A new issue of Human Relations is available online: Human Relations November 2015; Vol.
68, No. 11 - we hope you enjoy reading these articles. The entire issue can be accessed online
at http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/11?etoc .
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NOVEMBER ISSUE ARTICLES
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Management commitment to the ecological environment and
employees: Implications for employee attitudes and
citizenship behaviors
Berrin Erdogan, Talya N Bauer, and Sully Taylor
Human Relations November 2015, 68(11): 1669‒1691. Published online before print April
28, 2015, doi: 10.1177/0018726714565723
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/11/1669?etoc
Abstract
In this article, we examine the implications of perceived management commitment to the
ecological environment for employee attitudes and behaviors. Following deontic justice
theory, which suggests that individuals are capable of feeling and expressing moral outrage
when others are treated poorly, even if such treatment has no direct implications for
themselves, we expected that employee attitudes and behaviors would be related to
perceived organizational treatment of the environment. At the same time, we expected that
these reactions would be moderated by how employees themselves were treated by the
organization, in the form of perceived organizational support. In a study of employees and
supervisors in a textile firm in Turkey, the results indicate that perceived organizational
support moderated the effects of management commitment to the environment on
organizational justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors
targeting the environment.
Keywords: ecological environment and sustainability, organizational citizenship behaviors,
organizational justice, perceived organizational support
The exhausted short-timer: Leveraging autonomy to engage
in production deviance
Raenada A Wilson, Sara Jansen Perry, Lawrence Alan Witt, and Rodger W
Griffeth
Human Relations November 2015, 68(11): 1693‒1711, first published online before print
May 5, 2015, doi: 10.1177/0018726714565703
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/11/1693?etoc
Abstract
This article explores the conditions under which autonomy may lead to production
deviance (unsanctioned, non-task-focused behavior) rather than acting as a motivational
job characteristic. In a study of 260 manual laborers, we applied Conservation of
Resources Theory to propose an interaction among autonomy, emotional exhaustion and
employment opportunity in predicting production deviance. We suggest that employees
who experience emotional exhaustion may leverage autonomy to engage in production
deviance in efforts to conserve and protect remaining energy reserves, particularly when
they feel they can secure ‘better’ opportunities than their current job. Results of
hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses revealed that workers reporting high
levels of autonomy, emotional exhaustion and employment opportunity also manifested the
highest levels of production deviance.
Keywords: burnout, Conservation of Resources Theory, emotional exhaustion,
employment opportunity index, time theft
Is non-family social capital also (or especially) important for
family firm performance?
Valeriano Sanchez-Famoso, Naveed Akhter, Txomin Iturralde, Francesco
Chirico, and Amaia Maseda
Human Relations November 2015, 68(11): 1713‒1743, first published online before print
June 29, 2015, doi: 10.1177/0018726714565724
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/11/1713?etoc
Abstract
This article reports on a study investigating the effects of both family and non-family
social capital on firm performance. Specifically, we contend that non-family social capital
has a stronger effect on firm performance than family social capital and it also serves as a
mediator between family social capital and firm performance. Using a sample of 172
Spanish family firms that includes two respondents per firm, we test a structural model that
confirms our hypotheses. Our results extend the understanding of social capital beyond
family firms by exploring both family- and non-family-based social relationships in a
context in which social factors are predominant.
Keywords: Family firms, family social capital, non-family social capital, firm performance,
structural equation modelling
Career scripts in clusters: A social position approach
Annick Valette and Jean-Denis Culié
Human Relations November 2015, 68(11): 1745‒1767, first published online before print
May 14, 2015, doi: 10.1177/0018726715569515
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/11/1745?etoc
Abstract
This article examines the career scripts held by individuals working in clusters by studying
the careers seen as desirable and possible by 42 micro-nanotechnology and computer
science researchers in the ‘Minalogic’ cluster, the French equivalent of Silicon Valley.
We consider the links between the researchers’ career scripts and their social positions
and identify six discrete career scripts that we label organizational nomad, entrepreneurial,
organizational extension, cloister, escape and conversion. Central social positions in the
cluster are linked with boundaryless career scripts (organizational nomad and
entrepreneurial scripts), but individuals also use the resources associated with their central
social positions to envisage both extending their careers and the range of tasks they
undertake (organizational extension script) within their employing organizations. Others −
those holding peripheral social positions − may be unable to match the cluster’s
expectations, and so feel trapped in involuntary immobility (cloister script), constrained to
leave the cluster (escape script) or to change their occupations or broaden their skill sets to
advance their careers within it (conversion script). Our article goes beyond simply using
scripts as descriptions to propose a more comprehensive approach by highlighting the
social dimension of career scripts. Our results qualify the supposed predominance of the
boundaryless career notion by confronting it with the wider generic notion of the career
script, so proposing a more complete description of how a cluster shapes individuals’
career definitions and aspirations, as well as a more complex theorization of how those
careers are influenced by the cluster context.
Keywords: boundaryless career, career, cluster, script, social position
Sexual orientation discrimination in the United Kingdom’s
labour market: A field experiment
Nick Drydakis
Human Relations November 2015, 68(11): 1769‒1796, first published online before print
April 8, 2015, doi10.1177/0018726715569855
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/68/11/1769?etoc
Abstract
Deviations from heteronormativity affect labour market dynamics. Hierarchies of sexual
orientation can result in job dismissals, wage discrimination and the failure to promote gay
and lesbian individuals to top ranks. In this article, I report on a field experiment (144
job-seekers and their correspondence with 5549 firms) that tested the extent to which
sexual orientation affects the labour market outcomes of gay and lesbian job-seekers in the
United Kingdom. Their minority sexual orientations, as indicated by job-seekers’
participation in gay and lesbian university student unions, negatively affected their
workplace prospects. The probability of gay or lesbian applicants receiving an invitation
for an interview was 5.0 percent (5.1%) lower than that for heterosexual male or female
applicants. In addition, gay men and lesbians received invitations for interviews by firms
that paid salaries that were 1.9 percent (1.2%) lower than those paid by firms that invited
heterosexual male or female applicants for interviews. In addition, in male- or
female-dominated occupations, gay men and lesbians received fewer invitations for
interviews than their non-gay and non-lesbian counterparts. Furthermore, gay men and
lesbians also received fewer invitations to interview for positions in which masculine or
feminine personality traits were highlighted in job applications and at firms that did not
provide written equal opportunity standards, suggesting that the level of discrimination
depends partly on the personality traits that employers seek and on organization-level
hiring policies. I conclude that heteronormative discourse continues to reproduce and
negatively affect the labour market prospects of gay men and lesbians.
Keywords: field experiment, heteronormativity, interviews, selection, sexual orientation,
wage offers
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OCTOBER FREE ACCESS ARTICLE
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Free to access until 31 October 2015:
Obesity in organizational context
Charlotta Levay
Human Relations 2014 67(5): 565–585, DOI: 10.1177/0018726713496831
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/67/5/565.full
Abstract
This article argues that obesity is an overlooked topic that deserves to be investigated in
organizational studies, in line with the recent interest in embodiment. Obesity plays a pervasive
role in everyday organizational life as a source of discrimination, legitimization of power
differentials and widespread anxiety even for the non-obese. Obesity is also a thoroughly
organized phenomenon. It is increasingly construed as a medical and societal problem and the
target of massive efforts to curb the ‘obesity epidemic’. These include workplace health
initiatives that offer opportunities for empirical access to otherwise elusive phenomena related
to obesity. To substantiate its claims, the article relates research from several fields, notably
critical obesity research and empirical studies of embodiment in organizations. It points at
intriguing combinations of ubiquitous social influence and failed campaigns, of subjugation
and resistance, and of prejudice and critical reflection. Finally, the article indicates directions
for future research, which could fruitfully apply and further develop the late-Foucauldian
themes of governmentality and technologies of the self.
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WHY PUBLISH IN HUMAN RELATIONS?
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Human Relations is an A* journal – the highest category of quality – in the Australian
Business Deans Council (ABCD) Journal Quality List 2013. It is also ranked 4 in the
Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Academic Journal Guide 2015. Human
Relations is a top 5 interdisciplinary social sciences journal:
2-year impact factor: 2.398 - Ranked: 35/185 in Management and 5/95 in Social Sciences,
Interdisciplinary
5-year impact factor: 3.187 - Ranked: 37/185 in Management and 3/95 in Social Sciences,
Interdisciplinary
Source: 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015)
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CALLS FOR PAPERS
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Special issue: Conceptualising flexible careers across the life course– submit by 1 March
2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Flexible%20careers.html
Special issue: Global supply chains and social relations at work– submit by 30 April
2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Global%20supply%20chains.ht
ml
NEW: Special issue: Politicization and political contests in contemporary multinational
corporations – submit by 30 September 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Politics%20and%20MNCs.html
NEW: Special issue: Organizing feminism: Bodies, practices and ethics – submit by 30
November 2016
http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/special_issues/Organizing%20feminism.html
Human Relations welcomes critical reviews and essays:
- Critical reviews advance a field through new theory, new methods, a novel synthesis of
extant evidence, or a combination of two or three of these elements. Reviews that identify
new research questions and that make links between management and organizations and
the wider social sciences are particularly welcome. Surveys or overviews of a field are
unlikely to meet these criteria.
- Critical essays address contemporary scholarly issues and debates within the journal's
scope. They are more controversial than conventional papers or reviews, and can be shorter.
They argue a point of view, but must meet standards of academic rigour. Anyone with an
idea for a critical essay is particularly encouraged to discuss it at an early stage with
the Editor-in-Chief.
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RECENT ONLINEFIRST PREVIEW ARTICLES
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The labour market for jazz musicians in Paris and London: Formal
regulation and informal norms
Charles Umney
Human Relations 0018726715596803, first published on October 26, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715596803
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/24/0018726715596803.abstract
Abstract
This article examines the normative expectations freelance jazz musicians have about the
material conditions of live performance work, taking London and Paris as case studies. It
shows how price norms constitute an important reference point for individual workers in
navigating the labour market. However, only rarely do they take ‘stronger’ form as a
collective demand. Two further arguments are made: first, that the strength of norms varies
very widely across labour markets, being much stronger on jobs where other qualitative
attractions (such as the scope for creative autonomy) are weak. Second, in the Paris case,
an ostensibly solidaristic social insurance mechanism (the Intermittence du Spectacle
system) had the seemingly paradoxical effect of further weakening social norms around
working conditions. Workers’ individual efforts to meet the system’s eligibility criteria
often disrupted the emergence of collective expectations around pricing, and in some cases
the existence of formal regulation itself was stigmatized as stifling creativity.
Rethinking the benefits and pitfalls of leader–member exchange:
A reciprocity versus self-protection perspective
Jeremy B Bernerth, H Jack Walker, and Stanley G Harris
Human Relations 0018726715594214, first published on October 26, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715594214
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/24/0018726715594214.abstract
Abstract
Existing literature assumes employees sharing high-quality relationships with supervisors
hold advantageous positions over their peers under the leader–member exchange model.
We propose environmental conditions limit the generalizability of this logic. Our
framework is based on the idea that certain environments threaten the cycle of resource
exchange and reciprocity, a foundational assumption in existing leader–member exchange
models. To demonstrate this effect, we integrate social exchange and self-regulation
theories to define four generalized environmental conditions we label appetitive alignment,
appetitive misalignment, aversive misalignment and aversive alignment. We discuss
accompanying propositions including both theoretical and practical implications of a
contextualized leader-member exchange model to help future researchers anticipate when
the benefits associated with high-quality leader–member relations and the pitfalls of
low-quality relationships are attenuated by the environment.
Ethos at stake: Performance management and academic work in
universities
Kirsi-Mari Kallio, Tomi J Kallio, Janne Tienari, and Timo Hyvönen
Human Relations 0018726715596802, first published on October 26, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715596802
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/24/0018726715596802.abstract
Abstract
Higher education has been subject to substantial reforms as new forms of performance
management are implemented in universities across the world. Extant research suggests
that in many cases performance management systems have disrupted academic life. We
complement this literature with an extensive mixed methods study of how the performance
management system is understood by academics across universities and departments in
Finland at a time when new management principles and practices are being forcefully
introduced. While our survey results enabled us to map the generally critical and negative
view that Finnish scholars have of performance management, the qualitative inquiry
allowed us to disentangle how and why our respondents resent the ways and means of
measuring their work, the assumptions that underlie the measurement, and the university
ideal on which the performance management system is rooted. Most significantly, we
highlight how the proliferation of performance management can be seen as a catalyst for
changing the very ethos of what it is to be an academic and to do academic work.
The cultural grammar of governance: The UK Code of Corporate
Governance, reflexivity, and the limits of ‘soft’ regulation
Jeroen Veldman and Hugh C Willmott
Human Relations 0018726715593160, first published on October 19, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715593160
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/16/0018726715593160.abstract
Abstract
We identify limits of ‘reflexive governance’ by examining the UK Code of Corporate
Governance that is celebrated for its ‘reflexivity’. By placing the historical genesis of
the Code within its politico-economic context, it is shown how its scope and penetration is
impeded by a shallow, ‘single loop’ of reflexivity. Legitimized by agency theory, the
Code is infused by a ‘cultural grammar’ that perpetuates relations of shareholder
primacy as it restricts accountability to narrow forms of information disclosure directed
exclusively at shareholders. Engagement of a deeper, ‘double loop’ reflexivity allows
account to be taken of the historical conditions and theoretical conceptions that shape
practices and outcomes of corporate governance. Only then is it possible to disclose,
challenge and reform narrow conceptions, boundaries and workings of ‘reflexive
governance’.
Challenge and hindrance stressors and wellbeing-based work–
nonwork interference: A diary study of portfolio workers
Stephen J Wood and George Michaelides
Human Relations 0018726715580866, first published on October 15, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715580866
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/14/0018726715580866.abstract
Abstract
Stress-based work–nonwork interference, or negative spillover, is associated with
transference of negative emotions from the work to the nonwork domain. It is argued that
work–nonwork interference resulting from high work demands does not necessarily entail
the reproduction of any affective states. First, calmness can result in lower work–
nonwork interference and enthusiasm in higher levels. Second, hindrance stressors can be
negatively related to enthusiasm and calmness, while challenge stressors are positively
associated with them. Hypotheses about the relationship between stressors and interference
that reflect this rationality are developed and tested using longitudinal data from a
six-month diary study of portfolio workers. The results offer some support for them and
indicate that both challenge and hindrance stressors are positively related to interference.
However, for hindrance stressors the indirect effect is positive when mediated by calmness
and negative for enthusiasm. In contrast, for challenge stressors the indirect effect is
negative when mediated by calmness and positive when mediated by enthusiasm. The
mediation paths are significant only for transient effects. Thus, there are indications that
well-being can both increase or decrease interference depending on the nature of the
stressor and whether it is mediated by calmness or enthusiasm.
Organization at the margins: Subaltern resistance of Singur
Mahuya Pal
Human Relations 0018726715589797, first published on October 15, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715589797
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/14/0018726715589797.abstract
Abstract
Based on fieldwork and subaltern studies as a theoretical framework, this article engages
organizational discourses of farmers in Singur, India. Opposing their land grab by the state
for a corporate project, the farmers join the global struggle against land acquisition by
subaltern communities, a prominent feature of the neoliberal economy. My conversations
with the farmers reveal that discourses of violence and non-violence informed their
organization of struggle. Further, their organization of resistance emerges as a
self-organization, demonstrates the interplay of agency and structure, and follows an
ethico-political ideology to challenge the imperial power produced by state-corporate
nexus. In particular, cultural value frames of ahimsa (non-violence) and dharma (moral)
guide their organizational principles centered on ethical considerations, justice and human
dignity. This research brings forth the counter-hegemonic potential of the Singur resistance
and suggests its possibilities to contribute to the process of change in the neoliberal
economy. Ultimately, the peasant discourses decentralize the ways we think of the world in
terms of its forms of organization and its social life in the neoliberal political order, and
offer social imaginaries of a politically just society.
The paradox of inclusion and exclusion in membership associations
Nicholas Solebello, Mary Tschirhart, and Jeffrey Leiter
Human Relations 0018726715590166, first published on October 15, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715590166
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/10/14/0018726715590166.abstract
Abstract
We use interviews and a focus group with leaders of a sample of nonprofit professional
and trade membership associations based in the United States to understand what the
leaders recognize to be their membership association’s diversity challenges and
initiatives. We identify incentives, identity and power challenges as fundamental influences
on the diversity of potential and existing members. Our analysis reveals a paradox in which
attempts to increase the association’s inclusiveness are met with countervailing desires to
maintain the membership association’s exclusiveness. We find that leaders may attempt
to manage the paradox through strategies that legitimize diversity initiatives, change the
membership association’s identity to reflect the valuing of diversity, and take advantage
of organizational structures to embed diversity-related practices and accountability. These
strategies have been discussed in the diversity management literature but without our
paradox perspective. Additionally, paradox literature emphasizes the importance of
ambidextrous (‘both/and’) approaches to paradox management, but these strategies may
reflect an ‘either/or’ approach as leaders push their agenda forward, potentially in
direct conflict with the desires of some current members.
Crafting one’s leisure time in response to high job strain
Paraskevas Petrou and Arnold B Bakker
Human Relations 0018726715590453, first published on October 12, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715590453
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/30/0018726715590453.abstract
Abstract
The present study addresses employee leisure crafting as the proactive pursuit and
enactment of leisure activities targeted at goal setting, human connection, learning and
personal development. Study 1 developed a measure for leisure crafting and provided
evidence for its reliability and validity. In study 2, we followed 80 employees over the
course of three weeks. We hypothesized that weekly leisure crafting would be more likely
during weeks of high job strain (i.e. high quantitative job demands and low job autonomy)
combined with sufficient autonomy at home, and during weeks of high activity at home (i.e.
high quantitative home demands and high home autonomy). Furthermore, we predicted
that weekly leisure crafting would relate positively to weekly satisfaction of basic human
needs. Results indicated that leisure crafting was pronounced in weeks with high job strain
combined with high home autonomy. However, an active home condition (i.e. high home
demands and high home autonomy) was unrelated to leisure crafting. Weekly leisure
crafting further related positively to weekly satisfaction of relatedness and autonomy (but
not competence) needs. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our
findings for the job crafting and leisure literatures.
The social potency of affect: Identification and power in the
immanent structuring of practice
Mark Thompson and Hugh Willmott
Human Relations 0018726715593161, first published on October 12, 2015 as
doi:10.1177/0018726715593161
http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/30/0018726715593161.abstract
Abstract
We address the centrality of affect in structuring social practices, including those of organizing
and managing. Social practices, it is argued, are contingent upon actors’ affectively charged
involvement in immanent, yet indeterminate social relations. To understand this generative
involvement, we commend a temporally-sensitive, critically-oriented theoretical framework,
grounded in an affect-based ontology of practice. We demonstrate the relevance and credibility
of this proposal through an analysis of the interactions of Board members in a UK consulting
company.
Best wishes,
Claire Castle
Managing Editor, Human Relations
Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org
Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org
OnlineFirst forthcoming articles: http://hum.sagepub.com/content/early/recent
Submission guidance: http://www.tavinstitute.org/humanrelations/submit_paper.html
2-year impact factor: 2.398 - Ranked: 35/185 in Management and 5/95 in Social Sciences,
Interdisciplinary
5-year impact factor: 3.187 - Ranked: 37/185 in Management and 3/95 in Social Sciences,
Interdisciplinary
Source: 2014 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2015)
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