Daria Sarti

Leadership styles to engage employees: evidence from human service organizations in Italy

Purpose – This study aims to examine the relationship between work engagement and leadership styles in human service organizations (HSOs). Specifically two leadership styles are investigated that are: participative and instrumental leadership style. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was used for data collection, and analysis of data were carried out using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. Findings – By examining workers (n=251) operating in nine HSOs in Italy, this study shows that the three dimensions of work engagement relate to leadership styles. The data analysis found that while the participative leadership style of supervisors is particularly significant in predicting vigour and dedication among employees, the instrumental leadership style is positively related to vigour and absorption. Research limitations/implications – The study has some limitations that could represent stimuli for future research. The analysis is cross-sectional, and variables were measured using a comm...

Reward Policies and Work Engagement. Empirical Evidence on the Welfare Professions

This work is part of the studies on compensation policies. The objective is to study the link between employee work engagement and total reward systems. The context of the analysis is that of employees in people care organizations in people care organizations. The literature shows that such workers are driven mainly by reasons of intrinsic nature (Leete, 2000). However, the intrinsic meaning of the work is for all workers, not just for those of the non-profit, an aspect that is given more and more attention than ever before. This work, therefore, arises as of great interest in the current overall perspective. In fact, the opportunity to use consistently and effectively relatively inexpensive instruments, such as relational returns, for workers who pay increasing attention to the intrinsic meaning of work, represents a viable perspective both for non-profit and for-profit organizations. Starting from the major theoretical contributions on the themes of work engagement and total rewards, the articleconsiders the specific context of the social cooperation. The analysis is performed with a sample of employees (N = 153) working in the people care sector (elderly care, child care, handicapped care) in five organizations in social and education services in Tuscany. The regression analysis results show the criticality of the relational aspects of the reward and the importance of the pay administration with respect to the work engagement in the workplace. At the same time, the analysis does not reveal a significant contribution of other aspects of financial rewards in relation to work engagement.

ICT Use and Job Satisfaction. The Moderating Role of Task Characteristics

This paper focuses on the relationship between ICT use and job satisfaction, following a classic but always relevant research stream, and analyses the role of work design in moderating this relationship. The findings of the analysis, carried out on a sample of 35,187 employees in Europe (data source: EWCS2010), demonstrate that the use of ICT is important in bolstering the individual’s satisfaction about his/her own work. We also demonstrated that job design plays an important role in determining the strength and the form of the relationship between ICT use and job satisfaction. Our results offer interesting stimuli for a debate among scholars and practitioners on the management of employees in a context in which technologies represent an indispensable tool for workers, so that the role of the organization is to “design” tasks properly so as to grant them this new way of working.

Into Smart Work Practices: Which Challenges for the HR Department?

This work investigates the implementation within organizational contexts of smart working (SW) focusing on the role played by the HR department. After the presentation of the topic, some theoretical elements necessary to understand the research are introduced and some principal characteristics of the qualitative research from the methodological point of view are summarized. After that, the paper focuses on some key findings showing how the enterprises are related to SW and how their HR departments are supporting each step of the whole process. There are some final considerations on the evolution of the role of this department in the perspective of an increasing space for flexible arrangements in working conditions, which can contribute to a positive and fruitful introduction and reinforcement of SW practices.

Generation X and Knowledge Work: The Impact of ICT. What Are the Implications for HRM?

This chapter aims to demonstrate the positive impact of the use of ICTs and knowledge work content on employees’ wellbeing. Our focus is on generations at work, and specifically generation X, which is underexplored in the current research debate but relevant in terms of the organizations’ human capital. The relationship between knowledge work content and wellbeing of Generation X has been explored along with the impact that the use of ICT may have in this relationship. The findings of the analysis, carried out on a sample of 5,557 employees in Europe (data source: WVS 2010–14), demonstrate that the use of ICT is important for the wellbeing of all generations. We also demonstrate that different levels of knowledge work content have an impact on employees’ wellbeing, and this relationship is stronger for Generation X, while increase in ICT usage may have an adverse effect on it. Our results offer interesting stimuli for a debate between scholars and practitioners in the management of employees, calling for attention to the controversial effect of ICT usage and to this mid-generation, too.

Organizational tenure and knowledge-sharing behaviours: The moderating role of leader-member exchange

This paper aims to contribute to research on the broad theme of knowledge-sharing (KS) behaviours and the impact that different organizational tenure may have on them. In this relationship, the relevance of the leader in enhancing sharing dynamics among employees is highlighted.,This study focuses on KS attitudes among employees with different numbers of years spent in the same organization, seen through the theoretical lens of a social exchange perspective. Specifically, the role of the leader in building a social exchange with co-workers is investigated as a managerial lever able to favour KS among a more experienced workforce. This paper starts by considering the relationship between organizational tenure and employees’ KS attitude. Furthermore, the specific role played by the leader–member social exchange with regard to this relation is described. The study’s hypotheses are tested on data collected from employees (N = 150) working in a non-profit organization located in central Italy.,The results suggest that a negative relationship exists between employees’ organizational tenure and KS attitude. In addition, the critical role of a leader’s support is demonstrated in moderating the effect of different organizational tenures on the KS attitude.,This paper has both theoretical and managerial implications.,This paper contributes to the research on the important role of leaders in enhancing KS behaviors among co-workers when the number of years in the same organizations is a variable of interest.

Quality-Oriented Climate and Service Quality Among Healthcare Providers: Evidence From a Rehabilitation Center in Italy

The importance of quality in service provision is widely recognized in health service research. However, a limited number of studies have investigated antecedents of quality in healthcare service provision. This article tries to shed further light on this under-researched field. Specifically, the aim of this study is to verify the relationship between the quality-oriented climate and service quality as perceived by employees. The study was conducted in a private non-profit Rehabilitation Centre in Italy using a questionnaire administered to all healthcare workers. The questions focused on perceptions of quality-oriented climate (priorization of quality care, social cooperation, and exchange), four different connotations of the quality in healthcare provision (provision of high quality service, adequacy of time spent with patients, freedom in clinical decisions, and continuing relationships with patients), as well as on respondents’ background. Of the 248 healthcare workers, 183 completed the questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to study the relationship between quality-oriented climate and outcome variables (quality in healthcare provision). The results suggest that a quality-oriented climate does explain service quality in Healthcare settings: When an organization has implemented a quality-oriented climate, the service care provided by healthcare workers can determine an increase for three of the four investigated aspects of quality service provision (quality of care, freedom to make clinical decisions to meet patients’ needs, and continuing relationships with patients). The paper demonstrates that the offer of quality services involves in a different way the various healthcare professionals and/or management staff. This research provides interesting findings for healthcare manager in Health Service settings regarding the management of a quality-oriented process of service provision.