Knowledge that Transforms

People may infer others' social class based on signals such as clothing, accents, university attended, or leisure activities. In recruitment and selection, such incidental social class signaling by candidates may occur, as information like this is often shared by candidates in application materials. Whether or how the visibility of candidates' social class information influences candidate evaluations, however, remains poorly understood. Building on signaling theory, we propose that social class level influence hiring decisions most when they contain job‐relevant content, particularly in roles that directly influence an organization's image to external stakeholders. We followed a three‐step, multi‐study approach: (1) developing stimulus materials in the form of interview response transcripts; (2) conducting two validation studies ( N = 100 and N = 108, respectively), and (3) conducting a pre‐registered online vignette main study ( N = 226). Results reveal that candidates with higher‐class signals were favored only when the class signals conveyed job‐relevant content. This class effect was most pronounced in roles that directly influence an organization's image, operationalized as high customer contact positions. Moreover, our findings show that perceptions of job fit, rather than cultural fit with the organization, drove these biased hiring evaluations. This study enhances our understanding of job‐level variations of social class bias in recruitment and underscores the importance of aligning job requirements closely with the role‐relevant core competencies to foster more equitable hiring practices.

Reflecting a more balanced employer–employee relationship in which employees have latitude to shape aspects of their employment, idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) are voluntary, personalized, nonstandard agreements that employees negotiate with their employers. In teams, i‐deals differentiation (i‐deals D ), the extent to which the degree of these arrangements varies across members, is a key form of HR differentiation. While research has largely emphasized its negative effects, we propose that the impact of i‐deals D on team effectiveness depends on the type of i‐deals. We focus on career, flexibility, and task i‐deals, the most common types of i‐deals that employees across different jobs can negotiate with their manager. Drawing on social comparison theory, we argue that career and flexibility i‐deals D relate positively to team relationship conflict, and in turn associate with lower customer‐related outcomes. In contrast, task i‐deals D relate negatively to team relationship conflict, and subsequently associate positively with customer‐related outcomes. We test our model in two samples: a field study with three‐source data collected from 59 stores of a national restaurant chain located in the United States (Study 1) and a field study with two‐source data collected from 108 teams from three service companies located in China (Study 2). Across both studies, flexibility i‐deals D and task i‐deals D had a negative and a positive association, respectively, with team customer‐related outcomes via team relationship conflict, while career i‐deals D was unrelated to our outcomes of interest. We advance the literatures on i‐deals and HR differentiation, and offer practical insights into the implementation of i‐deals D in teams.

The extant voice literature is largely Anglo‐American and often assumes formal, management‐designed or union voice channels, which may not always be accessible to employees in non‐Western, autocratic developing countries where silence is often forced upon employees. Given this unfavorable context for voice, how do employees navigate managerial constraints to assert their agency? Drawing on ethnographic research in a multi‐site manufacturer of auto parts in Iran, we show how formal voice channels are set up by employers, how voice flows through these management mechanisms, the employee experience of the process, and how employees respond by developing their own informal channels. The findings highlight the importance of viewing voice through a dynamic, context‐bound lens, and how, if voice does not flow to managers, it can flow around them. We show how management's espoused effort to promote voice resulted not only in less voicing but also counterproductive work behavior. These findings advance a contextualist perspective of employee voice, highlighting how local contexts shape worker agency in articulating their voices, and offering key insights for HRM practices, especially in designing strategies that account for cultural and organizational dynamics.

With the passage of cannabis‐friendly legislation in the U.S., cannabis use is on the rise and poses increasing challenges to managing human resources in the workplace. However, the literature offers a limited understanding of its long‐term implications for career outcomes. Drawing on social selection theory, we argue that cannabis use negatively influences one's extrinsic career outcomes (i.e., income and occupational prestige) over time via lowered job complexity. Furthermore, based on social causation theory, we propose an alternative model in which higher job complexity reduces cannabis use over time to facilitate one's extrinsic career outcomes. Using 8 years of longitudinal panel data from multiple sources, we found support for the hypothesized reciprocal effect between cannabis use and job complexity and their influences on income and occupational prestige. Moreover, the impact of job complexity on extrinsic career outcomes via cannabis use was stronger than the impact of cannabis use on extrinsic career outcomes via job complexity. We discuss this study's theoretical and practical implications for cannabis use and human resource management research and practice.

This article investigates how human resource (HR) practices affect organizational outcomes in one of the newest areas of service work: the gig economy. Combining theory on multi‐sided markets and strategic human resource management, this article explores how platform companies' use of HR practices can lead to improved worker retention. Specifically, we focus on one important aspect of retention: preventing workers from simultaneously working for a rival platform, a practice known as multi ‐ homing . Drawing on original qualitative and quantitative data from the ride‐hail industry, we demonstrate that the introduction of HR practices reduces gig workers' tendency to multi‐home.

The increasing awareness and use of family‐friendly work activities (FFWAs), also known as work‐life benefits, highlights their importance for both employees and organizations. Despite the importance of these activities for both employees and organizations, the existing literature is fragmented, lacking a clear consensus on their conceptualization and measurement. In this review, we content analyze conceptual and methodological aspects of the FFWA literature. Specifically, applying the systems perspective from the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature, we introduce and conceptualize family‐friendly work systems (FFWS), define their key domains, specify the FFWAs within them, and clarify their hierarchical structure (i.e., policies, practices, and processes). Building on the FFWS model, we evaluate potential sources of heterogeneity in current research. By identifying inconsistencies as well as strengths and weaknesses in the existing literature, this review provides a timely contribution that can guide future research and offer practical recommendations for policymakers and organizations striving to create more family‐friendly workplaces.

While increasing evidence supports the workplace benefits of green human resource management (HRM) practices, this research explores how and when employees' experiences with these practices influence their green behaviors at home. Drawing on the work‐home resource model, this study examines the dual mechanisms of green job demands and resources while also exploring the moderating role of proactive vitality management. Study 1, a four‐wave time‐lagged survey, revealed that experienced green HRM practices were associated with both green job demands and green job resources. On the one hand, green job demands led to increased green job fatigue, which in turn reduced green behaviors at home. On the other hand, green job resources fostered green self‐efficacy, which subsequently enhanced green behaviors at home. Importantly, the negative indirect relationship between green HRM practices and green behaviors at home via green job demands and green job fatigue was stronger when employees' proactive vitality management was low, whereas the positive indirect relationship via green job resources and green self‐efficacy was stronger when proactive vitality management was high. Study 2, a four‐wave cross‐lagged survey, replicated the findings of Study 1 and further clarified the causal direction of these relationships. This research contributes to the literature on green HRM practices by uncovering their cross‐domain implications and highlighting both their benefits and costs.

Research on High‐Performance Work Practices (HPWP) typically examines employees' aggregated HPWP perceptions and their impact on organizational outcomes. We argue that variability in these perceptions also matters due to its impact on collective exchange relationships. We integrate the aggregated (mean) level HPWP perceptions and variability regarding HPWP perceptions to identify four HPWP climate types: a strong HPWP climate (high mean, low variability) and three weak HPWP climates—unshared high (high variability, high mean), shared low (low variability, low mean), and unshared low (high variability, low mean). Using data from 695 employees in 72 Belgian SMEs, we find that a strong HPWP climate is optimal as it relates to the highest collective social and lowest economic exchange levels, which are—in turn—associated with high collective affective organizational commitment (CAOC) and subjective firm performance. However, it is also linked to high collective exhaustion, showing that aligning organizational and workforce interests is not always possible. As regards the weak climates, they are suboptimal, with shared low climates being particularly detrimental. Even though these climates can be fruitful for firm performance, they are linked to lower levels of CAOC, which can be harmful for SMEs that rely heavily on the effort and engagement of their employees. These findings show that investing in HPWP is fruitful for SMEs, even though they have limited financial means, and that SMEs also need to handle the inherent tensions present in HRM.

How does an organization take a raw recruit and have them dispose of bombs, slaughter animals, or work in polar research stations? I argue that the answer is through socializing them so that they come to view the extraordinary as more ordinary. This “normalization” typically entails: (1) setting the context by creating a strong situation in the form of a social cocoon with high normative control; (2) setting the content by providing a clear frame and ideology, conveyed through various forms of discourse; and (3) setting the process of socialization in motion by recruiting and selecting promising individuals and subjecting them to synergistic combinations of divestiture and investiture and of incrementalism and immersion, routinizing the work, and facilitating stress coping. These practices are mutually reinforcing such that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The outcome is newcomers who can take in stride and accomplish what may have once seemed unthinkable. However, the socialization process is largely the same whether the goals are socially desirable (e.g., pursuing a grand challenge) or socially undesirable (e.g., extremism), and whether the means are socially desirable (most work) or undesirable (e.g., “dirty work”). I conclude with a discussion of the ethical implications of normalizing, a summary of common managerial practices for normalizing, and directions for future research.

Despite the wide adoption of performance management by organizations, there is little evidence that performance management works. In this paper, I critique both the methods and the goals of performance management. First, I note that performance management, through its reliance on top‐down decision making, robs workers of autonomy and responsibility. Next, I note that two of the three major components of performance management (aligning job performance goals with the strategic goals of the organization and using frequent informal feedback to manage performance) are flawed, and that efforts to manage performance using these tools are likely to fail. Rather than relying on managing performance, organizations should follow decades of research on supportive leadership and focus on supporting and facilitating performance rather than managing it. I call for more empirical research to evaluate the effectiveness of performance management and the effects of the various tools used to manage performance.