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In this paper, we assess the development of financial participation schemes, employee share ownership and profit-sharing in selected European countries and the degree to which they are correlated with strategic human resource management, and industrial relations, that is collective bargaining, unionization and works councils, and national context. This study adds a more dynamic perspective to the literature on the incidence of financial participation by using a longitudinal approach rarely found before. Our hypotheses are based on the theoretical frameworks of strategic human resource management (HRM), industrial relations and institutional approach. We use data drawn from the waves of the Cranet surveys on Human Resource Management: 1999/2000, 2005/06, 2010/11 and 2015/16. We find that both time and national location are important. The national context matters in particularly for profit-sharing and less for employee share ownership. For both forms of financial participation, the country regulative context is also more important than industrial relations factors and HRM strategies. In general, industrial relation factors gain importance over time and become more important than the HRM strategy for employee share ownership (ESO) but not for profit-sharing (PS). In general, over the whole period, commitment HRM is more important for the incidence of ESO and PS than control HRM, but the relative importance of these strategies varies per year.

Contains fulltext : 227908.pdf (Author’s version preprint ) (Open Access) Background Previous studies on the effects of providing feedback about quality improvement measures to nurses show mixed results and the factors explaining the variance in effects are not yet well-understood. One of the factors that could explain the variance in outcomes is how nurses perceive the feedback. It is not the feedback per se that influences nurses, and consequently their performance, but rather the way the feedback is perceived. Objectives This article aims to enhance our understanding of Human Resource attributions and employee engagement and burnout in a feedback environment. An in-depth study of nurses’ attributions about the ‘why’ of feedback on quality measurements, and its relation to engagement and burnout, was performed. Design and Methods A convergent mixed-methods, multiple case study design was used. Evidence was drawn from four comparable surgical wards within three teaching hospitals in the Netherlands that volunteered to participate in this study. Nurses on each ward were provided with oral and written feedback on quality measurements every two weeks, over a four month period. After this period, an online survey was distributed to all the nurses (n = 184) on the four participating wards. Data were collected from 91 nurses. Parallel to the survey, individual, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with eight nurses and their ward manager in each ward, resulting in interview data from 32 nurses and four ward managers. Results Results show that nurses – both as a group and individually – make varying attributions about their managers’ purpose in providing feedback on quality measurements. The feedback environment is associated to nurses’ attributions and these attributions are related to nurses’ burnout. Conclusions By showing that feedback on quality measurements can be attributed differently by nurses and that the feedback environment plays a role in this, the study provides an interesting mechanism for explaining how feedback is related to performance. Implications for theory, practice and future research are discussed. 30 januari 2001

Ziekenhuizen gebruiken in toenemende mate feedback over kwaliteitsindicatoren als instrument om de zorgkwaliteit te verbeteren. De onderliggende aanname is dat feedback over kwaliteitsindicatoren aan verpleegkundigen hen in staat stelt om hun eigen (manier van) werk(en) te beoordelen en aan te passen. Echter, een sterke focus op enkel kwantitatief meetbare kwaliteitsindicatoren kan ook een vervreemdend en demotiverend effect hebben. In deze studie onderzoeken we op basis van een voor- en nameting bij vier ziekenhuisafdelingen (N = 77) op welke manier de implementatie van frequente feedback bijdraagt aan het welzijn van de verpleegkundigen en de zorgkwaliteit. Op basis van attributietheorie, de feedbackomgeving en het Job Demands-Resources model laten we zien dat feedback over kwaliteitsindicatoren niet meteen leidde tot een verbetering van het welzijn en de zorgkwaliteit. De manier waarop de verpleegkundigen de feedback attribueren, de context waarbinnen de feedback wordt gegeven en de mate waarin de feedback als extra belasting (job demand) wordt ervaren, blijken wel van invloed op het welzijn en de zorgkwaliteit. Dat betekent dat het van belang is om feedback op een positieve manier in te zetten ter verbetering van het welzijn van verpleegkundigen en de zorgkwaliteit.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain how and why HR practitioners perceive the need to develop international HRM practices to support short-term assignments, international business travel and virtual assignments for internationally operating organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors interviewed 29 HR practitioners from multinationals located in the Netherlands.FindingsAlternative international assignments seem not to belong to the traditional expatriate jobs, nor to regular domestic jobs and show a liminal character. However, over the last few years we have gradually seen a more mature classification of the Short-term Assignment, International Business Traveler and Virtual Assignment categories and more active use of these categories in policymaking by organizations; this reflects a transition of these three categories from a liminal position to a more institutionalized position.Research limitations/implicationsFor this research, only international HRM practitioners were interviewed. Future studies should include a broader group of stakeholders.Practical implicationsInternational HRM departments should take a more proactive role regarding alternative forms of international assignees. Furthermore, HR professionals may develop training and coaching and consider rewards and benefits that could provide allowances for specific working conditions that are part of international work.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to relate the framework of institutional logic and liminality to explain the why of HR support for alternative international assignees.

Contains fulltext : 166168.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This study investigates how nation-level cultural values (‘individualism’ and ‘collectivism’) and intra-organizational task control mechanisms influence the level of organizations’ use of formal telework practices. Employing a multi-level analysis on survey data (2009/10), including 1577 organizations within 18 nations, we found that ‘high use of formal telework practices in organizations’ was more likely when: (1) organizations operated in nations characterized by strong national values; and when they employed (2) ‘hard’ indirect controls (i.e. individual performance-related pay and 360º performance-evaluations). High telework use was less likely when organizations employed direct controls (i.e. higher proportions of managers) and ‘soft’ indirect controls (i.e. higher proportions of professionals). ‘Low use of formal telework practices’ was more likely when organizations employed ‘soft’ indirect controls. Our findings suggest that national cultural values can function as ‘soft’ indirect controls to mitigate the ‘telework risk’ of high levels of telework practices. Internal ‘soft’ task controls only sufficed for managing low levels of telework practices. We discuss the smart and dark sides of telework and how these relate to the management of telework practice. Implications for future telework research and practices are discussed.

Contains fulltext : 148914.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Contains fulltext : 148914_pre.pdf (Author’s version preprint ) (Open Access) This study investigates the relationship between broad-based financial participation plans (which target all employees) and financial performance, using a panel dataset of listed, companies (excluding financial institutions) during the period 1992–2009, comprising 2,153 observations. We make a distinction between broad-based profit sharing, share and stock option plans. The panel data allow us to take into account time-lag effects, as profit sharing is usually said to have short-term effects, while share plans and stock options and are intended to have longer term impact. Our results show that broad-based profit sharing and share plans and combinations of these plans are positively related with financial performance when compared with companies without such plans. However, the results are inconsistent for the associations between broad-based stock option plans and financial performance in the longer term. These findings extend the literature on financial participation plans by including different forms of broad-based financial participation and showing that the different forms affect companies’ financial performance differently. Our results also support earlier reports in the literature, which suggest that there are important synergies between broad-based profit-sharing and share plans, in terms of a better combination of intrinsic ownership behaviors and extrinsic motivation of employees as well as a stronger focus on collective interest and performance when compared with single plans. 21 december 2014 26 p.

Using Dutch data, we examine the characteristics of establishments that operate performance appraisal systems. Our estimates provide a couple of interesting results: (1) Several indicators of multitasking are positively associated with the use of performance appraisal systems. There is also a positive relationship between teamwork and performance appraisal. (2) While a shared corporate culture, the sharing of information and a professional personnel management emerge as positive determinants, unions appear to play a negative role. (3) Employers fostering career development and promotion opportunities make greater use of performance appraisal. (4) Public sector affiliation, establishment size and establishment age also play a role.

This study explores patterns of human resource management (HRM) practices across market economies, and between indigenous firms and foreign MNE subsidiary operations, offering a novel perspective on convergence and divergence. Applying institutional theorizing to improve our understanding of convergence/divergence as a process and an outcome, data collected from nine countries at three points in time over a decade confirm that convergence and divergence occur to different extents in a nonlinear fashion, and vary depending on the area of HRM practice observed. Patterns of adoption and convergence/divergence are explained through the effect of institutional constraints, which vary between liberal and coordinated market economies, and between indigenous firms and foreign MNE subsidiaries. Specifically, we expected, and largely found supporting evidence confirming that compensation and wage-bargaining level practices show more evidence of being institutionally constrained, and hence were less likely to converge, than contingent employment, training, and direct information provision practices. The study contributes a more graded conceptualization of convergence/divergence (from constant no difference, through robust convergence, non-robust convergence, non-robust divergence, and robust divergence to constant difference), allowing us to tease out the subtle manifestations of the process that can incorporate the complex dynamic reality of international business.

Contains fulltext : 175504.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) BACKGROUND: Providing nursing teams with feedback on quality measurements is used as a quality improvement instrument in healthcare organizations worldwide. Previous research indicated contradictory results regarding the effect of such feedback on both nurses' well-being and performance. OBJECTIVES: Building on the Job Demands-Resources model this study explores: (1) whether and how nurses' perceptions of feedback on quality measurements (as a burdening job demand or rather as an intrinsically or extrinsically motivating job resource) are respectively related to nurses' well-being and performance; and (2) whether and how team reflection influences nurses' perceptions. DESIGN: An embedded case study. SETTINGS: Four surgical wards within three different acute teaching-hospital settings in the Netherlands. METHODS: During a period of four months, the nurses on each ward were provided with similar feedback on quality measurements. After this period, interviews with eight nurses and the ward manager for each ward were conducted. Additionally, observational data were collected from three oral feedback moments on each of the participating wards. RESULTS: The data revealed that individual nurses perceive the same feedback on quality measurements differently, leading to different effects on nurses' well-being and performance: 1) feedback can be perceived as a job demand that pressures nurses to improve the results on the quality measurements; 2) feedback can be perceived as an extrinsically motivating job resource, that is instrumental to improve the results on quality measurements; 3) feedback can be perceived as an intrinsically motivating job resource that stimulates nurses to improve the results on the quality measurements; and 4) feedback can be perceived neither as a job demand, nor as a job resource, and has no effect on nurses' well-being and performance. Additionally, this study indicates that team reflection after feedback seems to be very low in practice, while our data also provides evidence that nursing teams using the feedback to jointly reflect and analyse their performance and strategies will be able to better translate information about quality measurements into corrective behaviours, which may result in more positive perceptions of feedback on quality measurements among individual nurses. CONCLUSIONS: To better understand the impact of feedback to nursing teams on quality measurements, we should take nurses' individual perceptions of this feedback into account. Supporting nursing teams in team reflection after them having received feedback on quality measurements may help in eliciting positive perceptions among nurses, and therewith create positive effects of feedback on both their well-being and performance.

This special issue aims to bring together contributions that take a dynamic approach to the development of financial participation, employee share ownership and profit sharing. The approach is premised on the notion that companies have ‘space’ to take a set of key decisions about financial participation. From different angles and experiences in different corners of the world, all contributions show that institutional pressures may be coupled with responses of different actors shaping the form and use of financial participation. The special issue also highlights the importance of future multilevel and mixed methods research to take into account the different institutional forces as well as actors decisions on different levels in shaping the form and use of financial participation.

PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the concept of “global management competencies”.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive review of most of the relevant literature on global management competencies was done. By investigating four constructs, i.e. the global mindset, cross‐cultural competence, intercultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence, all related to “global management competencies” the authors made an in‐depth investigation of the contributing organizational behaviour components, the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personality characteristics (the KSAOs), useful for a construct of global management competencies.FindingsA configuration of the above components as an integrative model was developed. This model could serve as the basis for the development of measurement instruments.Originality/valueThe construct of global management competencies, albeit with different labels and in different disguise, has received a lot of attention in the last two decades but has not been conceptualised satisfactorily. This article is an attempt to do so.

PurposeThis paper sets out to present a detailed empirical investigation of the entrepreneurial intentions of business students. The authors employ the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), in which intentions are regarded as resulting from attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used was a replication study among samples of undergraduate students of business administration at four different universities (totaln=1,225). Five operationalisations of intentions are used as well as a composite measure. Prior to the main study, qualitative research conducted at two other universities (totaln=373) was held to operationalise the components of the TPB.FindingsThe results show that the two most important variables to explain entrepreneurial intentions are entrepreneurial alertness and the importance attached to financial security.Research limitations/implicationsVarious research design features are used that result in better and more detailed explanations of entrepreneurial intentions.Practical implicationsShould one want to stimulate entrepreneurship in educational or training settings, then this paper's results provide guidance. Several suggestions are offered on how entrepreneurial alertness can be improved and financial security concerns can be reduced.Originality/valueThe study provides detailed and solid results on entrepreneurial intentions which are positioned in the career literature.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a timely assessment of the influence of human resource (HR) processes and policies on expatriates’ employability, using a Dutch international engineering firm as the study setting. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative study, based on in-depth interviews with 15 respondents in various roles, such as expatriates, repatriates, HR managers and line managers, is complemented by a document analysis of HR policy reports about expatriation processes. Findings Expatriation management influences the internal employability of engineering expatriates, yet most HR policies related to expatriation work are counterproductive in terms of in-company employability of expatriates. Research limitations/implications Further research could extend this single case study by differentiating engineering from management functions and addressing employability implications for other assignments and other forms of expatriation. Comparisons are also possible across various stakeholders with regard to social support. Practical implications HR management can follow several prescriptions revealed by this study to increase expatriates’ employability within the organization. Originality/value This study is among the first to relate expatriation processes to the dimensions of employability.

Contains fulltext : 175505.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) AIM: This contribution develops a conceptual framework that illustrates how feedback on quality measurements to nursing teams can be related to nurses' well-being and quality improvement. BACKGROUND: It is assumed that providing nursing teams with feedback on quality measurements will lead to quality improvement. Research does not fully support this assumption. Additionally, previous empirical work shows that feedback on quality measurements may have alienating and demotivating effects on nurses. EVALUATION: This article uniquely integrates scholarly literature on feedback provision and strategic human resource management. KEY ISSUE: The relationship between feedback provision, nurses' well-being and quality improvement remains unclear from research until now. CONCLUSION: Three perspectives are discussed that illustrate that feedback provision can result in quality improvement at the expense of or for the benefit of nurses' well-being. To better understand these contradictory effects, research should examine nurses' perceptions of feedback as mediating variables, while incorporating context factors as moderating variables. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nursing management can use feedback on quality measurements to nursing teams, as a tool for enhanced quality and as a motivating tool. However, nurses' perceptions and contextual variables are important for the actual success of feedback.

This article explores the relationships between financial participation and other forms of participation drawing on data collected from listed companies in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The authors provide evidence on two questions. First, does the presence of either direct or indirect participation predict the use of profit sharing and employee equity plans? Second, to what extent is employee participation in profit sharing and equity plans influenced by the presence of other forms of participation? Overall, the results provide little evidence of complementarity between financial participation and other forms of participation. There are also clear differences between types of financial participation. It is found that indirect participation has a weak relationship with use of profit sharing and participation in profit sharing plans. Direct participation is not associated with the use of equity plans or profit sharing but with participation in stock acquisition plans. Employee participation in plan design is strongly associated with participation in profit sharing and stock acquisition plans but not stock options.

Contains fulltext : 46629.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) 14 p.

The debate on convergence and globalisation of national economies emphasises the role of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) with regard to the export of homecountry policies in countries where they have their plants. MNCs set a process of change in motion in which local companies attempt to catch up with the more internationalised companies, particularly those from the Anglo-Saxon world. This process is called Anglo-Saxonisation. In this paper we focus on share (option) schemes. Analysing a European survey of HRM practices in workplaces in selected countries, we can trace a US-MNCs effect in the case of the narrow-based executive type of share (option) schemes in continental Europe. We can also trace a minor effect in the case of broad-based schemes open to all employees. The diversity we find in predictors between countries and the strong significant effects of country suggest that local corporate and institutional factors are more important in the case of broad-based share schemes than in the case of the narrow, executive type of share schemes.

Contains fulltext : 148925.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This article compares the spread of broad-based individual performance-related pay practices (PRP) in Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Western European companies. The article investigates the dominance effect of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the constraining effects of industrial relations, i.e. collective bargaining and union influence. A key finding is that we did not find stronger influence by US MNEs compared with other MNEs. Regarding the determinants of industrial relations, in general decentralised firm-level bargaining supports the adoption of PRP schemes, whereas a greater degree of unionisation tends to reduce it. However, the latter effect is not found in CEE countries with their more permissive industrial relations system. The fact that there are high levels of broad-based individual PRP in CEE, that there is no negative association with unionisation and a positive relationship with firm-level bargaining and no effect of MNEs suggests that this practice is well established in firms in CEE. 17 februari 2015 26 p.

Increasingly, hospitals use the data from their quality measurement activities, as feedback information for their nurses. It is argued that feedback on quality measurements can result in quality improvement at the expense of or for the benefit of nurses' well-being. The proposed relationship is assumed to be mediated by (1) nurses' attribution about management's purpose in providing feedback, and (2) nurses' perception of feedback as a job demand versus a job resource. This contribution describes the development and validation of an instrument to measure these constructs, based on research on HR attributions (Nishii et al., 2008) and the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). The measure has been discussed with several experts and practitioners, and pilot-tested among 55 nurses. Our pilot study reveals promising results regarding the content, construct and predictive validity of our measure.

Contains fulltext : 127384.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Cultural intelligence (CQ) is an important construct attracting growing attention in academic literature and describing cross-cultural competencies. To date, researchers have only partially tested the relationship between CQ and its dependent variables, such as performance. In this study, the relationship between CQ and communication effectiveness and job satisfaction is measured in a sample of 225 Chinese managers working for foreign multinational enterprises in China. The results show that CQ plays an important role in reducing anxiety and influencing both communication effectiveness and job satisfaction positively. Another outcome is the unexpected influence of anxiety on job satisfaction but not on communication effectiveness. These findings contribute to the development of theory with regard to the CQ construct. 10 januari 2014 20 p.

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce the theme of the special issue – diversity management beyond the business case. It addresses two main questions: first, how increased diversification within workgroups or labour is dealt with via diversity management, and second what the effects are of this increased diversity for group performance.Design/methodology/approachThe different contributions are embedded into two important discussions in the literature: problems with the concept of diversity and problems with outcomes of diversity management.FindingsReflecting on the contributions to this special issue, it is argued that solely emphasizing business case arguments for supporting the implementation of diversity management may be rather risky. They conclude with a plea for emphasis on arguments of justice and sustainability of the employment relationship and discuss future avenues for research.Originality/valueThe paper shows the difficulty of universally applying the concept of diversity and diversity management. In addition, it shows that the claimed positive impact of diversity management is contingent on several factors.

Managers and employees need global leadership competencies in order to operate effectively in international business. In order to prepare both managers and employees for operating in the global arena an instrument measuring global leadership competencies would be very useful. In this article we design a framework for systematically assessing measurement instruments designed to measure Global Management Competencies (GMC). Based on an elaborate search, we found 23 instruments of varying quality, that measure GMC, with a special focus on measuring ways of coping with cultural diversity. These instruments mostly involve self-reporting survey questions only, often measuring attitudes, without referring to actual behaviour in cross-cultural interaction. Using the assessment framework we selected a limited number of instruments that may be useful for assessing global management competencies.

This article presents the major findings of a research project for the European Union on the development of promotion of employee ownership and profit sharing, known as PEPPER schemes, and the diffusion of these schemes throughout Europe. Since the first PEPPER report in 1991, the general situation of government policy on financial participation schemes in EU countries has improved slightly. Official government positions in individual EU countries still range from strongly in favour to undefined. The different government positions relate to distinct industrial relations systems in individual EU countries. This is demonstrated by the very particular developments with respect to the issue of financial participation in France, Germany and the UK.

ERIK POUTSMA and Aad Zwaard are research associates at the Economic Research Institute for Small-and Medium-sized businesses in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands. This paper focusses on the effects of new technologies in small-and medium-sized industrial businesses. The study is based on a survey of 780 enterprises in different industries and three case studies in the metals industry. One of the crucial indicators to judge the changes in work organisation and job content is where and by whom computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines are programmed. In general it can be stated that the smaller the scale of the enterprise and size of batches, the greater the number of tasks and responsibilities on the part of the operator. Furthermore, in small firms with variable runs of production, the machine operators carry out programming functions as well as tasks of optimalisation, adjustment and quality control. The number of different tasks also depends on the level of education and skills of the operator, which is slightly higher in small firms. One of the main findings is that new technologies leave room for organisational choices concerning the quality of work. If small firms are to be able to compete in the future much depends on the way they make use of modern technologies. The first concern when automation is introduced is to keep the multi-skill and autonomous character of jobs intact.