Paul T. Y. Preenen

Managing Voluntary Turnover Through Challenging Assignments

This study examines employees’ challenging assignments as manageable means to reduce turnover intentions, job search behaviors, and voluntary turnover. Results indicate that challenging assignments are negatively related to turnover intentions and job search behaviors and that these relationships are mediated by on-the-job learning. Moreover, results show that an increase in challenging assignments over time is negatively related to voluntary employee turnover, when controlling for employees’ initial turnover intentions and job search behaviors. A decrease in challenging assignments is positively related to voluntary turnover, when controlling for employees’ initial turnover intentions and job search behaviors. These results suggest that challenging assignments may be a valuable tool for managers and their organizations to lower voluntary employee turnover.

No effect of blue on winning contests in judo.

A study by Rowe et al. reported a winning bias for judo athletes wearing a blue outfit relative to those wearing a white one during the 2004 Olympics. It was suggested that blue is associated with a higher likelihood of winning through differential effects of colour on opponent visibility and/or an intimidating effect on the opponent. However, we argue that there is no colour effect on winning in judo. We show that alternative factors, namely allocation biases, asymmetries in prior experience and differences in recovery time are possible confounding factors in the analysis of Rowe et al. After controlling for these factors, we found no difference in blue and white wins. We further analysed contest outcomes of 71 other major judo tournaments and also found no winning bias. Our findings have implications for sports policy makers: they suggest that a white–blue outfit pairing ensures an equal level of play.

Career management: Taking control of the quality of work experiences

Due to flatter and rapidly changing organisations, employees rather than employers will be responsible for employees’ development and careers. This chapter focuses on career management through personal development. Extant literatures have primarily addressed the quantity of employees’ work experiences as being important for personal development, whereas the quality of these experiences has been neglected. We argue that the quality of work experiences will become crucial for people’s objective and subjective career success. The best way to increase the quality of work experiences is to engage in challenging assignments, since these types of assignment stimulate learning, development, and career flexibility. Whether employees encounter challenging experiences depends on personal initiatives as well as opportunities provided by employers. People’s specific motives, self-efficacy, proactivity and career anchors may stimulate or prohibit them to initiate challenging assignments. In a similar vein, the work context and particularly supervisor task assignments may offer opportunities for or restrain employees from having challenging experiences. Employees need the coaching of others to manage their careers.

Labour Productivity and Innovation Performance: The Importance of Internal Labour Flexibility Practices

This article develops and examines the idea that internal labour flexibility practices are beneficial for labour productivity and innovation performance of companies. This is tested in two studies using unique company level datasets. In Study 1, results obtained from 377 independent companies revealed that internal labour flexibility practices are positively related to objective labour productivity and its growth in the year following, also when controlled for objective labour productivity and objective external labour flexibility from the year before. In Study 2, results obtained from 4271 companies indicated that internal labour flexibility practices were positively related to product innovation and labour productivity. Findings suggest that internal labour flexibility practices benefit both labour productivity and innovation performance of companies. If innovation and labour productivity are considered key to long-term survival, firms and policymakers should consider internal labour flexibility practices.

Informal learning of temporary agency workers in low-skill jobs : the role of self-profiling, career control and job challenge

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to develop and investigate the idea that self-profiling and career control by temporary agency workers (TAWs) in low-skill jobs are positively related to informal learning and that this relationship is mediated by job challenge. Design/methodology/approach. An online survey study was conducted among 722 TAWs in low-skill jobs in the Netherlands. Bootstrap mediation analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings. Self-profiling and career control are positively related to informal learning of TAWs and these relationships are mediated by job challenge. Research lmitations/implications. This is the first study to develop and empirically test the proposition that self-profiling and career control are important factors for enhancing employees’ learning experiences in low-skill jobs. Practical implications. Hiring companies and temporary work agencies could stimulate and train TAWs’ self-profiling and career control competencies to enhance their job challenge and informal learning. Organizations should consider assigning challenging tasks to TAWs, which may be a good alternative for expensive formal training programs. Social implications.Many TAWs in low-skill jobs do not possess the skills and capacities to obtain a better or more secure job. In general, temporary workers face a higher risk of unemployment and greater income volatility (Segal and Sullivan, 1997). Gaining knowledge about how to develop this group is important for society as a whole. Originality/value. Research on the determinants of informal learning mainly concerned higher-educated employees and managers with long-term contracts (e.g. Dong et al., 2014), whereas very little is known about factors that stimulate informal learning among TAWs in general, and among TAWs in low-skill jobs in particular.

Does Blue Uniform Color Enhance Winning Probability in Judo Contests

The color of an athletes uniform may have an effect on psychological functioning and consequently bias the chances of winning contests in sport competition. Several studies reported a winning bias for judo athletes wearing a blue outfit relative to those wearing a white outfit. However, we argue there is no winning bias and that previous studies were confounded and based on small and specific data sets. We tested whether blue biases winning in judo using a very extensive judo data set (45,874 contests from all international judo tournaments between 2008 and 2014). In judo, the first called athlete for the fight used to wear the blue judogi but this was changed to the white judogi in 2011. This switch enabled us to compare the win bias before and after this change to isolate the effect of the color of the judogi. We found a significant win bias for the first called athlete, but this effect was not significantly related to the color of the judogi. The lack of a significant win effect of judogi color suggests that blue does not bias winning in judo, and that the blue-white pairing ensures an equal level of play. Our study shows the importance of thoroughly considering alternative explanations and using extensive datasets in color research in sports and psychology.

The influence of task challenge on skill utilization, affective wellbeing and intrapreneurial behaviour

This study examines and theorizes the effects of task challenge on skill utilization, affective wellbeing and intrapreneurial behaviour among civil servants through a real-life challenging assignment, which was part of a unique Dutch and Flemish bottom-up organized event called ‘Train Your Colleague’. Results of a short-term longitudinal study indicate that, as expected, task challenge is positively related to skill utilization and intrapreneurial behaviour but, unexpectedly, not to affective wellbeing. These results suggest that challenging assignments may be important tools to enhance employees’ skill utilization and intrapreneurial behaviour at the workplace. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.