Other publications
Coping with, or recovering from COVID-19 related red tape? Comparing public servants’ strategies to deal with the health-impairment and demotivational processes from red tape through well-being on performance’
REVIEW OF PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION
(2025)
Rick Borst
Eva Knies
Rutger Blom
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new rules forced public servants to work remotely or under strict guidelines at the office. These rules were often perceived as red tape, creating a compliance burden and limiting flexibility. While red tape is commonly seen as a job demand associated with reduced well-being and performance among public servants, the effects of COVID-19-related red tape remain unexplored. This research investigates how perceived COVID-19-related red tape is associated with public servants’ well-being and self-perceived performance and examines the moderating roles of coping strategies (supervisor support) and recovery strategies (work detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control). Data from 3,332 Dutch public servants reveal two key findings. First, COVID-19-related red tape, shaped by rapidly changing work conditions, can foster adaptation and inspire extra effort despite its challenges. Second, recovery strategies are more effective than coping strategies in mitigating the negative associations of perceived COVID-19-related red tape with employee well-being.
Family-friendly policies and workplace supports: A meta-analysis of their effects on career, job, and work-family outcomes
JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR
(2025)
Rutger Blom
Eva Jaspers
Eva Knies
Tanja van der Lippe
Today, many individuals face the challenge of combining work and family responsibilities. To help employees tackle the issues they face when juggling work and family, organizations often provide formal family-friendly policies. In addition, other people in the workplace, such as supervisors and coworkers, can support employees in an informal way in work and family reconciliation. In this study, we provide the most comprehensive meta-analytic review to date that examines the effects of family-friendly policies and workplace supports on career, job, and work-family outcomes. Based on 1680 effect sizes from 229 samples, our findings indicate that, overall, small to moderate positive effects exist across a wide range of outcomes. Supports tend to have an overall stronger effect than policies, although the differences between individual policies and supports are more nuanced. Moderator analyses indicate that people with greater family demands, such as parents, seem to benefit less. In addition, family-friendly policies and supports appear more valuable in national and organizational contexts that are disadvantageous for people that need to combine work and family responsibilities.
Managing street-level bureaucrats’ performance by promoting professional behavior through HRM
PUBLIC PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Rik van Berkel
Julia Penning de Vries
Eva Knies
This article connects human resource management (HRM) research to studies of street-level bureaucracies and public professionals. It investigates the intermediary role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance link in the context of public human service organizations. The article hypothesizes that human resources (HR) practices, aimed at enhancing street-level workers’ abilities, motivation, and opportunities, strengthen these workers’ professional behavior; that professional behavior and individual performance are positively related; and that professional behavior mediates the relationship between HR practices and individual performance. The analysis of findings from a survey study of street-level workers in local welfare agencies implementing welfare-to-work policies in the Netherlands shows support for the mediating role of professional behavior in the HRM–individual performance chain. Based on this evidence, the article concludes that the professional behavior of street-level workers in public human service organizations deserves scrutiny of both HRM scholars and HR practitioners who are interested in promoting the performance of public professionals.
A high performance work system in a multi-stakeholder context
CASE STUDIES IN WORK, EMPLOYMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
(2020), T. Dundon &
A. Wilkinson
Eva Knies
Peter Leisink
Paul Boselie
The focus of this chapter is on the renewal of HR policies and practices that resulted in a High Performance Work System (HPWS) at the Dutch insurance company Achmea. As the majority of publications on HPWSs are based on studies of Fortune 500 companies, mainly from an Anglo-Saxon perspective (Keegan and Boselie 2006), the case of Achmea is appealing for various reasons: a range of stakeholders were involved in the creation of the HPWS (a characteristic of the Rhineland model of capitalism); Achmea is not quoted on the stock exchange; and the role of healthcare insurance providers such as Achmea is subject to major reforms resulting from economic and political developments. By studying the HPWS presented in this case study, one will gain insights into the impact of various contextual factors on the shaping of HPWSs, the relevant characteristics of an HPWS design, the different actors involved, and their interests and the outcomes related to
the implementation of HPWSs.
doi: Edward Elgar