{"title":"Uncovering the complexities of remote leadership and the usage of digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative diary study","authors":"Eva-Helen Krehl, M. Büttgen","doi":"10.1177/23970022221083697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022221083697","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the way people work and live. More people than ever work from home. Due to the sudden changes, leaders are faced with various challenges, such as the fear of loss of control or keeping their teams motivated. In this study, we explore the daily experiences of leaders aiming to work effectively while using digital tools and working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching purpose of our study is to gain a better understanding about how leaders navigate the complexities of crisis-induced remote leadership by the use of digital tools by addressing the following questions: (1) Which practices do leaders use to deal with the complexities of day-to-day remote leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How do different digital tools fit the diverse leadership practices? (3) What drives and inhibits leaders’ effectiveness in dealing with the complexities of remote leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic? To explore these research questions, we draw on longitudinal data from 155 qualitative diaries written by 31 leaders over a five-work-day period. We identify four categories of leadership practices, namely (1) solve problems collaboratively and monitor team progress, (2) create space for socialising and teambuilding, (3) make the team feel supported and encourage feedback and (4) communicate to build a virtual culture of trust. Our findings reveal that leaders demonstrate a broad repertoire of leadership practices, whereby relation orientation is more pronounced than task orientation. Moreover, leaders tend to focus on operational and team-oriented leadership practices, and they encounter the challenge of choosing the right digital tool to match their message. Our study’s results show that they use a variety of digital tools, but video conferences seem especially suitable for supporting remote leadership practices. However, several factors have impacts on remote leadership effectiveness, which we consider in the managerial implications.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131578725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How do employees cope with mandatory working from home during COVID-19?","authors":"Andreea Dicu, I. Rybnikova, T. Steger","doi":"10.1177/23970022221079049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022221079049","url":null,"abstract":"How do employees who are coerced to work from home during COVID-19 cope with this unprecedented situation? Drawing upon the job-demands-resources (JD-R) model and upon the literature on coping, we analyse empirical qualitative material which stems from two-stage interviews with and online diaries prepared by 15 white-collar employees in Romania. We identify four initial coping types in relation to mandatory working from home: ‘explorers’, ‘statics’, ‘chaotics’ and ‘irremediables’. In the follow-up stage of the field work, the ‘chaotic’ type of coping disappears. These findings in relation to the unique pandemic situation represent a significant contribution to the literature on working from home as well as on coping with stress.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"94 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133510976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Feeling like a million miles away from home? Well-being at work of expatriates in the resources sector in Indonesia","authors":"Harum Apriyanti, K. Hutchings, Ruth McPhail","doi":"10.1177/23970022211063755","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211063755","url":null,"abstract":"As the world of business becomes increasingly globalised, there is greater mobility of workers internationally. Prior research has found expatriates (and their families) experience work and cultural stressors when living and working in host countries, and the stressors may be greater when working in remote locations. This research explores perceptions of well-being of expatriates at work in the resources sector, including how social capital impacts on the well-being of expatriates. The research was undertaken in Indonesia and involved semi-structured in-depth interviews with 43 resources sector expatriates, 8 spouses and 7 human resource managers who provided their perceptions of the well-being of expatriates at work. The findings highlight nine aspects of well-being at work for expatriates in the resources sector in Indonesia, including: social aspect, safety/security, benefits and disadvantages, work aspects, job and other attitudes, eudaimonic aspect, work-life balance, affect and external influences. The findings particularly emphasise the importance of safety, work life balances and external (organisational) influences. The research contributes to expatriate, well-being and social capital literature by providing an understanding of well-being at work for expatriates working in non-standard (often remote) workplaces in the resources sector. While the research was undertaken in Indonesia and includes context-specific examples from this developing country, the conceptualisation of well-being at work has broader application for employees working in non-standard workplaces across many sectors and contexts.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132430891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis: Theoretical and methodological considerations and implications for human resource management","authors":"H. Zacher, C. Rudolph","doi":"10.1177/23970022211058812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211058812","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past 2 years, numerous empirical studies in the fields of human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial, work, and organizational psychology have investigated employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this paper is to take a step back and to outline several theoretical and methodological considerations when researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis more generally. These insights may be useful when developing conceptual models, designing empirical studies, and managing people in the context of future crises. We first review theoretical approaches that could be applied to explain changes in employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis, including stress theories, theories of adjustment to work-related changes, career construction theory, event system theory, transition-adaptation theories, the crisis management and resilience framework, and the social identity model of identity change. Second, we outline methodological considerations and best practices regarding the research design of quantitative empirical studies, sampling, measurement, and analytic strategies. Throughout, we highlight empirical studies on employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic that have adopted these theoretical approaches and methodological best practices. We conclude with several suggestions for future theory development and empirical studies on employee experiences and behavior as well as human resource management in times of crisis.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130059158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Onno Bouwmeester, Barbara Versteeg, Koen van Bommel, Andrew Sturdy
{"title":"Accentuating dirty work: Coping with psychological taint in elite management consulting","authors":"Onno Bouwmeester, Barbara Versteeg, Koen van Bommel, Andrew Sturdy","doi":"10.1177/23970022211055480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211055480","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we develop the concept of dirty work by identifying new ways in which it is coped with. Traditionally, studies of dirty work have focused on how physical, social, or moral dirtiness is downplayed or normalized by workers in often physically tough “manual” occupations. We consider psychological dirtiness in work that is “knowledge intensive” and where high occupational status shields the need to protect oneself from stigma associated with dirty work. Based on interviews with management consultants working in stressful jobs in elite professional service firms, we complement the emerging literature on coping with the experience of dirty work by identifying three self-tainting tactics that consultants draw on to accentuate, rather than normalize dirty work: explication, stressing ambiguity, and humor. The motives behind these taint accentuation tactics varied from criticizing the working conditions in the sector, to the opposite, stressing one’s abilities and commitment to potential clients and managers. Where dirty aspects of work have been more psychological, accentuation was used for impression management and as a form of critique. We conclude with a discussion of the wider implications for research and practice, especially in terms of how coping with dirty work is shaped by occupational context, the kind of dirtiness (physical or psychological, social or moral), and the interests of occupational audiences.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124894057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How and when does follower’s strengths-based leadership contribute to follower work engagement? The roles of strengths use and core self-evaluation","authors":"He Ding, Enhai Yu","doi":"10.1177/23970022211053284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211053284","url":null,"abstract":"The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of follower’s strengths-based leadership (FSBL) with follower work engagement. Additionally, this study also examined the mediational effect of employee strengths use and the moderating effect of core self-evaluation (CSE) on the relationship between FSBL and follower work engagement. Data were garnered at two points in time with a time lag of 2 months. Moderated-mediation path analysis with a total of 238 employees working in a research and design institute in Beijing was deployed to examine our hypotheses. As hypothesized, FSBL was a statistically significant predictor of work engagement, and strengths use acted as a mediator in the FSBL-work engagement relationship. In addition, we also found that CSE significantly and negatively moderates the direct effect of FSBL on strengths use and the indirect effect of FSBL on work engagement through strengths use. This study advances the FSBL theory and research and provides a new insight into the driving force of work engagement.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128950949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New avenues for HRM roles: A systematic literature review on HRM in hybrid organizations","authors":"Anja Belte","doi":"10.1177/23970022211049533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211049533","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, the emergence of hybrid organizational forms has placed new demands on the role of human resource management (HRM) contributing to organizational goals. Moreover, research emphasizes that the increasing hybridity of contexts, stakeholder requirements, and goals lead to organizational tensions that, if not properly addressed, can lead to organizational downfall. However, although organization and management research recognize the importance of elaborating HRM roles for hybrid contexts, drawing upon findings from the hybrid literature has been widely neglected. Thus, by mapping the research landscape regarding hybridity, this article provides insight into the configuration of organizational HRM roles and functions that contribute to the development of hybrid goals and are associated to the management of tensions. Significantly, this article introduces three specific HRM roles—hybrid strategist, capability adapter, and identification generator—as essential HRM roles for hybrid contexts.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130699548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Boundary management and recovery when working from home: The moderating roles of segmentation preference and availability demands","authors":"Verena C. Haun, C. Remmel, Sascha Haun","doi":"10.1177/23970022221079048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022221079048","url":null,"abstract":"Blurred work–home boundaries can hamper teleworkers’ recovery from job demands. In this study, we investigate teleworkers’ temporal, physical, communicative, and technological boundary tactics as predictors of recovery experiences (i.e. psychological detachment and control during leisure time) and recovery outcomes (i.e. exhaustion). We hypothesized that individuals’ work–home segmentation preference as a personal factor and availability demands as a situational factor should moderate the relations between boundary tactics and recovery. Using a web-based survey, we collected data from 274 individuals who mainly worked from home in a lockdown period during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the use of temporal boundary tactics was positively associated with psychological detachment, control, and lower exhaustion. The use of technological boundary tactics was related to higher psychological detachment. Our moderator hypotheses were partly confirmed: Segmentation preference and availability demands strengthened the relationships between several boundary tactics and psychological detachment, control, and exhaustion. In sum, our study contributes to a better understanding of teleworkers’ recovery processes and provides actionable knowledge for teleworkers on how to enable and sustain their recovery.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134422545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonia-Sophie Döbler, André Emmermacher, Stefanie Richter-Killenberg, Joshua Nowak, J. Wegge
{"title":"New insights into self-initiated work design: the role of job crafting, self-undermining and five types of job satisfaction for employee’s health and work ability","authors":"Antonia-Sophie Döbler, André Emmermacher, Stefanie Richter-Killenberg, Joshua Nowak, J. Wegge","doi":"10.1177/23970022211029023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211029023","url":null,"abstract":"The present study provides evidence for the important role of job crafting and self-undermining behaviors at work, two new concepts that were recently integrated into the well-known job demands-resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017). We investigate how these behaviors are associated with work engagement, emotional exhaustion, and work ability as a long-term indicator of employee’s well-being. Furthermore, we examine the moderating role of personal resources in the stress-strain process by comparing groups of employees representing the five types of job satisfaction defined by Bruggemann (1974). Data was collected in a cross-sectional study within a German DAX company’s manufacturing plant from 1145 blue- and white-collar workers. Results of structural equation modeling provided, as expected, support for an indirect effect of job demands and job resources on emotional exhaustion and work engagement through job crafting and self-undermining. Work ability, on the other hand, was mainly affected by emotional exhaustion, but not by work engagement. Most important, we found significant differences between path coefficients across the five types of job satisfaction indicating that these types represent important constellations of personal resources and job demands that should be considered both for analyzing stress at work and for offering tailored stress interventions in organizations.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132138573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Determinants of role-incongruent knowledge transfer behavior of apprentices and trainers in the context of the German apprenticeship system","authors":"Xenia Schmidt, K. Muehlfeld, Alexander Peter","doi":"10.1177/23970022211029291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211029291","url":null,"abstract":"What motivates individuals to engage in role-incongruent knowledge transfer? Drawing on role congruity theory, we characterize role-incongruent (“reverse”) knowledge transfer as being based on an incongruity of the functional and social roles of the actors. Further integrating status characteristics theory and relational demography, we propose affect- and cognition-based trust as well as age as determinants of individuals’ engaging in such reverse knowledge transfer. In so doing, we distinguish between the social roles of trainers and apprentices, as these social roles carry implications for which behaviors are regarded as role-congruent or -incongruent. We test the resulting conceptual framework based on individual-level data from 442 participants (338 apprentices and 104 trainers) in multiple organizations within the context of vocational education training. The results largely support our hypotheses: For trainers, affect-based trust in apprentices and own age are positively associated with role-incongruent knowledge seeking, and the latter relationship is positively moderated by apprentice age. For apprentices, affect based trust is positively and cognition-based trust is negatively related to their role-incongruent knowledge sharing, but age has no significant effect. Finally, supplementary analyses document that the antecedents of reverse knowledge transfer differ from those factors that are significantly related to role-congruent knowledge exchange.","PeriodicalId":206271,"journal":{"name":"German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130457456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}