A dark side of e-HRM: mediating role of HR service delivery and HR socialization on HR effectiveness

PurposeThe primary aim of this paper is to study a dark side of e-HRM concerning its parallel effect on human resource (HR) socialization and HR service delivery and the consequent impact of perceived HR effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe current study started with an in-depth review of the extant literature in the field of e-HRM to derive a set of constructs. Based on the theoretical foundation of the identified constructs, the current study went on to derive a set of hypotheses, which was subsequently validated using the uses the quantitative technique of PLS-SEM. A primary survey, in the form of a structured questionnaire, was used as the source for data collection on a sample size of 276 from the Indian industrial domain. Careful attention was paid to eliminate the common method bias in the study.FindingsThe findings of this study show a simultaneous significant full mediation effect of both HR service delivery and HR socialization is the relationship between e-HRM and HR effectiveness. However, e-HRM has a strong and significant negative effect on HR socialization. Though HR socialization is positively related to HR effectiveness, the significantly reduced level of HR socialization as a consequence of adaption of e-HRM had negatively affected the perceived HR effectiveness.Originality/valueAlthough the dark side of e-HRM has been recognized by academicians and practitioners alike, its implications have seldom been studied in the academic literature. The current study intends to shed some light on this important, but sparsely discussed topic. Further, this study makes significant and meaningful contributions in the literature of e-HRM by empirically studying together the positive and negative consequences of e-HRM and its effects on HR effectiveness. Several e-HRM scholars have discussed the implications of e-HRM adoption and highlighted the negative impacts of e-HRM, and traversing the same path, the current study advances the literature by empirically investigating the effect of e-HRM on the dehumanization of HR processes and practices.

Factors Affecting Organisational Learning: The Case of a Medical Centre

Despite many studies that examined the relationship between organisational learning and organisational culture, none examined whether the levels of learning differ within a given organisation and if so, what factors lead to this difference. This article is based upon a study on organisational learning and investigates the relationship among organisational learning, culture and structure. Quantitative research was conduct on organisational learning practices in 17 medical departments of a large hospital in Israel. Three main categories of variables were examined: mapping the learning mechanisms, characterising the organisational culture and examining the organisational structure of various departments. Organisational learning was measured by means of a set of organisational learning mechanisms used in each medical department. Because data were collected from individuals, it was necessary to control and overcome self-report and common method bias. Reverse scoring of items, the use of variation in wording of items and guaranteeing anonymity to respondents helped control common method bias. As expected, it was found that those departments do differ one from the others by the extent to which organisational learning mechanisms are systematically used. The article further presents and discusses the effects of some structural and cultural factors upon levels of organisational learning on those departments. Both the method and the results of this research differ from previous studies of organisational learning; thus, the article sheds a new light on the concept of organisational learning. The study points to the importance and need of organisations to adopt a culture that encourages use of these organisational learning mechanisms to create effective and ongoing organisational learning. Increasing awareness among hospital departments of organisational learning as an essential process for coping with environmental change is also an important practical contribution.

Performance Pressure as an Antecedent and Authentic Leadership as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Co-worker Undermining and Psychological Capital

As a component of organizational aggression, co-worker undermining erodes the well-being of the victims and the sustainability of the organization. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study identified the negative impact of co-worker undermining on the victim’s psychological capital, and empirically examined the influence of performance pressure as an antecedent and of authentic leadership as a moderator to suggest approaches to minimize this negative impact. A total of 485 subordinate employees from 10 organizations in South Korea completed a questionnaire survey. To prevent common method bias, the survey was designed to recruit participants from multiple organizations and was conducted in two waves. First, the results revealed that performance pressure had a positive relationship with the perception of co-worker’s undermining. Second, this perception of co-worker undermining had a negative influence on the victim’s psychological capital. Third, authentic leadership had the moderating effect of decreasing the negative relationship between co-worker undermining and psychological capital. Furthermore, authentic leadership moderated the mediating relationship between the performance pressure and psychological capital through co-worker’s undermining. These findings suggest that the level of performance pressure should be managed in advance so as not to reach excessive levels and the psychological capital of victims should be preserved through authentic leadership to minimize the negative impact of co-worker undermining.

Are depressive disorders caused by psychosocial stressors at work? A systematic review with metaanalysis

In the last decade, many studies have examined associations between poor psychosocial work environment and depression. We aimed to assess the evidence for a causal association between psychosocial factors at work and depressive disorders. We conducted a systematic literature search from 1980 to March 2019. For all exposures other than night and shift work and long working hours, we limited our selection of studies to those with a longitudinal design. We extracted available risk estimates for each of 19 psychosocial exposures, from which we calculated summary risk estimates with 95% confidence intervals (PROSPERO, identifier CRD42019130266). 54 studies were included, addressing 19 exposures and 11 different measures of depression. Only data on depressive episodes were sufficient for evaluation. Heterogeneity of exposure definitions and ascertainment, outcome measures, risk parameterization and effect contrasts limited the validity of meta-analyses. Summary risk estimates were above unity for all but one exposure, and below 1.60 for all but another. Outcome measures were liable to high rates of false positives, control of relevant confounding was mostly inadequate, and common method bias was likely in a large proportion of studies. The combination of resulting biases is likely to have inflated observed effect estimates. When statistical uncertainties and the potential for bias and confounding are taken into account, it is not possible to conclude with confidence that any of the psychosocial exposures at work included in this review is either likely or unlikely to cause depressive episodes or recurrent depressive disorders.

Does Workplace Bullying Produce Employee Voice and Physical Health Issues? Testing the Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion

Workplace bullying is a reality in organizations. Employees’ experiences of workplace bullying can produce their voice that intends to challenge the status quo at work and can damage their physical health. This study examines the effects of workplace bullying on employee voice and physical health issues and considers individuals’ emotional reactions as a critical mechanism operating between workplace bullying and its consequences in workplace situations. Emotional exhaustion mediates the influence of workplace bullying on employee voice and damaged health. Data for 694 employees from a large Taiwanese retail organization revealed that workplace bullying relates to its outcomes at work. The findings of this study show that emotional exhaustion is a critical mechanism between workplace bullying and its consequences, i.e., employee voice and health issues. A time-lag study design is applied to reduce common method bias.

Self and Other Ratings of Problematic Smartphone Use: The Role of Personality and Relationship Type

Reliance on self-report to measure problematic smartphone use is a limitation of the extant literature. It is unclear whether self- and other-ratings of problematic smartphone use converge and whether correlations between personality and self-reported problematic smartphone use are distorted by common method bias. The current study provides the first comprehensive assessment of self-other agreement of problematic smartphone use and the relationship between personality and other-rated problematic smartphone use in a large sample of young adults. Focal participants (n = 1073) were Australian university students who completed measures of Big Five (IPIP) and HEXACO (HEXACO PI-R) personality, and problematic smartphone use. One or more people who knew the focal participant well (n = 2445) rated the focal participant's problematic smartphone use. People rated their own smartphone use as more problematic than did others. Self- and other-ratings of problematic smartphone use correlated 0.38. The pattern of self-other and other-other correlations indicated that self-ratings were more accurate than other-ratings. The pattern of high neuroticism and low conscientiousness predicting greater problematic smartphone use was observed for both self- and other-ratings. Findings suggest that self-report measures are reasonably valid, problematic smartphone usage is observable, and the relationship between personality and problematic smartphone use is robust.

The Impact of Reputation, Costs, and Interactive Care on Patient Satisfaction

Background. This research empirically tested the impact of hospital reputation and its cost system on the relationship between hospital’s interactive care and patient satisfaction. Methods. An anonymous, self-administrated questionnaire was distributed randomly among outpatients in five large hospitals located at Zhejiang Province, China. Controlled common method bias test was conducted to ensure that the common variance is not a major concern in data analysis. One-factor congeneric measurement was employed to test fitness of factors assigned to variables. Data were further tested for convergence validity, and internal and item reliability. SPSS v.25 software with PROCESS v.3.3 model in a bootstrap approach were used to test the mediation and moderation effects. Results. We received 1441 valid responses (valid response rate 66.6%). A total of 22 questionnaire items out of 25 items survived the factor analysis and common method bias tests. Results show significant positive correlation (ρ < 0.01) between the model’s variables, with correlation between interactive care and reputation (0.732) is the highest. The analysis indicates the hospital reputation moderates the relationship between hospital’s reputation and patient satisfaction. It also illustrates that poor payment administration may affect the patient satisfaction, but its effect is much less on the hospital’s reputation.Conclusion: This research validates two assertions of other research works. First, hospital reputation is more important factor than costs in the selection of the hospital, and second, the perception that healthcare providers with higher expenses provide better care are not true always. Further, our research gives a reason as why many patients from rural area usually manage appointments with doctors in hospitals in urban area rather than having appointment with doctor in the Rural Community hospitals, which have lower reputation.