Employees’ mood, perceptions of fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior

Previous research findings concerning employees’ perceptions of fairness and positive mood as predictors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) have been equivocal. Explanations for this inconsistency may be related to the varying types of manipulation techniques adopted and samples tested. To address these issues, the present study adopted the mood and fairness manipulation techniques of Bachrach and Jex (2000, Journal of Applied Psychology, 30(3), 641–663) to investigate their effect on OCB amongst a sample of 138 employees from five large service organizations. The findings revealed that employees’ perceptions of fairness affected their likelihood to perform organizational citizenship behaviors. One implication of this finding is that employees’ perceptions of fairness may have a more enduring effect, in comparison to their mood, on increasing their extra role work behaviors. However, a close evaluation of the mood manipulation technique suggests that further research is needed before any firm conclusions can be made on the relative effect of empolyees’ perceived fairness and positive mood on OCB.     

Constructive Thinking and Burnout among Secondary School Teachers

The present study investigated the relationship between Epstein’s (1998, Constructive thinking: The key to emotional intelligence. London: Praeger publisher.) components of constructive thinking and burnout as experienced by a sample of Dutch secondary school teachers. A postal questionnaire was sent to teachers from randomly selected secondary schools. The response rate was 54.1% (N=433). Four components of constructive thinking significantly contributed to the explained variance in emotional exhaustion (17%), depersonalization (21%), and personal accomplishment (20%). The results of the study suggest that secondary school teachers’ maladaptive thinking processes prevent them from rational thinking during their work, which significantly contributes to the onset of burnout. Burnout intervention programs for teachers are likely to be more effective when the participator’s maladaptive thinking system is taken into consideration. This stems from the idea that personality factors are a probably easier point of departure to tackle burnout symptoms than organizational factors.     

REBT: Past,Present, and Future

After a walk down memory lane, I take a tour through Ellis’s shifts in philosophy, plus shifts in self theory, and concepts of value. I contrast them all as an appeal to authority compared to pragmatism. The changes in Ellis’s thinking seemed to me more a tribute to Ellis’s diversity and his monumental contribution to psychotherapy than his refusal to be pinned down to core concepts.     

Getting it right generally,but not precisely: learning the relation between multiple inputs and outputs

In real-world situations, people are often faced with the complex task of deciding which of many potential variables are affecting their own or others’ behavior, as well as noting which specific aspects of behavior are being affected. Although it is common for professionals who encounter such conditions to claim that they acquire accurate and specific knowledge from their experience, it is unclear that such confidence is justified. Using a managerial task, we examined participants’ ability to learn how various interventions affect various aspects of their employees’ performance. The results of three experiments reveal that although participants appear to avoid prescribing an intervention that has a positive effect on a primary performance measure and a negative side effect on a secondary measure, when asked directly about the impact of the intervention, they respond by reducing their judgments of its positive impact. This was true regardless of whether participants indicated clear knowledge of its negative side effect (Experiment 3) or did not (Experiments 1 and 2). Thus, participants appear to be automatically integrating across the effects on different outcome measures.     

The Mediating Effects of Psychological Contracts on the Relationship Between Human Resource Systems and Role Behaviors: A Multilevel Analysis

Purpose  The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of the psychological contracts on the relationship between human resource (HR) systems and role behavior. Design/Methodology/Approach  Multilevel analyses were conducted on data gathered from 146 knowledge workers and 28 immediate managers in 25 Taiwanese high-tech firms. Findings  Relational psychological contracts mediated the relationship between commitment-based HR systems and in-role behaviors, as well as organizational citizenship behaviors. Transactional psychological contracts did not significantly mediate these relationships. In addition, the results also indicated that commitment-based HR systems related positively to relational psychological contracts and negatively to transactional psychological contracts. Practical Implications  Commitment-based HR systems could elicit a wide range of knowledge workers’ behaviors that are beneficial to the goals of the firms. Furthermore, our findings also provide insight into, how HR systems potentially elicit employees’ role behaviors. Organizations could elicit employees’ in-role behaviors by providing financial and other non-financial, but tangible, inducements and facilitate employees’ extra-role behaviors by providing positive experiences, such as respect, commitment, and support. Originality/Value  The study is one of the primary studies to empirically examine the mediating effect of psychological contracts on HR systems and employee behaviors.

Examining the Mechanisms Linking Transformational Leadership,Employee Customer Orientation,and Service Performance: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Supervisor and Coworker Support

Purpose  

The aim of this study is to test whether store-level transformational leadership influences service employees’ customer orientation via two different mechanisms—supervisor support and coworker support—and whether customer orientation leads to favorable customer-perceived employee service performance.     

A time-lagged analysis of the effect of authentic leadership on workplace bullying,burnout, and occupational turnover intentions

Destructive interpersonal experiences at work result in negative feelings among employees and negative work outcomes. Understanding the mechanisms through which bullying can lead to burnout and subsequent turnover is important for preventing and managing this problem. Leaders play a key role in shaping positive work environments by discouraging negative interpersonal experiences and behaviours. The aim of this study is twofold. Specifically we aim to examine the relationship between authentic leadership and new graduate nurses experiences of workplace bullying and burnout over a 1-year timeframe in Canadian healthcare settings. Furthermore we aim to examine the process from workplace bullying to subsequent burnout dimensions, and to job and career turnover intentions. Results of structural equation models on new graduate nurses working in acute care settings in Ontario (N = 205) provide support for the hypothesized model linking supervisor's authentic leadership, subsequent work-related bullying, and burnout, and these in turn to job and career turnover intentions. Thus, the more leaders were perceived to be authentic the less likely nurses’ were to experience subsequent work-related bullying and burnout and to want to leave their job and profession. The results highlight the important role of leadership in preventing negative employee and organizational outcomes.     

Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Performance Evaluations: Distributive Justice or Injustice?

Purpose  

The purpose of this study was to examine employees’ reactions to the use of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in performance evaluations. In addition, gender differences in such reactions were examined.     

The Moderating Effect of Personality on Employees’ Reactions to Procedural Fairness and Outcome Favorability

Purpose  

The purpose of this study was to examine how personality moderates the interactive effect of procedural fairness perceptions and outcome favorability on employees’ job attitudes.     

Different temporary work status, different behaviors in organization

This study examined the contributions of the psychological contract framework to an understanding of the effects of different work statuses on employees’ behavior. We compared temporary firm workers (n=71) with core workers (n=268) and direct-hire temporary workers (n=149) with core workers (n=42) in two different samples. As expected, temporary firm workers consider that they receive fewer socio-emotional inducements from the organization they work for (opportunities for promotion, career development, long-term employment), but direct-hire temporary workers who succeeded in having their contracts extended had a psychological contract in which socio-emotional components predominated. A psychological contract with a predominance of socio-emotional components was important for organizations because it mediated the influence of work status on civic virtue behaviors on the part of temporary firm workers, and directly and positively influenced these behaviors in direct-hired temporary workers (behaviors as assessed by their supervisors). Contrary to the hypothesis, psychological contract had a direct and positive influence on the in-role behavior of direct-hire temporary workers. The implications of the findings for psychological contract research are discussed.     

Advantages of Flexible over Traditional Benefits: A Procedural Justice Explanation

This study investigates the relationship between employee benefits plans and employees’ attitudes towards their benefits and the organization. In addition, this study examines the mediating role of perceived procedural justice (decision and process controls) to explain why the provision of benefits affects such attitudes. From a matched sample of two hotels, one offering fixed benefits and the other offering flexible benefits, the results showed that employees’ had higher levels of satisfaction with flexible benefits because of greater decision control in choosing the benefits they desired. Contrary to predictions, employees’ process control in flexible benefits plans had no significant effects on benefits satisfaction. Also, employees did not significantly perceive that their benefits had greater value when they were allowed to choose the benefits that they desired. Employees who were satisfied with their flexible benefits were more committed to their organizations and had lower intentions to quit.     

Validating a “spurning scale” for nurses in Hong Kong

Based on a model on spumed helpers’ reactions, a spurning scale for nurses was constructed with items to assess the extent to which practicing nurses experience recurrent rejection of their help by patients and colleagues. Three approaches were employed to examine the validity of the scale: the relationship of the spurning scores with job satisfaction and turnover scores; the relationships of the spurning scores with burnout scores; and the relationships of the spurning scores with scores indicative of stress arising from interactions with one's patients, colleagues, and supervisor. Practicing nurses in Hong Kong (N = 212) who were enrolled in a refresher program of studies responded to a questionnaire containing the variables of interest. The results offered promising evidence for the validity of the scale.     

Is Relational Demography Relative? How Employment Status Influences Effects of Supervisor–Subordinate Demographic Similarity

Purpose  

Because diversity is vital to many businesses, it is important to understand how demographic differences between individuals in the workplace influence employee behavior. In this study, we focused on demographic similarity (i.e., sex, racioethnicity) with one’s supervisor as a predictor of employee withdrawal. Further, we examined employees’ employment status (i.e., part-time vs. full-time) as a moderator of the similarity–withdrawal relationships.     

Character and Knowledge: Learning from the Speech of Experts

This paper discusses the ways in which a person’s character (ethos) and a hearer’s emotional response (pathos) are part of the complex judgments made about experts’ claims, along with an actual assessment of those claims (logos). The analysis is rooted in the work of Aristotle, but expands to consider work on emotion and cognition conducted by Thagard and Gigerenzer. It also draws on some conclusions of the general epistemology of testimony (of which expert testimony is a special subset), where it is argued that we learn not just from the transmission of another’s beliefs, but from the words they speak. This shifts the onus in testimony away from the intentions of a speaker onto the judgments of an audience, capturing better its social character and reflecting our experience of receiving testimony. I conclude, however, that accepting the arguments of experts involves much more than simply believing what they say.     

Mentoring in China: Enhanced Understanding and Association with Occupational Stress

Purpose  

Given the increased usage of mentoring programs in multi-cultural settings, including the Chinese workplace, the present study examined Chinese employees’ understanding of mentoring relationships and whether mentoring played a role in their occupational stress process.     

Testing Differential Mediation Effects of Sub-dimensions of Political Skills in Linking Proactive Personality to Employee Performance

Purpose  

The purpose of this research was to examine the mediating roles of political skill dimensions (i.e., networking ability, interpersonal influence, social astuteness, and apparent sincerity) in linking employees’ proactive personality and supervisor-rated in-role performance and altruism.     

Mentoring Nurses in Familial Cancer Risk Assessment and Counseling: Lessons Learned From a Formative Evaluation

Background. As familial cancer genetic services moves into community practice increased numbers of trained health professionals are needed to counsel individuals seeking cancer risk information. Nurses have been targeted to provide cancer risk assessment and counseling. To help prepare nurses for this role, a 5-day training in familial cancer risk assessment and counseling followed by a long-distance mentorship to support continued skill development in the work environment was conducted by Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA. Methods. Four cohorts (N = 41) have completed the training and were randomized to either an immediate or delayed mentorship. A formative evaluation assessed the nurse’s ability to consult with other genetic health professionals and build self-efficacy in counseling skills via responses to questionnaire. A post-mentorship interview evaluated the usefulness, timing and length of the mentorship. Results. For both groups, there was a statistically significant improvement in self-efficacy for all skills from baseline to 6 months and an increased number of nurses consulting with genetic health professionals. All the nurses reported the value of the mentorship and those with less cancer risk counseling experience prior to the training needed support and resources for further skill and program development. Lessons learned from this formative evaluation are provided.     

Space,place, and sculpture: working with Heidegger

Heidegger’s paper ‘Art and Space’ (1969, Man and world 6. Bloomington: Indiana university Press) is the place where he gives his fullest discussion of a major art medium which is somewhat neglected in aesthetics, namely sculpture. The structure of argument in ‘Art and Space’ is cryptic even by Heidegger’s standards. The small amount of literature tends to focus on the paper’s role within Heidegger’s own oeuvre as an expression of changes in his understanding of space. This is ironic; for Heidegger’s main thematic in the essay is the way in which space is overcome in the creation of sculpture. Of course, by virtue of its three-dimensional character, sculpture seems to be a spatial medium, par excellence. The counter-intuitive character of Heidegger’s position requires, accordingly, that his argumentative strategy be scrutinized very closely. In this paper, therefore, I will examine closely the structure of Heidegger’s argument, with the aim of understanding, rectifying, and then developing his most important insights. My ultimate aim is to show the subtle, but radical points which are at issue in Heidegger’s arguments, and to develop them much further in the clarification of sculpture’s key philosophical significance.

WoMMBAT: A user interface for hierarchical Bayesian estimation of working memory capacity

The change detection paradigm has become an important tool for researchers studying working memory. Change detection is especially useful for studying visual working memory, because recall paradigms are difficult to employ in the visual modality. Pashler (Perception & Psychophysics, 44, 369–378, 1988) and Cowan (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87–114, 2001) suggested formulas for estimating working memory capacity from change detection data. Although these formulas have become widely used, Morey (Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 55, 8–24, 2011) showed that the formulas suffer from a number of issues, including inefficient use of information, bias, volatility, uninterpretable parameter estimates, and violation of ANOVA assumptions. Morey presented a hierarchical Bayesian extension of Pashler’s and Cowan’s basic models that mitigates these issues. Here, we present WoMMBAT (Working Memory Modeling using Bayesian Analysis Techniques) software for fitting Morey’s model to data. WoMMBAT has a graphical user interface, is freely available, and is cross-platform, running on Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems.