Search results

The purpose of this paper is to apply the concept of power imbalance to explain workplace and demographic characteristics associated with bullying by different perpetrators in the healthcare sector.

All 69,927 members of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Victoria) were invited to participate in an online survey in 2014; 4,891 responses were received (7 per cent response rate). Participants were asked about their exposure to workplace bullying (WPB) by different perpetrators. The questionnaire addressed demographic characteristics and perceptions of workplace characteristics (workplace type, leading indicators of occupational health and safety (OHS), prioritisation of OHS, supervisor support for safety and bureaucracy). Analysis involved descriptive statistics and regression analyses.

The study found that the exposure of nurses and health workers to bullying is relatively high (with 42 per cent of respondents experiencing WPB in the past 12 months) and there are multiple perpetrators of bullying. The research revealed several demographic predictors associated with the different types of perpetrators. Downward and horizontal bullying were the most prevalent forms. Workplace characteristics were more important predictors of bullying by different perpetrators than were demographic characteristics.

There are limitations to the study due to a low response rate and the cross-sectional survey.

Practical implications of this study emphasise the importance of focussed human resource strategies to prevent bullying.

The key contribution of this research is to draw from theoretical explanations of power to inform understanding of the differences between perpetrators of bullying. The study highlights the workplace characteristics that influence bullying.

The purpose of this paper is to address gaps in the knowledge about human resource (HR) professional involvement in strategic decision-making in China compared with that in Australia.

First, the authors compare the strategic involvement of Chinese and Australian HR professionals. Second, based on the upper echelon theory, the authors compare the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) and top management team (TMT) between both countries on HR involvement in strategic decision-making. Data were collected from matched pairs of HR and TMT executives in China (n = 168) and in Australia (n = 102).

Results indicate a difference, despite of no statistical significance, in HR involvement in strategic decision-making between Chinese and Australian samples. TMT behavioural integration was positively related to HR involvement in strategic decision-making in a collectivistic culture (i.e. in China), but not in an individualistic culture (i.e. in Australia). However, CEO support for HRM was positively related to HR involvement in strategic decision-making in Australia, whereas it is not related in China.

The paper conducts a comparative study and practical, and research implications are discussed at the end.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of nurses’ experience of the fulfilment of their psychological contract on their intention to leave the nursing profession and to consider employee engagement as a mediator between the fulfilment of the psychological contract of nurses and their intention to leave their profession.

The authors used a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. In total, 1,039 Australian nurses completed an anonymous online survey conducted via the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation website. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

The fulfilment of promises related to interesting job content and social atmosphere were negatively associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession, and these relationships were mediated by engagement. The fulfilment of promises related to career development, financial rewards and work–life balance were not associated with intentions to leave the nursing profession.

To ensure professional nurse retention, it is necessary to not just promise nurses interesting jobs and a supportive social atmosphere, but to manage nurse perceptions regarding the fulfilment of these promises.

Although there has been extensive research on nurse intention to leave their current job, the important area of nurse professional turnover has received less attention. The research highlights the importance of fulfilling expectations and promises related to interesting nurse job content that encourages nurse responsibility and autonomy as well as promises of a social atmosphere that includes co-operative relationships and good communication with colleagues.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of human resource (HR) role overload and HR role conflict on the HR function’s involvement in strategic decision making and to examine whether conditions of environmental dynamism moderate the impact of HR role conflict and HR role overload in that relationship.

The authors collected data from two sources, senior HR and top management team (TMT) executives. A total of 180 HR executives and 109 TMT members completed the survey. In all, 102 organisations were included in the sample with matched HR executive and TMT responses.

Results did not support hypothesised negative relationships between HR role management and involvement in strategic decision making but did establish the moderating effect of environmental dynamism, such that these associations were more negative at higher levels of dynamism.

The cross-sectional nature of the study precludes making inferences about causality and would need to be replicated with a longitudinal design before stronger inferences could be drawn with regard to the relationships between the variables. A strength of the study however is the use of two sources of data to address the issue of common method variance.

The research has implications for the potential value that HR provides in dynamic environments and the risk that HR role conflict and overload pose to the contribution that HR can make during these periods.

The research shifts the focus away from the definition of HR roles to considering how these roles are enacted and kept in balance.

The aims of this paper are, first, to consider the impact of organisational size and the strategic involvement of the human resource management (HRM) function on the decision to outsource, second, to consider the impact of HRM outsourcing on organisational performance for organisations of different size and where the HRM function has access to positions of elevated political power.

The research examines responses from 441 Australian senior HRM managers who participated in an online survey of a national HRM professional association. The hypotheses were tested using multiple regression.

Although results did not confirm the expected relationship between smaller organisational size and increased outsourcing, there was a positive relationship between HRM strategic involvement and the decision to outsource. The relationship between HRM outsourcing and perceived financial performance was positive for smaller firms and negative for larger firms. The positive relationship between strategic HR involvement and organisational effectiveness was also enhanced when HRM activities were kept in‐house rather than when they were outsourced.

Overall, the research findings confirm advantages for smaller firms that seek out external HRM assistance. The results of the study also indicate that there are organisational benefits when an elevated strategic HRM role in an organisation is combined with the decision to develop in‐house HRM activities rather than externalise these responsibilities.

Using political influence theory, the research applies an alternative theoretical perspective to the analysis of HRM outsourcing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the concept of psychological contracts underpinned by relational/transactional exchanges provides an adequate description of knowledge workers' contracts.

The research approach uses interviews with ten scientists from within a pre‐eminent Australian scientific research and development organization, the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

The research strong evidence of an ideological currency within the psychological contract for this set of knowledge workers.

The research raises questions over the role of normative occupation‐specific beliefs about work, and the sharing of common currency elements by individuals in the same organization within the same occupation. The analysis lends support to calls in the literature for a reconsideration of the transactional/relational interpretative framework that underpins the psychological contract.

This exploratory study lends support to calls in the psychological contract for the reconsideration of the cognitive‐perceptual definition of the concept and its transactional/relational interpretative framework.

The broad aims of this research are to analyse the status of, and processes underlying, strategic human resource management (HRM) integration within organisations and to contribute to theory development in the area. A great deal of attention is given in the literature to the facilitative role that HRM can take in organisational change but as yet little attention has been given to modelling the change processes within HRM itself. This paper addresses that gap by providing a model of the proposed influences on the move towards strategic HRM integration.

In‐depth interviews with senior HR, finance and line managers in 13 Australian Best Practice companies are used to explore the supports and barriers underlying strategic HRM integration.

The model that is developed uses ideas from the change literature to explain that the engagement of strategic HRM integration requires a certain set of symbolic and ritualistic gestures. These symbolic changes, however, do not always result in desired strategic HRM outcomes: symbolic adjustments must be accompanied by deeper levels of change both from within the HR profession and from other stakeholders in the organisation.

The research holds a number of practical implications for the career design of HR professionals: a case is made, for example, for a broader business career background requirement that may provide the level of business acumen necessary to be a credible participant at the senior management strategic decision‐making level. Intended future research will draw from a larger sample to test the proposed model.

This research model's specific responses and outcomes require an ideological shift both from the HR profession and from stakeholders within the organisation.