Contributions published at Human Resource Management

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Business is globalising. Global organisations employ people with different cultural backgrounds. At the same time the so-called Generation Y is entering the workforce, which grew up in this globalised world with all its technological advancement like the Internet. Thus, it is often suggested that differences in values between cultures are shrinking. This Master’s thesis aims to examine whether work motivational values converge in Generation Y between China and Switzerland. Applying Self-Determination theory, this was done in the framework of a questionnaire-based comparative study with Chinese and Swiss workers from Generation Y and Generation X. Against the hypothesis, the statistical analyses showed a divergence in work motivation in Generation Y between China and Switzerland. This was especially represented in autonomous motivation. On the other hand, the study identified that Chinese and Swiss Generation Y behave in a more similar way. Finally, the study tested cultural values referring to Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture and found rather divergent results again. The discussion of these findings argues for a cultural-dominant crossvergence between China and Switzerland.

Numerous sources bear witness to the importance of conductors’ role as an example for successful leadership. With their artistic guidance, conductors drive the audience into a magical astonishment, evoke witted emotions and spark off standing ovations. But only a few know, that their work is not simply a charming show. It is a result of a complex leadership, which conductors practice down to the last detail, from the very first rehearsal until the last concert. Even though billions of people experienced those miraculous impressions in the con-cert hall, the roots for conductors’ leadership success have hardly been scientifically re-searched. The present master thesis provides an investigation of the success factors of leader-ship with the focus on the symphony orchestra. The hypothesizing theoretical analyses is augmented by an empirical part based on explorative interviews with musicians and conduc-tors. The subsequent measures for the implementation of the success concept build a bridge between the symphony orchestra and a general management perspective.

This thesis deals with the topic of external validity in experimental manipulations in the context of uncooperative work behavior. Uncooperative work behavior can be discovered in any everyday situation. A little, unimportant message can be considered as uncooperative work behavior as well as sabotages. Therefore, uncooperative work behavior can have a negative impact on a company and lead to a poor work performance. The purpose of this study is to analyze the external validity based on a literature review with a game theory approach. For this reason, games of interaction are applied as well as different disciplines like behavioural economics, sociology, psychology and neuro-economics. Therefore, the author conducted a meta-analysis of two disciplines. The results of the literature research indicate the existence of the external validity of uncooperative working behaviour. In contrast, the findings of the meta-analysis show rather disillusioning tendencies to-wards a generalisability of the experimentally conducted uncooperative behaviour on reality. Moreover, the author provides a conclusion and practical implications.

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Research indicates that coworkers’ negative attitudes and behaviors may spill over to other employees and result in voluntary turnover. However, less is known about how the loss of coworkers via turnover affects stayers’ attitudes and behaviors. In this study, we treat loss of team social ties resulting from coworker turnover as a resource loss in line with the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and investigate its relationship with stayers’ turnover intention. Moreover, we examine whether individual perceptions of employers’ development and rewards practices might play a buffering role and compensate for the resource loss resulting from coworker turnover. Results of a multilevel analysis conducted using data from 267 employees nested within 57 teams indicate that the loss of team social ties resulting from turnover related positively to stayers’ turnover intention. Moreover, perceptions of strong development and rewards practices buffer this relationship in such a way that it is weaker for employees who perceive development opportunities and rewards as high. This research adds to the understanding of the spillover mechanisms resulting from team turnover attitudes and provides insight into potential measures that may prevent higher turnover intention when a significant loss of team social ties occurs.

Some departments of the banking and finance industry show a high turnover rate. Besides, in this industry, the idea of a variable compensation system (e.g. boni) has been well established for a long time. With regard to turnover, organizational commitment and turnover intention are usually considered reliable predicators. Drawing on data stemming from Luzerner Kantonalbank, the present study examines the effect of boni on the two abovementioned predicators, and on negative emotions. In the context of a distribution problem regarding boni, the question of distributional justice needs to be considered. Therefore, a moderating effect of distributive, procedural and interactional justice is taken into account. The study finds significant effects mainly for organizational commitment and the hypotheses including social comparison of individuals. The study thus discusses theoretical and practical implications and furthermore provides important insights with regard to future research.

Personnel development is an important HR practice that increases qualification and performance of employees through education, facilitation and organizational development. This thesis aims to examine the effects of personnel development on altruistic behavior. Hence, the data of 50 employees of one firm was analyzed, which was collected by using an online survey. Whereas in many studies altruistic behavior was measured by using a survey, this thesis uses an experimental game, which was included in the aforementioned online survey. The results show a positive relation between personnel development and altruistic behavior. However, it depends on the recipient of the altruistic behavior, because the data shows statistically signifi-cant positive effects of personnel development exclusively on altruistic behavior to the super-visor and on altruistic Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Furthermore, there is evidence that the work attitudes “job satisfaction”, “commitment” and “turnover intention” partially mediate the relation between personnel development and altruistic behavior as the relation is cancelled or weakened by adding the mediator in the regression.

Man plays a central role in the value creation process of the Asset Management. The most valuable and capable employees should be kept in the company. To ensure this hypotheses were derived based on the scientific turnover research and a specific developed profile of the turnover behavior of the AM concerning the employee retention. Three of these hypotheses were empirically examined based on a quantitive analyses of an employee survey conducted in 2015. The results show that well perceived career and development opportunities have a positively significant impact on employee retention within AM. Additionally, it can be said that members of smaller teams tend to show a greater commitment to the company than those of a larger team. This paper recommends four steps to strengthen the employee retention: 1) point of contact for career- and development opportunities. 2) to recognize the challenges of a large team. 3) to strengthen the team cohesion. 4) a company-specific survey for further analysis.

Team cultural diversity has important implications for teams, but also for leaders via team prototypicality (i.e., comprising attributes characteristic of the follower group) and leader prototypicality (i.e., comprising attributes characteristic of “leaders”), which are key drivers of leadership effectiveness. Based on the social identity model of organizational leadership, I operationalize culture with a more nuanced measure (i.e., native language) to examine team cultural diversity’s effects on perceptions of leader prototypicality, contingent on leader culture (i.e., team-leader language dissimilarity). Furthermore, strategy recommendations for leaders of diverse teams typically include reinforcing group salience to override individual differences, yet this technique may counterintuitively highlight cultural differences between group members and leaders, further reducing leaders’ prototypicality of the group and as a leader (respectively). I examine these propositions in a multi-source, multi-wave, and multi-level randomized field experiment of 35 newly created teams of followers (N = 462) with leaders (N = 35). As expected, irrespective of follower culture, with increasing objective team-leader language dissimilarity, followers rate leaders as less prototypical leaders and leaders rate themselves as less prototypical of the group, effects that are especially pronounced in more cohesive groups. Discussion includes theoretical and practical implications, with a focus on strategies for leading diverse teams.

In this thesis success determinants of designing and controlling talent development programs are derived, based on the Two-Factor-Theory of Herzberg, the Social-Exchange-Theory of Homans and the Resource-Based View of Wernerfelt. The most important determi-nants are motivation, trust and adjustment to the company's core competencies. The hypothe-ses are tested empirically with reference to the specific situation of the business area Invest-ment Solutions and Products (IS & P) of Credit Suisse. The results surprisingly show that talents with higher performance ratings have ceteris paribus been developed less frequently in a talent development program than talents with lower performance ratings. This requires a revision of the internal evaluation process of performance.

Reducing their employees’ proneness to errors caused by boredom at workplace is a major challenge for companis. Automatising repetitive tasks is a common approach to prevent boredom and accordingly minimize the error-proneness of workers. A promising but so far often desregarded strategy to reduce the error-proneness of employees is to make them aware of their responsibility. The analysis of the correlations between boredom and error-proneness and sense of responsibility and error-proneness reveals relevant interdependencies. However, as the effects of sense of responsibility habe been widely neglected in literature there is hardly any empirical evidence. Thus, this thesis focuses on creating an experimental design to research the effects of sense of responsibility on the error-rate in boredom to gain empirical evidence.

The situation in workplace safety has improved in recent years but still, the monetary and social costs of occupational accidents for the society are immense. In recent years, research has explored the power of nudges. With the use of such nudges it is possible to influence the behavior of individuals without coercion or a reduction in utility, which can be applied to the field of workplace safety. Within the scope of this thesis, a review of the existing literature about occupational accidents in Switzerland, different leadership theories and the power of nudge is shown. In this context this thesis discusses the current problems in the field of workplace safety, causes and predictors of occupational accidents. With the introduction of different leadership styles, a first tool for the improvement of workplace safety is presented. While transformational leadership increases safety participation, active transactional leadership increases safety compliance. Therefore, the ideal leadership behavior consists of different leadership styles. Based on several heuristics and biases, this thesis shows how leaders can use the power of nudges and how nudges can influence the behavior of others. Finally, three specific nudges with witch leaders can influence the behavior of employees are presented and show the reader how these nudges result in a better workplace safety and reduced occupational accidents.

The number of women in leadership positions barely shows augmentation, yet only a few women do make it to the top. In comparison with men, women command equal qualifications, competence or achievements, but their access to leadership positions is bristled with more obstacles. Women are exposed to the pressure of fulfilling the expectations about their female gender role and the expectations of the leadership role, even tough the expected traits between the two roles do not match. As a result, women may face social and professional penalties when viewed as too competent, accomplished or self-confident, on the other hand displaying typically feminine traits may lead to perceived ineffectiveness. Within the scope of this bachelor thesis, a review of literature concerning gender bias in addition to impression management, self-monitoring and political skill will be summarized and their potential effects on interpersonal relations, chance of promotion, leadership attainment and professional success will be examined. Supplementary, key examples illustrative of successful women are identified in this thesis. Based on the evaluated findings of the reviewed literature and the results of the analysis of the powerful women, specific strategy recommendations for female professionals who aim to achieve leadership positions are given.