A supportive work environment benefits employees and their organizations, and is particularly important for safety outcomes. In this paper we respond to calls in the literature to examine the moderating effects of individual- and team-level psychological safety on the relationship between role overload and safety incidents. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we proposed that role overload would be positively related to safety incidents. Second, we proposed a multi-level interaction model where individual- and team-level psychological safety attenuate the positive relationship between role overload and safety incidents. Using data obtained from 841 employees nested in 100 teams, our multi-level analyses revealed that role overload positively relates to safety incidents and that psychological safety is a team-, rather than an individual-, level moderating resource that confers protection for employees by buffering the effects of role overload on safety incidents. We also found a main effect for individual-level psychological safety, with higher levels of psychological safety associated with fewer incidents. Based on our findings, employees should individually and collectively invest resources to create a climate of psychological safety to protect themselves and their colleagues from the negative safety implications of role overload. Leaders are advised to focus on interventions to enhance team-level psychological safety including supportive environments to encourage team cohesion, initiative taking, accountability, and via their leadership development.

PurposeThe article has three objectives. First, drawing on transaction cost economics (TCE), it examines the mediated relationship between asset dedication and the benefits that suppliers derive from customer relationships by means of legal contracts. Second, drawing on relational exchange theory (RET), it examines the moderating effect of both personal loyalty and personal conflict on the relationship between suppliers' asset dedication to customers and the extent of legal contracts. Thirdly, it investigates how these interpersonal dynamics moderate the link between the extent of legal contracts and the benefits that suppliers derive from customer relationships.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data was obtained from 506 managers or senior managers of Australian small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), which in Australia are defined as organizations with less than 200 employees.FindingsWe found support for a mediated relationship between asset dedication and the benefits that suppliers derive from customer relationships through the extent of legal contracts. Contrary to our hypothesis, the results show that personal loyalty strengthens the relationship between asset dedication and the extent of legal contracts, while personal conflict does not show any moderating effect. Further, as expected, the results show that personal loyalty diminishes the relationship between the extent of legal contracts and the benefits derived by suppliers, while personal conflict enhances the relationship.Practical implicationsThe findings call for attention to firms that rely on their representatives in managing interorganizational relationships. Firms need to establish a solid system that provides clear behavioral guidelines for the firms' representatives when negotiating with other firms in order to limit the influence of personal and subjective issues on business matters. Furthermore, legal contracts will help ensure the fulfillment of the goal of interorganizational relationships in situations of personal conflict.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, integrating TCE and RET, this is the first study to examine the interaction between interpersonal and interorganizational relationships within a supply chain context. Specifically, our findings highlight the dual role of personal loyalty in contract formation and contract enforcement with it strengthening the former and weakening the latter.

BACKGROUND:Psychosocial factors are implicated in the decision to prematurely leave employment for people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS), beyond the impact of symptoms. We longitudinally tested the sequential relationship between psychological safety (PS), work self-efficacy (WSE), and the perceived impact of fatigue on work performance predicting employment exit intentions (EI). METHODS:Participants (n = 372) were surveyed at three time points over a four-year period (86% female; mean age 46 at T1) using latent variable structural equation modelling. RESULTS:PS at T1 was positively related to WSE at T2 (β = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.29). WSE mediated the relationship between PS and EI (Indirect Effect (IE) = -0.03, 95% CI = -0.07 to -0.01). WSE and fatigue sequentially mediated the relationship between PS and EI (IE, -0.02, 95% CI = -0.05 to -0.01). Unexpectedly, PS directly reduced perceptions of fatigue decreasing EI. PS was directly related to EI at T3 independently of WSE and fatigue (β = -0.24, SE = 0.07, p < .01, 95% CI: -0.10 to -0.38). CONCLUSION:Our findings indicate that PS represents a supportive job resource that is critical in dealing with work-related demands, which helps explain why employees leave before medically assessed disability would indicate the need to. Over time, employees who experience a work environment characterised by PS also experience higher levels of WSE and reduced perceptions of work-related fatigue, which in turn reduces the risk of prematurely leaving employment. Interventions targeting these modifiable aspects of the workplace psychosocial climate are required.

This study analyses the relationship between academic capitalism and employment precarity. Drawing on two cross-national sources of survey data, we compare academics' experiences with job insecurity and related stress in Australian and Canadian universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although these two countries are similar liberal market economies, Australian higher education has embraced academic capitalism to a greater extent than in Canada. Against this backdrop, our study focuses on the moderating role of 'soft income' from international tuition fees and the use of contingent labour in explaining cross-country differences. We find that international tuition played a role in heightening job insecurity and associated stress, particularly in the Australian universities due to their greater reliance on this source of income. However, these outcomes converged for 'permanent' and 'casual' academics in Australia but diverged in Canada. We contend that the cross-national differentiation is likely due to the weaker job protections afforded to permanent academics in Australia.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate which resources and sources of support are related to employee adaptability to work-related change during the COVID-19 pandemic, with implications for human resource management (HRM).Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed a survey of 1,619 employees working in architectural practice and allied fields in Australia in 2020.FindingsDrawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors asked whether workers would be more adaptable to change during COVID-19 if they were able to draw on a combination or bundle of supports, known as resource caravans. Hierarchical multiple regression and relative importance analysis showed that confidence in personal support networks during the pandemic was the most important predictor assisting workers to adapt to change, followed by concrete (practical, technical) organizational support for remote work. No evidence was found to corroborate this study's hypotheses that these resources provide support in bundles, challenging the notion of resource caravans in this research context.Originality/valueThe authors argue that COR theory has been too broadly applied to the workplace and that boundary conditions should apply to its emphasis on resource caravans. In practical terms, HRM supports to promote employee adaptability should be carefully targeted in extreme circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participation in the child protection system in Australia can result in both immediate and long-term consequences for children and families. Early engagement in the system can have significant emotional and psychological impacts on both children and parents. The enduring consequences may encompass anxiety, sadness, attachment disorders, and behavioural issues in children, underscoring the significance of prompt intervention and consistent care arrangements. Families engaged in the child protection system have substantial economic obstacles, such as unemployment, housing insecurity, and financial stress.

This study examines inter-firm buyer–supplier relationships through an ethical lens. Drawing on the concept of reciprocity in social exchange theory as well as resource dependence theory, we examine the effect of customers’ unethical practices on their suppliers’ intention to continue their business relationships with their customers. Specifically, we distinguish two types of unethical practices: unfair business practices, which directly target suppliers and socially irresponsible practices, which have an impact on wider society. Integrating social exchange theory and resource dependence theory, we investigate the effects of two moderating factors: suppliers’ dependence on their customers and the benefits derived from the supplier–customer relationship. Using data obtained from 506 managers from small-to-medium-sized firms, our findings show that both customers’ unfair business practices and socially irresponsible practices have negative relationships with their suppliers’ intention to continue the relationships. These effects are moderated by supplier dependence and benefits derived from their customers. Overall, our study shows that intention to continue in these relationships, in response to unethical practices by customers, is bounded by supplier self-interest and resource dependence. Our study is one of the few to examine suppliers’ responses to unethical practices and our findings are consistent with the notion of weak reciprocity, rather than strong reciprocity that predominates in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a mediation explanation of the relationship between HRM and nurse work engagement. The study contributes to understanding how high involvement work practices (HIWPs) relate to nurse work engagement by analysing the mediating role played by job crafting. The study also considers the importance of supervisor support as a moderator in the mediated relationship. The study was based on an anonymous online survey of 2,984 nurses employed in Australia. Analysis confirms the hypothesised relationships in that job crafting was found to mediate the positive relationship between HIWPs and work engagement. Further, supervisor support moderated the indirect relationship between HIWPs and work engagement through job crafting, such that the indirect effect was stronger under increasing levels of supervisor support. The results have implications for the importance of HIWPs on job crafting for nurses who carry out many professional roles simultaneously. Furthermore, the research highlights the role that supervisors play in encouraging and managing nurses who take advantage of HIWP opportunities to shape, mould and redefine their jobs.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study highlights why and when job security may decrease resistance to change during the organizational change process. Data were collected from 23 subsidiaries in a large manufacturing group enterprise based in a coastal city in eastern China. A three-wave design was used to mirror the different stages in the change process, valid data were received from 469 employees and 86 supervisors. Results showed that job security was negatively related to resistance to change, and this effect was mediated through affective commitment to change. We also found that procedural justice plays a moderating role in the relationship between job security and affective commitment to change and that environmental uncertainty also moderates the relationship between affective commitment to change and resistance to change. This study is quite timely and would have the potential to benefit the practice of change management in organizations.

Purpose The development of sustainable employee-focused HRM approaches have grown in importance during and post-COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which wellbeing-oriented HRM practices can transform workers’ feelings of burnout to enable thriving, and subsequently enhance in-role employee performance in high workload contexts. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on data gathered from 561 employees in bank branches operating in China across two time periods. The authors test the following hypotheses: (1) wellbeing-oriented HRM is positively related to employee thriving; (2) perceived workload is positively related to employee burnout; (3) thriving will mediate the relationship between wellbeing-oriented HRM and employee performance; (4) burnout will mediate the relationship between workload and employee performance; (5) thriving will mediate the relationship between workload and employee performance; and (6) burnout and thriving will sequentially mediate the relationship between wellbeing-oriented HRM and employee performance. Findings This study confirmed hypotheses 1–5. Hypothesis 6 was not confirmed. The authors find that thriving mediates the relationship between wellbeing-oriented HRM and employee performance, and burnout mediates the relationship between workload and employee performance. The authors also find workload was positively related to thriving (after controlling for burnout), consistent with the challenge–hindrance model of occupational stress. Originality/value The study builds on growing evidence that employees can thrive at work even when in stressful situations by using conservation of resources theory to examine how wellbeing-oriented HRM practices act as protective resources against demanding work situations. Findings demonstrate alternative pathways through which wellbeing-oriented HRM can enhance employee performance via reducing burnout and enhancing thriving.

Immigrant entrepreneurship, like other market entries, continues to be examined in most studies as an event, and not as a process of ongoing interactions and exchanges that would adequately address the influence on such a transition of collaborative engagements and of industry evolution in the host market. Adopting an industry evolutionary perspective, we examine the facilitating role played by cooperative strategies among immigrant-run SMEs. Using a small number of valued customer and competitor relationships, we draw from case studies to show how both immigrant and native run SMEs gain knowledge and resources through collaborative engagements to extend into new customer segments. These relationships enable them to mitigate their outsidership by adopting positions on the edges of networks that allow them to avoid competing directly against other internationalizing SMEs abroad or in their home markets. Using context to build an industry evolutionary perspective, we observe their entry into collaborative engagements with intermediaries in other business networks to build additional industry segments in the less understood maturing industry phase. This study shows how native-run Italian internationalizing SMEs accessed the resources of immigrant Chinese business networks and developed capabilities for mutual benefit.

PurposeThis study investigates the role of national culture on the implementation and effectiveness of quality management practices. Specifically, the authors examine the dual roles of two of Hofstede's national culture dimensions (individualism and indulgence) in driving the implementation of people management practices and in moderating the relationship between people management and product quality performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ dataset combines a survey of 976 firms from 22 countries with Hofstede's national culture index. A multi-level analysis, at firm and country levels, is used for investigating the interplay between two dimensions of national culture (individualism and indulgence) on people management practices and product quality performance.FindingsThe authors' findings show the negative relationship between indulgence (at country level) and people management practices (at firm level) while individualism (at country level) strengthens the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level). Furthermore, the finding shows that the joint interaction between individualism and indulgence (at country level) moderates the relationship between people management and product quality performance (at firm level) where the relationship is strongest when individualism is high and indulgence is low.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the interplay between national culture and management practices is important for managers in making decisions on the practices managers should implement under different cultural contexts to gain the expected outcomes.Originality/valueThe authors' results challenge the universalist view that suggests that quality management practices (in this case people management practices) can be applied in any context effectively to achieve high product quality performance by showing that facets of national culture influence the implementation and effectiveness of people management practices and performance. The results also provide a fresh perspective on the role of indulgence, given that it is the newest dimension in Hofstede's framework. The authors also extend previous studies which commonly only examine the main and not interactive effects of different dimensions of national culture.

PurposeAbusive supervision climate (ASC) affects not only direct subordinates of abusive supervisors but also their colleagues who work in the same group. Therefore, this study aims to examine the underlying processes and boundary conditions of ASC's effects on group members' behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data from 213 employees in 51 workgroups across 13 organizations in Pakistan. Data were analyzed in MPlus version 8 (Muthén and Muthén, 1998–2017) using a random intercepts multilevel model. The authors followed the procedures for testing 2-1-1 mediation with a participant-level mediator as outlined in Pituch and Stapleton (2012).FindingsThe results revealed that anger mediated the negative relationship between ASC and group members' organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), as well as the positive relationship between ASC and group members' withdrawal. In addition, agreeableness moderated the effect of group members' anger on OCBs, such that the relationship was stronger for more agreeable group members.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to the abusive supervision literature by elucidating anger as one mechanism through which ASC affects group members and by incorporating personality differences to better understand group members' behavioral responses.

PurposeDespite the utility of social identity and social climate theories in explaining individual and group behaviour within organizations, little research has been conducted on how these approaches interconnect to explain the way high-performance work systems (HPWSs) may increase job performance. This study extends one’s understanding of the human resource management (HRM)–performance relationship by examining the interconnections between these disparate social approaches within the Chinese banking context.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on a sample of 561 employees working across 62 bank branches in China, the authors test four hypotheses: (1) HPWS is positively related to social climate; (2) social climate mediates the relationship between HPWS and social identification; (3) psychological empowerment mediates the relationship between social identification and job performance; and (4) social climate, social identification and psychological empowerment sequentially mediate the relationship between HPWS and job performance. Data were collected over two waves and job (in-role) performance was rated by managers.FindingsThe authors confirm the four hypotheses. Social climate, social identification and psychological empowerment sequentially mediate the relationship between HPWS and job performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contains some limitations. First, the authors’ research sites were focussed on one main region in state-owned banks in China. Second, this study examined only one industry with a relatively homogeneous workforce (i.e. relatively young and highly educated employees).Practical implicationsHPWS may translate into individual performance through a supportive social climate in which staff identify themselves with their work team. This suggests that organizations should pay close attention to understanding how their HPWS system can foster a strong social climate to enhance employee identification at the work group level. Second, as the nature of work is becoming increasingly more complex and interdependent, enabling not just individuals but also work groups to function effectively, it is critical for departments and work groups to promote a collective understanding of HRM messages with shared values and goals.Originality/valueThis research contributes towards a more comprehensive understanding of the HRM–performance chain as a complex social process underpinned by social identity theory. The authors demonstrate that social identification and social climate both play an important role in explaining how HPWS positively affects psychological empowerment and subsequent job performance.

The authors provide novel insights on employee voice and employees' intentions to quit after conflict situations. They analyze a survey of employees in Australia to consider two research questions: What are the relationships between employee voice at work, dispute resolution, and intention to quit? Does the type of dispute affect these relationships? Findings show that employee voice is associated with successful dispute resolution, which reduces employees' intentions to quit. Further, employee voice has the additional benefit of directly reducing intentions to quit, besides its indirect effect of helping to resolve disputes at work. Results also indicate that regardless of the level of voice at work, those who report bullying claims are less likely to find resolution. The authors provide recommendations for improving workplace dispute resolution that they believe offer mutual gains for stakeholders.

For various reasons, research on vocational behavior often has to rely on self-report measures. Although it is well known that the exclusive use of self-report measures in a given study can pose major threats to the validity of that study, for example via common method variance (CMV) or endogeneity, we still have to witness a systematic literature review of study designs particularly prone to CMV and endogeneity, and of procedural and statistical remedies used in the field of vocational behavior. To determine the vulnerability for CMV and endogeneity, and the extent to which researchers have already taken action and eased concerns over CMV and endogeneity in vocational behavior research through their research design/data collection (procedural remedies) and data analysis (statistical remedies), we review articles published from 2015 to 2018 in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. We found that 81% of all quantitative studies in this period relied exclusively on self-report measures gathered from the same respondent. Of these studies, the majority used procedural remedies to ease concerns of CMV (68%), mainly through the temporal separation of the focal variables (53%). However, statistical tests to detect and/or control for CMV (13%) are still rarely used, and we found no examples of techniques such as instrumental variable estimation to address potential endogeneity. To encourage and guide vocational behavior researchers to further minimize concerns over CMV and endogeneity arising from the exclusive use of self-report measures in future research, we summarize existing recommendations from the methodological literature and provide an updated discussion, specific to vocational behavior, on how to design and conduct impactful vocational behavior research.

Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study seeks to understand how ethical leaders channel followers’ responses to positive treatment from the organization into a dutiful mindset, resulting in in-role and extra-role performance. Specifically, it examines the influence of perceived organizational support on both followers’ job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors, and the mediating effects of duty orientation on such relationships. In addition, it examines whether the mediated effects are contingent on the ethical leadership exhibited by the team leader. Based on multi-source, multi-level data obtained from 233 employees in 60 teams from the Chinese public sector, we found that ethical leadership moderated the mediated relationship between perceived organizational support and follower work behaviors through duty orientation, such that this relationship was stronger in the presence of higher ethical leadership.

•Workloads are impacting nurses' wellness and satisfaction with worklife balance•High workload perceptions are also driving nurses to consider leaving the occupation•High involvement work practices reduce impact of high workloads on nurse wellness