Luc Dorenbosch

The impact of individual and shared employee perceptions of HRM on affective commitment: Considering climate strength

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of whether individual perceptions of an HRM system – distinctiveness, consistency and consensus – and shared perceptions of HRM (climate strength) are positively related to affective commitment in the organization. In addition, the paper examines if climate strength has a mediating effect in the relationship between the individual perceptions of an HRM system and affective commitment.Design/methodology/approach – A survey study with data from 671 employees, 67 line‐managers and 32 HR‐managers within four hospitals was used.Findings – Results of two‐level analyses (department, employee) showed that the perception of distinctiveness, consistency and climate strength, as expected are positively related to affective commitment. Instead of a mediating effect of climate strength a moderator effect was found: the relationship between consistency and affective commitment is stronger when climate strength is high.Research limitations/implications – The ...

Age, proactivity and career development

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to shed more light on the role of employee proactivity (self‐starting, action‐orientated behaviours aimed at greater organisational effectiveness) in relation to aging and career development. It aims to do this in two ways. First, by investigating how age and HR practices for development initiated by the organisation influence proactivity. Here, proactivity it seeks to study as a career‐relevant outcome. Second, by examining how age, proactivity and HR practices for development influence employee experiences of career opportunities. Here, it aims to use proactivity as career‐relevant predictor.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 619 employees from 47 departments completed a questionnaire, including two scales on proactivity (on‐the‐job and developmental proactivity) as well as a scale on career opportunities. HR and line managers in these departments were interviewed about HR practices directed at career development of the employees. The data combine information...

Getting the HR message across: The linkage between line HR consensus and commitment strength among hospital employees

Related to the theoretical work of Bowen and Ostroff (2004; also Ostroff/Bowen 2000), this article focuses on the features of an HRM system that help or constrain organizations to get their HR message across. At a department-level of analysis, we focus on the consensus between line managers and decentralized HR professionals on the human resource practices in place and on the either strategic or operational role of the HR function in the process of the management of employees. Stating that an organization?s HR policies are transmitted by decentralized line and HR managers, it is proposed that the more line and HR executives agree on the status of their relationship and the HR practices in place, the less employees vary in their affective attitudes of commitment to the organization. Central to this article is the ?strength? of affective organizational commitment among unit-members in a sample of 671 employees from 66 hospital departments drawn from four Dutch hospitals. Multi-level analyses indicate that consensus between HR professionals and line managers on HR practices (career opportunities, appraisal criteria) and on HR?s role is positively related to the commitment strength within a department. It is concluded that the collectivity of employee commitment to the organization is partly a function of department-level HR process indicators. Research limitations and implications for HR practitioners are discussed.

Age-related differences in the relations between individualised HRM and organisational performance: a large-scale employer survey

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between individualised HRM practices and several measures of organisational performance, including the moderating role of employee age in these relationships. A large-scale representative study among 4,591 organisations in the Netherlands showed support for the relationships between individualised HR practices with organisational performance. Employee age moderated the relationships between the use of individualised practices and sickness absence and turnover, such that organisations with a high percentage of older workers benefited from work schedule practices, and organisations with high percentage of younger workers benefited from development practices.

Job crafting towards strengths and interests : The effects of a job crafting intervention on person-job fit and the role of age

We introduce 2 novel types of job crafting—crafting toward strengths and crafting toward interests—that aim to improve the fit between one’s job and personal strengths and interests. Based on Berg, Dutton, and Wrzesniewski (2013), we hypothesized that participating in a job crafting intervention aimed at adjusting the job to personal strengths and interests leads to higher levels of job crafting, which in turn will promote person–job fit. Moreover, we hypothesized that this indirect effect would be stronger for older workers compared with younger workers. Results of an experimental field study indicated that participating in the job crafting intervention leads to strengths crafting, but only among older workers. Strengths crafting was, in turn, positively associated with demands–abilities and needs–supplies fit. Unexpectedly, participating in the job crafting intervention did not influence job crafting toward interests and had a negative effect on crafting toward strengths among younger workers. However, our findings suggest that some types of job crafting interventions can indeed be an effective tool for increasing person–job fit of older workers.

Exploring the relationship between job quality, performance management, and career initiative : A two-level, two-actor study

This study examines how job quality and performance management influence career initiative in the workplace. Based on signaling theory and the notion of internal fit in performance management and HRM, we argue that performance management with a learning orientation further enhances career initiative, whereas performance management with a results orientation constrains it. Combining the two performance management types is expected to diminish career initiative. In addition, we expect the positive effect of job quality to be contingent upon the performance management types. A total of 772 employees working in the (public) service industry or manufacturing industry and nested within 53 work units rated their job quality (job variety and job autonomy) as well as career initiative. Line managers from these work units rated the performance management types practiced. Results indicate that job variety and learning-oriented performance management positively relate to career initiative. The positive relationships between learning-orientated performance management, job variety, and career initiative are weakened when line managers simultaneously practice results-oriented performance management. These findings underline the need to focus on how performance management orientations and job quality combine to influence career initiative.