As described in this unique case study, Delta Air Lines operates one of the most advanced, high‐level employee involvement programs in the nation. Based on in‐depth field study and personal interviews, the development, structure, operation, and business goals of the program are described. The study then summarizes the business benefits and costs of this type of high‐level employee involvement program and concludes with 12 “lessons learned.”
This study was undertaken to review the literature on employee health management programs (EHMPs). We explored the history and characteristics of systematic organizational efforts to improve workforce health and well‐being. We believe that a historical perspective provides some insight into the economic, political, and social factors that have influenced the trend toward organizationally sanctioned health‐promotion efforts. Further, we investigated the likely effects of these programs on valued‐behavioral organizational outcomes such as employee performance, employee satisfaction, absenteeism, and voluntary turnover. Our findings show that voluntary general‐focus programs are unrelated to job performance, and voluntary programs are negatively related to absenteeism, but effects on absenteeism wane when the program is not voluntary. Moreover, EHMPs are minimally related to job satisfaction and slightly related to turnover. These results, examining behavioral outcomes of EHMPs, question the ability of EHMPs to provide desired behavioral changes in employees, changes that organizations seek to maximize such as increased performance. Are EHMPs more than just socially acceptable programs that help individuals with health problems?
One of the most pressing challenges entrepreneurs face is how to do more with less. More often than not, the solution lies in the human resource component of the venture. As such, it is important that entrepreneurs understand how practices and processes designed to tap the knowledge, skills, and abilities of their employees can lead to greater productivity and performance. This article develops prescriptive arguments to implicate that adoption of involvement practices and processes by entrepreneurs early in the organization's life may extend desired stages such as growth, or may delay or negate unwanted stages such as maturity and decline.
This study explores relationships between race, gender, agreeableness, openness to experience, contact, and a measure of attitudes toward diversity—universal‐diverse orientation (UDO). UDO consists of three attitudinal components: realistic appreciation (a cognition), comfort with difference (a feeling), and diversity of contact (a behavior). Results suggest that race, agreeableness, and openness relate to UDO attitudes, primarily due to the relationships of these variables with the behavioral component—diversity of contact. Identifying characteristics of tolerant people (e.g., agreeableness) and training managers in skills related to those characteristics may improve contextual performance and make managers better role models within the organizational context.
Entrepreneurial firms face significant challenges in attracting and acquiring needed human resources. That is, in addition to difficulties associated with resource constraints and organization legitimacy, the requirements for “person‐organization fit” change substantially as these firms transit from start‐up to growth phase. This study examines how entrepreneurial firms tap evolving social network ties in order to address “needs‐and‐fits” issues across different developmental stages of the firm. The findings go beyond what “strength of weak ties” and “structural hole” theories would suggest, and highlight the persistent use of strong and direct ties across developmental phases.
Is it better to be laid off when a downsizing initiative is announced? We analyze the outcomes experienced by both victims and survivors involved in a major downsizing program, and present a model of downsizing stress. Results indicate that displaced employees, or “victims,” who secure new employment fare better than survivors. The victims in our study perceive higher levels of control, less stress, and fewer negative job strains than continuing workers, or “survivors.” These results lend credence to suggestions that stress and control are critical factors in understanding employee reactions to downsizing.
While all firms can benefit from engaging contingent labor, due to the flexibility, real options, and new knowledge these workers may provide, these benefits are compounded in emerging organizations due to their lack of resources, legitimacy, and time to focus on HR issues. By carefully weighing the risks and benefits, and making purposeful and intentional decisions concerning when and what types of contingent labor to utilize, as well as how to manage and integrate them with traditional employees, emerging ventures may experience enhanced growth and productivity. This may be particularly true during their start‐up, expansion, and diversification stages of development.
Workforce management applications are expected to drive the next phase of enterprise‐wide applications market growth. But will firms actually benefit from these applications? Horror stories of failed technology implementation efforts abound and hardly inspire confidence. Treating installation of HR technology as a form of innovation, we introduce a model that describes the technology implementation process. The model brings to the fore various issues that merit the attention of academics and practitioners alike. It appears that firms that undertake technology initiatives with a view to enable the HR function to focus more on value‐added activities are the ones most likely to realize the full potential of technology.
This study identifies key characteristics of human resource management (HRM) practices that contribute to promoting positive learning attitudes and creating a self‐renewal organizational climate. We use a behavioral perspective to develop a framework to show the relationships among learning‐oriented HRM, positive learning attitudes, and a self‐renewal organizational climate. Structural equation analysis is applied to empirically test the relationships and the path model suggests that a learning‐oriented HRM plays an important role in either directly creating a self‐renewal organizational climate or indirectly facilitating positive learning attitudes that foster organizational self‐renewal.
Wanted: High‐performance work practices to gain a competitive advantage. An increasingly common answer to this desperate call is 360‐degree programs; unfortunately, they have, at best, mixed reviews when empirically assessed. This study found that a way to improve the effectiveness of 360s may be to combine them with coaching focused on enhanced self‐awareness and behavioral management. In a small manufacturer, this feedback‐coaching resulted in improved manager and employee satisfaction, commitment, intentions to turnover, and at least indirectly, this firm's performance. This feedback‐coaching may be a winning combination to help in the competitive battles in today's global economy.