A job characteristics approach to explain workplace bullying

This article analyses job characteristics as antecedents of workplace bullying, in line with the early Scandinavian research tradition. Research thus far suggests a large variety of possible job related antecedents. Recent review findings and methodological criticism, however, suggests that these findings need to be treated with caution. Warr's Vitamin model is used to summarize relevant job-related antecedents of workplace bullying. All relationships are tested simultaneously in a hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for covariates. A large and heterogeneous sample of Belgian workers is used to test the hypotheses (n = 6175). The results show that task autonomy is not significantly related to bullying. In line with earlier research, role conflicts and role ambiguity are the most important antecedents. Also (lack of) participation in decision making, (lack of) skill utilization, workload, cognitive demands, changes in the job, job insecurity, and (lack of) task-related feedback are found to be directly related to workplace bullying. These findings are discussed in the light of the literature and some suggestions for practice are formulated.     

Commitment: A behavioral approach to job involvement

This study views job involvement and commitment as interchangeable labels for the same job behavior. Work commitment behaviors were defined as a special class of socially acceptable work behaviors that exceed formal and/or normative expectations relevant to work. The main purpose of this study was the development of a measure of work commitment based on this definition. A daily record measured the amount of personal time that each subject devoted to work-related activities beyond the required working day. For a sample of 54 female elementary school teachers, the work commitment measure demonstrated moderate correlations with two attitudinal measures of job involvement and a job satisfaction scale. The feasibility and usefulness of defining and measuring involvement behaviorally were demonstrated.     

A longitudinal person-centred approach to the job demands-control model

We used a longitudinal design and a person-centred methodology to test the strain and learning hypotheses of the job demands–control model among Finnish employees (n = 926), who were followed-up at three time points covering a period of 2 years (2008–2010). First, we identified longitudinal subgroups in demands and control across three measurement points. Second, we examined how these subgroups differed in strain (job exhaustion) and motivation-related outcomes (vigour at work, work–family enrichment). Growth mixture modelling revealed four subgroups: “stable high strain”, “stable low strain”, “increasing control”, and “decreasing control”. The stable high- and low-strain subgroups also differed in the outcomes studied (exhaustion, work–family enrichment) as suggested by the demands–control model. The findings also suggest that job control is subject to changes over time and that these changes are likely to be associated with changes in employee outcomes. Malleability of job control should be kept in mind in job stress interventions, likewise the fact that some employees suffer from chronic job stress.     

Generalization of the Brown-Forsythe approach to factorial designs

The current paper proposes a solution that generalizes ideas of Brown and Forsythe to the problem of comparing hypotheses in two-way classification designs with heteroscedastic error structure. Unlike the standard analysis of variance, the proposed approach does not require the homogeneity assumption. A comprehensive simulation study, in which sample size of the cells, relationship between the cell sizes and unequal variance, degree of variance heterogeneity, and population distribution shape were systematically manipulated, shows that the proposed approximation was generally robust when normality and heterogeneity were jointly violated.     

Computer-based job simulation: A complementary approach to organizational research

This paper reviews current applications of computer-based job simulation procedures in the study of organizational phenomenon. It then presents a study in which a new approach to modeling employee turnover is examined in the context of a computer-based job simulation. The simulation technology allows the researcher to examine formally the relationships between critical organizational variables. It provides a realistic and engaging yetcontrollable flow of events to the participant, and represents a useful complementary approach to traditional organizational field studies.     

A robust approach for analyzing unbalanced factorial designs with fixed levels

The goal of this study was to investigate the performance of Hall’s transformation of the Brunner-Dette-Munk (BDM) and Welch-James (WJ) test statistics and Box-Cox’s data transformation in factorial designs when normality and variance homogeneity assumptions were violated separately and jointly. On the basis of unweighted marginal means, we performed a simulation study to explore the operating characteristics of the methods proposed for a variety of distributions with small sample sizes. Monte Carlo simulation results showed that when data were sampled from symmetric distributions, the error rates of the original BDM and WJ tests were scarcely affected by the lack of normality and homogeneity of variance. In contrast, when data were sampled from skewed distributions, the original BDM and WJ rates were not well controlled. Under such circumstances, the results clearly revealed that Hall’s transformation of the BDM and WJ tests provided generally better control of Type I error rates than did the same tests based on Box-Cox’s data transformation. Among all the methods considered in this study, we also found that Hall’s transformation of the BDM test yielded the best control of Type I errors, although it was often less powerful than either of the WJ tests when both approaches reasonably controlled the error rates.     

Story telling in families with children: A therapeutic approach to learning problems

Story telling can be used as an original method to restructure families with children. It actively involves parents in communicating with children in their own language, helping the family to switch from a rational language to an emotional/imaginary one, circumventing resistances and permitting its members to resume a natural path in parent-child communication. This paper illustrates how stories can be used in family interaction for treating problems of family origin. Selected stories were given to parents and children for them to read-listen/make comments/dramatize during the phase of family treatment which dealt specifically with learning problems. Three family cases in which story telling was useful in solving children's disabilities through promoting changes in the family structure and creating or enlightening parental functions of orientation and guidance are analyzed.This work was done at CERF, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and received the Margarita Ravioli Award from the Asociacion Argentina de Psiquiatria Infantil for the best paper in mental health and education, Buenos Aires, September, 1987. We wish to acknowledge psychologists Helen Lamuraglia, Julia Koremblit, and Susana Sola for their therapeutic cooperation with the family cases P and F respectively. We especially thank Harry Aponte, Alberto Gonzalez, and Helen Lamuraglia for their support, comments, and review of the paper, which enriched our scope and discussion.     

Perceived job image among police officers in Singapore: factorial dimensions and differential effects

The authors examined the perceived job image of police officers in Singapore and its differential effects on their work-related attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention to quit). The authors obtained data from questionnaire surveys and focus-group interviews. Perceived job image consisted of 4 dimensions: (a) prestige, (b) integrity, (c) competence, and (d) nonroutine job nature. Results of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that the first 2 dimensions of the perceived job image construct were salient in affecting the police officers' work-related attitudes.     

An empirical approach to identify job duty-KSA linkages in managerial jobs: A case example

One-hundred and five managers and supervisors in the maintenance and engineering areas of a national aviation company rated job behaviors and personal requirements of their positions. Component analyses yielded factor structures of seven general job responsibilities and five skills, respectively. Consistent with previous research, skill importance varied as a function of level of management. Most importantly, the results of a series of regression analyses yielded empirical evidence of perceived behavior-skill associations in this sample of managerial positions. The uses of these empirical behavior-skill linkages are outlined.     

Beyond job satisfaction: A five-year prospective analysis of the dispositional approach to work attitudes

Mounting evidence indicates a dispositional component to global job satisfaction. Unfortunately, however, relatively little attention has been given to the potential effects of dispositions on work-related attitudes other than global job satisfaction. We used a five-year prospective design to investigate the relationships of affective disposition with a set of attitudes oriented toward different aspects of work: the job, the organization, and the career. Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, career commitment and career satisfaction each showed significant stability over five years. Cross-lagged panel analyses suggested that affective disposition plays an important role in the change of job attitudes across time. Analyses also support the hypothesis that affective disposition would be more weakly related to job involvement than to the other attitudes.     

A semi-analytical method of factorial rotation to simple structure

A factorial rotational method is presented which represents a compromise between the use of subjective judgment characteristic of graphical methods and the routine application of analytical methods. At present the analytical methods seem to be inadequate for the discovery of a simple structure, while graphical methods require more subjective judgment. The method herein presented locates the axes for subgroups of tests by an analytical method. The judgments used in the selection of subgroups are based on graphic data concerning interrelation of the factors.     

An approach to families of acting-out adolescents--a case study.

Certain types of acting-out in the adolescent express the feelings of deprivation of the parental pair in a maladaptive aggressive way. Family therapists have attempted to convert the acting-out behavioral disorders into an effective state, i.e., make the family aware of their feelings of deprivation by focusing on the aggressive component. In many instances, the family becomes depressed and then interrupts or terminates treatment. The authors feel that this is due to the therapist's interpretations which bring about the depressive state via guilt provocation. The family understands the interpretations as meaning "You are bad to have your adolescent offspring behave in such a way". The therapist is thus seen as the family's collective super-ego. In order to prevent premature termination, the therapist should instead help the members of the family to become more conscious of their loving, "welfare" feelings for one another. In this way the self-esteem of the family is increased, which then permits more verbal action of aggressive feelings--thus a decrease in the acting-out, and ultimately an increase in the capacity to mourn. It should be pointed out, however, that in certain families, the technique described is not applicable. In these cases, although there is acting-out, the families are unable to draw on sufficient good experiences together which are necessary to elicit positive feeling for one another. The absence of readily available "welfare" feelings is of diagnostic and prognostic significance and differentiates the disorganized, sociopathic or schizophrenic family from the acting-out of parental deprivation as illustrated in this paper.     

A factorial analysis of olfaction

Twenty-one reagents were rated on a pleasantness scale by 182 subjects. The tetrachoric correlation coefficients were determined for the variables. The correlation matrix thus obtained was subjected to a Thurstone analysis which gave rise to a 6-dimensional structure. Two of these were not clear-cut, and the last one appeared to be a residual factor. One factor, the benzene-ketone, revealed the chemical property of unsaturation and the physiological quality of possible trigeminal stimulation. The other two factors were marked by the presence of oxygen and nitrogen, respectively, and were tentatively labelled as a plant factor and an animal factor accordingly. The intercorrelations of the primaries are high.The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor L. L. Thurstone for his kindness in providing facilities which made this study possible and for his guidance on the factorial problem; to Doctor T. G. Andrews for his many invaluable assistances and technical advice on the experimental aspect of this problem; to Miss Florence Brown for her editorial assistance; and to Mrs. Virginia Brown for her generous assistance on the computational procedures.