Learning in the service environment: the influence of diversity climate

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyanko Guchait ◽  
Juan Madera ◽  
Mary Dawson

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how diversity climate in service organizations influence employee learning behavior. Additionally, the study examined the mediating effects of psychological safety and communication satisfaction between diversity climate and learning behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 128 hotel and lodging managers by administering survey questionnaires. The dual mediational model was tested using the mediation test suggested by Preacher and Hayes (2008). Findings – Results indicated that when managers perceived a positive diversity climate they also reported high engagement in learning behavior. Additionally, the study found the mediating effects of psychological safety and communication satisfaction. Originality/value – The importance of learning behavior has been noted by researchers and practitioners because of its influence on service performance. Learning behavior is especially important in complex, error prone, and fast changing businesses like the services industry. This research contributes to the existing body of research by examining the influence of diversity climate on learning behavior, which has not been investigated empirically in the literature. The current research not only makes a significant contribution to the learning and diversity literature, but also informs practitioners how learning behavior can be increased and how diversity climate can be created in within service organizations, in particularly hospitality.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Min Kim ◽  
Moon Jung Kim ◽  
Sung Jun Jo

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the relationships between individual team member's perception of team psychological safety (TPS), individual team member's perception of transactive memory system (TMS), individual team member's perception of team learning behavior (TLB) and individual team member's perception of team performance (TP).Design/methodology/approachThis cross-sectional study used a paper-based questionnaire that was distributed to 500 employees in travel-related industries and responses were received from 467 employees. Finally, 394 surveys were used after excluding insincere responses. Using SPSS & AMOS version 25.0, factor analysis, correlation, path analysis and mediation analysis were performed.FindingsThe findings reveal that there is a significant association between TPS, TMS, TLB and TP, except for the specialization subdimension of TMS and reflective communication and knowledge codification subdimensions of TLB. There was no mediation role of TLB; however, credibility and task coordination subdimensions of TMS showed partial mediating effects between TPS and TP.Originality/valueThis study offers suggestions for management, emphasizing the importance of TPS. Recent and rapid organizational changes have dramatically increased employees' job insecurity, which can affect their psychological safety. Therefore, organizations should actively support employees to feel psychologically stable to improve performance by utilizing TMS and TLB among individual team members.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 2635-2655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xingyu Wang ◽  
Priyanko Guchait ◽  
Aysin Paşamehmetoğlu

Purpose Hospitality work setting is error-prone, rendering error handling critical for effective organizational operation and quality of service delivery. An organization’s attitude toward errors can be traced back to one fundamental question: should errors be tolerated/accepted or not? This study aims to examine the relationships between error tolerance and hospitality employees’ three critical work behaviors, namely, learning behavior, error reporting and service recovery performance. Psychological safety and self-efficacy are hypothesized to be the underlying attitudinal mechanisms that link error tolerance with these behavioral outcomes. Design/methodology/approach This study relied on a survey methodology, collecting data from 304 frontline restaurant employees in Turkey and their direct supervisors. SPSS 25.0 and Amos 25.0 were used for analysis. Findings The results revealed that error tolerance had direct positive relationships with employees’ psychological safety and self-efficacy, both of which had positive impacts on learning behavior and error reporting. In addition, learning behavior positively influenced employees’ service recovery performance, as rated by the employees’ supervisors. Originality/value This study identifies error tolerance as an organizational distal factor that influences employees’ learning behavior, error reporting and service recovery performance; and identifies self-efficacy and psychological safety as mediators of the relationship between error tolerance and behavioral outcomes. The findings help clarify the longstanding debate over the relationship between an organization’s attitude toward errors and its employees’ learning behavior. The findings also shed light on the advantages of tolerating error occurrence for organizations, which is especially important as most hospitality organizations pursue perfection with aversive attitudes toward errors.


2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dian Anita Nuswantara

Purpose This paper aims to reframe the whistleblowing process by examining the individual and situational factors that have been overlooked by prior studies. Ethical climate, public service motivation (PSM), organisation identification and psychological safety are inquired. Design/methodology/approach The present study sample was drawn from a population of Indonesian local governments located in east Java, Indonesia. Particularly, self-administered questionnaires were hand-distributed to the employees in the four local governments. Of 2,169 questionnaires distributed to the employees, 1,687 questionnaires were returned to the researcher. However, the researcher removed 33 returned questionnaires because of poor data quality, such as incomplete answers. Thus, only 1,654 questionnaires were analysed in this study. Findings The findings support the idea of an ethical climate that can encourage the individual to blow the whistle. However, its effect is indirect. The predictive power of ethical climate on the individual’s whistleblowing intentions depends on the meditating roles of PSM, psychological safety and organisation identification. Interestingly, the mediating effects of PSM, psychological safety and organisation identification are extremely acknowledged when individuals have an opportunity to choose internal or external disclosures. Originality/value This study produces a different approach to understanding people’s intentions to report any wrongdoings. This study is dissimilar from prior studies in terms of the theoretical paradigm and research design. Previous studies mostly used students as their experiments. In contrast, the current study recruited employees who work in local governments. This situation fundamentally affects the understanding of the impact of an ethical climate on the individual intention to blow the whistle.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakan Erkutlu ◽  
Jamel Chafra

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between conflict management styles (CMS) used by leaders and organizational identification of their followers as well as to test the mediating effects of psychological safety and employee voice on that relationship. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected on site from 1,023 employees in 13 multinational companies in Turkey. The mediating roles of psychological safety and employee voice on the CMS and organizational identification relationship were tested using ordinary least squares regression analyses. Findings – The results show that cooperative CMS is positively and significantly correlated with organizational identification. In addition, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses support the mediating effects of psychological safety and employee voice with regard to the relationship between CMS and organizational identification. Practical implications – Given that cooperative CMS are associated with valued organizational outcomes such as higher employees’ commitment, trust and satisfaction in leaders and citizenship behaviors, organizational efforts to foster cooperative CMS should prove fruitful. Moreover, focussing on efforts to improve leader-follower relationship and to create a trust-based work environment could increase the likelihood that CMS will increase level of employees’ identification with their organizations. Originality/value – The value of this study is its original contribution to the research literature, as no previous studies, which incorporated CMS, organizational identification, and psychological safety and voice behavior as mediating variables were found during the exhaustive literature review.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 370-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleša Saša Sitar ◽  
Marko Pahor ◽  
Miha Škerlavaj

Purpose This study, which consists of two parts, investigates the influence of structure on the learning of individuals in organizational settings. This second paper (Part II) builds on the conceptual paper (Part I) and explores the relationships between three structural dimensions of individual work – formalization, specialization and standardization – on employee learning behavior. Design/methodology/approach Multiple regression analysis was used to test the proposed relationships. Data were gathered in a large multinational corporation; 90 employees from 12 units participated in the research. Findings The results offer support for some of the proposed hypotheses, showing that employee learning behavior varies depending on how activities are structured. Employees perceiving their work to be less structured, with lower formalization, standardization and specialization, rely on external sources of knowledge and experience double-loop learning, whereas employees with a more structured work are inclined to an individual learning style. Structure thus determines learning. Research limitations/implications Because this exploratory study used a single-company research setting, the use of multiple companies from different industries and additional measures of learning behavior are proposed to increase generalizability. A quasi-experimental research design would add to causality claims. Practical implications Implications for broader organization design practice to stimulate learning are proposed. Managers should be aware of the distinct impacts different structures have on learning behavior. Originality/value This paper contributes to the discussion on the relationship between structure and the learning of individuals at work.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurandir Peinado ◽  
Alexandre Reis Graeml ◽  
Fernando Vianna

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the differences in importance assigned by manufacturing or service organizations to topics related to operations management and its attendant body of knowledge. Design/methodology/approach The authors did this by cataloguing and analyzing vacancy announcements related to operations management, presented by manufacturing and services companies in major Brazilian human resources websites. Findings The results show that manufacturing companies primarily hire personnel with skills in routine process management, quality management, lean manufacturing, ergonomics and work organization. Service companies generally seek professionals with knowledge and experience in logistics, supply chain management and project management. Research limitations/implications This study presents some limitations that reduce the power of its conclusions. There is some degree of subjectivity in the interpretation of the contents of the analyzed ads. In order to reduce this problem, the authors who did the tabulation of data marked the situations for which there were some doubts about the classification, discussing them with the other author, until they reached a consensus on the best way to classify each one. Originality/value The discussion about the importance assigned by manufacturing and service companies to the topics of operations management is crucial for not only the results obtained, but also to stimulate the debate on topics that comprise or should comprise the body of knowledge of operations management, and the way they are incorporated into business practice. This provides an additional opportunity to reflect on the potential of operations management in supporting business managers now and in the future.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 314-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooklyn Cole ◽  
Raymond J. Jones ◽  
Lisa M. Russell

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between psychological diversity climate (PDC) and organizational identification (OID) when influenced by racial dissimilarity between the subordinate and supervisor. Design/methodology/approach Ordinary least squares hierarchical regression analysis was run for hypotheses testing. Findings Three of the four hypothesized relationships were supported. Support was found for the direct relationship between PDC and OID. The moderator race was significant thus also supported. The moderator of dissimilarity was not supported. Finally the three-way interaction with race and dissimilarity was supported. Practical implications OID is an important variable for overall organizational success. OID influences a wealth of organizationally relevant outcomes including turnover intentions. Considering higher turnover exists for minority employees, understanding how diversity climate perceptions vary by employee race and therefore impact OID differently, helps managers when making decisions about various initiatives. Originality/value This study is the first the authors know of to investigate the impact of dissimilarity on the PDC-OID relationship.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Lind Melbye ◽  
Håvard Hansen

Purpose – The majority of previous studies on parental feeding practices have focused on the effect of controlling feeding strategies on child eating and weight (i.e. parental influence on children). The present study turns the arrow in the opposite direction, and it aims to test a child-responsive model by exploring the process in which child weight status might influence parental feeding practices, addressing potential mediating effects of parental concern for child weight (i.e. child influence on parents). Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey was performed among parents of 10- to 12-year olds (n = 963). The survey questionnaire included measures of parental feeding practices and parents’ reports of child weight and height. Stepwise regressions were performed to reveal potential mediating effects of parental concern for child weight status on the associations between child BMI and a wide range of parental feeding practices. Findings – Our results suggest a mediating effect of parental concern for child overweight on the associations between child body mass index and controlling feeding practices such as restriction for weight and health purposes and responsibility for determining child portion sizes. Originality/value – This study provides an extension of previous research on parental feeding–child weight relationship. It includes a wider spectrum of feeding variables, and integrates parental concern for both child who is overweight and child who is underweight as potential mediators of the associations between child weight and parental feeding practices. Moreover, it has its focus on preadolescent children, while previous studies have focused on infants and young children.


Author(s):  
Jay Andrew Cohen

Purpose – This paper aims to look at the peripheral management practice that facilitates employee learning. Such management practices are embedded or inseparable to working and being a good manager. Design/methodology/approach – Point of view. Findings – For many frontline managers and their employees, the separation between working and learning is often not apparent. There appears to be no clear distinction between when they are working and when they are learning. Practical implications – Better development of organizational managers. Originality/value – This paper highlights the informal nature of learning and working and builds on the understanding that much of the learning that occurs at work occurs as part of a social act, often involving managers and their employees. In this way, employee learning that is identified and facilitated by frontline managers is so often entwined in other management activity. Furthermore, this paper outlines some practical actions that organizations can undertake to aid greater frontline management involvement in employee learning.


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