scholarly journals High Involvement Work in the New Zealand Public Service

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Fiona Kirkham

<p>The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between high involvement work practices (HIWP) and employee outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, in the core New Zealand public service. It also investigates whether certain demographic factors may influence this relationship and proposes a structural model to test this.  Information about HIWP and employee outcomes was originally gathered as part of the 2013 Workplace Dynamics Survey conducted by the New Zealand Public Service Association (PSA) and Victoria University of Wellington (Plimmer et al., 2013). Participants, all of whom were PSA members, were asked a variety of questions about their work, workplace and themselves. For the purposes of this current study, the sample was then limited to only those members of the core public sector who reported that they had no managerial responsibilities, which comprised 1,665 unique responses. The data were then analysed in order to generate descriptive statistics and trends regarding opinions, and to conduct inferential analysis. This included exploratory factor analysis to confirm the principal factors, confirmatory factor analysis to test the measurement of the constructs, and structural equation modelling to explicate the relationship between HIWP and employee outcomes. Moderating factors such as age, gender, and level of educational attainment were then introduced to the proposed structural model.  The model suggests that HIWP, as measured by items associated with power, information, rewards, and knowledge (PIRK), have a positive effect on employees’ reported job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The model tests the influence of a second-order latent variable that describes the PIRK attributes working collectively, as well as a second-order latent variable, labelled Passion, for employee outcomes, based on the work of Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman (1999), and Langford (2009), respectively.  The findings of this study largely support the relationships proposed in the literature on HIWP, which was used to develop the theoretical model. It finds that employees reporting higher PIRK also experience higher job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It also suggests that age and level of educational attainment individually have some effect on the PIRK-Passion relationship. While gender did not affect this particular causal relationship, the model was different in some respects for men and women, particularly with respect to the effect of length of time spent working for a particular employer.  This study contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing evidence of the influence of high involvement practices for people management in the New Zealand public service on employee outcomes, an under-researched area. It also highlights the need for public sector managers and HR professionals to be aware of the different experiences of different demographic groups. This research makes recommendations for further research, including in the data-gathering stage, as well as suggestions for practitioners.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Fiona Kirkham

<p>The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between high involvement work practices (HIWP) and employee outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, in the core New Zealand public service. It also investigates whether certain demographic factors may influence this relationship and proposes a structural model to test this.  Information about HIWP and employee outcomes was originally gathered as part of the 2013 Workplace Dynamics Survey conducted by the New Zealand Public Service Association (PSA) and Victoria University of Wellington (Plimmer et al., 2013). Participants, all of whom were PSA members, were asked a variety of questions about their work, workplace and themselves. For the purposes of this current study, the sample was then limited to only those members of the core public sector who reported that they had no managerial responsibilities, which comprised 1,665 unique responses. The data were then analysed in order to generate descriptive statistics and trends regarding opinions, and to conduct inferential analysis. This included exploratory factor analysis to confirm the principal factors, confirmatory factor analysis to test the measurement of the constructs, and structural equation modelling to explicate the relationship between HIWP and employee outcomes. Moderating factors such as age, gender, and level of educational attainment were then introduced to the proposed structural model.  The model suggests that HIWP, as measured by items associated with power, information, rewards, and knowledge (PIRK), have a positive effect on employees’ reported job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The model tests the influence of a second-order latent variable that describes the PIRK attributes working collectively, as well as a second-order latent variable, labelled Passion, for employee outcomes, based on the work of Vandenberg, Richardson and Eastman (1999), and Langford (2009), respectively.  The findings of this study largely support the relationships proposed in the literature on HIWP, which was used to develop the theoretical model. It finds that employees reporting higher PIRK also experience higher job satisfaction and organisational commitment. It also suggests that age and level of educational attainment individually have some effect on the PIRK-Passion relationship. While gender did not affect this particular causal relationship, the model was different in some respects for men and women, particularly with respect to the effect of length of time spent working for a particular employer.  This study contributes to theoretical and practical knowledge by providing evidence of the influence of high involvement practices for people management in the New Zealand public service on employee outcomes, an under-researched area. It also highlights the need for public sector managers and HR professionals to be aware of the different experiences of different demographic groups. This research makes recommendations for further research, including in the data-gathering stage, as well as suggestions for practitioners.</p>


Author(s):  
Raduan Che Rose ◽  
Naresh Kumar ◽  
Ong Gua Pak

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The literature review reveals that there is a relationship between organizational learning organizational commitment, job satisfaction and work performance. However, it is apparent that the integrated relationships between these variables have not been found to be reported. Hence, we examine the relationship among these variables using a sample of public service managers in Malaysia. Organizational learning was found positively related to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and work performance. Organizational commitment and job satisfaction are also positively related with work performance and these variables partially mediate the relationship between organizational learning and work performance. Implication of the study and suggestions for future research been discussed in this paper.</span></span></p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6(J)) ◽  
pp. 188-198
Author(s):  
L J Thabane ◽  
P Q Radebe ◽  
M. Dhurup

Administrators are an important human resource in Higher Education because they perform various duties that are critical to the daily operations of universities. In light of this, organisational commitment and job satisfaction of administrators are essential for the efficiency and effectiveness of universities. Notwithstanding the critical relevance and necessity of organisational commitment and job satisfaction, there is evidence of paucity of research on these areas among administrative staff in the South African higher education sector. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between organisational commitment and overall job satisfaction on the organisational commitment of administrators at a university in Gauteng. To achieve the aforementioned objective, a quantitative survey approach was used to examine the relationship between overall job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The selfadministered structured questionnaires were issued to 383 administrative staff members. Descriptive statistics was utilised to assess the levels of both organisational commitment and job satisfaction, results of which revealed that administrators were satisfied with and committed to the university. Spearman’s rho correlation analysis showed that there was a strong correlation between affective commitment and job satisfaction; and moderate correlations between job satisfaction and moral imperative. Similar strong correlation was observed between indebted obligation and job satisfaction. Conversely, a weak correlation occurred between job satisfaction and continuance commitment. Regression coefficients indicated that job satisfaction contributed positively to the prediction of affective commitment, moral imperative, indebted obligation and continuance commitment. Based on these findings, the recommendations and future research opportunities were suggested.


Author(s):  
Norah Sehunoe ◽  
Rian Viviers ◽  
Claude-Helene Mayer

Retaining talented employees and keeping them healthy and well are increasingly important challenges for organisations in the age of the knowledge worker. Organisations are interrogating aspects such as the reasons why some employees are more satisfied, committed and engaged to their organisations than others. Another question is: what should managers do to ensure employee wellness within their organisations? This study explores the relationship between job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. Spector’s (1997) Job Satisfaction Survey, Allen and Meyer’s (1990) Organisational Commitment Questionnaire and Schaufeli and Bakker’s (2004) Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were administered to a sample of 220 employees from a South African insurance company. The findings show mixed results with regard to significant correlations between job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. The majority of the findings suggest that there are significant correlations, of a large and medium effect, between scales, including a number of positive relationships of varying strength between job satisfaction, organisational commitment and selected components of work engagement. The findings could benefit organisations as they could contribute to a better understanding of what motivates their workers, particularly their levels of satisfaction, commitment and engagement, and what the combined effect of these might be on the retention and wellness of employees.


Author(s):  
M. Anaam Hashmi ◽  
Abdullah Al Ghaithi ◽  
Khaled Sartawi

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) on employees’ perceived productivity, quality of work and organisational commitment (OC) with a special focus on the United Arab Emirates. It also analyses the mediating effect of employee happiness on the relationship between FWA and employees’ perceived productivity, OC and perceived work quality. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative, non-experimental correlational study was used for this research project. The study yielded numerical data, which were analysed using a deductive approach. The analysis aimed at exploring the relationships between the constructs, which were viewed as variables; these relationships were considered correlations, mediation and moderation. The sample comprises employees currently working at different public and private sector organisations, representing all major service industries in the UAE. Nine questions were used to assess the flexibility at work and six out of the nine questions were used to measure the level of FWAs using the Likert scale. Findings FWA has a significant and positive association with the employees’ perceived productivity, quality of work and OC. It was confirmed that happiness plays a mediating role in the relationship between FWA and employee outcomes. The facility allows employees to manage their personal and professional lives with ease using their preferred work method. This ability promotes employee satisfaction. In conclusion, managers and employees around the world should view FWAs as a positive tool to enhance employee productivity and OC, particularly in an emergency like the Covid-19 pandemic. Research limitations/implications The participants’ honesty was a limitation, which could raise questions on the validity of this study. This limitation arises when the self-report method is used for data collection. Use of multiple instruments could be another limitation. Practical implications Organisational leaders can use FWAs to improve employee outcomes. When an organisation grants flexible work options to employees, it implies that the organisation trusts its employees to complete the task. This factor motivates all employees to work with dedication, which is particularly true if the employees are creative people and wish to work on their preferred time and place. Originality/value This study is significant because the findings will allow managers to assess the benefits of using FWAs to improve employee productivity, particularly in the service sector. It combines the aspects of perceived productivity, OC and perceived work quality, as well as employee happiness to assess the role of FWAs in organisations. The study also investigates the influence of FWAs in improving these employee outcomes. Based on the literature review, this study on FWAs is the first of its kind in the UAE, the country using a truly multinational workforce coming from more than 100 countries and cultures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
M. Jamal Abdul Nasir ◽  
Bambang Budi Wiyono ◽  
. Supriyono ◽  
Achmad Supriyanto

The objective of this research is to find out a direct and an indirect relationship between motivation, organisational commitment, and lecturers competence and job satisfaction and lecturers performance. This was non-experimental research using a quantitative approach with ex-post facto designs. Hypotheses of this research aim to prove the relationship between variables. The data were collected by using questionnaire distributed to the randomly-chosen respondents and analyzed using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method. The conclusion of the modeling analysis result of these five variables are: (1) lecturers motivation has not a direct relationship with lecturers performance; (2) lecturers commitment has an indirect relationship with lecturers performance; (3) both exogenous variables (lecturers motivation and commitment) need intervening variable (job satisfaction) to be proven to be related to the lecturers performance; and (4) it is only lecturers competence variable having a direct relationship with lecturers performance even though without passing through mediation and lecturers job satisfaction variable.


2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geunpil Ryu

Research on public service motivation (PSM) has paid attention to the concept of fit to identify underlying mechanisms of the relationship between PSM and beneficial outcomes such as higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Nonetheless, there have been rare studies aimed at theoretically comparing PSM with the person–environment (P–E) fit. In this article, PSM is reviewed from the perspective of P–E fit, not only because PSM and P–E fit share some theoretical perspectives, such as job attraction, employee rewards, and individual performance, but also because incorporating the concept of PSM into the fit framework may allow us to better understand PSM and enhance its theoretical development. This article concludes that PSM has a complementary relationship with P–E fit as the two provide more concrete and valid explanations for job applications, outcomes, and rewards when they are incorporated.


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