Ed Snape

• BA (Hons), MSc Econ, PhD, Chartered Member CIPD
• Dean at Hong Kong Baptist University

We investigated how abusive supervision influences interactions between third-party observers and abused victims and hypothesized when and why third parties react maliciously toward victims of abusive supervision. Drawing on the theory of rivalry, we predicted that third-party observers would experience an “evil pleasure” (schadenfreude) when they...

Using social learning theory, the job demands-resources model and idiosyncrasy credit theory, the present study casts additional light on the explanatory mechanisms underlying the effects of service leadership on service performance. We examine employee work engagement as an important mediator of this relationship and explore the moderating role of...

Purpose This paper aims to evaluate the suggestion that the antecedents of union commitment and participation may differ between foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China based on the view that SOE unions will focus more strongly on the traditional dual role, emphasising on managerial functions and employee wel...

This article evaluates the development of Chinese enterprise unions, drawing on case-study evidence from foreign-invested enterprises in the Pearl River Delta. Findings suggest that it was difficult for such employers to resist the establishment of an enterprise union. However, they generally sought to co-opt the union to meet organizational needs....

This article examines the pattern and consequences of commitment to organisation and union amongst union members in a UK National Health Service Trust. Those who perceived the industrial relations climate as positive were more likely to be dually committed to both organisation and union. As anticipated, union commitment predicted union citizenship...

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) represents a set of HRM practices that are aligned with firm strategies. The relationship between SHRM and organizational performance has been extensively examined; however, whether and how SHRM influences corporate entrepreneurship remains unknown. Based on the resource-based perspective, this study exami...

Authentic leadership is a recent research focus in management. Unlike other conventional leadership styles, authentic leadership is concerned with the fundamental aspects of the leader itself, regardless of situational and environmental differences. To date, research evidence on the outcomes of authentic leadership and in particular on the process...

This article tests the impact of two organization-relevant factors, high commitment human resource practices (HCHRP) and work overload on a component of public service motivation, civic duty and employee outcomes (job satisfaction, affective commitment, and quit intentions). Local government employees in Wales (n=1,755) were used to test our resear...

This article evaluates whether the nature of the union moderates the antecedents of union commitment and participation, based on a study of member attitudes in Voice, formerly the Professional Association of Teachers, and the National Unions of Teachers, often seen as the most ‘moderate’ and ‘militant’ teacher unions, respectively.

Contributing to an emerging literature on solidarity or group-norm effects on union participation, the authors examine the extent to which union citizenship behavior (UCB) can be characterized as a collective phenomenon. Findings from studies of UK local government workers and teachers suggest that, for organization-focused behaviors, it is meaning...

This article discusses a case study of management reform in a public sector hospital in Hong Kong. It focusses on the implementation of a management performance appraisal system - Staff Development Review. A questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews are used to explore managers’ and staffs’ experience of and attitudes to the system. The results...

This study examined the effects of empowering leadership on employees in a customer service organization, using data from 266 employees and their supervisors from 41 work teams in a division of a large Hong Kong telecommunications corporation. Empowering leadership had acceptable levels of within-group agreement and between-group variability, provi...

We investigated how the two components of paternalistic leadership, namely authoritarianism and benevolence, jointly influenced work performance through their impacts on organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). Using a sample of 686 supervisor–subordinate dyads collected from a manufacturing firm in the People's Republic of China, we found that OBSE...

This chapter is concerned with employer-employee relationships in a hostile work environment. We propose a conceptual model to explore the antecedents and outcomes of hostile work environments, considering possible interactions between personality traits and situational conditions and incorporating contextual factors as moderators. Drawing on stake...

This paper examines the association between individual-level cultural values and employees’ commitment to, and citizenship behaviors towards, their employing organization and union. Based on a study of Chinese manufacturing workers, several significant findings emerged, most notably that workers distinguished clearly between the organization and un...

This paper examines the relationship between industrial relations (IR) climate and union commitment. Using a multi‐workplace sample from North East England, aggregation analysis provided support for treating IR climate as a workplace‐level variable, and workplace IR climate was negatively associated with union commitment. However, IR climate modera...

We evaluate the contribution of multiple foci and bases of commitment in explaining work attitudes and behaviours in a Chinese workforce. Findings suggest that the organization, supervisor, co-workers and the union were seen by respondents as separate commitment foci, along with both the affective and instrumental bases. Affective commitments were...

This paper presents findings from a study of employees' multiple trust foci. Social exchange theory and the notions of conceptual and cognitive distance are used to generate hypotheses on the anticipated effects of specific trust relationships on employees' attitudinal and behavioural outcomes such as intention to quit, job satisfaction, organizati...

We examine the relationship between HRM practices, conceptualized at the workplace level, and individual employee attitudes and behaviour. We focus on two possible explanations for the relationship: social exchange and job influence/employee discretion. Findings from a study of employees in North-East England suggest that there is a positive impact...

This paper provides a comparison of member attitudes in the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) and the National Unions of Teachers (NUT), often seen as the most “moderate and “militant†teacher unions respectively. Findings suggest that members of PAT were higher in job satisfaction, and both organizational and professional commitment,...

This paper examines the work attitudes of home- and office-based workers. A review of the existing literature finds both pessimistic and optimistic accounts of the impact of homeworking on employee attitudes and behaviours. Drawing on a survey of 749 managerial and professional employees in knowledge-intensive industries, the study finds more suppo...

The authors find some support for the cross-cultural validity of the Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) three-component model of occupational commitment in samples of Chinese and British accountants. Normative and affective commitments are higher in the Chinese sample, and continuance commitment is higher in the British sample. There is some support fo...

As an attempt to investigate the relationships between entrepreneurial characteristics and firm performance,we operationalized a theoretical framework of the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) and empirically tested the four hypotheses derived from it. The framework links together entrepreneurial competencies and SME perfor...

This paper examines the shared service model of organizing the human resource management function. It reports the results from a study of the introduction of human resource shared services (HRSS) in four NHS organizations. Findings suggest that the HRSS model has a number of advantages for organizations but that it has difficulty addressing the tra...

Here the author presents a case study of the TGWU's Link Up campaign, examining its implementation and providing an evaluation of its effectiveness. The article concludes that whilst the initial organising gains were limited, the campaign must be seen as part of the longer-term development of the union.

Drawing on a study of 423 union members in a UK Primary Care Trust, we use structural equation modeling to investigate the extent to which organizational and union commitment and citizenship behaviors are a function of economic and social exchange. Findings suggest that the organization-employee and union-member exchanges are distinct, with organiz...

We investigated how supervisors' interpretations of what motivates their subordinates' feedback-seeking behavior were related to both the quality of leader-member exchange and subordinates' work performance. Using a sample of 499 supervisor-subordinate dyads collected in China in two studies, we found that subordinates' feedback seeking was positiv...

This study evaluates the contribution of the multiple constituencies of commitment framework to the explanation of work attitudes and behaviours among samples of manufacturing workers in the United Kingdom (UK) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Our findings suggest that the organization, the supervisor, co-workers and the union were seen by...

This paper evaluates the contribution of the multiple constituencies of commitment framework in explaining work attitudes and behaviors in a sample of Chinese manufacturing workers. Findings suggest that the organization, the supervisor, and co-workers were seen by respondents as separate commitment foci. Although the various commitments were moder...

This paper considers the psychological consequences of perceived age discrimination, and the buffering effect of social support. Findings suggest that age discrimination acts as a stressor, with negative effects on job and life satisfaction, perceived power and prestige of the job, and affective and normative commitment, along with positive effects...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the evidence for trade union renewal in the UK fire service. Its aim is to consider two main questions: “How have union‐management relations and the industrial relations climate been affected by management reforms?” and “To the extent that there is deterioration in the IR climate, has this had an effe...

This paper examines the pattern and consequences of commitment to organisation and union amongst union members in a UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust. Those who perceived the industrial relations climate as positive were more likely to be dually committed to both organisation and union. As anticipated, union commitment predicted union citizens...

Based on studies of unionized nurses and water workers in the United Kingdom, perceived union support was associated with union commitment, union citizenship behaviors, and intent to quit union membership and switch unions. Instrumentality was less significant as an antecedent of most of these outcomes. In contrast to earlier findings on organizati...

We present findings from three UK studies on the nature and consequences of employees' multiple commitments in the workplace, with samples drawn from private manufacturing, private services and the public sector. Co-workers, the union, the union representative, customers, and the immediate boss emerge as separate foci of commitment, distinct from '...

Drawing on a study of members of the U.K. National Union of Teachers, this article considers the extent to which economic exchange, social exchange, and covenantal considerations underpin union members' willingness to continue membership and to participate actively in their union through union citizenship behaviors (UCB). Findings suggest that the...

Using survey data from a UK fire service, this article examines the antecedents of members’ intent to participate in their union. The authors identify three dimensions of intent to participate – in rankandfile activities, in militant activitiesand in standing for union office. Affective union commitment is the main direct determinant of all three....

This paper examines the factors influencing members' intent to participate in their union, drawing on a study of Hong Kong firefighters. As in Western studies, the main direct predictor of intent to participate is affective union commitment, but instrumentality is a relatively more important antecedent of affective union commitment and participatio...

We develop and test a dynamic model of co-specialized resources for competitive advantage. Using matched data from senior executives and human resource managers, we test the direct and interactive effects of high-performance human resource (HPHR) practices and organizational culture on firm performance. Although the HPHR practices were not an impor...

This paper presents an overview of the literature on union commitment. The aim is to survey the main approaches, findings and implications of the research. The nature and dimensionality of union commitment are examined, and the antecedents and consequences of union commitment are discussed in detail, including a review of the implications for union...

This study evaluated the J. P. Meyer, N. J. Allen, and C. A. Smith (1993) model of occupational commitment using a sample of 678 United Kingdom human resource management specialists. Support was found for the 3-component model, and findings suggest that the consequences of the affective, normative, and continuance components differ. Affective and c...

This article examines the impact on employee attitudes of perceived age discrimination, drawing on a study of a local authority. Survey respondents report that discrimination on the grounds of being ‘too young’ is at least as common as discrimination on the grounds of being ‘too old’. Findings suggest that perceived age discrimination, whether for...

This paper presents an evaluation of the ideologies and behaviour of the main union groupings in Hong Kong. The CTU's ‘adversarial’ line and ‘inclusive’ approach has threatened to break with the traditional industrial pacifism of Hong Kong's unions, while the FTU's recognition of its ‘dual functioning’ role has been balanced by the need to maintain...

This article examines the pattern and antecedents of employee commitment to company and union in the Hong Kong context. Findings are consistent with those from the United States. In general, company and union commitment have different antecedents, although the perceived industrial relations climate is a common predictor. Dual commitment is in evide...

This study compared age stereotypes among 567 respondents sampled in the UK and Hong Kong and examined how these stereotypes were related to discriminatory attitudes at work. Compared to the Hong Kong sample, UK respondents saw older workers as more effective at work, but less adaptable to change. As expected, respondents' own age was predictive of...

This article examines the weakness of Hong Kong unions at the workplace, focusing on the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU). The FTU has adopted a more outward-looking approach to organizing, but some question the FTU's ability to balance the effective representation of workers with its association with the government, raising the question...

This article examines the implications of the changing competitive environment for the management of staff in building societies, with particular reference to attempts to implement Employee Involvement (EI) initiatives as part of a new approach to managing staff. The conclusion is that there are important barriers to the implementation of EI, and t...

This article compares the practice of and attitudes towards performance appraisal for managerial and professional staff in Hong Kong and Britain, and considers the extent to which actual practice and employee preferences are in alignment. Findings suggest that appraisal may be more widespread in Hong Kong than in Britain. However, British appraisal...

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The management of quality is a key issue in UK food retailing, especially amongst three of the leading companies (J Sainsbury, Tesco and Safeway) at the so-called ‘quality’ end of the market. They compete with one another across a broad range, each striving for superior product quality, excellent customer service, and reasonable prices for the whol...

The aim of this chapter is to trace the origins and development of the quality movement. We begin by discussing the origins of TQM in the writings of the US quality experts such as Shewart, Deming and Juran, and its adoption and development by Japanese manufacturing industry. We then review the development of quality management in the West, where i...

In this chapter we examine the case of a small firm — Richer Sounds — and the manner in which it seeks to manage its culture to create a customer-focused, quality-orientated organisation. In particular we examine the way it uses its payment system to support the desired quality culture. TQM writers stress the need to create a new corporate culture...

Much that is written about quality and TQM relates, either implicitly or explicitly, to the private sector and in particular to manufacturing industry. To some extent this is understandable given that most models of TQM are drawn from manufacturing, and many of the tools and techniques have a specific resonance with the processes practised there. T...

In this chapter, we examine in detail our two central concepts: ‘quality’ and ‘TQM’. The aim is to define these in as rigorous a way as possible, drawing on the practitioner and academic literature. As we shall see, the concepts are complex and the definitions are in themselves important. The danger is that TQM has been subjected to a somewhat prem...

The evidence suggests that in the private sector, TQM is usually implemented in response to perceived competition, and represents an attempt to win and sustain competitive advantage. This is associated with a growing awareness of the importance of staff, be this front-line staff in a customer services environment or manufacturing employees in a hig...

This chapter seeks to evaluate the significance and achievements of TQM. We seek to move beyond the euphoria of earlier accounts and to evaluate the emerging UK and US evidence. The chapter proceeds as follows: first, we review some evidence on the importance of quality in business strategies. What emerges from this is that quality seems to have a...

British Steel is the world’s fourth largest producer of steel, producing over 12 million tonnes of crude steel in 1994. The company’s ‘Cinderella’ like transformation, from a record loss-making nationalised producer to the most profitable (in 1990) steel company in the world, has often been depicted as nothing short of an industrial miracle (for ex...

As we have seen, the proponents of TQM define quality in terms of customer requirements, or ‘fitness for use’ (Duran, 1989). Those employees who do not have direct contact with external customers are encouraged to view their colleagues as customers, linked ultimately via a chain of internal customer relationships to the final (external) customer. I...

Until the 1980s the building societies, which had their origins in the mutual self-help organisations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, had the home loans market largely to themselves, and operated an interest rate cartel, with the Building Societies Association (BSA) publishing recommended rates of interest. Building societies did, howev...

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Introduces the job perceptual discrepancies index (JPDI), which is based on an empirical study of social workers and their team supervisors and was created by comparing supervisors’ and subordinates’ evaluations of the levels of importance of the various tasks in the subordinates’ job. The findings indicate that while subordinates and supervisors i...

A paper explores the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and financial incentives in British manufacturing industry. In particular, it examines the view of some of the most influential quality management gurus that there is an incompatibility between incentive pay and TQM. Drawing on survey and case study evidence, it shows that TQM...

Examines the factors which underpin the success of total quality management (TQM) initiatives. Uses data drawn from an in‐ depth, longitudinal case study of British Steel Teesside Works. Provides information on the background to the case study and an overview of the historical development of TQM. Evaluates TQM’s contribution to organizational succe...

Quality management has been in vogue within manufacturing for over a decade. Service industries have more recently been making heavy investments in this area. Also there are major initiatives from the public sector to improve quality. Investigates the take‐up of quality management techniques in the public sector, their perceived effectiveness and t...

Examines the implications of total quality management for the management of people. The implementation of TQM requires the development of a high commitment employee relations strategy and involves an attempt to build a culture of continuous improvement among employees. Argues that employee relations strategies have a key role to play in the success...

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Explores the recruitment and organizing experience of trade unions. Draws on in-depth interviews with union full-time officials and on the Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys (WIRS). Describes the experience of union recruitment, and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of recruitment campaigns, in which unions had little...

Looks at Quality Management (QM) and its extent of success or failure. Presents survey results, by the Institute of Management, which enables a further discussion. The survey, by postal questionnaire, was sent to 4,000 British Institute of Management members, and 880 usable responses (22 per cent) were received. The results and effects were discuss...

In recent years, quality management has become topical in management circles. The language of quality has spread throughout manufacturing industry into service industries and also into the public sector. During 1992, almost 900 Institute of Management members completed a questionnaire on quality management in their own organizations. The aim of the...

In recent years the success stories to quality management have been replaced by more gloomy reports. While the broad message of these is that quality management is not fully delivering, there is much less information on the specific difficulties in implementing quality management. In this paper, we draw upon the findings of an Institute of Manageme...

Performance appraisal is a longstanding, widespread and well-developed practice in industry. Suggests that it possesses considerable potential to facilitate effective human resource management. Also argues, however, that it is often not given the attention it deserves and is flawed in practice. Traces the origins and development of performance appr...

The issue of union recruitment strategies remains complex and contentious in the present harsh politico-economic climate. Any assessment of recruitment potential is linked to some view of the condition of the trade union movement and the attractiveness of its policies and methods to those outside its ranks whom it seeks to recruit. Within this cont...

Ed Snape, Tom Redman and Adrian Wilkinson examine the implications of the changing competitive environment for the management of staff in building societies. In particular, they draw on the results of a detailed case study to discuss attempts to introduce policies and practices associated with ‘HRM’. the conclusion is that the competitive pressures...

Upward appraisal involves staff having a formal input into their manager’s or supervisor’s performance appraisal. Reviews the rationale for the adoption of upward appraisal systems for manager’s, and identifies a number of key factors likely to contribute towards the more widespread use of upward appraisal. Describes upward appraisal systems in pra...

Total quality management (TQM) looks like being one of the management fashions of the 1990s. In this respect, reviews the academic and prescriptive literature on TQM. Discusses the factors which have encouraged organizations to introduce TQM and outlines some of the implications for the management of labour. Suggests that TQM is consistent with a m...

Total Quality Management (TQM) looks like being one of the management fashions of the 1990s. In this respect the academic and prescriptive literature on TQM is reviewed. The factors which have encouraged organisations to introduce TQM are discussed and some of the implications for the management of labour outlined. It is suggested that TQM is consi...

Black & Decker UK has approached quality management through Total Customer Service. The programme involves communications, employee participation through quality circles and TCS groups, plant reorganisation and changes in pay and grading. After five years, what are the results?

Employers and government are becoming increasingly concerned at the shortage of trained manpower. In some sectors, employers are reacting to this problem by “poaching” skilled staff, using “headhunters” and attractive remuneration packages to entice individuals to quit their current employment. In the face of this, some employers have argued that t...

There is an increasing realisation that managerial and professional staff play a crucial role in determining the success of the organisations which employ them, whether in the private or the public sector. Hence there is a growing concern with the quality and development of such staff. A detailed study of these important occupational groups, which...