Ingo Angermeier’s research while affiliated with Columbus Regional Healthcare System and other places

Despite decades of theory and empirical research on employee burnout, its temporal and developmental aspects are still not fully understood. This lack of understanding is problematic because burnout is a dynamic phenomenon and burnout interventions may be improved by a greater understanding of who is likely to experience changes in burnout and when these changes occur. In this article, we advance existing burnout theory by articulating how the 3 burnout dimensions should differ in their pattern of change over time as a result of career transition type: organizational newcomers, internal job changers (e.g., promotions or lateral moves), and organizational insiders (i.e., job incumbents). We tested our model in a broad sample of 2,089 health care employees, with 5 measurement points over 2 years. Using random coefficient modeling, we found that burnout was relatively stable for organizational insiders but slightly dynamic for organizational newcomers and internal job changers. We also found that the dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were more sensitive to career transition type than reduced personal accomplishment. Finding some differences among different types of employees as well as the dimensions of burnout may begin to explain longstanding inconsistencies between theory and research regarding the dynamics of burnout, offering directions for future research that address both dynamism and stability.

Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has tended to focus on external stakeholders and outcomes, revealing little about internal effects that might also help explain CSR-firm performance linkages and the impact that corporate marketing strategies can have on internal stakeholders such as employees. The two studies (N=1,116 and N=2,422) presented in this article draw on theory from both corporate marketing and organizational behavior (OB) disciplines to test the general proposition that employee trust partially mediates the relationship between CSR and employee attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Both studies provide evidence in support of these general relationships. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of CSR and corporate marketing research. KeywordsCorporate marketing–Corporate social responsibility–Employee attitudes–Employee trust–Ethical corporate marketing–Organizational behavior

In an era when healthcare organizations are beset by intense competition, lawsuits, and increased administrative costs, it is essential that employees perform their jobs efficiently and without distraction. Deviant workplace behavior among healthcare employees is especially threatening to organizational effectiveness, and healthcare managers must understand the antecedents of such behavior to minimize its prevalence. Deviant employee behavior has been categorized into two major types, individual and organizational, according to the intended target of the behavior. Behavior directed at the individual includes such acts as harassment and aggression, whereas behavior directed at the organization includes such acts as theft, sabotage, and voluntary absenteeism, to name a few (Robinson and Bennett 1995). Drawing on theory from organizational behavior, we examined two important features of supportive leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX) and perceived organizational support (POS), and two important features of job design, intrinsic motivation and depersonalization, as predictors of subsequent deviant behavior in a sample of over 1,900 employees within a large US healthcare organization. Employees who reported weaker perceptions of LMX and greater perceptions of depersonalization were more likely to engage in deviant behavior directed at the individual, whereas employees who reported weaker perceptions of POS and intrinsic motivation were more likely to engage in deviant behavior directed at the organization. These findings give rise to specific prescriptions for healthcare managers to prevent or minimize the frequency of deviant behavior in the workplace.

Information security has become increasingly important to organizations. Despite the prevalence of technical security measures, individual employees remain the key link – and frequently the weakest link – in corporate defenses. When individuals choose to disregard security policies and procedures, the organization is at risk. How, then, can organizations motivate their employees to follow security guidelines? Using an organizational control lens, we build a model to explain individual information security precaution-taking behavior. Specific hypotheses are developed and tested using a field survey. We examine elements of control and introduce the concept of ‘mandatoriness,’ which we define as the degree to which individuals perceive that compliance with existing security policies and procedures is compulsory or expected by organizational management. We find that the acts of specifying policies and evaluating behaviors are effective in convincing individuals that security policies are mandatory. The perception of mandatoriness is effective in motivating individuals to take security precautions, thus if individuals believe that management watches, they will comply.European Journal of Information Systems (2009) 18, 151–164; doi:10.1057/ejis.2009.8; published online 31 March 2009

Numerous challenges confront managers in the healthcare industry, making it increasingly difficult for healthcare organizations to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. Contemporary management challenges in the industry have many different origins (e.g., economic, financial, clinical, and legal), but there is growing recognition that some of management's greatest problems have organizational roots. Thus, healthcare organizations must examine their personnel management strategies to ensure that they are optimized for fostering a highly committed and productive workforce. Drawing on a sample of 2,522 employees spread across 312 departments within a large U.S. healthcare organization, this article examines the impact of a participative management climate on four employee-level outcomes that represent some of the greatest challenges in the healthcare industry: customer service, medical errors, burnout, and turnover intentions. This study provides clear evidence that employee perceptions of the extent to which their work climate is participative rather than authoritarian have important implications for critical work attitudes and behavior. Specifically, employees in highly participative work climates provided 14 percent better customer service, committed 26 percent fewer clinical errors, demonstrated 79 percent lower burnout, and felt 61 percent lower likelihood of leaving the organization than employees in more authoritarian work climates. These findings suggest that participative management initiatives have a significant impact on the commitment and productivity of individual employees, likely improving the patient care and effectiveness of healthcare organizations as a whole.

This paper aims to define a theory of practice in successfully implementing management-communication practices in the service of organizational learning. A combination of research methods, both quantitative and qualitative, was used in gathering and analyzing data. Three principles in creating a supportive environment conducive to employee empowerment and participative decision making enable organizational learning. The study provides empirical findings in support of current theoretic knowledge in organizational learning and empowerment. The paper partly rectifies that little research has investigated the enabling structures and processes to manage the environment that surrounds and supports employee participative decision making and new learning to occur at the individual and collective level within a health care setting.

At the firm-level, research on the relationship between specific entrepreneurial strategies and performance measures has been mixed. New complementary research at the individual-level may clarify this. For example, recent research has shown that social dimensions of a work group (e.g. autonomy and teamwork) moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial strategies and job performance at the individual level (Monsen, 2005). In this paper we introduce organizational identity as a new moderating dimension. We apply the work of Gioia and Thomas (1996), who differentiate between normative (values-driven) and utilitarian (financially-driven) organizational identities. Our individual-level strategy-performance model draws on social identity theory and relates perceptions of a firm’s entrepreneurial strategy to job role identity, organizational identification, and individual job performance.

An organization's future is viable to the degree it can create, obtain, and leverage its intellectual capital in an effort to manage knowledge for sustained, competitive advantage in the market place. Failure to do so can spell disaster. Case in point: Due to a festering crisis between his strategic intent and the organization's operational capacity to support it, in May 2000, the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System (SRHS) board of directors voted for its chief executive officer (CEO) to resign. His resignation signaled the need for new learning, in addition to more effective management and communication practices in improving the identifying and codifying of knowledge and then facilitating the sharing of it organization-wide. This article focuses on delineating the process principles in managing a supportive environment necessary for the sharing of knowledge to spark creative thinking in devising innovative solutions that the hospital used in adapting to its market.Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2004) 2, 137–146. doi:10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500037 Published online 11 November 2004

The concept of a stakeholder is commonplace in a business context. Participative- democratic communication refers to those organization-wide principles and practices that "represent" many relevant stakeholders in the decision making of work-related activities. One case in point is as follows: In May 2000, the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System board of directors forced its CEO to resign, ending his 6-year tenure and the heated controversy of the previous 2 months. The former CEO focused primarily on strategic growth to the detriment of operations. Through participative-democratic practices, the interim CEO mended the damaged relations between the hospital administration, the community, and employee stakeholders in surfacing conflict to bolster operational efficiency. The current CEO attended to building stakeholder relationships and trust as a way to wed strategic growth and the organization's capacity to maintain it. Top executive managers and directly involved community political leaders helped in developing the participative-democratic communication principles set forth in this article. These core principles are (a) creating the space for new communicative interaction, (b) safeguarding a credible and open process, and (c) reclaiming suppressed views.