ror.org/04shepe48
Résumés
Summary
An organization expects its employees to comply with job standardization to improve its production efficiency, while also expecting them to make suggestions to improve their job performance. Are the two goals compatible? Does job standardization turn employees into active speakers or stifled ones? This study is about how and why job standardization influences employee voice. I use conservation of resources (COR) theory to articulate competing hypotheses and a mediating process for the individual mechanism of employees’ role orientation in their job. In a three-wave panel survey, 232 employees completed questionnaires. The results indicate that job standardization reduces employee voice by narrowing the employee’s role orientation, in line with the resource conservation argument of COR theory. The results further suggest that job standardization is resource-depleting and causes the employee to focus on resource conservation to fulfill job requirements. The employee is less likely to consume resources and thus less likely to voice ideas and suggestions.
This study shifts our understanding of employee voice from individual, interpersonal and organizational antecedents to the neglected antecedent of job characteristics. Given that the effects of job characteristics have often been explained in terms of the job itself, i.e., job characteristics theory, this study provides an alternative explanation in terms of the worker, i.e., resource theory. Organizations standardize jobs in order to improve production; in doing so, however, they create a dilemma: job standardization makes production more difficult to improve because the employees are less likely to voice their concerns. This study provides a specific, job-related way for managers to keep employee voice from being stifled or ignored. I propose that job standardization should consider the relative importance of employee voice and be classified as either discipline-related or job-content-related.
Abstract
An organization expects its employees to comply with job standardization to improve its production efficiency, while also expecting them to make suggestions to improve their job performance. Are the two goals compatible? Does job standardization turn employees into active speakers or stifled ones? This study is about how and why job standardization influences employee voice. I use conservation of resources (COR) theory to articulate competing hypotheses and a mediating process for the individual mechanism of employees’ role orientation in their job. In a three-wave panel survey, 232 employees completed questionnaires. The results are consistent with the resource conservation argument of COR theory: job standardization is resource-depleting and tends to narrow the role orientation of employees, who thus focus on resource conservation to fulfill job requirements and are in turn less likely to consume resources and voice suggestions. This study provides a specific, job-related way for managers to keep employee voice from being stifled or ignored. Job standardization should consider the relative importance of employee voice and be classified as discipline-related or job-content-related.
Keywords:
- job standardization,
- employee voice,
- role orientation,
- conservation of resources
Résumé
Les organisations comptent sur le respect des tâches standardisées pour obtenir des résultats efficaces et sur l'expression par les employés de suggestions ou d'informations différentes pour améliorer les procédures et les performances. La normalisation des emplois fait-elle des employés des locuteurs actifs ou des locuteurs étouffés ? Cette étude examine comment et pourquoi la normalisation des emplois influence l'expression des employés. Cette étude utilise la théorie de la conservation des ressources (COR) pour formuler des hypothèses concurrentes et un processus de médiation pour le mécanisme individuel d'orientation du rôle des employés dans leur travail. Dans le cadre d'une enquête par panel en trois vagues, 232 employés ont répondu à des questionnaires. Les résultats indiquent que la standardisation des emplois est liée négativement à l’expression des employés par le biais d'une orientation des rôles plus étroite, ce qui est conforme à l'argument de la conservation des ressources de la théorie COR. Les résultats suggèrent que la normalisation des emplois épuise les ressources et que les employés qui y sont soumis ont tendance à avoir une vision de rôle plus étroite, qui se concentre sur la conservation des ressources pour répondre aux exigences du travail. Ils seront ainsi moins susceptibles de consommer des ressources pour exprimer des idées et des suggestions.
Parties annexes
References
- Acar, O. A., Tarakci, M., & van Knippenberg, D. (2019). Creativity and innovation under constraints: A cross-disciplinary integrative review. Journal of Management, 45, 96-121.10.1177/0149206318805832 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Agarwal, S., & Ramaswami, S. N. (1993). Affective organizational commitment of salespeople: an expanded model. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 13, 49-70.Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Agarwal, U. A., & Gupta, V. (2018). Relationships between job characteristics, work engagement, conscientiousness and managers’ turnover intentions. Personnel Review, 47, 353-377.10.1108/PR-09-2016-0229 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Alfes, K., Shantz, A., Truss, C., & Soane, E. (2013). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24. 330-351. 10.1080/09585192.2012.679950 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Anseel, F., & Filip, L. (2007). The relationship between uncertainty and desire for feedback: A test of competing hypotheses. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 1007-1040.10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00197.x Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Atouba, Y. C., Carlson, E. J., & Lammers, J. (2019). Directives and Dialogue: Examining the Relationship between Participative Organizational Communication Practices and Organizational Identification among IT Workers. International Journal of Business Communication, 56, 530-559.10.1177/2329488416672430 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Balducci, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Fraccaroli, F. (2011). The job demands–resources model and counterproductive work behaviour: The role of job-related affect. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 20, 467-496.10.1080/13594321003669061 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.10.1037//1089-2680.5.4.323 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Bell, R. A., Roloff, M. E., Camp, K. V., & Karol, S. H. (1990). Is it lonely at the top? Career success and personal relationships, Journal of Communication, 40, 9-33.10.1111/j.1460-2466.1990.tb02247.x Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Bennett, T. (2011). Employee voice initiatives in the public sector: views from the workplace. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 24, 444-455. 10.1108/09513551011058475 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Beyea, S. (2002). Wake‐up call - standardization is crucial to eliminating medication errors. Aron Journal, 75, 1010-1013.10.1016/S0001-2092(06)61466-X Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Bledow, R., & Frese, M. (2009). A situational judgment test of personal initiative and its relationship to performance. Personnel Psychology, 62, 229-258.10.1111/j.1744-6570.2009.01137.x Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Bolino, M. C., Turnley, W. H., & Niehoff, B. P. (2004). The other side of the story: Reexamining prevailing assumptions about organizational citizenship behaviour. Human Resource Management Review, 14, 229-246.10.1016/j.hrmr.2004.05.004 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural Equations with Latent Variables, John Wiley, New York.10.1002/9781118619179 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Brotheridge, C. M., & Lee, R. T. (2002). Testing a conservation of resources model of the dynamics of emotional labour. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7, 57-67.10.1037/1076-8998.7.1.57 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Cai, Z., Huo, Y., Lan, J., Chen, Z., & Lam, W. (2019). When do frontline hospitality employees take charge? Prosocial motivation, taking charge, and job performance: The moderating role of job autonomy. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 60, 237-248.10.1177/1938965518797081 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Chen, L. C., Niu, H. J., Wang, Y. D., Yang, C., & Tsaur, S. H. (2009). Does job standardization increase organizational citizenship behaviour? Public Personnel Management, 38, 39-49.10.1177/009102600903800303 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Chiang, C. F., & Wu, K. P. (2014). The influences of internal service quality and job standardization on job satisfaction with supports as mediators: flight attendants at branch workplace. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25, 2644-2666. 10.1080/09585192.2014.884616 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Choi, J. N., Anderson, T. A., & Veillette, A. (2009). Contextual inhibitors of employee creativity in organizations: The insulating role of creative ability. Group and organization, 34, 330-357.10.1177/1059601108329811 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Choi, Y., & Chung, Il. H. (2016). Voice effects of public sector unions on turnover. Public Personnel Management, 45, 213-233. 10.1177/0091026016645063 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar
- Cohen, C. (1995). Striving for seamlessness: Procedures manuals as a tool for organizational control. Personnel Review, 24, 50-58. 10.1108/00483489510091774 Google Scholar Rechercher cette référence bibliographique sur Google Scholar