Although public management and human resource management research has extensively investigated the motivational effects of organizational rules, the original utility of organizational rules... Show moreAlthough public management and human resource management research has extensively investigated the motivational effects of organizational rules, the original utility of organizational rules—uncertainty reduction—has remained overlooked. This study takes a cognitive perspective by examining how organizational rules relate to uncertainty experiences of public professionals. In this study, we provide a dynamic perspective on the relationship between organizational rules and uncertainty through a 2-week daily online diary study among 65 public professionals in the Netherlands. The results indicate that the amount and consistency of rules are related to professionals’ daily uncertainty experiences. Moreover, within-person experiences of rules and uncertainty are highly variable over time. We argue that a cognitive perspective of uncertainty reduction can broaden our understanding of the consequences of organizational rules in managing people, and that the dynamic nature of organizational rule experiences cannot be a mere footnote in future public administration and human resource management research. Show less
Bernards, B.; Voet, J. van der; Pas, S. van der; Groeneveld, S. 2020
Although public management and human resource management research has extensively investigated the motivational effects of organizational rules, the original utility of organizational rules... Show moreAlthough public management and human resource management research has extensively investigated the motivational effects of organizational rules, the original utility of organizational rules-uncertainty reduction-has remained overlooked. This study takes a cognitive perspective by examining how organizational rules relate to uncertainty experiences of public professionals. In this study, we provide a dynamic perspective on the relationship between organizational rules and uncertainty through a 2-week daily online diary study among 65 public professionals in the Netherlands. The results indicate that the amount and consistency of rules are related to professionals' daily uncertainty experiences. Moreover, within-person experiences of rules and uncertainty are highly variable over time. We argue that a cognitive perspective of uncertainty reduction can broaden our understanding of the consequences of organizational rules in managing people, and that the dynamic nature of organizational rule experiences cannot be a mere footnote in future public administration and human resource management research. Show less
A core idea of bureaucratic organizations is that rule-following is a necessary precondition to pursue the publicinterest. However, rules may sometimes become dysfunc-tional, burdensome, and even... Show moreA core idea of bureaucratic organizations is that rule-following is a necessary precondition to pursue the publicinterest. However, rules may sometimes become dysfunc-tional, burdensome, and even interfere with public valuedelivery. In those situations, professionals sometimesengage in prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB), rather than rule-following, with the aim to deliver meaningful public ser-vices. This article examines leadership encouragement andpsychological safety as antecedents of PSRB behavior. Datafrom two waves of a multi-source dataset consisting of pro-fessionals' self-reported PSRB behavior and psychologicalsafety (n=837 and 965 respondents) and their supervisor-reported encouragement for PSRB behavior (n=58 and64 respondents) is used. Findings point to a positive rela-tionship between psychological safety and PSRB. Moreover,the study partly supports the hypothesis that leadershipencouragement is associated with higher levels of PSRB,but only under conditions of high psychological safety. Show less
