Management and Marketing - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableDoes Procedural Justice Increase the Inclusion of Migrants? A Group Engagement Model Perspective(Academy of Management, 2018-07-09)Workforces have become more culturally diverse due to globalization, skilled labor shortages, aging societies, and hardships in developing countries. One critical challenge associated with managing a culturally diverse workforce is ensuring inclusion. Migrant workers often experience discrimination, social exclusion, and lower organizational identification. Further attention is required to address these challenges and create inclusive workplaces for migrants. We integrate research on migrant workers with research on the group engagement model to create a model for understanding and enhancing migrant worker inclusion. We test our model using data drawn from employees in a large-scale survey of Australian workplaces. The results of our multilevel moderated mediation analysis indicate that, consistent with the group engagement model, a procedurally fair work environment tends to increase organizational identification, which in turn is associated with higher levels of work engagement. Importantly, our results also indicate that procedural justice climate is more important for migrant than for native workers. Our work has clear implications for practice. Organizations should establish a procedurally fair work environment in which cultural minorities experience consistent and unbiased policies and procedures, are able to express their opinions, and participate in decision-making.
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ItemBetween fit and flexibility? The benefits of high-performance work practices and leadership capability for innovation outcomes(Wiley, 2021-04-01)The idea that human resource management (HRM) plays a strategic role in generating sustainable competitive advantage for organisations or intermediate outcomes such as innovation is a central tenet in HRM theory and research. Yet, the explanation for this relationship remains unclear. We contribute to understanding how HRM plays a role by integrating insights drawn from HRM and strategic management. We explore how configurations of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) and leadership competence (LC) provide micro‐foundations for organisational capabilities associated with innovation. We also examine the moderating role of external environmental conditions. We find support for the proposition that HPWS and LC contribute to capabilities associated with innovation. Importantly, in stable environments, the formation of the capabilities required for innovation is more strongly associated with HPWS, whereas in more dynamic environments, LC plays a more pronounced role. These findings have implications for understanding the strategic role HRM plays and for management practice.
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ItemBringing the Leader Back in: Why, How, and When Leadership Empowerment Behavior Shapes Coworker Conflict(SAGE Publications, 2020)With the diffusion of team-based work organizations and flatter organizational hierarchies, many leaders empower employees to perform their work. Empowerment creates an interesting tension regarding coworker conflict, enhancing trust and giving employees more autonomy to prevent conflict, while also increasing workload and the potential for coworker conflict. Recent conflict research has focused on how characteristics of individuals, groups, and tasks contribute to conflict among coworkers. We extend this work by exploring the role of leader empowerment behavior (LEB) in influencing coworker conflict. Our model integrates research on LEB and coworker conflict to help organizations manage coworker conflict effectively. To test our model at the workplace level, we utilize data drawn from matched surveys of leaders and employees in 317 workplaces. We find that LEB relates negatively to relationship and task conflict through affective and cognitive trust in leaders. We further find that LEB relates negatively to relationship and task conflict through reduced workload, but only when employees have a clear role description. In contrast, if employees have unclear roles, LEB has a U-curve relationship with workload: a moderate level of LEB reduces workload, but a high level of LEB increases workload, in turn increasing coworker conflict. Finally, relationship conflict has a direct negative effect on task performance, whereas task conflict has an indirect negative effect through relationship conflict.
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ItemFrom Apples and Cases to Barrels and Orchards: Macro-Level Drivers of Workplace Abuse(Academy of Management, 2019-08-01)Workplace abuse, broadly defined as interpersonal mistreatment against employees in the workplace that might harm or injure them and contribute to a hostile work environment, is one of the most pervasive and harmful problems faced by organizations worldwide. In the current symposium, we focus attention on the macro-level drivers of workplace abuse that occur within organizations and in society more generally. At the societal level, we will have one paper about important global trends affecting today’s organizations. The paper investigates how, why, and for whom these macro forces have implications when it comes to workplace harassment. At the organizational level, we will have three papers, one dedicated to unpacking the multiple dimensions of organizational tolerance for abuse. Two more papers will focus on structural organizational features, namely the mechanisms of communication, and structural pay inequality that can impact perceptions of interpersonal abuse at work. We argue that a stronger focus on studying the “barrel” and “orchard”, rather than “apples” and “cases”, can enhance our understanding of social and structural factors that underpin everyday workplace interactions and help us identify new avenues of theorizing and practice to prevent interpersonal workplace abuse.
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ItemImproving Access and Inclusion in Employment for People with Disabilities: Implementation of Workplace Adjustments in ‘Best-Practice’ Organisations(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2019)The Centre for Workplace Leadership (CWL), in consultation with the Australian Network on Disability (AND) and with funding from the Hallmark Disability Research Initiative at the University of Melbourne, embarked on research to: disseminate information about best practice in implementing workplace adjustments; make a meaningful contribution to disability rights advocacy in the employment sphere; facilitate meaningful engagement between academic enquiry and business practice; and aid the pursuit of self-determination and full and equal participation in society by people with disabilities. To achieve these aims, we conducted interviews of managers and employees with disabilities in ‘best-practice’ organisations in Australia.
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ItemResearch Insights: Improving access and inclusion in employment for people with disabilities(The Centre for Workplace Leadership, 2017-04-01)The inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce is a social and economic imperative for Australia. However, barriers to employment and retention persist, as reflected in low workforce participation rates among people with disabilities. Key barriers to access and inclusion in the workplace include: (1) lack of access to education and training, (2) misconceptions and stigma, (3) non-inclusive workplace environments, and (4) discrimination. Some barriers may be addressed through various activities, including training and education programs for people with disabilities and for people without, the systematic provision of workplace adjustments, and the implementation of more inclusive organisational practices. The Centre for Workplace Leadership has established a research program to promote more inclusive workplaces for individuals with disabilities.
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ItemLeadership at Work: Do Australian leaders have what it takes?(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2016)Fuelled by the resources boom, the Australian economy has enjoyed an unprecedented 25 years of economic growth, more than doubling in real terms over that period. But, now, the Australian economy is slowing. Productivity is sluggish, employment growth is weakening, and consumer confidence is faltering. Many economists are now predicting an extended period of slow economic growth and recovery. Organisations need to adapt and adjust to this unfolding reality, improve productivity and reduce costs. However, this is just one of a number of critical challenges that Australia faces. Slower economic growth globally has intensified competitive pressures. The rate of technological change is accelerating and is having increasingly disruptive consequences. Automation is destroying jobs at a faster pace and is beginning to hollow out middle-skill jobs across sectors as diverse as manufacturing, professional services and financial services. Technological advances are leading to an unprecedented rate of innovation in products and services, creating new sources of competitive pressure – as well as enormous potential for future growth, profitability and cost reduction. Technology is spawning a new class of business models, which are disrupting established ways of working and doing business – from Uber in the taxi industry, AirBnB in accommodation services, and the emerging FinTech sector, to the spread of online training in education services and an array of service providers able to offshore increasingly complex work. At the same time, organisations have contended with a seismic shift in the competitive and regulatory environment - from competition policy and consumer protection, to the decentralisation of industrial relations and enterprise bargaining. These fundamental changes in the way organisations organise and compete will impact Australian workplaces of all shapes and sizes – small and large, private and public, for-profit and not-for-profit, and across industries. If Australia is to maintain national competitiveness and generate growth and jobs, organisations need to navigate through a phase of increased uncertainty and ambiguity, disruption and change. To survive, organisations need to innovate and adapt, and to develop new capabilities and new sources of growth. A critical question is whether Australian organisational leaders are ready to meet these new challenges. Or whether the extended period of economic growth driven by the resources boom has made Australian organisational leaders complacent and unprepared for the future? Have Australian organisations invested adequately in their leadership and management capabilities to navigate through these complex and uncertain times? If not, will these various changes have adverse and lasting effects on future growth and prosperity? These questions have informed the surveys developed for this study.
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ItemLeading from the Frontline: Developing Leader Identity and Leadership Self-Efficacy among Frontline Managers.(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2016)Frontline managers are responsible for the supervision of non-managerial employees and overseeing day-to-day operations in general. They are often directly involved in employee recruitment, training, and performance management and are critical to implementing practices and innovations that enhance productivity (Ahmed, Shields, White, & Wilbert, 2010; Brewer, 2005; Kraut, Pedigo, McKenna, & Dunnette, 1989; Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007; Risher, 2010). Frontline managers in the service industry are no exception, and should receive more attention as the service industry expands. We therefore designed a research study based in a large organisation in the food service industry. Through this study, we sought to understand what factors relate to the important concepts of leader identity and leadership self-efficacy at the frontline. We first provide some background on these concepts, as well as a number of potential determinants. We then describe the methodology of our study, followed by the findings and their implications.
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ItemWorkplace Gender Equality Strategy Project - Final Report(Centre for Workplace Leadership, University of Melbourne, 2015)Progress towards workplace gender equality is a national priority. For Australian organisations, closing the gender gap and maximising the potential of both male and female employees is crucial for increasing productivity and securing future growth. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s (WGEA’s; 2014) gender equality indicators have found that while 45% of Australian employers have policies on flexible work, and family and caring responsibilities, only about 13% have a strategy for implementing such policies. Over half of organisations have a standalone gender equality policy, but only 7% have a gender equality strategy. Women’s representation is low at management levels, with women comprising around 26% of the top three layers of the management hierarchy in Australian organisations with 100 or more employees. Pursuit of flexible work practices and promotion of gender equity needs to be implemented in a more strategic, integrated and sustainable way in order to have real effect at the workplace level.
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ItemDeveloping Leaders in Business Schools: A Case Report on First Year Student Leaders(Centre for Workplace Leadership, The University of Melbourne, 2016)Developing leadership capabilities in young people comes with the territory of being in a business school. The Faculty of Business and Economics at The University of Melbourne offers a First Year Leaders Forum on a voluntary basis to all students. Centre for Workplace Leadership researchers surveyed two groups of first year students – those who took part in the Forum, and those that chose not to. The survey was administered immediately before the Forum and repeated six months later. Testing for four leadership competencies and two leadership attributes, they established that the intervention in the form of the Forum, improved first year students motivation to lead. Further they found that those who joined student groups or associations, volunteered or had served internships demonstrated higher levels of motivation to lead. The study showed that even small interventions can develop leadership attributes and as a result increase the levels of motivation to lead.