Conference Agenda

In the field of HRM, a growing number of studies is questioning the dominant assumption that the relationship between HRM, leadership and various outcomes is linear, and building empirical evidence for the existence of nonlinear relationships between HRM and leadership on the one hand and performance and wellbeing outcomes on the other (Molines et al., 2022; Ho & Kuvaas, 2020). As such, there appears to be a shift to the idea that continuously increasing HRM and leadership, often referred to as people management (Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007; Knies et al., 2020), does not always lead to increasingly beneficial outcomes but rather could become negative after reaching an inflection point. Despite the growing evidence for these nonlinear relationships there is little understanding of why and how nonlinear effects occur (Mulder et al., forthcoming).

One possible explanation is related to the needs and expectations employees have regarding their supervisors’ support through people management. The relevance of employees’ and supervisors’ expectations is highlighted through theories such as psychological contract and expectation-disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1980; Coyle-Shapiro et al., 2019). However, support needs and expectations are often not communicated (Rainey, 2009), potentially leading to possible adverse outcomes if needs and expectations are not met. Breaches of the psychological contract due to misaligned or unmet expectations and needs have been shown to lead to negative employee attitudes and work behaviors (Zhao et al., 2007; Bal et al., 2008), with support having less than the intended positive outcomes and potentially moving past a point where it is perceived as beneficial. This study will delve into the how and why of nonlinear relationships by exploring when and why people management support does (or does not) have its intended effects through a lens of support needs and expectations. Therefore, the research question is as follows: How do (un)met support needs and expectations contribute to perceptions of people management support being too little, optimal or too much?

The study will be conducted in Dutch primary and secondary schools. Team leaders responsible for people management and meeting teachers’ support needs and expectations often lack formal management training (Penning de Vries, 2021), possibly limiting their ability to provide the right amount of support. The challenge of finding the right balance of support is compounded by expectations and needs often being uncommunicated, as is common in public sector organizations. As such, schools are a relevant sector to study our research question in. In alignment with the exploratory and open research question we conduct a qualitative study. To collect data, interviews with both teachers and their supervisors will be held. First individually, then in dyads to facilitate the conversation between teachers and their supervisors around finding the right balance in support through insights gained from the individual interviews.

A research design will be presented.

*Full reference list in attached file or upon request

Organizational changes, such as mergers or shifts in organizational culture, can lead to identity threats among employees by disrupting their sense of self and understanding of their roles, prompting a re-evaluation of their professional identity (Ashforth & Meal, 1989). Prior research has extensively explored how individuals make sense of work-related identity threats through the lens of identity work literature (e.g., Hay et al., 2021; Jacobs et al., 2008).

We introduce the concept of social belonging—"the sense of personal involvement in a social system so that persons feel themselves to be an indispensable and integral part of the system" (Amant, 1966, p. 21)—as a relevant theoretical perspective to mitigate identity threats in the context of organizational change. Research on social belonging has primarily been conducted by psychologists, focusing on minority and first-generation students who experience uncertainties when entering mainstream institutions like universities. A substantial body of rigorous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of simple social-psychological interventions targeting the feeling of social belonging, known as social belonging interventions (see Yeager & Walton, 2011, for a review).

In the field of public management, research on social belonging is also growing. For instance, Linos et al. (2021) showed that increasing social belonging among street-level bureaucrats reduces burnout. De Boer et al. (2024) found that social belonging interventions positively impacted street-level bureaucrats' work engagement during crises. The theoretical explanation for these findings is that social belonging acts as a buffer against identity threats when facing obstacles such as adversity, uncertainty, and exclusion. When individuals feel they are part of their surroundings, they are more likely to put their concerns into perspective and seek support from others, preventing them from experiencing identity threats (Kizilec et al., 2017; Walton & Cohen, 2011; Walton et al., 2015).

The aim of this research is to investigate whether social belonging interventions are effective among street-level professionals in the context of organizational change. To achieve this goal, we are developing and testing social belonging interventions that address identity threats faced by police officers due to organizational changes. The nature of crime and security has become increasingly complex, with criminals employing advanced technologies and methods, evolving societal expectations, and a highly polarized working environment. In response to these developments, the police force—where over 80% of employees are vocationally educated (MBO-4)—aims to professionalize. Consequently, the educational criteria for promotions have become more stringent, and the police are heavily investing in recruiting highly educated employees without traditional policing diplomas. These developments pose a threat to long-serving police officers with only vocational degrees, as they no longer feel valued, needed, or important.

This study is relevant for several reasons. Theoretically, it expands the research on organizational change and identity threat by integrating it with social belonging literature. Methodologically, this study is significant because it employs a field experiment rather than a cross-sectional survey (cf. Allgood et al., 2022) or a survey experiment (cf. De Boer et al., 2024), which lack the ability to draw causal conclusions and experimental realism, respectively (Bækgaard et al., 2015).

This study examines how public sector employees’ perceptions of fairness shape the relationship between flexible working arrangement (FWA) availability and utilisation, and their subsequent impacts on employee outcomes (wellbeing, productivity, and retention). In this paper, we integrate Wright & Nishii's (2013) Intended, Actual and Perceived HRM framework and Organizational Justice Theory (Colquitt, 2001). To expand our knowledge, this paper focuses on the following research question: To what extent is there a relationship between the perceived availability of FWA, its actual use and employee outcomes, and how is this relationship influenced by employees’ perception of fairness?

This study addresses the inconsistent findings in previous research on FWA utilisation and employee outcomes (e.g., De Menezes & Kelliher, 2011; Timms et al., 2015). The relationships between FWA utilisation and employee outcomes have not been widely researched, with limited studies available that explored organisational justice in the context of FWA. This study will add to the existing literature in three ways. First, by bringing together insights from HRM, organisational justice to examine how fairness perceptions influence employees’ uptake of FWA, ultimately affecting employee outcomes. By examining the policy interpretation gap (Piening et al., 2014) through the lens of perceived fairness, this study explores the relationship between the perceived availability of the policy and the actual utilisation of FWA, thereby helping to understand the role of employees’ interpretations of the policy. Second, it examines the extent to which the perception of fairness influences positive employee outcomes of the utilisation of FWA. Third, by introducing a concrete measure of FWA utilisation to understand how the degree of use impacts employee outcomes.

For this study, we will conduct a survey in which we focus on non-academic higher education staff in the UK. This conference contribution will focus on theory development and methodological aspects of the study. Data collection will take place in the fall of 2025.

References:

Colquitt, J. A. (2001). On the dimensionality of organisational justice: A construct validation of a measure. In Journal of Applied Psychology (Vol. 86, pp. 386–400). file://ad.ucl.ac.uk/homel/sejjidl/Downloads/WLB papers/ContentServer.pdf

De Menezes, L. M., & Kelliher, C. (2011). Flexible working and performance: A systematic review of the evidence for a business case. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13(4), 452–474. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00301.x

Piening, E. P., Baluch, A. M., & Ridder, H.-G. (2014). Mind the intended-implemented gap:Understanding employees’ perception of HRM. Human Resource Management, 53(4), 545–567. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm

Timms, C., Brough, P., O’Driscoll, M., Kalliath, T., Siu, O. L., Sit, C., & Lo, D. (2015). Flexible work arrangements, work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological health. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 53(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12030

Wright, P. M., & Nishii, L. H. (2013). Strategic HRM and organizational behavior: Integrating multiple levels of analysis. In J. Paauwe, D. Guest, & P. Wright (Eds.), Human Resource Management and Performance: Achievements and Challenges (pp. 97–100). Blackwell Publishing.