Sense‐giving in health care: the relationship between the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment

• Author: Karin Sanders,Helen Shipton,Stephen Frenkel,Carol Atkinson
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Published date: 01 January 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12087

Sense-giving in health care: the relationship

between the HR roles of line managers and

employee commitment

Helen Shipton, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University

Karin Sanders, Organisational Behaviour, School of Management, Australian School

of Business, UNSW

Carol Atkinson, Centre for People and Performance, Faculty of Business and Law,

MMU Business School

Stephen Frenkel, Organisation & Employment Relations, School of Management,

Australian School of Business, UNSW

Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 26, no 1, 2016, pages 29–45

In this article, we examine line manager prioritisation of HR roles and the consequences for employee

commitment in a health-care setting. Our analysis is based on a quantitative, multi-actor study (509

employees and 67 line managers) in four Dutch hospitals. Using sense-giving as a theoretical lens, we

demonstrate that, in addition to the effects of high commitment HRM, prioritising the Employee

Champion role alone and the Employee Champion and Strategic Partner roles in combination is

associated with higher employee commitment. We argue that through performing roles that are evocative

of deep-seated values, such as excellent patient care and concern for others, line managers can have a

positive effect on staff attitudes. In a sector often beleaguered by staff turnover, exhaustion and burnout,

we offer an important, empirically based framework that has the potential to improve employee

commitment and, from there, enhance performance.

Contact: Professor Helen Shipton, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University,

7th Floor, Newton Building, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK. Email:

Helen.Shipton@ntu.ac.uk

Keywords: human resource management; line management; sense-giving; HRM roles;

organisational commitment

INTRODUCTION

Hospitals across the developed world face unprecedented challenges given technological

change, clinical advances and ever-higher societal expectations (Townsend and

Wilkinson, 2010; Bartram and Dowling, 2013). Funding pressures together with

governmental strictures mean that hospital leaders are required to deliver both value for money

and excellent standards of clinical care (Shipton et al., 2008). While hospital managers are

responsible for steering their organisations through a myriad of internal and external demands,

employees, supported by their line managers, are those who interface with patients on a

day-to-day basis. Research reveals that employees reporting positive attitudes deliver better

quality patient care (Aiken et al., 2002; Buchan, 2004), are less likely to quit (Meyer and

Herscovitch, 2001) and experience less stress and burnout than their less enthusiastic

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-

NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly

cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12087

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 26 NO 1, 2016

© 2015 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Pleasecitethisarticleinpress as:Shipton,H.,Sanders,K.,Atkinson,C.and Frenkel,S.(2016)‘Sense-givingin healthcare:the relationshipbetween

the HR roles of line managers and employee commitment’. Human Resource Management Journal 26: 1, 29–45.

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counterparts (Bartram et al., 2012). This logic suggests that, for hospitals, employee attitudes are

important, and hints at the line manager’s role in this respect (e.g. Shields and Ward, 2001). With

notable exceptions (Purcell et al., 2003; Boxall et al., 2007; McDermott et al., 2013), research into

line management role, especially in health care, is still at an early stage in respect of the

consequences for employee attitudes (Veld and Van De Voorde, 2014). Our article addresses this

gap.

Until recently, strategic HR research within health care has been preoccupied with exploring

the content of HR systems and any effect on outcomes, including employee commitment (Peccei,

2004; Wright et al., 2005). Recently, more attention has been given to HR implementation

(Haggerty and Wright, 2010) and attendant employee responses (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004). For

instance, Nishii et al. (2008) found that where employees perceived that HR practices were

implemented with an eye to their needs and aspirations, they were more inclined to report

positive attitudes and to behave in a way conducive to the achievement of organisational goals.

Added to this, Boxall et al. (2007) argue that implementing HR requires attending to a chain

consisting of links that start with HR policy and practice devised at senior level, through

interpretation and enactment, employee reactions and, ultimately, enhanced performance (see

also Nishii et al., 2008). Line managers are the connecting thread, conveying what is expected

of employees, speaking to values that matter to them and helping them to make sense of their

work environment (Gioia and Chittipeddi, 1991).

Our contributions are threefold. First, we bring together two disparate strands of literature:

that focused on HR implementation via the line manager and that examining sense-giving

(Gioia and Chittipeddi, 1991; Rouleau, 2005; Bean and Hamilton, 2006). This provides a deeper

and more nuanced understanding of the way in which line managers engage in sense-giving

through implementing HR. Second, using multi-level techniques, we apply a framework

hitherto proposed for HR specialists (Ulrich, 1997) to line managers in order to better assess

how they prioritise certain HR-related roles, de-emphasise others and what this means for the

work-related attitudes of direct reports. We thus build on and extend a burgeoning literature

on the ‘crucial intermediary’ (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007) position of line managers. Finally,

we extend the literature on HRM in hospitals (Hutchinson and Purcell, 2010; Townsend and

Wilkinson, 2010; Ang et al., 2013). Health-care positions are especially demanding (Pisljar et al.,

2011). Employees are required to interface with distressed and ill people, aware that errors may

have serious human consequences. The pressure for on-going learning is constant, in order to

keep pace with technological change and new treatment options (Parent-Thirion et al., 2007).

Understanding how line managers prioritise HR roles and influence staff work-related attitudes

has the potential to influence not just staff well-being but, ultimately, the achievement of

strategic goals (Hutchinson and Purcell, 2010; Townsend and Wilkinson, 2010; Ang et al., 2013).

THEORETICAL FRAMING

Affective commitment and hospital employees

Affective commitment (AC), referring to an employee’s emotional engagement with their place

of work, has been defined as ‘the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and

involvement in a particular organization’ (Mowday et al., 1979: 226). Affectively committed

individuals stay in the workplace because they want to (rather than feeling that they have no

other choice) (Allen and Meyer, 1990). A well-established body of evidence shows that AC is

associated with a range of outcomes including quit intention, levels of stress and citizenship

behaviour (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001). An empirical study based on 288 hospital nurses

reveals that AC plays a crucial yet not fully understood role in both retaining employees and

Sense-giving in health care

© 2015 The Authors. Human Resource Management Journal Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

30 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 26 NO 1, 2016