Daily Work Contexts and Resistance to Organisational Change: The Role of Leader–Member Exchange, Development Climate, and Change Process Characteristics

In the last decade, researchers have started to investigate the psychological processes that are involved in employees’ experiences of organisational change. The present study examined how characteristics of the daily work context related to employees’ resistance to change through aspects of the change process. The results supported the research model, showing that the relationships of leader–member exchange and perceived development climate with employees’ resistance to a merger were fully mediated by three change process characteristics (i.e. information, participation, and trust in management). In addition, two individual‐level characteristics (i.e. openness to job changes, and organisational tenure) showed significant relationships with resistance to change. Employees’ role breadth self‐efficacy was not related to resistance. Together, the results suggest a number of ways in which organisations can increase the effectiveness of their change efforts. Au cours de la dernière décennie, les chercheurs ont commencéàétudier les processus psychologiques à l’?vre dans les expériences des employés lors d’un changement organisationnel. La présente étude examine la façon dont les caractéristiques d’un contexte de travail quotidien sont en lien avec la résistance au changement des salariés à travers certains aspects du processus de changement. Les résultats confirment le modèle de recherche en montrant que les relations de LMX (Leader–Member Exchange) et du climat de développement perçu avec la résistance des salariés à une fusion étaient totalement médiées par trois caractéristiques processuelles de changement (l’information, la participation et la confiance dans la direction). De plus, les caractéristiques individuelles (ouverture aux changements de travail et titularisation au sein de l’organisation) sont significativement liées à la résistance au changement. L’efficacité de l’ampleur du rôle des salariés n’est pas liée à la résistance. Ensemble, ces résultats ouvrent quelques voies que les organisations peuvent utiliser pour augmenter l’efficacité de leurs efforts de changement.     

The Sports Path Not Taken: Pearl Diving Heritage and Cosmopolitanism from Below

ABSTRACT

In contrast to camel and horse racing as well as falconry, pearl diving has not been transformed into a popular heritage sport in the countries of the Arab Gulf. One reason for this striking disinterest is that the actual practice of pearling was undertaken by impoverished and exploited workers, and this is no longer compatible with the new prevailing, self-assertive ‘tribal modern’ of the Arab Gulf.     

Psychosocial and health consequences of adolescent depression in Black and White young adult women.

Depression in adolescent girls may result in negative consequences in young adulthood. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered to 1,727 Black and White girls ages 16 to 18 years who participated in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study. Three years later, women in the depressed groups were more likely to be current smokers, had attained a lower level of education, and reported lower self-worth relative to the nondepressed group. Body dissatisfaction, eating concerns, and loneliness were greater in the depressed groups. Relative to Black women, White women who were moderately depressed during adolescence reported more health care services utilization in young adulthood. Prevention efforts for depressed adolescents should be broadly focused to improve young adult outcomes.     

Threat perception distortions and psychopathological symptoms in typically developing children

This study examined relationships between symptoms of anxiety, aggression, and depression, on the one hand, and threat perception distortions, on the other hand. A large sample of typically developing children aged 8–12 years (N=157) were interviewed with an instrument for assessing the main types of childhood psychopathology, and were then exposed to a series of ambiguous vignettes in order to measure threat perception. As all measures were obtained twice, some 8 weeks apart, it was also possible to study prospective relationships between threat perception distortions and psychopathological symptoms. Results showed that threat perception was associated with a broad range of psychopathological symptoms, although the connection with anxiety was the most robust. No support was found for the notion that threat perception scores were predictive for the persistence of psychopathological symptoms during the 8‐weeks period. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.