Danielle D. van Jaarsveld

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) face growing competition for human capital from for‐profit organizations (FPOs). However, little research adopts a comparative lens to explore management practices that are associated with an advantage in retaining employees for NPOs relative to FPOs. Integrating resource orchestration theory and firm‐specific incentives theory, we contend that employee‐centered management practices (i.e., employee benefits, participation, and training) should be more effective in retaining NPO (versus FPO) employees. We tested our theory with four studies. The Preliminary Study documented that NPO employees rated their organization more positively than FPO employees when their organization implemented more employee‐centered management practices. Study 1 utilized archival survey data from Statistics Canada and showed that employee‐centered management practices were associated with lower voluntary turnover rates in NPOs (versus FPOs). Further, through Study 2, a qualitative study, we identified psychological contract fulfillment as a possible employee‐level mechanism that explained the observed differential effects for NPO versus FPO employees. We further tested this mechanism using scenario experiments in Study 3, finding support for the mediating role of psychological contract fulfillment. Our work suggests that NPOs may achieve an employee retention advantage over FPOs by aligning management practices with their institutional contexts and employee values.

Organizations constantly navigate voluntary employee departures to facilitate organizational effectiveness. To date, most studies on the implications of voluntary turnover rate have been conducted at the between‐organization level, comparing organizations with varying levels of voluntary turnover rates. Building upon complex adaptive system (CAS) theory, we develop within‐organization theorizing regarding the implications of voluntary turnover rate fluctuations for organizational innovation. We propose a U‐shape threshold model, where the relationship between voluntary turnover rate fluctuations and innovation takes a negative form when voluntary turnover rate fluctuations are within the normal range for an organization, and a positive form when voluntary turnover rate fluctuations surpass a critical threshold reflecting far‐from‐equilibrium conditions. Furthermore, we investigate how organizations may utilize human resource (HR) practices to shift the critical threshold. Specifically, we argue that increased reliance on interaction‐facilitating HR practices (employee participation and group‐based pay) lowers the threshold, while increased reliance on interaction‐inhibiting HR practices (individual‐based pay) raises the threshold. With firm‐fixed effects modeling, we found general support for our hypotheses using a large‐scale, multi‐level, longitudinal dataset from Statistics Canada (7110 workplace‐year observations from 1980 workplaces). We provide a novel theoretical lens to understand the nature and management of collective turnover.

Purpose: The authors systematically review empirical dyadic service encounter research published in top-tier journals between 1972 and 2022.Design/methodology/approach: The authors employed bibliometric techniques, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis to map schools of thought and research frontiers within the dyadic service encounter literature. In total, the authors analyzed 155 articles. To ensure inclusion of high-quality research, the authors screened articles from 139 journals with “4” or “4*” ratings on the 2021 Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) journal list, in addition to articles published in three service sector-specific journals: Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing and Journal of Service Theory and Practice.Findings: The authors' co-citation analysis identified four distinct clusters within the dyadic service encounter literature: (1) shaping and explaining service encounters; (2) emotions in service work; (3) modeling, manipulating and measuring encounter service quality and (4) emotional labor and regulation in dyadic service encounters. Furthermore, the authors' bibliographic coupling analysis generated three research clusters: (1) service encounter characteristics; (2) emotions and emotional labor and (3) service encounter interaction content.Originality/value: The authors' comprehensive review synthesizes knowledge, summarizing similarities among research clusters within the service encounter realm. Noteworthy are research clusters that clarify the emotion-based underpinnings and reciprocal nature of behaviors and emotions within dyadic encounters. By conducting complementary bibliometric analyses, the authors trace the evolution of the service encounter literature, providing an overview of the present state of dyadic service encounter research. These analyses offer valuable insights into the current landscape of the field, identifying future dyadic service encounter research opportunities.

In this study, we examine how establishment‐level aggression originating from customers can lead to voluntary turnover. We also examine whether establishment‐level factors, such as collective voice, high involvement work practices and control‐based work practices, moderate this relationship. By analysing a sample of 139 call centres in Canada, we found that establishment‐level customer aggression is positively related to the workforce quit rate. Furthermore, we found that this positive relationship is weaker in establishments where employees have access to collective voice and in establishments that use fewer control‐based human resource practices.

Service employees can experience considerable resource demands from customers and supervisors in their day-to-day work. Guided by the conservation of resources (COR) perspective and organizational justice research, we explored the relationship between interpersonal injustice (e.g., being treated with low dignity and respect) by customers and employee turnover (e.g., voluntary turnover, turnover intentions). Specifically, we proposed that customer interpersonal injustice relates positively to employee turnover outcomes through a process first involving employee experiences of negative emotions, and second, employee emotional exhaustion. We also examined whether supervisor interpersonal justice mitigates this process by providing emotional resources that buffer the demands of customer interpersonal injustice. We evaluated these predictions in a programmatic series of three complementary field studies involving retail employees (Study 1, N = 263), restaurant employees (Study 2, N = 206), and contact center employees (Study 3, N = 317). The results showed that (a) customer interpersonal injustice relates positively to employees’ negative emotions, (b) employee negative emotions are positively associated with emotional exhaustion, and (c) emotional exhaustion relates to higher employee turnover outcomes. Our results also show that the indirect effect of customer interpersonal injustice on employee turnover intentions (Study 2) and voluntary turnover (Study 3) is weaker when employees perceive more (vs. less) supervisor interpersonal justice. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Recent empirical evidence reveals considerable divergence between management reports and employee reports regarding organizational high performance work practices (HPWPs). This divergence implies that employees may not participate in some HPWPs that are formally present in their organizations, but also, that employees may participate in HPWPs that are not formally present in their organizations. In this study, we examine the implication of the latter case (i.e., employee participation in “informal” HPWPs) for employee‐level and organization‐level outcomes. Our analyses, using data from the Statistics Canada Workplace and Employee Survey, suggest that employee participation in informal HPWPs is associated with enhanced job satisfaction and workplace profitability in a similar way as employee participation in formal HPWPs is associated with these outcomes.

Supplementing the full-time permanent workforce with part-time staff is a widespread practice among firms. To better understand this dynamic, we evaluate how work organization choices influence the degree of part-time use by analysing North American survey data from call centre establishments. We also evaluate the effect of part-time use on the voluntary turnover behaviour of the full-time permanent workforce. For example, firms with greater reliance on a high involvement approach to work organization relied less on part-time use than those pursuing a low involvement approach. For firms that choose to rely heavily on part-time use, we find that this decision has consequences for their full-time permanent workforce, namely higher voluntary turnover among their full-time permanent staff. Interestingly, greater reliance on a high involvement approach appears to weaken the positive relationship between part-time use and voluntary turnover among the full-time employees.

Workplace incivility research has focused on within-organizational sources of incivility, and less attention has been paid to outside-organizational sources such as customers. In a cross-sectional field study, the authors found that service employees (N = 307) who reported higher levels of uncivil treatment from customers engaged in higher levels of incivility toward customers. Specifically, the results show that customer incivility toward employees is related to employee incivility toward customers through job demands first and then emotional exhaustion. The authors discuss the implications of these results and highlight directions for future research.