Purpose The purpose of this study is to empirically test a hypothesized model establishing job characteristics as an antecedent of work engagement leading to job satisfaction and organizational engagement of employees working with public sector banks (PSBs) in India. Design/methodology/approach Based on responses to a survey questionnaire by a sample of 622 Scale I employees of Indian PSBs, the hypothesized mediation model was tested with SPSS macro (Preacher and Hayes, 2004). Findings The testing of hypotheses established that job characteristics positively influence work engagement, organizational engagement and job satisfaction. The full mediation by work engagement between the relationships of job characteristics with job satisfaction and organizational engagement is established after the testing of mediation hypotheses. Practical implications Jobs of banks (especially in the public sector) are recommended to be enriched with more emphasis on offering employees with identifiable and significant tasks that have autonomy in decision-making and feedback. PSBs should also focus on developing a positive perception of employees toward job design, to increase their levels of job satisfaction and organizational engagement through engaging them with work. Originality/value The contribution of this study should be understood in many ways. First, the study has introduced work engagement as a mediator in the study model (between job characteristics and job satisfaction) replacing the three psychological conditions (i.e. experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility and knowledge of results) of job characteristics model. Further, the main contribution of this study is the exploration of the linkage between work engagement and organizational engagement. The relationship between these two forms of engagement (i.e. work and organization) has been very rarely investigated in the literature. Finally, this study has attempted to hypothesize a model proposing work engagement as a mediator between the job characteristics and organization engagement which does not seem to be studied so far.

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There is building evidence in India that the delivery of health services suffers from an actual shortfall in trained health professionals, but also from unsatisfactory results of existing service providers working in the public and private sectors. This study focusses on the public sector and examines de facto institutional and governance arrangements that may give rise to well-documented provider behaviors such as absenteeism, which can adversely affect service delivery processes and outcomes. The paper considers four human resource management subsystems: postings, transfers, promotions, and disciplinary practices. The four subsystems are analyzed from the perspective of front line workers, that is, This paper is a product of the Health, Nutrition and Population Unit, South Asia Region. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The authors may be contacted at glaforgia@worldbank.org. physicians working in rural health care facilities operated by two state governments. Physicians were sampled in one post-reform state that has instituted human resource management reforms and one pre-reform state that has not. The findings are based on quantitative and qualitative measurement. The results show that formal rules are undermined by a parallel modus operandi in which desirable posts are often determined by political connections and side payments. The evidence suggests an institutional environment in which formal rules of accountability are trumped by a parallel set of accountabilities. These systems appear so entrenched that reforms have borne no significant effect.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and generate initial evidence on the psychometric properties of a re‐conceptualized organizational career system (OCS).Design/methodology/approachData were collected from head of HR/head of business units on the career system variables. Reliability and exploratory factor analysis using SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS helped the authors to test the theoretically derived factor structure. The psychometric properties of the three‐factor instrument were examined and provided initial evidence of the reliability and validity of OCS.FindingsThe model fit indices confirm the three‐dimensional factor structure of organizational career systems. The three dimensions pertain to labor market orientation, employee advancement orientation and employee lateral movement.Originality/valueIn proposing this conceptual model, the authors draw insights from a number of distinct literature streams. The further development of an instrument to evaluate perceptions of career systems should encourage researchers and practitioners to use the instrument for empirical and diagnostic purposes.

This study examines the reasons for organizational decline and suggests context-specific turnaround process. The decline is primarily an outcome of inaction of managers and inappropriate actions of managers in response to environmental reality. The causality variables to explain inaction and inappropriate actions are of two types: a) organization-specific like past experiences, sunk investment, specialized assets, bureaucratic control, internal political and cultural constraints, managerial commitment to status quo and b) environment-specific like legal, political, social, and economic constraints. The turnaround process of declining organizations needs to be tailored to match the contextual reality. This paper develops a contingency framework to explain context- action choice relationship.