Pernilla Bolander

Although previous research has mainly assumed that talent designation " buoys " individuals' identities, current research is increasingly pointing at the mixed blessing of being identified as a talent. Adopting an identity work perspective, we examine what identity threats talents perceive in the context of an early-career talent program and how they respond to these perceived threats. Our study builds on qualitative interviews conducted in a large Swedish MNC during three different phases of a talent program. Our findings advance the literature by developing a deeper understanding of the " identity struggles " early-career talents face during their talent journeys. We conceptualize these struggles as identity threats and identify and analyse specific threats as well as how talents respond to these threats. Our findings show a strong willingness to protect the talent identity, but responses vary over time and between individuals. The study sheds light on how different sources of identity threat and different critical experiences, especially regarding career progress and perceived social support, lead to different responses and outcomes of talent designation.

Background Few large-scale, comparative studies have examined both the positive mental well-being outcomes of work-life balance and the broader socio-economic context by which it is shaped. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between work-life balance and work engagement across a wide range of European welfare states, as well as to examine whether work-life balance varies across European countries and whether this variance can be explained by welfare regime, controlling for individual-level factors. Methods This study utilized data from the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey. In total, 35 401 workers from 30 European countries could be classified into the adopted welfare regime typology. Work engagement was measured using an ultra-short version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and work-life balance with a question on the fit between working hours and family or social commitments. Due to the hierarchical structure of the data, multilevel regression models were applied. Results A statistically significant positive association between work-life balance and work engagement across the European workforce was found. Between-country variance in work-life balance was demonstrated and this can in part be explained by welfare regime. Conclusions While it has long been recognized that occupational stress and work-related mental health problems are shaped by the socio-economic context and thus regarded as public health concerns in Europe, our results suggest that this applies to well-being at work and related support factors as well.

Background: Organizations worldwide increasingly adopt inclusive talent management, and this approach appears to rhyme particularly well with the Nordic welfare model. Questions about its value remain understudied, however. The inclusive approach is rooted in positive psychology and focuses on recognizing each employee's individual talents and assessing whether they fit the long-term needs of the organization, since a fit is assumed to be associated with employees' wellbeing. In the present study, we test this assumption focusing specifically on a key talent management practice, talent identification, and the social dimension of employee wellbeing. Method: Data were collected through an employee survey conducted within the Finnish units of four international manufacturing organizations and analyzed using logistic regression (n = 618). Results: We found that the recognition of individual talents for long-term deployment by the organization is positively associated with social wellbeing in terms of supervisor support and social climate in the work unit, as perceived by the employees. Conclusion: Our results tentatively suggest that inclusive talent management creates value through the identification of employees' individual talents as this practice can be associated with their enhanced wellbeing. Copyright © 2022 Björk, Bolander and Forsman.

Background: Promoting work engagement is of interest to organizations across sectors due to the associated positive outcomes. This interest warrants research on the evidence of work engagement interventions. Intervention research increasingly advocates a bottom-up approach, highlighting the role of employees themselves. These workplace interventions often encourage employees to identify, develop, and make use of workplace resources. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to investigate the effectiveness and potential underlying mechanisms of these bottom-up, resource-developing interventions.Method: Systematic searches were conducted in the online databases Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Ultimate, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. Publication year range was 2000-2020. Eligibility criteria were defined using PICOS. To be eligible for the systematic review, the intervention study identified had to aim at promoting working individuals' work engagement by developing workplace resources from bottom-up. Work engagement had to be measured using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The systematic review included one-, two-, or multiple-armed - randomized or non-randomized - intervention studies with various study designs. Further, a meta-analysis was conducted on a sub-set of the studies included in the systematic review. To be eligible for the meta-analysis, the studies had to be two- or multiple-armed and provide the information necessary to compute effect sizes.Results: Thirty-one studies were included in the systematic review. The majority reported that overall work engagement increased as an effect of the intervention. The evidence regarding the sub-components of work engagement was scattered. Potential underlying mechanisms explored were intervention foci, approach, and format. Dimensions of satisfaction and performance were identified as secondary outcomes. Participant experiences were generally described as positive in most of the studies applying mixed methods. The meta-analysis showed a small but promising intervention effect on work engagement (24 studies, SMD: -0.22, 95% CI: -0.34 to -0.11, with I-2=53%, indicating moderate inconsistency in the evidence).Conclusion: The synthesized evidence suggests that bottom-up, resource-developing interventions are effective in the promotion of work engagement. The meta-analysis suggests that focusing on strengths use or mobilizing ego resources and adopting a universal approach increase intervention effectiveness.

Adopting an identity work perspective, we focus on the employee experience of talent management. More specifically, we explore the ambiguities that talents in an early-career program encountered in connection to their talent status, and the identity work tactics they used to make sense of their talent status and construct coherent, stable and valued identities amidst ambiguity. Drawing on qualitative interview data from a large Swedish MNC, this study contributes by identifying three aspects of talent status in relation to which talents encounter ambiguity (role, responsibility and status). Furthermore, our findings suggest that ambiguity about the implications of talent status leads talents to engage in identity work that results in positive outcomes for both the organization and the individual in terms of desirable behaviours such as hard work and focusing on learning and development.

Taking a managerial position involves not only taking on managerial tasks and responsibilities but also developing an identity as manager. Recent work on manager learning thus proposes that identity work is a significant part of learning to become manager. This work has, however, rarely focused on first-time managers and, despite the emphasis on process, has rarely examined identity work over time. Against this background, we present a longitudinal study of six newly appointed managers. Adopting a Ricoeurian perspective, we construct “small stories” to explore how they made sense of themselves and how to relate to others in light of new experiences in their everyday lives as nascent managers. The study provides insight into the process through which they were learning to become managers. Specifically, it highlights how the manager’s identity work oscillated over time by pointing to the ongoing dialectic between continuity and change, progress and stand-still, knowing and not-knowing, and excitement and despair.

Research on service purchasing commonly acknowledges that different types of services require different purchasing approaches. This has generated a plethora of service classifications that focus on different characteristics inherent to the service. Recently, the use to which a service is put in an organization and the organizational context have been argued to influence the way in which the service is purchased, thereby shifting attention away from inherent service characteristics. The current paper extends this line of research by focusing on the buyer's understanding of the service and its impact on the supplier selection process. Based on an interpretive, phenomenographic analysis of 32 interviews with buyers of pension and insurance advice services (PIAS) in Sweden, the current study identifies four fundamentally different ways of understanding these services and shows how different conceptions of a service give rise to different approaches to selecting suppliers and different criteria for evaluating them.

Detaljerade, ofta kvantitativa uppföljningssystem (performance management) har varit ett viktigt inslag i många offentliga organisationers strävan efter ökad effektivitet under senare år. Dessa har ofta införts utifrån en förhoppning om att tydliga prestationskriterier, som följs upp och ligger till grund för fördelningen av åtråvärda resurser (såsom lön och karriärmöjligheter) motiverar medarbetare till bättre prestationer. I denna skrift vill vi nyansera bilden att sådana system skapar en motivation till ökad prestation. Vi visar hur införandet av ett nytt prestationsbedömnings- och lönesättningssystem i grundskolan i en svensk kommun ledde till olika reaktioner beroende på lärarnas professionella identitet och hur de bedömdes. Härigenom vill vi bidra till en mer utvecklad förståelse för hur styrningsinitiativ baserade på performance management påverkar medarbetares prestation, speciellt i professionsbaserade miljöer, som är vanliga i den offentliga sektorn.