Management and Marketing - Research Publications

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    Employee responses to 'high performance work system' practices: an empirical test of the disciplined worker thesis
    Harley, B ; Sargent, L ; Allen, B (SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2010-12)
    This article considers the possibility that ‘high performance work system’ (HPWS) practices generate positive outcomes for employees by meeting their interests (specifically their interest in an orderly and predictable working environment). Utilising survey data on employees working in the Australian aged-care industry, statistical analysis is used to test the mediating effect of order and predictability on associations between HPWS practices and employee experience of work. The results suggest that positive outcomes arise in part because HPWS practices contribute to workplace order and predictability. In explaining this finding, the article highlights the importance of contextual factors, notably industry and employee characteristics, in shaping outcomes. The article concludes that socio-logically oriented analyses which apprehend the importance of employee interests provide a useful supplement to conventional psychologically oriented accounts of HPWS and provide a basis for continued development of labour process theory.
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    Enhancing the experience of student teams in large classes: Training teaching assistants to be coaches
    SARGENT, LD ; ALLEN, B ; FRAHM, J ; Morris, (Sage, 2009)
    To address the increasing demand for mass undergraduate management education and, at the same time, a greater emphasis on student teamwork, this study outlines the development, delivery, and evaluation of a training intervention designed to build team-coaching skills in teaching assistants. Specifically, practice-centered and problem-centered techniques were used to provide teaching assistants with experiential learning opportunities to help them develop their skills. The authors evaluated the training intervention using a mixed-method multiple-data source design. Both the teaching assistants being trained as well as the student teams' experiences and perceptions of their coaches' performance were assessed. The evaluation showed that teaching assistants reported finding the program a positive experience. Importantly, students with trained coaches reported higher levels of coaching performance, team functioning, and productivity than those with untrained coaches. The implications of this intervention are discussed. © 2009 Organizational Behavior Teaching Society.
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    High performance work systems and employee experience of work in the service sector: The case of aged care
    Harley, B ; Allen, BC ; Sargent, LD (WILEY, 2007-09)
    Abstract In spite of the growing body of research on high performance work systems (HPWS), there is little evidence on their application in the service sector. It is commonly argued, however, that occupational segmentation in services is a barrier to HPWS. Analysis of data from aged‐care workers indicates that: HPWS have positive outcomes for workers; highly skilled nurses are no more likely than lowly skilled personal care workers to be subject to HPWS; and in some cases, HPWS are associated with more positive outcomes for low‐skilled than high‐skilled workers. These findings suggest that HPWS may well be widely applicable in service settings.