Capitalizing on the Benefits of Utilizing Part-Time Employees Through Job Autonomy

There are over 20 million part-time employees in the United States, however research on part-time employees is quite limited. Research has revealed inconsistencies when comparing part-time and full-time employees on various job outcomes (e.g., performance, commitment). As a test of Feldman's (1990) causal model of part-time work, this study provides evidence that autonomy mediates the relationship between job status (part-time vs. full-time) and such outcomes, which can help explain some of the inconsistencies in previous research. Managerial implications are discussed.     

The relationship between work status congruence and work-related attitudes and behaviors

Research investigating differences in attitudes among full-time and part-time employees has a long history. Unfortunately, the empirical results have been mixed and conflicting. To resolve inconsistencies in prior research, the authors conducted 2 studies. In the 1st study, the authors developed a measure of work status congruence, which measures the degree to which employers match employee preferences for full-time or part-time status, schedule, shift, and number of hours. The authors hypothesized that a match or congruence between worker preferences and organizational staffing practices would be associated with positive employee attitudes and behaviors. In the 2nd study, the authors tested these hypotheses. The results indicate that work status congruence is positively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, employee retention, as well as in-role and extra-role performance.     

Further Investigation of the Work Autonomy Scales: Two Studies

Although the importance of work autonomy is widely recognized, research on autonomy has been criticized for failing to examine important facets of autonomy. In response to this criticism, Breaugh (1985) developed a new instrument which measures method, scheduling, and criteria autonomy. This paper presents the results of two studies that examined the validity of Breaugh's work autonomy scales and investigated whether employee reports of autonomy were related to autonomy ratings of their jobs made by independent sources. The results of these two studies generally support the validity of the work autonomy scales. For example, as predicted, full-time employees reported having more work autonomy than part-time employees, and the three autonomy scales were found to be related to a number of other variables with which they should be correlated. A moderate degree of correspondence was found between employee self-reports of autonomy and autonomy ratings of their jobs made by job analysts, supervisors, and co-workers.     

Effects of management communication, opportunity for learning, and work schedule flexibility on organizational commitment

In the current career climate characterized by change and turbulence, employees may demonstrate limited organizational commitment to their employers. Rousseau (1998) suggests that two key ways to elicit loyalty from employees today are to reinforce perceptions of organizational membership and demonstrate organizational care and support for employees. Based on her conceptual framework, we examined the separate and synergistic effects of three valued aspects of the work environment—management communication, opportunity for learning, and work schedule flexibility—on organizational commitment. With 1770 full-time and 273 part-time workers of a large national retailer, we found that all three variables had positive main effects on organizational commitment. Also, they three-way interacted to affect part-time workers’ organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for research on organizational commitment and on comparisons of full-time and part-time workers are discussed.     

Effects of scheduling perceptions on attitudes and mobility in different part-time employee types

Recent research supports the existence of a typology of part-time employees with demographic and behavioral differences. This research suggests that part-timers should not be viewed as one homogenous group and that certain part-time employee groups have fixed external role attachments, while others have more flexible attachments. Applying the part-time typology and the classification of fixed versus flexible attachments from previous research, the current study examines differences in the relationships among scheduling perceptions, job attitudes, and employment mobility for part-timers. Consistent with Partial Inclusion Theory, we found that part-time workers classified as having more fixed outside role attachments have lower organizational commitment, job satisfaction, employment mobility, work status congruence, scheduling control, and scheduling satisfaction than those classified as having more flexible outside role attachments. Additionally, the flexibility of external role attachments moderates the relationship between scheduling variables and job attitudes and employment mobility. Implications for management and research are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Perceptions of Fairness and Voluntary Turnover Among Retail Employees1

Research on the relationship between perceived fairness and employee turnover has tended to focus on turnover intentions rather than behavior, and the few studies that have assessed actual turnover have reported inconsistent results. In the present study, we examined the interactive effects of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice on turnover among 159 retail employees. Results showed that the effect of distributive justice on turnover was stronger when interactional justice was perceived as low rather than high. Our findings also suggest that disproportionate turnover group base rates favoring stayers over leavers can affect results of justice turnover research.     

Full-Time versus Part-Time Employees: Understanding the Links between Work Status, the Psychological Contract, and Attitudes

Research findings comparing the work attitudes of full-time and part-time employees have been inconsistent and inconclusive. Furthermore, empirical studies have tended to be atheoretical, and there are few convincing psychological explanations to explain differences where found. This article tests the psychological contract as an explanatory framework for attitudinal differences across work status (i.e., whether employed on a part-time or full-time basis). The model is tested across samples from two different organizations using structural equation modeling. The analysis reveals that part-time and full-time employees differed on a number of attitudes and that psychological contract fulfillment could be used to explain differences in certain attitudes (e.g., satisfaction) but not others (e.g., affective commitment). Analyses also show that the relationships between psychological contract fulfillment and outcomes were rarely moderated by work status, suggesting that part-time employees will respond in a similar way as full-time employees to adjustments in their psychological contract.     

Perceived job autonomy and turnover intention: The moderating role of perceived supervisor support

Perceived job autonomy has been recognized as a central tenet of work design, leading to a range of positive outcomes. Still, scholars have rightfully questioned its predictive role for several outcomes, including turnover intention as the two have been found to be virtually unrelated. In line with calls for more complex research on the predictive role of perceived job autonomy on employee outcomes, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relationship between perceived job autonomy and turnover intention may be prone to contextual influences. Two cross-sectional surveys among 680 Norwegian employees from different public service organizations showed that the relationship between perceived job autonomy and turnover intention was moderated by perceived supervisor support. In support of our hypothesis, the form of the moderations revealed that perceived job autonomy was negatively related to turnover intention only for employees reporting high levels of perceived supervisor support. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

A Role for Equity Theory in the Turnover Process: An Empirical Test1

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of equity theory in the context of the contemporary turnover process. A model was developed and tested with 192 hospital employees using structural equation modeling (SEM), which placed satisfaction and intention to quit as mediators of employee turnover. The results strongly support the present model, but also suggest a role for other mediators, some of which are suggested for future research.     

Willingness to accept occupational change when offered incentives: Comparing full-time and part-time employees

The ability to deal with occupational change is becoming increasingly important. We hypothesized that individual differences determining preferences for specific types of mobility (i.e., global personality traits and uncertainty tolerance) and decisional factors theoretically derived from the theory of planned behaviour (e.g., desirability of change; subjective norms) would be associated with higher willingness to accept occupational change when incentives such as greater autonomy were offered. These hypotheses were tested in a questionnaire study with samples of full-time and part-time employees. We further expected employment situation to function as a moderator in this process. Overall, results of regression analyses confirmed the relevance of the core components of the theory of planned behaviour. In addition, we found decisional factors to be more closely linked to the outcomes of full-time employees than to those of part-time employees. We discuss the practical implications of our results in terms of how best to support employees in adapting to the increasing demands for occupational change.     

Age and Work-Related Outcomes: The Moderating Effects of Status Characteristics

This study examines the extent to which 2 status characteristics—pay level and part-time vs. full-time employment—influence the effectiveness of age as a predictor of work-related attitudes and behaviors. Using a sample of 157 registered nurses, hierarchical regression was used to determine whether pay level or employment classification (part-time vs. full-time) moderated the relationship between chronological age and the following outcomes associated with the process of voluntary turnover: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, withdrawal cognitions, perceived alternatives, search behavior, and actual turnover behavior. Findings indicate that the effects of age on work attitudes and behaviors are moderated to some extent by both status characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

What Leads Entrepreneurial Employees to Want to Quit,or Stay in,Their Job? Exploring Two Conflicting Mechanisms

Past turnover research has posited personality traits as important antecedents to quit intentions. Nevertheless, previous literature has not investigated the relationship between employees’ entrepreneurial tendencies—a constellation of domain specific traits—and turnover. Drawing on dispositional trait theory and attraction-selection-attrition theory, we propose engagement and intentions to start a business as mediators of the relationship between entrepreneurial tendencies and quit intentions. We test our predictions in a sample of full-time employees from the United Kingdom (N = 224). In line with our hypotheses, an inconsistent mediation is found, where both positive and negative links between entrepreneurial tendencies and turnover intentions were mediated by engagement and intentions to start a business respectively. Thus, entrepreneurial employees were more likely to be engaged, but at the same time also more likely to be considering starting their own business, leading to a conflicting relationship to turnover intentions. The current study informs the human resource management literature concerning the motivational mechanisms explaining turnover intentions among entrepreneurial employees. It also provides practical insights with regards to the effective management of this workforce.     

员工为何沉默:领导权力距离倾向与员工调控焦点的跨层次交互作用

基于跨层次的调节-中介模型,检验了员工沉默的影响因素、中介变量及作用边界。来自82个团队447名员工的数据表明:(1)领导权力距离倾向与员工沉默行为显著正相关。在这一关系中,建言有用感起完全中介作用,心理安全感起部分中介作用,且控制建言有用感后,心理安全感的中介效应不再显著;(2)员工的促进焦点会增强"权力距离倾向→建言有用感→沉默行为"间接效应,防御焦点会减弱"权力距离倾向→心理安全感→沉默行为"间接效应。结论有助于揭示员工沉默的产生机制。     

REDUCED-HOURS JOB-ROLE QUALITY AND LIFE SATISFACTION AMONG MARRIED WOMEN PHYSICIANS WITH CHILDREN

Interest in reduced-hours career options has been sparked by recent studies indicating an increase in the work week, especially among professional and managerial employees, a preference among all employees to reduce work hours substantially, and the perception that the absence of reduced-hours career options is an obstacle to professional advancement. Interest has also been fueled by the growing numbers of dual-earner couples whose ability to manage work/family demands might be facilitated by reduced-hours options. Yet, the belief that part-time work is associated with beneficial health effects has received scant empirical support. Building on prior research with full-time employees, we hypothesized that the quality of the experience of working reduced hours would better predict life satisfaction than would work hours per sc. This hypothesis, which we tested in a sample of female reduced-hours physicians with children in two-earner couples, was supported.     

Workplace and family support and work–life balance: Implications for individual psychological availability and energy at work

This study presents three studies that explore the ways in which multiple support sources (workplace and family social support) help individuals to experience work–life balance (WLB) and thereby develop a sense psychological availability and positive energy at work. We examine this serial mediation model across three population groups in Israel using time-lagged data from part-time students (sample 1), as well cross-sectional data from workers in the industrial sector (sample 2) and physicians in public hospitals (sample 3). The results indicate a complex process in which workplace and family support augment employee positive energy through WLB and psychological availability. The findings shed light on the importance of support from work and nonwork sources for the pursuit of employees to achieve balance in the spheres of work and life and suggest that the WLB helps in the development of psychological availability and augmenting employee positive energy.     

Growth coping,work satisfaction and turnover: A longitudinal study

A longitudinal organizational field study examined work satisfaction and employee growth coping as joint predictors of turnover. Three employee categories were examined: 1) No Turnover, 2) turnover within the same occupational field (Intraoccupational Turnover), and 3) turnover to a new occupational field (Interoccupational Turnover). Work satisfaction was moderate in the first two groups and low in the third group. As predicted, a specific strategy of employee coping, growth, was lowest in the first group, moderate in the second group, and highest in the third group. Through the use of linear discriminant analysis, 66.4% of the employees were correctly classified into No Turnover, Intraoccupational Turnover, and Interoccupational Turnover groups based only on information regarding work satisfaction and growth coping. The first squared canonical correlation was found to equal .30, far surpassing the modest work satisfaction/turnover correlations found in all previous studies.The authors wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments.     

Servant Leadership and Follower Outcomes: Mediating Effects of Organizational Identification and Psychological Safety

This study investigated the mediating role of organizational identification and psychological safety in the relationship between servant leadership and two employee outcomes: employee voice and negative feedback seeking behavior. The sample for this study comprised of 174 full-time employees drawn from a large food company based in Pakistan. Results showed that organizational identification and psychological safety partially mediated the effects of servant leadership on voice and negative feedback seeking behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.     

Happiness is Flextime

We study how work a schedule flexibility (flextime) affects happiness. We use a US General Social Survey (GSS) pooled dataset containing the Quality of Worklife and Work Orientations modules for 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. We retain only respondents who are either full-time or part-time employees on payrolls. For flextime to be associated with greater happiness, it has to be more than just sometimes flexible or slight input into one’s work schedule, that is, little flextime does not increase happiness. But substantial flextime has a large effect on happiness–the size effect is about as large as that of household income, or about as large as a one-step increase in self-reported health, such as up from good to excellent health. Our findings provide support for both public and organizational policies that would promote greater work schedule flexibility or control for employees.     

Dynamics of psychological contracts with work engagement and turnover intention: The influence of organizational tenure

This study investigated the interrelations of the psychological contract with work engagement and turnover intention, which has hitherto been a largely overlooked topic in psychological contract research. Although previous research has mainly focused on how psychological contracts influence job attitudes and behaviours, it is proposed here that attitudes and behaviours also affect the psychological contract that the employee has with the organization. Moreover, it is proposed that because reciprocity norms are more important among shortly tenured employees, mutual relationships between psychological contracts and work engagement and turnover intention were stronger for employees with lower organizational tenure. Longitudinal data were collected among 240 employees and proposed models were evaluated with structural equation modelling. The results show that indeed psychological contract fulfilment was longitudinally related to higher work engagement and lower turnover intentions, but only for employees with low tenure. Moreover, stability in work engagement, turnover intention, and psychological contract over time was higher for those with high tenure, whereas the relations between turnover intention and the psychological contract were stronger for those with low organizational tenure. These findings demonstrate that psychological contracts are reciprocally interrelated with work outcomes, and that such relations are stronger for those with low tenure.