Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management

 

Special Issue on: "Employee Satisfaction and Engagement: Theory and Praxis for Today’s Excellence"

Guest Editors:
Dr. Aleksander Aristovnik and Dr. Nina Tomaževič, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The main objective of this special issue is to present the most interesting papers, involving research on employee satisfaction and engagement as the main competitive advantages of modern businesses, both private and public. Many factors make organisations competitive in achieving business excellence. Many of the factors are easily controllable and changeable whereas those connected with the human factor, such as employee satisfaction and engagement are very difficult to first to establish and later to maintain. Therefore, attracting and retaining satisfied and engaged employees is becoming a critical factor of competitive advantage and business excellence. Leaders are those who should have the competence, authority and interest to encourage and promote high employee satisfaction and engagement since they lead to several measurable and unmeasurable benefits, first, for individual employees, second, for organisations and third, for society as a whole.

In today’s increasingly competitive and rapidly changing business environment, the fields of employee satisfaction and engagement are very important for both theory and praxis. We welcome papers with a focus on all aspects of employee satisfaction and engagement since the excellence and sustainability of operations rely heavily on them. Most employee satisfaction and engagement studies in academia began relatively later than practitioner research, although recently quite a number of researchers have begun to address the constructs of employee satisfaction and engagement - studying their dimensions, predecessors, antecedents and consequences. Some authors have taken their own approach to understanding employee satisfaction and engagement, others have offered their reinterpretations. Both constructs have been examined by different disciplines (e.g. HRM, HRD, psychology, sociology, management) or even interdisciplinary. We aim to include the best research studies and case studies to allow the state-of-the art areas of employee satisfaction and engagement to be brought together. The biggest potential is seen in the recent research on organisational cognition, evolutionary perspectives and historical analysis, as well as narrative and discursive approaches in contributing to an improved understanding of employee satisfaction and engagement. The call is an attempt to link contemporary HRM research to theories and methods that advance our understanding of the discussed fields of research. The main theme will follow the idea that ‘the technology is a motor of changes, but people are the heart’.

According to the theme that is of interest both in and for theory and practice, there is a huge potential to receive a number of high quality papers from all over the world. Besides scientific papers, one-third of them could be best case studies in the areas of employee satisfaction and engagement since in our opinion sharing best practice is an important element of learning and improvements. We are open to a wide range of paradigms within employee satisfaction and engagement. In particular, we invite innovative research that enhances theorising on the mentioned themes through cross-fertilisation of ideas across different perspectives. We would consider papers that are conceptual, qualitative, or quantitative.

In an age of high technology, market model dominance and wage slavery one might claim that employee satisfaction, as one of the most often examined constructs in HRM in the past, does not matter at all. On the other hand, theorists and practitioners from the field of HRM claim that employees and their satisfaction are the key factor of success and excellence in today’s businesses. Moreover, satisfaction is not enough – employees have to be engaged in order to perform to the maximum benefit of the organisation and society.

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Predecessors (enablers or drivers) of employee (dis)satisfaction and (dis)engagement, e.g. the impact of personal (demographic, psychological etc.), organisational and external factors
• Consequences of employee satisfaction and engagement (for employees, for organisations, for society) - what if employees are (dis)satisfied and/or (dis)engaged?
• Dimensions (facets) of employee satisfaction and engagement - if taken as multidimensional constructs
• Potential interrelations of employee satisfaction and engagement - does employee satisfaction lead to engagement or the opposite?
• Related terms (commitment, motivation, contribution, etc.)
• How to improve/enhance and maintain employee satisfaction and engagement
• What kills employee satisfaction and engagement?
• Best practices/case studies related to employee satisfaction and engagement

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Important Dates

Manuscripts due by: 31 December, 2016

Notification to authors: 28 February, 2017

Submission of revised papers: 25 April, 2017

Final versions due by: 1 June, 2017

Papers submitted earlier than the submission date will be put through the review process on a rolling basis, and their authors may expect to hear back sooner.