Implications for the expanded model of organizational identification and the understanding of ambivalence in organizations are discussed.

Keywords: ambivalence, ambivalent identification, expanded model of organizational identification, OCBI, OCBO, organizational citizenship behavior, organizational identification, prevention focus, promotion focus, regulatory focus

Social influence and the invocation of rights: The effects of accountability, reputation and political skill on legal claiming

Angela T Hall, Wajda Wikhamn, and Robert Cardy

Human Relations, December 2016, 69(12): 2250-2273

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/12/2250?etoc

Abstract

Issues relating to litigation and other forms of employee legal claiming are at the forefront of the practice of human resource management. However, organizational scholars have paid scant attention to this important aspect of organizational life. Underrepresented in this collective research have been investigations into how social influence variables impact the legal claiming process. We add to the understanding of legal claiming by evaluating how perceived levels of accountability, reputation and political skill affect individuals' willingness to engage in contentious and non-contentious legal claiming. We also investigate the impact that social influence has on individuals' advice to other potential claimants. This study employed a longitudinal design utilizing both scenarios and survey data collection. Results from our study partially support the conclusion that individuals are more risk-averse in their own legal claiming considerations than they are in the advice they offer to similarly-situated others. Furthermore, accountability, reputation and interpersonal influence (one aspect of political skill) were found to significantly influence the likelihood of legal claiming. The pattern of results indicates that social influence variables play a role in determining whether legal claiming will be pursued and what type of claiming will be chosen.

Keywords: conflict, employee rights, employee voice, employment law, social influence

The indeterminacy of 'temporariness': Control and power in neo-bureaucratic organizations and work in UK television

Jonathan Morris, Catherine Farrell, and Mike Reed

Human Relations, December 2016, 69(12): 2274-2297

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/12/2274?etoc

Abstract

Whereas historically the UK television industry has been characterized by hierarchy and vertical integration of programme production within a few large broadcasters, new neo-bureaucratic temporary organizational forms have proliferated in the industry in the past 20 years. This has been a product of a variety of factors, including globalization, technological change in the industry, deregulation and cost-cutting. This article draws on research involving 75 participants working in the large broadcasters, independents and as freelancers. The temporary form in the industry is an extreme case, in that they can be of very short duration (under a week). This has far-reaching implications for industry coordination and control. However, these forms are far from 'one-offs' and they are continuously reinvented and recast. This neo-bureaucratic form is controlled and regulated by the major producers through a set of powerful normative methods, based partly on an evolving custom and practice, but also in the extreme familiarity of people in the industry, across the large broadcasters, the independents and freelancers. The article evaluates how the structures, processes and coordination of these organizations through the manipulation of social capital in the industry are used to regulate and control a set of confused and 'messy' temporary arrangements.

Keywords: contingent work, neo-bureaucratic organizational forms, social capital, temporary television industry

Reviewer of the Year Award 2016 and thanks to our reviewers

Human Relations, December 2016, 69(12): 2298-2308

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/69/12/2298?etoc

__________________________________________________

DECEMBER FREE ACCESS ARTICLE

__________________________________________________

Free to access until 31 December 2016:

What is the relationship between long working hours, over-employment, under-employment and the subjective well-being of workers? Longitudinal evidence from the UK

David Angrave and Andy Charlwood

Human Relations September 2015 68: 1491‒1515, first published on March 26, 2015 doi:10.1177/0018726714559752                                   

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/9/1491.full.pdf+html

Abstract

Are long working hours, over-employment and under-employment associated with a reduction in subjective well-being? If they are, is the association long or short-lasting? This article answers these questions through within-person analysis of a nationally representative longitudinal survey from the United Kingdom. The results suggest that long working hours do not directly affect subjective well-being, but in line with theories of person–environment fit, both over-employment and under-employment are associated with lower subjective well-being. However, over-employment is more likely for those who work the longest hours. The duration of the subjective well-being penalty associated with over-employment and under-employment is typically short, but subjective well-being levels tend to remain depressed for those who remain over-employed for two years or more. Results imply that state and organizational policies that reduce the incidence of long hours working are likely to enhance aggregate well-being levels.

______________________________________________________________________

RECENT ONLINE FIRST PREVIEW ARTICLES

Access all OnlineFirst articles here: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent

______________________________________________________________________

Themed content:

A realist critique of meta-analysis in Organization and Management Studies

A realist alternative to meta-analysis: Two papers

Paul K Edwards      

Human Relations, published online before print November 14, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716673442 http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/08/0018726716673442?papetoc

Abstract

Meta-analysis (the statistical combination of a set of studies in a given area, with the aim of establishing an overall or average effect of something) is increasingly common in work and organization studies. Critiques of meta-analysis are now common. There is also a well-known alternative based in realism. The purpose in bringing together the two papers by Nielsen and Miraglia and by Vincent and colleagues is not to rehearse the critiques or simply explain realism or realist evaluation. The two papers certainly perform these functions in setting out problems with meta-analysis and also identifying when and to what extent it remains valid. The goal, however, is to move forward by showing what a realist synthesis would look like and illustrating how it works. Vincent and colleagues lay out the principles, while Nielsen and Miraglia take the case of intervention studies to show how realist evaluation works.

Critical Essay: Meta-analysis: A critical realist critique and alternative

Matthew J Brannan, Steve Fleetwood, Joe O'Mahoney and Steve Vincent

Human Relations, published online before print November 11, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716674063

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/08/0018726716674063?papetoc

Abstract

Meta-analysis has proved increasingly popular in management and organisation studies as a way of combining existing empirical quantitative research to generate a statistical estimate of how strongly variables are associated. Whilst a number of studies identify technical, procedural and practical limitations of meta-analyses, none have yet tackled the meta-theoretical flaws in this approach. We deploy critical realist meta-theory to argue that the individual quantitative studies, upon which meta-analysis relies, lack explanatory power because they are rooted in quasi-empiricist meta-theory. This problem, we argue, is carried over in meta-analyses.  We then propose a 'Critical Realist Synthesis' as a potential alternative to the use of meta-analysis in organisation studies and social science more widely.

What works for whom in which circumstances? On the need to move beyond the 'what works?' question in organizational intervention research

Karina Nielsen and Mariella Miraglia

Human Relations, published online before print November 11, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716670226

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/08/0018726716670226?papetoc

Abstract

Who gets to lead the multinational team? An updated status characteristics perspective

Minna Paunova

Human Relations 0018726716678469, published online before print November 22, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716678469

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/21/0018726716678469?papetoc

Abstract

This article examines the emergence of informal leadership in multinational teams. Building on and extending status characteristics theory, the article proposes and tests a model that describes how global inequalities reproduce in multinational teams, and accounts for who gets to lead these teams. It is argued that an individual's language (i.e. a specific status characteristic) and nationality (i.e. a diffuse status characteristic) predict deference received from peers (i.e. leadership status). However, individuals enhance and/or compensate for the effects of their status characteristics by virtue of their core self-evaluations. A study of over 230 individuals from 46 nationalities working in 36 self-managing teams generally supports the expected main and moderation effects. Individual core self-evaluations enhance an otherwise weak effect of English proficiency, but compensate for low levels of national development. The article concludes with implications for practice, and linking micro- and macro-level theories of status and global inequality.

A femininity that 'giveth and taketh away':

The prosperity gospel and postfeminism in the neoliberal economy

Katie Rose Sullivan and Helen Delaney

Human Relations 0018726716676322, published online before print November 21, 2016, doi:10.1177/0018726716676322 http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/18/0018726716676322?papetoc

Abstract

This article explores how postfeminist and prosperity gospel discourses intersect in an organizational context to produce a particular ideal of feminine subjectivity that reproduces a neoliberal agenda. We focus on narratives written by female national vice presidents in a multi-national network marketing organization headquartered in America. Network marketing tends to attract a vast number of women who are enticed by grand messages of material and spiritual riches; however, such messages are often at odds with the precarious and uncertain working conditions. We contribute to gender and organization scholarship by introducing the concept of evangelical entrepreneurial femininity to explore the tensions and demands that are placed on women in an organizational context where postfeminism and prosperity gospel discourses intersect. In doing so, we question the expectations and constraints that many working women negotiate in this neoliberal age of alleged 'freedom' and 'equality,' and raise a number of concerns for feminist critique.

Ethnic discrimination during résumé screening:

Interactive effects of applicants' ethnic salience with job context

Eva Derous, Roland Pepermans, and Ann Marie Ryan

Human Relations 0018726716676537, published online before print November 21, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716676537

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/18/0018726716676537?papetoc

Abstract

Systematic research considering job context as affecting ethnic discrimination in hiring is limited. Building on contemporary literature on social categorization and cognitive matching, the interactive effect of context characteristics (client contact; industry status) and person characteristics (i.e. ethnic cues: Maghreb/Arab vs Flemish-sounding name; dark vs light skin tone) were investigated using an experimental field study among 424 white majority HR professionals. Findings showed that equally qualified applicants with a dark skin tone received lower job suitability ratings than applicants with a light skin tone, particularly when they were screened for high client contact/low industry status positions and low client contact/high industry status positions. It is concluded that some ethnic cues (such as skin tone) may be more salient compared with other cues and that job context may influence the salience of ethnic cues and steer hiring discrimination in subtle ways. Implications of these findings for hiring discrimination research and organizations are discussed.

Not all brokers are alike: Creative implications of brokering networks in different work functions

Diego Stea and Torben Pedersen

Human Relations 0018726716672921, first published on November 21, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716672921

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/18/0018726716672921?papetoc

Abstract

Brokers are expected to be more creative than employees embedded in closed social structures because they occupy a position in the social space that provides them with access to non-redundant knowledge. However, the extant research provides partly inconsistent findings on the creative implications of brokerage, which raises important questions about when and how brokering between otherwise disconnected colleagues leads to individual creativity. We advance the relational perspective on individual creativity by adopting a contingency view, and showing that a curvilinear (inverted U-shape) specification of the relationship between brokerage and creativity applies particularly when brokers work in research and development, as they are more likely to intensively exploit their structural opportunities. In addition, we show that brokers who work in research and development are more sensitive to work environments that protect their cognitive resources, such that they exhibit greater creativity when the work environment is free from environmental stressors, such as noise and disturbances. Thus, environmental stressors are particularly harmful for those employees who are most likely to exploit the opportunity to broker across otherwise disconnected colleagues.

Authentic leadership in context:

An analysis of banking CEO narratives during the global financial crisis

Helena Liu, Leanne Cutcher, and David Grant

Human Relations 0018726716672920, first published on November 18, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716672920

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/16/0018726716672920?papetoc
Abstract

The concept of authentic leadership rose to prominence through its idealization as an inherently moral and universally desirable trait. We problematize this romantic notion by exploring how the 'authenticity' of the CEOs of four major Australian banks was discursively constructed before and during the global financial crisis (GFC). Using multimodal discourse analysis of media texts, we show how what it meant to be an 'authentic leader' was co-constructed differently by the CEOs and the media. We also highlight the dynamic nature of context, where the GFC was variously framed by and for each of the CEOs. Our study challenges the acontextual notion of authentic leadership by showing how a discursively constructed context can reinforce or undermine leaders' narratives of authenticity.

Beneath the white gaze: Strategic self-Orientalism among Chinese Australians

Helena Liu

Human Relations 0018726716676323, first published on November 14, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716676323

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/08/0018726716676323?papetoc

Abstract

This article analyses the ethno-cultural identities of Chinese Australian professionals through a postcolonial lens. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 participants, it explores how they engaged in self-Orientalism; casting themselves as exotic commodities for the benefit of white people and institutions. In particular, they enacted Chinese stereotypes through 'mythtapping' and 'mythkeeping' in order to secure recognition under the white gaze. As mythtappers, professionals presented themselves as custodians of an ancient and mysterious culture that offered organizational wisdoms for 'the West.' As mythkeepers, the professionals allayed white anxieties by surrendering themselves to white Australians as pathways into their communities. However, the professionals' Orientalized identities are not passively determined, but are in some cases tactically and strategically resisted through 'mythbusting.' The article contributes to postcolonial theorizing by demonstrating how imperialist ideologies constrain the lives of people beyond the colonizer/colonized dichotomy and by illuminating the potential for their resistance against Orientalization.

Is it ok to care?

How compassion falters and is courageously accomplished in the midst of uncertainty

Jason Kanov, Edward H Powley, and Neil D Walshe

Human Relations 0018726716673144, first published on November 14, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716673144

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/11/08/0018726716673144?papetoc

Abstract

This article elaborates the organizational literature's process theory of compassion – an empathic response to suffering – which falls short of adequately explaining why and how compassion unfolds readily in some workplace situations or settings but not in others. We address this shortcoming by calling attention to the basic uncertainty of suffering and compassion, demonstrating that this uncertainty tends to be particularly pronounced in organizational settings, and presenting propositions that explain how such uncertainty inhibits the compassion process. We then argue that understanding the accomplishment of compassion in the midst of uncertainty necessitates regarding compassion as an enactment of courage, and we incorporate insights from the organizational literature on everyday courageous action into compassion theory. We conclude with a discussion of implications in which we underscore the importance of organizational support for the expression of suffering and the doing of compassion, and we also consider directions for future research.

Power, corruption and lies: Mis-selling and the production of culture in financial services

Matthew J Brannan

Human Relations 0018726716673441, published online before print November 1, 2016, doi: 10.1177/0018726716673441

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/12/0018726716673441?papetoc

Abstract

The extent of recent misconduct in retail financial services questions assumptions that mis-selling is perpetrated by rogue traders dealing in sub-prime markets. Yet we know little about the organizational dimensions of mis-selling and specifically how new employees are introduced to and subsequently enact mis-selling behaviour when not explicitly encouraged to do so. This article seeks to understand the mechanics of mis-selling through an ethnographic account of the opening of a new retail financial services call centre, and analysis of the ritual nature of the sales interaction. The study documents the training, induction and initial work of direct sales agents to better understand the complexity, social relations and organization of mis-selling, together with the way in which regulation and management regimes shape sales practice and consequent employee behaviour. The critical analysis of sales rituals allows us to explain how mis-selling becomes embedded in organizational practice and contributes to our understanding of the everydayness of mis-selling in contrast to approaches that focus either on individual decision-making or on cultural explanations.

The relationship of social support with well-being outcomes via work–family conflict:

Moderating effects of gender, dependants and nationality

Suzie Drummond, Michael P O'Driscoll, Paula Brough, Thomas Kalliath, Oi-Ling Siu, Carolyn Timms, Derek Riley, Cindy Sit, and Danny Lo

Human Relations 0018726716662696, first published on November 1, 2016 as doi:10.1177/0018726716662696

http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/12/0018726716662696?papetoc

Abstract

The impact of work–family conflict on well-being outcomes is well established, as is the role of social support in buffering perceptions of conflict. What is less well understood is how these relationships vary for different groups of respondents. Using a two-wave longitudinal design with a 12-month time lag and samples of employees (total N = 2183) from Australia, New Zealand, China and Hong Kong, the present research investigated whether the mediating relationships between social support, work–family conflict and well-being outcomes were moderated by gender, geographical region and the presence of dependants in the household. Supervisor support and family support were associated with lower work–family conflict, and hence reduced psychological strain and increased job and family satisfaction, for women and for employees in China and Hong Kong, but not for employees in Australia and New Zealand. However, the presence of dependants was not a significant moderator. Our findings illustrate the importance of exploring gender and national differences in work–family conflict research, particularly the investigation of cross-domain effects.

__________________________________________________

CALLS FOR PAPERS

__________________________________________________

Special issue: The changing nature of managerial work – submit by 31 January 2017

http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Managerial%20work.html

Special issue: Inserting professionals and professional organizations in studies of wrongdoing: The nature, antecedents, and consequences of professional misconduct – submit by 30 April 2017

http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Professional%20misconduct.html

Human Relations welcomes critical reviews and essays:

- Critical reviews advance a field through new theory, new methods, a novel synthesis of extant evidence, or a combination of two or three of these elements. Reviews that identify new research questions and that make links between management and organizations and the wider social sciences are particularly welcome. Surveys or overviews of a field are unlikely to meet these criteria.

- Critical essays address contemporary scholarly issues and debates within the journal's scope. They are more controversial than conventional papers or reviews, and can be shorter. They argue a point of view, but must meet standards of academic rigour. Anyone with an idea for a critical essay is particularly encouraged to discuss it at an early stage with the Editor-in-Chief.

 __________________________________________________

WHY PUBLISH IN HUMAN RELATIONS?

 __________________________________________________

Human Relations is an A* journal – the highest category of quality – in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABCD) Journal Quality List 2013. It is also ranked 4 in the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Academic Journal Guide 2015 and included in the FT50 list of journals (effective from January 2017) used by the Financial Times in compiling the FT Research rank, included in the Global MBA, EMBA and Online MBA rankings.

Human Relations is a top 5 interdisciplinary social sciences journal (Source: 2015 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2016): 

2-year impact factor: 2.619 Ranked: 4/93 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary and 37/192 in Management

5-year impact factor: 3.544 Ranked: 2/93 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary and 40/192 in Management

Best wishes,

Claire Castle

Managing Editor, Human Relations 

Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org

Twitter: @HR_TIHR

Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org