Total Funding Awarded: $643,593States of Organizational Participation and Withdrawal: Measurement Development and Theory Validation by Rodger W. Griffeth, Ph.D., Ohio University, Thomas W. Lee, University of Washington, Peter W. Homm, Arizona State University and Terence R. Mitchell, University of Washington
Funded: December 2012 Completed: July 2015
Media Summary: As organizations struggle to address growing employee turnover rates and the associated costs, a new, practical H.R. solution may be on the horizon. Recent thinking by Hom, Mitchell, Lee & Griffeth (2012) introduced the idea that employee quit decisions might be better conceived as consisting of four groups (enthusiastic stayers and leavers, and reluctant stayers and leavers) instead of the traditional two groups (enthusiastic stayers and leavers). In recent empirical tests of this notion, Lee, Li, Mitchell, Hom & Griffeth (under review), confirmed the proximal withdrawal state theory of turnover may not only enhance an organization's ability to predict employee turnover, but provide the means for organizations to target interventions to those employees in which an intervention may produce the most cost-effective impact. Reluctant stayers (individuals who want to leave, but have stay) are most similar to enthusiastic leavers (individuals who want to leave and can leave) in terms of their low organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and embeddedness to their current job/community. On the other hand, reluctant leavers (individuals who have to leave, but want to stay) are most similar to enthusiastic stayers (individual who want to stay and can stay) in terms of their high organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and embeddedness. The authors conclude that identifying employees by these states, may in the future provide organizations with practical tools to better manage their workforce and where possible, address worker and organizational issues to promote retention of high performing employees.
When Talent Loss Poses the Greatest Risk: Understanding the Effects of Departure Sequencing, Clustering, and Timing on Organizational Performance by John Hausknecht, Ph.D., Cornell University and Jacob A. Holverda, Ph.D., Iowa State University
Funded: October 2013 Completed: December 2014
Media Summary: With more than 50 million workers separating from their employers in 2013 alone, it has become critical to understand the consequences of this massive movement of workers into, through, and away from firms. The goal of this study was to better understand when talent-related losses pose the greatest risk to organizational health. In contrast to traditional "resource loss" approaches that are grounded in turnover rates, the study focuses more deeply on the underlying human capital within work units to recast the issue as one of "resource-preservation." Results show that measuring the capacity of units to perform—which encompasses more than just turnover—is a reliable, leading indicator of customer satisfaction, unit revenues, and profits. This approach more easily distinguishes between concentrated losses of critical talent versus routine movement of more peripheral employees, thereby allowing organizations to target interventions to those units where the risk to operational performance is greatest.
Investigating the Healthy Adoption of Investigating the Healthy Adoption of Mobile Communication Technologies to Manage Work Demands: Implications for HR and Beyond by Stacie Furst-Holloway, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, Elaine Hollensbe, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, Suzanne Masterson, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, Therese Sprinkle, Ph.D., Quinnipiac University
Funded: June 2012 Completed: June 2015
Media Summary: The widespread use of mobile communication technologies (MCTs), including laptops, smart phones and tablets, has created a world in which employees may now connect to work anywhere, anytime. It is not uncommon, for instance, for employees to use MCTs to complete work-related tasks before or after work hours or to check in with work via email multiple times while off hours. However, research suggests that these behaviors can result in a number of negative outcomes for employees, including greater work-home conflict, stress, and burnout. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to understand how individuals can use MCTs in ways that lead to positive outcomes in both the work and home domains. To address this issue, we used a mixed methods approach that included interviews with a diverse group of 33 professionals and an on-line survey of more than 500 employees, their supervisors, peers, and significant others.
Our findings suggest that employees' MCT use was influenced not just by personal preferences for segmentation or integration of work and home boundaries, but also (and more strongly) by organizational norms regarding technology use. In particular, when employees observed others in the organization they respected or whose opinions they valued using technology to integrate, they were more likely to do the same. Additionally, while the use of integration tactics was associated with greater job satisfaction, employees were seen by their supervisors and peers as more focused at work and higher performing when they used segmentation rather than integration tactics. Employees also were seen by their significant others as less focused on the home role when they used integration tactics. Being unfocused at home was associated with lower relationship satisfaction (as reported by significant others). Taken together, our findings have a number of implications for HR practitioners. First, given the desirability of job flexibility for many employees, HR practitioners should support integration efforts by providing tools to help employees manage their time, reduce stress, and find effective ways to disconnect or detach from work so that they have time to recover from the 24/7 work cycle. Second, given how strongly organizational norms influenced employee behaviors, HR can help those in supervisory positions become more aware of their own behaviors and the signals those send to employees to avoid creating unnecessary "pressures to respond" off hours. Finally, because our findings suggest that segmentation is associated with greater perceptions of focus at work, HR may wish to establish informal policies or guidelines suggesting how and when technology can be used so that employees can balance the need to be available with the pull of being distracted by technology.
Why Employees React to HR Practices Differently: Using HR Practice Saliency to Explain the Variability in the Effects of HR Practices on Employee Outcomes by David P. Lepak, Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Kaifeng Jiang, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, Sargam Garg, Ph.D., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Funded: December 2012 Completed: June 2015
Media Summary:
Towards Understanding Effective Corporate Leadership and Motivation in Africa by Terri Lituchy, Ph.D., University of the West Indies, Barbados and Corcordia University, Canada, Betty Jane Punett, Ph.D., University of the West Indies and David Ford, Ph.D., University of Texas, Dallas
Funded: December 2012 Completed: March 2014
Media Summary: The current interest in Africa, and particularly in HRM in Africa, is driven by a new interest in doing business in Africa, and recognition that African countries are increasingly part of the global economy, with impressive economic growth rates in some countries. The LEAD (Leadership Effectiveness and Motivation in Africa and the African Diaspora) research project addresses an important current issue for HRM practitioners: leadership and motivation in Africa. The study identified effective leadership and motivation approaches which derive from and are applicable in Africa. Dr. Terri Lituchy and her LEAD research team found differences in effective leadership in Africa that is not common in western research or business. These include being a big man, religion and spirituality, and Ubuntu that are not included in Western measures of leadership. The LEAD research suggests that basic needs are key to motivation in an African context. This is not surprising given the relative poverty in many countries in Africa. It suggests that some simple "rewards", such as the provision of subsidized meals at the worksite would be a substantial motivator. HR professionals can use results such as this to investigate the impact of providing subsidized meals on attendance, performance and turnover. The costs and benefits of providing subsidized meals are quantifiable and can be evaluated by HRM departments. Similarly, our initial results suggest the importance of the male in leadership positions. The findings are intended to inform the preparation of indigenous training and development programs for use by HR practitioners in African countries.
Identifying and Mitigating Human Capital Risk in Enterprise Risk Assessment by Robert E. Ployhart, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, William Shepherd, Ph.D., University of South Carolina and Donald Hale, Jr., University of South Carolina
Funded: October 2012 Completed: December 2014
Media Summary: This study examines the consequences of an individual turnover event on a unit's financial performance. Using a large sample of bank branches, the results show that employee and manager turnover both produce an immediate five to six percent drop on branch financial performance. The recovery rate for an employee turnover event is approximately 10 months, meaning that it will take the average branch 10 months to recover to pre-turnover levels of performance. The recovery rate for a manager turnover event is even slower and takes approximately 16 months. The recovery rates are also slower when branch employees work more interdependently. Thus, even a single turnover event can have lasting serious financial consequences on the collective unit. These findings underscore the importance of modeling turnover, and talent more generally, as a possible determinant of financial risk for business units.
The Science and Practice of Executive Coaching: Development of a Process-based Model and Measurement Toolkit of Executive Coaching Effectiveness by Eduardo Salas, Ph.D., Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central Florida
Funded: January 2013 Completed: March 2015
Media Summary: The researchers conducted a study to examine the factors that contribute to coachings' effectiveness as a development resource. Results show that coaching has significant positive relationships with coachee insight, an outcome that is highly correlated with the more distal outcome of intended goal attainment. While factors like coachee motivation, coachee structure schema, 'coachability' are predictive of successful coaching engagements, it was also found that working alliance and information sharing partially mediate the relationship between specific coaching behaviors (e.g. regulating motivation; coaching authentically) and coachee insight outcomes. Our meta-analytic findings show that coaching has the strongest effects on coachee behavioral change as opposed to attitudinal changes and that coaching elicits strong working alliance between coach and coachee. These findings suggest that coaches must spend time honing a positive working relationship with coachees that is characterized by trust, mutual respect, shared goal setting, and open and honest communication in order to achieve maximal coaching outcomes.
High Performance Work Systems in Nonprofit Organizations: Surfacing Better Practices to Improve Nonprofit HRM Capacity by Sally Coleman Selden, Ph.D., Lynchburg College and Jessica E. Sowa, Ph.D., University of Colorado, Denver
Funded: August 2012
Completed: August 2014
Media Summary: The performance of nonprofit organizations can be enhanced by the adoption of various components of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) employed by many for profit organizations, according to a recent study by Sally Selden and Jessica Sowa, titled "High Performance Work Systems in Nonprofit Organizations: Surfacing Better Practices to Improve Nonprofit HRM Capacity." The authors surveyed 344 human service nonprofit organizations in eight states, chose the 16 highest performing nonprofits, interviewed the executive directors and surveyed employees and volunteers of these 16 organizations. The study found performance was higher in nonprofits that adopted High Performance Work Systems. Employee satisfaction was also higher in organizations that used HPWS practices that involved effective information sharing, quality on-boarding, good compensation programs (including rewards other than salary), and management practices that engendered trust between management and employees.