Torn between the Old and New World of Work: Insights into the Modernised Semi-Profession of the Fashion IndustryDate submitted: December 31, 2019Date accepted after double-blind review: February 1, 2021

This paper explores how persistent gender inequalities of the old world of work are amplified by the new world of work. Focusing on the fashion industry of Berlin, the article offers insight into a female-dominated field of labour as a particular field of labour of the cultural and creative industries (CCI). The CCI is regarded as a role model for new work. However, they entail deep gender inequalities in terms of segregation, low status and low pay. The paper addresses the question of how these gendered inequalities in the fashion industry are intertwined with its professional mechanisms and training structures. Based on a qualitative study, I argue that the fashion industry is a modernised semi-profession, which has been undergoing a market-driven professionalisation. However, this new pathway into the fashion industry fails to fully professionalise that industry. On contrary, it erects new occupational barriers into the field of labour that help establish high qualified and low qualified fashion work that also aids in polarising the still mostly female workforce in terms of status and rewards. Overall, it should become clear that the fashion industry is torn between the old and new world of work which helps to maintain or even reinforce traditional gender inequalities.

Linking Corporate Institutional Logics and Moral Reasoning – Evidence from Large Danish Audit Firms

This paper examines whether organizational levels of owner/partner, CPA manager, supervisor and other audit staff are associated with institutional logics of auditors in large Danish audit firms. Our findings identify the presence of the professional logic and commercial logic with the professional logic being two explicit logics of a fiduciary and a technical-expertise logic. The organizational levels of CPA manager, supervisor and other staff are significant in explaining the presence of the technical-expertise logic, but not the fiduciary logic. Higher moral reasoning of auditors and being a female are significantly associated with the presence of the fiduciary logic. All four organizational levels are significant in explaining the identified commercial logic with further tests indicating that partners place more emphasis than supervisors on the commercial logic. Additional tests examine whether moral reasoning is associated with the professional fiduciary, professional technical-expertise and commercial logics and whether organizational levels explain moral reasoning. We find that a higher professional fiduciary logic is associated with higher auditor moral reasoning. In contrast, lower moral reasoning is associated with higher professional technical-expertise and commercial logics. In addition, increased audit experience is associated with lower moral reasoning.

Entitlement Disconnect: Exploring Management Graduates’ Mental Schema in Their Anticipatory Psychological Contract

In this paper, we expanded on the psychological contract theory by exploring the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract before they start employment. With this research, we aimed to explore and substantiate themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates, so that the psychological contract formation theory can be expanded by investigating the role of entitlement disconnect and its influence on the anticipatory psychological contract. Literature regarding the formulation of the psychological contract is still underdeveloped, especially regarding the anticipatory phase thereof. Entitlement disconnect has also not been focused on in past literature, especially as a component of the anticipatory psychological contract that can have an impact on graduates’ career schema and voluntary turnover intention. A qualitative approach to research was adopted consisting of interviews with 18 final-year economics and management sciences graduate students in the final phase of their degrees to derive themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract. The findings suggest that graduates already have a developed mental schema that was based on their entitlement. It was also confirmed that graduates had a disposition towards voluntary turnover intuition before organisational entry, which was due to an entitlement disconnect perception. The final and most surprising finding was that some graduates already displayed pre-employment violations, where graduates already anticipated psychological contract breach before entering an employment relationship. This research suggests that graduates’ mental schemas in their anticipatory psychological contract play a much bigger role in the development of their psychological contract, after organisational entry than what was initially thought.

The Human Touch: The Impact of Anthropomorphism in Chatbots on the Perceived Success of Solution Focused Coaching

This study explores how a chatbot can be used to support coachees to define and implement goals. It examines how the chatbot has to be designed to ensure that its coaching is successful. In this context anthropomorphism - the transmission of human qualities to non-human objects - should increase the acceptance of the chatbot and the perceived effectiveness of the coaching. While there are several studies on the perceived humanity of chatbots, no research has investigated the effects of anthropomorphic chatbots on the success of coaching. In an online experiment, participants (n = 44) performed randomised coaching with either a high or low anthropomorphic chatbot. Operationalizing a model of the effects of solution-focused individual coaching, the coachees were surveyed. The analysis shows that they were significantly more satisfied with the highly anthropomorphic chatbot, and rated the relationship building as well as the effectiveness of the coaching higher than by the less anthropomorphic chatbot. Therefore, the anthropomorphic representation of a chatbot in an online coaching session has a strong impact on its success.

Engaging Through Purpose: The Mediating Role of Person–Organizational Purpose Fit in the Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Purpose and Work Engagement

Drawing from self-determination theory and person-organization fit theory, the present study contributes to the literature on organizational purpose by examining the relationship between perceived organizational purpose and work engagement and the mediating role of person-organizational purpose (P-OP) fit herein. Based on data from a cross-sectional quantitative study among 517 knowledge workers from five financial service organizations, we tested two possible psychological mechanisms underlying the direct and indirect relationships between perceived organizational purpose and work engagement. The results of our structural equation modelling confirmed the hypothesized indirect effect model in which perceived organizational purpose was positively associated with work engagement, both directly and indirectly via P-OP fit. These findings show that organizational purpose has the capacity to directly and indirectly foster work engagement. The study suggests avenues for future research in OB, strategic HRM, and marketing.

An Exploratory Study of Spirituality in German Enterprises

Spirituality at work is increasingly attracting attention in management research, especially in the Anglo-Saxon and Asian contexts. However, for the German context, we know little about spirituality at work from scientific research, and findings and results from other sources are broadly scattered. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collect first findings on employer’s perception of spirituality at work and specific HRM practices in German workplaces. We analyse daily newspapers and related best-practice publications and conduct a small-scale qualitative employer survey in Northern Germany. To structure the results, we propose three main impact perspectives on spirituality in the workplace (workforce diversity, employee needs, and employer capabilities) as well as different employer stances in dealing with these three perspectives, from faith-avoiding to faith-based (Miller & Ewest, 2015). In all three perspectives and stances, companies already implement different HR activities under different expectations and perceptions. Some German organisations already address the needs perspective by room-related tools, working time-related tools, food-related offers, and instruments that facilitate coordination and cooperation in multi-religious settings. Employer stances differ concerning religious and non-religious spirituality. While employers view nonreligious spirituality in the company as generally positive (faith-friendly), they are often sceptical of religious spirituality at work (faith-avoiding or faith-safe).

Entitlement Disconnect: Exploring Management Graduates’ Mental Schema in Their Anticipatory Psychological Contract

In this paper, we expanded on the psychological contract theory by exploring the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract before they start employment. With this research, we aimed to explore and substantiate themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates, so that the psychological contract formation theory can be expanded by investigating the role of entitlement disconnect and its influence on the anticipatory psychological contract. Literature regarding the formulation of the psychological contract is still underdeveloped, especially regarding the anticipatory phase thereof. Entitlement disconnect has also not been focused on in past literature, especially as a component of the anticipatory psychological contract that can have an impact on graduates’ career schema and voluntary turnover intention. A qualitative approach to research was adopted consisting of interviews with 18 final-year economics and management sciences graduate students in the final phase of their degrees to derive themes associated with the mental schemas of graduates’ anticipatory psychological contract. The findings suggest that graduates already have a developed mental schema that was based on their entitlement. It was also confirmed that graduates had a disposition towards voluntary turnover intuition before organisational entry, which was due to an entitlement disconnect perception. The final and most surprising finding was that some graduates already displayed pre-employment violations, where graduates already anticipated psychological contract breach before entering an employment relationship. This research suggests that graduates’ mental schemas in their anticipatory psychological contract play a much bigger role in the development of their psychological contract, after organisational entry than what was initially thought.