In this commentary, we discuss and define the ‘future of work’ as a phenomenon and research area, and outline avenues for further research at the conceptual and empirical level. We first offer a brief review of the different streams of research that study the future of work, both in management and organization studies and in adjacent fields. We then elaborate on what we see as the most promising avenues for research on the future of work, organized around five questions of what, when, who, how, and why. That is, research on the future of work needs to clarify its assumptions about (1) the phenomena it considers within scope; (2) the temporality associated with these phenomena; (3) which future of work actors it is about, and who it is for; (4) the methods and data types used to be able to study the future empirically; and (5) desired impact and envisioned outcomes. We discuss how moving beyond technodeterminism, depoliticization, and a present-day focus could open up new and important avenues for further research on the near and distant future of work. We conclude with some specific examples of research questions and methods.
Due to recent technological developments, vignette studies that have traditionally been done in text or video formats can now be done in immersive formats using virtual reality—but are such virtual reality video vignettes superior to traditional vignettes? To address this question, we examine participants’ experiences within a fictitious organization by comparing their responses to a relevant and particularly sensitive organizational phenomenon presented either through written text, a video recording, or a virtual reality experience. The results indicate that participants prefer more immersive methods, and that these increase their attention to critical study details. Moreover, this augments the effect sizes of several measured employee reactions—particularly those with high emotional content—suggesting that virtual reality technology offers a promising avenue for developing ecologically valid vignette studies to measure employee affect. To facilitate and expediate the use of virtual reality video vignettes in organizational research, we provide organizational scholars with a step-by-step instructional guide to develop immersive vignette studies.
Lumineau, Fabrice; Kong, Dejun Tony & Dries, Nicky (2024)
A Roadmap for Navigating Phenomenon-Based Research in Management
McNamara and Schleicher have identified four principal paths for contributing to the Journal of Management (JOM): theoretical insights, phenomenon-driven research, research methodologies, and review papers. This editorial focuses on phenomenon-based research, emphasizing its potential for enhancing management knowledge by offering a nuanced understanding of real-world phenomena. Unlike traditional approaches, phenomenon-based research prioritizes the complexity of phenomena over the immediate generation of theoretical contributions. Grounded in established theory, phenomenon-based research utilizes the phenomenon itself as the primary source of insight, facilitating the development of relevant organizational frameworks. We propose a multistep framework encompassing phenomenon selection, framing, data collection, and study constraints, highlighting criteria—Pertinence, Reach, Insightfulness, Magnification, and Expediency (PRIME)—to guide scholars in identifying meaningful phenomena. Additionally, we discuss constraints that may limit research, including cultural, logistical, ethical, academic, and resource-related challenges (CLEAR). By addressing these considerations, we encourage management scholars to explore diverse and impactful phenomena, ultimately aiming to position JOM as a leading platform for phenomenon-based research and its contributions to real-world organizational challenges. This editorial advocates for a balanced approach that values both theory-driven and phenomenon-driven research in advancing management scholarship.
De Winne, Sophie; Marescaux, Elise, Raets, Emma & Dries, Nicky (2024)
Co-workers’ reactions to (Mis)Alignment between supervisors’ intentions and Co-workers’ perceptions of I-deal secrecy: An uncertainty management perspective
This study employs Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT) to explore how co-workers respond to supervisors’ communication about idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), specifically comparing secrecy and transparency. We suggest that co-workers’ perceptions of i-deal secrecy, as opposed to transparency, lead to uncertainty. Moreover, misalignment between co-workers’ perceptions and supervisors’ intentions regarding i-deal communication may create a second source of uncertainty. We propose that co-workers cope with this uncertainty by forming moral judgments about the i-deal communication, which subsequently relate to their trust in their supervisor and their turnover intentions. Data were collected from 27 supervisors and 224 co-workers across 27 teams, resulting in 224 matched co-worker-supervisor responses. Polynomial regressions reveal varying outcomes depending on the (mis)alignment between co-workers’ perceptions and supervisors’ intentions. Co-workers’ moral judgments, trust in their supervisor and turnover intentions are optimal when they perceive i-deal transparency, regardless of the supervisor’s intentions. These factors are suboptimal when co-workers’ perceptions of i-deal secrecy align with supervisors’ intentions, and detrimental when co-workers perceive i-deal secrecy while supervisors intend transparency. Our findings highlight the potential consequences of supervisors’ intentions for i-deal transparency, showing they can be positive or negative depending on co-workers’ perceptions. Moreover, supervisors’ intentions for i-deal secrecy are not necessarily problematic as long as co-workers perceive transparency. Yet, once secrecy intentions are revealed, suboptimal co-worker reactions occur.
van Zelderen, Anand P. A.; Dries, Nicky & Marescaux, Elise (2024)
The Paradox of Inclusion in Elite Workforce Differentiation Practices: Harnessing the Genius Effect
We examine the assumption that making workforce differentiation practices more inclusive will cause employees to react more positively. We identify a fundamental ‘paradox of inclusion’, where practices designed to be more inclusive may in fact decrease employees' perceived inclusion. Drawing on social comparison theory and the ‘genius effect’ – using talent management practices as an empirical case – we found that both employees identified as ‘talents’ and ‘non-talents’ reacted more favourably to exclusive, secretive practices than to inclusive, transparent practices. Across four studies, we ran experiments testing managers' assumptions about employee reactions to talent practices (Study 1; N = 179); the reactions of ‘non-talents’ (Study 2; N = 576); the reactions of ‘talents’ (Study 3; N = 306); and conducted a field study (Study 4; N = 402). Managers' preferences for more inclusive practices were guided by their assumption that non-talents would react more positively to them. Non-talents, in fact, reacted more negatively to more inclusive practices in terms of envy, organization-based self-esteem, turnover intentions, and perceived inclusion. Keeping talent status a secret from employees buffered negative reactions. Based on these findings, we identify paradoxes inherent to workforce differentiation and extend theorizing on the tension between exclusive and inclusive practices within organizations.
van Zelderen, Anand Prema Aschwin; Dries, Nicky & Menges, Jochen (2024)
The curse of employee privilege: harnessing virtual reality technology to inhibit workplace envy
In many workplaces, managers provide some employees with unique privileges that support their professional development and stimulate productivity and creativity. Yet with some employees more deserving of a privileged status than others, co-workers feeling left out of the inner circle may begin to exhibit feelings of envy. With workplace envy and intergroup conflicts going hand in hand, the question arises whether co-worker acceptance of employee privileges—where conflict can be constrained through an affirmative re-evaluation of co-workers’ privileged status—may lower the envy experienced by employees. Using virtual reality technology, 112 employees participated in a virtual employee meeting at a virtual organization where they were exposed to a new workforce differentiation practice. We show through our experiment that co-worker acceptance of employee privileges negatively influences workplace envy, which was partially mediated by the anticipated ostracism of employees. Moreover, we show that this effect is only found for employees with privileges, who worry more about being ostracized than their non-privileged co-workers. We anticipate that our findings will enable managers to conscientiously differentiate between their employees, using virtual reality simulations to steer employees’ thoughts and feelings in a direction that benefits both employees and organizations.
Dries, Nicky; Luyckx, Joost & Rogiers, Philip (2024)
Across two datasets—a corpus of 485 print media articles and a multi-actor survey of Tech/Innovation experts, Authors/Journalists, Economy/Labor Market experts, Policy Makers/Public Administrators, and Engaged Citizens (N=570)—we build the case that the future of work is a fiction, not a fact; or better yet, a series of competing fictions prescribing what the future will or should look like.Using an abductive and curiosity-driven mixed-method analysis process we demonstrate that different narratives about the future of work stand in direct relation to specific actors in the public debate, both through framing tactics used by narrators in the media, and through political and dispositional processes of narrative subscription. From these findings, we infer that research on the future of work is in need of a paradigm shift: from ‘predictions’ to ‘imaginaries’. This, we argue, will help counter deterministic and depoliticized understandings of the future of work. We propose an integration of theory around framing contests, field frames, narrative subscription, and corresponsive mechanisms to offer a plausible account of our empirical discoveries and develop an agenda for further research. As the practical implications of our research show, the future of work does not need to be something that happens ‘to us’—instead, the future can be what we ‘make it’.
Dries, Nicky & Verbruggen, Marijke (2023)
Career inaction in Belgium: when you want to make a career change, but you just … don't
Briscoe, Jon; Dickmann, Michael, Hall, Douglas, Mayrhofer, Wolfgang & Parry, Emma (red.). Understanding careers around the globe
Cadigan, Françoise; Dries, Nicky & van Zelderen, Anand (2023)
Conceptualizing and operationalizing 'inclusive' talent management: four different approaches
In this chapter, we identify four different approaches to inclusive TM - a concept that is increasingly advocated for by both academics and practitioners but has so far lacked clarity and actionability. The four approaches are (1) focusing on potential and strengths rather than talent and gifts, (2) increasing the size of the talent pool, (3) defining a broader range of talent domains, and (4) topgrading the entire organization. We propose that exclusive and inclusive TM (co-)exist on a continuum rather than as dichotomies and develop a decision tree for organizations and researchers to determine which custom approach might best fit their talent philosophy.
van Zelderen, Anand; Dries, Nicky & Marescaux, Elise (2023)
The war for talent: Hoe je de top 2 procent van je werknemers kan bevoordelen en toch iedereen tevreden houdt
Talentmanagement neemt in populariteit toe en is een strategie om veelbelovende werknemers te identificeren en ondersteunen. In de huidige tijdgeest neemt echter het enthousiasme voor een exclusief beleid, waar maar een klein deel van de werknemers als ‘talent’ wordt gezien, razendsnel af onder het mom van gelijke behandeling. Al ruim tien jaar zijn zowel managers als academici aan het discussieren over hoe talentmanagement nu het beste aangepakt kan worden om optimale uitkomsten voor werknemers te realiseren. De meeste argumenten om bestaande exclusieve talentenprogramma’s aan te passen blijven echter ongefundeerd en komen niet verder dan een simpele heuristiek zoals: ‘exclusiviteit is moreel onverantwoord’. Relevante psychologische theorieën, zoals de sociale vergelijkingstheorie, zijn daarentegen wel in staat toe te lichten waarom huidige talentmanagementtrends juist tot meer negatieve werknemersreacties zullen leiden. Zolang managers geen gehoor geven aan deze theorieën, kunnen aanpassingen aan talentenprogramma’s meer kwaad dan goed doen voor de organisatie en haar werknemers. Gebaseerd op recent promotieonderzoek wordt er in dit artikel een kritische blik geworpen op exclusief talentmanagementbeleid en worden een zestal empirische onderzoeken toegelicht die werknemersreacties op talentmanagement bestuderen. Aan de hand van de belangrijkste uitkomsten van deze onderzoeken formuleren wij een aantal aanbevelingen voor HR-professionals, waaruit duidelijk wordt hoe managers verantwoord kunnen differentiëren tussen hun werknemers.
van Zelderen, Anand; Dries, Nicky & Marescaux, Elise (2023)
Talents Under Threat: The Anticipation of Being Ostracized by Non-Talents Drives Talent Turnover
Based on social identity theory, exclusive talent programs can be understood to divide employees into two groups—‘talents’ versus ‘non-talents’—creating a setting where ostracism may occur. Using 360°-video vignettes (Study 1; N = 184) and text vignettes (Study 2 and 3; N = 243 and 573) we recreate a fictional HR board meeting and trouble three assumptions commonly held in the talent management literature: First, does exclusive talent management indeed lead to a feeling of exclusion and turnover amongst non-talents? Second, do emotional reactions to talent management spill over between employees? Third, does transparent communication reduce negative employee reactions, as is often assumed? We found that employees identified as talents in fact anticipate more ostracism by non-talents than vice versa, increasing talents’ intention to quit. However, this effect only occurred when non-talents displayed contrastive emotional responses to talent programs (e.g., resentment), not when they displayed assimilative responses (e.g., admiration). In addition, talents’ anticipation of being ostracized by non-talents was also found to be reduced when organizations implemented talent management secrecy. This study addresses researchers’ and practitioners’ concerns about talent retention and provides theoretical and practical implications for the field of workforce differentiation, social identity theory, and organizational intergroup conflicts.
Dries, Nicky & Kaše, Robert (2023)
Do employees find inclusive talent management fairer? It depends. Contrasting self-interest and principle
In this paper, we critically examine the assumption that most employees, and especially those not identified as talents, find exclusive talent management less fair than inclusive talent management. Across two factorial survey studies—one of which manipulates talent status experimentally (N = 300), the other using field data on meta-perceived talent ratings (N = 209)—we examine the extent to which the perceived fairness of talent management is predicted by self-interest (i.e., the extent to which you yourself are seen as talented) versus principle (i.e., a dispositional preference for equality-vs. merit-based allocations). We found a clear effect of talent status, indicating that perceived fairness is at least partly determined by self-interest (i.e., whether one personally stands to gain or lose from exclusive talent management). We also found an effect for preferred allocation norm—implying that fairness perceptions are influenced by matters of principle, independently from self-interest—but only on the boundary condition that organizations provide a transparent justification for their chosen (inclusive or exclusive) talent philosophy. Two major gaps are addressed: the lack of data on how employees perceive and experience talent management practices, and the inability of common study designs to make causal claims.
Dries, Nicky (2022)
What's Your Talent Philosophy? Talent as Construct Versus Talent as Phenomenon
Collings, David; Vaiman, Vlad & Scullion, Hugh (red.). Talent Management: A Decade of Developments
In this chapter, I propose an integrative framework for theorizing and empiricizing about talent management, based on the notion of “talent philosophies.” I believe that current debates about whether talent management should be inclusive or exclusive create the risk that our field will become fragmented, thereby undermining its social-scientific legitimacy. Nonetheless, this debate is absolutely correct in identifying the tensions between inclusive and exclusive approaches to talent management as a phenomenon. This, however, creates issues for talent management as a construct for scientific inquiry, as we need clear definitions and measures to create a cumulative body of research as a community. I propose that the solution lies in an expansion of our vocabulary as talent management researchers and identify four constructs that can help us structure and categorize our collective work: giftedness, talent, potential, and strength. Each of these constructs map logically onto different talent philosophies and talent management practices. In establishing “unity in diversity,” I believe talent management could finally make the transition into a more mature field of academic inquiry – although clearly phenomenon driven – characterized in equal parts by construct clarity, rigor, and relevance.
Dries, Nicky; Marescaux, Elise & van Zelderen, Anand (2021)
Talent Management and Career Management
Tarique, Ibraiz (red.). The Routledge Companion to Talent Management
We examine how peers form talent appraisals of team members, reframing talent identification as a status-organising social process. Using decision trees, we modelled configurations of characteristics and behaviours that predicted dominant versus parallel routes to achieving the status of most talented team member. Across 44 multidisciplinary teams, talent status was most often granted to peers perceived as having both leadership and analytic talent; a STEM degree served a dominant signalling function. Where previous studies assumed that degree operates as a specific status characteristic, we show that a STEM degree operates as a diffuse status characteristic, which predicts status in general. We thus discovered that status hierarchies in teams are also based on the type of talent—and not just the level of talent—members are perceived to possess. In so doing, we offer a proof of concept of what we call ‘talent hierarchies’ in teams, for future research to build on.
Subjective career success continues to be a critical topic in careers scholarship due to ever changing organizational and societal contexts that make reliance upon external definitions of success untenable or undesirable. While various measures of subjective career success have been developed, there is no measure that is representative of multiple nations. In this study, we develop and validate a new subjective career success scale, which is unique from currently available measures in that it was developed and validated across a broad representation of national cultures. We validated the scale across four phases and several studies cumulatively involving 18,471 individual respondents from 30 countries based upon the GLOBE and Schwartz cultural clusters. This scale allows for addressing career success differences both within and across cultures. It is also easily applicable in everyday practice for companies operating in multi-country contexts. We explore theoretical and practical implications.
This study examines how identification with management and the organization explains the relationship between talent status, organizational citizenship behavior towards the organization (OCB‐O) and the supervisor (OCB‐S), and turnover intention. Using archival and survey data (N = 597), we tested two competing models: a parallel and a serial mediation. Results supported serial mediation of management identification through organizational identification; management identification was the most predictive mediator overall. We also found different exchange dynamics depending on the focus of the identification (management or organization) and their corresponding outcomes (OCB‐S and OCB‐O); OCB‐S was most strongly related to management identification. We contribute to the literature by integrating concepts and assumptions from social identity and social exchange theory, and advancing the understanding about employee reciprocation of symbolic resources such as talent status. Practical implications, in particular about encouraging ‘pre‐identification’ with management in order to ensure talents' continued extra‐role behavior and retention, are spelled out.
Dries, Nicky (2020)
Individual career outcomes: Conceptual and methodological concerns in the study of career success
Dries, Nicky (red.). The Routledge Companion to Career Studies
Dries, Nicky (2020)
The Routledge Companion to Career Studies
Routledge.
Tierens, Hans; Dries, Nicky, Smets, Mike & Sels, Luc (2020)
Multiple-membership survival analysis and its applications in organizational behavior and management research
Multilevel paradigms have permeated organizational research in recent years, greatly advancing our understanding of organizational behavior and management decisions. Despite the advancements made in multilevel modeling, taking into account complex hierarchical structures in data remains challenging. This is particularly the case for models used for predicting the occurrence and timing of events and decisions—often referred to as survival models. In this study, the authors construct a multilevel survival model that takes into account subjects being nested in multiple environments—known as a multiple-membership structure. Through this article, the authors provide a step-by-step guide to building a multiple-membership survival model, illustrating each step with an application on a real-life, large-scale, archival data set. Easy-to-use R code is provided for each model-building step. The article concludes with an illustration of potential applications of the model to answer alternative research questions in the organizational behavior and management fields
Meyers, Maria Christina; van Woerkom, Marianne, Paauwe, Jaap & Dries, Nicky (2020)
HR managers’ talent philosophies: Prevalence and relationships with perceived talent management practices
This review examines competing perspectives relating to (a) the range and prevalence of different theoretical approaches to the study of career success and (b) the need for a theoretically differentiated understanding of the antecedents of objective career success (OCS) versus subjective career success (SCS). Furthermore, the review complements the assumption that OCS and SCS are only ultimate outcomes of careers, proposing instead that career success also acts as an antecedent to other career and life outcomes. Against the backdrop of an organizing resource management framework, we present and critically evaluate the results of a systematic analysis of the theoretical approaches used to empirically study the antecedents of OCS and SCS. Furthermore, we develop a taxonomy of outcomes of career success. Our review findings show a theoretical heterogeneity with some dominant theoretical approaches within research of antecedents of career success. Moreover, past research started to adopt different theoretical approaches when predicting OCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal resources, such as human capital or [competitive] performance) versus SCS (e.g., approaches focusing on personal key resources, such as stable traits). Several types of career success outcomes were identified: withdrawal, career attitudes, health and well-being, reactions from the (work) environment, and self-concept. On the basis of these findings, we provide recommendations for how future research can make sense of the theoretical heterogeneity in career success research, how research on antecedents and outcomes can better account for the OCS/SCS distinction, and how future research can more rigorously integrate research on antecedents and outcomes of career success.
De Boeck, Giverny; Dries, Nicky & Tierens, Hans (2019)
The experience of untapped potential: Towards a subjective temporal understanding of work meaningfulness.
In this paper, we propose that untapped potential acts as a subjective temporal meaning-making mechanism. Using a two-wave survey design, we examine the relationship between job characteristics, untapped potential, and work meaningfulness in a heterogeneous sample of 542 employees. We found that employees’ perceived amount of untapped potential mediates the effects of skill variety, autonomy, and job feedback on work meaningfulness. This mediated relationship was moderated by the valence employees attributed to their untapped potential. Moreover, decreases in the perceived amount of untapped potential over time were related to increases in perceived work meaningfulness. Our research shows that work that allows employees to move beyond the here-and-now by providing opportunities to realize future work selves is experienced as particularly meaningful. We conclude that, if we wish to understand what makes work meaningful for employees in the present, we need to know how it aligns with their self-perceptions in the future.
Dries, Nicky; Luyckx, Joost & Rogiers, Philip (2024)
What 570 Experts Predict the Future of Work Will Look Like
[Popular scientific article]. Harvard Business Review
No one knows exactly what the future of work will look like, but many people have opinions. Research involving Belgian newspaper articles and experts shows that public commentators on the topic tend to fall into three buckets: optimists (largely tech entrepreneurs), skeptics (largely economists) , and pessimists (authors and journalists). So, who’s right — should the future involve accelerated progress, degrowth, or something in between? Because each group uses different research and has different points of view, it’s impossible to tell. But it is possible to better understand all three arguments, and to think critically about what you, personally, want the future of work to look like. A robust public debate involving every citizen, policy maker, manager, and CEO is the best way to ensure all voices are heard; after all, the future is what we make it.
van Zelderen, Anand; Dries, Nicky & Marescaux, Elise (2022)
Talent Retention and Ostracism: Examining a Moderated Mediation Model
[Academic lecture]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceeding.
Dries, Nicky (2021)
What will the future of work look like?
[Article in business/trade/industry journal]. The Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers
What will the future of work look like? It depends who you ask. According to optimists, new technologies will help us work faster and more efficiently such that we will have more free time. Perhaps governments will even introduce a universal basic income to compensate for the (partial) loss of income. Pessimists, on the other hand, predict a future in which advanced automation will cause many jobs to disappear, causing massive unemployment, and further increasing the inequality between rich and poor. Finally, there are the skeptics who believe that change will not happen that fast and that the future will still look very much like the present, with some tweaks here and there.
