Andrew A. Luchak

A Comparison of Linear and Nonlinear Relations between Organizational Commitment and Work Outcomes

The authors compared linear and nonlinear relations between affective and continuance commitment and 3 commonly studied work outcomes (turnover cognitions, absenteeism, and job performance), observed in 3 separate research settings. Using a linear model, they replicated the common observation in the literature that affective commitment is more strongly related to work outcomes than continuance commitment. Introducing a higher order continuance commitment term into the same equations, however, they found that the linear model seriously understated the magnitude of continuance commitments effect on all 3 criterion measures. These findings are consistent with recent developments that identify different motivational mindsets associated with affective and continuance commitment (J. P. Meyer, T. E. Becker, & C. Vandenberghe, 2004).

What Kind of Voice Do Loyal Employees Use

This study helps clarify mixed support for Hirschmans exit–voice–loyalty framework by arguing that loyalty, or feelings of attachment to the organization, and voice are not one–dimensional constructs. Based on data gathered from a survey of employees working with a large Canadian utility organization, employees feeling attached through an affective, emotional bond are found less likely to use representative voice but more likely to use direct voice, while those attached for rational, calculated reasons are more likely to use representative voice. Employees feeling attached for either reason are found less likely to exit. Implications for theory, research, and policy are discussed.

What Do Employees Know About Their Pension Plan

Original survey data based on 529 respondents in a large organization are used to analyze how much employees know about various features of their occupational pension plan. While the level of understanding was quite low among all employees, it was quite high among those for whom the knowledge matters most in terms of their behavioral decision making. Our results show that rather than being optimal labor contracts that workers enter into with full knowledge at the time of employment, pension contracts are more like contingent claims contracts evolving under conditions of uncertainty and incomplete information.

Explaining Performance Differences between Family Firms with Family and Nonfamily CEOs: It's the Nature of the Tie to the Family that Counts!

Drawing on regulatory focus theory, we advance a microtheory for Naldi, Cennamo, Corbetta, and Gómez–Mejías findings suggesting that family ties as well as the career aspirations that derive from them trigger relatively higher prevention and relatively lower promotion goal orientations of family when compared with nonfamily chief executive officers (CEOs). Our conceptualization offers an alternative theory for why family firms with family CEOs outperform those with nonfamily CEOs in contexts such as industrial districts where conservation strategies are more valuable, but underperform in contexts such as publicly listed firms where market–driven strategies are more valuable. Our commentary highlights the need for future research to examine variance in the self–regulatory mindsets of family and nonfamily CEOs, and to link these differences to firm strategies and performance.

Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice: The Impact of Unions and High-Involvement Work Practices on Work Outcomes

Theory and research surrounding employee voice in organizations have often treated high-involvement work practices (HIWPs) as substitutes for unions. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in the field of industrial relations, specifically the collective voice/institutional response model of union impact and research on HIWPs in organizations, the authors propose that these institutions are better seen as complements whereby greater balance is achieved between efficiency, equity, and voice when HIWPs are implemented in the presence of unions. Based on a national sample of Canadian organizations, they find employees covered by a union experience fewer intensification pressures under higher levels of diffusion of HIWPs such that they work less unpaid overtime, have fewer grievances, and take fewer paid sick days. Job satisfaction is maximized under the combination of unions and HIWPs.

Mandatory retirement: a constraint in transitions to retirement?

Issues associated with retirement in general, and phased transitions into retirement in particular, are taking on increased importance for a variety of reasons. Outlines those reasons, paying particular attention to the practice of mandatory retirement. Presents age dependency ratios for the OECD to highlight the importance of these issues in the context of an ageing and longer‐lived workforce relative to a smaller working age population. Then discusses the prevalence of mandatory retirement in Canada and the USA, and presents empirical evidence from Canada on variables associated with retiring because of mandatory retirement. The Canadian case is of particular interest, because mandatory retirement in Canada has generally not been banned, which is in marked contrast with the situation in the USA, where it has been banned as constituting age discrimination. The public and legal debate over the issue of mandatory retirement has also been extensive in Canada, and this debate may provide information for other countries dealing with the issue. Ends with an assessment of the extent to which mandatory retirement exerts a constraining influence on transitions into retirement. The essential argument is that its constraining impact is not as simple as it may initially appear. To the extent that mandatory retirement is an intricate part of the compensation and human resource function of firms, banning it can have important implications for those functions and, in turn, for transitions into retirement. The complexities of these issues and dramatically increasing old‐age dependency ratios will ensure that this is an area of growing importance for public policy and human resource management.

Exit-Voice and Employee Absenteeism: A Critique of the Industrial Relations Literature

Industrial relations research that has examined the effects of collective voice on employee absenteeism through traditional exit-voice analyses suffers from a number of important theoretical and empirical limitations. The research is limited theoretically in that the framework used cannot discretely classify absenteeism as a form of either exit or voice. This inability reflects a larger problem with the exit-voice framework’s lack of adequate attention to the conditions under which collective voice mechanisms fail and the consequences of such failure for the behavior of industrial relations actors. Exit-voice studies of absenteeism have important methodological problems, particularly in the way absenteeism and voice criteria have been operationalized. These defects in the literature can be addressed through the integration of behavioral theory and research on such topics as absenteeism, exit, voice, loyalty and neglect, and the literature on organizational justice.

Are Unions Good or Bad for Organizations? The Moderating Role of Management's Response

Union impact research has been hindered by an underdeveloped conceptualization of management response, contributing to inconclusive empirical findings. Integrating the collective voice/institutional response model with the appropriateness framework, we propose that an employee-focused business strategy is a critical moderating variable in the relationship between union density and organizational outcomes that mitigates the negative effects of unions and enhances the positive effects by sending a clear signal of managements intentions to co-operate. Using a panel dataset of Canadian organizations over six years, we provide empirical evidence to support our arguments. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Pensions as Psychological Contracts: Implications for Work Outcomes

Drawing on psychological contract theory, we develop predictions regarding the moderating influence of the meaning employees assign to their marginal quit costs, as well as on the role of stayer perceptions and saver effects, on various work outcomes under a defined-benefit pension. Results show pension incentives can have favorable or unfavorable effects depending on whether employees perceive them as supportive relational contracts or as low-trust transactional contracts. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Paid Employee or Entrepreneur? How Approach and Avoidance Career Goal Orientations Motivate Individual Career Choice Decisions

The focus of much career choice research is framed around a unidimensional conceptualization of motivation in which the tendency to approach a career assumes a proportionately equal and opposite willingness to avoid it. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, we advance a dual-channel model of career choice, which allows us to capture the competing goal orientations leading individuals to approach and avoid any given career choice decision. Our results support our main hypothesis that both promotion and prevention career goal orientations mediate the relationship between individual differences, situational characteristics, and career choices in either paid employment or entrepreneurship.