About

Jeffrey B. Arthur earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1990 and holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has been on the faculty at Purdue University and Fairfield University and is currently an Associate Professor of Management at Virginia Tech. His academic focus includes strategic human resource management, compensation, performance management, and employee and labor-management relations. His research on strategic human resource management concentrates on the effect of human resource systems on organizational performance outcomes, with his early empirical work being seminal and widely cited. More recently, his research has addressed issues related to High-performance work system implementation in small- and medium-sized organizations. In the area of Compensation, he has published extensively on productivity gain sharing, organizational learning, and the impact of employee recognition programs on customer satisfaction. His scholarly work has been published in reputable journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, and the Journal of Management. He has served as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Human Resource Management and has been a member of the editorial boards for Strategic Management Journal, Group and Organization Management, and Human Resource Management.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Economics
• Social psychology
• Labour economics
• Demographic economics
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Mathematics
• Management
• Marketing
• Public relations
• Business
• Microeconomics
• Public economics
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Social Exchange Breakdown: Income Inequality and High-Commitment Work Practices Effectiveness

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Demographic economics
  • Public economics

  Societal income inequality is a cause of numerous harmful consequences for individuals and the communities in which they live. In the current research, we argue that such disparities can also change the context of the employee-organization relationship. In a balanced employee-organization relationship based on principles of social exchange, organizations invest in high commitment work practices (HCWPs), providing employees a shared belief that their commitment to the organization will be reciprocated with fair treatment. When the larger environment in which the organization operates is characterized by high levels of income inequality, however, employees have little faith in the fairness of this exchange. As a result, HCWPs are less likely to generate an effective social exchange relationship. Using data from 192 hotel franchises nested within 40 U.S. states, we find that HCWPs affect collective affective commitment by helping to create a strong justice climate; however, this process was moderated by state-level income inequality. Although franchises in states with low income inequality enjoyed a strong effect of HCWPs on justice climate, franchises in states with high levels of inequality had essentially no relation between HCWPs and justice climate, suggesting a breakdown of the implicit social exchange contract. The interactive effect of state income inequality remained robust to several alternative explanations examined in supplementary analyses. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of societal income inequality on organizational functioning, HCWP effectiveness, and methods organizations can adopt to help offset the damaging effects of societal income inequality.

  PublisherDOI

• Public announcements of employee recognitions from customers and customer satisfaction: Longitudinal effects in the healthcare context

  Journal of Business Research · 2022 · 6 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Business
  • Marketing
  PublisherDOI

• Does turnover destination matter? Differentiating antecedents of occupational change versus organizational change

  Journal of Vocational Behavior · 2020 · 42 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Psychology
  • Social psychology
  PublisherDOI

• Implementing commitment HR practices: line manager attributions and employee reactions

  The International Journal of Human Resource Management · 2019-06-25 · 35 citations

  articleSenior author

  Findings of positive relationships between a set of well-configured commitment human resource practices and organizational performance outcomes are well documented in the strategic human resource management (HRM) literature. However, several recent empirical studies have found significant gaps between the HR practices that organizations report using and employees' experiences of those HR practices, raising a question about the extent to which organizationally intended HR practices are effectively implemented within an organization. Drawing on attribution theory, we address this problem by focusing on the role of frontline managers (FLMs) in implementing commitment HR practices. Data collected from 195 employees in 61 work groups in two time periods showed that FLMs' commitment HR attributions affected their implementation of commitment HR practices, which in turn affected employees' perceptions of HR practice implementation and the average level of organizational citizenship behavior in their work group. The findings contribute to the strategic HRM literature by demonstrating the significant role of FLMs' attributions in attaining the unrealized potential benefits of commitment HR practices through the effective implementation of commitment HR practices.

  PublisherDOI

• Which Way to High Performance? Comparing Performance Effects of High-Performance Work System Components in Small- to Medium-Sized Establishments

  Industrial and Labor Relations Review · 2019-12-17 · 20 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The authors examine variation in firm choices to invest in HR practices. They identify three approaches: investments in high-involvement programs (such as employee participation and teams); in high-commitment practices (such as internal promotions and job security); and in ability-enhancing selection and training programs. The authors test the performance effect of these choices in a sample of 165 small- and medium-sized hotel establishments (SMEs). They also consider how job-level differences in skill requirements and customer contact affect the relative effectiveness of these three groups of high-performance work practices. Consistent with the authors’ predictions, findings show that, on average, the group of high-commitment practices has the strongest relationship with SME performance. However, the performance effect of high-involvement practices is significantly stronger for front desk jobs compared to housekeeping jobs.

  PublisherDOI

• Employee Recognitions, Prosocial Organizational Behavior, and Customer Satisfaction Over Time

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2018-07-09

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The study examines the impact of periodic feedback from a non- monetary, public, employee recognition program on employees’ aggregate prosocial organizational behavior (POB) and unit-level customer satisfaction over a 43-month period at one heath care location. Recognized POB acts include providing assistance and comfort to co- workers and organizational customers (patients) that go “above and beyond” employees’ formal task requirements. Employees that receive written acknowledgements (e.g., expressions of thanks) from co-workers and customers for their POB are publicly announced and recognized each month. We draw from theory and research on the effects of performance- based compensation plans, as well as individual-level research on POB impact, to predict how periodic public announcements of POB recognition “winners” impacts subsequent levels of unit- level aggregate POB and customer satisfaction scores. We find that the use of non- monetary public recognitions has both positive and negative effects on aggregate levels of POB depending on the number and type of POB recognitions received by employees each month. Further, we find a non-linear relationship between the aggregate number of POB recognitions and subsequent unit-level customer satisfaction scores that varies based on number of POB acts recognized each month. We discuss the implications of these results for the design and implementation of non-monetary public recognition programs in organizations, as well as for research on the unit-level relationship between aggregate POB and organizational performance over time.

  PublisherDOI

• Differentiating Occupational Change Versus Organizational Change

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2017-08-01

  articleSenior author

  In this study, we seek to understand why some employees leave organizations based on a decision to change occupations instead of either changing organizations while staying in the same occupation or staying in the same job at the same organization. This study is one of very few to investigate predictors of actual occupational change instead of just its antecedents of occupational commitment or occupation withdrawal intentions. We examine both occupational factors and personal life factors as potential drivers of occupational change using the concept of embeddedness as support for the occupational factors while using Conservation of Resources Theory as support for the personal life factors. Using a large dataset of 3,201 professionals, we find that nearly all the occupational factors (e.g., wage level, non-core job duties, occupational investment, and moonlighting) predict occupational change compared to organizational change or staying at the same organization. Surprisingly, we find little support for the personal life factors uniquely predicting occupational change over the other two outcomes. Our findings suggest that specific turnover destination may be important to understanding why people leave jobs. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings, along with practical implications at the occupational, organizational, and individual levels.

  PublisherDOI

• Firm Performance Effects of High-involvement versus High-commitment HR in the context hotel SMEs

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2017-08-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In order to compare the relative effectiveness of firms that have adopted some (but not all) of the HR practices that make up a high-performance work system (HPWS), we propose a strategic HR choice framework in which firms choose between different internally consistent HR system approaches that emphasize “High-commitment” practices such as employment security, full- time work, internal promotions, and performance appraisal, and “High- involvement” practices such as enriched job design, teamwork, employee participation, and information sharing, or some of both of these systems. We use this framework to empirically classify the HR systems found in a sample of 165 independently-owned small- to medium-sized hotel enterprises (SMEs) in the U.S. Using longitudinal establishment-level performance data, we test multivariate statistical models of the effect of different HR system choices on hotel SME financial performance. In contrast to predictions based on a “best practice” HPWS perspective, we hypothesized and found that SMEs with a High-commitment HR system performed better than firms with High- involvement HR practices in our sample. In addition, we found the that positive interactive effect of the average level of employees’ human capital (education, experience, and training) and HR system on firm performance was limited to limited to hotel SMEs with a High-involvement HR system. The study addresses calls in the strategic HR literature for work that compares the relative effectiveness of multiple HR systems within a given context and contributes to advancing a more complete understanding of the HRM and firm performance relationship.

  PublisherDOI

• Implementing Commitment HR Practices: The Effect of Frontline Managers’ Commitment HR Attributions

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2016-01-01

  articleSenior author

  The findings of positive relationships between a set of well- configured commitment human resources practices and organizational performance outcomes are well-documented in the strategic human resource management (HRM) literature. However, several recent empirical studies (e.g., Liao, Toya, Lepak, & Hong, 2009) found significant gaps between the HR practices that organizations report using and employees’ experiences of those HR practices, raising a question about the extent to which organizationally stated HR practices are being effectively implemented within organizations. Drawing on attribution theory, we address this problem by focusing on the role of frontline managers (FLMs) in implementing commitment HR practices. Data collected from 195 employees in 61 workgroups showed that FLMs’ commitment HR attributions affected employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors through employees’ experiences of commitment HR practices. The findings contribute to the strategic HRM literature by demonstrating the significant roles of FLMs in attaining unrealized potential benefits of commitment HR practices through effective implementation of commitment HR practices.

  PublisherDOI

• How Does Leader-Member Exchange Disparity Affect Teamwork Behavior and Effectiveness in Work Groups? The Moderating Role of Leader-Leader Exchange

  Journal of Management · 2014-10-27 · 70 citations

  articleSenior author

  In this study, we propose that the upward leader-leader exchange (LLX) relationship is an important moderating condition in predicting the consequences of leader-member exchange (LMX) differentiation within work groups. We assert that the structural and operating efficiencies created by LMX differentiation will depend on group members’ appraisal of the legitimacy of the within-group LMX disparity. Drawing on relative deprivation theory, we argue that the level of perceived legitimacy of LMX differentiation varies with levels of LLX. Using data collected from 579 subordinates and 74 managers in 74 work groups over two time periods, we propose and test hypotheses that the quality of a leader’s LLX relationship will moderate the mediated relationship between LMX differentiation, group-level teamwork, and team effectiveness. We find support for our moderated-mediation model and suggest implications for theory and practice.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jaewan Yang

  9 shared

• Andrew O. Herdman

  7 shared

• Brian W. Swider

  University of Florida

  2 shared

• Trish Boyles

  2 shared

• Ryan D. Zimmerman

  2 shared

• Lynda Aiman‐Smith

  2 shared

• Daniel J. Beal

  Virginia Tech

  1 shared

• Chimezie A. B. Osigweh

  1 shared