High work pressure and burnout rates, combined with labor shortages and diminishing service quality, are prevalent issues within the public sector, including schools. People management, defined as the implementation of HR practices by line managers and their leadership behavior in supporting employees (Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007; Knies et al., 2020), is often presented as a possible solution to such issues. It has been shown to positively impact outcomes related to wellbeing and performance (Knies & Leisink, 2014; Peccei & Van De Voorde, 2019). However, research has also found negative effects (Jensen et al., 2013; Cheong et al., 2019). In particular, research has started to focus on the “too much of a good thing” (TMGT) hypothesis which posits that after reaching an inflection point, positive outcomes reduce or become negative (Pierce & Aguinis, 2013; Ho & Kuvaas, 2020; Molines et al., 2022). This study aims to get insight into the possible nonlinear effects people management in a public sector context, by answering the following research question: “To what extent is the relationship between people management, and teacher wellbeing and performance curvilinear?”.

Theoretically, we build on social exchange theory which states that when employers (i.e. team leaders) invest in their employees (i.e. teachers), employees will be inclined to reciprocate with desired behavior (Blau, 1964; Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). However, in the public sector, including the educational sector, it is often unclear how much reciprocation is expected (Rainey, 2009). This makes it more likely for teachers to under- or overestimate the effort required. When more people management is then provided by the supervisor, it could set too high a bar for reciprocation. This risks teachers to over-reciprocate to return the full investment, resulting in decreased wellbeing. On the other hand, teachers could have a lower expectation of the exchange relationship than their team leaders (Zhu et al., 2023), resulting in an unbalanced exchange relationship whereby team leaders’ efforts are not (fully) returned, making it unlikely for performance to increase (Tsui et al., 1997) if more people management is provided.

The data for this study were collected through a cross-sectional study conducted in Dutch secondary schools. The study uses data from two raters (in dyads): team leaders (N = 381) for items on people management, and teachers (N= 3,403) for items on wellbeing and performance. We will analyze the data using nonlinear regression analysis.

*references in uploaded abstract(file)

In this paper, we study the relationship between work-life balance (WLB) and affective commitment (AC) of employees in Dutch public sector organizations. Our question is to what extent the, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, increased opportunities to work from home influence WLB and AC of Dutch public sector employees and how these concepts are related.

The limited research available on the relationship between WLB and AC shows a positive relationship between WLB and AC (e.g., Kim, 2014; Omar, 2013; Anita et al., 2020). Remarkably, most of the research on this relationship has been conducted in non-Western countries, in private organizations, and before the COVID-19 pandemic. This raises the question whether this relationship looks the same in different contexts. This question is reinforced by the fact that the research by Yang & Islam (2021) that was conducted in the public sector context did not find a relationship between WLB and AC.

An analysis of our data shows a positive correlation between WLB and AC. However, when controlled for variables such as leader support, social support, and autonomy the relationship turned out to be negative. This finding calls for further analyses of the relationship between WLB and AC. In this paper, we will deepen the insights regarding the relationship between WLB and AC by including multiple influencing variables and by conducting our analyses in two different public sector work environments (Dutch local government organization and Dutch central government organization). Data were collected in 2023 via surveys, with 2590 employees participating in the local government survey and 865 employees participating in the central government survey.

We will study this relationship from the mutual gains and conflicting outcomes perspective (Marescaux et al., 2019). The mutual gains perspective (win-win) assumes that HRM practices lead to positive outcomes, both for the organization’s performance and the well-being of employees. In contrast, the conflicting outcomes perspective (win-lose) challenges this assumption and argues that HRM practices might increase performance, but at the expense of employee well-being. From this theoretical perspective, the question is whether the opportunity offered by organizations to work from home can create a win-win situation where both WLB and AC are positively affected or whether one comes at the expense of the other.

People management – encompassing line managers’ implementation of HR practices and their leadership behavior – has been linked to positive outcomes such as commitment (Knies & Leisink, 2014) and performance (Alfes et al., 2013). However, in emerging evidence it is suggested, yet not examined in-depth before, that people management may also have a ‘dark side’. That is, well-intended people management may have negative effects on employee wellbeing and public service performance (e.g. Jensen et al., 2013). These contrasting findings provide a worthy avenue for further study. Despite the inherent aim of people management to support employees and thereby implying that positive employee attitudes and behaviors are a result of effective people management (Townsend & Kellner, 2015), we explore the reasons and mechanisms behind these negative outcomes.

Specifically, we pay attention to the occurrence of the ‘too much of a good thing’ (TMGT) effect, which may play a role in why negative outcomes transpire (Pierce & Aguinis, 2013). The TMGT proposition states that an initial beneficial phenomenon – i.e. people management – can reach an inflection point after which the positive effect levels off or becomes negative. While some studies have found empirical support for this effect (e.g. Molines et al., 2022), qualitative research on TMGT remains scarce, leaving a gap in understanding why and how it occurs.

We study this phenomenon in the Dutch hospital sector, which is facing increasing pressure on line managers to manage teams effectively amidst resource constraints (Kellner et al., 2016; Ministerie van VWS, 2022). Hence, it is important that the investments in people management by line managers are effective and not ‘too much’ (Kellner et al., 2016; Hutchinson & Purcell, 2010). In addition, employees are in need of the sufficient level of supervisor support to deal with the increasing work pressure due to the personnel shortages (Broetje et al., 2016). As such, determining whether and why employees perceive people management as ‘enough’ or ‘too much’ is vital for this group to deliver sufficient quantity and high-quality care.

We gathered qualitative data through interviews with 19 line managers and 34 nurses, using the Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1953). In total, we analyzed 108 situations.

Our findings, currently being analyzed, aim to explore and expose potential mechanisms underlying the TMGT proposition. This research is crucial for ensuring the effectiveness of investments in people management and the delivery of high-quality care. Our results will be fully analyzed at the time of the conference. 

References

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