The Pursuit of Happiness at Work

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This National Public Health Week, we remind ourselves there is much that management academics and practitioners can do to refocus on the relevance of the field for improving people’s lives. Today we highlight a literature review on life satisfaction from the Journal of Management that aims to understand the relationship between work and happiness. Managers may ask themselves: do employees feel challenged at work? Are they given opportunities to grow? Is their work meaningful to them? On-the-job tension, work-family conflict, and other stressors are also considered:

A discussion of top-down and bottom-up theories of life satisfaction is included, and the literatures on work-related antecedents of life satisfaction, the proximal mediators (quality of work life, quality of nonwork life, and feelings of self-worth), and consequences of life satisfaction were reviewed. A meta-analysis of life satisfaction with respect to career satisfaction, job performance, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment was performed. Each major section of the article concludes with a future opportunities subsection where gaps in the research are discussed.

Click here to continue reading “Whistle While You Work : A Review of the Life Satisfaction Literature,” published by Berrin Erdogan, Talya N. Bauer, Donald M. Truxillo and Layla R. Mansfield in the Journal of Management (JOM)–and sign up for e-alerts so stay up-to-date on the latest research in your field.

Positive Leadership and Employee Well-Being

E. Kevin Kelloway, Heidi Weigand, Margaret C. McKee, and Hari Das, all of Saint Mary’s University, published “Positive Leadership and Employee Well-Being” in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies February 2013 issue. The abstract:

We report two studies examining the relationship between positive leadership behaviors and employee well-being. In the first, data from 454 nursing home employees showed that (a) a newly developed measure of positive leadership was distinct from transformational leadership and (b) positive leadership behaviors predicted context-specific and context-free well-being after controlling for transformational and abusive leadership. In the second study, data from a daily diary study (N = 26) showed that (a) positive leadership predicted positive, but not negative, employee affect and (b) positive leadership interacted with transformational leadership to predict employees positive affect.

Click here to continue reading the article, and sign up for e-alerts from the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies so you don’t miss the latest research articles on the intersection of leadership and organizational studies.

Administrative Science Quarterly March Issue Now Online!

Volume 58, No. 1 (March 2013) of Administrative Science Quarterly is now available online. We hope you will find this issue insightful and thought-provoking. You can view the Table of Contents here.

The lead article, “Breaking Them in or Eliciting Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomers’ Authentic Self-expression” was published by Daniel M. Cable of London Business School, Francesca Gino of Harvard University, and Bradley R. Staats of the University of North Carolina. The abstract:

Socialization theory has focused on enculturating new employees such that they develop pride in their new organization and internalize its values. We draw on authenticity research to theorize that the initial stage of socialization leads to more effective employment relationships when it instead primarily encourages newcomers to express their personal identities. In a field experiment carried out in a large business process outsourcing company in India, we found that initial socialization focused on personal identity (emphasizing newcomers’ authentic best selves) led to greater customer satisfaction and employee retention after six months than socialization that focused on organizational identity (emphasizing the pride to be gained from organizational affiliation) or the organization’s traditional approach, which focused primarily on skills training. To confirm causation and explore the mechanisms underlying the effects, we replicated the results in a laboratory experiment in a U.S. university. We found that individuals working temporarily as part of a research team were more engaged and satisfied with their work, performed their tasks more effectively, and were less likely to quit when initial socialization focused on personal identity rather than on organizational identity or a control condition. In addition, authentic self-expression mediated these relationships. We call for a new direction in socialization theory that examines how both organizations and employees can benefit by emphasizing newcomers’ authentic best selves.

Click here to learn more about Administrative Science Quarterly and here to receive updates via email from the journal.

The Key to Attracting Great Employees? Fun!

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If you want to recruit the best and the brightest employees, it’s time to look beyond benefits and vertical advancement—you might just need to offer more fun in the workplace, according to findings in the   Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies (JLOS).

Michael J. Tews of The Pennsylvania State University, John W. Michel of Towson University, and Albert Bartlett of The Pennsylvania State University published “The Fundamental Role of Workplace Fun in Applicant Attraction” in the February 2012 issue of JLOS. Click here to view the Table of Contents.

Emphasizing that “fun may be particularly relevant during difficult economic times such as these,” the study looked at different types of fun workplace activities, both formal and informal, and found:

…Specifically, this research examined the impact of workplace fun relative to other key predictors of applicant attraction…. With a sample of collegiate job seekers, the results demonstrated that workplace fun was a stronger predictor of applicant attraction than compensation and opportunities for advancement.

Read the full article here. To learn more about the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, follow this link.

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Job Satisfaction: Closer Than You Think In Family Business

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When it comes to job satisfaction, do “family” and “business” seem incompatible to you?

A new study in Family Business Review (FBR) looks at “business embeddedness (family executives’ embeddedness in the family business) and family embeddedness (family executives’ embeddedness in their family)” and  finds they are not as different as you may think.

Dmitry Khanin and Ofir Turel, both of California State University, Fullerton, and Raj V. Mahto of the University of New Mexico published “How to Increase Job Satisfaction and Reduce Turnover Intentions in the Family Firm: The Family–Business Embeddedness Perspective” on May 4, 2012 in FBR. To see more OnlineFirst articles, click here.

Dr. Khanin kindly provided the following responses about the article:

What inspired you to be interested in this topic?

I have talked to a student that works in the family firm and he told me lots of interesting stories about his family, uncles, cousins, parents and brothers. The stories hinged on how these different individuals ended up working in the family firm. For some, it was an easy decision. For others, it was very hard to take the plunge. I also started asking questions about the incentives to stay, the temptation to leave, etc. It was so interesting. I started talking to my colleagues, they came up with some additional questions, and that’s how it all got started. The rest is history.

Were there findings that were surprising to you?

Fortunately, there were no major surprises. You don’t necessarily want any surprises coming from the data, you know. It took us a while, though, to write the paper and there were many revisions to satisfy the reviewers and editors – very smart and very demanding people. As usual, it is important to convince others that your arguments make sense and that you have solid evidence to prove it. However, to repeat, there were no major surprises with regard to the findings… Thank God! We were surprised, however, once we started talking to families and digging deeper into the material. The surprises happened before, I guess. And there were many!

How do you see this study influencing future research and/or practice?

That’s the hardest prediction to make. We are currently attempting a new study that is influenced by this one. So, we may have influenced our new research. As to other people, you may only hope that somebody likes your ideas so much that they will have an impact on their thinking. Well, this paper suggests a new look on family business. We called it the family-business embeddedness perspective. The main idea is that family and business may not be as different as many people have thought in the past. We hope this idea will take root and perhaps even influence future research but you never know.

What, if anything, would you do differently if you could go back and do this study again?

Well, we would probably try to get more horsepower regarding the sample. A larger sample (we had just over 100 responses) would be nice. Also, there are certain things that we now realize could be interesting to measure. But these are all new ideas coming out of this study. This could be our next big thing, knock on the wood!

To learn more about Family Business Review, please follow this link.

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What Happens When Workers Speak Out?

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Research has shown that employees dissatisfied with working conditions inevitably will communicate their dissent–whether to a superior or only to a coworker–despite the risks of such behavior. A new study in the Journal of Business Communication (JBC) finds that this dissent expression can benefit the employees themselves, as well as the health of the organizations they work for.

Jeffrey W. Kassing and Curtis A. Mitchell, both of Arizona State University; Nicole M. Piemonte of The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas; and Carmen C. Goman of the University of Georgia, Athens published “Dissent Expression as an Indicator of Work Engagement and Intention to Leave” in the July 2012 issue of JBC. To see other articles in this issue, please click here.

The abstract:

This study examined how dissent expression related to employees’ self reports of work engagement and intention to leave. A sample of full-time employees completed a multi-instrument questionnaire. Findings indicated that dissent expression related to both employees’ work engagement and their intention to leave. In particular, dissent expressed to management and coworkers associated with work engagement, whereas dissent expressed to nonmanagement audiences associated with intention to leave. Additional analysis revealed that for managers, work engagement was primarily a function of refraining from expressing dissent.

To learn more about the Journal of Business Communication, please follow this link.

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What Makes Employees Stay?

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The wires are abuzz with studies telling employers why their hires are leaving. But what exactly are the factors that make employees want to stick around?

A new study in the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies (JLOS) explores the “six dimensions of job embeddedness” that make employees stay put, including relationships with coworkers, community and area appeal, perks workers don’t want to give up, and much more. Implications for practitioners are offered.

David D. Dawley of West Virginia University and Martha C. Andrews of the University of North Carolina Wilmington published “Staying Put: Off-the-Job Embeddedness as a Moderator of the Relationship Between On-the-job Embeddedness and Turnover Intentions” on May 31, 2012 in JLOS. To see other OnlineFirst articles, please click here.

The abstract:

This study examined the relationship between two forms of embeddedness and turnover intentions using a sample of 1,189 employees of a government agency and an additional sample of 346 nurses at a hospital. The authors propose that while both on-the-job and off-the-job embeddedness factors are negatively related to turnover intentions, on-the-job embeddedness is more strongly related to turnover intentions. More important, off-the-job factors moderate the relationship between on-the-job embeddedness and turnover intentions such that this relationship is weaker when off-the-job embeddedness is higher. These results highlight the mitigating role of off-the-job factors in helping to retain employees. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

To learn more about the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, please follow this link.

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SAGE Journals Recently In the News

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In recent weeks, SAGE journals have cropped up in news outlets including The New York Times and the Toronto Star, offering fresh insights on management topics ranging from employee burnout and worker mobility to sports economics.

In today’s post, we bring you those media highlights and take a closer look at the studies that inspired them. We hope you find this selection interesting and useful.

Matthew Bidwell of the University of Pennsylvania published “Paying More to Get Less: The Effects of External Hiring versus Internal Mobility” in the September 2011 issue of Administrative Science Quarterly (ASQ). The article was discussed in The New York Times’ Job Market section’s “The Pros and Cons of Hiring Outsiders” piece, which commented on its assertion that external hires out-earn and under-perform internal workers who are promoted:

The findings may well stir indignation among internal employees passed over for jobs in favor of outsiders. The implications are worth considering as the economy improves, loosening hiring budgets and letting more employees seek greener pastures. They come amid a long-term trend of job mobility, with the idea of working for one employer for life seeming downright antiquated.

Read more at NYTimes.com, and access the full ASQ article here.

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John J. Binder of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Murray Findlay of Soccer Success Inc. published “The Effects of the Bosman Ruling on National and Club Teams in Europe” in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Sports Economics (JSE). New York Times blogger Jack Bell called the article “food for thought” in that it sheds new light on the 1995 Bosman ruling, which gave free agency status to out-of-contract soccer players:

While the authors discuss — and generally debunk — Bosman myths having to do with the dominance of a few clubs in their domestic leagues and the effects on national teams, they assert that the ruling’s biggest effect has been on the Champions League — and that the effect has been nothing but positive.

Wrote Bell: “Take a look at the complete report. It is an eye-opener. Academics and soccer … perfect together!”

Read more at Goal: The New York Times Soccer Blog, and access the full JSE article here.

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Émilie Lapointe of the University of Montreal, Christian Vandenberghe of HEC Montreal, and Alexandra Panaccio of Concordia University published “Organizational commitment, organization-based self-esteem, emotional exhaustion and turnover: A conservation of resources perspective” in the December 2011 issue of Human Relations. The article, widely released this month in various Web outlets, appeared in a Toronto Star piece on employee burnout, which quoted Professor Panaccio:

“We found two forms of commitment had a negative impact and made people more likely to experience emotional exhaustion or burn out — a chronic state of physical and mental depletion resulting from continuous stress and excessive work demands,” Panaccio told the Toronto Star in an interview.

Read more at the Toronto Star, and access the full HR article here.

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The Importance of Being Trustworthy

J. Bruce Gilstrap and Brian J. Collins, both of the University of Southern Mississippi, published “The Importance of Being Trustworthy: Trust as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Leader Behaviors and Employee Job Satisfaction” in the May 2012 issue of the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. To view other OnlineFirst articles, please click here.

The abstract:

In this study, the authors examined the relationship between leader behaviors and subordinate job satisfaction by adopting the theoretical perspective of the integrative model of trust. The authors hypothesized that one’s trust in their supervisor mediates the relationships of procedural and informational justice and transformational leadership behavior with subordinate job satisfaction. Results from a field sample suggest that trust fully mediates the effects of procedural and informational fairness and transformational leadership on employee job satisfaction. The implications for practice and potential areas of future research are also discussed.

To learn more about the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, please follow this link.

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Who Are the Leaders We Need?

Brad Shuck and Ann Mogan Herd, both of the University of Louisville, published “Employee Engagement and Leadership: Exploring the Convergence of Two Frameworks and Implications for Leadership Development in HRD” on March 16, 2012 in Human Resource Development Review. To view other OnlineFirst articles, please click here.

The abstract:

As the use of workplace knowledge economies increases and emerging motivational-state variables such as employee engagement become more widely used, current frameworks of leadership are undergoing changes in perspective and practice. Moreover, while shifts in workplace dynamics have occurred in practice for some time, scholars are now calling for a new perspective of leadership. This article explores the connection between traditional and emerging leadership theories and the motivational-state variable of employee engagement, building toward a conceptual framework proposed for further refinement, discussion, and ultimately testing. A conceptual link between meeting and understanding employee needs, the use of emotional intelligence as a leadership competency, and transformational leadership is examined. Implications for leadership development in research and practice in an HRD context bring this article to a close.

To learn more about Human Resource Development Review, please follow this link.

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