Linda Trenberth

Corporate Governance and Human Resource Management

This paper investigates the effect of different forms of corporate governance on the structure and nature of stakeholder relationships within organizations and the consequent impact on human resource management (HRM) policy and outcomes. The analysis shows that while performance advantages can be derived from commitment-based HRM systems, a corporate governance regime that privileges remote stakeholders may operate as a constraint on such systems. The empirical analysis is based on the UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS98).

Neutralizing workplace bullying: the buffering effects of contextual factors.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and buffering effects of three workplace contextual factors – constructive leadership, perceived organizational support, and organizational anti‐bullying initiatives – on bullying and its relationships with relevant criteria. Further, the paper aims to investigate the effectiveness of organizational initiatives against bullying as perceived by targets and non‐targets.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 727 employees in nine New Zealand healthcare organizations. Of these, 133 employees were classified as bullied, as they had experienced at least two negative acts per week over the last six months.Findings – Correlations revealed negative relationships between the three contextual work factors and bullying. Moderated regression showed that perceived organizational support buffered the relationship of bullying with self‐rated job performance, and that organizational initiatives against bullying buffered the relationship of bullyi...

The role, nature and purpose of leisure and its contribution to individual development and well-being

While there has been a growth in leisure coping research the debate as to how leisure functions as a coping strategy and is distinguishable from more general coping strategies, that is, strategies not directly associated with leisure, continues. How leisure functions as a coping strategy and its role as a therapeutic technique with important implications for counselling is the focus of this symposium. What is clear from this symposium is that there is an increasing awareness of the importance of leisure as a coping and therapeutic tool with a growing body of research directly addressing the way and under what conditions leisure can contribute to health, well-being and work /life balance. The association between leisure and health is one that has been alluded to for some time. The theme that emerges from much of this literature is that leisure has the potential to reduce stress. The evidence to support this theme stems from a growing body of research that now points to the importance of leisure as a means of helping people cope with stress. This research has strong parallels with the psychological literature, particularly the notion that if coping strategies are classified as problem or emotion focused then leisure may operate as a form of emotion focused coping where the motives for engaging in leisure activities have stress reducing properties. Set against this context Linda Caldwell addresses the issue of under what conditions and why leisure can be therapeutic and contribute to health and well-being. The leisure-health literature can, Caldwell argues, be generally organised around three classes of research. The first involves exploring how leisure activity serves as a preventive mechanism helping to ward off poor health and risk behaviours before they occur. The second and primarily the main focus of much leisure research is concerned with the use of leisure in the stress-coping process. The third and relatively new direction for leisure research explores the way leisure may operate as a means to transcend negative life events. The conclusion is that leisure can contribute British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, Vol. 33, No. 1, February 2005

Work stress and coping: drawing together research and practice

Despite the enthusiasm for coping research, reviewers are concerned that much of the research has failed to live up to expectations as to its practical relevance. Yet the debate about the application of coping research is not short on writers pointing the way forward. By examining a number of issues at the heart of the debate on coping research this paper focuses on what may be ways of bridging the gap between coping research and practice. What follows is a discussion around the belief that if coping research is to become more clinically relevant, then researchers need to make better use of transactional models of stress. More specifically this paper points to the explanatory potential in concepts like appraisal that provide the psychological links between the individual and the stressful encounter. Moreover if coping researchers are to focus on more process-focused models, then what is needed is a time of quiet reconstruction where researchers consider where current methodologies are taking us and what alternative methods can provide. The argument here is that coping research needs to adopt measurement methods that reflect the techniques of clinicians. The emphasis is for coping methods to become more ecologically sensitive, person- and meaning-centred, daily processing and narrative in application.

Workplace bullying in New Zealand: A survey of employee perceptions and attitudes†

Bullying at work, a severe form of anti-social behaviour, has become an issue of major concern to workers, organisations, unions and governments. It has also received considerable attention in organisational behaviour and human resource management research over the past 20+ years. Research has been conducted on the prevalence of bullying at work and factors which contribute to bullying, but less attention has been accorded to personal coping with bullying and organisational-level responses to counteract bullying. The present paper reports findings from a survey of over 1700 employees of 36 organisations in New Zealand. We describe the reported incidence of bullying at work, along with relevant work attitudes and experiences, including psychological strain, ratings of subjective well-being, and levels of commitment to the organisation. Personal experience of bullying was reported by 17.8% of respondents, and was significantly correlated with higher levels of strain, reduced well-being, reduced commitment to their organisation, and lower self-rated performance. Personal coping strategies were generally unrelated to these outcomes. On the other hand, the perceived effectiveness of organisational efforts to deal with bullying was considered an important contributor to both the occurrence of bullying and reduced negative effects of bullying. Overall, our findings illustrate the importance of developing organisational-level strategies to reduce the incidence of bullying and to counteract its negative impact, rather than expecting individuals to develop personal strategies to cope with this problem.

Predictors of Workplace Bullying and Cyber-Bullying in New Zealand

Background: The negative effects of in-person workplace bullying (WB) are well established. Less is known about cyber-bullying (CB), in which negative behaviours are mediated by technology. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the current research examined how individual and organisational factors were related to WB and CB at two time points three months apart. Methods: Data were collected by means of an online self-report survey. Eight hundred and twenty-six respondents (58% female, 42% male) provided data at both time points. Results: One hundred and twenty-three (15%) of participants had been bullied and 23 (2.8%) of participants had been cyber-bullied within the last six months. Women reported more WB, but not more CB, than men. Worse physical health, higher strain, more destructive leadership, more team conflict and less effective organisational strategies were associated with more WB. Managerial employees experienced more CB than non-managerial employees. Poor physical health, less organisational support and less effective organisational strategies were associated with more CB. Conclusion: Rates of CB were lower than those of WB, and very few participants reported experiencing CB without also experiencing WB. Both forms of bullying were associated with poorer work environments, indicating that, where bullying is occurring, the focus should be on organisational systems and processes.

An exploration of the role of leisure in coping with work related stress using sequential tree analysis

The past three decades have seen an explosion of interest into the nature, causes and consequences of stress in both work and non-work settings. Given that leisure is of growing importance in most peoples lives and that the impact of stress influences the way in which leisure is used, then the role that leisure plays as a means of coping with stress represents an important research agenda. In order to explore leisures role in coping with work stress this research explored, using a sample of secondary school principals and deputy principals, three issues: (1) why an involvement in leisure was important, (2) what reasons were given as to why leisure was important to cope with stress, and (3) what coping strategies were actually used to cope with stress in relation to whether or not leisure had always been regarded as an important part of life. Each of these issues was explored using a technique called sequential tree analysis. This technique identifies patterns of data and arranges them in hierarchical order to provide a visual display that captures the richness of relationships not always present when more traditional methods are used. The different patterns that emerged point to the complex role that leisure plays. The results also point to the need to better understand combinations and patterns before it is possible to determine the exact nature of the presumed emotion-focused role that leisure may play in coping with work stress. These findings have implications for stress management interventions and the role of leisure in them and the need to distinguish between the meanings people give to the importance of leisure as distinct from the actual use of leisure as a coping strategy

Antecedents and consequences of the introduction of flexible benefit plans in China

The present study had two aims. The first was to explore the extent of flexible benefit plans (flex plans) within China and to make predictions about future trends. The second aim was to examine the relationships between the use of flex plans and two measures of labour market performance: the ability to attract essential employees and the level of labour turnover. The results from a survey of 324 firms in China reflecting a response rate of 32.4% showed that although there are presently a limited number of firms that adopt flex plans, the number is likely to increase in the next few years. Second, the probability of the adoption of flex plans was not found to vary with the mode of ownership and firm location. Third, flex plans were found to be adopted by firms for several practical reasons including their perceived role in cost containment, improved recruitment and retention, enhancement of job satisfaction and labour productivity. The take-up of such plans, however, was found to be inhibited by perceived administrative burdens and costs, and the limited number of staff qualified in benefit provision. Finally, the adoption of flex plans was significantly related to labour turnover and improved recruitment capacity.

Understanding the experience of stressors: The use of sequential analysis for exploring the patterns between various work stressors and strain

Abstract The availability of traditional self-report instruments for measuring work stressors may have diverted attention from exploring the way in which different stressors relate to one another. In order to develop a better understanding of the nature of the stressor experience a study was undertaken to explore the stressor–strain relationship using sequential tree analysis, a stepwise procedure that provides a “visual display” of the patterns and associations between stressors and strains. The study employed a sample of 695 principals and deputy principal teachers of secondary schools in New Zealand, who received a questionnaire measuring stressors and strains. SPSS AnswerTree® (version 2.0.1) was used to identify the patterns of association. The patterns of stressors that emerge from this analysis were used in a didactic or illustrative way to identify issues of measurement that may need to be resolved in order to derive a better understanding of the stressor experience. Different stressor patterns were associated with different levels of, but lower levels of strain were not simply the obverse of those stressors that cause higher levels of strain. Two not mutually exclusive issues emerge from the results, suggesting that stressor measurement practices may need to be reviewed. The first includes structural level issues such as considering the number, type, and potency of different stressors. The second includes issues best described as conditions of association. These concern understanding why different stressor patterns form, the relationship between stressors in those patterns, and the potency of patterns.

Exploring the relationships between appraisals of stressful encounters and the associated emotions in a work setting

Abstract Exploring work stress using a transactional perspective requires researchers to consider not just the role of appraisal of a stressful encounter but also the relationship of this appraisal with emotions. This research sets out to explore the appraisal-emotion relationship in a work setting. Using data from 174 civic administrators from New Zealand, sequential tree analysis (which presents patterns in a system of hierarchical ordering) was used to create the pattern of appraisals of stress associated with each of three emotions: anger, anxiety and frustration. The results suggest that if we are to advance our understanding of the appraisal-emotion relationship then future research needs to explore what common characteristics bind together and help shape appraisal patterns, whether some appraisals are more complex than others, and whether some appraisals are more potent than others. The results also raise the question of how best such relationships should be investigated in order to understand the nature of a stressful encounter. In the future, work stress researchers may wish to consider the utility of more context-sensitive measures such as appraisals.