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1 – 10 of over 213000Loredana Mihalca, Lucia Ratiu, Christoph Helm, Gabriela Brendea and Daniel Metz
Drawing upon the job demands-resources model, the purpose of this study is to investigate the differential relevance of contextual antecedents for job crafting dimensions (i.e…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing upon the job demands-resources model, the purpose of this study is to investigate the differential relevance of contextual antecedents for job crafting dimensions (i.e. increasing structural and social job resources) and consequently for various aspects of work performance (in-role and extra-role performance). Despite considerable research on the role of job autonomy and social support in predicting job crafting, little attention has been paid to how problem-solving, a knowledge job characteristic, relates to job crafting dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 282 employees belonging to different information technology companies in Romania. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the hypothesized relations.
Findings
Problem-solving was positively related to both job crafting dimensions, whereas social support was positively related only to increasing social job resources. Unexpectedly, job autonomy predicted increasing structural resources only when social support was high, as the post-hoc analysis indicated. Furthermore, increasing structural job resources fully mediated the relationship of problem-solving with in-role performance and different types of extra-role behaviors, whereas increasing social resources did not act as a mediator.
Originality/value
The current study is the first to show that problem-solving is an important predictor for job crafting. Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature by revealing that crafting structural resources represents an important mechanism that explains the positive relationship between work design (i.e. problem-solving) and different performance facets.
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The purpose of this chapter is to use sociological theory and research to develop an explanation for how chronic illnesses are managed at home and to thereby suggest some ways in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to use sociological theory and research to develop an explanation for how chronic illnesses are managed at home and to thereby suggest some ways in which a sociological perspective can be applied to improve health care for persons with chronic illnesses. Self-care illness management is crucial to the prevention of and reduction of morbidity and mortality from chronic illness.
Methodology/approach
Review and synthesis of research literature.
Findings
Sociological research and theory suggest two important insights that should inform health care services aimed at improving self-care; chronic illness care occurs in the context of the household, neighborhood, and community and, therefore, the “patient” (i.e., the object of health services) is really the caregiving social network around the patient, and because the risk of chronic illness and the resources available to deal with it are socially (and unequally) distributed, “health care” interventions need to take account of disparities in risks and resources that will affect the patient’s ability to successfully comply with self-care regimens.
Research limitations/implications
The review does not include an examination of the clinical research literature. It does, however, suggest that sociologists need to explicitly study chronic illness and health care related to it.
Originality/value of chapter
The chapter links the long history of research on family caregiving to the concern with the success of self-management of chronic illness. It also links concerns about that success to social disparities in the distribution of social resources and hence to morbidity and mortality disparities.
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There is dearth of studies in the literature which have discussed the relevance of personal and social resources of employees to protect them from adverse impacts of emotional job…
Abstract
Purpose
There is dearth of studies in the literature which have discussed the relevance of personal and social resources of employees to protect them from adverse impacts of emotional job demands. However, interaction effect of these two resources on wellbeing of the employees in context to emotional work is inadequate. The present study is aimed to address the existing gap and investigate the relevance of personal and social resources as moderators in the presence of each other between emotional work and employee wellbeing.
Design/methodology/approach
The research work has focused on employees working on frontline profiles of civil aviation industry of north India. The responses of 720 frontline employees have been collected through pretested questionnaire. To understand the moderation effect of two variables, model number 3 developed by Hayes (2012) has been applied.
Findings
The findings have revealed that moderator role of social support between emotional work and employee wellbeing. However, research has pointed out that at high level of social support personal resources of employees' start to decline which subsequently reduces the wellbeing of employees.
Research limitations/implications
The present research work has analysed the moderated moderation effect of personal and social resources between emotional work and employee wellbeing. Besides, the relative significance of personal resources vis-a vis social resources empirically in context of employee wellbeing in case of emotional work has also been highlighted in the work.
Practical implications
The results of the study have suggested the employees to receive less social support from friends, family and other significant relationships to protect their personal resources in emotional work settings. Moreover, research work has implicated for employers to draw out the various interventions through which personal resources of employees can be enhanced in emotional work settings. Also, the research has assisted in designing the key competencies for different job domains of emotional work setups.
Social implications
The present study is very substantial in offering various parameters over which wellbeing policies for individuals can be framed. Also, the study has outlined the consequences of receiving different levels of social support which is applicable for that set of population who wants to enhance their personal resources for attaining high wellbeing.
Originality/value
The study has empirically investigated interaction effect of social and personal resources of employees between emotional work and employee wellbeing which is scarce in the literature. Besides, a dark side of social support in emotional work context has also been highlighted which was scarcely discussed in emotional work settings previously.
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Zhen Liu, Yingzhao Xiao, Shiyao Jiang and Shuang Hu
This study proposes personal network of social entrepreneurs as a key antecedent factor of their resource bricolage to understand the mechanisms underlying social entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
This study proposes personal network of social entrepreneurs as a key antecedent factor of their resource bricolage to understand the mechanisms underlying social entrepreneurial practices before the founding of social enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical study is used to collect and analyze data. The questionnaire data are drawn from in-depth semistructured interviews with Chinese social entrepreneurs. This study develops a theoretical framework that draws upon two dimensions of social capital, namely, “ownership” and “use,” to explore relationships among personal network, resource bricolage and relation strength.
Findings
With data from 227 social enterprises in China, empirical results suggest that personal network of social entrepreneurs, that is, the “owned” social capital, shall be transformed by the intermediate role of resource bricolage into relation strength, that is, the “used” social capital. The relationship between resource bricolage and relation strength is positively moderated by the marketization degree and social class of social entrepreneurs.
Research limitations/implications
This study introduces resource bricolage into the front-end course of social entrepreneurship. The results show that similar personal network can lead to different behavioral outcomes in the context of social entrepreneurship. Then the integration of resources and opportunities at the beginning of the social entrepreneurial process opens new avenues for future research. However, this study only investigates the transformation from network to resources implemented by social entrepreneurs before organization establishment. It does not explore potential outcomes of such a transformation for the development of social enterprises.
Practical implications
Social entrepreneurs at the prefounding stage shall make use of the values of available resources, fully use potential interpersonal relations in the personal network, and transform these relations into a close, steady relationship to realize potential values of available resources. Social entrepreneurs can start from excavation and foundation laying of strong relation networks, to avoid problems in legality, social awareness and failure risks generated from blind integration of external resources.
Originality/value
This study finds that social entrepreneurship exists between the motivation of the social entrepreneur and the establishment of the organization after the development over time. Creating first a phased result through the resource bricolage is necessary. This result establishes a complete process chain of social entrepreneurship from motivation to behavior, next to organization establishment and subsequent development. This study is an empirical test based on the theoretical interpretation to make a positive effect on the social entrepreneurship research in the theoretical construction and testing of the deficiencies.
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Inge Varekamp, Trudie Knijn, Martin van der Gaag and Peter Bos
Long-term welfare recipients in the Netherlands are either long-term unemployed or part-time employed in jobs that generate incomes below the subsistence level. The question is…
Abstract
Purpose
Long-term welfare recipients in the Netherlands are either long-term unemployed or part-time employed in jobs that generate incomes below the subsistence level. The question is whether reintegration policies aiming at their return to – a fulltime – job should consider individual social network factors besides psychological and human capital factors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate welfare recipients’ job search behaviour, in particular how individual social capital is distributed, and whether it is related to job search activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Standardised and structured interviews were conducted with 189 long-term unemployed welfare recipients. An adapted version of the Resource Generator instrument was used to measure individual access to social capital.
Findings
Social capital scales measuring domestic social resources, status-related social resources, expert advice on regulations and financial matters, and advice on finding a job were developed and psychometrically tested. Status-related social resources were more easily accessible to men and higher educated persons. Advice on finding a job was more easily accessible to recently unemployed individuals. Domestic social resources were less accessible to ethnic minorities. Persons with more social capital, specifically status-related social resources and advice in finding a job, showed more active job search behaviour.
Social implications
The differences in job search activities between respondents with more social capital and those with less social capital were present but to a small degree, and therefore there is no argument for reintegration activities to focus on enlarging social capital.
Originality/value
This study addresses the instrumental functions of the social network by multidimensionally scrutinising the resources that social relationships provide access to.
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Wenzhi Zheng, James Bronson and Chunpei Lin
This paper aims to explore the social entrepreneurs’ attention allocation and their resource action that lead to hybrid organization using the paradox theory. Paradox theory…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the social entrepreneurs’ attention allocation and their resource action that lead to hybrid organization using the paradox theory. Paradox theory deepens understandings of the varied nature, dynamics and outcomes of entrepreneurial tensions. This study explores the systematic effects of internal and external attention on both economic and social performance.
Design/methodology/approach
First, theoretically, hypotheses linking different attention allocations to ambidextrous behavior and entrepreneurial performance were formulated. Subsequently, the empirical studies based on Chinese social entrepreneurship were conducted to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The study provides support to the hypotheses showing that external attention is linked to resource acquisition and social performance, while internal attention is linked to resource acquisition and strategic human resource management and thus these ambidextrous behaviors promote both social and economic performance. Furthermore, normal pressure moderates the relations between internal attention and strategic human resource management only.
Research limitations/implications
The research measures entrepreneurs’ attention with questionnaire rather than psych test. Also, static data rather than longitudinal research is designed to test the hypotheses.
Practical implications
Deeper understanding of the attention of social entrepreneurs and resource action can help entrepreneurial outcomes and can potentially contribute to paradox and tension management by entrepreneurial practitioners in China.
Originality/value
Social entrepreneurs’ different attention allocation and related entrepreneurial ambidextrous behavior processes are linked to paradoxical thinking for the first time. The findings of this research can potentially enhance social entrepreneurship paradoxical thinking aimed at preventing mission drift.
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The aim of this research is to explore the behavioral model of Chinese organizational leaders acquiring resources for the development of their organizations under the influence of…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to explore the behavioral model of Chinese organizational leaders acquiring resources for the development of their organizations under the influence of hierarchically oriented social governance.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper compares the differences between Western and Chinese contexts and conducts a grounded multi-case study to explore leadership behavioral model in the Chinese context.
Findings
First, the Chinese social governance structure is hierarchically oriented, whereas the Western social governance structure is market oriented. Second, this unique inconformity found in the Chinese organizational leaders as contorted leadership, which refers to the inconsistency between leaders’ cognition and their behavior when acquiring resources for the development of their organizations, is defined. Third, the conflict between leaders’ cognition and behaviors is caused by the social governance mechanism within which leaders are embedded.
Research limitations/implications
The authors have just made a first step to understand contorted leadership in the Chinese context, further researches should pay more attention to exploring the origins, functions and impacts of leaders’ contorted behaviors.
Originality/value
First, leadership is linked with social governance by emphasizing on the core role of social governance in allocating the resources which organizational leaders scramble for. Second, a new kind of leadership –contorted leadership – in the Chinese context that emphasizes on the contradiction between leaders’ cognition and behavior, which deepens the understanding of leadership contextualization, is identified.
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Jing Du, Wei Fan and Jin Nam Choi
The ubiquity of smartphones has changed how people communicate, work and entertain. In view of conservation of resources theory and the positive spillover effect, this study…
Abstract
Purpose
The ubiquity of smartphones has changed how people communicate, work and entertain. In view of conservation of resources theory and the positive spillover effect, this study explores the effect of non-work-related instant messaging (IM) in the workplace on daily task performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the experience sampling method to collect day-level data from 75 employees over a period of 10 workdays. Multilevel path analysis is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Non-work-related IM exerts a significant negative indirect effect on daily task performance through diminished cognitive engagement. This negative indirect effect disappears when social support is high, thereby showing the function of social support as a neutralizer of the detriment of non-work-related IM on daily task performance.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that organizations can neutralize the harm of non-work-related IM in the workplace by promoting social support perceived by employees.
Originality/value
This study advances the technology and management literature by developing and testing a balanced perspective on the ambivalent effect of workplace smartphone use that considers social and cognitive resource implications.
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The paper aims to rethink empirical models and theory used in explaining banks and financial institutions (FIs) and to enhance the process of theory construction. This is a…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to rethink empirical models and theory used in explaining banks and financial institutions (FIs) and to enhance the process of theory construction. This is a provisional response to Colander et al. (2009) and Gendron and Smith-Lacroix’s (2013) call for a new approach to developing theory for finance and FIs.
Design/methodology/approach
An embryonic “behavioural theory of the financial firm” (BTFF) is outlined based on field research about banks and FI firms and relevant literature. The paper explores “conceptual connections” between BTFF and traditional finance theory ideas of financial intermediation. It does not seek to “integrate” finance theory and alternative theory in “meta theory” and has a more modest aim to improve theory content through “connections”.
Findings
The “conceptual connections” provide a means to develop ideas proposed by Scholtens and van Wensveen (2003). They are part of a “house with windows” intended to provide systematic means to “take data from the outside world” whilst continuously recognising “the complexities of the context” (Keasey and Hudson, 2007) to both challenge and build the core ideas of FT.
Research limitations/implications
The BTFF is a means to create “conversations” between academics, practitioners and regulators to aid theory construction. This can overcome the limitations of such an embryonic theory.
Practical implications
The ideas developed create new opportunities to develop finance theory, propose changes in banks and FIs and suggest changes in the focus of regulation.
Originality/value
Regulators can use the expanded conceptual framework to encourage theory development and to enhance accountability of banks and FIs to citizens.
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Keisuke Kokubun, Yoshiaki Ino and Kazuyoshi Ishimura
The workplace health management lessons to be learned from the pandemic are important. However, few studies have examined the relationship between workplace anxiety, resources and…
Abstract
Purpose
The workplace health management lessons to be learned from the pandemic are important. However, few studies have examined the relationship between workplace anxiety, resources and behaviors during the pandemic. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between anxiety, fatigue, compliance, turnover intention and social and psychological resources during the COVID-19 pandemic by applying the conservation of resources (COR) theory.
Design/methodology/approach
Path analysis was carried out using data obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted on 2,973 Chinese employees of Japanese companies in China.
Findings
The analysis showed that anxiety had a positive correlation with compliance, but simultaneously had a positive correlation with fatigue and turnover intention; psychological resources moderated to weaken the relationships between anxiety and compliance/fatigue; social resources moderated to strengthen the negative correlation between compliance and willingness to leave.
Research limitations/implications
This study targeted employees of Japanese companies in China. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to verify generalizability as to whether it applies to employees of companies of other nationalities in other countries. Also, the authors used newly developed scales instead of the general psychological scales. Therefore, it is necessary to verify the reproducibility using a more general scale.
Practical implications
Anxiety encourages compliance practices but also increases fatigue and willingness to leave. Therefore, a method of inciting anxiety and making employees follow rules reduces the strength of an organization. To overcome this dilemma, managers need to provide psychological and social resources.
Originality/value
This study is the first to show how effective social and psychological resources are in the management of anxiety and fatigue in achieving high performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conducted in the very early days of the COVID-19 pandemic with the cooperation of employees working for Japanese companies in China. However, the importance of utilizing resources in a crisis revealed by this study can be applied to all kinds of disasters.
Highlights:
-The current study is the result of a survey conducted on employees of Japanese companies in China in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
-Anxiety had a positive effect of promoting compliance and a negative effect of increasing fatigue and willingness to leave the job.
-Psychological resources mitigated these effects of anxiety and, as a result, reduced fatigue and willingness to leave.
-Social resources enhanced the effect of compliance on reducing willingness to leave.
-Workplace health problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic should be addressed by increasing employee resources on a regular basis, rather than aggravating anxiety.
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