Search results

To advance the theoretical understanding of employees' advocacy on social media, this study aims to propose and test an integrative model that incorporates individual and organizational antecedents. Drawing from the relationship management theory in public relations and online behavior literature, the model specifically examines the collective impacts of the social media-related behavioral motivations of individuals and the quality of employee–organization relationship (EOR) on their positive information-sharing intentions about their company on personal social media.

An online survey was conducted with 419 full-time employees in the USA who use social media.

The results of an online survey with full-time employees in the USA showed that the EOR influenced by symmetrical internal communication significantly increases employees' advocacy intentions and social media-related motivations. Considerable and distinct effects of individuals' positive behavioral motivations on social media (i.e. self-enhancement, altruism, enjoyment) on advocacy intentions are also found.

This study is among the first attempts to test the value of strategic internal communication and relationship management approach in enhancing employee advocacy on the digital environment, social media and their motives of using such channel for benefiting their company.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior by examining the mediating role of employee advocacy, and the moderating role of proactive personality.

The model was tested by using data that were collected from 402 supervisors, and 87 subordinates who were working in 6 firms belonging to the stone and Glass sector, in the Tenth Ramadan city, Egypt. The employees and their immediate supervisors provided data on separated questionnaires, and different occasions. Then, an identification number was used by the author to match each employee questionnaire with the response of his/ her immediate supervisor.

The results revealed that employee advocacy fully mediated the positive relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior. Also, it also found that proactive personality moderated the relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior, such that the relationship was stronger for people lower rather than higher in proactive personality.

This empirical paper provides preliminary evidence of the mediating effect of employee advocacy in the positive relationship between supportive leadership and employee voice behavior. The model extends the existing results by adding substantive moderate proactive personality to explain how the effect of supportive leadership on employee voice behavior.

Lawler (2001) posits that social exchanges create a sense of shared responsibility for outcome success. The purpose of this study is to apply this framework to the vendor/frontline employee/customer triad to examine the underlying role of emotions in how frontline employees’ evaluations of vendors and customers trigger and temper brand advocacy efforts, respectively.

With cross-sectional data from 168 frontline employees working at a leading national retailer of electronic goods, path analysis is used to evaluate the hypotheses.

Frontline employees’ relationship quality with the vendor and perceptions of vendors’ product quality positively influence brand advocacy. Also, customers’ brand affinity and recommendation preference both demonstrate a significant, negative curvilinear relationship with brand advocacy.

Frontline employees’ emotion-laden evaluations of vendors and customer influence brand advocacy in different ways. Vendor relationship quality and brand quality perceptions “trigger” brand advocacy. However, customer’s affinity toward a vendor’s brand and willingness to seek recommendations “temper” brand advocacy. Specifically, brand advocacy effort is low when customers possess very low and very high affinity toward a focal brand – moderate affinity spurs high advocacy; likewise, advocacy is low when customers demonstrate very low and very high interest in seeking the frontline employees’ opinion – moderate interest spurs high advocacy. Although ideal to examine vendor and customer emotional exchanges, using only frontline employee data from a technology-selling retailer may constrain generalizability.

Frontline employee training programs should emphasize the customer’s role in the transaction to increase perceptions of shared responsibility, as a means to create a favorable emotional experience, and accentuate timing strategies on when to pursue heightened or diminished emotionally charged brand advocacy efforts.

This study contributes to the frontline employee behavior literature by viewing shared responsibility in transactions as a source of emotional value, explaining variance in frontline employee brand advocacy through relationship and product quality dimensions, and uncovering curvilinear effects for customers’ brand affinity and recommendation preference in elucidating brand advocacy.

The importance of employees’ job embeddedness perception in the airline companies has not been given the required attention. To recognise the role of frontline employees’ perception regarding job embeddedness, the present research aims to develop and investigate a model that examines the determinants and consequences of employees’ job embeddedness in airline industry. The current study also aims to enrich the literature on human resources in the fields of transportation service management as the lifeblood of tourism industry as a related service industry by providing a comprehensive framework and measurement scale regarding the social exchange theory.

The study used a survey among a sample representative of frontline employees operating in Egyptian airline industry across Egypt. In total, 870 questionnaires were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling using WarpPLS 6.0.

The results indicate that both supervisors’ support and employees’ advocacy have a significant effect on job embeddedness. In addition, it found out that job embeddedness has a significant effect on organisational commitment and employees’ intention to leave.

This paper is conceptual in nature regarding the social exchange theory in service related industries such as airlines and tourism.

The authors intend to use these considerations as a basis for future research implications for tourism small- and medium-sized enterprises in the Middle-Eastern and North-African region.

This paper contributes to the literature on social exchange theory by measuring factors affecting employees’ job embeddedness in the Egyptian airline industry, notably its related human resources as a service industry.

This study developed and empirically tested a comprehensive model of job embeddedness with its drivers and evaluated its impact on both organisational commitment and intention to leave. Such findings hold important implications for tourism small- and medium-sized enterprises in the Middle-Eastern and North-African region.

The chapter develops a typology of eight different expected employee communication roles based on literature in public relations (PR), corporate communication and related fields. As PR professionals are increasingly taking on a coaching and training role, and communication technology has made employees more visible and approachable, employees more and more take on active roles in the communication with external publics. While PR professionals’ roles are conceptualized fairly well, no framework exists that describes the many communication roles that employees play in contemporary organizations. In the chapter, it is found that employees externally (1) embody, (2) promote, and (3) defend the organization. In addition, employees use communication to (4) scout for information and insights about environmental changes, and (5) build and maintain relationships with stakeholders. Internally, employees use communication to (6) make sense of information, (7) initiate and stimulate innovation, and (8) criticize organizational behaviour and decisions. The typology highlights that employees increasingly fulfil the tactic communication roles as producers and executers of corporate communication as social media have made them more visible and approachable. The communication roles require considerable tactical skills and resources on the part of employees, which they may not always possess sufficiently. PR professionals can play a coaching role in terms of helping employees frame content and communicate in a manner appropriate for the organization, the context and the media. The chapter can help PR professionals and scholars understand the changed role of PR professionals, as well as the changed relationships between organizations and their environment, in the context of dissolving organizational boundaries.

The concept of employer branding has drawn the attention of both academicians and practitioners over a decade. However, inaction, the objective of the employer brand managers were hardly tapped. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the views of HR manager on employer branding activities and its implementation.

This study is a case research of three multinational companies in India. A semi-structured interview method has been adopted to collect the data and a content analysis technique was used for analyzing the data into identified themes.

The HR managers of the studied company were discussed with multiple activities related to employer branding practice and implementation in their workplace. The key observations and discussions from the interviews were themed after the analysis as meaningfulness and visibility, employer brand awareness and differentiator and human resource development (HRD) parameters.

The combined effect of branding theories and HRD practices will establish the most attractive and successful employer brand building process in place. Involving the potential and existing employees in the psychological contract formation; consistency among the internal and external communication systems; and top management approach with the brand highlighted the need for research and theory development in employment branding.

Communication breakdown, strategic mismatch, long-term disconnects and sustained success are the strategic concerns that every company who believe in the idea of employer branding may face and need to well-handled.

The study concluded with the belief of the human resources managers from all the three organizations as stated – adopting a community based strategic approach to the organization’s brand and clear about what the employer brand stand across the employment lifecycle drives businesses into success.

This study aims to examine the effects of transformational leadership on employees' internal (i.e. voice) and external (i.e. megaphoning) communication behaviors and to explore the mediating role of employees' communal and exchange relationship norms with their organization.

An online survey was conducted with full-time employees working in various industry sectors in the USA.

Transformational leadership significantly increased employees' voice behaviors and their positive and negative megaphoning behaviors. Communal relationship norms exerted a significant mediation effect on employees' communicative behaviors and exchange relationship norms had positive impacts on employees' megaphoning behaviors.

This study is among the first attempts to test the effect of transformational leadership style on employees' communicative actions within and outside of a company and the mediating role of exchange-communal relationship norms.

This paper seeks to understand the views of employees in a UK company on an employee vounteering (ESV) scheme. It further seeks to advance theory in this area by integrating organisational identity (OI) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The paper moves forward the scholarly work on ESV by interviewing employees who do and do not volunteer within ESV schemes.

A purpose sample of 31 (n = 31) interviewees was drawn from all levels of the studied organisation. The method follows a qualitative approach using NVIVO as the analysis tool. The interview was triangulated using a focus group.

Employees have a range of emotions and responses to a company operating an ESV scheme. The study is particularly interesting in that it studies employees of a gambling organisation that bring in further rich employee views on the scheme. Much of the sparse literature on ESV does not pick up on UK‐based organisations and this study is therefore revealing.

Managers of corporate responsibility (CR) in organisations should be concerned with how they implement their CR programmes – especially with respect to how they establish and communicate ESV programmes. Academics will find value in viewing ESV through a conjunction of OCB and OI theories. The research could be replicated in other large UK organisations with similiar ESV programmes to test whether the experiences of employees are widespread in other organisations.

The paper tacitly questions the impact of ESV programmes on the employee stakeholder group and suggests that, unless ESV programmes are well run and well communicated – and given a good budget, employees may in fact view the programme negatively. It demonstrates that CR is not simply a “nice to have” that can be simply bolted on.

Organisations, especially those in the third sector that work with corporates, need to understand the role of ESV schemes in their partner companies and consider the views of employees and the strategic logic of the companies before embarking on working together.

This is an original piece of work in a relatively under‐researched area. This is the first study to consider volunteers and non‐volunteers in an ESV scheme in a UK‐based company – the added dimension of interest and value is that the studied organisation was a gambling business.