The International Journal of Human Resource Management

Akgul, Key Lales; De Winne, Sophie; Van den Broeck, Anja; Baillien, Elfi; Godderis, Lode; De Feyter, Tim

2025 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

doi: 10.1080/09585192.2025.2451985

Abstract Strategic Human Resource Management research generally focuses on a set of HR practices, thereby concealing single HR practices’ potential impact. This study examines whether – and, if so – how job design, an important HR practice, relates to organisational performance and whether a mutual gains, mutual loss or conflicting outcomes perspective holds. A multilevel moderation and mediation path analysis – underpinned by Job-Demands-Resources theory – was performed to test whether the workforce’s perceived job resources and job demands relate to labour productivity, via workforce well-being (i.e. workforce engagement and burnout). Analyses are based on an industry-wide sample of 187 organisations (and 33801 employees). Our findings show that job resources are positively (negatively) associated with engagement (burnout) and labour productivity. Job demands are positively related to burnout, but this relationship is buffered by job resources. Surprisingly, organisations with a highly engaged and/or a low burned-out workforce do not show higher labour productivity. Overall, findings suggest that the organisation and workforce benefit from high job resources, in line with the mutual gains (win-win) perspective. Results for job demands indicate, in line with a mutual loss (lose-lose) perspective, that nobody seems to benefit from high job demands. These findings create useful insights for research and practitioners.

Basterretxea, Imanol; Castillo-Apraiz, Julen; Bretos, Ignacio

2025 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

doi: 10.1080/09585192.2024.2449077

Abstract In this paper, we examine the cross-national transfer and hybridization of collaborative human resource management (HRM) practices at Mondragon Assembly (MA), a Spanish multinational worker cooperative. Drawing on longitudinal data and in-depth interviews with 16 senior managers at MA’s parent company and its subsidiaries in France, Germany, China, Mexico and Brazil, the study shows how MA transferred its hallmark practices of employee ownership, profit sharing and employee voice to foreign sites in a way that substantially deviated from the original versions. The study illustrates how practice transfer was shaped over time by host-country institutional arrangements, vested interests of co-op member-owners about the extent to which the HRM practices should be transferred, and the agency of subsidiary managers in the adaptation and internalization of the transferred practices. The study also analyses the impact of transferred HRM practices on talent retention and employee commitment at subsidiaries. The paper responds to recent calls in the IHRM literature for fine-grained evidence on how organizational actors at the parent company and subsidiaries engage over time in the adjustment and adaptation of HRM practices to ensure their internal and external fit with a variety of interests, political agendas, market pressures and institutional factors.

hernandez, theresa r.; Nault, Evan; Sabat, Isaac E.; Kostecki, Toni P.

2025 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

doi: 10.1080/09585192.2024.2449531

Abstract We examine the experiences of nonbinary and cisgender people in expressing their gender identity at work. Gender expression (GE) is important to study given that gender is embedded in nearly every aspect of U.S. society; however, this gender construction is binary, thereby excluding those whose gender falls outside of this paradigm. As of yet, research has not examined the specific GE experiences of nonbinary and cisgender individuals at work. To address this gap, we conducted a qualitative study of the workplace gender expression practices of nonbinary and cisgender employees. We found that nonbinary and cisgender people used similar tools for expressing and concealing their gender identity; however, they used these tools for different purposes. Nonbinary people expressed their gender by limiting association with assigned sex/gender at birth (AS/GAB) whereas cisgender people expressed their gender by promoting association with AS/GAB. The converse occurred when each group concealed their gender identity. Our initial findings lend support for the applicability of the Button (2004) identity management framework to nonbinary gender expression experiences and social recategorization theory (Roberts et al., 2008) to cisgender gender expression experiences. We conclude with recommendations for improving workplace conditions that would support authentic gender expression at work.