Chester S. Spell

Correlates and consequences of high involvement work practices: the role of competitive strategy

Illustrative of world-wide trends, New Zealand has undergone drastic product and labour market reforms in an attempt to stimulate economic growth and national competitiveness. Towards this goal, firms have been urged to emphasize differentiation strategies in their approach to their markets and also to become more progressive in their management of human resources. This study finds that whereas more intensive use of high involvement work practices promotes firm effectiveness, this effect depends on the competitive strategy being pursued. The use of high involvement work practices is positively associated with performance in firms competing on the basis of differentiation and shows no relationship in firms pursuing a strategy of cost leadership.

A Multi-Level Analysis of Organizational Justice Climate, Structure, and Employee Mental Health†

This study uses a sample of 483 employees to investigate how fairness assessments and organizational structure relate to employee mental health. The authors explain these effects using a social contagion framework, which describes the creation of group effects that would occur in addition to individual-level influences. They found that the interactive effects of distributive and procedural justice climates significantly influence individual feelings of both anxiety and depression. This effect goes beyond the main effects of justice at the individual level.

Programme knowledge and value of work-family practices and organizational commitment

This study examined the relationship between the programme knowledge and value of work-family practices and organizational commitment. Employee programme knowledge of work-family policies was significantly related to affective commitment. This finding suggests that organizations should pay attention to how much their employees know about work-family benefits and how practices can be accessed. While the value of paid parental leave was positively related to normative commitment, the perceived value of childcare policy was negatively associated with both affective and normative commitment. These findings suggest that organizations must be aware that how employees perceive work-family practices can influence their commitment towards the organization. Specifically, practices that are viewed as having minimal value might actually lead to a reduction in commitment.

The effects of alignments: examining group faultlines, organizational cultures, and performance.

By integrating literature on group faultlines, organizational cultures, and value congruence, this research presents a framework that explains how cultural alignment across organizational levels may influence the relationship between faultlines and performance. The hypotheses were tested using representatively sampled multisource qualitative and quantitative data on 138 teams from a Fortune 500 company. The present findings demonstrate that although informational faultlines were detrimental for group performance, the negative relationship between faultlines and performance was reversed when cultures with a strong emphasis on results were aligned, was lessened when cultures with a weak emphasis on results were aligned, and remained negative when cultures were misaligned with respect to their results orientation. These findings show the importance of recognizing alignments not only within groups (group faultlines) but also outside groups (cultural alignments between the group and departments) when considering their implications for group performance.

How does distributive justice affect work attitudes? The moderating effects of autonomy

Organizational justice has been a frequently used lens for understanding employee attitudes, particularly towards the fair distribution of rewards. This study of 184 New Zealand employees found distributive justice relating to pay, benefits, and rewards to be significantly linked to job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Further, job autonomy was found to significantly interact with these relationships. While employees with high job autonomy reported higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions when distributive justice was high, employees with little job autonomy registered significantly larger changes in work attitudes. The findings highlight the importance of felt independence and autonomy over work in the role that justice perceptions play in organizations.

Faultlines, fairness, and fighting: A justice perspective on conflict in diverse groups

Most people can recall instances at work where thankless tasks get in the way of tasks that lead to big rewards. This typically leads people in a group to a struggle with others over how to approach their work and set priorities. Inspired by such conversations with many employees, we develop a theory to understand how task conflict can be linked to distributive injustice. Using a survey from 42 workgroups, we found that the effect of distributive injustice on task conflict was mediated via role conflict. Group faultlines moderated this mediated relationship such as it was weaker when faultlines were stronger.

Getting ahead: organizational practices that set boundaries around mobility patterns

An organizational level empirical analysis of career advancement in organizations was conducted on a diverse sample of 318 mid to large size worksites in Georgia, USA. Two variables were used to indicate career advancement: (1) emphasis on upward mobility of non-management employees to other non-management positions; and (2) the movement of non-management employees into management. Two sets of organizational variables are differentially related to the two different indicators of career advancement. Organizational structural variables are more likely to be related to upward mobility within the non-management ranks, and demographic variables are more likely to be related to across-category movement from non-management to management. Copyright

Predicting total quality management adoption in New Zealand: The moderating effect of organisational size

Purpose – The paper seeks to understand the adoption rates of total quality management (TQM) by New Zealand firms, and the role that organisational size plays in determining adoption rates.Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 997 random New Zealand firms of all sizes yielded 228 responses. Factors tested to predict TQM adoption were organisational size, workplace autonomy, performance standards, use of teams and group problem solving. In addition, organisational size was tested as a potential moderating variable on the other factors.Findings – Overall, 33 per cent of firms in New Zealand used TQM, with an addition 5 per cent no longer using TQM, indicating strong adoption rates by international standards. All the direct effects and moderating effects were supported. Consequently, firms with higher level of workplace autonomy, use of performance standards, use of teams, and use of group problem solving were more likely to have adopted TQM, and this was more likely for larger firms than smaller firms. ...

Organizational Technologies and Human Resource Management

This article develops a model that integrates organizational level technology research with human resource management strategies. The model relates dimensions of technical processes to human resource practices, focusing on practices used to develop employees. These relationships are mediated by the type of skills employees use. An empirical study of 139 employees found support for two hypotheses developed from the model. Results suggested that technology and HRM activities are connected through the level of cognitive skill complexity and the amount of support employees receive in developing new skills. Due to changes in the way decisions are made in organizations today (for example, making more decisions at lower levels) the connection between the work process, the skills employees need, and the emphasis on developing employees will become increasingly important.

The Backlash Against Work/Family Benefits: Evidence from New Zealand

This study examines the phenomenon of work/family backlash by comparing attitudes between employees who have used and those who have not used an organization’s work/family benefits. Exploring this phenomenon is important because organizations do not want to offer benefits that create negative reactions in those excluded from using them or those choosing not to use them. Findings indicate no significant differences in attitudes between users and nonusers toward turnover intention, affective, continuance and normative commitment, recruitment and retention benefits, work/family fairness and attitudes toward male and female users of work/family benefits. Nonusers were more likely to be younger and without children, indicating they might have little use for work/family benefits. The findings suggest work/family backlash might be more a case of media hype and provide support for a needs-based allocation perspective being used by nonusers of work/family benefits.