Mutual Investment Employee-Organization Relationship: A Conceptual Model of How and When it is Functional

M. Audenaert (), A. Vanderstraeten and Dirk Buyens

Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium from Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

Abstract: A conceptual model is delineated on the process how and when Mutual Investment Employee-Organization Relationship (EOR), relative to other EOR forms, leads to employee reactions. Besides the widely used social exchange-based model that is used to explain this process, we build on theory to hypothesize that Mutual Investment EOR is also associated to improved employee reactions through an empowerment-based model. The social exchangebased model asserts that Mutual Investment EOR sends signals of valuing and caring for the employees, which leads to social exchange. As a result, the employees reciprocate their organizations by exhibiting improved employee reactions. The empowerment-based model holds that Mutual Investment EOR provides employees with feelings of empowerment, which results in improved employee reactions. Furthermore, the effectiveness of empowerment is hypothesized to be stronger than the effectiveness of social exchange in high-complexity jobs. The implications of the conceptual model are discussed.

Keywords: Employee-organization relationships; mutual investment; social exchange; empowerment; job complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2012-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rug:rugwps:12/778

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