Browsing by Author "Junaid F"

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    Frontline leadership in a distal employment relationship: a qualitative psychological contract perspective
    (Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics in Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ), 2025-06-02) Irai P; Arrowsmith J; Junaid F
    Frontline leadership is crucial to framing the psychological contract (PC), which governs implicit expectations and obligations between workers and their employers. Much of PC research focuses on white-collar and professional occupations, including in managing recent shifts between workplace and home-based working, and the dynamics of distal relationships in jobs such as driving are much less explored. This study explores the employment relationship, and in particular the supervisory role, in bus driving through the PC’s lens. Given the inherently subjective and relational nature of the PC and the dynamic context of Covid and industrial disputes in which the research was conducted, a qualitative approach was employed to understand how distal employment relationships influence the formation and fulfilment of PC. The findings highlighted structural challenges relating to privatisation and driver shortages, though it also underscored five distinct and relevant aspects of workplace support: trust, psychological safety, supervisor-bus driver exchange, co-worker relationships and relational leadership. Notably, drivers perceived under-delivery in these attributes were linked to inadequate perceived organisational support (POS) and PC breaches. These insights have implications for the broader literature on frontline leadership, POS, and PC while offering practical suggestions for improving employee relations and human resource management (HRM) in the industry.
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    Psychosocial Work Environment Risks Among Danish Fishers
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2025-02-17) Grøn S; Junaid F; Froholdt LL
    OBJECTIVE: Our paper focuses on psychosocial risks that are under-researched within the fishing industry. The study was conducted in Denmark. Firstly, we investigated how Danish fishers perceive their psychosocial work environment. Secondly, we formed a group of industry partners and stakeholders with the purpose of designing ways to mitigate the reported stressors. METHODS: The study design is action research, employing qualitative co-creative methods for data collection in both the first and the second stages. The methods include chronicle workshops and design thinking workshops. Participants in the workshops came from different stakeholder groups, including fishers. We ensured that the focus remained on centering the voices of the fishers to understand the psychosocial risks within the industry context. RESULTS: In the first stage, we used thematic analysis, which led to the identification of ten themes: (1) discouragement, (2) stress, (3) poor economy, (4) negative atmosphere, (5) distrust, (6) injustice, (7) fear, (8) unpredictability, (9) powerlessness, and (10) lost pride. This study explored the key risks and highlighted that a lack of influence and meaning, reduced rewards, and increased unpredictability are likely to lead to increased stress in an environment that lacks social support. CONCLUSION: Existing research into the psychosocial working environment has established six dimensions where an imbalance leads to negative health effects. They are sometimes referred to as "the 6 gold nuggets" where an imbalance leads to negative health effects. We compared our themes to these gold nuggets and identified a clear overlap, which gave us confidence in the relevance of our data. Through the workshops, we co-created six recommendations to address the reported risks and provide policymakers with actionable recommendations.