Issue Information ‐ TOC

• Date: 01 September 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21754
• Published date: 01 September 2016

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 VOLUME 55, NUMBER 5

ARTICLES

CROWDING OUT RECIPROCITY BETWEEN WORKING PARENTS

ANDCOMPANIES WITH CORPORATE CHILDCARE

ANJA FEIERABEND AND BRUNO STAFFELBACH 771

When the government and companies invest in childcare, both do it with good intentions. While

politicians have the intention of enhancing fertility and well-being of families, employers expect

positive responses from working parents based on the norm of reciprocity. Since industrialized

countries increase public family support year by year, the question arises as to whether this may

trigger unanticipated consequences. If both the state and companies invest in substitutive services,

they might unintentionally spark competition. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine

whether public childcare may “crowd out” the reciprocity effects of corporate childcare on

working parents. In Switzerland, state family policies vary among the 26 cantons, so we are able

to compare cantons with a high and low number of cantonal childcare services. Using survey data

taken from 414 working parents living in different Swiss cantons, we examined whether public

childcare affects organizational-related responses of working parents. First, our results support

the expected level of reciprocity: working parents in companies with their own childcare services

show higher organizational commitment than parents in companies without this support. Second,

we find evidence for a crowding-out effect: in family-supportive cantons with numerous public

childcare services, working parents’ commitment to companies with their own childcare services

is lower than in less family-friendly cantons. This finding reignites an old economic debate on the

crowding out of voluntary private investments due to governmental policies.

THE EFFECT OF A CONSCIOUSLY SET AND A PRIMED GOAL ON FAIR

BEHAVIOR

DESHANI B. GANEGODA, GARY P. LATHAM, ANDROBERT FOLGER 789

Three experiments were conducted to test whether an enhanced degree of fair behavior could

be obtained by making justice a goal, whether consciously set, primed, or both. Each experiment

assessed fairness in a competitive negotiation context. All participants, across the three

experiments, were asked to attain a base-level performance goal. The first experiment examined

how a negotiation is affected by a consciously set goal for fairness as well as a primed fairness

goal. The results revealed that both the conscious and the primed goal enhanced a participant’s

fairness. The second and third experiments examined the underlying mediating mechanisms of

the effects found in the first experiment. Overall, the results of three experiments indicate that

both conscious and primed goals, individually or in combination, can increase fair behavior by

enhancing justice saliency.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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Volume 55, Number 5 was mailed the week of September 12, 2016