Roderick D. Iverson

High-performance work systems and occupational safety

Two studies were conducted investigating the relationship between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and occupational safety. In Study 1, data were obtained from company human resource and safety directors across 138 organizations. LISREL VIII results showed that an HPWS was positively related to occupational safety at the organizational level. Study 2 used data from 189 front-line employees in 2 organizations. Trust in management and perceived safety climate were found to mediate the relationship between an HPWS and safety performance measured in terms of personal-safety orientation (i.e., safety knowledge, safety motivation, safety compliance, and safety initiative) and safety incidents (i.e., injuries requiring first aid and near misses). These 2 studies provide confirmation of the important role organizational factors play in ensuring worker safety.

WORK RELATIONSHIPS IN TELEPHONE CALL CENTRES: UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AND EMPLOYEE WITHDRAWAL

This paper examines the nature of employment and the conditions of work in five telephone call centres in the telecommunications industry in Australia. Call centre work typically requires high levels of sustained interpersonal interaction with customers which can lead to burnout and employee withdrawal. Customer service staff can also become targets of customer hostility and abuse. In addition, this form of work tends to involve extensive employee monitoring and surveillance with little job discretion or variety of tasks. The paper draws upon survey data from 480 telephone service operators to identify the factors that are associated with emotional exhaustion and the frequency of absence amongst the employees. A modelling of the data using LISREL VIII revealed that a number of job and work-setting variables affected the level of emotional exhaustion of employees. These included interactions with the customer, a high workload and a lack of variety of work tasks. Moreover, higher rates of absence were associated with emotional exhaustion.

Affective, Normative and Continuance Commitment: Can the ‘Right Kind’ of Commitment be Managed?

This study examines the multi-dimensionality of organizational commitment: affective, normative and continuance (including the sub-components of low perceived alternatives and high personal sacrifice), and how these are differentially related to a set of antecedents and consequences (i.e. turnover intentions, absenteeism and acceptance of change). The results, based on a sample of 505 Australian male fire-fighters, indicate that organizational commitment is best represented by the four-factors of affective, normative, low perceived alternatives and high personal sacrifice. In addition, employees experience different personal, job-related and environmental causes of commitment depending on whether they feel they want to, ought to, or need to remain with the organization. Further, not all facets of commitment enhanced organizational effectiveness, with affective being the most beneficial (i.e. employees are less likely to leave, be absent and are more accepting of change) and low perceived alternatives being the most detrimental (i.e. less accepting of change). The implications of these findings for the management of desirable forms of commitment are discussed.

Employee acceptance of organizational change:the role of organizational commitment

This study tests a causal model that predicts the acceptance of organizational change using a sample of 761 employees from a large public hospital in the state of Victoria, Australia. The LISREL results indicate that employee acceptance of organizational change is increased by organizational commitment, a harmonious industrial relations (IR) climate, education, job motivation, job satisfaction, job security and positive affectivity, and is decreased by union membership, role conflict, tenure and environmental opportunity. Organizational commitment was found to act as both a determinant and mediator in the change process. Implications for the management of organizational change using human resource (HR) strategies and policies are discussed.

A Causal Model of Behavioral Commitment: Evidence From a Study of Australian Blue-collar Employees

This study examines the behavioral commitment (intent to stay) of a sample of blue-collar employees from a manufacturing firm in Australia. The purpose was to test an integrated causal model of behavioral commitment based on four general classes of variables: structural, pre-entry, environmental, and employee orientations. The LISREL results indicate that variables rank ordered in terms of importance for their total causal effects on the decision process of employees to stay or leave an organization is as follows: job search, job satisfaction, job security, attitudinal commitment, union participation, environmental opportunity, physical conditions, job hazards, met expectations, equity, family responsibility, centraliza tion, supervisory support, and work group cohesion.

High-Quality Work, Job Satisfaction, and Occupational Injuries

The authors investigated whether and how 1 element of a high-performance work system, namely high-quality jobs (composed of extensive training, variety, and autonomy), affects occupational injuries. On the basis of data from the Australian WIRS95 database (N = 16,466; Department of Workplace Relations and Small Business, 1997), high-quality jobs exerted a direct effect on injuries and an indirect effect through the mediating influence of job satisfaction. Conceptual, methodological, and practical issues are discussed.

The Relationship between Job and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from a Remote Mining Community

Although the relationship between job and life satisfaction has attracted much attention, little research has been undertaken in geographically remote settings. The present study addresses this deficiency by testing a causal model that incorporates job-related, personal, environmental, and community-related variables. The LISREL results, based on a sample of 286 male employees from an open-cut coal mine in remote central Queensland, Australia, indicate that the community variables of family isolation and kinship support have the largest total (direct and indirect) effects on life satisfaction. Job satisfaction is found to be the next most important factor, and mediates the impact of routinization, industrial relations (IR) climate, promotional opportunity, work overload, family isolation, kinship support, positive affectivity, community participation, and negative affectivity on life satisfaction. In addition, job satisfaction is observed to have a stronger effect on life satisfaction than vice versa. The implications of these findings for organizations operating in remote regions are discussed.

Toward a better understanding of psychological contract breach: a study of customer service employees.

Experiences of psychological contract breach have been associated with a range of negative behavior. However, much of the research has focused on master of business administration alumni and managers and made use of self-reported outcomes. Studying a sample of customer service employees, the research found that psychological contract breach was related to lower organizational trust, which, in turn was associated with perceptions of less cooperative employment relations and higher levels of absenteeism. Furthermore, perceptions of external market pressures moderated the effect of psychological contract breach on absenteeism. The study indicated that psychological contract breach can arise when employees perceive discrepancies between an organizations espoused behavioral standards and its actual behavioral standards, and this can affect discretionary absence.

Employee Attachment and Noncoercive Conditions of Work The Case of Dental Hygienists

Recent sociological arguments have claimed that employee attachment in corporatist organizations is produced, not with direct coercive measures, but indirectly by employers controlling various structural conditions of work. It is argued that this also occurs in smaller organizations that do not exhibit internal labor markets nor other corporatist organization characteristics. Specifically, in smaller organizations that are structured more traditionally with the employer deciding work schedules, pay, distribution of profits, and so on, the features of employee social integration, autonomy/participation, and legitimacy of the authority structure are just as important as they are in the larger corporatist firms. This claim is generally supported with data on the job satisfaction, the organizational commitment, the intent to stay, and the turnover of dental hygienists working in dental offices that are controlled by the employer, the dentist. Work group integration and legitimacy-producting features were found to be especially important. In addition, job satisfaction, not organizational commitment (loyalty), was the crucial intervening variable in the causal process. These data indicate that certain basic conditions of work, such as social integration and legitimacy of the authority structure, are essential for employee attachment to form. The actual work structures that produce these conditions, however, can vary considerably.

The Effects of Group Racial Composition on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Career Commitment The Case of Teachers

We examine the effect of the school racial composition of teachers and the school racial composition of students on the job satisfaction, school commitment, and career commitment of teachers in 405 schools in a large urban school system. We rely on arguments from relational demography theory, racial prejudice literature, and status characteristics theory, which identify variables that mediate this observed relationship between racial composition and satisfaction and commitment. Consistent with the nonsymmetry argument, racial composition effects are found for White but not Black teachers. The most support is found for the relational demography and racial prejudice claims that White teachers “mismatched” to contexts where their race is not dominant experience greater role conflict, less autonomy, inadequate resources, and reduced coworker support. These work conditions then reduce their job satisfaction and school commitment. Commitment to ones teaching career is not affected by school racial composition, however.