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The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential differences in experienced and inexperienced workers’ interpretations of recruitment ads.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate potential differences in experienced and inexperienced workers’ interpretations of recruitment ads.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a between subjects design to compare responses to recruitment advertisements. The advertisements varied in terms of compensation information.
Findings
Work experience did not alter perceptions of organizational culture but it did affect levels of organizational attraction. The implication is that all workers interpret recruitment advertisements in a similar manner but more experienced workers prefer different work environments than less experienced workers.
Research limitations/implications
The results generally support the use of student populations or inexperienced workers in recruitment research. The study was limited to perceptions of pay statements. Other forms of recruitment information needs to be investigated.
Practical implications
Companies seeking to recruit experienced workers need to be attentive to how those workers will view the company’s culture based on information in their recruitment advertisements.
Originality/value
This study is one of a very limited number of organizational attraction studies comparing experienced and inexperienced workers. It is important because it helps clarify the underlying mechanisms impacting organizational attraction based on work experience.
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Colin Milligan, Anoush Margaryan and Allison Littlejohn
This study aims to improve the understanding of the learning and development that occurs during initial and subsequent role transitions within knowledge intensive workplaces.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to improve the understanding of the learning and development that occurs during initial and subsequent role transitions within knowledge intensive workplaces.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 19 knowledge workers in a multinational company and the learning experiences of new graduates contrasted with those of more experienced workers who had recently joined or changed role within the organization.
Findings
Graduate recruits and more experienced workers utilise a similar range of learning approaches, favouring a combination of traditional formal learning, learning by doing and learning with and from others, but differ in the precise modes and strategies used. It was found that graduate induction provides appropriate support for initial transition into the workplace, but that experienced workers undergoing subsequent career transitions do not receive similar socialization support despite encountering similar challenges.
Research limitations/implications
This study brings concepts and literature from two distinct research traditions together to explore learning during transition. In doing so, the impact of organizational socialization strategies as a mechanism by which an environment to support rich learning is created can be seen. The study was exploratory in nature, examining only one organization and studying a relatively small group of workers.
Originality/value
While employee induction has been studied in detail, the learning occurring at this time, and particularly during subsequent career transitions, is less well understood. This article is of value to those investigating learning in knowledge intensive workplaces, as well as human resource managers responsible for socialization of employees entering new roles.
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Worker perceptions of their emotional response to a supervisor, during an incident identified as of critical significance, are described and analyzed in this study. We invited 14…
Abstract
Worker perceptions of their emotional response to a supervisor, during an incident identified as of critical significance, are described and analyzed in this study. We invited 14 participants, aged from 39 to 56 years to share their stories with us in semi-structured interviews. The organizations represented by the workers’ stories included private business government and educational institutions. A grounded-theory approach was adopted to allow key themes to emerge (Locke, 1996). We encouraged participants to allow “buried perspectives” (Hochschild, 1983) to surface: as they interpreted the relational effects of “what happened” in retrospective sense making. As they explored their perceptions of these interactions, participants revealed the complex and disturbing array of emotions and frustrations that lay beneath the veneer of rationality and control they chose to present during the incident. Felt emotions, whether expressed, repressed or edited, were overwhelmingly negative; and awareness of power issues emerged as a key driver in the “feeling rules” (Hochschild, 1983) workers perceived as needing to be observed. Worker tension was seen to be exacerbated by adherence to these rules because “the rules” conflicted with their own personal values and beliefs. Emotional dissonance resulted from this. The role of the organizational community within which workers coped with their experience, and subsequent emotional response, was also explored.
The sawmill shootings in British Columbia, Canada, resulted in fatalities and grievous injuries to workers, which have put a sensational face on workplace violence in the forestry…
Abstract
The sawmill shootings in British Columbia, Canada, resulted in fatalities and grievous injuries to workers, which have put a sensational face on workplace violence in the forestry sector. Yet, for all of the attention devoted after this horrific incident, to the growth and possible consequences of workplace violence, little empirical investigation has been done regarding the extent to which this type of violence may have permeated the sawmill forestry workplace in Canada; employees' experiences of workplace violence; employees' definition of workplace violence; the specific type of violence that occurs in sawmills; and the drivers of workplace violence as experienced and perceived by managers, union, and employees in the forestry sector context in British Columbia, Canada.
This research critically explores these questions to better understand employees' experiences of workplace violence, the problems of violence and its implications for workplace stress, well-being, leadership, and corporate governance. This research contributes to the workplace violence body of knowledge as it relates to employment in the forestry sector in British Columbia, Canada.
A mixed methodological approach was adopted using 367 questionnaire survey, 20 telephone interviews, and 2 focus groups lasting 45–60 minutes (managers and employees) were used to focus on managers, union, and employees' accounts of their own experiences and perceptions of workplace violence.
The analysis of the data in this study lends support to the conclusion that workplace violence waged against workers in the forestry sector is significantly different than the violence being perpetrated in other sectors and work settings. The findings further suggest that forestry workers work environment, communities, and activity contributes meaningfully to the differences in workplace violence experienced by Sawmill employees.
Insights obtained from this research can be used to develop educational tools and resources, and new policies to foster workplace practices conducive to reducing drivers to workplace violence, towards a more respectful workplace and overall employee well-being.
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Marjolein Lips-Wiersma, Sarah Wright and Bryan Dik
The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and white-collar occupations.
Design/methodology/approachs
Using the comprehensive meaningful work scale (Lips-Wiersma and Wright, 2012) with 1,683 workers across two studies, ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in dimensions of MFW.
Findings
While unity with others and developing the inner self were regarded as equally important for white-, blue-, and pink-collar workers, the authors data suggest that white-collar workers placed more importance on expressing full potential and serving others than blue-collar workers. The frequency of experiencing MFW differed across the three groups with white-collar workers experiencing higher levels of unity with others, expressing full potential, and serving others; however no mean differences were found for developing the inner self.
Originality/value
This study is the first to empirically investigate an oft-discussed but previously untested question: does the experience of MFW differ across white-, blue-, and pink-collar jobs?
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The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total…
Abstract
The subject of part‐time work is one which has become increasingly important in industrialised economies where it accounts for a substantial and growing proportion of total employment. It is estimated that in 1970, average annual hours worked per employee amounted to only 60% of those for 1870. Two major factors are attributed to explaining the underlying trend towards a reduction in working time: (a) the increase in the number of voluntary part‐time employees and (b) the decrease in average annual number of days worked per employee (Kok and de Neubourg, 1986). The authors noted that the growth rate of part‐time employment in many countries was greater than the corresponding rate of growth in full‐time employment.
Claire Lewis, Biza Stenfert-Kroese and Alex O'Brien
While an increasing number of adults with an intellectual disability are having children, research suggests that they face an increased risk of having their children removed. The…
Abstract
Purpose
While an increasing number of adults with an intellectual disability are having children, research suggests that they face an increased risk of having their children removed. The purpose of this paper is to explore child and family social workers’ experiences of working with parents with intellectual disability, in order to further our understanding of this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Seven social workers were interviewed. Each had experience of working on safeguarding cases where a parent had a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Data were analyzed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.
Findings
Five super-ordinate themes were identified. These were: “feeling torn,” “experiencing a power imbalance,” “hopelessness,” having “pride” in their work’ and experiencing “barriers.”
Research limitations/implications
The results are discussed in the context of the increased risk that parents with an intellectual disability face of having their children removed. Several areas for future research are identified.
Practical implications
The study highlights several areas for development regarding services for parents with intellectual disability.
Originality/value
The study describes some of the difficulties experienced by social workers in this area of their work, from their own perspective. It also strengthens existing ideas about improving services for parents with intellectual disability.
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Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees constitute one of the largest, but least studied, minority groups in the workforce. This article examines what we know, and what we need…
Abstract
Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees constitute one of the largest, but least studied, minority groups in the workforce. This article examines what we know, and what we need to know, about the career and workplace experiences of this understudied population. The construct of sexual identity is defined, followed by a review of the research on sexual orientation in the workplace. Then an analysis of the differences between LGB employees and other stigmatized groups is presented. Three unique challenges facing LGB employees are identified, and conceptual models are developed that explain underlying processes. Finally, career theories are critically analyzed, and an identity-based longitudinal theory of LGB careers is presented.
Alison Starratt and Gina Grandy
The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers. Abusive leadership is understood to be subjective and as such this research…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers. Abusive leadership is understood to be subjective and as such this research seeks to explore the experience of abusive leadership through a qualitative approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on interviews with 30 young workers who identified themselves as having a “bad” boss, this study employs a constructivist grounded theory approach in order to identify behaviours, moderators and outcomes of abusive leadership.
Findings
A definition and model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers is proposed. The model details 11 behaviours, five moderators and six individual and two organizational outcomes of abusive leadership.
Originality/value
The adoption of a constructivist grounded theory approach reveals several unique factors that moderate the relationship between behaviors and outcomes of abusive leadership in young workers. By grounding the model in the actual experiences of young workers, the paper offers possibilities for future research on abusive leadership and young workers and across demographic groups.
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