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1 – 8 of 8Esme Franken, Geoff Plimmer and Sanna Malinen
Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to establish…
Abstract
Purpose
Support from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to establish growth-oriented management (GOM) as a key management capability to support employee growth. It also identifies employee resilience as a mechanism for growth in employees and examines its role in mediating the relationships between GOM and key employee outcomes: well-being and work engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on survey data (n = 751) from white-collar employees in Australia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the study variables.
Findings
Findings show GOM influenced well-being and work engagement, both directly and indirectly through employee resilience. This reveals more broadly that the unique combination of behaviors that comprise GOM plays a pivotal role in supporting growth-oriented outcomes in employees.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study on the impact of GOM on well-being and engagement, as well as on the mediating mechanism of employee resilience in these relationships. GOM is an innovative contribution to scholarship on employee and organizational development, reflecting the changing nature of management, and responding to the increasingly diverse development needs of employees.
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Esme Franken and Geoff Plimmer
Leadership matters in public contexts. It influences employee development and, in turn, the effective delivery of public services. Harmful leadership limits the fulfilment of both…
Abstract
Purpose
Leadership matters in public contexts. It influences employee development and, in turn, the effective delivery of public services. Harmful leadership limits the fulfilment of both these requirements. Although there are many studies of public leadership, few explore aspects of poor leadership focusing on leading people, in the unique public sector context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the public sector environment as one that can enable harmful leadership, and identifies what those aspects of harmful behaviours are. In particular, it focuses on common, day-to-day forms of harmful mediocre leadership rather than more dramatic, but rarer, forms of destructive or toxic leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted over three phases. In study one (N=10) interviews using the critical incident technique identified harmful behaviours. Study two (N=10) identified perceived causal processes and outcomes of these processes. Study three was a validation check using two focus groups (n=7) and two further interviews (n=6).
Findings
Four dimensions of harmful behaviour were found: micromanagement, managing up but not down, low social and career support and reactive leadership. Several pathways to harm were found, including lessened employee confidence, motivation, collaboration, learning and development.
Research limitations/implications
This research is limited by a small sample and data collected in one public sector system. But its implications are still meaningful. The research identified some ways that harmful leadership can occur, that is missed in existing studies of harmful leadership, which tend to focus on more toxic forms of harm. The role of NPM and other reforms as important shapers of current leadership behaviours are also discussed.
Practical implications
To address these behaviours further investment in leadership development, selection and performance management is recommended.
Social implications
Social implications include the hindering of effective service delivery and limited ability to deal with increasingly dynamic and complicated problem.
Originality/value
Public sector leadership studies are often rose tinted, or describe what should be. Instead, this paper describes what sometimes is, in terms of day-to-day mediocre but harmful leadership.
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Kamal Badar, Mohammed Aboramadan and Geoff Plimmer
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether two types of destructive leadership styles – despotic and narcissistic – predict turnover intentions of nurses via emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate whether two types of destructive leadership styles – despotic and narcissistic – predict turnover intentions of nurses via emotional exhaustion, drawing from the conservation of resources theory and the unfolding theory of turnover.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper used multiwave data collected from 731 nurses working in Palestinian hospitals. Structural equation modeling using partial least squares was used to analyze the data.
Findings
Both narcissistic and despotic leadership are associated with turnover intentions directly and indirectly through emotional exhaustion. Despotic leadership, however, has a stronger relationship to turnover intention than narcissistic leadership. Despotic and narcissistic leadership are common in this sample.
Practical implications
A strong psycho-safety climate is likely needed to address the harm caused by these destructive leadership styles, and interventions should span primary, secondary and tertiary levels of the public health model. Examples include ensuring strong organizational checks, balances and information flows, job control, support and widespread training; assistance programs such as counseling services; and remediation and repair for harmed individuals and teams.
Originality/value
This study advances the understanding of the negative, dark or destructive side of leadership specifically in the nursing context. This study compares despotic and narcissistic leadership to examine which one better/worse explains turnover intentions through emotional exhaustion.
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Geoff Plimmer, Jane Bryson and Stephen T.T. Teo
The purpose of this paper is to explore how HIWS may shape organisational capabilities, in particular organisational ambidexterity (OA) – the ability to be both adaptable to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how HIWS may shape organisational capabilities, in particular organisational ambidexterity (OA) – the ability to be both adaptable to the wider world, and internally aligned so that existing resources are used well. Given the demands on public agencies to manage conflicting objectives, and to do more with less in increasingly complex environments, this paper improves our understanding of how HIWS can contribute to public sector performance. The paper sheds light inside the black box of the HIWS/organisational performance link.
Design/methodology/approach
This multi-level quantitative study is based on a survey of 2,123 supervisory staff, and 9,496 non-supervisory employees in 56 government organisations.
Findings
The study identifies two paths to organisational performance. The first is a direct HIWS performance link. The second is a double mediation model from HIWS to organisational systems, to OA and then performance.
Practical implications
A focus on developing HIWS provides an alternative means to public sector performance, than restructuring or other performative activities.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies that explore how HIWS can develop collective as well as individual capabilities. Studies in the public sector are particularly rare.
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Geoff Plimmer and Stephen Blumenfeld
This paper aims to identify what workplace representative behaviours are most strongly associated with members’ commitment. This is increasingly important, as decentralised…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify what workplace representative behaviours are most strongly associated with members’ commitment. This is increasingly important, as decentralised management practices have shifted management decisions to workplace levels, placing new demands on workplace representatives.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological approach is quantitative and cross sectional. A total of two unions and 32 workplaces are examined.
Findings
Members’ commitment corresponds to workplace delegate leadership that is responsive. Transparency had a negative relationship to commitment, possibly because it is also interpreted as bureaucratic and overly formal for workplace issues. Innovation was not significantly associated with members’ commitment. This applies regardless of occupational class, gender or age. It was also found that workplaces that had adopted the organising model had more committed members.
Research limitations/implications
Cross sectional relationships do not equal causation. However, the findings suggest that workplace level responsiveness by delegates is potentially very effective in building member commitment.
Practical implications
Unions can, with more confidence than previously, invest in developing responsive delegate leadership teams.
Originality/value
This paper provides insight into effective leadership behaviours that apply across two unions covering diverse workplaces and occupational types. As management decentralises, unions need to as well. This provides assistance to unions on how to do so. The cross sectional nature of the study builds on earlier research that may have been prone to common method variance.
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James Richard, Geoff Plimmer, Kim-Shyan Fam and Charles Campbell
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between positive incentives (perceived organisational support) and negative incentives (publish or perish), on both…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between positive incentives (perceived organisational support) and negative incentives (publish or perish), on both academic publication productivity and marketing academics’ quality of life. While publish-or-perish pressure is a common technique to improve academics’ performance, its punishment orientation may be poorly suited to the uncertain, creative work that research entails and be harmful to academics’ life satisfaction and other well-being variables. In particular, it may interfere with family commitments, and harm the careers of academic women. While perceived organisational support may be effective in encouraging research outputs and be positive for well-being, it may be insufficient as a motivator in the increasingly competitive and pressured world of academia. These issues are important for individual academics, for schools wishing to attract good staff, and the wider marketing discipline wanting to ensure high productivity and quality of life amongst its members.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model was developed and empirically tested using self-report survey data from 1,005 academics across five continents. AMOS structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The findings indicate that the most important determinants of publishing success and improved well-being of academics is organisational support rather than a “publish-or-perish” culture.
Research limitations/implications
The use of a self-report survey may have an impact (and potential bias) on the perceived importance and career effect of a “publish-or-perish” culture. However, current levels of the publish-or-perish culture appear to have become harmful, even for top academic publishers. Additional longitudinal data collection is proposed.
Practical implications
The challenge to develop tertiary systems that support and facilitate world-leading research environments may reside more in organisational support, both perceived and real, rather than a continuation (or adoption) of a publish-or-perish environment. There are personal costs, in the form of health concerns and work–family conflict, associated with academic success, more so for women than men.
Originality/value
This study is the first to empirically demonstrate the influence and importance of “publish-or-perish” and“perceived organisational support” management approaches on marketing academic publishing performance and academic well-being.
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David Pick, Stephen T.T. Teo, Lars Tummers and Cameron Newton