2011

July 21, 2011

Birds of a Feather: How New Employees’ Similarity to Coworkers Affects Organizational Behavior and Productivity

Key Findings

  • All similarity is not created equal. The types of similarities that new employees share with their work groups affect the efforts they make to form relationships with their coworkers and bosses.
  • In general, newcomers are more likely to make more efforts to form relationships when they have obvious things in common with their work group – such as race, gender, or education level — rather than when they have more-subtle, deeper things in common, such as work ethics or moral values. In this regard, similarities that employees themselves perceive as important tend to be more relevant than similarities that an outside observer might consider important.
  • When newcomers actively socialize with their new coworkers, they don’t necessarily gain a better understanding of their role within the organization; however, they do tend to perform more creatively and feel more loyal and supportive to their new employer.

Recommended Citation
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. (2011, July). Birds of a feather: How new employees’ similarity to coworkers affects organizational behavior and productivity (CAHRS ResearchLink No. 15). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, ILR School.

June 21, 2011

Perception Is Reality: How Employees Perceive What Motivates HR Practices Affects their Engagement, Behavior and Performance

KEY FINDINGS

  • Espoused or intended HR practices have differential effects on employee engagement and citizenship behaviors depending on the underlying management motives employees attribute to those practices.
  • To achieve desired organizational outcomes, it’s important to have not only the right HR practices but the right employee perceptions of those practices.
  • Within the service organization studied, employees were more engaged when they believed HR practices were motivated by the organization’s concern for high-quality service and employee well-being.
  • Employees were less engaged when they believed a company’s HR practices were motivated by a desire to reduce costs and exploit employees.
  • Employee attitudes coalesce into unit-level citizenship behaviors, some of which are associated with greater customer satisfaction.

Recommended Citation
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. (2011, June). Perception is reality: How employees perceive what motivates HR practices affects their engagement, behavior and performance (CAHRS ResearchLink No. 14). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, ILR School.

May 21, 2011

Rules of Attraction: Job Seekers Use Negative News to Filter Initial Search

KEY FINDINGS

· In contrast to popular belief that any publicity is good publicity, the researchers found that exposure to negative information about a company had both immediate and longer lasting effects on important recruitment outcomes.

· Job seekers exposed to negative information about a previously unknown company were much less attracted to that company immediately after exposure, and had fewer intentions to apply for jobs there.

· The effect of negative information on job seeker attraction is persistent—one week later, its impact remains much larger than that of positive information.

· Job seekers also found it easier to recall more overall judgments of organizations one week after being exposed to negative versus favorable information.

Recommended Citation
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. (2011, May). Rules of attraction: Job seekers use negative news to filter initial search (CAHRS ResearchLink No. 13). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, ILR School.

May 16, 2011 by

Making ‘Cents’ of Temps: The Costs and Benefits of Contingent Workers

In the past year, seasonally adjusted temporary employment in the United States has grown by an average of 25,000 jobs per month, as businesses exercised greater caution in post-recession hiring.[i] Research suggests that this increase in temporary employment is anything but temporary. [click to continue…]

May 2, 2011 by

HR: More than a Glorified Party Planner

Human Resources as a function is not broadly recognized for the significant role that it plays in the development and execution of corporate business strategy because, in many cases, it plays more of a facilitator role than a director role. [click to continue…]

April 21, 2011 by

Human Factors in Information-Age Trade Secret Protection

Trade secret information security involves a multi-dimensional array of human, legal, and technological factors.[1] I argue that organizational culture, employee policies, and other human factors are fundamental prerequisites to the successful implementation of legal and technological security measures. [click to continue…]

April 11, 2011 by

Forward-Thinking: HR’s Path to Improving its Worth

Human Resources has only just begun to move past its transactional roots into a truly strategic and value-adding role. Popular television characters like Toby from NBC’s The Office have all but glamorized HR, leaving individuals with a somewhat negative perception of the Human Resources function. [click to continue…]

April 5, 2011 by

The Changing Workforce

As the world is always changing and the need for talent is more competitive than ever, businesses are finding themselves in need of attracting and retaining key talent that will drive growth domestically and internationally. As a part of any talent management strategy, companies should look at offering various ways to do work for their employees, especially their high performers. [click to continue…]

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