Ben Kuipers

Why Turnover Matters in Self-Managing Work Teams: Learning, Social Integration, and Task Flexibility

This study considers how turnover in self-managing work teams influences the team interaction processes that promote effective task accomplishment. Drawing from research on self-managing work teams and group process, the authors propose that team turnover affects performance in self-managing teams by affecting social integration, team learning behavior, and task flexibility. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 47 self-managing work teams using longitudinal panel data and an objective measure of team performance. Results suggest that team turnover indeed decreases social integration, team learning behavior, and task flexibility in self-managing teams but that only task flexibility and team learning behavior mediate the negative relationship between team turnover and team effectiveness.

Does Leadership Style Make a Difference? Linking HRM, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Performance:

With the rise of New Public Management, public organizations are confronted with a growing need to demonstrate efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In this study, we examine the relationship between public organizational performance and human resource management (HRM). Specifically, we focus on job satisfaction as a possible mediating variable between organizational performance and HRM, and on the influence of a supervisor’s leadership style on the implementation of Human Resource (HR) practices. Drawing on a secondary analysis of data from a national survey incorporating the views of 6,253 employees of Dutch municipalities, we tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that (a) job satisfaction acts as a mediating variable in the relationship between HRM and organizational performance and (b) a stimulating leadership style has a positive effect on the amount of HR practices used, whereas (c) a correcting leadership style has no effect on the amount of HR practices used.

Development and performance of self-managing work teams: a theoretical and empirical examination

Several theories have been developed that prescribe the team development of self-managing work teams (SMWTs). Some of these have led to models with successive linear developmental phases. However, both the theory and the empirical data show little support for these models. Based on an extensive review of team development literature, we propose, instead of linear phases, describing team development in three general team processes. These processes, internal relations, task management, and external relations and improvement, were empirically explored in a longitudinal field-study of more than 150 blue-collar and white-collar SMWTs in a Volvo plant in Sweden. The three processes were found to be consistent over time and appeared to relate to one-year-later objective SMWT performance measures for product quality, the incidence of sick-leave and long-term sick-leave. Based on these findings, a result-oriented team development approach is proposed, in which the achieved results determine the processes followed to develop SMWTs further. Also, managers and HR practitioners are encouraged to monitor the three ongoing team processes and to relate these to the desired team performance. Such an analysis should be the starting point of a dialogue between manager and team to improve the functioning and performance of SMWTs.

Short- and long-term consequences of age in work teams: An empirical exploration of ageing teams

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of age in work teams on short‐term team consequences, such as satisfaction, involvement, mutual learning, decision making and feedback, and long‐term team consequences, such as quality, sick leave and burnout, and to consider their implications for team management and human resource management (HRM) policies in team‐based organizations facing an ageing work force.Design/methodology/approach – The study elaborates on the framework of Milliken and Martins, further examining the effects of both average age and age differences. The authors collected objective data as well as data through questionnaires among 150 work teams with more than 1,500 white‐collar and blue‐collar workers from an automotive company in Sweden. With these data the authors conducted correlation and step‐by‐step hierarchical regression analyses.Findings – The analyses showed significant positive effects of average age on both short‐term and long‐term consequences. No significan...

Implementing Change in Public Organizations: The relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change in a public sector context

Abstract We propose and test a theoretical framework concerning the relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and affective commitment to change in a public sector context. We apply change management theory to explain how direct supervisors contribute to processes of organizational change, thereby increasing affective commitment to change among employees. While the change leadership literature emphasizes the role of executive managers during change, we conclude that the transformational leadership behaviour of direct supervisors is an important contribution to the successful implementation of change. Furthermore, the results show how the specific context of public organizations determines the transformational leadership behaviour of direct supervisors.

Talking the Talk or Walking the Walk? The Leadership of Planned and Emergent Change in a Public Organization

Abstract The implementation of public management reform may entail radical change for public sector organizations, as it implies changes in the values of the organization. Although such organizational changes are widespread and prevalent in the public sector, the processes through which such changes take place are largely overlooked in the public management literature. By means of an embedded, comparative case study, the authors analyse both planned and emergent processes of change. Their analysis indicates that changes come about through careful reinterpretation and reframing of organizational commitments, rather than replacement of the old by the new values. Moreover, there are important differences in the leadership activities in planned and emergent processes of organizational change. They highlight the need for an increased understanding of the role of leadership in emergent processes of change. In order to successfully change public organizations, they find that the approach to change and corresponding leadership activities should be congruent with the content of the desired organizational change. Managers must dare to go beyond talking the talk and start walking the walk.

Two Faces of the Satisfaction Mirror: A Study of Work Environment, Job Satisfaction, and Customer Satisfaction in Dutch Municipalities

During the past three decades, the performance of public organizations has become more and more of an issue. However, academic research on public administration pays relatively little attention to how organizational performance is related to work environment and human resources within organizations. In this research, work environment characteristics, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction are studied by comparing customer satisfaction data with data on the well-being of front-office employees in 35 Dutch municipalities. The authors test their hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Contrary to what was expected, the findings indicate that the effect of job satisfaction on customer satisfaction is twofold. In organizations in which employees are more satisfied with their jobs, customers are more satisfied with the empathy of the employees, but the waiting times for services tend to increase concomitantly. In addition, findings indicate that the work environment characteristics influence job satisfaction. These results have some implications for human resource management (HRM).

The Influence of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Profiles on Team Development Processes An Empirical Study in the Manufacturing Industry

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most common personality assessments and a frequently used instrument for team development. However, in relation to team development processes, there is little research and literature on the role of personality in general and the usefulness of MBTI in particular. This article starts with a review of the MBTI and explores the relationship between MBTI profiles and team processes using a sample of 1,630 people working in 156 teams in a Swedish industrial organization. The results show that only a small number of MBTI personality profiles have a significant relationship with team processes. Overall, the composition of teams in terms of MBTI profiles does not seem to predict team development very well. Findings suggest that the MBTI may be used as an instrument for personal development and as a vehicle for group members to gain a better understanding of each other.

Held back and pushed forward: leading change in a complex public sector environment

Purpose – Public organizations often need to implement organizational change. Several authors have argued that the specific characteristics of public organizations make the implementation of organizational change in public organizations distinct or even more difficult. However, this issue has received little empirical investigation in both public management and change management research. Public organizations typically operate in an environment characterized by checks and balances, shared power, divergent interests and the political primate. The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge about how the implementation of change and its leadership is affected by the complex environment in which public organizations operate. Design/methodology/approach – A case study approach is adopted. A merger of three government departments in a Dutch city is selected as a case. This merger took place in an environment that became increasingly complex as the implementation process advanced. The main method of data coll...

What’s in it for others? The relationship between prosocial motivation and commitment to change among youth care professionals

ABSTRACT This study assesses the relationship between prosocial motivation and commitment to change among youth care professionals. We draw on person–environment fit theory to propose that this relationship is conditional on employees’ perceived meaningfulness of the change for society and clients. Our results confirm the expected positive relationship between prosocial motivation and commitment to change. Our analysis suggests that the moderating relationship between prosocial motivation, client meaningfulness and commitment to change should be understood as a substitutive relationship: both prosocial motivation and client meaningfulness are sufficient conditions, but the presence of both is not a necessary condition for commitment to change.