Ana M. Lucia-Casademunt

A Global Study of Pay Preferences and Employee Characteristics

Companies are managing more diverse work forces, and pay systems must be designed to attract, retain and motivate employees who may have very different pay preferences from employees of even a decade ago. This study examines how employee characteristics (i.e., gender, age, education, work experience, annual pay and number of dependents) are related to pay preferences. We found that older respondents with more education and more dependents had a stronger preference for variable pay than did respondents who were younger, less educated and had fewer dependents. Older respondents and those with higher pay preferred less pay transparency than did younger and lower paid respondents. Pay differences based on capability were preferred by better educated employees. When controlling for the other demographic characteristic, we found significant differences among nationalities for all four measures of pay preferences, that is, pay differences, pay variability, bonus plans and pay transparency.

Nonprofit Versus For-Profit Organizations: A European Overview of Employees’ Work Conditions

ABSTRACT Despite the emergence of nonprofit entities, not much is known about the working conditions of employees in the sector. This study compares the working conditions of employees in for-profit and nonprofit sectors using a sample obtained from the V European Survey on Working Conditions 2010. The results derived from a logistic regression model suggest that elements of intrinsic retribution hold more weight and offset more-precarious extrinsic working conditions among employees in the third sector, all of which leads to the development of positive attitudes toward employees’ work and the organization itself.

Determinants of occupational well‐being among executive women

Purpose ‐ Employee well-being (WB) is a strategic reference of prime importance due to its impact on human capital, employee health and quality in working life, factors that are key to achieving successful organisations. The purpose of the current study is to assess the WB of female managers in the European workplace. The research analyses three dimensions ( job satisfaction, comfort and enthusiasm) and the effect of job-related factors on each one of these. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The Mental Health and Vitamin models (Warr, 1987) were taken as the starting-point of the research. An alternative econometric method ‐ an artificial neural network known as extreme learning machine was applied to a sample of 99 female managers collected from the 5th European Working Conditions Survey-2010 Findings ‐ The results obtained confirm that this methodology is valid to efficiently classify European female managers into those who feel satisfied with their jobs, calm and relaxed, and cheerful and in good spirits, and those who do not. Furthermore, the resulting model identifies the strongest factors important in determining the varied dimensions of occupational WB achieved. Originality/value ‐ Even today, despite the important contribution women managers make to the management of organisations, they have to face many challenges and overcome serious barriers in achieving and staying in positions of leaderships when compared to their male counterparts.

Is the Institutional Environment a Challenge for the Well-Being of Female Managers in Europe? The Mediating Effect of Work–Life Balance and Role Clarity Practices in the Workplace

The advancement of women to top management positions positively affects firm competitiveness. However, this advancement may also negatively affect individuals as women find themselves forced to overwork to match their male counterparts in organisations, which can cause a decrease in their professional well-being. Although the literature highlights that human resource practices (HRPs) have a positive impact on well-being, it also warns that national institutions may condition the adoption of HRPs by organisations. If that is true, institutions may become either a challenge to—or trigger for—female managers’ well-being. Accordingly, this study analyses the effects of institutions and the mediating effects of HRPs on the influence that is exerted by institutions on well-being. The empirical analysis, which was carried out on a sample of 575 female managers located in 27 European countries, confirms the direct and indirect effects (through HRPs for work–life balance and role clarity) of institutions on female managers’ well-being at work.

Gender Differences in Psychological Well-Being and Health Problems among European Health Professionals: Analysis of Psychological Basic Needs and Job Satisfaction

Background: The aim was to examine the mediating role of basic psychological needs and job satisfaction in the relationship between the gender effect on health problems and psychological well-being for health professionals in Europe in 2015. Methods: Two multiple partial mediation analyses were conducted in order to test the partial mediation of both basic needs and job satisfaction, with gender as the independent variable and health problems or well-being, respectively, as the dependent variables, with a sample of health professionals. Results: Women reported lower psychological well-being and more health problems than men. The total effect of gender on both well-being and health problems was found to be significant. Regarding multiple mediation analyses: (a) the effect of gender on well-being was fully mediated by global basic need satisfaction and job satisfaction, such that gender did not present a significant direct effect and (b) the effect of gender on health problems was partially mediated by global basic need satisfaction and job satisfaction, such that the direct effect remained significant. Conclusions: The fulfillment of basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as postulated within self-determination theory, was hypothesized to play a mediating role in the relationship between gender and well-being. Since significant gender differences in basic need satisfaction were observed, such a mediator should be controlled in order to achieve a significant relationship between gender and well-being when basic needs comes into play. The current study adds to the research emphasizing the need for satisfaction as a promising mechanism underlying for female health professionals’ well-being.

Returning to Work after Childbirth in Europe: Well-Being, Work-Life Balance, and the Interplay of Supervisor Support

Parents returning to work after the arrival of a new son or daughter is an important question for understanding the trajectory of peoples lives and professional careers amid current debates about gender equality and work-life balance (WLB). Interestingly, current research concludes that general WLB practices at the workplace may be necessary in the specific case of women returning to work after childbirth because of the particular maternal and infant factors involved. However, WLB practices as a flexible arrangement may work against women because they may be viewed as a lack of organizational commitment. Therefore, research on this topic could benefit from considering supervisor support as a complement of such practices, but previous research has analyzed WLB and supervisor support separately and scarcely. To fill this gap in the literature, we use two sub-samples of 664 female employees and 749 male employees with children under the age of one from 27 European countries participating in the 6th European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS-2015) to study the impact of perceived WLB on European womens perceived well-being after childbirth, in contrast with previous literature. We also analyze the impact of perceived supervisor support (SS) and its interaction with perceived WLB on womens well-being after childbirth, and explore differences with men after childbirth, a collective underexplored by the literature. We find significant gender differences on the relative impact of WLB, SS, and their interaction on perceived job well-being. Our results have important implications for human resource practices in organizations. In particular, they suggest that gendered WLB practices should be encouraged, and stress the relevance of the human factor over human resource practices in addressing the difficulties that women returning to work face after childbirth.

Institutions and human resource practices in European countries

Abstract Stemming from differences between approaches to new institutionalism, this paper analyses the impact of institutions on the adoption of human resource practices (HRP) in organizations. With this aim in mind, two opposing hypotheses are presented: should configurations of national institutions be related to the actual implementation of HRP by organizations or not? This empirical analysis uses a sample of 29,959 employees who work in organizations established in 27 European countries and takes into account the employees’ perception about the HRP used in their organizations and which affect them. The results support the approach to new institutionalism that emphasizes legitimacy and isomorphism, since these results show empirical regularities when countries are compared. Specifically, a country’s configurations of regulative, normative and cognitive institutions are related to the actual implementation of HRP, such as internal promotion, job participation, job design, work-life balance, job training, assessment and teamwork. These results suggest relevant practical implications for human resource managers and policy-makers.

Possibilistic Models of Risk Management

In the traditional treatment, risk situations are modeled by random variables. This chapter focuses on risk situations described by fuzzy numbers . The first goal of the chapter is to define and characterize possibilistic risk aversion and study some of its indicators. The second goal is the study of two possibilistic models of risk management : a coinsurance problem and an investment portfolio problem.