The Effect of Mental Practice and Goal Setting as a Transfer of Training Intervention on Supervisors' Self-efficacy and Communication Skills: An Exploratory Study

Mental practice, where goal setting was either implicit or explicit, was investigated in a pulp and paper mill as a post-training intervention with regard to self-efficacy and the transfer of newly taught communication skills to the work setting. Six months after the supervisors had been trained, a 2×2 ANCOVA showed that self-efficacy was significantly higher for the supervisors who engaged in either mental practice or in mental practice combined with goal setting than for those in the goal setting only or control conditions. Self-efficacy correlated significantly with goal commitment and communication skills on the job. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the supervisor's imagery skills moderated the effect of mental practice on self-efficacy. Both the supervisors in the mental practice and in the goal setting and mental practice conditions were observed by peers to have improved their communication behaviour on the job. No change in communication behaviour was observed on the part of supervisors who set goals but did not engage in mental practice or were assigned to the control group.     

On the temporal stability of self-determined work motivation profiles: a latent transition analysis

ABSTRACT

This study extends the research and theory on work motivation by examining temporal stability and change in employees’ self-determined work motivation profiles and their differential relations to various predictors and outcomes. We gathered data at two time points over a 24-month period from a sample of 438 newly registered public health care nurses. Results of latent profile and latent transition analyses revealed four distinct profiles (strongly, moderately, self-determined, and poorly motivated), estimated from the position of global and specific behavioural regulations on the motivation continuum proposed by self-determination theory. These profiles were entirely stable at the within-sample level, although within-person changes in profile membership occurred for 30–40% of employees. Of particular interest, perceptions of job resources were consistently associated with greater likelihood of membership in the strongly and moderately motivated profiles. These profiles were also consistently associated with lower emotional exhaustion and intentions to leave the occupation and the organization and with higher in-role performance compared to the self-determined and poorly motivated profiles.     

Executive functions in kindergarteners with high levels of disruptive behaviours

Executive function (EF) deficits have yet to be demonstrated convincingly in children with disruptive behaviour disorders (DBD), as only a few studies have reported these. The presence of EF weaknesses in children with DBD has often been contested on account of the high comorbidity between DBD and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and of methodological shortcomings regarding EF measures. Against this background, the link between EF and disruptive behaviours in kindergarteners was investigated using a carefully selected battery of EF measures. Three groups of kindergarteners were compared: (1) a group combining high levels of disruptive behaviours and ADHD symptoms (COMB); (2) a group presenting high levels of disruptive/aggressive behaviours and low levels of ADHD symptoms (AGG); and (3) a normative group (NOR). Children in the COMB and AGG groups presented weaker inhibition capacities compared with normative peers. Also, only the COMB group showed weaker working memory capacities compared with the NOR group. Results support the idea that preschool children with DBD have weaker inhibition capacities and that this weakness could be common to both ADHD and DBD.