Mieke Audenaert

When employee performance management affects individual innovation in public organizations: the role of consistency and LMX

Abstract Public sector challenges translate in more complex job demands that require individual innovation. In order to deal with these demands, many public organizations have implemented employee performance management. In a multilevel study, we examine when employee performance management affects individual innovation. We contribute by focusing on consistent employee performance management and Leader–Member Exchange (LMX). Based on goal-setting theory, we first argue that employee performance management fosters individual innovation when it entails consistent subpractices. Subsequently, LMX is theorized to function as a moderator in this linkage. We use multilevel data from 68 elderly homes and 1095 caregivers in Flanders to test our hypotheses. The study reveals that individual innovation is related to consistent employee performance management, and that LMX functions as a moderator in this relationship. Our findings contribute to scholars’ understanding of effects from employee performance management in public organizations.

Does performance management affect nurses’ well-being?

AIM This article focuses on employee performance-management practices in the healthcare sector. We specifically aim to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of employee performance-management practices on affective well-being of nurses in hospitals. Theory suggests that the features of employee-performance management (planning and evaluation of individual performances) predict affective well-being (in this study: job satisfaction and affective commitment). METHODS Performance-management planning and evaluation and affective well-being were drawn from a survey of nurses at a Flemish hospital. Separate estimations were performed for different aspects of affective well-being. RESULTS Performance planning has a negative effect on job satisfaction of nurses. Both vertical alignment and satisfaction with the employee performance-management system increase the affective well-being of nurses; however, the impact of vertical alignment differs for different aspects of affective well-being (i.e. job satisfaction and affective commitment). CONCLUSION Performance-management planning and evaluation of nurses are associated with attitudinal outcomes. The results indicate that employee performance-management features have different impacts on different aspects of well-being.

When affective well-being is empowered: the joint role of leader-member exchange and the employment relationship

Abstract HRM and the leader are often assumed to play a joint role in affecting employee reactions. In a multilevel, time-lagged study, we examined the joint role of the employment relationship and leader-member exchange (LMX). We tested whether this joint role is essential to when LMX leads to affective well-being via psychological empowerment. We build on HRM literature to expect that the relationship of LMX with psychological empowerment is stronger when the employment relationship is consistent with LMX quality. Results indicated that psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between LMX and affective well-being. This mediation is stronger for employees in a mutual investment employment relationship. The findings point at the importance of consistency of resources from the employment relationship and LMX. Nevertheless, the findings also suggest that resources from LMX compensate for employment relationships with low resources. Our findings contribute to scholars’ understanding of the joint role of HRM systems and leader behaviors.

When innovation requirements empower individual innovation: the role of job complexity

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the field’s understanding of how to raise individual innovation. Specifically, the authors aim to contribute to an understanding of the interplay of job characteristics and intrinsic motivation for individual innovation. Design/methodology/approach The study uses time-lagged survey data of a public service organization in Belgium. The analyses are based on more than 80 jobs and more than 1,000 employees. Hierarchical linear modeling was adopted to test cross-level hypotheses. Findings Innovation requirements influence individual innovation efforts by psychologically empowering employees, but the extent to which psychological empowerment translates into individual innovation depends on job complexity. Originality/value A more nuanced understanding is developed of when innovation requirements empower individual innovation, by acknowledging the role of job complexity in this relationship. The current findings contribute to a multilevel integrative understanding of the interplay of the job context and intrinsic motivation.

Performance management fairness and burnout: implications for organizational citizenship behaviors

ABSTRACT Drawing upon organizational justice theory, we examine how perceptions of performance management fairness affect burnout and organizational citizenship behaviors among academic employees. Data from 532 academic employees from a university in Flanders (Belgium) were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Academic employees experience less burnout when performance management fairness is perceived as high. Performance management distributive and interactional fairness increase organizational citizenship behaviors by reducing burnout and supporting partial mediation. Higher education institutions should carefully design and implement performance management systems with fair outcomes, procedures and treatment of employees. Our findings stress the importance of fair performance management systems and offer new insights on how these systems affect employee outcomes.

The relationship between employee performance management and civil servants’ turnover intentions: a test of the mediating roles of system satisfaction and affective commitment

ABSTRACT In search of maximizing efficiency, public organizations found solace in the adoption of employee performance management (EPM) systems. While research supports that managing employees’ performance has favourable outcomes, it is still unclear why and under which conditions. Moreover, EPM systems might even create additional pressures and therefore increase turnover intentions and undermine public organization’s quest to maximize efficiency. We argue that when EPM systems are carried out consistently (i.e. internal consistency) and when they link civil servants’ individual goals to the organization’s strategic goals (i.e. vertical alignment), civil servants will be less likely to leave the organization. Hierarchical linear regression analysis shows that internal consistency relates to increased satisfaction with the EPM system and affective commitment to the organization. Vertical alignment relates to lower levels of turnover intentions. This relationship was mediated by EPM system satisfaction and affective commitment. These findings that contribute to our understanding of EPM systems can lead to favourable outcomes.

Setting high expectations is not enough: linkages between expectation climate strength, trust, and employee performance

Purpose Drawing on climate theory and social exchange theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how the strength of the expectation climate, defined as the degree of agreement among job incumbents on what is expected from them, affects their job performance. To explain this relationship, the authors utilize mediating trust-in-the organization effects as an explanatory avenue. Design/methodology/approach In a time-lagged data sample of 568 public service employees, whose job performance is rated by their 242 line managers, the authors apply multilevel modeling. The authors employed stratified random sampling techniques across 75 job categories in a large, public sector organization in Belgium. Findings The analysis provides support for the argument that expectation climate strength via mediating trust-in-the organization effects impacts positively on the relationship between employee expectations and performance. Specifically, the significant association of the expectation climate strength with trust suggests that the perceived consensus about the expectations among different job incumbents demonstrates an organization’s trustworthiness and reliability to pursue intentions that are deemed favorable for employees. The authors conjecture that expectation climate strength breeds trust which strengthens employees’ job performance. Practical implications HRM professionals in general, and line managers in particular, should heed the advice and carefully manage their tools and practices in an effort to signal compatible expectancies to different job incumbents in the same or similar roles. Originality/value The results shed new light on the mechanisms through which the strength of collective expectations impacts employee outcomes.

Vulnerable Employees’ Employability: The Role of Competency Development and Clear Expectations

This study focuses on employer engagement to make vulnerable employees employable. We study the relationship between enacted HR practices and vulnerable employees’ employability. This linkage would...

Unleashing Employees’ Power to Innovate: A Multilevel Model

Integrating employment relationships, psychological empowerment, and individual innovation theory, this study develops a multilevel conceptual model linking employment relationships with individual innovation. To test this model, we use survey data on 82 job functions and 934 employees from a large Flemish service organization. The results highlight the role of variables at the job level. The first job-level context variable concerns employment relationships. The findings show that employment relationships with high job requirements and/or offered inducements affect psychological empowerment, which in turn influences individual innovation. The second job-level context variable concerns job complexity. The findings show that job complexity operates as a cross-level moderator of the link between psychological empowerment and individual innovation. These findings underscore recent claims that multilevel linkages and the job-level context matter in explaining individual innovation in service organizations.