Noeleen Doherty

The relationship between HRM and well-being has received a significant amount of research attention; however, results are still contested. Our study addresses this phenomenon in the Higher Education sector. We specifically investigate the association between performance management and the perceived well-being of academic staff. Our research finds that the application of a directive performance management approach, underpinned by agency theory ideas as evidenced by a high reliance on performance measures and targets, is negatively related to academics’ well-being (i.e. the more it is used, the worse people feel). In contrast, an enabling performance management approach, based on the learnings of stewardship theory, emphasising staff involvement, communication and development, is positively related to academics’ well-being. We also find the positive relationship between enabling practices and well-being is mediated by how academics experience their work (i.e. their perceptions of job demands, job control and management support). These results indicate that current trends to intensify the use of directive performance management can have consequences on the energy and health of academics, which may influence their motivation and willingness to stay in the profession. This research suggests that an enabling approach to managing performance in this context, may have more positive effects.

A wide range of different safety practices exist. However, they have been developed for production-oriented high-hazard environments. We know relatively little about safety practices in low-hazard service sector environments where most people in the U.K work and which differ from production-oriented industries in their organization, working practices and hazards. We conducted 143 semi-structured interviews in 10 stores of four leading U.K retailers and an office and two warehouses of a global logistics company. These revealed 32 categories of safety practices in these service organizations which we aligned to those indicated in the OHSAS 18001 framework to allow comparison across industries. There were few practices that were not common to all service environments. Moreover, these closely resembled safety practices conducted in production-oriented high-hazard environments. We explain this homogeneity by institutional isomorphism, which encourages conformity through coercive, normative and mimetic pressures arising respectively from legal and regulatory requirements, professional standards and training, and lack of resources and staff turnover. We draw attention to the contingent relationship between hazards and appropriate safety practices and conclude that these pressures encourage organizations to borrow practices inappropriately and to accumulate layers of practices to ensure safe working needlessly increasing organizational costs. Opportunities for further research are discussed.

This paper extends intelligent career theory to integrate the knowing - what, where and when elements with the established knowing- how, who and why aspects. We theorize the interrelationship between the six ways of knowing based on empirical evidence of expatriation from an Eastern to a Western context, thus extending Parker et al.’s (2009) conceptualization. We propose a further nine bi-directional linkages, mapping the reciprocal relationships between the ways of knowing. Empirical data is used to illustrate and interpret these inter-relationships. We conclude with suggestions practical application of the model and identify future research opportunities.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamic nature of boundaryless careers of Chinese early career corporate expatriates. It also investigates the demographic and contextual factors influencing individual perceived career mobility.Design/methodology/approach: – Qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 31 Chinese corporate expatriates were conducted and a template analysis approach was used to analyze the data.Findings: – Results suggest that Chinese early career corporate expatriates’ perceptions of boundaries as facilitating or limiting career mobility change over time. Changing boundary properties are found to be linked to the salience of Chinese cultural values, demographics and career/life stages. Based on expatriates’ narratives, this study highlights how these demographic and contextual factors shape domains of career boundarylessness.Originality/value: – Using an under-researched sample of Chinese corporate expatriates, this paper contributes to the conceptualization of boundaryless careers identifying the changing nature of the boundaries that facilitate or restrict mobility over time. The study calls for the use of combined, multi-dimensional approaches incorporating individual agency, organizational and cultural factors to understand individual career development.

Purpose: This special issue seeks to scope the past, present and future study of those individuals who independently journey abroad for work – the self‐initiated expatriate – a topic which is now attracting increasing attention among management scholars and practitioners alike.Design/methodology/approach: This introductory paper takes the form of a brief commentary of the development of the field and a synthesis of the papers in this special edition.Findings: Beginning in the late 1990s with a slow trickle of papers exploring the experiences of individuals who had initiated their own expatriation, our understanding of self‐initiated expatriates (SIEs) and self‐initiated expatriation (SIE) has developed exponentially. This development has given rise to a growing awareness of this form of mobility as a potentially powerful force in the increasingly varied global labour market. Yet, as this special issue will argue, there is still a range of conceptual, theoretical and empirical challenges in the study of SIEs, not least of which is a lack of clarity in how the term is used and understood. Despite the expansion of the field, it has hitherto focused primarily on the experiences of professional SIEs moving from and between developed countries. The papers in this issue therefore, address the need for both greater conceptual clarity and for greater empirical diversity.Originality/value: The papers included in this special issue each address fundamental issues in the study of the SIE population and offer perspectives that further our understanding of this group and their experiences.

Purpose: This paper aims to move towards clarification of the self‐initiated expatriate/expatriation construct with the aim of extending and deepening theory development in the field.Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on Suddaby's think piece on construct clarity, this paper applies his proposed four elements; definitional clarity, scope conditions, relationships between constructs and coherence, in order to clarify the SIE construct.Findings: The discussion examines the “problem of definition” and its impact on SIE scholarship. The spatial, temporal and value‐laden constraints that must be considered by SIE scholars are expounded, and the links between SIE research and career theory are developed. From this, potential research agendas are proposed.Research limitations/implications: This is a conceptual piece which, rather than giving precise research data, encourages further thinking in the field.Originality/value: Although the definitional difficulties of SIEs have been identified in previous literature, this is the first attempt to clarify the boundaries of SIE and its interconnectedness with other related constructs.