Finian Buckley

Increasing team emotional intelligence through process

The use of teams in the workplace is an accepted facet of current working life. Training is undertaken with a view to equipping students for the eventual transition to a workplace which demands the social scientific skills of being an active, contributing, co‐operative team member. The use of content and process in a practical‐based learning situation is the focus of this study, which assesses a range of learning approaches used to acquire a knowledge of the skills required for team working. The division of the course into content and task‐related aspects on the one hand, and process and subjective experience on the other, is evaluated from the point of view of the skills it transfers to the course participant. The concept of emotional intelligence is measured to ensure the practical application of theory on team working to the experience of team functioning. The results indicate the success of this approach and demonstrate its ease of transfer to the workplace training environment.

The influence of support relationships on work‐family conflict: differentiating emotional from instrumental support

The importance of various support sources to the experience of work and non‐work life balance is a well‐documented factor. This study investigate the differential impact of the support of work colleagues, workplace supervisors, non‐work friends, spouse/partner, and extended family on employees’ perceptions of the balance between their work and family life commitments. The sample of an Irish working cohort (n=170) indicated that after having a young child (6 years of age) the next significant predictor of experienced work interference with family life was spouse‐partner instrumental support. Spouse‐partner social support did not have an impact on experienced work interference in family life. The support of co‐workers and workplace supervisors did not influence experienced work‐family conflict. How and why positive spouse‐partner instrumental support should lead to elevated work‐family conflict are discussed.

Linking trust in the principal to school outcomes

Purpose – The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of facultys trust in the school principal on three school outcomes, namely, self‐reported in‐role job performance (IRP), organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and learning goal orientation (LGO). Furthermore, this paper aims to highlight the role of organizational identification (OID) and work engagement (Eng) in explaining the linkage between trust in the principal (TIP) and the three outcome variables.Design/methodology/approach – Survey data are collected from 130 high school teachers in Pakistan. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses are used to test the research hypotheses.Findings – The results of this paper revealed that OID and Eng fully mediated the relationship between TIP and IRP; whereas, they partially mediated the effects of TIP on OCB and LGO.Research limitations/implications – The data used in this paper are cross‐sectional and hence causation cannot be determined. Additionally, the data for this paper are collect...

Assessing the effects of organizational identification on in‐role job performance and learning behaviour

Purpose – The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of organizational identification on in‐role job performance and two learning behaviours, namely, feedback seeking and error communication. Furthermore, this research aims to establish the mediating role of learning goal orientation in the relationship between organizational identification and the three outcome variables.Design/methodology/approach – Data for this paper were gathered from 130 high school teachers drawn from six schools operating in Pakistan. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the research hypotheses.Findings – The results show that organizational identification has significant unique effects on in‐role job performance and error communication; whereas, it influences feedback seeking indirectly through learning goal orientation. Additionally, the findings of this paper reveal that learning goal orientation mediates the effects of organizational identification on the three outcome variables.Research limitations/impl...

What Trust Matters When The Temporal Value of Professional and Personal Trust for Effective Knowledge Transfer

While trusting coworker relationships are conducive to knowledge transfer, distinct types of trust and the contextual conditions under which they are most effective have received limited empirical attention. In this article, we distinguish between professional and personal trust, and hypothesize that their relative knowledge transfer advantage may vary as a function of the duration of the receiver-source relationship. Using survey data from 135 knowledge receivers reporting on their relationships with their knowledge sources, we find that both professional and personal trust interact with relationship duration, albeit in opposite directions. We also find a synergistic effect of the two types of trust on knowledge transfer but only in long duration relationships. The implications of distinguishing professional and personal trust within the overall nomological network of trust are discussed in terms of theory and practice development.

Communications enhancement: A process dividend for the organization and the HRM Department?

Quality has become a key issue for organisations seeking competitive advantage and coping with ever changing market demands. Evidence suggests that the human resource implications of such initiatives are frequently underestimated and neglected Powell, 1995). The present study surveyed 133 Irish organisations implementing Quality Initiatives (QIs), focusing particularly on the impact of these initiatives on internal communication processes and the role played by the human resource (HR) function in these changes. Results indicate the overall success of the QIs in enhancing internal communication processes, but highlight two issues: the surprising absence of HR function involvement in the deliverance of these communication enhancements and the perception by most respondents that while the stated tangible QI objectives have been achieved, there is still some distance to be travelled to fulfil employee expectations on the more intangible communication based needs. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the changing face of the HR function and the long term success of QIs.

Human resource management in a quality context: some Irish evidence

Evidence from a survey of the Irish Q Mark companies suggests that there are implications for both the human resource (HR) function and for human resource practices where organizations are involved in the implementation of quality intiatives. In some cases the HR function has taken a role in strategic decision making and responsibility for the communications, training and involvement measures necessary to support the quality programmes. HR practices have also changed in some organizations, with a revision of selection, training and appraisal methods. From the employee’s perspective, quality programmes appear to lead, through teamworking and communications mechanisms, to increased involvement. However, the reporting and control measures allied to quality have the potential to increase the monitoring of work and there is little evidence that reward structures have been revised to take account of changes in work practices.

University research scientists as knowledge workers: contract status and employment opportunities

University research scientists epitomise knowledge workers who are positioned to avail of the employment conditions associated with ‘boundaryless careers’. Yet while employment flexibility has been hailed as a positive feature of knowledge work, relatively little is known about the forms such flexibility may take or its impact. This article considers the factors shaping the employment conditions of 40 research scientists working in five university research centres in Ireland. The findings suggest that, for knowledge workers such as research scientists, contract employment can deny them access to many of the employment conditions and opportunities that govern their long-term success as researchers.

Getting to Know You A Longitudinal Examination of Trust Cues and Trust Development During Socialization

Despite recent theoretical advances, the pattern of trust development between coworkers has yet to receive focused longitudinal attention. Furthermore, current theory suggests that employees attend to an array of independent trust cues in any given situation but fails to identify which cues are important when. In a four-wave longitudinal field study, we demonstrate how new coworker intentions to engage in trust behaviors (reliance and disclosure) evolve during employee socialization and examine the trust cues that prime decisions to trust. We present a latent growth model of trust development that reveals, for the first time, that reliance and disclosure intentions in early work relationships develop in a positive, nonlinear pattern over time. Furthermore, the study indicates that propensity to trust has a statistically significant effect on the initial status of intention to rely on and disclose information to coworkers but not on changes in trust behavior over time. The multiwave design permits comprehensive assessment of the change in impact of different trust cues over time and demonstrates that the importance of certain cues varies depending primarily on the type of trust in question and potentially changes as a relationship matures. We discuss the theoretical implications and directions for future research.

Responding to Managers' Learning Needs in an Edge-of-Chaos Environment: Insights From Ireland:

This article considers some of the challenges faced by managers operating in rapidly changing “edge of chaos” organizations and assesses whether postgraduate education can be designed to engender the abilities and skills required in such environments. In particular, can a management development process be aligned with an educational process in order to emphasize the individual self-development and reflective capability that is crucial in rapid-change situations? The discussion of these issues is framed around the learning achieved in the design and delivery in Ireland of a postgraduate program for experienced human resource managers. The outcomes of the program suggest that it is possible to incorporate management development processes into an executive education program and that this approach has positive outcomes at individual, group, and organizational levels of learning.