"High commitment" strategies:it ain't what you do; it's the way that you do it

Purpose: This paper sets out to contribute to the advancement of knowledge, particularly with regard to the processes of implementation and the role of managers engaged in such high commitment strategies and work practices. Design/methodology/approach: This study is part of a research project investigating the extent to which employee involvement predicts job performance (as well as job satisfaction, wellbeing and organisational commitment) in the NHS, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The main focus of this paper is to present evidence from four of the 20 case studies to show the barriers to implementing employee involvement as well as highlighting the techniques and practices that have proven to be most successful. Findings: Employee involvement is used successfully by management and has enabled frontline staff to contribute their knowledge to their work. Research limitations/implications: The ethical issues of confidentiality and anonymity permeated the research process throughout. Practical implications: The link between "high commitment" strategies and organisational performance is of great interest to academics and practitioners alike. One of these "high commitment" strategies, namely employee involvement, has been an important HR strategy for the NHS in the UK. Originality/value: Other organisations can learn from the findings by implementing the successful parts. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A systems evaluation of high-input management using fortified molasses for beef production in Australia's dry tropics

The potential of beef producers to profitably produce 500-kg steers at 2.5 years of age in northern Australia's dry tropics to meet specifications of high-value markets, using a high-input management (HIM) system was examined. HIM included targeted high levels of fortified molasses supplementation, short seasonal mating and the use of growth promotants. Using herds of 300-400 females plus steer progeny at three sites, HIM was compared at a business level to prevailing best-practice, strategic low-input management (SLIM) in which there is a relatively low usage of energy concentrates to supplement pasture intake. The data presented for each breeding-age cohort within management system at each site includes: annual pregnancy rates (range: 14-99%), time of conception, mortalities (range: 0-10%), progeny losses between confirmed pregnancy and weaning (range: 0-29%), and weaning rates (range: 14-92%) over the 2-year observation. Annual changes in weight and relative net worth were calculated for all breeding and non-breeding cohorts. Reasons for outcomes are discussed. Compared with SLIM herds, both weaning weights and annual growth were >= 30 kg higher, enabling 86-100% of HIM steers to exceed 500 kg at 2.5 years of age. Very few contemporary SLIM steers reached this target. HIM was most profitably applied to steers. Where HIM was able to achieve high pregnancy rates in yearlings, its application was recommended in females. Well managed, appropriate HIM systems increased profits by around $15/adult equivalent at prevailing beef and supplement prices. However, a 20% supplement price rise without a commensurate increase in values for young slaughter steers would generally eliminate this advantage. This study demonstrated the complexity of pro. table application of research outcomes to commercial business, even when component research suggests that specific strategies may increase growth and reproductive efficiency and/or be more pro. table. Because of the higher level of management required, higher costs and returns, and higher susceptibility to market changes and disease, HIM systems should only be applied after SLIM systems are well developed. To increase profitability, any strategy must ultimately either increase steer growth and sale values and/or enable a shift to high pregnancy rates in yearling heifers.

Balancing organizational and professional commitments in professional service firms : the HR practices that matter

Due to their potential to positively influence sales quality and performance and reduce employee turnover in service organizations, HR practices targeting employee commitment have received considerable attention in the HRM literature in recent years. Parallel to this, there has been increasing focus on the nature of commitment, and in particular the existence of multiple commitment foci. In this paper, we examine how HR practices influence professionals' commitment to their organization, to their profession or to both organization and profession, in a qualitative study of three Danish financial investment firms. Our findings suggest that in professional service firms, HR practices encourage high levels of organizational commitment primarily and most often through their influence on professional commitment and that HR practices related to flexible work design are essential in creating balance between an employee's commitment to organization and commitment to their profession. Further, the findings suggest that these same HR practices may foster such high levels of professional commitment that labor turnover will increase when opportunities for pursuing professional goals afforded by work design are restricted.

HRM in professional service firms : engendering commitment to what or whom?

Professional service firms (PSFs) present HR professionals with a number of unique challenges, as they share characteristics of both service and knowledge intensive organizations. While many of these firms are relying on High Commitment Work Practices (HCWPs) to enhance critical employee behaviors such as service quality and turnover, the analysis presented in this paper raises questions about traditional understandings of commitment in professional service environments. In particular, data from three Danish financial investment PSFs suggest that employees are more committed to developing and promoting their own professions than to the organization itself, which has important implications for the way in which HCWPs are designed and utilized. In addition, the focus of HCWP research has favored the use of social exchange theory as an underpinning framework for considering the impact of HR practices on employee commitment. In the context of PSFs, we question the applicability of social exchange theory and instead draw upon the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework (1982) to analyze how specific HRM practices contribute to the development of commitment, and to successful organizational outcomes in PSFs.

Strategic Human Resource Management of Volunteers and the Link to Hospital Patient Satisfaction

This article uses strategic human resource management theory to consider the ways in which volunteers can potentially enhance hospital patient satisfaction. Results of a structural equation modeling analysis of multi-source data on 107 U.S. hospitals show positive associations between hospital strategy, volunteer management practices, volunteer workforce attributes, and patient satisfaction. Although no causality can be assumed, the results shed light on the volunteer–patient satisfaction relationship and have important implications for hospital leaders, volunteer administrators, and future research.

Towards a multilevel model of the high performance work systems–workplace safety relationship

Human Resource (HR) systems and practices generally referred to as High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs), (Huselid, 1995) (sometimes termed High Commitment Work Practices or High Involvement Work Practices) have attracted much research attention in past decades. Although many conceptualizations of the construct have been proposed, there is general agreement that HPWPs encompass a bundle or set of HR practices including sophisticated staffing, intensive training and development, incentive-based compensation, performance management, initiatives aimed at increasing employee participation and involvement, job safety and security, and work design (e.g. Pfeffer, 1998). It is argued that these practices either directly and indirectly influence the extent to which employees’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics are utilized in the organization. Research spanning nearly 20 years has provided considerable empirical evidence for relationships between HPWPs and various measures of performance including increased productivity, improved customer service, and reduced turnover (e.g. Guthrie, 2001; Belt & Giles, 2009). With the exception of a few papers (e.g., Laursen &Foss, 2003), this literature appears to lack focus on how HPWPs influence or foster more innovative-related attitudes and behaviours, extra role behaviors, and performance. This situation exists despite the vast evidence demonstrating the importance of innovation, proactivity, and creativity in its various forms to individual, group, and organizational performance outcomes. Several pertinent issues arise when considering HPWPs and their relationship to innovation and performance outcomes. At a broad level is the issue of which HPWPs are related to which innovation-related variables. Another issue not well identified in research relates to employees’ perceptions of HPWPs: does an employee actually perceive the HPWP –outcomes relationship? No matter how well HPWPs are designed, if they are not perceived and experienced by employees to be effective or worthwhile then their likely success in achieving positive outcomes is limited. At another level, research needs to consider the mechanisms through which HPWPs influence –innovation and performance. The research question here relates to what possible mediating variables are important to the success or failure of HPWPs in impacting innovative behaviours and attitudes and what are the potential process considerations? These questions call for theory refinement and the development of more comprehensive models of the HPWP-innovation/performance relationship that include intermediate linkages and boundary conditions (Ferris, Hochwarter, Buckley, Harrell-Cook, & Frink, 1999). While there are many calls for this type of research to be made a high priority, to date, researchers have made few inroads into answering these questions. This symposium brings together researchers from Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa to examine these various questions relating to the HPWP-innovation-performance relationship. Each paper discusses a HPWP and potential variables that can facilitate or hinder the effects of these practices on innovation- and performance- related outcomes. The first paper by Johnston and Becker explores the HPWPs in relation to work design in a disaster response organization that shifts quickly from business as usual to rapid response. The researchers examine how the enactment of the organizational response is devolved to groups and individuals. Moreover, they assess motivational characteristics that exist in dual work designs (normal operations and periods of disaster activation) and the implications for innovation. The second paper by Jørgensen reports the results of an investigation into training and development practices and innovative work behaviors (IWBs) in Danish organizations. Research on how to design and implement training and development initiatives to support IWBs and innovation in general is surprisingly scant and often vague. This research investigates the mechanisms by which training and development initiatives influence employee behaviors associated with innovation, and provides insights into how training and development can be used effectively by firms to attract and retain valuable human capital in knowledge-intensive firms. The next two papers in this symposium consider the role of employee perceptions of HPWPs and their relationships to innovation-related variables and performance. First, Bish and Newton examine perceptions of the characteristics and awareness of occupational health and safety (OHS) practices and their relationship to individual level adaptability and proactivity in an Australian public service organization. The authors explore the role of perceived supportive and visionary leadership and its impact on the OHS policy-adaptability/proactivity relationship. The study highlights the positive main effects of awareness and characteristics of OHS polices, and supportive and visionary leadership on individual adaptability and proactivity. It also highlights the important moderating effects of leadership in the OHS policy-adaptability/proactivity relationship. Okhawere and Davis present a conceptual model developed for a Nigerian study in the safety-critical oil and gas industry that takes a multi-level approach to the HPWP-safety relationship. Adopting a social exchange perspective, they propose that at the organizational level, organizational climate for safety mediates the relationship between enacted HPWS’s and organizational safety performance (prescribed and extra role performance). At the individual level, the experience of HPWP impacts on individual behaviors and attitudes in organizations, here operationalized as safety knowledge, skills and motivation, and these influence individual safety performance. However these latter relationships are moderated by organizational climate for safety. A positive organizational climate for safety strengthens the relationship between individual safety behaviors and attitudes and individual-level safety performance, therefore suggesting a cross-level boundary condition. The model includes both safety performance (behaviors) and organizational level safety outcomes, operationalized as accidents, injuries, and fatalities. The final paper of this symposium by Zhang and Liu explores leader development and relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity and innovation in China. The authors further develop a model that incorporates the effects of extrinsic motivation (pay for performance: PFP) and employee collectivism in the leader-employee creativity relationship. The papers’ contributions include the incorporation of a PFP effect on creativity as moderator, rather than predictor in most studies; the exploration of the PFP effect from both fairness and strength perspectives; the advancement of knowledge on the impact of collectivism on the leader- employee creativity link. Last, this is the first study to examine three-way interactional effects among leader-member exchange (LMX), PFP and collectivism, thus, enriches our understanding of promoting employee creativity. In conclusion, this symposium draws upon the findings of four empirical studies and one conceptual study to provide an insight into understanding how different variables facilitate or potentially hinder the influence various HPWPs on innovation and performance. We will propose a number of questions for further consideration and discussion. The symposium will address the Conference Theme of ‘Capitalism in Question' by highlighting how HPWPs can promote financial health and performance of organizations while maintaining a high level of regard and respect for employees and organizational stakeholders. Furthermore, the focus on different countries and cultures explores the overall research question in relation to different modes or stages of development of capitalism.

Framework for assessing the influence of critical infrastructure interdependencies in post-disaster reconstruction management

Due to ever increasing climate instability, the number of natural disasters affecting society and communities is expected to increase globally in the future, which will result in a growing number of casualties and damage to property and infrastructure. Such damage poses crucial challenges for recovery of interdependent critical infrastructures. Post-disaster reconstruction is a complex undertaking as it is not only closely linked to the well-being and essential functioning of society, but also requires a large financial commitment. Management of critical infrastructure during post-disaster recovery needs to be underpinned by a holistic recognition that the recovery of each individual infrastructure system (e.g. energy, water, transport and information and communication technology) can be affected by the interdependencies that exist between these different systems. A fundamental characteristic of these interdependencies is that failure of one critical infrastructure system can result in the failure of other interdependent infrastructures, leading to a cascade of failures, which can impede post-disaster recovery and delay the subsequent reconstruction process. Consequently, there is a critical need for developing a holistic strategy to assess the influence of infrastructure interdependencies, and for incorporating these interdependencies into a post-disaster recovery strategy. This paper discusses four key dimensions of interdependencies that need to be considered in a post-disaster reconstruction planning. Using key concepts and sub-concepts derived from the notion of interdependency, the paper examines how critical infrastructure interdependencies affect the recovery processes of damaged infrastructures.

A risk perspective on human resource management: A review and directions for future research

Arguing the value of effective HRM practice has long been a focus in the HRM literature. However, there is also a case for identifying the risks presented by inappropriate or absent HRM practices. Although risk management has been established in the broader management literature for over two decades, human resource related risks have not featured as prominently as other types of risks. HRM as a discipline has a role to play in addressing this situation and raising awareness of human resource issues as risks for the organization. A review of papers published since the year 2000 in a broad range of high quality management journals, identifies that limited research has thus far taken a risk management perspective on human resources. Although the HRM and risk management disciplines stand to benefit from drawing the two areas together, this review concludes that further research and development of the phenomenon of human resource risk management is needed.

Autonomous guided vehicles applied to industrial engineering and management studies

This article presents a framework to an Industrial Engineering and Management Science course from School of Management and Industrial Studies using Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGV) to supply materials to a production line as an experimental setup for the students to acquire knowledge in the production robotics area. The students must be capable to understand and put into good use several concepts that will be of utmost importance in their professional life such as critical decisions regarding the study, development and implementation of a production line. The main focus is a production line using AGVs, where the students are required to address several topics such as: sensors actuators, controllers and an high level management and optimization software. The presented framework brings to the robotics teaching community methodologies that allow students from different backgrounds, that normally don’t experiment with the robotics concepts in practice due to the big gap between theory and practice, to go straight to ”making” robotics. Our aim was to suppress the minimum start point level thus allowing any student to fully experience robotics with little background knowledge.

Distributed intelligent management of active networks

This paper focuses on improving computer network management by the adoption of artificial intelligence techniques. A logical inference system has being devised to enable automated isolation, diagnosis, and even repair of network problems, thus enhancing the reliability, performance, and security of networks. We propose a distributed multi-agent architecture for network management, where a logical reasoner acts as an external managing entity capable of directing, coordinating, and stimulating actions in an active management architecture. The active networks technology represents the lower level layer which makes possible the deployment of code which implement teleo-reactive agents, distributed across the whole network. We adopt the Situation Calculus to define a network model and the Reactive Golog language to implement the logical reasoner. An active network management architecture is used by the reasoner to inject and execute operational tasks in the network. The integrated system collects the advantages coming from logical reasoning and network programmability, and provides a powerful system capable of performing high-level management tasks in order to deal with network fault.

Human resources policies for strategic csr. The experience of ree (Red Eléctrica de España)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies have a strong link with human resources policies. Not only because employees are one of the main stakeholders and because leaders’ style is directly related to the deployment of the strategy, but also, and with a growing importance, because a company culture aligned with CSR values could be a key competitive factor. The relationships among CSR values, employees’ commitment and productivity is one of the research lines of the GIOS (Grupo de Investigación de Organizaciones Sostenibles, Sustainable Organizations Research Group). Employees’ commitment management is one of the main challenges managers face, particularly in companies with a high proportion of knowledge workers. Many pieces of research indicate the direct relationship between employees’ commitment and company success. In this paper the results of a case study in REE (Red Eléctrica de España) identify some key variables to demonstrate that relationship. Based on commitment construct with the duality of emotional and rational commitment, and on the REE employee satisfaction survey, a direct relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) variables appears. These OCB variables are an intermediate step with CSR values.From the results analysis of this survey a direct linear relationship can be seen between commitment and organizational citizenship behaviours. The relationships among emotional and rational commitment and OCB are examined separately with the conclusion being reached that there is a strong correlation in both cases. Moreover, the correlation between emotional commitment and OCB is somewhat stronger than that existing between rational commitment and OCB. it can also be seen how emotional commitment increases more strongly than rational commitment as organizational citizenship behaviours are gradually incorporated.