Aukje Nauta

• Doctor of Psychology
• Leiden University

We describe how idiosyncratic deals (I-deals), in this case I-deals focused on workers’ employability enhancement, can serve as a powerful strategic HR tool for simultaneously meeting both the strategic goals of employers and the career goals of employees. Building on a sustainable career perspective, I-deals are interpreted as highly valuable, as...

Uitdagende werkafspraken, over bijvoorbeeld ontwikkeltaken of opleidingen, spelen een rol bij de loopbaanontwikkeling van medewerkers. Wanneer een leidinggevende en medewerkers uitdagende werkafspraken met elkaar maken, kunnen medewerkers laten zien dat zij meer in hun mars hebben. Dit kan het oordeel van de leidinggevende over doorgroeipotentieel...

This study examines the relationship between challenge deals and supervisors’ assessment of employee promotability. Challenge deals are successfully negotiated individual agreements between supervisors and employees for challenging job experiences, such as challenging tasks or training. In this article we present findings of a study on determinants...

This chapter describes three interventions performed by one or more of the authors, in order to simultaneously build trust and negotiate substantial deals between management of organizations vis-à-vis employee representatives in their role as works council members. The first intervention case was aimed at restoring trust between management and work...

In dit artikel beargumenteren we dat organisaties steeds meer losgezongen raken van basale behoeften van mensen. Daarom pleiten we voor een omkering: een beweging die het werk aanpast aan de mens – in plaats van de mens aan het werk. Hoe richten we de toekomst van werk zo in, dat basale menselijke behoeften optimaal tot hun recht komen?

In this article, we argue that organizations are becoming more and more detached from the basic needs of people. Therefore, we advocate a reversal: a movement that adjusts work to people – instead of people to work. How do we design the future of work in such a way that basic human needs are met optimally?

The Netherlands has highly institutionalized industrial and employment relations, as is illustrated by the so-called Dutch ‘Building of employment relations’, in which the works council plays an important role. Although Dutch industrial and employment relations are quite peaceful—very few strikes—a serious threat to Dutch industrial relations is th...

Using a conjoint analysis with an hypothetical hiring process, in which managers chose repeatedly between two hypothetical candidates for a relevant vacancy, our study confirms that hiring probabilities decline with age, particularly after the age of 58. Several theoretical arguments are given for this, both from the economic and psychological lite...

This article is a plea for the utilization of organizational psychology. Knowledge utilization is the process of creating value from knowledge, by making knowledge suitable and/or available for economic and/or societal use, and translating knowledge into competitive products, services, processes and new businesses. We describe two forms of knowledg...

A plea for the utilization of organizational psychology A plea for the utilization of organizational psychology This article is a plea for the utilization of organizational psychology. Knowledge utilization is the process of creating value from knowledge, by making knowledge suitable and/or available for economic and/or societal use, and translatin...

Our main research question is how will the asymmetry of conflict between two parties involved in mediation affect the outcomes of the mediation? Conflict asymmetry is the difference in perceptions of conflict among the parties; that is, one person experiences high levels of conflict whereas the other person perceives that there is little or no conf...

Past job-search research has focused on how hard unemployed people search for a job, but we still know little about the strategies that people use during their search and how we can predict the quality of the reemployment found. The first aim of this study was to predict the use of different job-search strategies via job-seekers' career adaptabilit...

Long will they live, work and learn. A scheme for understanding and influencing employability during the life span Long will they live, work and learn. A scheme for understanding and influencing employability during the life span A. Nauta, A.H. de Lange en S. Görtz, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 23, June 2010, nr. 2, pp. 136-157 To stimulate employe...

To stimulate employees' employability until high age, knowledge is needed about what people of different ages want with regard to work; this knowledge is discussed in this article. Calendar age appears to be a weak predictor of employability. More important are specific indicators of 'age', namely the ages of (1) professionalism; (2) private situat...

In an online survey among 632 employees and their supervisors working in seven Dutch hospitals, we investigated whether the route to employability is either individually designed or relationally negotiated. With regard to the individual route, we expected that a proactive personality would be positively related to job crafting and negatively relate...

In this article, the authors develop the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators hypothesis. The authors argue that many theories on work behavior assume humans to be either self-interested or to be social in nature with strong other-orientation but that this assumption is empirically invalid and may lead to overly narrow models of work be...

This study among 702 Dutch employees working in the health care and welfare sector examined individual and organizational factors that are related to workers' employability orientation and turnover intention. Additionally, push and pull motives were examined of employees who aimed to leave their job. Results indicated that a strong employability cu...

The baby boomers are to blame Is there anything to gain in stirring up a fight between generations? In practice and on the shop floor, the generation gap is not that bad, says Aukje Nauta, professor occupying an endowed chair at the University of Amsterdam. Age says so little in terms of individual performance. Emphasising differences in age is the...

Our main research question is how the asymmetry of conflict between two parties involved in mediation will affect the outcomes of the mediation. Conflict asymmetry is the difference in perceptions of conflict among the parties; that is, one person experiences high levels of conflict while the other person perceives that there is little or no confli...

Although conflict and negotiation studies have examined symmetrical structures in which both parties want change, or asymmetrical structures in which one party wants change and the other to maintain the status quo, no research provided a direct comparison of both structures. Two experiments were conducted to fill this void. Results show that in asy...

Tegengestelde belangen zijn inherent aan arbeidsrelaties: werknemers willen hoge lonen, werkgevers betalen liever minder. Werknemers willen zich breed ontwikkelen, werkgevers vergoeden vaak alleen functiegerichte opleidingen. Toch lopen de belangen van werkgevers en werknemers deels ook parallel. Zo hebben beide partijen er baat bij als werknemers...

Werkgevers en werknemers dagen elkaar veel te weinig uit en daarom zijn veel werknemers minder breed inzetbaar dan nodig zou zijn voor de organisatie en henzelf. Brede inzetbaarheid is het vermogen om de baan die men heeft te houden of de baan te krijgen die men wenst. Inzetbaarheid is strategisch broodnodig. Elk bedrijf en elke instelling worstelt...

This study relates thoughts derived from 4 types of social comparison to trust and individual learning. Our study (N = 362 students) showed that upward identification (i.e., believing one is just as good as a better performing teammate) was positively related to trust and individual learning. Upward contrast (i.e., believing one is worse than a bet...

Our purpose is to assess the actual experiences of companies in the context of individualised employment relationships. We have three questions: (1) what issues of the employment relationship can be individually negotiated in organizations? (scope); (2) what issues of the employment relationship are individually negotiated in organizations? (actual...

Purpose – This paper seeks to link conflict and mediation theory to practice using an asymmetry framework. Past conflict research often assumes that conflict parties perceive the same amount of conflict, neglecting that members may have different perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – This study conducted surveys and interviews with 30 conflic...

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the question of how to investigate the contribution of the operational network (comprising sales service, logistics, planning, production, etc.) to operational performance. In doing so, the paper aims to link concepts from organisational and social psychology to production planning and control. Design/methodol...

In this paper we link conflict and mediation theory to practice using an asymmetry framework. Past conflict research has provided important insights into the types of conflict that exist in organizations; however, little research on conflict types has been directly related to the process of conflict management in organizations. In addition, past wo...

This study examined the frequency of social comparisons in a work setting, and the feelings that these comparisons evoked. These processes were related to individual differences in social comparison orientation, and to the perception of a cooperative social climate at work. The participants were 216 physicians from various health centers in the Com...

A study among 653 undergraduate students examined the effects upon group satisfaction of social comparison orientation (Gibbons & Buunk, 1999) and affiliation orientation, i.e. the preference for doing things together and in groups versus a preference for doing things alone. Affiliation orientation correlated positively with extraversion and agreea...

Zowel politieke als demografische ontwikkelingen hebben ertoe geleid dat het vraag-stuk van de oudere werknemer (weer) op de wetenschappelijke agenda staat. Arbeids-organisaties zullen in de nabije toekomst in toenemende mate te maken krijgen met oudere werknemers. In deze inleiding op het themanummer besteden we aandacht aan een viertal vragen die...

Secundaire analyse van een vragenlijstonderzoek dat is afgenomen onder 1463 werk- nemers werkzaam bij verscheidene bedrijven en afkomstig uit alle leeftijdsgroepen, laat zien dat de inzetbaarheid voor de eigen functie toeneemt met leeftijd, maar dat de inzetbaarheid voor andere functies afneemt met leeftijd. De soort functie heeft echter invloed op...

This study tries to explain the relationship between characteristics of the employees (e.g., gender and working hours) and short-term absenteeism by examining the social cohesiveness of a team. Hypotheses are formulated concerning gender and working hours of employees, social cohesiveness, and short-term absenteeism. To test these hypotheses, netwo...

This study examined the moderating role of team task autonomy on the relationship between the mean level of three personality traits in a team-conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience-and two individual outcomes-job satisfaction and learning. Questionnaire data were collected from 133 task groups of undergraduate business...

This article describes strengths and weaknesses of using questionnaires in studying conflict. We address five issues that we came across in our own research on organizations and close relationships. The first issue is that conflict is a sensitive topic which has consequences for the acquisition of participants and the response to surveys. Second, w...

This article derives lessons from the quality approach for further developing the organizational sustainability approach. Taking a responsibility perspective on organizational sustainability, four issues emerge that need to be resolved, i.e. what is the responsibility?, what is the responsibility area?, who is involved in determining responsibiliti...

The relationships of thoughts derived from social comparison with group processes and outcomes were examined. Our study among 111 educational groups showed that contrasting thoughts, such as believing to be better than a worse-performing teammate or believing to be worse than a better-performing teammate, are negatively related to trust at the indi...

In a study of 11 organizations among 120 manufacturing, planning and sales employees, support was found for the hypothesis that a prosocial value orientation—as a personality trait—increases the likelihood that employees show a high concern for the goals of other departments. This concern, combined with a high concern for own goals, furthermore app...

The business world is asking management schools to deliver innovative learning systems adapted to their specific needs. In September 1996 the Faculty of Management and Organization implemented a completely revised “problem oriented” curriculum. One of the main goals of the new curriculum was to establish a closer link between business and education...

Conflict management influences individual wellbeing, group performance and organizational effectiveness. This research examined the psychometric qualities of two versions of the newly developed test for conflict handling. The lean version (Study 1 and 2) included problem solving, forcing, yielding and avoiding as distinct conflict management strate...

Differences between departments' perceptions of goals are assumed to impede interdepartmental coordination because they are often biased and therefore likely to be related to interdepartmental conflict. Results from a study in 11 manufacturing organizations among 120 employees in manufacturing, planning and marketing departments show that employees...

This study examined whether employees who were involved in interdepartmental negotiations had biased perceptions of their own negotiation behavior and that of the other department, and whether power differences between departments were associated with these biased perceptions. The results of a study in 11 manufacturing organizations among 41 member...

The goal of this study was to examine individual, relational, and organizational determinants of negotiation behavior (problem solving, contending, yielding, and avoiding) between planning and marketing departments in manufacturing organizations. Results from a study among 41 managers and 85 planning and marketing employees within 11 firms showed t...

Two field studies of interpersonal conflict in organizations and a simulated dyadic negotiation show that problem solving and forcing are frequently combined simultaneously and sequentially. As a robust finding, conglomerations of problem solving and forcing appear to enhance the parties' joint effectiveness. The best substantive and relational out...

Forty-eight individuals were asked to participate in dyadic role plays that were recorded on videotape and transcribed. The tapes were scored on effectiveness of conflict management, and the transcriptions were scored on integrative and distributive conflict behavior, perceived friendliness, and the use of words of communality ("we," "us"). In line...

Two field studies of interpersonal conflict in organizations and a simulated dyadic negotiation show that behaviors are mixed simultaneously and sequentially. Mixtures of problem solving and forcing enhance the parties' joint effectiveness. The best substantive and relational outcomes for the organization are reached through forcing followed by pro...

There is good evidence that people generally tend to evaluate behaviors, contributions, and outcomes in terms favorable to the self. The present series of studies expands this finding by showing that professional negotiators (Study 1), governmental decision makers (Study 2), and organizational consultants (Study 3) make self-serving evaluations of...

Changes inside and outside organizations have given rise to a growing need for employee commitment to the organization. This begs the question: how does this need compare to employers' need for more flexible labor contracts, such as part-time contracts and temporary work? Research on the commitment of employees with different kinds of labor contrac...

This dissertation is focused on interaction patterns in interpersonal conflict within organizations. Starting point is the interpersonal theory (IPT; Kiesler, 1983; Leary, 1957) that distinghuishes two dimensions to describe interpersonal (conflict) behavior, namely dominance-submissiveness and friendliness-hostility. Furthermore, with respect to i...