Sylvie Guerrero

High-involvement practices and performance of French firms

This article deals with the relationship between human resource practices (HRPs) and firm performances in France. It focuses on four specific HRPs that are able to involve employees: empowerment, compensation, communication and training. Each HRP taken in isolation is supposed to be positively related to performances because it is a source of motivation and commitment for employees. But there also exists a synergy between these practices: when they are combined into a bundle and are implemented all together, they should lead to better firm performances. A survey carried out among 180 human resource managers of large French companies leads to validation of most of our hypotheses. Contrary to previous research, we do not find a significant link between compensation and firm performance. The other HRPs are all indirectly related to financial performances, with social performance playing a mediating role. When they are combined into a bundle, HRPs have a stronger impact on performance than when they are studied individually. The article concludes with the importance of developing a strategic human resource policy and of implementing coherent and complementary high-involvement practices to increase firm performance.

Motivation to train from the workers' perspective: example of French companies

The success of a training programme is largely contingent on the beneficiarys training motivation. With a focus on instrumentality and self-efficacy, we have sought to explain motivation and to measure its effects on variation of knowledge acquisition and satisfaction with training. An empirical study of 335 workers sheds light on the importance of age, the role of the hierarchical supervisor and the manner in which training is portrayed. Voluntary participation, expressed by participation in decision making or consideration of requests, plays only a minor role in explaining the success of a programme.

Manager organizational commitment: a question of support or image?

This paper draws from two separate but complementary theories, namely social exchange theory and social identity theory, as a means of understanding the organizational antecedents of organizational commitment. Its purpose is to study the connections between the characteristics of work in the organization (a source of perceived organizational support), the characteristics of the organization (reflected in perceived external prestige), organizational commitment and turnover intentions. We test our assumption using a sample of 249 managers and a longitudinal design. The results show that perceived organizational support and perceived prestige are differently influenced by the characteristics of and in the organization. This suggests that the characteristics of the firm, reflected in the notion of perceived external prestige, play a complementary role to the characteristics of work in the organization, reflected in perceived organizational support, in shaping organizational commitment and turnover intentions.

The affective underpinnings of psychological contract fulfilment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study of the link between psychological contract fulfilment and affective states at work. The paper argues that perceived organizational support is the key attitudinal intervening variable that arises from the cognitive assessment of the exchange relationship between employer and employee and is in turn related to the generation of affective states at work.Design/methodology/approach – The paper tests this assumption using a manager sample of 249 participants and a longitudinal design.Findings – Perceived organizational support mediates the relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and workplace affect.Research limitations/implications – Affect was not measured in real time, but through self‐reports. Future research could study how and under what conditions psychological contract fulfilment generates perceived organizational support.Originality/value – One of the few studies that have sought to research the affective dimension of ...

Board Chair Authentic Leadership and Nonexecutives’ Motivation and Commitment

Using data from a sample of 606 nonexecutives sitting on boards of a Canadian credit union, this study tests the relationship between chairs’ authentic leadership on boards and nonexecutives’ motivation and commitment. Hypothesis validation indicates that chairs with an authentic leadership style favor motivation and commitment through the emergence of a participative safety climate based on transparency and idea sharing. This relationship is stronger when executives perceive a high-quality relationship between the chair and the CEO. By integrating the literature on leadership with that on corporate boards, our study offers a deeper understanding of how, and under which circumstances, chairs contribute to nonexecutives’ motivation and commitment on the board.

Impact of social innovations on French companies’ performance: A study of high‐involvement practices

Исследуется взаимосвязь между стилем и методами управления персоналом в компании и отношением к работе ее служащих. Предложены методы глубокого вовлечения работников в интересы компании, которые повышают обязательность служащих по отношению к своей работе. Рекомендации основаны на анализе опроса 180 французских менеджеров. Авторы приходят к выводу, что внедрение в практику управления персоналом новых методов в конечном счете повышает общую результативность организации в целом.

Pro‐diversity practices and perceived insider status

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to study the effects of pro‐diversity practices on perceived insider status, and explore the moderating role of leader‐member exchange in this relationship. The main and interactive effects on PIS are studied for cultural minority and majority groups.Design/methodology/approach – Research hypotheses are tested with a questionnaire administered to 210 employees working in three Canadian organizations engaged in diversity management.Findings – Results indicate that the main and interactive effects of organizational fairness and leader‐member exchange on perceived insider status are significant. The interactive effect on perceived insider status is higher for cultural minorities than for other employees.Research limitations/implications – This study shows the importance of perceived insider status in the field of diversity, identifies organizational fairness and leader‐member exchange as two significant organizational antecedents to perceived insider status, and describes t...

Development idiosyncratic deals and career success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to rely on the sponsored-mobility perspective of career success (Turner, 1960) to explore the antecedents and consequences of development idiosyncratic deals (i-deals). The authors position career planning as an antecedent of development i-deals, and subjective and objective measures of career success as an outcome. Design/methodology/approach – The authors led a two-wave study among a sample of 325 engineers to test the research hypotheses. Findings – Results support the hypotheses. Development i-deals are positively related to three objective measures of career success (e.g. promotions, hierarchical level, and salary) and one subjective measure of career success (e.g. career satisfaction). Practical implications – The results offer new perspectives to practitioners who want to better manage the careers of their talented employees by highlighting the positive effects of development i-deals on career success. Originality/value – This paper relates i-deals to the fiel...

Ex ante i-deals, perceived external prestige and turnover intentions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize ex ante idiosyncratic deals (or i-deals) as a way to foster individual perceptions of a positive employer image by offering customized additional instrumental benefits. Design/methodology/approach A survey is led among 182 engineers in demand on a local labor market to test whether ex ante i-deals combine to a more global and external perception of a good employer, measured by perceived external prestige (PEP), to explain turnover intentions. Findings The results validate all research hypotheses, and show that the moderating effect of ex ante i-deals in the PEP-turnover intention relationship is significant during the first years spent in the company. Originality/value This research contributes to the literature on employees’ attraction and retention by building bridges between the literatures on employer image and i-deals.

The relation between financial incentives, motivation, and performance: An integrative SDT-based investigation

To this day, researchers are debating the adequacy of using financial incentives to bolster performance in work settings. Our goal was to contribute to current understanding by considering the moderating role of distributive justice in the relation between financial incentives, motivation, and performance. Based on self-determination theory, we hypothesized that when bonuses are fairly distributed, using financial incentives makes employees feel more competent and autonomous, which in turn fosters greater autonomous motivation and lower controlled motivation, and better work performance. Results from path analyses in three samples supported our hypotheses, suggesting that the effect of financial incentives is contextual, and that compensation plans using financial incentives and bonuses can be effective when properly managed.