Institutions as constraints and resources: Explaining cross‐national divergence in performance management

Abstract

This article compares performance management practices in call centres from four telecommunications firms in the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, and Germany. Findings show that different combinations of institutional constraints, such as strong job security protections, and participation resources supporting worker voice were influential in shaping choices among policies to motivate and discipline workers. Performance management most closely approached a high‐involvement model where both constraints and resources were high, where worker representatives were able both to restrict management's use of sanctions and to establish procedures that improved the perceived fairness of incentives. Findings contribute to debates concerning the role of contextual factors in the design and effectiveness of HRM.

Situating human resource management in the political economy: Multilevel theorising and opportunities for kaleidoscopic imagination

“…Financialisation and the prioritisation of short‐term financial returns narrow the scope for long‐term commitments to employees (Thompson, 2003; Appelbaum & Batt, 2014). Different combinations of institutions can also provide resources for managers to implement sophisticated HRM models (through high levels of employee skills, access to long‐term finance, or participation rights) or constraints on “low‐road” models (through minimum wages, employment protections, sectoral collective bargaining, and a high “social wage” provided by welfare states) (Doellgast & Marsden, 2019).…”

Understanding the Relationship between Situational Strength and Burnout: A Multi-Sample Analysis

“…Since organisational communication is related to job satisfaction and performance [ 48 ], informational content can be improved by increasing its clarity and improving consistency in the transmission of information to increase satisfaction and performance but also as a measure to reduce burnout. In turn, constraints can be used as management measures to improve the performance of workers [ 49 ] without realising that they can also cause burnout problems that will affect performance in the long term. Therefore, managers and Human Resource practitioners must consider health effects, in addition to performance-related ones, when environmental conditions such as situational strength characteristics are changed.…”

The collective bargaining of flexicurity: A case for sector‐level analysis? The Italian chemical and metalworking sectors compared

“…Research into work and employment has increasingly explored the interplay between macrolevel dynamics and organisational practices. For example, recent studies of national systems have sought to explore the extent to which organisational practices are shaped by national‐level institutions (Björkman, Fey, & Park, ; Doellgast & Marsden, ; Goyer, Clark, & Bhankaraully, ). Similarly, critical human resource management (HRM) studies have become increasingly sensitive to the influence of national context and institutions on the approach firms take to HRM (Cooke, ; Kaufman, ).…”

“…organisational practices are shaped by national-level institutions (Björkman, Fey, & Park, 2007;Doellgast & Marsden, 2019;Goyer, Clark, & Bhankaraully, 2016). Similarly, critical human resource management (HRM) studies have become increasingly sensitive to the influence of national context and institutions on the approach firms take to HRM (Cooke, 2018;Kaufman, 2015).…”