PurposeReliance on third-party judgments are common in efforts to identify and reduce workplace sexual harassment (SH). The purpose of this paper is to identify whether a workplace emphasis on inclusion as a cultural value is related to third-party labeling of and response to an exchange between a male manager and his female subordinate.Design/methodology/approachParticipants (n=308) in an online survey experiment were randomly assigned to a workplace that emphasized inclusion or one that emphasized individual achievement as a cultural value. They read a vignette describing a workplace interaction between a male manager and his female subordinate and responded to a series of questions.FindingsOrganizational emphasis on inclusion is unrelated to third-party labeling of the interaction as SH, but positively associated with labeling the female’s intention to pursue harassment charges as an overreaction, and support for the female subordinate in a claim of SH against her manager. Culture is unassociated with willingness to defend the male manager in a SH claim.Practical implicationsIdentifying how workplace culture shapes third-party reaction to harassment can help employers use third-party witnesses and cultural value statements as tools to reduce SH.Social implicationsA workplace’s cultural emphasis on inclusion is positively related to third-party support for SH victims implying the importance of workplace context in the fight against workplace SH.Originality/valueThe paper presents the first experimental analysis of how a workplace cultural emphasis on inclusion affects the third-party observers’ reactions to SH.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the antecedents of organizational identification. Specifically, this paper aims to integrate two perspectives developed within the social identity domain, labeled “cognitive” and “relational,” by comparing and reconciling their relationship organizational identification.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a survey method and a structured questionnaire to collect data from people working in a call center. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 743 employees by using structural equation models and Hayes’ (2017) bootstrapping procedure.FindingsThe results provide evidence for a mediational model in which the attractiveness of organizational images (cognitive representations) mediates the relationship between perceived justice (relational judgments) and organizational identification.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were obtained from a single source in a cross-sectional design, which may inflate common method variance. To address threats to validity, the authors employed several procedures, the results of which revealed that no parameters corresponding to the hypotheses changed in sign or significance, thus suggesting that the presence of method bias, if any, was nonconsequential.Practical implicationsNot only does perceived justice relate to the sense of belonging to an organization, but it also contributes to shaping the long-term cognitive representations of the company. In particular, both HR and line managers should be aware that in this respect, the interactional dimension of justice shows the strongest effect.Originality/valueBuilding on and enlarging the scope of the extant literature, the findings contribute to our knowledge of how relational judgments shape cognitive images about the company, influencing, in turn, the individual–organization relationship.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between mindfulness and work engagement, with a particular focus on exploring the extent to which four facets of mindfulness, i.e. “attention”, “awareness”, “present focus” and “acceptance” impact on work engagement.Design/methodology/approachExploratory factor and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesised relationships among a sample of 130 employees.FindingsThe findings show that mindfulness as a single construct is positively related to work engagement. The analysis from the facet level of mindfulness illustrates that each of four facets is also significantly related to work engagement. In particular, employees with refined attentional skills and accepting the present moment reality were found to contribute more to work engagement.Practical implicationsOrganisational programs that focus on building personal resources could use the meditation-based mindfulness programs to help individuals widen attention span as well as to develop non-judgemental attitude.Originality/valueFocussing on developing mindful employees and promoting mindfulness practices at workplace, especially, by working on specific strategies, to expand “attentional skills” and the “attitude of accepting the present moment reality” may be another promising strategy to enhance work engagement.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to research the impact of one of HRM activities, employees’ development, on the level of organizational innovative performances. HR development techniques that organizations use in order to develop employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities and their impact on the perceived level of organizational innovativeness was set in the focus of research, with the intent of determining which development techniques influence organizational innovative performance.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on the data from CRANET project, which has been largely used in exploring the relation between HRM activities and other variables of organizational behavior and performances. Data for this study were collected from a sample of 1,384 organizations from 8 CEE countries (Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia) for the period 2015–2016. The correlation was used to explore the relations between variables. Ordinal logistic regression was used in order to explore the relations between the employees’ development techniques, training importance and training effectiveness and the level of organizational innovativeness.FindingsThe regression model showed that there are a statistically significant relations between the effectiveness of training expressed by systematic evaluation of training practice, and the methods of employees’ training (use of projects to stimulate learning, on-the-job training, development centers, use of international work assignments and mentoring) with the level of innovation. The importance of training practice expressed by the ratio of the annual training budget in the total payroll costs did not show statistically significant relations with the level of innovation. Also, systematic estimation of the need for training of personnel has not shown statistically significant relations with the innovation rate of the organization.Research limitations/implicationsThe data are derived from single source respondents, and response rates between countries do vary. At the country level, every effort is made to represent the structure of the economy in the country and at the point in which the data are being collected.Practical implicationsTraining and international working assignments have a direct positive relation with the level of organizational performances, while teamwork and coaching and mentoring have not shown the same. Organizations and their HR managers should pay special attention to planning and implementation of HR development programs – coaching, mentoring and teamwork – in order to create space for organizational innovation enhancement.Originality/valuePrevious literature seeking to clarify the role of HRM and fostering organizational innovation has made its evident contribution based on theoretical papers. In order to improve the current situation in which empirical evidence is very rare, research on the significance of the employee development program and its impact on the organizational innovative performances is based on quantitative indicators of the conducted research. The relation of HRM and innovative performances in the CEE region was studied in only a few studies. In the previous period, this region has often been omitted in the field of HRM research. Therefore, an additional novelty can be derived from a research sample compiled from the CEE region countries in the conducted research.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on the Greek banking sector and examine the indirect effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on service quality. Specifically, this study examines the effects of employees’ perceptions of HPWS on their trust toward their managers, as well as on service quality, through the mediating role of employee outcomes (measured by job satisfaction and affective commitment). In addition, trust is also tested for its role as a potential mediator and moderator in the relationship between HPWS and employee outcomes.Design/methodology/approachPartial least squares structural equation modeling was used on a sample of 350 front-line employees working in the Greek banking sector.FindingsThe findings showed that employee outcomes mediated the relationship between HPWS and service quality. On the other hand, although trust mediated the relationship between HPWS and employee outcomes, no support was found for its moderating effect. Finally, although not included in the initial analysis, trust was found to play a mediating and moderating role in the relationship between HPWS and service quality.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the vital role that a “trusting” work environment has to play on employee attitudes and outcomes. As this study shows, the positive employee behaviors along with their willingness to accept and support organizational goals influence their level of productivity.Originality/valueThis study sheds lights on the mediating and moderating role of trust in the relationship between HPWS, employee outcomes, and service quality. Finally, implications are drawn for organizations, managers, and practitioners.

PurposeTo transcend the long-standing debate regarding whether workers are driven into the informal economy by either their involuntary “exclusion” or voluntary “exit” from the formal economy, the purpose of this paper is to propose and evaluate the existence of a dual informal labour market composed of an exit-driven “upper tier” and an exclusion-driven “lower-tier” of informal workers, and to explore its policy implications.Design/methodology/approachTo do so, data are reported from a 2015 survey of the informal economy conducted in South-East Europe involving 6,019 face-to-face interviews in Bulgaria, Croatia and FYR Macedonia.FindingsIdentifying a dual informal labour market with three exit-driven informal workers for every exclusion-driven informal worker, a multinomial logit regression analysis reveals that, compared to the exclusion-driven “lower tier”, the exit-driven “upper tier” is significantly more likely to be populated by the formally employed, retired and those not struggling financially. Participation is not affected by the perceived severity of penalties and likely risks of detection, but relative to those in the exclusion-driven “lower tier”, there is a significant correlation between those doing so for exit rationales and their lack of both horizontal trust and vertical trust in formal institutions.Practical implicationsThe outcome is a call to transcend the conventional deterrence approach of increasing the penalties and risks of detection. Instead, to tackle those driven by exit rationales, tackling both the lack of horizontal trust that other citizens are operating in a compliant manner and the lack of vertical trust in formal institutions is advocated. To tackle exclusion-driven informal workers, meanwhile, a focus upon the macro-level economic and social conditions which lead to their participation is required.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to empirically evaluate the existence of a dual informal labour market and to evaluate its policy implications.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present the actors, institutions and changing rules of the French system of industrial relations (IR). It questions whether the traditional view of the French model as “state-centric” is still adequate.Design/methodology/approachBased on institutionalist IR theories of social regulation and neocorporatism, the paper analyses the evolution of the French IR system from a “State-centric” model to the development of collective bargaining, both at the sector and company level, as well as of tripartite concertation.FindingsInitially based on adversarial relations between trade unions and employers, compensated by strong state interventionism, the French IR system has experienced a series of reforms, adopted under the pressure of the unions in the 1980s and mostly under the pressure of the employers’ organisations since the turn of the century. These reforms boosted collective bargaining at the workplace level and tripartite concertation at the peak level. The paper analyses the limits of both developments and explains why a reversal of the hierarchy of norms was imposed in 2016 by law without prior concertation.Originality/valueThe paper presents an original explanation of the change of the initial French IR model, stressing the importance of power relations and the role of IR experts in the different reform moments.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reveal the formation and development of Slovenia’s neo-corporatist industrial relations system in the 1990s, and its change which overlaps with Slovenia’s accession to the EU and the eurozone.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is based on the presumption that the transitional processes engaged in by the societies of “real socialism” were merely part of a larger and deeper transition – the great recommodification of the post-war decommodified societies of European democratic capitalism.FindingsAlready by the mid-1990s, the Slovenian industrial relations system contained all key features of the neo-corporatist regimes emerging after the Second World War in the European systems of democratic capitalism. Like those systems, in the 1990s Slovenia also saw a system being formed of political exchanges based on wage restraint policy. The combination of this wage policy and appropriate national monetary policy facilitated the Slovenian economy’s competitiveness and above-average growth. Slovenia was a success story.Originality/valueThe Slovenian system started to change in the middle of the last decade. The trigger of this change was Slovenia’s entry to the eurozone. Since then, Slovenian neo-corporatism has been subject to systematic deregulation. Despite this, the analysis suggests the Slovenian industrial relations system still contains a coordinating mechanism that distinguishes it from other “post-communist”, and, generally speaking, liberal market economies.

PurposeThe mismatch between desired and actual hours of work per week is common among the employed in many countries and has important effects on the adequate functioning of labour markets. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the likelihood of being underemployed, matched or overemployed in terms of hours worked for workers without and with disabilities in Germany by using longitudinal data.Design/methodology/approachData are taken from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1985-2013) for a large sample of salaried workers aged 16-64. The authors have used a “Random-effects ordered probit model” to estimate the impact of being disabled on the likelihood of suffering any type of working time mismatch. Additionally, the authors have estimated a “Tobit Random-effects model” on the number of hours of underemployment and overemployment.FindingsFemales with disabilities are more likely to be overemployed than females without disabilities. In addition, only females with disabilities experience a lower number of hours of underemployment than females without disabilities. As for overemployment, both males and females with disabilities are more likely to report a higher number of hours of overemployment as compared to their non-disabled counterparts.Originality/valueThis paper therefore shows the importance of combating and reducing the hours of overemployment for all workers in general and for males and females with disabilities in particular. A large longitudinal data set has been used in the paper and it is the first attempt to estimate the determinants of being underemployed, matched and overemployed for workers without and with disabilities.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between organizational commitment (OC) and extrinsic, intrinsic, and social rewards, among employees who work for Japanese manufacturing companies in China.Design/methodology/approachHierarchical regression analysis was utilized to examine survey data obtained from 27,854 employees, who work for 64 Japanese manufacturing companies in China.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that the variables measuring extrinsic, social, and intrinsic rewards were strongly related to OC, suggesting that the antecedents of OC in Japanese companies are different from those in other kinds of corporations in China and the West. A further comparison between university graduates and other employees showed that for graduates, extrinsic and intrinsic rewards had a stronger influence on OC than social rewards, compared to non-graduates.Research limitations/implicationsThis study used self-report data from individual respondents, which may have resulted in common method bias. Future research might consider including supervisor-rated scales to strengthen the study design and reduce common method bias.Practical implicationsAs Japanese companies in China have both Western and Chinese characteristics, they often utilize balanced human resources management (HRM) practices. To enhance their employees’ OC, especially those with less formal education, it is most effective to focus not only on some particular rewards but also on more varieties of rewards. However, balanced HRM may not be equally effective for enhancing the OC of university graduates, who prefer to obtain more extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and fewer social rewards. As Japanese companies are sometimes said to be less attractive workplaces, especially for university graduates, the results of this study could help HR professionals revise their HRM strategies and employ workers who can contribute to their Chinese branches on a long-term basis.Originality/valueThis research investigates how employees of Japanese companies in China could have higher OC, by focusing on the difference between university graduates and non-graduates and utilizing a large volume of their opinion data.