Knowledge that Transforms

Our multi‐study, mixed‐methods research introduces a novel framework of quiet quitting and distinguishes it from related constructs in the human resources and organizational behavior literature. Studies 1 and 2 employ topic modeling of social and news media data and qualitative content analysis of in‐depth interviews with self‐identified quiet quitters, respectively, to examine how social media users, journalists, and quiet quitters define quiet quitting and describe its antecedents and consequences. Drawing on Kahn's framework of disengagement, we develop a bifurcated framework of quiet quitting comprising passive and deliberate types, each with distinct affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions. Study 3 uses a quasi‐Q‐sort methodology to compare passive and deliberate quiet quitting with existing human resources and organizational behavior constructs and reveals that quiet quitting is a novel concept, with its passive and deliberate types being distinct from nomologically related constructs. Our bifurcated framework makes valuable theoretical contributions and offers nuanced practical implications for organizations, establishing a solid foundation for future research to treat quiet quitting as a discrete phenomenon, moving the conversation beyond debating its academic relevance.

Research on the relationship between age and the work–family interface (WFI) is critical to effective human resource management. Yet, findings remain inconsistent and lack theoretical integration. We conducted a meta‐analysis ( k = 256, n = 186,109) integrating lifespan and life course perspectives to develop a model of the relationship between age and the WFI. Drawing on socio‐emotional selectivity theory (SEST), a prevalent lifespan approach, results reveal a significant linear relationship between age and the WFI, with variation contingent on the construct and directionality. Age was negatively associated with work‐to‐family conflict, family‐to‐work conflict, and family‐to‐work enrichment, and positively associated with work‐to‐family enrichment and work–family balance. We integrated a life course view to examine how personal (gender, race, age cohort), situational (job, marital status), and contextual (national, global) factors moderate these relationships. Declines in work‐to‐family conflict with age occurred for men but not women, suggesting a widening gender gap for older compared to younger workers. The negative association between age and work‐to‐family conflict was stronger than for family‐to‐work conflict among older adults (over age 50 cohort) and professionals. Younger adult workers under 30 reported significant work‐to‐family conflict. The relationship between age and the WFI was significantly moderated by national (U.S., Non‐U.S.) and global (Global North, Global South) contexts, with the strength of age‐related patterns in work–family conflict varying by gender and job status. Our results highlight that future HRM studies and organizational practice should focus on advancing age‐inclusive policies to better address the increasingly varied age and work–family relationships across many employee subgroups.

The field of strategic human resource (HR) management has shown an increasing focus on how employees perceive and react to their organization's HR practices. In this perspective, employees are not passive recipients of HR policies or mere observers of their managers' HR implementation strategies. Rather, their perceptions play a critical role in shaping organizational culture and fostering high‐performing workplaces. However, important questions remain regarding how line management roles shape not only employees' assessments of their work environment but also their perceptions of HR effectiveness. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, we argue that line managers' compliance‐ versus commitment‐focused orientations influence employee appraisals of threats and challenges in their jobs. These appraisals, in turn, shape how employees evaluate the effectiveness of their organization's HR practices (i.e., perceived HR effectiveness). Using qualitative data from focus groups and a multilevel quantitative research design, we find evidence supporting our hypotheses, showing that line managers' HR orientations significantly influence employees' cognitive appraisals and subsequent perceptions of HR effectiveness. We conclude by discussing the theoretical contributions and offering practical recommendations for improving the implementation of HR practices.

Organizational socialization and the practice of onboarding new hires are central human resources functions. However, traditional socialization theory and practice were built on assumptions that are increasingly misaligned with today's work context. We identified four current, emerging, and future work trends that characterize the evolving landscape surrounding organizational socialization: technological advancement, the expansion of remote work arrangements, rising societal loneliness and mental health challenges, and aging workforce demographics. Collectively, these trends have contributed to dramatic shifts in the context and performance of work, as well as the expectations that employees and organizations hold for one another. Accordingly, we argue that these shifts require a renewed examination of the organizational socialization process that reflects contemporary realities such as the move away from stable, physically co‐located, psychologically anchored work toward boundaryless, tech‐mediated, and transient work arrangements. Our review presents a future‐forward look at organizational socialization through the lens of these societal and workplace shifts. We identify newcomer adaptability and connection as emergent critical factors for the future of onboarding. Through this lens, we offer practical implications for human resource practice and invite future research that advances our understanding of organizational socialization in today's context.

Mental health concerns among employees are increasingly prevalent, yet many employees remain under‐supported. Disclosure is a critical step in accessing organizational support for mental health. Drawing on social information processing theory, we introduce the concept of organizational support for disclosing mental health concerns and develop a scale assessing three dimensions: absence of anticipated discrimination and stigma, availability of organizational resources, and presence of social support. Across two studies, we show that organizational support for disclosing mental health concerns is positively associated with employees' willingness to disclose and actual disclosure behaviors. Greater organizational support for disclosing mental health concerns is also linked to reduced mental health challenges (e.g., lower anxiety and depression) and improved work outcomes, including higher work engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior, alongside lower turnover intentions and absenteeism. Our findings provide a framework for assessing employees' perceptions of disclosure support and offer practical insights for HR professionals seeking to foster disclosure‐friendly work environments. Finally, we contribute to the debate on mandatory disability reporting by identifying organizational factors that can enhance disclosure rates and improve support for employees with mental health concerns.

Managing an older and more age‐diverse workforce is critical given the population aging that is occurring across the globe. Yet, the literature is still under‐developed with regards to which human resource management (HRM) practices help to support aging employees and enable organizations to benefit from an age‐diverse workforce. We draw on an integrative framework of organizational meta‐strategies, the 3i framework, to test a path model in which 3i HRM practices differentially impact successful aging at work outcomes, including engagement, career withdrawal, and proactive career behavior. The 3i framework encompasses inclusive practices aimed at reducing biases and creating an inclusive climate for workers, individualized practices aimed at designing and adapting work to the changing needs of an age‐diverse workforce, and integrative practices targeted at effective collaboration and knowledge sharing processes across age groups. We theorized that include influences successful aging outcomes through belongingness, individualize through needs‐supplies fit, and integrate through promotive voice. Prior to testing the model, we first report a study in which we developed and validated the 12‐item 3i‐HRM scale using three diverse samples (total N = 945) of employees from the USA and Australia. We subsequently used the 3i‐HRM scale to test our theoretical model using a time‐lagged design with 221 employees. By providing this initial evidence, we hope to stimulate future research focusing on an integrative approach to understanding factors that support an age‐diverse workforce.

As many organizations have sought to increase their neurodiversity, they have tended to focus on human resource (HR) practices and programs for increasing representation, especially of autistic employees. There has been comparatively less attention regarding HR practices that relate to sustaining employment and fostering workplace performance for autistic employees. Sustaining employment is a particular challenge because the signals sent by HR practices and the neurotypical managers implementing them are often differently interpreted by autistic employees—the double empathy problem. As the pay practices and pay‐for‐performance (PFP) systems critical to retention and career advancement have increasingly broadened beyond objective assessments of task performance to include more subjective assessments and contextual performance, the double empathy problem can worsen leading to unintended negative consequences. We draw upon signaling theory to theorize how and when PFP worsens or mitigates the double empathy problem. Specifically, we develop a model and set of propositions that posit how the attributes of signals (observability, consistency, and frequency), the resulting shared relevance of signals, their effects on behavior, and managers' subsequent interpretations of employee behavior and performance form a cycle through which performance‐reward signals tighten or loosen and, in turn, affect autistic employee well‐being and turnover. We close by discussing how our model may apply to other forms of neurodivergence and implications for future research regarding the practices, signals, and interpretations that create or inhibit environments supportive of neurodiversity.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common in human resource management (HRM), especially in performance appraisals, questions arise about how employees respond to AI involvement in these processes. While existing research often treats AI as a technical tool, this study also views AI as a social actor that interacts with employees. Using sociomateriality and attribution theory, we examine how AI's characteristics and its role in appraisal procedures influence employee satisfaction with performance appraisals. Across three scenario‐based experiments with 1002 participants and one survey with 321 respondents, we find that certain characteristics of the AI rater and the decision‐making power distribution in AI appraisal procedures have a significant impact on employees' performance appraisal satisfaction. These results highlight the importance of considering the technical and social dimensions of AI in HRM practices. Our findings offer practical guidance for organizations implementing AI in performance appraisals and contribute to a deeper understanding of AI's impact on the employee experience.

In this paper we elucidate how gender may influence the mechanisms and conditions under which perceived inclusion climate facilitates authenticity at work. We nuance conservation of resources theory with social role theory to argue that perceived inclusion climate acts as a caravan passageway through which authenticity at work can be fostered, yet how inclusion climate relates to authenticity is different for men versus for women. We hypothesize that men will feel more authentic when they perceive their organization to be inclusive because such perceptions enable them to feel unique, whereas women will feel more authentic when in inclusive organizations because such environments foster their belongingness. In a time‐lagged study, we find that for women, it is belongingness that is the mediating process, whereas for men, it is both uniqueness and belongingness. We additionally propose, and find, that structural empowerment, as an HRM contextual resource caravan, moderates the relationships between perceived inclusion climate and belongingness/uniqueness for women but not for men. Here, structural empowerment is particularly important for women's needs for belongingness and uniqueness when they perceive their organization be not very inclusive. Overall, we contribute to workplace inclusion and authenticity literatures by underscoring the need to consider gender differences in more depth.

Quiet quitting is a relatively new phenomenon that has quickly caught the attention of both practitioners and academics. With the world of work becoming increasingly interconnected, we contribute to the discourse by approaching quiet quitting from the novel perspective of understanding how others in the workplace perceive those who engage in quiet quitting. To do so, we first provide a formalized definition of quiet quitting and differentiate coworkers' perceptions of quiet quitting from similar psychological constructs (Studies 1–3). We then examine employee responses to coworkers engaging in quiet quitting with a qualitative study (Study 4) and vignette design (Study 5), finding that as an employee's perception of coworker quiet quitting increases, supportive behaviors decrease and workplace incivility behaviors towards the coworker increase. The effect on workplace incivility behaviors is moderated by self‐rated quiet quitting, such that employees who had higher self‐rated quiet quitting were more likely to engage in incivility towards a coworker regardless of whether their coworker was quiet quitting. Overall, by exploring quiet quitting observed by a coworker, we provide a different perspective on this construct and extend past research to show how employees feel about and react to a coworker's quiet quitting behaviors.