The question whether organizations should encourage leaders to treat their followers differently, or as a collective entity, has long fueled discussion among both practitioners and scholars. Recent advances point to two possible key constructs, namely, collective-focused leadership climate and differentiated individual-focused leadership. These constructs are important as they can have opposite effects on collective outcomes. However, at present, no single overarching theoretical framework has been put forward to help understand these opposite effects. Therefore, this study develops and tests a new, more unified, perspective. Drawing from the commitment literature and in particular the often used theories of social exchange and perceived organizational support therein, we first argue for opposite effects on the affective organization commitment climate among employees. Then we reason that organizational performance can increase, if such affective commitment is ‘put into action' and raise the organizational-citizenship-behavior climate. Our three-path-mediation hypotheses are tested, and supported, by Structural Equation Modeling analyses in a multi-source dataset that contains more than 18,000 respondents from 175 companies. This new empirically tested and supported perspective takes important steps toward resolving the long lingering question of whether to differentiate leadership or not.
Der demografische Wandel ist eine der grossen Herausforderungen, insbesondere für Organisationen der öffentlichen Hand. Schon heute sind sie mit einem stark steigenden Durchschnittsalter ihrer Belegschaften konfrontiert, das eine zuverlässige Dienstleistungserstellung in Zukunft in Frage stellt, da sowohl die körperliche Konstitution, die Motivation als auch die Qualifikation in einer alternden Belegschaft rückläufig sein können. Zur Bewältigung dieser Herausforderung ist eine Professionalisierung des Personalmanagements in den öffentlichen Verwaltungen unerlässlich. Dieser Beitrag stellt deshalb dar, wie ein strategisches Personalmanagement in den Bereichen präventives Gesundheitsmanagement, Personalentwicklung, lebenslanges Lernen und einen lebensphasenorientiertes Karrieremanagement zum erfolgreichen Umgang mit dem demografischen Wandel in der öffentlichen Verwaltung gestaltet werden kann.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to integrate research on human resource systems with work on disability management practices to outline how multinationals across India and Germany are engaged in efforts to increase workplace inclusion of persons with a disability.
Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews with respondents from multinational corporations in India and Germany were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed.
Findings – Employers followed three guiding principles (i.e. beliefs): importance of harnessing diversity, encouraging multi-stakeholder engagement internally, and engaging with the external ecosystem to build internal human resource capabilities. Respondents further noted two interdependent and mutually constitutive programs that covered the life cycle of the employee: Job flexibility provisions and integration programs. Country-specific differences existed in terms of perceived external stakeholder support and availability of talent.
Research limitations/implications – The results complement prior research with respect to the importance of organizational factors for the inclusion of persons with a disability and also extend prior research by shedding light on the role of the national context in such inclusion endeavors.
Practical implications – Findings indicate that disability-inclusion principles may be universal, but their operationalization is region specific. Global organizations must be aware of these differences to
design effective inclusion programs.
Social implications – The study helps in designing and evaluating appropriate inclusion initiatives for persons with disabilities, an important yet underutilized group of potential employees in both India
and Germany.
Originality/value – This is the first study to investigate country-specific commonalities and differences in fostering workplace inclusion of persons with disabilities in India and Germany.
