Three essays on human resource management

• Autores: Argyro Avgoustaki
• Directores de la Tesis: Jaime Ortega Diego (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid ( España ) en 2012
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Bas Koene (presid.), Eduardo Melero Martín (secret.), Rocio Bonet (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Ciencias económicas
    • Organización y dirección de empresas
      • Organización de recursos humanos
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: e-Archivo
• Resumen

  • This thesis comprises three essays on human resource management. The first one studies the effect of on-the-job training on firm productivity using a micro-dataset of a large firm in Greece for the period 2005 to 2006. The data consist of daily observations on the productivity of the same workers tracked before, during, and after the receipt of training. Overall, the empirical findings show that after the implementation of on-the-job training, productivity improves by almost 6.5 percent. Results are further complemented by providing alternative evidence and interpretations for the training effect observed. The second essay tests how high performance work practices, and work uncertainty are associated with employee overtime as an indicator of work intensification. It pro- poses a multiple mediator model in which different practices act as mediating mechanisms between work uncertainty and employee overtime. Hypotheses are tested using the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) of 2005. Results indicate that practices such as training, task rotation, and teamwork consistently appear to have a positive association with employee overtime, while discretion mechanisms have a negative or no association with it. Work uncertainty appears to have a strong and positive relationship with employee overtime as well; however, the mediating role of high performance work practices seems to account for some, but not all, of this relationship. The third paper examines the link between task characteristics, employee learning and career prospects. It aims to address this issue by developing a set of hypotheses testing how task variety versus task specialization is related to employee learning, and employee career prospects within an organization. Additionally, it examines the interactive effects of giving employee discretion, and different tasks assignments on individual learning and employee career prospects respectively. Hypotheses are evaluated by analyzing data from the fourth and the fifth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey. Results indicate that employees exhibit higher learning and higher intentions for career growth when their jobs involve unrelated task rotation, and complex tasks rather than related task rotation and monotonous tasks. Estimates support the complementarity hypothesis as well; however, show that different types of employee discretion influence differently the relationships of interest. The main findings produced add to the development of a comprehensive theory for integrating task assignments, learning and career prospects. The main contributions of each paper can be summarized as follows. In the first paper, the dataset provides an unusual opportunity of using direct measures of firm productivity, exact information on content, length, purpose of training, and offers the possibility to monitor the firm over some time. The before-and-after body of information along with the training activity that took place at a specific point in time provide a unique laboratory to address methodological challenges encountered throughout this line of research; particularly the problems of unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity of training. This makes an important contribution to previous literature that had difficulty in isolating and then measuring accurately the impact of training. In the second paper, the study focuses on how high performance work practices are related to work intensification in the form of longer working hours. In this context, empirically basic hypothesis concerning the implications of working longer has generally not been tested. As it appears, there is scarcity of data availability on effort and much of the measures on work intensification are in a subjective form. However, spending longer hours at work as a more objective measure has been highly neglected. The paper aims to fill this gap. Further, it gives emphasis to other significant factors contributing to work intensification, and in particular examines how uncertainty at work could be driving some of the employee overtime. It adds to previous literature by arguing that this positive relationship could be mediated by the implementation of high performance work practices. If it is accepted that this has been an era of work intensification, then a better knowledge of possible sources of work intensification contributes to our understanding of this phenomenon. In the third paper, it is pointed out that research on careers has examined whether rotating employees is a means through which individuals learn and develop their careers. Here, it is conjectured though that the type of rotation might be of different importance in influencing learning and, by extension, the way individual careers are shaped. Also, it departs from previous research by supporting the idea that task assignments must be combined with a certain level of discretion, aiming to observe whether career advancement can be better leveraged through the possible complementarities between task assignments and employee discretion. Finally, previous ndings seem somehow inconclusive and they often vary depending on the context. The latter issue is addressed using broader datasets to evaluate the hypothesized relationships