Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

New Zealand study of not-for-profit (NFP) shows high degree of employee involvement doesn't produce results without strong HRM policies

New Zealand study of not-for-profit (NFP) shows high degree of employee involvement doesn't... There is a growing interest in employee involvement as a means to enhance commitment and wellbeing. Typically, there is a degree of power sharing in decisions at all levels. In large organizations, the strategy has been shown to deliver benefits. The authors wanted to study the themes in a small NFP.Design/methodology/approachThe authors chose an extreme case of a small NFP organized on democratic lines but with only informal HRM policies. They felt an extreme case would be instructive. The organization, which they gave the pseudonym OA, is a small non-profit agency that offers education around sexual violence and advice and support to survivors. As a collective, it involves everyone in decision-making. The lead author carried out the detailed study over six months based in the office. It involved formal interviews with six existing employees and six ex-employees, or volunteers, as well as a clinical supervisor.FindingsThe study showed that without systematic and strategic HRM policies, strong forms of employee participation won’t deliver higher levels of equity. Although the NFP in the study operated as a collective, it lacked even basic HR policies. The consequences included poor management, high turnover, burnout and inadequate training.Originality/valueThe authors said the results showed that small size and organizational commitment did not always support effective employee participation. Weak HR policies made the problems of poor communication and decision-making worse and caused a lot of stress. As a result, the high turnover impacted performance. The findings add a note of caution to existing findings about employee participation. In fact, perversely, it can even lead to worse outcomes. Arguably, they say, HRM is even more essential in a small NFP environment because of the structural constraints and lack of funding. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Human Resource Management International Digest Emerald Publishing

New Zealand study of not-for-profit (NFP) shows high degree of employee involvement doesn't produce results without strong HRM policies

Smith, David
Human Resource Management International Digest , Volume 29 (5): 3 – Aug 19, 2021
Download PDF
3 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/new-zealand-study-of-not-for-profit-nfp-shows-high-degree-of-employee-KsJcCNnYCw

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
0967-0734
DOI
10.1108/hrmid-03-2021-0066
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

There is a growing interest in employee involvement as a means to enhance commitment and wellbeing. Typically, there is a degree of power sharing in decisions at all levels. In large organizations, the strategy has been shown to deliver benefits. The authors wanted to study the themes in a small NFP.Design/methodology/approachThe authors chose an extreme case of a small NFP organized on democratic lines but with only informal HRM policies. They felt an extreme case would be instructive. The organization, which they gave the pseudonym OA, is a small non-profit agency that offers education around sexual violence and advice and support to survivors. As a collective, it involves everyone in decision-making. The lead author carried out the detailed study over six months based in the office. It involved formal interviews with six existing employees and six ex-employees, or volunteers, as well as a clinical supervisor.FindingsThe study showed that without systematic and strategic HRM policies, strong forms of employee participation won’t deliver higher levels of equity. Although the NFP in the study operated as a collective, it lacked even basic HR policies. The consequences included poor management, high turnover, burnout and inadequate training.Originality/valueThe authors said the results showed that small size and organizational commitment did not always support effective employee participation. Weak HR policies made the problems of poor communication and decision-making worse and caused a lot of stress. As a result, the high turnover impacted performance. The findings add a note of caution to existing findings about employee participation. In fact, perversely, it can even lead to worse outcomes. Arguably, they say, HRM is even more essential in a small NFP environment because of the structural constraints and lack of funding.

Journal

Human Resource Management International Digest – Emerald Publishing

Published: Aug 19, 2021

Keywords: New Zealand; Employee involvement; HRM; NFP

There are no references for this article.