Carol Flinchbaugh

The Effects of Part-Time Workers on Establishment Financial Performance

Using a sample of 1,468 private sector establishments, this article addresses the relationship among part-time workers, commitment-based human resource (HR) systems, and establishment financial performance. Building on theoretic perspectives about equity perceptions and reciprocal exchanges, we find that the proportion of part-time workers in an establishment workforce is nonlinearly related to establishment financial performance in an inverted U-shaped relationship. In addition, the interaction between part-time workers and commitment-based HR systems is negatively related to establishment performance. The analysis suggests that those deciding about how to structure establishments’ workforces should consider how interactions between different types of workers within workforces can influence establishment performance.

Team-Level High Involvement Work Practices: Investigating the Role of Knowledge Sharing and Perspective Taking

To assess potential boundary conditions in the relationship between HRM systems and team service quality, we examined both collective and individual-level capabilities as underlying mechanisms between team-level high involvement work practices (HIWPs) and team service quality. Using multi-level modelling with a sample of 397 employees in 25 work teams from five service organisations, we found that team HIWPs enhanced knowledge sharing, leading to improved team service climate. Moreover, the presence of individual perspective taking moderated the mediating effect of knowledge sharing such that perspective taking enhanced service climate beyond the value of team HIWPs. The results contribute to the HRM literature by examining the multi-level social and environmental influences on individual learning conceptualised in social cognitive theory, to identify the value of individual capabilities as moderators to knowledge sharing in the link between team HRM systems and service climate.

On the Bike and in the Cubicle: The Role of Passion and Regulatory Focus in Cycling and Work Satisfaction

Objectives: To examine the relationships between cycling passion and satisfaction with cycling and work. First we examine the how two types of passion for cycling (harmonious and obsessive) differentially affect cycling satisfaction. Second, we examine how a passion for cycling can have a spillover effect on work satisfaction. Third, we examine the mediating role of regulatory focus on the relationship between passion and satisfaction. Design: Cross‐sectional study of U.S. competitive cyclists using an online survey. Methods: Self‐reports of study variables were collected from 119 competitive cyclists, who were also employed in work roles beyond their cycling pursuits. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to examine the relationships between passion, regulatory focus, and satisfaction. Results: Results from our sample indicate that while holding a harmonious passion for cycling positively relates to both cycling and work satisfaction, an obsessive passion results in diminished work satisfaction. Moreover, results from our mediation analysis indicate that regulatory focus partially mediates the relationships between harmonious passion and both cycling and work satisfaction. Conclusions: These findings illustrate that not all forms of passion are beneficial to ones pursuits, demonstrate the potential spillover effect of pursuing ones passion for sport and its influence on work satisfaction, and suggest that regulatory focus helps explain the relationship between passion and satisfaction. HighlightsPassion for athletic pursuits can affect work satisfaction.Harmonious passion for cycling improves both cycling and work satisfaction.Obsessive passion has minimal effects on cycling or work satisfaction.Regulatory focus helps explain the relationship between passion and satisfaction.

Considering Immigrant Employees: A Categorization-Elaboration Approach

Immigrants play a key role in work groups and organizations. However, research in diversity management does not routinely distinguish immigrants from their ethnic native-born counterparts, ignoring...

Helping Yourself to Help Others: How Cognitive Change Strategies Improve Employee Reconciliation with Service Clients and Positive Work Outcomes

ABSTRACT This qualitative study examined the paradox of difficult, yet meaningful, helping as part of employees’ jobs in a social services organization. Incorporating an emergent design using employee interviews the study identified how employees alter their understanding of workplace challenges, such as emotional distress and unsafe client behaviours, in order to find new meaning in the other-oriented value of their work. The resulting framework of employees’ experiences through challenging, yet meaningful, helping extends the research in customer service by proposing the reconciliation process, achieved through cognitive change strategies (i.e. visualization techniques, cognitive reframing and mindfulness of experience) serves as a conceptual bridge that helps the management of this apparent paradox. We first describe the workplace challenges and then outline the distinct cognitive change strategies that engendered the reconciliation process. Implications for practice and future researchers are then discussed.

Web-based recruiting’s impact on organizational image and familiarity: too much of a good thing?

Abstract Little is known about the efficacy of many of the newer forms of online recruitment. Using a quasi-experimental design, we tested the impact of individual exposure to corporate recruitment websites and Facebook on perceptions of organizational familiarity and organizational image over time. Most interestingly, we found evidence of a curvilinear or non-linear relationship between frequency of exposure to organizational communications and perceptions of organizational familiarity across time. Implications of our findings for HR theory and practice are discussed.