The variation of hand steadiness with physical stress

The performance of 12 subjects in a hand steadiness task was compared at different work loads. Hand steadiness expressed in the form of values of hand shakiness was found not to increase linearly with work intensity. On the contrary, the relation between hand shakiness and activation level, induced by physical work, was found to be positively accelerated by an exponent of 1.6. Subjective effort measured by a ratio estimation method grew, likewise, according to a positively accelerating function with an exponent of about 1.6, while subjective effort according to the "RPE" category scale like hear rate grew linearly with work load.     

Progress Takes Work: Effects of the Locomotion Dimension on Job Involvement,Effort Investment,and Task Performance in Organizations1

This research examined the relation between individual differences in the tendency toward locomotion, which is defined as a proclivity toward psychological movement; and job involvement, effort commitment, and performance in organizational contexts. Four separate studies found support for the notion that locomotion is related positively to effort investment in work activities. Locomotion also was related positively to job involvement and successful performance, as assessed by a self‐report measure and by manager ratings. Finally, the positive relation between locomotion and effort was mediated partially by job involvement, and the positive relation between locomotion and performance was mediated by effort investment. These findings are discussed in reference to the varied implications of the locomotion dimension for human functioning in organizations.     

“激将法”会激发还是打击员工?感知能力不被领导信任的“双刃剑”效应

感知能力不被领导信任是信任研究的重要内容。已有研究普遍认为感知不被领导信任会对员工的自我产生不利影响。相反, 传统领导方式“激将法”则认为领导的不信任可以刺激员工展现更好的自我。为了解释上述矛盾, 本研究基于自我评价理论和心理逆反理论, 采用实验研究和多源多时间点问卷调查研究方法, 探讨了感知能力不被领导信任对员工自我的“双刃剑”效应及边界条件。研究结果表明, 当员工感知领导能力较强时, 感知能力不被领导信任会通过降低员工的工作效能感削弱员工的工作努力和绩效表现; 当员工感知领导能力较弱时, 感知能力不被领导信任会通过增强员工证明自我能力动机提升员工的工作努力和绩效表现。     

Perceived effort in sniffing: The effects

Previous research has shown that perceived odor strength does not vary with flow rate of an odorant vapor entering the naris when that variation is produced by subject-controlled changes in sniff pressure, but that it does vary with flow rate when the variation is produced by experimenter-controlled changes in the resistance of the olfactometric system. We have suggested an odor-constancy model in which invariance of perceived odor strength is linked to perceived effort of sniffing, and have hypothesized that changed resistance will have its effect because there is no corresponding change in perceived effort when sniff pressure is held constant. In two studies, subjects made magnitude estimations of the perceived effort of sniffing; sniff pressure was controlled by having the subject match his sniff, displayed on a storage oscilloscope face, to a pattern specifying its required shape, duration, and level. In Experiment 1, resistance was fixed while sniff pressure varied; perceived effort grew as the .8 power of the required sniff pressure. In Experiment 2, sniff pressure and resistance were varied in a factorial design; perceived effort grew as the .8 power of pressure at fixed resistance, but remained unchanged when resistance varied at fixed pressure. This outcome provides indirect support for the odor-constancy model, since it shows that perceived effort covaries with flow rate under the condition in which constancy is found but does not change under the condition in which constancy fails.     

Sparking Anger and Anxiety: Why Intense Leader Anger Displays Trigger Both More Deviance and Higher Work Effort in Followers

While previous research has assumed that intense leader anger displays result in negative consequences, researchers have recently started to outline their potential for prompting followers to improve their performance. We explain these conflicting positions by demonstrating that leaders’ anger intensity positively affects both deviance and work effort through triggering anger and anxiety in followers. We conducted two critical incident studies, replicating our results with different methodologies and controlling for potential alternative explanations. In line with theories on reciprocal emotions, supervisor-directed deviance became more likely with higher leader anger intensity because followers reacted with correspondingly more anger. However, in line with theories on complementary emotions, leaders’ anger intensity was also positively related to followers’ work effort due to followers’ anxiety. These results were replicated when taking leaders’ anger appropriateness into account as a potential moderator of the deviance-related path and when controlling for followers’ feelings of guilt (an alternative explanation for followers’ work effort). Our paper provides evidence that intense anger displays increase followers’ work effort but also cautions leaders to show these, as the work effort caused by them is based on followers’ intimidation and likely to be accompanied by deviant reactions. By considering the affective reactions triggered in followers, our paper integrates diverging theoretical perspectives on followers’ reactions to leaders’ anger intensity. Moreover, it is one of the first to disentangle the interpersonal effects that different expressions of the same emotion may have.     

Determinants of expectancy of examination results

Abstract.— In a group of undergraduate psychology students, expectancy of examination results was found to be positively related to experienced effort (work put out for the exam) and estimated importance of success for future career, both for men and women. The assumptions that men consider success to be more important for self esteem and future career than women do, and that women consider success to be more important in connection with social acceptance than men do, were not supported. Women were found to have a lower expectancy level than men in spite of there being no sex difference as to experienced effort. It was suggested that women perceive their ability to be lower than men do. In a group of persons who were homogenous as to the importance of success for future career, incentive value of success for social acceptance correlated positively with expectancy for men, but negatively for women.     

The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work,Creative Effort and Well-Being

The connections between creative effort at work and four measures of subjective well-being are studied using data on a sample of 922 Jewish Israeli adults who are salaried employees. The paper finds that self-reported creative effort aimed at making work more enjoyable is positively associated with global evaluation of life; with purpose and meaning in life, and with positive emotions. No significant link with negative emotions was found. This study also finds significant associations with three additional intrinsic features of work-creative tasks; independence at work and intellectual work-and various measures of subjective well-being, even when controlling for age, gender, marital status, having children, education, time worked, financial satisfaction, subjective health and religiosity. The robustness of the links between intrinsic features of work and subjective well-being demonstrate that work serves not only as a means to material ends, but also as a direct source of personal happiness, meaning and satisfaction.     

Do you get what you pay for? Sales incentives and implications for motivation and changes in turnover intention and work effort

This study investigated relations between pay-for-performance incentives designed to vary in instrumentality (annual pay-for-performance, quarterly pay-for-performance, and base pay level) and employee outcomes (self-reported work effort and turnover intention) in a longitudinal study spanning more than 2 years. After controlling for perceived instrumentality, merit pay increase, and the initial values of the dependent variables, the amount of base pay was positively related to work effort and negatively related to turnover intention, where both relationships were mediated by autonomous motivation. The amounts of quarterly and annual pay-for-performance were both positively related to controlled motivation, but were differently related to the dependent variables due to different relations with autonomous motivation.     

Sensation of effort and duration of mentally executed actions

The aim of this study was to examine whether a sensation of effort would arise in subjects requested, by verbal instructions, to mentally perform motor tasks with an internal imagery strategy. Sixteen subjects had to imagine themselves, from a first person perspective, writing a sentence and drawing a Necker's cube either with their right dominant hand or with their left hand, as well as hopping around a square either on their right or left foot. The time needed to mentally execute these actions was measured. The sensation of effort following the mental performance and the difficulty of imaging the tasks were assessed by means of two analog rating scales. The results indicate that the sensation of effort increased across the trials. Furthermore, a negative correlation coefficient (mean r = -0.99) was found between the difficulty to imagining a given motor task and the subjective sensation of effort across the trials. Moreover, the sensation of effort was more pronounced when the tasks involved the non-dominant limb.     

毅力与学业成绩的关系：有意走神和自发走神的不同中介作用

以3372名5年级小学生为研究对象,采用毅力量表、有意走神和自发走神量表以及学业成绩测验,考察毅力（兴趣一致性和坚持努力）对学业成绩的影响,并检验有意走神和自发走神的中介作用。结果发现：（1）兴趣一致性和坚持努力均显著正向预测学业成绩;（2）有意走神、自发走神在兴趣一致性和坚持努力与学业成绩之间均起显著的中介作用,但两者的中介作用模式存在差异。有意走神在兴趣一致性和坚持努力与学业成绩间的中介作用不同：兴趣一致性负向影响有意走神,有意走神正向影响学业成绩,坚持努力正向影响有意走神,有意走神正向影响学业成绩;而自发走神在兴趣一致性和坚持努力对学业成绩预测的中介作用相同,即兴趣一致性和坚持努力均负向影响自发走神,自发走神负向影响学业成绩。     

Learning under your gaze: the mediating role of affective arousal between perceived direct gaze and memory performance

Previous studies have shown that cognitive performance can be affected by the presence of an observer and self-directed gaze. We investigated whether the effect of gaze direction (direct vs. downcast) on verbal memory is mediated by autonomic arousal. Male participants responded with enhanced affective arousal to both male and female storytellers’ direct gaze which, according to a path analysis, was negatively associated with the performance. On the other hand, parallel to this arousal-mediated effect, males’ performance was affected by another process impacting the performance positively and suggested to be related to effort allocation on the task. The effect of this process was observed only when the storyteller was a male. The participants remembered more details from a story told by a male with a direct vs. downcast gaze. The effect of gaze direction on performance was the opposite for female storytellers, which was explained by the arousal-mediated process. Surprisingly, these results were restricted to male participants only and no effects of gaze were observed among female participants. We also investigated whether the participants’ belief of being seen or not (through an electronic window) by the storyteller influenced the memory and arousal, but this manipulation had no effect on the results.     

Psychologically Distinct Classes of Motor Behavior Inferred from Individual Differences: Evidence from a Sequential Stacking Task

A number of studies have demonstrated regularities in how individuals select and perform single object manipulations, but little work has been concerned with the manipulation of multiple objects. To this end, the authors asked participants to stack a set of linearly spaced containers onto various goal locations. Our aim was to determine whether participants adopted specific strategies to complete this task. We focused on whether the distance between the objects, the goal location of the objects, or both, determined the classes of movement sequences that individuals used to perform the task. The results showed that some individuals tended to use one hand for lifting and releasing the containers whereas other individuals tended to use both hands for lifting and releasing the containers. Those participants who tended to use one hand varied which hand was used according to the goal location of the containers but not the distance between containers. The emergence of these individual differences provides a new basis for inferring psychologically distinct classes of motor behavior.     

Masculinity,femininity, academic performance,and health: Further evidence concerning the androgyny controversy1

Spence and Helmreich's (1978) claim that individual differences in four components of achievement motivation (mastery, work, competitiveness, and personal unconcern) are attributable to masculinity and femininity rather than to gender was generally supported, with one exception: Masculinity was associated with competitiveness for males but not for females. Furthermore, competitive women were more likely than noncompetitive women to have mental and physical health problems, but there was no such difference for males. In general, masculinity emerged as a beneficial constellation of traits for both males and females, correlating negatively with achievement conflicts and stress symptoms, and positively with mastery and work. Femininity, on the other hand, appeared to be a detrimental cluster of traits for both sexes, at least in terms of academic performance and health. Implications for the controversial concept of androgyny were discussed, and it was suggested that, in the future, research inspired by an ideal conception of adult behavior confront the ideal directly rather than describe it in terms of the traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity. Any such research effort will have to deal with the pivotal role of competitiveness.     

Disengagement in work‐role transitions

The present study examines whether disengagement from previous work‐roles positively predicts adaptation to a new work‐role (here, becoming self‐employed) by reducing negative consequences of psychological attachment to these previous roles. Disengagement involves an individual's effort to release attention from thoughts and behaviours related to the previous work‐role. A three‐wave longitudinal study investigated the relationship between psychological attachment (measured as affective commitment) to a prior work‐role, disengagement from the prior work‐role, and adaptation to a new work‐role [pursuit of learning, fit perceptions with self‐employment, task performance over time]. Participants included 131 persons who recently founded a small business. Results indicated that psychological attachment to the past work‐role was negatively related to pursuit of learning and fit with the new work‐role. Disengagement from the past work‐role was positively related to pursuit of learning in the new work‐role, and buffered the negative relationship between psychological attachment and fit as well as task performance.     

The relationship between Revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST), handedness and indecision

Indecisiveness is an inability to make a decision, manifest across a number of behaviours. We explore the influence that both direction and strength of hand preference may have on this construct, examining it in relation to the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST). Frost and Shows’ (1993) Indecisiveness Scale was administered to 328 undergraduates (221 females), alongside the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971) and Carver and White’s (1994) BIS/BAS scales. Simple correlations showed left-handers had a positive relationship between strength of handedness and BIS. In right-handers, strength and aversive indecision were positively correlated. Regression analysis demonstrated no significant relationship between hand strength and indecision, but that indecision was related to all three measures of rRST. Consistent with previous work, BIS was positively related to all indecision but particularly aversive, while BAS was negatively related to indecision but most strongly the avoidant category. We found that FFFS is more closely related to aversive than avoidant indecision. The relationship between rRST and indecision may be influenced by handedness; for right-handers the same pattern was found, but in left-handers BAS was not a significant predictor of indecision, BIS only predicted aversive indecision and FFFS predicted all three categories.     

Charismatic leadership and organizational outcomes: The mediating role of employees' work-group identification

This research examines the degree of employees' identification with the work-group as a function of charismatic leadership (e.g., Conger & Kanungo, 1998 1998) and the mediating role of work-group identification (Van Knippenberg & Van Shie, 2000 2000) in the relationship between charismatic style and different work outcomes. Thus, the general aim was to analyse leadership and work outcomes as they are associated to social identification processes, referring both to recent developments of charismatic leadership models and to the recent developments of the social identity analysis applied to the workplace (see Abrams & Hogg, 2001 2001). Two field surveys were conducted using 200 Italian public and private sector employees (two different working organizations). Two questionnaires were designed in order to collect data. They included different measures of charismatic leadership derived by the literature (e.g., the Conger-Kanungo Charismatic Leadership Questionnaire; Conger & Kanungo, 1994 1994, 1998 1998, for Study 2), a scale to assess the degree of identification with the work-group (Van Knippenberg & Van Shie, 2000 2000), and some scales to measure the different outcomes considered (e.g., Brown and Leigh's effort measure, 1996 1996; Mobley's turnover intention measure, 1977 1977). As predicted, results of Study 1 revealed that charismatic leadership was positively related to work-group identification, and employees' work effort was positively related to work-group identification. Work-group identification also mediates relationship between charismatic leadership and work effort. Results of Study 2 replicated the positive association between charismatic leadership and employees' work-group identification; work-group identification is also associated with their job involvement, job satisfaction, performance, and turnover intention. The same mediating role of work-group identification between charismatic leadership and the criteria mentioned above was found. Underlying mechanisms as well as implications are discussed.     

Physical and cognitive effort discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards

Effort discounting refers to the decrease in the subjective value of a reward as the effort required to obtain the reward increases. The main aims of this study were to ascertain whether the amount of the reward affects the steepness of the effort discounting process for hypothetical monetary rewards, to identify whether this steepness depends on the type of effort that is required, and to determine whether the steepness of different types of effort covary at the individual level. Two types of effort were studied under hypothetical choice situations: physical effort and cognitive effort. Both physical and cognitive effort discounting were well described by the hyperbolic model. Large rewards were discounted less steeply than small rewards for both types of effort. This finding agrees with the results of prior studies which have found that larger rewards have greater motivational power. In addition, the steepness of physical effort discounting was positively correlated with the steepness of cognitive effort discounting, which suggests that the effort discounting process is a trait‐like characteristic within an individual.     

Stress and work performance: The role of trait anxiety

Employees high in Trait Anxiety (TA) were found to exert greater work effort than those low in TA, which resulted in better sales performance. There was no relation between TA and work efficiency, measured by sales performance relative to work effort. Employees high in TA also reported greater levels of stress and more adverse effects of work on non-work relationships. Using multiple regression, both stress and interference with relationships were found to be better predicted by TA than work effort. The results are discussed in terms of laboratory-based theories about relations between TA and efficiency and intervention strategies for managing stress at work.     

Measuring work styles: Towards an understanding of the dynamic components of the theory of work adjustment

Work styles are an important yet largely unexplored component of the theory of work adjustment (TWA), describing a dynamic component of how individuals maintain and adjust fit with their work environment. The active work style (AWS) scale is the first attempt to develop a specific self-report measure of work styles suitable for longitudinal research. Results from three studies support Dawis and Lofquist's (1984) proposed four factor structure, but these factors are related through a second-order factor describing a person's generalised level of work activity and effort across time. The AWS scale demonstrated good evidence for reliability and validity, and strong measurement invariance across time signifying its suitability for longitudinal research. In line with expectations, overall work style was positively related to conscientiousness and work engagement yet unrelated to stress. When controlling for these variables, AWS was positively related to demands–abilities fit, but not needs–supplies fit. Limitations and possibilities for future research are also discussed.     

新三元付出-回报失衡模型框架下护士的付出、回报和过度投入与工作倦怠的关系

摘 要 目的：在护士群体中检验付出、回报和过度投入及其交互作用对工作倦怠的影响,验证新三元付出-回报失衡模型。方法：采用问卷法测查了456名女护士的付出、回报、过度投入和工作倦怠。采用分层线性回归分析验证自变量对因变量的影响。结果：付出、过度投入和付出-回报比正向影响情绪耗竭和去个性化,付出和付出-回报比负向影响职业效能,回报负向影响去个性化,正向影响职业效能。付出对工作倦怠的影响最大,其次是过度投入,回报的影响最小。过度投入能调节付出-回报比对情绪耗竭、职业效能的影响。结论：新三元付出-回报失衡模型适用于女护士群体。