Stockholms universitet

Johnny HellgrenUniversitetslektor, docent

Om mig

Mina undervisnings- och forskningsintressen omfattar aspekter som ledarskap, organisationsförändring, attityder, motivation och beteende, arbetsklimat och personalrekrytering och urval samt metodfrågor relaterade till enkäter och mätteori.

Forskningsprojekt

Publikationer

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

  • Compensation profiles among private sector employees in Sweden: Differences in work-related and health-related outcomes

    2023. Alexander Nordgren Selar (et al.). Frontiers in Psychology 14

    Artikel

    How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, willingness to remain in the organization, and health has been the subject of much debate. Previous research has typically used a variable-centered approach to investigate associations between different pay-related factors and such outcomes. In contrast, we used latent profile analysis to explore combinations of compensation characteristics (pay level, perceived horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality, i.e., transactional leadership and procedural pay-setting justice), combining relevant theories on the subject. Based on a nationally representative sample of private sector employees in Sweden (N = 1,146), our study identified six compensation profiles. Our key findings show, first, that higher levels of pay were generally associated with better performance, lower turnover intention, better self-rated health, and lower work-related exhaustion, especially when combined with perceptions of high procedural quality. Second, in terms of perceived horizontal pay dispersion, the results indicate that pay compression may be associated with beneficial outcomes, particularly when combined with high procedural quality. Third, procedural quality was generally associated with favorable work-related and health-related outcomes, although such positive effects may be contingent upon pay level and perceived horizontal pay dispersion. In conclusion, while pay level, perceptions of horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality may all matter for employee outcomes, it is important to consider their combinations.

    Läs mer om Compensation profiles among private sector employees in Sweden
  • What helps managers being fair? Predicting managers’ self-reported justice enactment during pay setting using the ability-motivation-opportunity framework

    2022. Constanze Eib (et al.). International Journal of Human Resource Management 33 (10), 2138-2169

    Artikel

    Building on the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity framework, we investigate managers’ ability, motivation, and opportunity as predictors of managers’ self-reported justice enactment during pay setting. Data from 168 managers from a large industrial company in Sweden were analyzed with hierarchical multiple regression analyses to predict the four dimensions of enacted justice (distributive, procedural, informational, interpersonal). Ability indicators contributed to all justice enactment dimensions, with self-efficacy in one’s role as pay-setting manager being positively related to all justice enactment dimensions. Motivation indicators contributed to three justice enactment dimensions (not informational), with managers’ outcome expectations of pay setting being positively related to distributive justice enactment. Opportunity indicators contributed to three justice enactment dimensions (not interpersonal), where social support in the pay-setting process predicted these justice enactment dimensions. Demographics and personality variables only explained additional variance in interpersonal justice enactment. The paper sheds light on the managers’ side of justice in pay setting, and highlights the relevance of resources to equip managers with ability, motivation, and opportunities in order to perceive that they can be fair during pay setting.

    Läs mer om What helps managers being fair? Predicting managers’ self-reported justice enactment during pay setting using the ability-motivation-opportunity framework
  • A comparative study of how social workers' voice and silence strategies relate to organisational resources, attitudes and well-being at work

    2021. Wanja Astvik, Jonas Welander, Johnny Hellgren. Journal of Social Work 21 (2), 206-224

    Artikel

    This study sets out to investigate the potential differences between social workers using voice- or silence strategies in their experience of organisational resources, attitudes and health, and whether social workers moving between strategies (voice or silence) over time have a different experience of the same outcomes than those who stay with the same strategy group. The participating social workers (n = 1356) responded to two web-based questionnaires over a one-year period. Findings The results show that voice strategies are related to the experience of more positive organisational resources, more positive attitudes (greater job satisfaction and organisational commitment, but lower intention to exit) and more positive health (greater recovery, but less emotional exhaustion and stress symptoms) than those using silence strategies. The results also show that moving from silence to voice is related to the experience of increased organisational resources, more positive attitudes and more positive health at T2, while those moving from voice to silence reported the opposite. Applications The longitudinal approach applied in this study adds empirical evidence of the relationship between voice/silence and work-related attitudes, as well as health and well-being. The close relationship between organisational resources, employee voice behaviour and related individual outcomes regarding attitudes and health imply that Human Resources (HR) management has a lot to gain by developing and securing a voice-friendly and considerate climate in their organisations.

    Läs mer om A comparative study of how social workers' voice and silence strategies relate to organisational resources, attitudes and well-being at work
  • Anställningsotrygghet och prestation

    2021. Lena Låstad (et al.). Konferensbok FALF 14–16 juni 2021, 88-88

    Konferens

    Bakgrund: Anställningsotrygghet, det vill säga en oro för att mot den egna viljan förlora jobbet, har visatsig vara kopplat till olika prestationsrelaterade utfall. Antalet studier är dock få med resultatsom pekar åt delvis olika håll. Därför är det angeläget att försöka sammanställa tidigareforskning på ett systematiskt sätt genom en meta-analys.

    Syfte: Den här studien syftade till att undersöka hur anställningsotrygghet hänger samman med olikaaspekter av prestation i arbetet, däribland arbetsprestation och medarbetarbeteenden. I detingick också att undersöka faktorer som kan påverka dessa samband, såsom metodrelateradefaktorer samt kontextuella faktorer som speglar vilken typ av välfärdssystem en studiegenomförts i.

    Metod: En meta-analys genomfördes på primärstudier som identifierades genom systematisklitteratursökning i för området relevanta databaser

    Resultat: Över lag visar resultaten att anställningsotrygghet hänger samman med försämrad prestation iarbetet. Resultaten är jämförbara oberoende av om studiedesignen var tvärsnittlig ellerlongitudinell. Sambandet mellan hög anställningsotrygghet och försämrad prestation framstårsom svagare i välfärdssystem som är förenade med en högre grad av skyddsnät för den enskildaindividen. Även om merparten av resultaten visar på entydiga samband mellananställningsotrygghet och försämrad prestation behövs dock forskning som inkluderar mer avlongitudinella studier i olika välfärdskontexter för att ytterligare klargöra sambandens karaktär.

    Läs mer om Anställningsotrygghet och prestation
  • Non-standard Employment Contracts

    2021. Anna Sofia Tanimoto (et al.). Flexible Working Practices and Approaches, 191-211

    Kapitel

    Non-standard employment includes a variety of contractual arrangements which deviate from permanent, open-ended, full-time work. There are several types of non-standard work, including project work, seasonal work, on-call work, solo self-employment, and temporary agency work. Non-standard workers are typically younger, have lower levels of education, and are more often women in comparison with standard employees. Despite substantial heterogeneity between different types of non-standard work, and research illustrating that the consequences may vary between contract forms, the overall picture suggests that non-standard employment is associated with more negative work-related, safety-related, and health-related outcomes than standard employment. Findings also suggest that these associations may be influenced by factors related to an individual’s preference for their employment contract or the job specifically. Non-standard employment may have implications for the individual, policy-makers, employers, and unions. There is a need for additional research focusing on disentangling various contractual arrangements and investigating how various types of non-standard workers differ in terms of demographic characteristics, work environment conditions, and consequences.

    Läs mer om Non-standard Employment Contracts
  • Vad vet vi om fackets roll i ett föränderligt arbetsliv?

    2021. Johnny Hellgren (et al.). Konferensbok FALF 14-16 juni 2021, 58-58

    Konferens

    Bakgrund: Genom att samverka med arbetsgivarparter och organisera yrkesverksamma personer har fackföreningar bidragit till flera förändringar som främjat en positiv utveckling på arbetsmarknaden. Den här utvecklingen inkluderar reglering av arbetstid, semester, sjukfrånvaro och säkerhet i arbetet. Sammantaget har detta fackliga arbete bidragit till att främja en god arbetsmiljö. Likväl finns idag en diskussion kring legitimiteten i fackföreningarsarbete. Den diskussionen utgår från det faktum att den fackliga anslutningsgraden minskat över tid, med lägre anslutningsgrad särskilt bland individer som arbetar deltid, har tidsbegränsade anställningskontrakt eller i övrigt har osäkra anställningsvillkor. Det bidrar till frågor om vilken kunskap som egentligen finns när det gäller fackets roll och attityder till facklig anslutning i ett arbetsliv som i allt högre grad utmärks av osäkra anställningsvillkor.

    Syfte: Mot bakgrund av det syftade den här systematiska litteraturöversikten till att sammanställa aktuell forskning om facket och anställda med olika typer av osäkra och tillfälliga anställningar. Mer specifikt var fokus riktat mot att undersöka attityder till facket och facklig anslutningsgrad bland anställda med otrygga anställningar, i vilken utsträckning fackligt medlemskap kan utgöra ett skydd mot otrygga anställningsvillkor, vad fackligt medlemskap kan betyda för arbetsrelaterade attityder och beteenden samt olika aspekter av hälsa samt hur fackliga organisationer arbetar för att rekrytera personer med atypiska anställningskontrakt.

    Metod: Tidigare studier identifierades genom systematisk litteratursökning i för området relevanta databaser med avgränsning till litteratur publicerad från 2010 och framåt. Dessa bedömes sedan av oberoende bedömare som relevanta eller irrelevanta för frågeställningen. Slutligen sammanställdes resultat för olika delområden.

    Resultat: Över lag visar resultaten att medlemskap i facket kan ha en stödjande funktion för individer med osäkra anställningsvillkor och för dem som upplever otrygghet, men att benägenheten att organisera sig fackligt är lägre bland anställda med otrygga anställningar jämfört med anställda med mer typiska anställningskontrakt. I linje med vad som konstaterats i tidigare studier är kunskapen fortfarande begränsad kring attityder till facket och kopplingar till olika arbets- och hälsorelaterade aspekter, inte minst hos de grupper som innehar olika former av tidsbegränsade och osäkra anställningar. Det motiverar ytterligare empiriska studier som fokuserar på olika aspekter av fackets roll i ett föränderligt arbetsliv där det finns en större variation i olika typer av anställningsformer.

    Läs mer om Vad vet vi om fackets roll i ett föränderligt arbetsliv?
  • Just What I See? Implications of Congruence Between Supervisors’ and Employees’ Perceptions of Pay Justice for Employees’ Work-Related Attitudes and Behaviors

    2020. Sofia Malmrud (et al.). Frontiers in Psychology 11

    Artikel

    Perceiving a pay system as just has been suggested to be a precondition for individualized pay to have a motivating effect for employees. Supervisors’ enacted justice is central for understanding the effects that pay setting can have on employee attitudes and behavior. Yet, enacted justice has received little research attention, in regard to both organizational justice and pay-related topics. This study examines the effects of employees’ perceived pay justice and supervisors’ enacted justice, as well as the degree of congruence, on employees’ work-related attitudes and behaviors. Questionnaire data from employees (N = 566) matched with data from their pay-setting supervisors (N = 208), employed in a Swedish manufacturing company, were analyzed. Results of polynomial regression with response surface analysis show that employees’ perceptions of pay justice were important for their work-related attitudes and behaviors and that supervisor–employee congruence regarding pay justice was positively related to employees’ attitudes and behavior, particularly when the ratings concerned high levels of justice. The results not only highlight the importance of developing a pay system that is perceived as just by employees but also emphasize the importance of reaching a congruence between supervisors’ and employees’ perceptions of high fairness, as this has positive implications for employees’ attitudes and behaviors.

    Läs mer om Just What I See? Implications of Congruence Between Supervisors’ and Employees’ Perceptions of Pay Justice for Employees’ Work-Related Attitudes and Behaviors
  • “It’s [Not] All ‘Bout the Money”

    2020. Alexander Nordgren Selar (et al.). Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 5 (1), 1-14

    Artikel

    The use of performance-based pay is increasing rapidly, but empirical evidence on how and why it relates to job performance, as well as its relative strategical importance, remains unclear. The present study examined the relative importance of performance-based pay variables and support of psychological needs variables for task and contextual performance in a sample of 582 white-collar employees in Sweden. Multiple regression results, based on survey and register data, showed that the instrumentality of the pay system related to lower levels of task and contextual performance. However, supplementary relative weight analysis (RWA) showed that, in relative terms, instrumentality of the pay system was of minor importance for performance. Performance-based pay-raise amount was positively related to contextual performance but not predictive of task performance. Procedural pay-setting justice was unrelated to both outcomes. Among the support of psychological needs variables, feedback and job autonomy had positive associations with both outcomes while social support from colleagues was not predictive of performance. Considering the explained variance (16–17%), the performance-based pay variables combined accounted for up to a third (12.6–29.2%) while support of psychological needs variables accounted for more than half of the explained variance (56.1–68.1%) in task and contextual performance. The results indicate that organizations would benefit from putting support of psychological needs to the forefront of their motivational strategies as a complement to administrating complex compensation systems.

    Läs mer om “It’s [Not] All ‘Bout the Money”
  • A Meta-Analysis of Job Insecurity and Employee Performance

    2019. Magnus Sverke (et al.). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16 (14)

    Artikel

    Previous research has shown that job insecurity is linked to a range of performance outcomes, but the number of studies exploring this relationship is still limited and the results are somewhat mixed. The first aim of this study was to meta-analytically investigate how job insecurity is related to task performance, contextual performance, counterproductive work behavior, creativity, and safety compliance. The second aim was to test two method-related factors ( cross-sectional vs. longitudinal associations and self-vs. supervisor-ratings of performance) and two macro-level indicators of social protection ( social welfare regime and union density) as moderators of these associations. The results show that job insecurity was generally associated with impaired employee performance. These findings were generally similar both cross-sectionally and longitudinally and irrespective of rater. Overall, the associations between job insecurity and negative performance outcomes were weaker in welfare regimes characterized by strong social protection, whereas the results concerning union density produced mixed results. A majority of the findings confirmed the negative associations between job insecurity and types of employee performance, but future research is needed to elaborate on the effects of temporal aspects, differences between ratings sources, and further indicators of social protection in different cultural settings in the context of job insecurity.

    Läs mer om A Meta-Analysis of Job Insecurity and Employee Performance
  • Challenges for pay-setting managers

    2019. Sofia Malmrud (et al.). Abstract Book of the 19th European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology Congress, 1281-1282

    Konferens

    Purpose: In organizations using individualized pay setting, where pay raises are based on job performance and the quality of work, managers have a central role as they execute the organizations’ pay systems. The present study aims at increasing the understanding of pay-setting managers’ beliefs and perspectives on their role in connection to pay setting.

    Design/Methodology: The study is based on seven focus group interviews with pay-setting supervisors from four different companies in the Swedish private sector. In the past few years, all four companies have implemented new pay-systems with a greater focus on employee performance. The semi-structured focus group interviews were analyzed with an inductive thematic analysis.

    Results: Data analysis is ongoing. A preliminary thematic analysis revealed several tentative themes. These concern difficulties in assessing employee performance and in ensuring that employees fully understand the pay setting process (especially the performance assessments), the importance of regular constructive feedback, need for guidance and support, and lack of resources to reward high performing individuals.

    Limitations: While focus groups with managers from four organizations provide a wealth of perspectives, individual interviews may have allowed for more in-depth insights. The results also need replication using questionnaire data to examine how wide-spread various experiences are.

    Implications: This study contributes to a better understanding of the challenges that pay-setting supervisors perceive. This knowledge could be used by organizations to facilitate the pay-setting process for managers.

    Originality: This is one of few studies focusing on pay-setting managers, who are the ones executing organizations’ pay setting systems.

    Läs mer om Challenges for pay-setting managers
  • Employees' experiences of pay-related justice and supervisors' enacted justice

    2019. Magnus Sverke (et al.). Abstract Book of the 19th European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology Congress, 1633-1633

    Konferens

    Purpose: Individualized pay-setting, where pay raises are based on job performance, are used in many organizations. Research suggests that employees’ justice perceptions are important for pay to have beneficial outcomes. It can also be expected that the level of agreement between employee and supervisor regarding the fairness of the pay-setting process may have similar positive effects. The aim of this study was to investigate how congruence in pay justice perceptions between supervisor and employee relates to employees’ work-related attitudes and behaviour.

    Methodology: An online questionnaire was administered to all white-collar employees (N=744) and their pay-setting supervisors (N=188) of an industrial enterprise in Sweden, which had recently implemented a more individualized pay-setting system. The matched data was analysed using polynomial regression analysis.

    Results: Preliminary results of the polynomial regression analyses show that employee experiences of pay-related justice related to more positive work-related attitudes, a lower inclination to leave the organization, and better job performance. The preliminary findings also indicate a tendency for more favourable outcomes among employees who experienced higher fairness congruence with their supervisor.

    Limitations: The cross-sectional design does not allow for causal inferences. The study needs replication among other occupational groups, in other sectors, and in different countries.

    Implications: The results highlight the importance of a transparent pay-setting process, which is perceived as fair by both supervisors and employees.

    Originality/Value: While supervisors’ enacted justice has been highlighted in research on organizational justice, there is a lack of research on the congruence between supervisors and employees regarding pay-related justice perceptions.

    Läs mer om Employees' experiences of pay-related justice and supervisors' enacted justice

Visa alla publikationer av Johnny Hellgren vid Stockholms universitet