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1 – 10 of 702Simone Meskelis and J. Lee Whittington
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how personality traits and leadership styles impact employee engagement.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of how personality traits and leadership styles impact employee engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
A field study involving a total of 100 participants was conducted to investigate the relationship between honesty–humility, authentic leadership and employee engagement. Hypotheses were tested using correlation and regression analyses.
Findings
The results show that honesty–humility impacts employee engagement and that authentic leadership functions as a substitute for honesty–humility.
Research limitations/implications
Further studies are necessary to examine how honesty–humility interacts with other leadership styles. Further studies can also expand the understanding of this relationship across different cultures.
Practical implications
Employees bring engagement to work through their individual traits but organizations can help create an environment that fosters engagement through positive leadership behavior such as authentic leadership.
Originality/value
This study extends the understanding of the role of individual differences beyond the established Big Five model, by adding the honesty–humility dimension. In addition, the authors examine the moderating effects of authentic leadership on the relationship between honesty–humility and engagement.
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Bradley Gene Winton, J. Lee Whittington and Simone Meskelis
Today’s organizations continue to suffer from the detrimental effects of employee disengagement. Leaders and their behavior play a significant role in limiting these negative…
Abstract
Purpose
Today’s organizations continue to suffer from the detrimental effects of employee disengagement. Leaders and their behavior play a significant role in limiting these negative effects. The literature provides evidence that facets of the full-range leadership model impact employee engagement. This paper aims to extend the leader-engagement connection to include the role authentic leadership plays in cultivating meaningfulness and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a quantitative survey of 90 working professionals to test a mediated model and its hypothesized relationships among authentic leadership, meaningfulness and employee engagement. Hypotheses were tested with ordinary least squares regression in the PROCESS macro for Statistical Packages for the Social Science.
Findings
The results confirmed the positive impact of authentic leadership on engagement. The indirect effect of authentic leadership on engagement through meaningfulness was not found to be significant. However, post hoc analysis found evidence that the impact of authentic leadership is mediated by the dimensional aspect of meaningfulness, positive meaning.
Originality/value
These findings extend the empirical evidence tying leadership behavior to employee engagement by clarifying how authentic leadership influences employees to participate more fully in their organization’s activities. Further, this research provides alternative pathways for leaders to encourage and elicit engagement from their followers.
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Enoch Kusi Asare, J. Lee Whittington and Robert Walsh
Accounting work is characterized by high job demands and tight deadlines. With less task variety, accounting work is susceptible to employee disengagement. This paper aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Accounting work is characterized by high job demands and tight deadlines. With less task variety, accounting work is susceptible to employee disengagement. This paper aims to examine the role of enhanced performance management practices as intervention mechanism to the disengagement among accountants.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 105 accountants participated in an online survey, answering self and social reports. Hypotheses were tested using regression analyses.
Findings
Enhanced performance management practices promote engagement among accountants. In turn, engagement promotes job satisfaction and affective commitment among accountants.
Research limitations/implications
Further studies are necessary to test the study’s findings. Future research should focus on replicating this study in other settings.
Practical implications
Performance planning and implementation are critical to enhancing accountants’ work attitudes and behaviors.
Originality/value
The accounting literature has consistently addressed negative accounting work outcomes from the perspective of burnout (a negative approach). This paper addresses the issue from the perspective of engagement (a positive approach).
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Timothy Galpin and J. Lee Whittington
A culture of candor can bring numerous benefits to any organization. Yet, candor is rare in most organizations. Despite the scarcity of its practice there is a need to develop…
Abstract
A culture of candor can bring numerous benefits to any organization. Yet, candor is rare in most organizations. Despite the scarcity of its practice there is a need to develop leaders who value and use candor by demonstrating and practicing candor in the leadership classroom. A description of seven key actions that enable leadership instructors to build a culture of candor in the classroom is provided. Each of these actions is supported with prescriptive guidelines for implementing these practices in the classroom. The influence of the seven actions on the candid behavior of leadership students as well as leadership instructors is also discussed.
J. Lee Whittington and Timothy J. Galpin
Attracting and retaining a talented work force is a strategic imperative. Doing so requires organizations to create an overall context through a set of macro‐level organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
Attracting and retaining a talented work force is a strategic imperative. Doing so requires organizations to create an overall context through a set of macro‐level organizational practices we refer to as the HR value chain. However, this organizational context must be supplemented at the micro level through leader behavior, job characteristics, and challenging goals. An evidence‐based integrative model of organizational practices is developed that will lead to a high level of employee engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper addresses several key questions: Do engaged employees perform better than those that are not engaged? How should companies best organize their HR processes at a firm‐wide level to foster employee engagement? What should companies do at an employee level to foster engagement? What is the role of employee to manager trust in employee engagement? A review and summary of existing empirical literature from the areas of employee engagement, human resources, strategy, and leadership was assembled to answer these questions and provide an evidenced‐based set of prescriptions for practicing managers seeking to enhance employee engagement.
Findings
The evidence presented supports seven key engagement principles characterized by: an integrated HR value chain; full‐range leader behaviors incorporating contingent reward and transformational behaviors; job enrichment through variety, significance, and task identity; challenging and specific performance goals; in‐role job performance; extra‐role performance behaviors; and employee trust in their leader.
Originality/value
The content of the paper is useful to executives and managers in firms of various sizes and across industries by: presenting empirically‐based evidence that engaged employees perform better than those that are not engaged; providing pragmatic recommendations regarding how to establish firm‐wide human resources process that foster workforce engagement; providing practical recommendations regarding what companies should do at an employee level to foster engagement; explaining the role of employee to manager trust in employee engagement; providing a bridge across the often decried gap between academic research and the practice of management.
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Timothy Galpin and J. Lee Whittington
The purpose of this article is to show how a previously developed multi‐level model of employee engagement can be leveraged to implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to show how a previously developed multi‐level model of employee engagement can be leveraged to implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy. By combining macro‐level (organization‐wide) with micro‐level (manager to employee) leadership practices, management teams can more effectively engage their entire workforce in sustainability endeavors.
Design/methodology/approach
A narrative synthesis approach is used to integrate extant empirical and practitioner literature spanning various disciplines in order to apply a comprehensive model for leading sustainability efforts.
Findings
The path to successful sustainability efforts hinges on both “macro” and “micro” organizational factors. Combining these factors provides management with a powerful approach that engages a workforce in sustainability endeavors, resulting in positive employee‐level and organizational‐level sustainability performance.
Research limitations/implications
If research is reported on in the paper this section must be completed and should include suggestions for future research and any identified limitations in the research process. Applying the engagement model to corporate sustainability efforts is an important advancement in the theoretical sustainability literature. It is applicable to multiple sustainability efforts, and may be applied regardless of the industry or the size of the companies undertaking sustainability initiatives. The model provides guidance for researchers who are seeking to frame their inquiry from a multi‐level perspective and in relation to other disciplines. Future research should focus on the relationship between the different leadership factors identified in the model and sustainability performance.
Practical implications
Despite the observations into what needs to be done around sustainability, many organizations do not quite seem to know how to do it. Therefore, the model presented provides a road map that can be used to structure management's approach to their sustainability endeavors.
Originality/value
A gap exists in both the practitioner and academic literature regarding the development of a model that encompasses the key elements of corporate sustainability efforts from inception to implementation. Moreover, no clear leadership model exists with the expressed purpose of creating the most effective employee engagement during corporate sustainability efforts. In this paper it is demonstrated how a previously developed workforce engagement model can be leveraged to implement a comprehensive sustainability strategy. The multi‐level model provides a foundation for the formulation, implementation and successful execution of sustainability efforts.
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Alima Aktar and Faizuniah Pangil
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of organizational commitment (OC) on the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and employee…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of organizational commitment (OC) on the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and employee engagement among banking employees in the context of an emerging economy namely Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey data include 383 employees from 30 private commercial banks in Bangladesh. For analyzing the data, structural equation modeling is employed with the bootstrapping method.
Findings
This study finds that HRM practices such as career advancement, employee participation, job security, performance feedback, rewards and recognition, training and development are the significant predictors of employee engagement. Results also identify OC as a partial mediator on HRM practices and employee engagement relationship which suggest that direct relationship of predictors and criterion variables are stronger than indirect association. More interestingly, findings indicate that the mechanism of black-box stage is not always work on the relationship between HRM practices and employee performance.
Originality/value
Exploring the role of OC on the relationship between HRM practices and employees’ behavioral outcome, i.e. employee engagement, is appeared as an initial effort in the academic literature. Furthermore, empirical research that examines the association of different organizational factors with employee engagement through OC is rarely been investigated. Thus, the findings of this study act as a strategic tool for the bank managers to design their organizational policies in such a way that fosters their employee’ level of engagement.
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This paper aims to investigate the benefits of monitoring and enhancing engagement to impact the overall effectiveness and future success by using the combination of the Utrecht…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the benefits of monitoring and enhancing engagement to impact the overall effectiveness and future success by using the combination of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale along with a daily employee vote to trigger an appropriate ad hoc huddle that can be proactive in addressing any engagement issues.
Design/methodology/approach
A fieldwork case study is used to examine engagement interventions based upon the use of a trigger (daily vote) and the overall impact is measured with the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.
Findings
All indications from this study are that the ad hoc gatherings triggered by the daily vote do have a favorable impact on workforce engagement. This effect was measured by doing a Utrecht Work Engagement Scale survey at the beginning of the pilot followed by another a year later. The results presented in this case appear to show that a learning organization can have an impact on the engagement culture of the workforce if desired.
Research limitations/implications
Recognizing that the sample size is small, a longitudinal study of over a year was done to help mitigate the concerns of such a small sample size. The reader is cautioned about extrapolating these findings beyond this study without appropriate considerations.
Practical implications
This research provides evidence which aided the organization during the changing times in using interventions, ad hoc gatherings to improve workforce engagement. These interventions are triggered by using a timely lagging indicator, a daily log which serves as a monitor of workforce engagement for the benefit of the organization and the employee.
Originality/value
This study uses two methods to measure and track workforce engagement. The known Utrecht Work Engagement Scale is used to determine the impact of the ad hoc huddles and to determine whether this intervention has a favorable impact on workforce engagement. The use of these two methods helps to spark continued interest to not only monitor but also to help identify the interest in using a timely indicator to determine when an intervention may be warranted.
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Timothy Galpin, J. Lee Whitttington and Greg Bell
The purpose of this article is to present a multidisciplinary model that can be used as both a road map for practicing managers to create a sustainability focused culture within…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to present a multidisciplinary model that can be used as both a road map for practicing managers to create a sustainability focused culture within their own organizations, and as a guide for future research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
A narrative synthesis approach is used to integrate extant empirical and practitioner literature spanning various disciplines to build a comprehensive model, including key propositions, to assist both practitioners and researchers alike. Case examples illustrating each component of the model in practice and implications for future research based on the key tenets of the model are also provided.
Findings
Building an organizational infrastructure that fosters a culture of sustainability results in positive employee- and organizational-level sustainability performance.
Research limitations/implications
The model presented is an important advancement in the sustainability literature. It is applicable to various sustainability efforts, and it may be applied regardless of the industry or the size of the companies undertaking sustainability initiatives. The model provides a framework to guide research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability. Future research should focus on the relationship between the different organizational factors identified in the model, organizational culture and sustainability performance.
Practical implications
The multidisciplinary model presented can be used as a road map for practicing managers to create a sustainability focused culture within their own organizations.
Originality/value
A gap exists in both the empirical and practitioner literature regarding the development and assessment of the organizational factors that foster a culture of sustainability. Moreover, no clear model exists with the expressed purpose of helping leaders create such a culture, while providing a framework to guide research into the relationship between organizational culture and sustainability. In this paper, a comprehensive model, including key propositions, to assist both practitioners and researchers alike is presented. Case examples illustrating each component of the model in practice and implications for future research based on the key tenets of the model are also provided.
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Kalyan Bhaskar and Bipul Kumar
The purpose of this study is, first, to understand if the firms are displaying integrated approach toward electronic waste management and sustainability and, second, is there a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is, first, to understand if the firms are displaying integrated approach toward electronic waste management and sustainability and, second, is there a business case for linking e-waste management with sustainable development goals (SDGs) pronounced by the United Nations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts an extensive literature review to gather perspective from multiple disciplines and also carries out content analysis of annual reports/sustainability reports of the firms.
Findings
Bulk consumers have sustainability policies and/or strategies but many of these firms have not linked their e-waste management with their sustainability strategies practices. Also, based on the elaboration of different perspectives, this study provides an integrative framework that suggests focus of a particular perspective on a given SDG and commensurate business approach by the firms to find a synergy between the two.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a wider perspective on the subject of electronic waste management and its linkage with SDGs to create business case, thus opening up many theoretical avenues.
Practical implications
The policy like extended producers’ responsibility has a clear practical implication in terms of creating reputational capital for the firms by linking electronic waste management and SDGs.
Social implications
The SDG, detailing clean water and sanitation by asking firms not to pollute water bodies by dumping the waste, has clear social implications.
Originality/value
This study is first of its kind to explore the linkage between electronic waste and SDGs to understand the business case. It also throws good insights on whether the firms use integrated approach toward electronic waste management and sustainability.
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