Are HRM practices related with patient mortality in NHS hospitals?:A study examining the underlying reasons for such an association

This thesis will report details of two studies conducted within the National Health Service in the UK that examined the association between HRM practices related to training and appraisal with health outcomes within NHS Trusts. Study one represents the organisational analysis of 61 NHS Trusts, and will report training and appraisal practices were significantly associated with lower patient mortality. Specifically, the research will show significantly lower patient mortality within NHS Trusts that: a) had achieved Investors in People accreditation; b) had a formal strategy document relating to training; c) had tailored training policy documents across occupational groups; d) had integrated training and appraisal practices; e) had a high percentage of staff receiving either an appraisal or updated personal development plan. There was also evidence of an additive effect where NHS Trusts that displayed more of these characteristics had significantly lower patient mortality. Study one in this thesis will also report significantly lower patient mortality within the NHS Trusts where there was broad level representation for the HR function. Study two will report details of a study conducted to examine the potential reasons why HR practices may be related to hospital performance. Details are given of the results of a staff attitudinal survey within five NHS Trusts. This study examined will show that a range of developmental activity, the favourability of the immediate work environment (in relation to social support and role stressors) and motivational outcomes are important antecedents to citizenship behaviours. Furthermore, the thesis will report that principles of the demand-control model were adopted to examine the relationship between workplace support and role stressors, and workplace support, influence, and an understanding of role expectation help mitigate against the negative effects of work demands upon motivational outcomes.

Workplace justice, citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions in a union context: examining the mediating role of perceived union support and union instrumentality

This study examined the relationship between workplace justice afforded by the grievance system and the union outcomes of citizenship behavior and turnover intentions and the mechanisms that underpin these relationships. Respondents (N = 187) were members of a large public sector union in Singapore. Results revealed that perceived union support and union instrumentality fully mediated the relationship between the dimensions of workplace justice and citizenship behavior directed toward the union (OCBO) and citizenship behavior directed at other union members (OCBI). Union instrumentality partially mediated the procedural justice–turnover intentions relationship.

Kindness is the parent of kindness: reciprocity in the UK call centre workplace

This research developed, proposed and tested an integrated psychological process to performance model. The model utilized the overarching theory of social exchange to incorporate the climate perceptions and affective reactions of 3,012 employees across 88 UK call centres. In the pursuit of parsimony, a review of the applied psychology literature gave rise to a model where the path between global service climate and contextual performance was fully mediated by, first, perceived organizational support, second, job satisfaction and third, affective commitment. The resulting integrated and parsimonious model was tested via SEM and the mediation hypotheses were tested via a series of nested competing models. A moderate fit and partial, rather than full, mediation were reported. Nested Competing Model 4 proved to be the most parsimonious and to have the best fit. It is important to recognise, however, that Nested Competing Model 4 is not intended to be the most comprehensive model (which would include all significant paths), but a more practically useful one (i.e. parsimonious), that focuses on the main relationships.

The interactive effect of workplace stressors and mood on creativity and implementation activities: a dual level approach

This thesis analyses the impact of workplace stressors and mood on innovation activities. Based on three competitive frameworks offered by cognitive spreading activation theory, mood repair perspective, and mood-as-information theory, different sets of predictions are developed. These hypotheses are tested in a field study involving 41 R&D teams and 123 individual R&D workers, and in an experimental study involving 54 teams of students. Results of the field study suggest that stressors and mood interact to predict innovation activities in such a way that with increasing stressors a high positive ( or negative) mood is more detrimental to innovation activities than a low positive (or negative) mood, lending support to the mood repair perspective. These effects are found for both individuals and teams. In the experimental study this effect is replicated and potential boundary conditions and mediators are tested. In addition, this thesis includes the development of an instrument to assess creativity and implementation activities within the realm of task-related innovative performance.

The effectiveness of workplace coaching:a meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching

This study presents a meta-analysis synthesizing the existing research on the effectiveness of workplace coaching. We exclusively explore workplace coaching provided by internal or external coaches and therefore exclude cases of manager-subordinate and peer coaching. We propose a framework of potential outcomes from coaching in organizations, which we examine meta-analytically (k = 17). Our analyses indicated that coaching had positive effects on organizational outcomes overall (δ = 0.36), and on specific forms of outcome criteria (skill-based δ = 0.28; affective δ = 0.51; individual-level results δ = 1.24). We also examined moderation by a number of coaching practice factors (use of multisource feedback; type of coach; coaching format; longevity of coaching). Our analyses of practice moderators indicated a significant moderation of effect size for type of coach (with effects being stronger for internal coaches compared to external coaches) and use of multisource feedback (with the use of multisource feedback resulting in smaller positive effects). We found no moderation of effect size by coaching format (comparing face-to-face, with blended face-to-face and e-coaching) or duration of coaching (number of sessions or longevity of intervention). The effect sizes give support to the potential utility of coaching in organizations. Implications for coaching research and practice are discussed.