PurposeThis study evaluates impacts of training managers in a strengths-based approach to performance conversations on the perceived utility of one-to-one meetings. It also investigates changes in meeting content and subjects' experiences to shed light on causal mechanisms of the intervention.Design/methodology/approachA cluster randomized trial was conducted in two UK civil service organizations and a non-controlled before-after-study in a third civil service organization. The trial involved 8,843 managerial and non-managerial subjects; the impact evaluation uses data from 2,903 responses across two waves. Sixty-three intervention group subjects provided additional qualitative data.FindingsThe intervention positively affected employees' perceptions of the usefulness of performance conversations for learning and development. Evidence of a similar impact on job performance is weak. The content of conversations changed partly as hypothesized, increasing the focus on employee development and managerial support, but did not reduce emphasis on performance objectives. Improvements appear to be due both to mechanisms proposed by strengths-based theories and generic improvements in line-management relationships, supporting leader-member exchange (LMX) theory.Practical implicationsStrengths-based conversations can add value in public sector contexts by focusing managers and their reports on how the latter optimally perform and foster supportive and developmental relationships. The strengths-based approach did not prompt a less target-driven approach, which may allay managerial concerns about adopting it. The study suggests a discrete training intervention is viable, but an integrated change program is likely to be more effective.Originality/valuePrior evidence on the impact of strengths-based performance management practices is limited. This study presents a large-scale field trial on this within a real-world public sector context and sheds light on causal mechanisms.

We examine the post age-16 educational pathways taken by the 44% of young people who do not gain “good” grades in English and Maths at age 16 years. We then assess the causal effects of attending General Further Education (GFE) colleges on education and labour market outcomes for this group. We use the Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset, which comprises linked administrative education, employment and income records for the population of English school pupils aged 16 in 2011. To summarise complex post-16 education trajectories, we present Sankey charts stratified by indicators of disadvantage. We study the effects of attending GFE at age 17 on whether a pupil gains a Level 3 qualification by age 19, and their earnings and employment status at age 24. To estimate a causal impact, we use distance from home to the closest GFE college as an instrumental variable, controlling for a rich set of background characteristics. Our graphical results highlight the complexity of post-16 educational pathways and transitions, which are differentiated by disadvantage. Over 50% have GFE as their first post-16 destination. Results from instrumental variable analyses show a positive association between attending GFE and gaining a Level 3 qualification by age 19, among pupils who do not gain a “good” pass in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in either English and/or Maths. Restricting analyses to the bottom of the distribution – those who gain an E, F or G grade in both English and Maths - we do not detect an impact of GFE on qualifications at age 19. Among both subgroups, we do not detect any impact of attending GFE on earnings and employment at age 24 years. While the post-16 pathways taken by disadvantaged, lower-attaining pupils do increase qualification attainment for some, the value these have in the labour market appears limited. These results may indicate the importance of “soft-skills” and early employment experiences for this subgroup of lower-attainers.

The proliferating gig economy relies on online freelance marketplaces, which support relatively anonymous interactions through text-based messages. Informational asymmetries thus arise that can lead to exchange uncertainties between buyers and freelancers. Conventional marketing thought recommends reducing such uncertainty. However, uncertainty reduction and uncertainty management theories indicate that buyers and freelancers might benefit more from balancing—rather than reducing—uncertainty, such as by strategically adhering to or deviating from common communication principles. With dyadic analyses of calls for bids and bids from a leading online freelance marketplace, this study reveals that buyers attract more bids from freelancers when they provide moderate degrees of task information and concreteness, avoid sharing personal information, and limit the affective intensity of their communication. Freelancers’ bid success and price premiums increase when they mimic the degree of task information and affective intensity exhibited by buyers. However, mimicking a lack of personal information and concreteness reduces freelancers’ success, so freelancers should always be more concrete and offer more personal information than buyers. These contingent perspectives offer insights into buyer–seller communication in two-sided online marketplaces. They clarify that despite, or sometimes due to, communication uncertainty, both sides can achieve success in the online gig economy.

Applying a strengths-based approach to performance management has previously been proposed as an improvement. We present results from a large, randomised workplace trial in the UK civil service of management training in strengths-based performance coaching. The trial sheds new light on the impacts that accrue and changes in the nature of performance conversations. Our findings suggest that a strengths-based approach helps employees develop, but evidence on this translating into improved job performance is weaker. As hypothesised, we observe changes to performance conversations, in that the manager training leads to more developmental and supportive performance conversations. However, we see no significant increase in discussion of job-related challenges and no reduction in discussion of performance assessment. Whilst the strengths-based approach does not change conversations exactly as hypothesised it nonetheless helps them to be purposeful and constructive.

This provocation challenges the use of generational categories as a valid and useful basis for the development of human resource management (HRM) research and practice. We present two provocations. First, that a focus solely on year of birth as a driver of attitudes, values and behaviours is wholly inadequate. Second, we go beyond existing empirical challenges to argue that any approach to the study of generations that focuses solely on generational categories should be abandoned. We consider the theoretical basis for generations, together with specific examples from empirical studies to show how the current reliance on largely unsubstantiated categories leaves even longitudinal studies unable to make an effective contribution to this field. We draw on cross-disciplinary insights to consider the implications for academic research and for HRM practice, showing how the current approach limits the usefulness of findings and suggesting a potential way forward.

Evidence on ‘what works’ in the promotion and effective management of demographic diversity is lacking. This paper analyses 10 years of data on 51 Law Firms (2006-2015), containing information on the proportion of female and minority ethnic Partners, Associates and Trainees within a Firm’s UK operations; together with detail on the Firm’s diversity initiatives. Regression-based approaches identify factors driving change in workplace diversity, with a particular focus on the impact of diversity initiatives (captured using a 17-item questionnaire). We find no significant impact for an aggregate measure that captures the extent of a firm’s resource commitment to diversity initiatives; but investigation of specific areas that make up this aggregate score, suggest this is not driven by a lack of significance in all underlying components. For instance, higher scores in the area of staff development and support are associated with higher levels of gender and ethnic diversity. Considering the pattern of differences across firms according to areas of practice, more ‘international’ areas of practice have higher levels of ethnic diversity, possibly driven by a global recruitment focus and a higher proportion of overseas non-white staff; whilst the ‘international’ nature of these areas is also associated with longer, unsociable hours, and fewer female lawyers. Our finding is that diversity initiatives are not sufficient [at least across Law Firms] to overcome deeply entrenched practices associated with different areas of practice, which dominate in our explanation of company diversity profiles.

This study utilises an exceptionally rich English administrative dataset, to estimate employment impacts from training voluntarily initiated by unemployed individuals. A Coarsened Exact Matching approach is adopted, in a dynamic evaluation framework, to estimate impacts up to 5 years from training start. We identify economically and statistically significant impacts, estimated separately for (i) all training starters, (ii) the partially, and (iii) fully treated. Investigation of possible endogenous selection into partial/full treatment, using distance to training provider as an instrumental variable, suggests inclusion of extensive employment and learning histories in a matching framework, justifies invocation of the conditional independence assumption for comparisons of full/partial treatment. The partially treated secure a return that is, on average, 2 percentage points lower than full treatment. Thus, an 'intention to treat' approach would not alter conclusions on the efficacy of training; but using the partially treated to estimate counterfactual outcomes risks understating returns.

Evidence suggests that small firms create more jobs, but they also destroy more, compared to larger firms. However, there is limited information on small–large firm differences in the types of jobs created and the employees who secure these. This study analyses labour market transitions using Labour Force Survey (LFS) data (2005–2011). Our approach to analysis mitigates concern over measurement error, arising from the use of self-reported workplace size as a proxy for firm size. Findings suggest that small firms provide an important pathway to employment for the unemployed and inactive, but employees in small firms also have higher probabilities of returning to unemployment or inactivity. Higher rates of small firm destruction account for some of this, but small firms employ larger numbers of individuals with characteristics that are associated with a higher risk of unemployment or inactivity. Our findings are driven by differences at the extremes of the firm size distribution.

One of the most striking recent developments in the professional services market has been the emergence of digital job platforms that connect freelancers to buyers. Drawing on language expectancy theory, this study demonstrates that it is the (un)conventional use of selling influencing tactics relative to buyer expectations that determines bidding success. An empirical text-mining study using more than 580,000 freelance bids demonstrates that excessive use of information exchange and ingratiation in bid formulations reduces bidding success, whereas for recommendations and inspirational appeals it increases the chance of landing the job. In contrast, the conventional use of promises increases bidding success. Further, both the level of freelancers’ experience and their ability to adapt the bids’ linguistic style to the buyers’ call-for-bids increases the range of normative bandwidth such that any violation in SIT use improves the chances of winning the bid.

Online labor marketplaces (OLMs) allow businesses and private individuals to contract with freelancers around the globe. Recent studies suggest OLMs suffer a gender bias in hiring that favors women. Analyzing a unique proprietary dataset obtained from a leading European OLM, which includes all correspondence between sellers and buyers, we confirm this headline result: but shed important new light on 'why' we observe this bias, by determining exactly 'where' it exists. The gender hiring bias is not observed across all project types, decreasing monotonically in significance and size, as we consider higher valued projects. This result holds across all categories of project, in developing and developed country contexts and when buyers are male or female. Our findings question previous explanations for this hiring bias and draw on evidence of differences in attitudes to risk and competition between men and women, to consider alternative policies that may increase the efficiency of OLMs.

Interest in generational diversity has exploded since the turn of the 21st century. While many researchers are supportive of the concept of generations, a growing number have questioned the validity of the idea that people are different according to when they were born. In this article, we review recent work in the area and build on our own previous studies; which have been highly critical of extant empirical work. Many studies utilize cross-sectional data that do not allow investigation of generational difference; and even when appropriate data are used, the apriori assumption of 4 or 5 generational categories invalidates research findings. We present selected results from analyses we have undertaken to overcome these issues, and identify a more robust direction for the research. Essentially, the theoretical foundation for generational research has some validity, but the existence of generational differences has not been validly tested. We suggest that researchers must investigate whether any cohort-specific differences in attitudes are apparent, and where, if at all, these can be "cut" to identify distinct "structural breaks" between generations. Only by building a body of knowledge, across different social, and economic phenomena will we obtain a true picture of where generational differences lie.

Over the last three decades there has been a radical shift in the regulatory framework dealing with formal manifestations of workplace conflict in the UK. Legal structures that supported collective industrial action have been weakened and replaced with a system that allows individuals to pursue enforcement of employment rights through litigation, via employment tribunals (ETs). Current debate often focuses on the costs of the ET system for the workers involved, in particular its implications for business performance and public expenditure (De Dreu 2008; OPP 2008; CIPD 2011; Gallie et al. 2013; Mangan 2013). Policymakers and academics consistently ask how we can best manage workplace conflict in order to prevent escalation to the ET process, and this area has accordingly seen various policy changes to rectify perceived problems following the publication of the Gibbons Review in 2007.

Previous work identifies good labour market returns for FE learners who gain qualifications at Full Level 2 and above. Estimates of the returns to learning at ‘Below Level 2’ and ‘Thin Level 2’ - which include English and Maths qualifications - were positive but not so strong – though it should be noted that many of these qualifications are of a very short duration. This report presents the findings from a project that investigates labour market returns to these English and Maths qualifications, in two different situations: • Complementary Learning i.e. when combined with higher level qualifications • Highest Learning Aim - when they are studied as a person’s highest FE qualification (i.e. not taken with a higher qualification)