Search results

This paper aims to provide some bounds to the concept of employee engagement, explain how it links to job performance and offer a practical training tool, skill-charting (SC), that can assist a manager and her/his employees attain higher levels of work engagement.

The discussion of SC and employee engagement is based on a literature review of recent research.

In the realm of opportunities for managers to encourage and enhance employee engagement, the learning and problem-solving tool, SC, presents a practical means to achieve positive results in several domains.

There are few instances in the literature where highly specific advice is offered to practitioners regarding how managers can quickly and directly stimulate, encourage and assist employees to reach higher levels of engagement. The approach suggested in this paper can be of much value to both manager and employees.

The purpose of this paper is to present some of the foundational characteristics of the effective delegation of authority. Taken from a broad array of research and opinion, the fundamental aspects are given clear exposition.

Addressed in this paper are several areas that establish the basis for effective delegation to include the psychology of delegation, potential benefits, delegation and high performance human resource management practices, and fears of actually delegating authority.

Findings are grounded on actual practices which have been researched. There is a “science” to manager delegation of authority, and the critical information about how to delegate is presented.

This work gives shape to the actions that help to create effective delegation. There are many benefits that accrue from effective delegation, and these benefits are often under-represented.

The purpose of this paper is to express metacognitive functioning in general terms and to explain how it influences employee learning/knowledge acquisition, self-regulation, engagement and growth mind-set.

The authors provide a viewpoint grounded on a review of recent research regarding the regulation of learning on-the-job. Concepts are expressed in a direct manner for the use of human resource practitioners and managers.

Metacognition is mental work that helps one to regulate and improve his/her learning. The authors find that there are ways for human resource practitioners and/or managers to assist employees improve their learning practices that ultimately influence work activities and outcomes.

Metacognition is not a scientific mumbo-jumbo; it represents how one learns to learn. In organizations, it is important to understand how a typical employee may improve her/his learning processing and learning outputs. Authors suggest that practitioners and managers attain some understanding of metacognition and how one may stimulate improved learning processing in employees.

This paper aims to offer the views that the psychological construct, self-efficacy, is significantly related to high or strong performance at work and that a brief, efficient survey allows for managers and HR practitioners to assess individuals per the characteristic.

The authors performed a broad review of literature, mostly empirical research, focused in particular upon the linkage of self-efficacy with work performance. Important conclusions of this review are reported. Also researched were the existing measures (surveys and scales) of self-efficacy that demonstrated validity and reliability.

Hundreds of studies, in combination, have concluded that the construct, self-efficacy, is highly and positively related to individual motivation, self-confidence, proactive behavior, and work performance, among other valued characteristics. There are measures to use to assess individual beliefs regarding self-efficacy that may be used in for recruitment and placement decisions.

Clearly expressed is the substance and value of the self-efficacy construct which has been the subject of hundreds of studies. The importance of self-efficacy and its linkage to motivation and performance is expressed. A brief, statistically valid, and reliable instrument is offered in its entirety for use by managers and/or HR practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to provide human resources (HR) practitioners with some information and tools to assist managers become more effective delegators of authority. Included is information that might be used in a training session for managers.

Drawn from research and opinion is information that serves to help managers form solid partnerships with employees in sharing of some tasks and responsibilities. Several findings from research aim to illuminate key prescriptions for effective delegation. A survey instrument is provided to assist managers assess their own preferences in delegation practices.

Findings clear the fact that delegation can be deliberately planned and executed. There are several areas that can be assessed to ultimately guide a manager in effective delegation.

The originality of this paper lies in its potential to: a) assist and guide a manager as he/she goes about establishing an effective delegation; and b) the arrangement of the content of the paper to enable HR practitioners to use the material as a training module for managers.

This paper aims to provide pragmatic guidance to HR practitioners and managers in the understanding and use of the psychological concept of mindset. This paper expresses a description of what mindset is and how it normally functions, as well as information about how mindset behavior is found in employee behavior on a day-to-day basis. Finally, examples are provided which show ways that managers and HR practitioners may use mindset information in coaching and mentoring employees to improve functioning and performance.

Academic research is reviewed. A brief summary of the relevant literature provides support for the descriptions, manifestation, and examples of mindset behavior.

Available academic research can provide useful information for practicing HR professionals and managers in encouraging and motivating employees toward enhanced performance.

Practical information is derived from academic research to equip managers and HR practitioners with helpful tools which can be used in real situations involving supervision of employees.

In this exploratory, correlational study the authors set out to demonstrate the relationships as well as inter-correlations among direct and indirect performance measures, along with measures of knowledge of cognition, and evaluation of cognition. The information helps inform manager learning and development. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, primary purpose, to identify linkages of performance with individual’s efforts to improve their learning processes via metacognition; and second, secondary purpose, primarily for the benefit of practitioners, is the provision of detailed information regarding performance measures and practical measures of metacognition.

The study made use of correlation analysis among performance measures and measures of metacognitive effort. The design is not intended to support cause and effect relationships, nor demonstrate the technical, predictive value of measures.

A majority of associations among indirect performance measures with one another and with nearly all of the measures of knowledge of cognition, and evaluation of cognition were positive and significant (mostly at the 0.01 level). Findings offer broad support for the linkage of self-efficacy (SE), and core self-evaluation (CSE) with performance.

Relationships identified in this study may help practitioners alter and improve their practices/methods of identifying individuals who possess attributes that are highly related to performance and learning. The new knowledge may influence decisions about recruitment, selection and training.

Little research has focused on relationships among indirect performance indicators such as SE, CSE and established measures of metacognition. The present study helps to identify important relationships.

Entrepreneurial intention (EI) has been studied prolifically, as a precursor to entrepreneurial action, and a desired outcome of entrepreneurship education. Yet, the paucity of extant studies that analyze its temporal stability has been noted. This paper aims to address this gap by studying the temporal stability of EI, investigating its persistence as an attitudinal state over time.

A series of intraindividual and group-level longitudinal analyses were undertaken, over an 11-year period, using a student sample from Portugal. The authors highlight the magnitude of EI change over time, where item-structure, relative and absolute stability and group and individual-level EI changes are all considered.

Results indicate an initially strong to moderate EI item-structure stability and relative stability over the first five years, with moderate signs of deterioration. This deterioration becomes even more pronounced across the full 11-year period. Regarding EI absolute stability, while college students (as a group) did not display a general tendency to develop higher or lower EI during the first five years, a small deterioration was found over the 11-year period. At the individual level, EI instability was detected, and this increased with time. Finally, the exploratory results suggest that entrepreneurship education may buffer the deterioration of EI.

The findings provide a more nuanced reasoning for dampened EI–entrepreneurial behavior associations and highlight key determinants of EI change, which can inform educational experts and policymakers.

The legitimacy of the EI field lays heavily on the existence of a stable EI construct and a strong relationship between intentions and behavior. The methodology provides a new and more complete picture of EI’s temporal stability.

Entrepreneurial motivations are considered key determinants of the direction, intensity and duration of entrepreneurial processes and outcomes. To measure attitudes and outcome expectations related to an entrepreneurial career, researchers often use a set of predetermined behavioral beliefs or motivators. However, motivators can be numerous, context-specific and there is a lack of evidence regarding their stability over time. This study addresses this gap, while also providing a rich description of how Portuguese college students perceive entrepreneurship and how these perceptions relate to levels of entrepreneurial intentions (EI).

Using qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze data over a 5-year period, this study seeks to confirm existing evidence on entrepreneurship motivators' diversity and heterogeneity and to explore differences in motivators' temporal stability. Using an initial sample of 851 Portuguese college students and 3 different survey waves, this study first aggregates the most frequently cited motivators for EI to compile a series of meaningful motivational factors. Subsequently, it extensively analyzes the robustness of these factors by examining their validity against EI and stability over time.

Based on their superior association with EI and greater temporal stability, the findings suggest that entrepreneurship-intrinsic motivational factors are more relevant for college students' EI models. Prominently, being motivated to create one's own new business due to a particular occupational interest is the most consistently stable individual motivation.

The results may interest those studying entrepreneurial motivations and EI longitudinally and who invest in promoting entrepreneurial behavior of college students.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to analyze entrepreneurship motivators/reasons' temporal stability, which is relevant for assessing their value for longitudinal entrepreneurship research and education. It is also the most complete assessment of Portuguese college students' perceptions of entrepreneurship.

The Government has put emphasis on preventing inappropriate admissions to hospital and long‐term care and helping people to live at home. The National Service Framework for Older People focuses on promoting older people's independence and fitting services around people's needs. In this climate Housing with Care is presented as an attractive alternative to residential care, mainly for older people. Such schemes maintain people in complexes of purpose‐built flats in the community with care and support on site 24 hours a day. This article looks at the experience of Norfolk County Council in providing Housing with Care for older people.