No abstract

As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, governments' budgets for higher education and research have come under pressure. In the aftermath of the crisis, higher education institutions are likely to face significant budget constraints, as governments and society became considerably more demanding concerning the level and amount of research output to be produced. The need for increased efficiency and effectiveness pushes these institutions to consider the adoption of employee performance management systems. Starting from the contextually based HRM theory framework and institutional theory, this study examined the institutional factors associated with academic units' adoption of employee performance management systems in two institutions of higher education in the Low Countries in 2009. The results show that coercive pressures are a significant predictor of whether the academic unit adopted an employee performance management system. The results also demonstrate that the presence of an HRM department and complementary human resource management practices are associated with an increased likelihood of the presence of employee performance management systems in academic units.

Does alignment elicit competency-based HRM?A systematic review ** Internationally, human resource practice is committed to competency-based HRM. HR practitioners and management consultants expect the outcomes of competencybased HRM to include improved employee and organizational performance. However, research indicates that a commitment to the use of competency-based HRM does not automatically guarantee these outcomes. Therefore, HR practitioners have called for academic work to enhance our understanding of the process of effective competencybased HRM. This paper addresses this call by systematically reviewing the existing body of evidence. The conducted systematic review indicated that the effectiveness of competency-based HR depends on the degree of several types of alignment. More specifically, we first identified four crucial types of alignment in this process: (1) vertical alignment, (2) internal alignment, (3) alignment of line managers, and (4) alignment of employees. Subsequently, based on these drivers of effectiveness and drawing from the HRM literature, we developed a process model of competency-based HRM. This process model interlinks the identified types of alignment and acknowledges the conditions in which this process occurs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the field’s understanding of how to raise individual innovation. Specifically, the authors aim to contribute to an understanding of the interplay of job characteristics and intrinsic motivation for individual innovation. Design/methodology/approach The study uses time-lagged survey data of a public service organization in Belgium. The analyses are based on more than 80 jobs and more than 1,000 employees. Hierarchical linear modeling was adopted to test cross-level hypotheses. Findings Innovation requirements influence individual innovation efforts by psychologically empowering employees, but the extent to which psychological empowerment translates into individual innovation depends on job complexity. Originality/value A more nuanced understanding is developed of when innovation requirements empower individual innovation, by acknowledging the role of job complexity in this relationship. The current findings contribute to a multilevel integrative understanding of the interplay of the job context and intrinsic motivation.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the relationship between external pressures and the adoption of employee performance management systems within academic units of Flemish higher education institutions. The literature on contextually based HRM and institutionalism is used to underpin the theoretical propositions.Design/methodology/approachA comparative case study is described to provide evidence for the theoretical arguments.FindingsIt has been suggested that academic units face a set of external pressures, which leads to different employee performance management systems. This study finds that academic units imitate their legitimacy‐based reference group and legitimacy‐driven imitation and the adoption of external employee performance management requirements distort the alignment of employee performance management systems.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could formally test the relationship between external drivers and the adoption of strategic and integrated employee performance management systems in academic units by using a survey questionnaire.Originality/valueThis theoretical argumentation uses contextually‐based human resource theory and it is explored empirically through an analysis of the specific context of Flemish academic units to explain how institutional and market pressures affect the adoption and configuration of employee performance management systems.