Skill mapping for blue-collar employees and organisational performance

Explicating intrinsic motivation's impact on job performance: employee creativity as a mediator

Purpose

Eliciting superior job performance from the employees is a major challenge confronting the organizational leaders in today's hyper-competitive business environment. Though few studies established the influence of intrinsic motivation on job performance, the role of mediators like employee creativity in this relationship is not adequately researched. The purpose of the paper is to explore the mediating role of employee creativity in the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The cross-sectional research design was adopted, and data were collected from 346 full-time employees working in the retail industry in India through an online survey. Analysis of a Moment Structures (AMOS) software was used to test the validity of the hypothesized model, and PROCESS macro was used to test the mediation of employee creativity.

Findings

The findings showed that intrinsic motivation impacted both job performance and employee creativity. Furthermore, employee creativity impacted the employees' job performance. The key finding of the study is the partial mediation of employee creativity in the intrinsic motivation–job performance relationship.

Originality/value

Grounded on self-determination theory (SDT) and componential theory of creativity, the paper enriches the literature by evincing the mediation mechanism in the effect of intrinsic motivation on job performance. Moreover, the current paper is one of the primary studies that explore the mediating role of employee creativity in the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job performance.

Skilling the Indian youth: a State-level analysis

Purpose

Market-driven skill development initiatives are essential in India as a large segment of its educated workforce is unemployed or unemployable, with little or no job skills. The “Skill India Mission” aims at endowing the youth with skills that can increase their employability and productivity in jobs. The success of the Mission depends on State-level initiatives in tandem with the Mission. This paper analyzes the impact of job offers extended to the youth of Jharkhand State as an outcome of State-level skill development initiatives. Its broad objective is to assist the Government in the delivery of skill-based training programs.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered across various districts of Jharkhand to capture the perceptions of trainees and training centers. The final sample of 498 had attended training in apparel, retail, security, automotive, food and beverage service, IT/ITES, electronics and construction.

Findings

Statistical analysis reveals a significant increase in the economic status of trainees after joining jobs. Other findings include apathy toward migration, a mismatch between skills gained and jobs, and a dearth of qualified trainers.

Practical implications

The authors recommend counseling and attitudinal restructuring of the youth, designing multi-skill training programs and promoting entrepreneurial spirit. The authors also propose a stakeholder-based approach for curriculum development to fill the demand–supply gap of training and ensure better trainee retention. The Government could benefit by focusing the skilling programs on the career adaptability of trainees. Skill development and vocational education and training may not operate in silos. Training programs could be planned to be conducted jointly through ITIs and State-level training institutions under the Skill India Mission.

Originality/value

This research could increase the effectiveness of skill development initiatives across India, thereby improving the socioeconomic status of the youth thus trained. The authors emphasize developing a people-centric perspective in skilling, shifting attention from the existing industry-driven approach, to strike a balance between the demand and supply sides. This perspective can optimize skill development initiatives by reducing the gap between employment demand and skill development.

Antecedents of Emotional Intelligence: Perceived Organizational Support Impact on Ambidextrous Behavior of Standalone Business School Faculty

The present study was designed to examine the significance of emotional intelligence (EI), perceived organizational support (POS), and its impact on organizational ambidexterity of faculty members working with standalone business schools in southern India. The study argues that the moderating effect of emotional intelligence (EI) is significant in the association between perceived organizational support and two antecedents of organizational ambidexterity of faculty members. The research on institutional exploration and exploitation ambidexterity variants highlights vital ways to realize organizational ambidexterity. Very few researchers have investigated organizational ambidexterity in the higher education sector, and no research is available on standalone business school faculty members. The study proposes a novel research framework, and the findings reveal that perceived organizational support is highly influencing two antecedents of organizational ambidexterity. The research also observes a slight moderating effect of emotional intelligence between the association of perceived organizational support and organizational ambidexterity and the positive relationship identified among emotional intelligence, perceived organizational support and organizational ambidexterity.

Training transfer climate: examining the role of high performance work system and organizational performance in the power sector of India

Purpose

Benchmarking research has explored the role of organizational practices and business processes rooted with human capabilities for achieving growth performance. The role of high performance work system as an organizational practice and business process is yet to be studied. Even if studied, no study has been conducted on the role of training transfer climate on high performance work system and organizational performance. The current research aims at examining high performance work system on organizational performance. Further, the study also examine training transfer climate as a mediating variable between HPWS and organizational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Data collected from 415 executives of a high performance-based power sector company of Gujarat, India. The survey instrument consists of high performance work system, training transfer climate and organizational performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was used for a simultaneous assessment of overall and specific elements of measurement validity and reliability. Structural equation modelling used to test the hypothesized model.

Findings

The result proved the capability of high performance work system to predict organizational performance. Further, the result supports the hypothesis that training transfer climate acts as a mediator between high performance work system and organizational performance.

Research limitations/implications

The result has important theoretical and managerial implications. Theoretically, the research extends the scope of benchmarking to high performance work system. The managerial implications have been discussed from the training transfer climate perspectives.

Originality/value

The originality of the study lies with proving the role of high performance work system and training transfer climate as an organizational practice and business process within benchmarking research.

Age-Dependent Influence of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations on Construction Worker Performance

The increasing sophistication and complexity of construction technology have also increased workers' physical risk and psychological stress. This study examined the relationships between health risks, work motivation, and productivity as perceived by construction workers. A hypothetical model of worker perceptions, and the psychological factors influencing these perceptions, was developed. A total of 324 construction workers at a Japanese construction company participated in the study and were divided into two groups: younger (45 years of age and below) and older adults (46 years of age and above). Data were collected using a questionnaire. The differences between the age groups were analyzed with regard to their perceptions of health risks, motivation, work skills, and productivity. Both younger and older workers were affected by intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations, but the effect of these motivations on work performance differed depending on age. Higher health risks are anticipated to affect the work motivation and productivity perceptions of older workers. The proposed model and findings of this study contribute to understanding worker motivations and have important implications for labor management of construction projects. By addressing construction workers' intrinsic (e.g., interest) and extrinsic (e.g., reward) motivations, it is possible to sustainably improve project productivity.

Technology management for innovation in organizations: an argumentation-based modified TISM approach

Purpose

In the rapidly changing business world, innovation plays a vital role for organizations to gain a competitive advantage. Various factors associated with technology management and innovations in organizations are diverse in the existing literature. Therefore, there is a need to bridge these gaps in the fitting proportions toward innovations within organizations. The primary objective of this study is to identify, explain and interpret the relationships between the identified technology-related factors that are important for innovations in organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a modified total interpretive structural modeling (M-TISM) methodology was used to examine and analyze the various interactions between identified factors for innovations in organizations. However, the argumentation of the links is relatively weak in M-TISM. In order to compensate for this, M-TISM is additionally altered by an “Argumentation-based Modified TISM”. Hence, this research strengthens the modified TISM methodology by incorporating argumentation and total interpretation of the relationships between the identified factors.

Findings

A total of six major factors were identified using a literature review. Results suggest that workforce technical skills, technological infrastructure, technological alliances, technology transfer and top management support have an impact on innovation in organizations. Results also suggest that top management support and the technological infrastructure of an organization have a greater impact on innovation.

Research limitations/implications

For policymakers and practitioners, this study provides a suggestive list of critical factors, which may help to develop policies or guidelines for improving innovation in organizations. Policymakers should focus on technological infrastructure and collaborations to enhance innovations and productions within the organizations. For academicians, this study provides a modified TISM model that shows the impact of technology-related factors on innovations. Future researchers could expand this study by adding a greater number of technological factors and validate this model in other industries.

Originality/value

This study fills a gap in the literature by interpreting the various relationships among the identified factors and innovations. The model has been validated through a panel of seven experts from the Indian automotive industry of multiple organizations. This study is useful in the automobile industry as it determines what and how technology-related factors affect innovations, process improvement and R&D production for organizations.

Organisational justice and innovative behaviour: Is knowledge sharing a mediator?

Purpose

Encouraging employees to exhibit innovative behaviour at the workplace is the need of the hour. Prior studies reported the impact of organisational justice on innovative behaviour; however, the majority of these studies are from the Western context. Moreover, the underlying mechanism linking these variables, namely, the role of knowledge sharing, is sparse. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of knowledge sharing in the relationship between organisational justice and innovative behaviour through the lens of social exchange theory in the Indian context.

Design/methodology/approach

Mediation analysis using PROCESS macro was performed on a sample of 288 employees using three structured questionnaires. Participants were recruited from various manufacturing organisations in India. The validity of the hypothesised model was established using AMOS software.

Findings

Organisational justice impacted both knowledge sharing and innovative behaviour. It was also illustrated that knowledge sharing influenced employees’ innovative behaviour. The most important finding is the partial mediation of knowledge sharing in the organizational justice–innovative behaviour relationship.

Originality/value

This study tries to demystify the organisational justice–innovative behaviour relationship by highlighting knowledge sharing as an underlying mechanism. The existing theoretical framework that describes the effects of organisational justice is enriched.

Leader-Member Exchange, Work Engagement, and Psychological Withdrawal Behavior: The Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment

Perceptions of psychological empowerment play a vital role in the way an individual perceives things at the workplace. In spite of this, there is scant research on the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment. This study is an attempt to fill this gap by analyzing the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationship between its antecedents (leader-member exchange) and its consequences (work engagement and psychological withdrawal behavior). Data were collected from 454 employees working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of the information technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors operating in India. Results suggest that employees who have a high-quality relationship with their leader have high psychological empowerment, they are highly engaged at work, and their psychological withdrawal behavior is also low. In addition to this, high levels of psychological empowerment have a positive impact on their engagement toward work, which further leads to a low psychological withdrawal behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

High-performance work system and organizational citizenship behaviour at the shop floor

Purpose

The manufacturing industry is presently experiencing technological disruption on a global scale. Consequently, to tackle such disruption, firms are identifying a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) scenario and seeking ways to counter it. Accordingly, this paper aims to investigate the employee performance through assessing organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among the shop floor employees of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry where a high-performance work system (HPWS) has been implemented.

Design/methodology/approach

A descriptive research design was used in the study, and 395 shop floor employees working in leading multinational firms, with a minimum global turnover of US$1bn, were interviewed. These manufacturing firms were located in three industrial clusters in the northern part of India.

Findings

The results indicate that HPWS influences OCB. Most of the dimensions of HPWS and OCB were found to be positively associated. The findings also disprove the labour process theory in the context of the study.

Practical implications

The findings report a broad view of the relationship between HPWS and OCB in the Indian manufacturing context. The study offers the practical insights that HPWS is a universally accepted framework and that organizations should focus on the effective implementation of HPWS in a VUCA scenario, which is in line with past studies. The study also provides future directions for research.

Originality/value

This paper has established the relationship between HPWS and OCB in the manufacturing sector, especially for shop floor employees.