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1 – 10 of over 6000Shubhi Gupta, Govind Swaroop Pathak and Baidyanath Biswas
This paper aims to determine the impact of perceived virtuality on team dynamics and outcomes by adopting the Input-Mediators-Outcome (IMO) framework. Further, it also…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to determine the impact of perceived virtuality on team dynamics and outcomes by adopting the Input-Mediators-Outcome (IMO) framework. Further, it also investigates the mediating role of team processes and emergent states.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected survey data from 315 individuals working in virtual teams (VTs) in the information technology sector in India using both offline and online questionnaires. They performed the analysis using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The authors investigated two sets of hypotheses – both direct and indirect (or mediation interactions). Results show that psychological empowerment and conflict management are significant in managing VTs. Also, perceived virtuality impacts team outcomes, i.e. perceived team performance, team satisfaction and subjective well-being.
Research limitations/implications
The interplay between the behavioural team process (conflict management) and the emergent state (psychological empowerment) was examined. The study also helps broaden our understanding of the various psychological variables associated with teamwork in the context of VTs.
Practical implications
Findings from this study will aid in assessing the consequences of virtual teamwork at both individual and organisational levels, such as guiding the design and sustainability of VT arrangements, achieving higher productivity in VTs, and designing effective and interactive solutions in the virtual space.
Social implications
The study examined the interplay between behavioural team processes (such as conflict management) and emergent states (such as psychological empowerment). The study also theorises and empirically tests the relationships between perceived virtuality and team outcomes (i.e. both affective and effectiveness). It may serve as a guide to understanding team dynamics in VTs better.
Originality/value
This exploratory study attempts to enhance the current understanding of the research and practice of VTs within a developing economy.
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Yeongjoon Yoon and Sukanya Sengupta
Research on the effect of pay cuts/freezes on employee morale is limited. More importantly, past studies examining this relationship tend to focus on fairness perception as a…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on the effect of pay cuts/freezes on employee morale is limited. More importantly, past studies examining this relationship tend to focus on fairness perception as a mediator. This study hypothesizes that work–life conflict also mediates the negative relationship between pay cuts/freezes and employee morale.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 13,139 employees in 1,830 workplaces in Britain in the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey were analyzed.
Findings
The analyses confirm the above hypothesis. The results also demonstrate that this mediating mechanism can be mitigated to some extent when work–life balancing practices are available, but much more strongly when they are actually used.
Practical implications
If possible, organizations should provide and encourage employees to use work–life balancing practices when employees' pay needs to be cut or frozen if maintaining employee morale is a concern.
Originality/value
Our study highlights the need to incorporate various theoretical frameworks, and not just the dominant justice/fairness theories, into the study of pay cuts and freezes. The current research demonstrates that the work–life conflict framework can also be applied to understand the relationship between pay cuts/freezes and employee morale.
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Tavleen Kaur and Santanu Mandal
COVID-19 disrupted the usual way of working for many people across the globe, making full-time work from home and hybrid models two popular work arrangements. Despite the…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 disrupted the usual way of working for many people across the globe, making full-time work from home and hybrid models two popular work arrangements. Despite the proliferation and high acceptance of the hybrid model, very little research has focused on the same. This study aims to compare the impact of transitions caused by remote work on work disengagement under two settings: remote work and hybrid model.
Design/methodology/approach
The data is collected from three corporate hubs in India: Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Bangalore. This study’s respondents represent two working models: full-time work from home and a hybrid model. Responses were collected using Google forms-based questionnaire, which resulted in the following usable responses: 356 (hybrid) and 398 (work from home).
Findings
The findings reveal that the structural model for the hybrid sector explained 11% of the variance in work disengagement, while the same for work from home model accounted for 20% of the variance in work disengagement. The authors also tested for the moderation of individual resilience between work-home and home-to-work conflicts and home-to-work transitions and work-to-home conflict under full-time work-from and hybrid models. Based on 356 respondents from hybrid category and 398 from work from home, the study found that employees experience less work-to-home and home-to-work conflicts in the hybrid model and employees experience more work-to-home and home-to-work conflicts in the full-time work from home model.
Originality/value
The study is also the first to examine the moderating role of individual resilience as a tool to bounce back and handle conflicts. As the full-time work from home model leads to more work-to-home and home-to-work conflicts, individuals have more scope to exhibit resilience, and thus, the moderating relationship is stronger in the full-time work from home model. The paper offers theoretical and managerial implications.
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Andrew Owsiak, Paul F. Diehl and Gary Goertz
The purpuse of this study is to answer the following two questions. Do conflict management efforts mitigate the recurrence and severity of civil conflict? If so, how? Do some…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpuse of this study is to answer the following two questions. Do conflict management efforts mitigate the recurrence and severity of civil conflict? If so, how? Do some conflict management strategies fare better than others in these tasks? This study theorizes about the connection between the costliness of a conflict management strategy – with respect to both the disputants and third parties – and civil conflict outcomes. This theory produces two contradictory predictions: that more costly strategies either increase or decrease violence. This study not only adjudicates between these two possibilities but also incorporates the role of timing. The early use of more costly strategies, for example, may encourage disputants to reduce violence in civil conflicts.
Design/methodology/approach
To evaluate the predications that the authors derive from their theoretical argument, the authors quantitatively analyze the effect of conflict management strategies’ relative cost on various measures of civil conflict recurrence and severity. The authors first identify the set of international–civil militarized conflicts (I-CMCs) during the period 1946–2010. I-CMCs contain two dimensions – interstate and intrastate – making them the most complex and dangerous form of militarized conflict. To each I-CMC, the authors then link all third-party attempts to manage the I-CMC’s civil conflict dimension. Finally, after developing quantitative indicators, a series of regression equations explore the relationships of primary interest.
Findings
Two main findings emerge. First, when third parties use a relatively more costly conflict management strategy to manage a civil conflict (e.g. a peace operation or military intervention, as opposed to mediation), the severity of the conflict increases, while conflict recurrence rates remain unchanged. Second, this study uncovers a trade-off. The early use of a relatively more costly management strategy lowers a civil conflict’s severity in the short-term. It also, however, increases the likelihood – and speed with which – civil conflict recurs. The timing of certain conflict management strategies matters.
Originality/value
Scholars typically isolate conflict management strategies in number (i.e. consider efforts as independent of one another, even those within the same conflict) and kind (i.e. examine mediation but not peace operations). This study, in contrast, includes the following: the full menu of conflict management strategies available to third parties – negotiation, mediation, adjudication/arbitration, peace operations, sanctions and military intervention – over a lengthy time period (1946–2010); theorizes about the relative merits of these strategies; and considers the timing of certain conflict management efforts. In so doing, it highlights a policy trade-off and proposes promising areas for future research.
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Mario J. Donate, Fátima Guadamillas and Miguel González-Mohíno
This paper aims to analyze factors based on organizational knowledge management (KM; transactional memory systems and knowledge-oriented leadership [K-OL]) that help firms to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze factors based on organizational knowledge management (KM; transactional memory systems and knowledge-oriented leadership [K-OL]) that help firms to mitigate conflicts based on task management at work, with the aim to improve their innovation capabilities (IC). The knowledge-based view of the firm, conflict management theory and cognitive collective engagement theory have been used to build a model of relationships that connects the development of positive KM contexts and management of dysfunctional conflict with IC improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
Data survey collected from inland hotel establishments in Spain is used to test seven hypotheses by means of structural equations modeling, applying the partial least squares technique. Direct, indirect and mediating relationships between variables are examined from the structural path model.
Findings
The results confirm that, as expected, IC improve when K-OL and transactive memory systems (TMSs) are properly implemented by hotel establishments, which leads them to reduce negative effects of task management conflict (TMC). Significant direct effects are found between the key variables of the study and also a significant indirect effect between K-OL and IC through TMS reinforcement and the mitigation of TMC.
Practical implications
This paper provides useful ideas for hotel managers about how to improve KM contexts in their establishments while avoiding TMC. Efforts devoted to creating those contexts by hotel establishments are shown to be effective to improve their IC and create competitive advantages.
Originality/value
The analysis of IC improvement by studying TMC mitigation had not been researched to date by the KM literature. The consideration and testing of a model that integrates KM-related tools such as K-OL and TMS to avoid TMC in the hotel industry is the main contribution of this study.
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Jiayi Song, Hao Jiao and Canhao Wang
Innovative behavior is a microfoundation of an organization’s innovation. Knowledge workers are the main creators of innovations. With the boundaries between work and family…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovative behavior is a microfoundation of an organization’s innovation. Knowledge workers are the main creators of innovations. With the boundaries between work and family becoming increasingly ambiguous, the purpose of this study is to explore how the work–family conflict affects knowledge workers’ innovative behavior and when such a conflict arises.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the theoretical model, this study collected data from a time-lagged matched sample of 214 dual-career couples. The data were analyzed with the bias-corrected bootstrapping method.
Findings
The results of this study showed that work-to-family conflict had not only a direct negative effect on knowledge workers’ innovative behavior but also an indirect effect through spouses’ within-family emotional exhaustion and knowledge workers’ family-to-work conflict. If wives’ gender role perceptions are traditional, then the indirect serial mediating effect is weakened, but if such perceptions are egalitarian, then the mentioned effect is aggravated.
Practical implications
In terms of organizational implications, managers could alter their approach by reducing detrimental factors such as work–family conflict to improve knowledge workers’ innovative behavior. Emotional assistance programs for both knowledge workers and their spouses can be used to prevent the detrimental effect of work–family conflict on innovative behavior. As to social implications, placing dual-career couples into a community of likeminded individuals and promoting their agreement on gender role identity will greatly reduce the negative effects of work–family conflict.
Originality/value
Starting from the perspective of the behavior outcome of knowledge management, this study advances the existing knowledge management literature by enriching the antecedents of knowledge workers’ innovative behavior, illuminating a spillover–crossover–spillover effect of work–family conflict on knowledge workers’ innovative behavior and identifying the boundary condition of this transmission process.
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Yuanmei (Elly) Qu, Gergana Todorova, Marie T. Dasborough and Yunxia Shi
The purpose of this study is to examine whether and how abusive supervision climate impacts team conflict from a mindfulness perspective. Prior research has identified serious…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine whether and how abusive supervision climate impacts team conflict from a mindfulness perspective. Prior research has identified serious dysfunctional effects of abusive supervision climate in teams. Team conflict, which is often a signal for dysfunctional relationships in teams, has however received limited attention. To contribute to this line of research, this study develops and tests a theoretical model on the role of team mindfulness in understanding the link between abusive supervision climate and task, process, and relationship conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the theoretical model, this study collected and analyzed two-wave time-lagged data from 499 employees in 92 teams.
Findings
The results showed that abusive supervision climate aggravated task conflict and process conflict via diminishing levels of team mindfulness. Abusive supervision climate also exacerbated relationship conflict, but the effects did not occur via a decrease in team mindfulness.
Practical implications
While it may not always be possible to prevent the development of an abusive supervision climate in workplaces, other interventions may prevent conflict in teams with abusive leaders. As indicated by the findings, task conflict and process conflict may be reduced if teams are high on mindfulness. Interventions that stimulate team mindfulness might thus improve collaboration in teams with abusive leaders.
Originality/value
This research offers novel insights regarding how abusive leaders might instigate conflict within teams. Specifically, through the unique perspective of mindfulness, the authors are able to offer new insights into how abusive supervision climate affects task, process and relationship conflict. This study offers a novel, yet important, lens to examine how conflict occurs in teams.
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Nicolás Caso, Dorothea Hilhorst, Rodrigo Mena and Elissaios Papyrakis
Disasters and armed conflict often co-occur, but does that imply that disasters trigger or fuel conflict? In the small but growing body of literature attempting to answer this…
Abstract
Purpose
Disasters and armed conflict often co-occur, but does that imply that disasters trigger or fuel conflict? In the small but growing body of literature attempting to answer this question, divergent findings indicate the complex and contextual nature of a potential answer to this question. The purpose of this study is to contribute a robust cross-country analysis of the co-occurrence of disaster and conflict, with a particular focus on the potential role played by disaster.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in a theoretical model of disaster–conflict co-occurrence, this study merges data from 163 countries between 1990 and 2017 on armed conflict, disasters and relevant control variables (low human development, weak democratic institutions, natural resource dependence and large population size/density).
Findings
The main results of this study show that, despite a sharp increase in the co-occurrence of disasters and armed conflict over time, disasters do not appear to have a direct statistically significant relation with the occurrence of armed conflict. This result contributes to the understanding of disasters and conflicts as indirectly related via co-creation mechanisms and other factors.
Originality/value
This study is a novel contribution, as it provides a fresh analysis with updated data and includes different control variables that allow for a significant contribution to the field.
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Vijay Kuriakose and Sreejesh S
The study attempts to understand the relationship between behavioural conflict and employee well-being and examines the intervening role of the negative affect state. Besides…
Abstract
Purpose
The study attempts to understand the relationship between behavioural conflict and employee well-being and examines the intervening role of the negative affect state. Besides this, the study also analyses the moderating role of workplace fun.
Design/methodology/approach
Following affective events theory, the authors developed the conceptual model and postulated the study hypotheses. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from frontline employees of selected hotels in India. Further, the authors tested the hypotheses following the process approach (Hayes, 2013, 2018).
Findings
The study findings reported that behavioural conflict has a negative relationship with employee well-being, and the negative affect state mediates the relationship between behavioural conflict and employee well-being. The results also established the moderating role of workplace fun in this relationship.
Research limitations/implications
The study's findings extend the current understanding of the effect of behavioural conflict on employee well-being and explain how it influences employee well-being. The study also provides guidelines to manage the detrimental effect of behavioural conflict.
Originality/value
The study established the association between behavioural conflict and employee well-being and highlighted the process through and condition under which behavioural conflict influences employee well-being. This could be the first study examining the relationship between behavioural conflict and employee well-being.
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Martha Harunavamwe and Herbert Kanengoni
The study assessed the impact of technostress creators, work–family conflict and perceived organisational support (POS) on work engagement for employees operating within the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study assessed the impact of technostress creators, work–family conflict and perceived organisational support (POS) on work engagement for employees operating within the virtual and hybrid work settings. The idea is to redefine the antecedents of work engagement in work settings that are characterised by excessive technology and work–family conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
Data gathered from 302 academics and support staff employees at a selected university in South Africa were utilised to assess the abovementioned relationships via variance-based structural equation modelling.
Findings
The combined effect of technostress, work–family conflict and POS on work engagement indicates that work–family conflict is a critical component in the relationship between technostress and work engagement. Although POS is seen as a job resource that lessens stress, the study found that the influence of work–family conflict is stronger than that of POS; hence, a negative influence is reported on work engagement. Despite the presence of support, overwhelming technostress creators and work–family conflict issues increase demands and influence work engagement negatively.
Research limitations/implications
The results noted that, in hybrid and virtual work settings, managers can drive employee engagement by focussing on designing more favourable work–life balance (WLB) policies, providing adequate information communication technology (ICT) support, fostering aspects of positive technology and defining the boundaries between work life and family time.
Practical implications
The managers need to realise the detrimental effects of both technostress and work–family conflict on work engagement in virtual and hybrid work settings. Expanding the personal and job resources of individuals in hybrid and virtual settings is critical to enable them to meet the additional work demands and to manage the strain imposed by technostress. Instituting relevant organisation support has proved to be inadequate to address the challenges relating to technostress and work–family conflict. Therefore, introducing WLB policies that assist employees to set clear boundaries between work and family time to avoid burn out and spillover is critical. This is especially important when dealing with technostress creators in the remote work setting. Additionally, providing adequate ICT support as well as training related to use of different devices and software should be part of the organisational culture.
Social implications
A manageable and reasonable workload should be maintained bearing in mind the complexity and ambiguity associated with the hybrid work setting. Managers should make allowances for employees to adjust managers' schedules to accommodate personal obligations, as well as adjust employees' workloads to accommodate family responsibilities. As for the coping strategy of technostress and work–family conflict, considering the positive effects of the supportive work environment is important.
Originality/value
This study provides a model on the interaction of the redefined antecedents (technostress and work–family conflict) of work engagement in high-tech environments such as virtual and hybrid work settings.
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