The dark side of people management: a systematic literature review

Roos Mulder*, Sandra de Kruijf*, Eva Knies, Julia Penning de Vries, Jasmijn van Harten, Maria Peeters and Toon Taris

Utrecht University School of Governance

Abstract of Paper for Study group 3 Public Personnel Policies

EGPA Annual Conference, 5-8 September 2023

In recent decades, public management and HRM scholars have increasingly focused on the role of line managers in the HRM-performance relationship (Boselie, van Harten & Veld, 2021). The rationale behind this is that well-designed HR practices may not have the intended results if line managers do not demonstrate supportive people management behavior (e.g., Woodrow & Guest, 2014; Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007). People management is a combination of 1) line managers’ implementation of HR practices, and 2) their leadership behavior in supporting employees (Knies, Leisink & van de Schoot, 2020). Research has shown that line managers’ people management behavior positively impacts employees’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors and, consequently, employee wellbeing and performance (Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007; Knies & Leisink, 2014). However, some studies found that people management may have a ‘dark side’. That is, well-intended people management can negatively affect employee wellbeing and performance. For example, van Harten (2016) found that in a Dutch hospital context, employees with a manager that supports them with, for instance their work-life balance (part of the second aspect of people management), were less open to change. In a similar vein, Jensen, Patel and Messersmith (2011) concluded that the implementation of high-performance work systems (HPWS) (part of the first aspect of people management) in combination with low job-control was associated with negative consequences such as anxiety and role overload. These examples raise the questions as to what extent have these unexpected negative outcomes of people management been found in other empirical studies and what theoretical explanations are given for these unexpected outcomes?

Considering the potential negative outcomes of people management, this paper contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, to date, the phenomenon of a ‘dark side’ of people management has not been systematically examined before. However, this is urgently needed to gain a more complete insight in the relationship between people management and outcomes. Currently, an overview is lacking of (1) what exactly the dark side of people management is (what conceptualizations are used), (2) how it can be explained (what theories, mediators and moderators are used for this), and (3) in which empirical context the dark side of people management has been found. Creating a systematic overview of the literature on this topic is important due to the diverse conceptualizations, theories, research contexts, and operationalizations used in existing literature (van de Voorde, Paauwe & van Veldhoven, 2011). This diversity complicates the cumulation of insights and nuance needed to study the dark side of people management. For instance, the dark side of people management can manifest in the private sector if over-investment occurs (Chi & Lin, 2011), whereas in the public sector this argument of monetary over-investment is not likely to be applicable due to budgetary constraints. Instead, the dark side of people management may be prominent here due to red tape (Knies, Boselie, Gould-Williams & Vandenabeele, 2015). Therefore, a systematic overview is important and needed to create a more complete understanding of the under-researched dark side of people management.

Second, this study builds on the review by van de Voorde et al. (2011) that demonstrated positive and negative linear relationships between HRM and outcomes. This study concluded that there is more evidence for positive relationships (mutual gains perspective) but also found evidence for negative associations (conflicting outcomes perspective). In our review we examine these linear relationships but go one step further by examining the existing literature for potential nonlinear relationships. Recently, some public management and HRM scholars (e.g., Molines, El Akremi, Storme, & Celik, 2022; Ho & Kuvaas, 2020) have questioned the monotonic positive or negative patterns in existing literature. Their critique has its foundation in the ‘too much of a good thing’ hypothesis meaning “ordinarily beneficial antecedents causing harm when taken too far” (Pierce & Aguinis, 2013, p. 314). This means that beneficial antecedents - i.e., people management - may reach an inflection point after which the positive effect diminishes or even becomes negative. There is some empirical evidence for this hypothesis. For example, Ho and Kuvaas (2020) found a curvilinear relationship between HRM practices and employee wellbeing. Moreover, Ionescu and Iliescu (2021) found a nonlinear effect of supervisors’ LMX on task performance. These findings suggest that the relationship between people management and outcomes is more complex that the linear relationships that have predominantly been studied thus far. Therefore, this study contributes to the existing literature by systematically analyzing the studies that empirically illustrate the nonlinear relationships between people management and outcomes.

Taken together, we present a systematic literature review of the dark side of the two components of people management (line managers’ implementation of HR practices and their leadership behavior in supporting employees). As people management is conceptualized in various ways (e.g., implemented HPWS, supervisor support), we specifically review the existing literature on both aspects. In doing so, the aim of this study is threefold. First, we summarize the existing findings on the ‘dark side’ of the aspects of people management. Second, we provide an overview of the different conceptualizations, theories used, and empirical contexts. Third, we map moderating and mediating mechanisms that were included in the studies. We also draw special attention to both linear and nonlinear relationships. Thereafter, we reflect on these findings and provide a research agenda.

Hence, we conduct a systematic literature review to analyze the existing literature in a transparent and structured manner. We follow a rigorous protocol to obtain data. We first select search terms that are relevant for this study. Examples of search terms are ‘people management’, ‘implemented HRM’ and ‘negative effect support’. Thereafter, we follow the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses’ (PRISMA) protocol. We carry out an online search to find eligible articles. The search output is screened using ASReview, an active learning tool for systematic literature reviews (van de Schoot et al., 2021). As research on the dark side of people management has not been reported systematically so far, studies that found negative effects by chance and/or explained it as a methodological limitation might be missed when using the above search terms. Therefore, we study and cross-reference previous meta-analyses and reviews which are considered as foundational research. On a last note, the elaboration of this paper will present the final research design and preliminary results of this study.

Introduction: Workers' health, safety, and well-being (WHSWB) can be seen as major issues to all individuals, all organizations, all societies, and even humanity as a whole. WHSWB is addressed in multiple research domains, making it an endeavor that requires interdisciplinary and integrative approaches (Cunningham & Black, 2021; Di Fan et al., 2020; Macik-Frey et al., 2007; Schulte et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2020). Under these circumstances, it is worth to scrutinize the extent to which WHSWB is considered and applied in the scholarly field of public administration and public management (PA). In fact, the situation appears as follows: First, there are no sections or interest groups within ASPA, IRSPM, or EGPA with a generic WHSWB focus. Second, EGPA's PSG III seems not to classify WHSWB as a core theme (Andersen et al., 2019). Third, journals such as the Review of Public Personnel Administration and Public Personnel Management make no mention of "health," "well-being," or "safety" in their descriptions. Finally, to our knowledge, there is no review article that addresses concrete WHSWB scholarship in PA literature. This situation is highly questionable, given that several PA scholars actively address WHSWB issues, particularly within PSG III. However, collectively many of these studies are so fragmented and disconnected that it can be easily claimed that the field lacks knowledge of its own or that PA literature as a whole fails to address the critical importance of healthy workplaces and WHSWB.

Objective: Our objective is to provide a holistic insight and overview of existing research on WHSWB in the PA literature for the first time. In doing so, we aim to create orientation, defragment and carefully frame our body of knowledge, identify gaps, and propose potential avenues to move forward. Guided by the PCC (population, concept, and context) mnemonic, our research question is: What does PA literature (context) on the health, safety, and well-being (concepts) of workers (population) look like?

Methods: We follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Manual for Evidence Synthesis for the development of scoping reviews (Peters et al., 2020) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) (Tricco et al., 2018). Covidence systematic review software is employed for the entire selection process. This review and a detailed review protocol are registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) database.

Inclusion criteria: We will explore 15 relevant PA journals and include studies with quantitative primary research designs that have a clear focus on WHSWB.

Results: Dependent on the data quantity and feasibility, we plan to present frequency tables and graphs showing publications over time, journals, authors, countries of origin, main concept foci, subconcepts studied, nomological network placements, study designs, and levels of analyses. Additionally, the feasibility of conducting bibliometric analysis using VOS Viewer software for this scoping review will be considered.

Discussion & conclusions: The results will help to provide orientation, defragment the field's knowledge, identify gaps, and propose implications, evidence gaps, and potential avenues to move forward. Thus, the main contribution of this work centers around a starting point to strengthen and institutionalize research on healthy workplaces and WHSWB in the field of PA, and finally, to serve practitioners and policymakers. Thereby, we intent to open the space for debate and, at best, spur intensification and participation in this critical area of interest.

References

Andersen, L. B., Leisink, P., & Vandenabeele, W. (2019). Public Personnel Policies and HRM: Developments Within the Field and in the (Long History) of the EGPA Study Group on Public Personnel Policy. In E. Ongaro (Ed.), Governance and Public Management. Public Administration in Europe (pp. 123–134). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92856-2_13

Cunningham, C. J. L., & Black, K. J. (2021). Essentials of occupational health psychology. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Di Fan, Zhu, C. J., Timming, A. R., Su, Y., Huang, X., & Lu, Y. (2020). Using the past to map out the future of occupational health and safety research: where do we go from here? The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(1), 90–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1657167

Macik-Frey, M., Quick, J. C., & Nelson, D. L. (2007). Advances in Occupational Health: From a Stressful Beginning to a Positive Future †. Journal of Management, 33(6), 809–840. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307307634

Peters, M. D. J., Godfrey, C., McInerney, P., Munn, Z., Tricco, A. C., & Khalil, H. (2020). Chapter 11: Scoping reviews. In E. Aromataris & Z. Munn (Eds.), JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. JBI. https://doi.org/10.46658/JBIMES-20-12

Schulte, P. A., Delclos, G. L., Felknor, S. A., Streit, J. M. K., McDaniel, M., Chosewood, L. C., Newman, L. S., Bhojani, F. A., Pana-Cryan, R., & Swanson, N. G. (2022). Expanding the Focus of Occupational Safety and Health: Lessons from a Series of Linked Scientific Meetings. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(22). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215381

Tricco, A. C., Lillie, E., Zarin, W., O'Brien, K. K., Colquhoun, H., Levac, D., Moher, D., Peters, M. D. J., Horsley, T., Weeks, L., Hempel, S., Akl, E. A., Chang, C., McGowan, J., Stewart, L., Hartling, L., Aldcroft, A., Wilson, M. G., Garritty, C., . . . Straus, S. E. (2018). Prisma Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR): Checklist and Explanation. Annals of Internal Medicine, 169(7), 467–473. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-0850

Wang, Y., Chen, H., Liu, B., Yang, M., & Long, Q. (2020). A Systematic Review on the Research Progress and Evolving Trends of Occupational Health and Safety Management: A Bibliometric Analysis of Mapping Knowledge Domains. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 81. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00081