Kerstin Alfes

• Human Resources at ESCP Business School

Organizations are increasingly introducing new work arrangements triggered by fast-paced knowledge acquisition, exponential technological growth, and demographic changes. Even though many studies have provided an in-depth understanding of how technology changed individual forms of modern work (e.g. virtual teams, shared leadership, remote work), th...

Why do followers’ reactions to perceived paradoxical leader behavior (PLB) differ? To answer this question, we draw from self-regulation theory and argue that making sense of a paradoxical leader’s seemingly contradictory behavior can pose a challenge for followers and requires specific cognitive traits and abilities that enable them to navigate su...

While it is known that life events are predictive for psychological and physiological illnesses, empirical research on the relationship between private life events and their effect on work-related outcomes in a public sector context is scarce. Based on the extended job demands-resources model, this study argues that experiencing private life events...

Although some research suggests that perceptions of HRM practices are associated with lower levels of employee well-being, other research shows just the opposite. In the present study, we attempt to reconcile these discrepant findings by incorporating the role of HRM attributions. Our model posits that when employees perceive that their organisatio...

Researchers and practitioners are becoming increasingly concerned with the consequences of modern work arrangements for our understanding of work. This article, alongside the four papers which are included in the special issue, explores the implications of new ways of working for employees. We conceptualise new ways of working as an ongoing transfo...

In explaining the effectiveness of a human resource (HR) system within an organization, scholars have turned their attention to HR attributions, which capture employees' perceptions about the intentions behind their organization's HR practices, and have demonstrated that an HR system's content and process of communication drive employees to form sp...

While research on organizational aspects designed to enhance volunteer attitudes has grown over time, we still lack knowledge on the mechanisms that explain these relationships and are specific to the volunteering context. In the present study, we draw on social identity theory to explore how two organizational characteristics relating to a nonprof...

How are volunteers who provide assistance to refugees socialized into their organizations? Known as the process through which newcomers evolve from organizational outsiders into insiders, socialization is particularly crucial among volunteers, as they often help vulnerable groups such as refugees. To examine this issue, which is critical to both sc...

To date, public service motivation (PSM) has been investigated only as an individual-level phenomenon. We argue that, in order better to understand team effectiveness in public organizations, it is essential that team characteristics are also taken into consideration. This study provides a key contribution to public management research by exploring...

Paradoxical leadership behaviour (PLB) represents an emerging leadership construct that can help leaders deal with conflicting demands. In this paper, we report three studies that add to this nascent literature theoretically, methodologically, and empirically. In Study 1, we validate an effective short‐form measure of global PLB using three differe...

Meaningfulness of work has been heralded as one of the most important drivers of individual and organizational outcomes. However, the extent to which this critical psychological state manifests itself in the workplace and contributes to positive job performance is not yet fully understood. In this article, we draw from broaden‐and‐build theory to s...

Research has demonstrated that employees' human resource (HR) attributions are relevant in influencing individual and organisational outcomes. This paper adds to the literature by exploring the extent to which employees' perceptions of the presence of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) are related to HR well‐being and HR performance attributions....

This study raises the important question of how public service motivation and prosocial motivation are related to one another and how, together, these two concepts affect behavioural outcomes of public employees. Based on a sample of 747 public employees and using partial least squares structural equation model, we analyse the relationships between...

In this review paper, we critically examine the evidence base relating to engagement within the public sector given a wide range of public services have faced acute human resource challenges over recent years. Our review of 188 empirical studies reveals that much of the evidence focuses attention on individual and job level factors, such that speci...

Call for Papers for the Special Issue The International Journal of Human Resource Management New ways of working. Understanding the implications for employees across different cultural and organisational contexts

Paradoxical leadership behavior (PLB) represents an emerging leadership concept that can help leaders deal with conflicting demands from organizations and followers. The current study adds to the emerging literature by examining how PLB affects followers’ work engagement. More specifically, we propose that paradoxical leaders effectively enable fol...

Volunteering research has long focused on the characteristics of volunteers and their motivations to highlight what drives them to dedicate their free time to good causes. More recently, researchers have turned their attention toward exploring the management practices that nonprofit organizations can implement to promote volunteers’ motivations and...

We nuance the overtly negative image of overqualified employees by illuminating the brighter side of overqualification. In this extension of current thinking on overqualification, we argue that there are four ways in which overqualification can positively shape the performance of overqualified employees and their fellow group members. Following the...

Although scholars have highlighted human resource's (HR's) important role as a change agent, we know little about the extent to which HR influences the change context to foster positive employee responses and support organizational changes. This study positions perceived HR system strength as an important internal context factor that influences emp...

This chapter focuses on HRM in Volunteer Organizations and Charities, which are often referred to as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The context of non-governmental organizations and the specifics with regard to governance and leadership are explained, followed by a comparison of the key characteristics of paid staff versus volunteers. The r...

Studies have analyzed the beneficial effects of visionary leadership in for-profit organizations and demonstrated that it provides meaning to employees’ work (Arnold, Turner, Barling, Kelloway, & McKee, 2007) and motivates them to go the extra mile (Wang, Oh, Courtright, & Colbert, 2011; Judge & Piccolo, 2004). However, relatively little is known a...

As organizations increasingly structure their work around teams, the strategic human resource management (HRM) research is searching to understand the team-level implications of HRM practices and the processes through which these occur. The present study adds to this debate by examining the extent to which team human capital and team empowerment me...

This paper provides a counterbalance to the emphasis on positive psychology within recent HRM scholarship by utilizing a relational framework to explore the antecedents and outcomes of alienation. We focus on the associations between relational features of work – prosocial impact, employee voice and role overload – and job satisfaction and emotiona...

Academics and practitioners have argued that organizations have a responsibility toward society, and recent studies have demonstrated that by engaging in good causes, they can simultaneously increase their performance. Managers are therefore willing to understand strategies and workplace practices designed to improve—directly and indirectly—collect...

Employees with high core self-evaluations (CSE) generally perform well in their jobs. The enactment of CSE in performance occurs within contexts, and leadership is one form of context that influences the activation and expression of CSE. Drawing on theories of CSE and leader–member exchange (LMX), we characterized the leadership context as the inte...

Research on biographical data suggests that recruiters draw inferences about candidates' abilities and attributes based on résumé information. However, few studies have explored students' attributions with regard to the experiences that are relevant in enhancing employment opportunities. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap by analyzing...

Research on motivation in the public sector has used public service motivation (PSM) and self-determination theory (SDT) interchangeably. This paper compares both theories, develops hypotheses pertaining to their assumptions, and empirically tests them in two public offices in Switzerland. We then explore their relationship with job satisfaction as...

The use of systematic approaches to evidence review and synthesis has recently become more common in the field of organizational research, yet their value remains unclear and largely untested. First used in medical research, evidence review is a technique for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing existing empirical evidence. With greater demand...

Although the belief that support alleviates the detrimental effect of job demands on employee health is intuitive, past research has produced an equivocal picture, requiring a renewed evaluation of this relationship. In the present study, we examine three sources of support (from the organization, leader, and team) that employees may draw from to r...

A major part of research in public administration focuses on the impact of ethnic diversity on outcomes such as performance and turnover, and on the management of diversity with regard to different employee groups. Recent research, however, shows the relevance of relational demography in the context of employee inclusion in public organizations. So...

There is no doubt that attribution theories have made their mark in social psychology and other related disciplines, but their application and extension to the field of HR is in its infancy. Indeed, HR scholars have recently realized that understanding the process by which individuals explain the causes of behaviors and events provides insight into...

A growing number of studies investigating the linkage between HRM and employee well-being largely supports a positive perspective on HRM (HRM positively affects employee well-being). There is only a limited body of empirical evidence that supports a critical perspective (HRM negatively affects well-being), or combines both perspectives. The present...

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived tr...

Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused...

There is an increasing interest from scholars and practitioners in understanding how non-profit organizations can design and implement human resources (HR) practices to enhance desirable volunteer attitudes and behaviors. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of existing studies on the relationship between HR practices and volunteering outco...

Researchers have recently investigated employees’ participation in Corporate Volunteering Programs as one way for employees to engage in their employer’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. Corporate Volunteering Programs encourage employees to dedicate time and effort on a voluntary basis to a “good cause”, whereby the employer spons...

Purpose To date, most research has assumed an additive relationship between work-related predictors and engagement. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the refinement of engagement theory by exploring the extent to which two predictors – person-organization fit and organizational trust – interact to influence employees’ engagement, which...

Purpose – Due to increasing cost pressures, and the necessity to ensure high quality patient care while maintaining a safe environment for patients and staff, interest in the capacity for HRM practices to make a difference has piqued the attention of healthcare professionals. The purpose of this papers is to present and test a model whereby engagem...

Although the literature on human resource management (HRM) has provided compelling evidence that certain HRM practices can help employees attain the competence and confidence to carry out their role, less is known about the potential impact of HRM practices on volunteers in the context of non-profit organisations. This study addresses this gap by p...

A sizeable portion of the working population perceives that they are overqualified for their jobs. This is problematic, given that research consistently shows that such beliefs translate into lower levels of job satisfaction. Hence, it behoves human resource management (HRM) scholars to identify factors that influence perceptions of overqualificati...

Drawing upon interview data from three case study organizations, we examine the role of middle managers in UK public service reform. Using theory fragments from organizational ecology and role theory, we develop three role archetypes that middle managers might be enacting. We find that rather than wholesale enactment of a ‘change agent’ role, middl...

The traditional organizational career has been depicted as the classic example of how employers and employees can develop a mutually beneficial relationship; but changes in the competitive landscape and in individual work values have challenged its viability. Commentators have argued that a 'new career' deal, encapsulated by the notions of the prot...

The claim that high levels of engagement can enhance organizational performance and individual well-being has not previously been tested through a systematic review of the evidence. To bring coherence to the diffuse body of literature on engagement, the authors conducted a systematic synthesis of narrative evidence involving 214 studies focused on...

Engagement is a positive psychological state that is linked with a range of beneficial individual and organizational outcomes. However, the factors associated with volunteer engagement have rarely been examined. Data from 1064 volunteers of a wildlife charity in the United Kingdom revealed that both task- and emotion-oriented organizational support...

Abstract Background Recent studies have suggested engagement is linked with beneficial outcomes for individuals and organisations. Despite growing demand for resources and advice on engagement within the NHS, there has been no systematic evaluation of how engagement strategies can be developed and operationalised within the NHS. Objectives and rese...

This article sheds new light on an understudied construct in mainstream management theory, namely, work alienation. This is an important area of study because previous research indicates that work alienation is associated with important individual and organizational outcomes. We tested four antecedents of work alienation: decision-making autonomy,...

This article explores the ways in which employees may experience and respond to tensions inherent in the mix of potentially conflicting human resource (HR) practices that compose hybrid models of employment relations. By drawing on the job demands–resources (JD-R) literature and viewing HR practices as “demands” and “resources,” we explore the impa...

Although some research suggests that perceptions of HRM practices are associated with lower levels of employee well-being, other research shows just the opposite. In the present study, we attempt to reconcile these discrepant findings by incorporating the role of HRM attributions. Our model posits that when employees perceive that their organisatio...

The present study examined the moderating role of job resources, namely, organizational trust, the quality of employees’ relationship with their manager, and the motivating potential of jobs, on the negative relationship between work engagement and voluntary absence. Employee survey results and absence records collected from the Human Resources dep...

The present study examined the commonly held assumption that a low level of work engagement leads to higher turnover intentions and employee deviant behavior. Employee survey results (n = 175) from a manufacturing organization in the United Kingdom showed that employee work engagement correlates negatively with lagged measures of turnover intention...

Employee retention in long term care: The link between HR practices, climate and employee outcomes Submission to the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management August 1-5, 2014 Philadelphia, PA #10769 2 Employee retention in long term care: The link between HR practices, climate and employee outcomes ABSTRACT This study investigated the media...

We develop and test a model of the relationship between perceptions of human resource management (HRM) practices and outcomes that are important to public-sector healthcare organisations. Using questionnaire data from the National Health Service Staff Survey in the United Kingdom (n=69,018), the data show that four contextually relevant HRM practic...

The present study contributes to the overqualification literature by developing and testing a model that explains the perpetuity of overqualification. Our theoretical framework posits that overqualification has scarring effects, such that it is a relatively permanent feature of an individual’s career. The framework also proposes that age and gender...

This study presents a framework for understanding the processes through which volunteers’ perception of relational job design influences their turnover intentions and time spent volunteering. Data sourced from an international aid and development agency in the United Kingdom (n = 534 volunteers) show that volunteers who perceive that their roles ar...

Under successive regimes since the early 1980s, UK governments have called upon line managers to play a pivotal role in the development and enactment of public service reform. However, there is little empirical evidence from line managers themselves showing how the tensions and complexities inherent within modern public service reform agendas are e...

Employee engagement is an important part of the organisational mission of the NHS. It has been positioned as: “a key ingredient in helping the NHS meet the range of current challenges that it faces. Effective staff engagement will be essential to help meet the financial challenges and improve productivity…The importance of staff engagement is recog...

As the substantial volume of material within both the academic and practitioner literature has demonstrated, engagement is a topic of considerable importance to organisations and individuals because it has the potential to benefit both employees (in terms of improving wellbeing and morale) and employers (in terms of increased performance and innova...

This article examines the role played by line managers in the link between HRM practices and individual performance outcomes. Drawing on social exchange theory, the authors test a mediated model linking perceived line manager behavior and perceived human resource management practices with employee engagement and individual performance. The study fo...

Research on the relationship between perceived overqualification and individual performance has examined individual experiences of overqualification in isolation. The present study approaches this relationship in a new light by examining a condition under which perceptions of overqualification lead to higher versus lower performance levels. This co...

The current research applied Trait Activation Theory and Social Exchange Theory to explain curvilinear relationships between employee Core Self Evaluations (CSE) and supervisory ratings of performance, and their moderation by the interaction of supervisors’ CSE and employee perceptions of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). Results of multi-level analysi...

A moderated mediation model was developed to explain the variation in the amount of time volunteers dedicate to their chosen voluntary cause. Data from 534 volunteers of an international aid and development agency in the United Kingdom revealed a positive relationship between prosocial values and time spent volunteering. The results also show that...

The present study examined a potential mediator of the job design–performance relationship, namely employee engagement. Data were obtained via a survey of 283 employees in a consultancy and construction firm based in the UK and from supervisors' independent performance evaluations. The results reveal that employees who hold jobs that offer high lev...

Secretarial work has been described as one of the most persistently gendered of all occupations. Historically, it has been characterized as a ghetto occupation with three key features: low status and poor pay, narrow and feminized job content and poor promotion prospects. Twenty years ago, when a major study last took place in the UK, it was though...

We theorized that absence from work is a resource-based process that is related to perceived meaningfulness of work, well-being, and engagement. Broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) and engagement theory (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, & Taris, 2008; Kahn, 1990) were used to develop a framework for explaining absence. Results of a study o...

This paper considers the relationship between employee voice and employee engagement. Employee perceptions of voice behaviour aimed at improving the functioning of the work group are found to have both a direct impact and an indirect impact on levels of employee engagement. Analysis of data from two organisations confirms that the direct connection...

The development of mainstream human resource management (HRM) theory has long been concerned with how people management can enhance performance outcomes. It is only very recently that interest has been shown in the parallel stream of research on the link between employee engagement and performance, bringing the two together to suggest that engageme...

The present study examines the interaction between perceived HRM practices and trust in the employer on employee performance and well-being. Specifically, the study tests whether trust in the employer moderates the relationships between perceptions of HRM practices and task performance (as rated by employees’ supervisors), organisational citizenshi...

Effective measure of employee engagement is relevant to human resource development (HRD) theory and practice. We build on Kahn's (199036. Kahn , W.A. 1990. Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33: 692–724. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references, Psychological condition...

This paper responds to calls for research that takes into consideration the broader ideologies underpinning the employment relationship within capitalist societies by building and testing a model of work alienation. We examine how three work-related factors identified originally by Karl Marx act as precursors of alienation, that is, a disconnection...

The purpose of this article is to shed light on an understudied topic in public administration, namely, commitment to organizational change. Specifically, this study examines the extent to which the quality of the relationship between employees and their managers positively influences employees’ commitment to change. Further, it investigates whethe...

This study contributes to our understanding of the mediating and moderating processes through which human resource management (HRM) practices are linked with behavioural outcomes. We developed and tested a moderated mediation model linking perceived HRM practices to organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intentions. Drawing on social exc...

The development of mainstream human resource management (HRM) theory has long been concerned with how people management can enhance performance outcomes. It is only very recently that interest has been shown in the parallel stream of research on the link between employee engagement and performance, bringing the two together to suggest that engageme...

You may know the five principles for increasing employee engagement: Keep people informed, listen, set clear objectives, match the person with the job, and create meaningful work. Though these tactics provide a good foundation, firms should also tailor engagement programs to reach different types of workers. After studying eight companies with a to...

Prior studies have suggested that one of the main roles of a strategic human resources department is the management of change. Whilst there have been a considerable number of prescriptive recommendations about how human resources departments should go about this, there has been little empirical research that explores exactly the kinds of roles that...