Feeling like a million miles away from home? Well-being at work of expatriates in the resources sector in Indonesia

As the world of business becomes increasingly globalised, there is greater mobility of workers internationally. Prior research has found expatriates (and their families) experience work and cultural stressors when living and working in host countries, and the stressors may be greater when working in remote locations. This research explores perceptions of well-being a of expatriates at work in the resources sector, including how social capital impacts on the well-being of expatriates. The research was undertaken in Indonesia and involved semi-structured in-depth interviews with 43 resources sector expatriates, 8 spouses and 7 human resource managers who provided their perceptions of the well-being of expatriates at work. The findings highlight nine aspects of well-being at work for expatriates in the resources sector in Indonesia, including: social aspect, safety/security, benefits and disadvantages, work aspects, job and other attitudes, eudaimonic aspect, work-life balance, affect and external influences. The findings particularly emphasise the importance of safety, work life balances and external (organisational) influences. The research contributes to expatriate, well-being and social capital literature by providing an understanding of well-being at work for expatriates working in non-standard (often remote) workplaces in the resources sector. While the research was undertaken in Indonesia and includes context-specific examples from this developing country, the conceptualisation of well-being at work has broader application for employees working in non-standard workplaces across many sectors and contexts.

Researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis: Theoretical and methodological considerations and implications for human resource management

Over the past 2 years, numerous empirical studies in the fields of human resource management, organizational behavior, and industrial, work, and organizational psychology have investigated employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this paper is to take a step back and to outline several theoretical and methodological considerations when researching employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis more generally. These insights may be useful when developing conceptual models, designing empirical studies, and managing people in the context of future crises. We first review theoretical approaches that could be applied to explain changes in employee experiences and behavior in times of crisis, including stress theories, theories of adjustment to work-related changes, career construction theory, event system theory, transition-adaptation theories, the crisis management and resilience framework, and the social identity model of identity change. Second, we outline methodological considerations and best practices regarding the research design of quantitative empirical studies, sampling, measurement, and analytic strategies. Throughout, we highlight empirical studies on employee experiences and behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic that have adopted these theoretical approaches and methodological best practices. We conclude with several suggestions for future theory development and empirical studies on employee experiences and behavior as well as human resource management in times of crisis.

How and when does follower strengths-based leadership contribute to follower work engagement? The roles of strengths use and core self-evaluation

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship of follower’s strengths-based leadership (FSBL) with follower work engagement. Additionally, this study also examined the mediational effect of employee strengths use and the moderating effect of core self-evaluation (CSE) on the relationship between FSBL and follower work engagement. Data were garnered at two points in time with a time lag of 2 months. Moderated-mediation path analysis with a total of 238 employees working in a research and design institute in Beijing was deployed to examine our hypotheses. As hypothesized, FSBL was a statistically significant predictor of work engagement, and strengths use acted as a mediator in the FSBL-work engagement relationship. In addition, we also found that CSE significantly and negatively moderates the direct effect of FSBL on strengths use and the indirect effect of FSBL on work engagement through strengths use. This study advances the FSBL theory and research and provides a new insight into the driving force of work engagement.

New avenues for HRM roles: A systematic literature review on HRM in hybrid organizations

In recent decades, the emergence of hybrid organizational forms has placed new demands on the role of human resource management (HRM) contributing to organizational goals. Moreover, research emphasizes that the increasing hybridity of contexts, stakeholder requirements, and goals lead to organizational tensions that, if not properly addressed, can lead to organizational downfall. However, although organization and management research recognize the importance of elaborating HRM roles for hybrid contexts, drawing upon findings from the hybrid literature has been widely neglected. Thus, by mapping the research landscape regarding hybridity, this article provides insight into the configuration of organizational HRM roles and functions that contribute to the development of hybrid goals and are associated to the management of tensions. Significantly, this article introduces three specific HRM roles— hybrid strategist, capability adapter, and identification generator—as essential HRM roles for hybrid contexts.

New insights into self-initiated work design: the role of job crafting, self-undermining and five types of job satisfaction for employee’s health and work ability

The present study provides evidence for the important role of job crafting and self-undermining behaviors at work, two new concepts that were recently integrated into the well-known job demands-resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017). We investigate how these behaviors are associated with work engagement, emotional exhaustion, and work ability as a long-term indicator of employee’s well-being. Furthermore, we examine the moderating role of personal resources in the stress-strain process by comparing groups of employees representing the five types of job satisfaction defined by Bruggemann (1974). Data was collected in a cross-sectional study within a German DAX company’s manufacturing plant from 1145 blue- and white-collar workers. Results of structural equation modeling provided, as expected, support for an indirect effect of job demands and job resources on emotional exhaustion and work engagement through job crafting and self-undermining. Work ability, on the other hand, was mainly affected by emotional exhaustion, but not by work engagement. Most important, we found significant differences between path coefficients across the five types of job satisfaction indicating that these types represent important constellations of personal resources and job demands that should be considered both for analyzing stress at work and for offering tailored stress interventions in organizations.

Virtual work intensity, job satisfaction, and the mediating role of work-family balance: A study of employees in Germany and China

This paper targets virtual work, an increasingly crucial alternative work arrangement in today’s interconnected world. Based on a survey of 308 employees working in Germany and China, we investigate the relationship between virtual work intensity, work-family balance, and job satisfaction through a mediator model. We find empirical evidence for an inverted U-shaped relationship between virtual work intensity and job satisfaction. When virtual work intensity is below a particular level, it is positively related to job satisfaction. However, increasing virtual work intensity begins to decrease job satisfaction when this threshold is exceeded. Our findings suggest this relationship between virtual work intensity and job satisfaction is mediated by work-family balance. Furthermore, empirical evidence demonstrates that the inverted U-shaped relationship has different optimums in different cultures. The research outcome demonstrates that the threshold is lower for Chinese employees than their German colleagues. This paper contributes to literature relating to job satisfaction, work-family balance, and virtual work by focusing on individual virtual work outcomes in a cross-cultural context. It also attempts to provide an alternative explanation for the generative mechanism of the impact of virtual work intensity on job satisfaction.

‘Beyond the clash?’: Union–management partnership through social dialogue on sustainable HRM. Lessons from Belgium

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of intended versus real partnerships between unions and management in relation to social dialogue on sustainable HRM within a historically grown institutional context of dominant conflict thinking in Belgium. In-depth qualitative data was retrieved from unions and managers within leading companies in the Belgian chemistry and the life sciences sector. The central goal was to examine how sustainable HR issues can strengthen the partnership relationship between unions and management and what kind of paradoxical tensions they face in this regard. The data supports the idea of a hybrid, (neo)pluralistic approach, within which any polarizing ‘we are against them’ mindset cannot be fully ruled out and may even be fruitful in achieving win-win solutions.

Collective resources for individual recovery: The moderating role of social climate on the relationship between job stressors and work-related rumination – A multilevel approach

In this study, we link cognitive processes of recovery to the social context in which employees experience job stressors. The aim was to examine how the social context in which employees experience work stressors is associated with individuals’ work-related thoughts in nonwork time and thus may prolong work-related mental efforts beyond working hours. We used aggregated individual ratings on social relations with colleagues and supervisors as a primer for social climate within workgroups, calculated the rate of permanent employment contracts per workgroup as a proxy for the stability of social relations within workgroups and used organizational affiliations to specify job settings in terms of routine versus creative tasks. Drawing on cross-sectional data from a psychosocial risk assessment and occupational health promotion survey of N = 1836 employees in 118 workgroups with different occupations at a German university, we tested multilevel random-coefficient models for affective rumination and problem-solving pondering. Results indicated a negative association of collegial climate with affective rumination but no association with problem-solving pondering. Supervisory climate was unrelated to both types of ruminative thinking. The stability of social relations within workgroups was negatively associated with affective rumination as well as with problem-solving pondering, whereas the job setting was only associated with problem-solving pondering. A cross-level interaction indicated a positive moderation effect of collegial climate on the relationship between job stressors and affective rumination. The findings indicate that a positive collegial climate can buffer the negative impact of low to average levels of job stressors on work-related thoughts and lead to the conclusion that the social context in which job stressors are experienced may alter individuals’ ability to mentally unwind from work.

Always on, never done? How the mind recovers after a stressful workday?

Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ minds after a stressful workday? What is it about their jobs that makes them think about their work? This special issue aims to bridge the gap between research on recovery processes mainly examined in Occupational Health Psychology, and research on work stress and working hours, often investigated in the field of Human Resource Management. We first summarize conceptual and theoretical streams from both fields of research. In the following, we discuss the contributions of the five special issue papers and conclude with key messages and directions for further research.