Nina D. Cole

Managing global talent: solving the spousal adjustment problem

Spousal adjustment issues, increasingly career related, are a major reason for expatriate assignment failure. Employer-provided spousal assistance programs have been proposed to address this situation. This field study of 238 expatriate spouses found that those who experience a severe disruption or cessation of employment have significantly lower interaction adjustment to the expatriate experience than others. For spouses with a career orientation to work, females had higher cultural and interactional adjustment than males. Only 18% of the spouses received employer-provided career assistance, and there was no significant difference in adjustment between spouses who received assistance and those who did not. Interviews with 100 spouses indicated that their greatest needs are for networking information to assist with their job search and for a ‘go to’ person for practical settling-in assistance.

Why do female expatriates “fit‐in” better than males?: An analysis of self‐transcendence and socio‐cultural adjustment

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to assess the relevance of the personal value called self‐transcendence as an explanatory factor regarding gender differences in the socio‐cultural adjustment of expatriate employees.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 37 male and 31 female expatriates responded to an online questionnaire concerning their self‐transcendence value and their adjustment as expatriate employees.Findings – Self‐transcendence of the expatriate predicted interactional and work adjustment. Perceived expatriate‐local difference in self‐transcendence was a negative predictor of work and interactional adjustment. Females had higher (non‐significant) self‐transcendence than males. Further gender differences in the impact of self‐transcendence and perceived expatriate‐local differences in self‐transcendence were found.Research limitations/implications – Further research into the effect of expatriate levels of the personal value of self‐transcendence, its two components, universalism and bene...

Perceptions of distributive and procedural justice in employee benefits: flexible versus traditional benefit plans

The self‐interest and relational models of organizational justice were tested to explain the relationship between benefit plan type and organizational justice. Benefit plan types considered were flexible and traditional plans. In support of the self‐interest model employees in flexible benefit plans had significantly higher perceptions of procedural justice than employees in traditional benefit plans. There were no significant differences in perceptions of distributive justice between the plan types.

The role of organisational justice, burnout and commitment in the understanding of absenteeism in the Canadian healthcare sector

PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to integrate Greenbergs perspective on the connection between injustice and stress in order to clarify the role of organisational justice, burnout and organisational commitment in the understanding of absenteeism. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH The study was carried out among 457 workers of a large healthcare establishment in the Canadian public healthcare sector. The model was tested using structural equation methods. FINDINGS The results reveal that procedural and interactional justices have an indirect effect on exhaustion through distributive injustice. Moreover, it was found that distributive injustice is indirectly linked to short-term absences through exhaustion. By contrast, the relationship between distributive injustice and long-term absence can be explained by two mediating variables, namely, exhaustion and psychosomatic complaints. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS In spite of the non-longitudinal nature of this study, the results suggest that the stress model and the medical model best explain the relationship between organisational injustice and absenteeism, while the withdrawal model via organisational commitment is not associated in this study with absenteeism. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Healthcare managers should consider the possibility of better involving employees in the decision-making process in order to increase their perception of procedural and interactional justice, and indirectly reduce exhaustion and absenteeism through a greater perception of distributive justice. SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS For the healthcare sector, the need to reduce absenteeism is particularly urgent because of budget restrictions and the shortage of labour around the world. ORIGINALITY/VALUE This is one of the first studies to provide a complete model that analyses the stress process in terms of how organisational justice affects short- and long-term absences, in a bid to understand the specific process and factors that lead to shorter and longer episodes of absence.

Why Do International Assignments Fail

Much has been said, and written, about failed international assignments, but few studies, if any, have explored the causes of failure from the perspective of the expatriates. In this article, we draw on a qualitative study of 64 expatriate families who self-identified as having prematurely returned from an international assignment. Our findings confirm prior research showing that family concerns is one cause of assignment failure, but that other reasons, primarily insufficient organizational support, exist.

Opportunity Knocks: Perceptions of Fairness in Employee Benefits

This article considers potential conflicts between the principles of equity, equality and need in perceptions of fairness regarding employee benefits, based on self-interest bias, and makes specific predictions regarding perceptions of distributive justice in specific benefit plans. It includes predictions regarding perceptions of procedural justice. A survey of 497 employees in seven Canadian organizations tested the predictions. Findings indicate that need is still an important criterion for assessing distributive justice in employee benefits, although the survey also found evidence of self-interest bias. Perceptions of procedural justice were found to be significantly higher in plans with extensive communication and employee participation in plan design. Organizations that take a proactive approach to understanding how employees determine their perceptions of procedural and distributive justice in employee benefits, and design a benefit plan accordingly, can potentially increase employees’ perceptions of justice regarding employee benefits and reap associated benefits including improved employee retention, enhanced ability to hire and increased benefit satisfaction.

How long should a training program be? A field study of “rules‐of‐thumb”

Purpose – This study aims to examine the question of how long a behavioral skills training program should be in order to result in measurable behavioral change.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical field study was conducted to compare two different lengths of time for a managerial skills training program aimed at achieving behavioral change. The training time for the first training condition was based on “rules‐of‐thumb” found in the literature. The training time was increased in an “extended” training condition that covered the same material but permitted more time for lecture, role‐playing and discussion.Findings – Results showed that, relative to a control group, participants in the “extended” training condition exhibited behavioral change, but those in the “rules‐of‐thumb” training condition did not. Self‐efficacy increased significantly for trainees in both training conditions.Practical implications – More attention is required to the length of training programs as they are being designed, espec...

Consistency in employee discipline: an empirical exploration

Purpose – This study seeks to explore the incidence and severity of inconsistency in the application of disciplinary measures between supervisors, given the same disciplinary incident. Consistency is an important aspect of procedural fairness in disciplinary action, but it has received little empirical attention.Design/methodology/approach – Four employee discipline scenarios were assigned at random to 130 real‐life supervisor‐employee dyads, who role‐played the scenario.Findings – There was little consistency between supervisors in their decisions regarding disciplinary measures. Overall, having an informal discussion with the employee was the most common response. Only when specific instructions to impose a verbal or written warning were provided did most supervisors move beyond an informal discussion. Even when clear instructions were given, a substantial minority applied a less severe disciplinary outcome.Research limitations/implications – Even in this role‐play situation, where “real life” variables...

Due Process Model of Procedural Justice in Performance Appraisal: Promotion versus Termination Scenarios

In a laboratory study, 318 student participants (148 male, 169 female, and one who did not report sex; M age 25.0, SD = 6.0) in introductory organizational behavior classes responded to scenarios in which performance appraisal resulted in either employee promotion or termination. Each scenario had varying levels of three procedural justice criteria for performance appraisal. For both promotion and termination outcomes, analysis showed that, as the number of criteria increased, perceptions of procedural fairness increased. A comparison between the two outcomes showed that perceptions of fairness were significantly stronger for the promotion outcome than for termination.

Exploring justice judgment patterns in Asia: a four country multi-group latent class analysis

Abstract We explore workers’ justice judgment patterns to understand how they use information to assess fair treatment at work. Justice judgment patterns are the unique set of information that individuals draw upon and use when evaluating the overall fairness of an entity. Data from four samples of workers from Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and China were analyzed using a multi-group latent class analysis. Results suggest four classes of justice judgment processes, three of which represent different patterns of heuristic processing. Comprehensive processors use a wide range of information when making justice judgments, while minimalist processors consider a limited range of information. Reward-focused processors focus on distributive justice cues and treatment-focused processors specifically attend to interpersonal justice cues while neglecting distributive justice cues. The latent class structure shared conceptual meaning across countries but the patterns had different rates of representation. Findings suggest that individuals do not always use complete information when assessing how fairly they are treated at work. Many appear to use heuristics that emphasize minimizing information processing, instrumental outcomes, or more relational outcomes. Results and implications are discussed.