“Opportunity, Fair Process and Relationship Value”: Analysis of the Article Research Paper

Introduction

The theory of organizational change is evident in the proactive behaviour and careerist orientation of employees. This directly relates to the duties of the human resource of dealing with career development opportunities, fairness and procedures in recruitment, and commitment of employees to the organization. The negative effects of these elements reflect resistance to change in the organization resulting in workplace stress. This article discusses the issues and implications of human resource management as related to career development opportunities, proactive behaviour, and careerist orientation. It also covers how they relate to resistance to change in the organization.

Critical Assessment of the Article

Organizations can only operate smoothly by retention of highly skilled employees who have vast experience, or through the development of new and willing employees. Some organizations have put up measures to improve the existing workforce to be in line with the organizational changes such as revising job descriptions, dealing with redundancy, implementation of short contracts, or outsourcing for consultants

The employees get their career satisfaction, which in turn improves their attitudes and behaviors at work, amounting to stress in the workplace and resistance to change. These strategies have been largely overlooked with limited reports of their implementation, despite the salience of behaviour that is proactive (Aryee & Chen, 2004). There is usually a relationship between procedural justice perceptions and positive results in a system of decision-making. These perceptions come out well when employees receive proper working terms. The study, therefore, proposed a three-way interaction in determining the interest of employees in proactive behaviour and career orientation that is related to stress at work. The interaction involves perceptions of procedural justice, opportunities for career development, and commitment to the organization (Crawshaw, Dick & Brodbeck, 2011).

Summary of the research methods and findings

The study focused on a UK high street financial services provider having over 15,000 employees in their 700 retail branches, call centres, and head office. The professions explored were accountancy, management, human resource, retail, marketing, and information technology. This company qualified for the study because it valued the development and implementation of interventions in career development. This includes career development planning, mentoring schemes, promotions, pieces of training, and development courses.

The measured variables included proactive behaviour measured using a three-item scale on a Linkert scale, and careerist orientation measured using a five-item scale. Favourability of career development opportunities measured using a two-item scale with a focus on attitudes towards the subject, procedural justice measured using a five item scale, organizational commitment by an eight item scale and controls variables. Analysis of the five variables was done by CFA (confirmatory factor analysis) using the AMOS version modelling software. This analysis was a prerequisite before testing the main hypotheses. A five-factor model emerged as the best fit for the indices of RMEA and CFI. The testing of main hypotheses was by computing means, inter-correlations of the variables, and standard deviation (Dawson & Richter, 2006). The analysis of two way and three-way interactions was by regression analysis. Plotting of the significant interaction effects and the significance of the differences among the slopes was also determined.

Negative viewing of opportunities related to career development together with high organizational commitment results in strong and positive perceptions of proactive behaviour, and careerist orientation. When an employee establishes a close relationship with the employer, then the ability to perceive procedural justice in suppressing the unfavourable effects of career development opportunities and careerist orientation emerges. The study supports a complex set of cognitions in the reaction by employees to the given career development opportunities. There are significant effects on procedural justice, favourability of outcomes, and organizational commitment in the prediction of an employee’s proactive behaviour and careerist orientation. According to the authors, there is no study done on the importance of career development and management in encouraging the pro-activity of an individual. The relevance of the theoretical proposition of relational over instrumental perspective on procedural justice comes out clearly in this study. Career management is evident as a short term and economic transaction, where flexibility and high-performance exchanges for marketable skills, which are equally transferable.

Implications of the study

Employees are liable to frustrations when they do not get opportunities for career development from their respective employers, maybe due to economic recession. The employees tend to develop negative attitudes towards their careers, thus threatening individual pro-activity. However, other careerist orientations may emerge for the survival of the organization.

A substantial amount of work has been done on the duty of high performance and committed careers and strategies of the human resource management in encouraging organizational commitment. This study strongly supports the importance of proper recruitment, mechanisms of employee involvement, job design, and systems of performance management, and reward strategies, which are the overall objectives of the human resource manager (Riketta, 2006). The human resource department should be informed of the roles of fair procedures in giving out career development opportunities. These processes should follow the policies of procedural justice of consistency and transparency. Employees also need to get updates on communications on their career development and decisions related to their careers to reduce the stresses that arise at work.

References

1. Aryee, S., & Chen, Z. X. (2004). Countering the trend towards a careerist orientation in the age of downsizing: the test of a social exchange model. Journal of Business Research, 57(4), 321–328.
2. Crawshaw, J. R., Dick, R. V., & Brodbeck, F. C. (2011). Opportunity, Fair Process and Relationship Value: Career Development as a Driver of Proactive work behaviour. Human Resource Management Journal, 4(7), 5-22.
3. Dawson, J., & Richter, A. (2006). Probing three-way interactions in moderated multiple regression: Development and application of a slope difference test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 917–926.
4. Riketta, M., Dick, R., & Rousseau, D. (2006). Employee attachment in the short and long run: antecedents and consequences of situated and deep structure identification. Zeitschrift für Personalpsychologie, 5(1), 85–93.