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1 – 10 of 69The purpose of this study is to empirically examine how the seven human resource management (HRM) practises, namely, leadership development, professional investment, egalitarian…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to empirically examine how the seven human resource management (HRM) practises, namely, leadership development, professional investment, egalitarian practises, developmental appraisals, family-friendly practises, engagement practises and generous benefits, are associated with perceived organisational support (POS) and destructive deviance in the context of Indian organisational culture.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 265 middle-level IT personnel provided the study's data. To test the suggested study hypotheses, confirmatory factor analysis and PROCESS Macros were used.
Findings
Results show that putting in place leadership development, professional investment, egalitarian practises, developmental appraisal, family-friendly practises, engagement practises and generous benefits generates POS that, in turn, significantly contributes to reducing destructive deviance. Additionally, POS was found to partially mediate the relationship between perceived HRM practises and destructive deviance.
Research limitations/implications
The results would help firms reduce detrimental employee deviation. To do this, managers must develop and put into effect the seven HRM practises, which demonstrate to workers that the organisation appreciates their contributions and cares about their well-being, thereby lowering disruptive deviance. In essence, IT businesses should carefully plan and implement the HRM practises they expressly want to use rather than mindlessly copying those of rival organisations. Furthermore, to adapt to the workforce's evolving needs, these HRM practises must be properly matched with both individual and organisational goals.
Originality/value
By including destructive deviance as a result of POS, this study adds to the body of research on organisational support theory. The literature on POS and negative behaviours will take a new turn with such a focus on destructive deviance. Additionally, this study encourages academics to investigate an underlying mechanism that accounts for how HRM practises affect employees' conduct. This study also adds to the sparse body of knowledge on POS for non-Western workers. The study's findings confirm that POS is a crucial concept for both Asian and Western workers.
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Sumaiya Syed, Salman Bashir Memon and Abdul Qadir Shah
The qualitative study was conducted to examine work-family (W-F) balance practices in the collectivist culture of Pakistan. Keeping in view the context of Pakistan, three W-F…
Abstract
Purpose
The qualitative study was conducted to examine work-family (W-F) balance practices in the collectivist culture of Pakistan. Keeping in view the context of Pakistan, three W-F practices, flexibility, childcare arrangement and social support, were studied by applying the theory of W-F balance.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 16 In-depth interviews from the bank operating in three different cities in Sindh, Pakistan.
Findings
Data analysis showed that providing economic benefits and short working hours can achieve W-F balance. Nevertheless, the provision of flexibility in terms of short working hours is more important than economic benefits in balancing both domains of life. Secondly, the provision of childcare arrangements helps to balance work and home life. This practice favors females more compared to males. Thirdly, supervisor and co-worker support is most important in creating W-F balance than family support.
Research limitations/implications
It is crucial to understand the W-F balance practices in developing countries; the bank should encourage policies related to flexibility, childcare arrangement and social support in Pakistan. In addition, banks should take the initiative to develop a way that facilitates the employees' social support, which should consequently help to achieve the W-F balance.
Practical implications
It is crucial to understand the W-F balance practices in developing countries; the bank should encourage policies related to flexibility, childcare arrangement and social support in Pakistan. Banks should take an initiative to develop a way that facilitates the employees' social support which should consequently help to achieve the W-F balance.
Social implications
This research has a tremendous impact on society due to current changes in South Asian countries including Pakistan constitute a socio-cultural transition that directly affects working and family life.
Originality/value
Given the importance of W-F balance in recent times, the authors identified and extended the W-F balance practices in the collectivist culture of Pakistan. This study is novel and contributes to the W-F balance literature by considering most primary W-F balance practices that employees require.
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Prabha Ramseook-Munhurrun, Perunjodi Naidoo and Sandhya Armoogum
This paper addresses the issue of the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions within the information and communication technology (ICT) and engineering fields. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper addresses the issue of the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions within the information and communication technology (ICT) and engineering fields. The study examines the complex issue of vertical segregation and gender equality by exploring the barriers that women encounter and the potential coping strategies they adopt to advance in their careers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs a qualitative approach, conducting semi-structured interviews with 17 women at middle and upper management levels in the ICT and engineering sectors. This approach aims to better understand women's workplace experiences and gain deeper insights into the nature of the barriers they face.
Findings
The study identifies four main factors hindering women's progression toward senior management positions, namely working hours, work-family conflict, social role stereotypes and second-generation bias. The results also offer useful insights into the coping strategies adopted by women to overcome these barriers.
Practical implications
The study highlights the persisting underrepresentation of women in senior positions, indicating a societal and organizational lag in terms of inclusion and equity. It underscores the importance of developing effective policies to address the challenges faced by employees striving to balance their work and family commitments. Training is recognized as an important tool for raising awareness about gender stereotypes among employees and reducing second-generation bias.
Originality/value
This study provides valuable lessons derived from its findings, including potential strategies that organizations can implement to help women navigate and overcome workplace barriers in the ICT and engineering fields.
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Inbar Livnat and Michal Almog-Bar
This article asks how gender, ethnicity and other identities intersect and shape the employment experiences of social workers. During recent decades, governments have contracted…
Abstract
Purpose
This article asks how gender, ethnicity and other identities intersect and shape the employment experiences of social workers. During recent decades, governments have contracted social care to for-profit and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) globally as a part of the adaption of the neoliberal approach. Most employees in these organizations are women. However, there is a lack of knowledge about women working in social service NPOs and their unique working environments.
Design/methodology/approach
This article explores the experiences of women employed as social workers in social care NPOs in Israel regarding intersectionality. 27 in-depth interviews were conducted with women social workers working in social service NPOs. Participants reflected diversity in ethnicity, religion and full-time and part-time jobs. Thematic analysis was used.
Findings
The findings shed light on: (1) the contradiction social workers experienced between the stated values of the social care NPO and those values’ conduct, (2) intersectional discrimination among social workers from vulnerable populations and (3) the lack of gender-aware policies.
Social implications
The need to raise awareness of the social care sector and governments to those contradictions and to promote diversity through gender-aware policies and practices.
Originality/value
The article suggests a conceptualization describing gender employment contradictions in social care NPOs, discusses how the angle of intersectionality expands the understanding of the complexities and pressures exerted on social workers from minority groups and emphasizes the need for social care NPOs to acknowledge and deal with these contradictions.
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Upasna A. Agarwal, Rupashree Baral and Mansi Rastogi
Work–family conflict (WFC) is rife among construction professionals, leading to a significant negative impact on their work engagement. Building on an extant body of research…
Abstract
Purpose
Work–family conflict (WFC) is rife among construction professionals, leading to a significant negative impact on their work engagement. Building on an extant body of research, this study provides nuanced insights into the link between WFC, work–life balance (WLB) and work engagement and identifies the boundary conditions of these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 257 dyads of construction professionals and their immediate supervisors from a sample of five construction firms based in India using an online survey.
Findings
The results found that WLB mediates the relationship between WFC and work engagement, and the relationship is controlled by professionals' gender and perceptions of psychological contract breach (PCB). An important finding is that PCB accentuates the negative influence of WFC on work engagement via WLB. The study also reveals that the negative impact of WFC on WLB is stronger for women.
Practical implications
The findings are relevant for construction firms since they are primarily dominated by men and continue to struggle to attract more women professionals. The study insights provide avenues to expand existing research on the relationship between WFC and work engagement and offer managerial implications for improving construction professionals' work engagement in the high-pressure context of the construction industry.
Originality/value
The study significantly advances the underdeveloped literature on work–family interface, especially in the unique work settings of the construction industry, by establishing WFC as a predictor and revealing how engagement at work is affected. It highlights the importance of boundary conditions such as gender and PCB. It is one of the first to assess the relationship between WFC, WLB, PCB and work engagement among construction professionals in India.
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This paper aims to explore the evolving needs of Indian men and their aspirations regarding work–life balance practices. The ultimate aim is to assess whether the available…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the evolving needs of Indian men and their aspirations regarding work–life balance practices. The ultimate aim is to assess whether the available policies are helpful and to explore the various roadblocks in their implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes a qualitative approach and draws on the semi-structured interviews of Indian men (N = 19).
Findings
The analysis revealed an asymmetrical approach of organizations toward implementing employee benefit policies. The organizations remain plagued by the notion that “benefits policies” are needed only by women to carry out additional family responsibilities, whereas men remain aloof from such responsibilities, which takes its strength from the patriarchal roots of Indian society. This study reveals two major themes: lack of appreciation for gender egalitarianism arising among men at the work–family interface’ and the coping practices by men to address their ‘role strain arising due to work–family conflict. It is noted that there is a need to formulate policies and practices to cater to men’s evolving aspirations toward the family–work interface.
Originality/value
This study furthers the debate on inclusive policies for employees and examines the subsection of men for their evolving needs and aspirations. Although organizations live in the glory of having employee-friendly policies, they offer little help in advancing gender neutrality in the workplace. The inclusive policies shall also be helpful for females because it would increase the availability of their partners/spouses to share the family responsibilities.
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Xiaoni Ren and Hanlin Xu
This study aims to identify and analyse the gains and strains associated with flexible working practices (FWPs) introduced and adopted prior to and during the pandemic and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to identify and analyse the gains and strains associated with flexible working practices (FWPs) introduced and adopted prior to and during the pandemic and consider how these experiences are likely to shape the future of workplace flexibility post-pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study research strategy was adopted to explore the FWPs implemented by a state-owned organisation in the Chinese publishing industry. A mixed data collection method was used. Quantitative data was collected from 50 valid questionnaires, which was followed by 7 qualitative interviews to gain rich insights into the availability and effectiveness of various FWPs and associated benefits and drawbacks.
Findings
While the results confirm positive effects FWPs have on employee engagement and retention and on business continuity and employee well-being during the pandemic, the empirical analysis highlights the performance-driven patterns in use and impacts of some FWPs, which caused concerns and dilemmas. Besides the increasing intense market competition, the changing face of state-owned enterprises and managerial attitudes have been found to have significant effects on the use of FWPs.
Originality/value
This paper has contributed to a better understanding of flexible working in an under-researched setting, reflected in changes before and during the pandemic, offering an insight into the commercialised nature of flexible working in the Chinese context. It has implications for organisations and HR practitioners as they envision future workplace flexibility.
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Family policy is an area where policy transfer has garnered a lot of attention lately. A growing body of research demonstrates policymakers' interest in and willingness to adopt…
Abstract
Purpose
Family policy is an area where policy transfer has garnered a lot of attention lately. A growing body of research demonstrates policymakers' interest in and willingness to adopt foreign family policies. However, previous studies have tended to neglect the second mechanism of policy transfer: resistance. This manuscript aims to address this research gap by exploring both the willingness and resistance to policy transfer in Czech and Korean childcare and leave policies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a qualitative research design, incorporating structured expert interviews instrumental in in-depth thematic analysis.
Findings
The analysis shows that policymakers in both countries demonstrated interest and willingness to transfer family policies, albeit employing different strategies and to varying extents. Moreover, the two countries exhibited significant differences in resistance to family policy transfer, with resistance in the Czech Republic being more frequent and effective. Resistance is directed towards both forced and voluntary transfers, although it isn't always against transfers that require a paradigm change. Policy transfer and non-transfer can concurrently be perceived as threats.
Originality/value
The study concludes that integrating both policy transfer and resistance in the analyses helps to shed light on cross-national differences in family policy change and contributes to a more nuanced portrayal of the world of policy transfer in this policy field.
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Helene Ahl, Karin Berglund, Katarina Pettersson and Malin Tillmar
Policy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women…
Abstract
Purpose
Policy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women entrepreneurs, their needs or how the existing policy is received by them. Using a theoretical framework developed by Korsgaard et al. (2015), the authors analyse how rural women entrepreneurs contribute to rural development and discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy. This paper aims to focus on the aforementioned objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors interviewed 32 women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden representing the variety of businesses in which rural Swedish women are engaged. The authors analysed their contributions to rural development by analysing their motives, strategies and outcomes using Korsgaard et al.’s framework of “entrepreneurship in the rural” and “rural entrepreneurship” as a heuristic, interpretative device.
Findings
Irrespective of industry, the respondents were deeply embedded in family and local social structures. Their contributions were substantial, multidimensional and indispensable for rural viability, but the policy tended to bypass most women-owned businesses. Support in terms of business training, counselling and financing are important, but programmes especially for women tend to miss the mark, and so does rural development policy. More important for rural women entrepreneurs in Sweden is the provision of good public services, including for example, schools and social care, that make rural life possible.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretically, the findings question the individualist and a-contextual focus of much entrepreneurship research, as well as the taken-for-granted work–family divide. How gender and how the public and the private are configured varies greatly between contexts and needs contextual assessment. Moreover, the results call for theorising place as an entrepreneurial actor.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, the authors advise future policymakers to gender mainstream entrepreneurship policy and to integrate entrepreneurship and rural development policy with family and welfare state policy.
Originality/value
The paper highlights how rural women respond to policy, and the results are contextualised, making it possible to compare them to other contexts. The authors widen the discussion on contributions beyond economic growth, and the authors show that policy for public and commercial services and infrastructure is indeed also policy for entrepreneurship.
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Hamdy Abdullah, Fahru Azwa Md Zain, Sheikh Ahmad Faiz Sheikh Ahmad Tajuddin, Nik Hazimi Mohammed Foziah and Muhammad Shahrul Ifwat Ishak
Many scholars have primarily disregarded employee motivation in the context of Western and Islamic ideas. To better understand employee motivation, this paper aims to explore a…
Abstract
Purpose
Many scholars have primarily disregarded employee motivation in the context of Western and Islamic ideas. To better understand employee motivation, this paper aims to explore a novel approach of fusing McClelland’s needs theory (i.e. achievement, power and affiliation) with Maqasid Shariah.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a theoretical research design. There will be a thorough literature study of McClelland’s theory, Maqasid Shariah, and employee motivation. Qualitative content analysis is used to examine and compile pertinent ideas. To give a thorough framework for comprehending employee motivation from both Western and Islamic ethical viewpoints, McClelland’s theory and Maqasid Shariah are integrated.
Findings
This paper has conceptualized the integration of Maqasid Shariah’s five requirements with McClelland’s need theory. It is suggested that Maqasid Shariah and McClelland’s need theory be combined to understand employee motivation. For employees, the integration of McClelland’s need theory and Maqasid Shariah entails developing a work environment that attends to their many needs, is consistent with Islamic principles, encourages justice and equity, supports both professional and personal development and promotes social responsibility. By combining McClelland’s need theory and Maqasid Shariah, 15 propositions are developed to explain employee motivation. The study offers a measurement index to explain employee motivation based on the two theories.
Research limitations/implications
The integration of McClelland’s theory of need and Maqasid Shariah offers expected positive implications. By considering the cultural and religious context in Islamic societies, researchers can adopt a more sensitive approach to studying motivation. This blend provides a holistic understanding of motivation, incorporating individual needs and broader ethical dimensions. Studies may explore the impact on prosocial behavior, organizational values, leadership practices and employee well-being. Understanding the alignment between personal motives and ethical principles can benefit organizations in diverse workplaces, emphasizing long-term sustainability and fostering employee engagement and commitment.
Practical implications
The integration of McClelland’s theory and Maqasid Shariah shows the potential implications to increase employee motivation. This study contributes significantly to Maqasid Shariah theory in business research by guiding ethical decision-making aligned with Islamic values, fostering inclusive workplaces and offering strategies for boosting employee morale. It emphasizes ethical practices, legal compliance and community engagement, while also encouraging sustainable business models that consider societal well-being and the environment.
Originality/value
This paper provides its unique value by being among the first to integrate McClelland’s theory and Maqasid Shariah and providing an innovative approach in developing a new measurement index in the context of employee motivation.
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