A Multilevel Investigation of the Influences of Employees' Resistance to Empowerment

We employed a multilevel research design to examine the effects of employees' resistance to empowerment. Survey responses were obtained from 637 customer service engineers who worked in 121 empowered teams. At the team level of analysis, resistance to empowerment climate related negatively to customer satisfaction as mediated by transition processes. In addition, resistance to empowerment climate evidenced an indirect relation with team performance via team action processes. At the individual level of analysis, employees' resistance to empowerment related negatively to their job satisfaction. Moreover, a cross-level relation was evidenced whereby team-level resistance to empowerment climate related negatively to job satisfaction, beyond that accounted for by the individual-level effects, as partially mediated by team interpersonal processes. Results are discussed in terms of the multilevel manner in which employees' resistance to empowerment can undermine organizational design changes.     

Personality and job satisfaction: The role of narcissism

Narcissism has been studied in relation to leadership and productivity in the workplace. However, few studies have been conducted on how narcissism influences work attitudes. The first goal of this study is to measure the association between narcissism and the five factor model (FFM) of personality in an organizational sample. The second goal is to measure the influence of narcissism on job satisfaction when controlling for FFM traits. A total of 224 employees from a public organization have filled out self-rating measures of job satisfaction, FFM traits and a measure of narcissism. Results indicated that narcissism was positively correlated with FFM extraversion and openness to experience and negatively correlated with agreeableness. Narcissism had a significant influence on job satisfaction, even when controlling for FFM traits. We believe that these results stress the importance of better understanding the role of narcissism in employee attitudes in order to weigh the pros and cons of hiring or promoting narcissistic employees.     

Character profiles and adolescents’ self-reported affect

Cognitive and behavioral changes during adolescence might be understood from the perspective of increased executive functioning that is expressed as gradual maturing character. Character profiles (combinations of low and high scores in three character traits: Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence) of 439 Swedish adolescents were used to evaluate the linear and non-linear relationship between character traits and self-reported positive and negative affect. Linear analysis showed that all three character traits were associated to positive and negative affect. Non-linear analysis showed that Self-directedness was associated with high positive affect and low negative affect when Cooperativeness was high. No association of higher Cooperativeness with positive and negative affect was found. Higher Self-transcendence was associated with higher negative affect when both Self-directedness and Cooperativeness were high. Although, Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence are associated to adolescents’ affective experience, these character traits are not associated to positive and negative affect in the same manner or linearly. Self-directedness’s positive relationship to high positive affect and low negative affect was present only when Cooperativeness was high. In other words, an autonomous adolescent (i.e., high Self-directedness) might experience more positive and less negative emotions as long as she/he feels as an integral part of society (i.e., high Cooperativeness).     

Investigation of effects of face rotation on race processing: An ERPs study

Recent ERP research has indicated that the processing of faces of other races (OR) and same race (SR) as the perceiver differs at the perceptual level, more precisely for the N170 component. The purpose of the present study was to continue the investigation of the race-of-face processing across multiple orientations. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and performance were recorded when Caucasian participants were required to categorize by race Caucasian and African faces presented in eight different angles of orientation. Three main observations were made: (1) the face-sensitive N170 is modulated by the race of faces, being larger in response to OR compared to SR faces; (2) face rotation affected this component in the same pattern for both racial groups; (3) the N170-ORE progressively disappeared as the faces moved away from their canonical orientation at the right hemisphere only. Thus, the current findings suggest that configural/holisitic information is extracted from faces of both racial groups, but that upright OR faces require increased demands.     

The speed of visual recognition memory

Two processes are thought to support visual recognition memory (VRM): Familiarity and recollection. The former is generally considered to be faster. However, the relationship between the precise onset of the two processes is unclear. Here, we use a novel paradigm, the SAB (Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure) that constrains participants to use their fastest strategy and provides a continuous distribution of their reaction times. We show that fast recognition occurs as early as ~370 ms, a limit that appears incompressible whatever types of stimuli were used. In a second experiment, running the SAB in conjunction with a modified version of the remember/know paradigm, we show that responses up to ~420 ms are based solely on familiarity. These time limits of 370 ms and 420 ms provide strong constraints on the neural mechanisms underlying VRM and suggest that the fastest, familiarity-based, responses could rely on the visual ventral stream only.     

Intergroup predictors of older workers' attitudes towards work and early exit

Using self-determination theory (Deci &; Ryan, 2008) as the guiding theoretical framework, the present study tested a model that incorporates workers' perceptions of organizational support and supervisor autonomy support, global and domain specific (i.e., work) motivation, work satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The hypothesized model was tested using a sample of 735 workers (362 men and 373 women). Results revealed that work motivation was significantly related to both intraindividual (global motivation) and contextual factors (organizational support and supervisor autonomy support). In addition, perceived organizational support and work autonomous motivation were positively related to work satisfaction, whereas turnover intentions were negatively related to perceived organizational support and work autonomous motivation, and positively related to work controlled motivation. The present results underscore the importance of understanding the mechanisms through which higher turnover intentions and lower worker satisfaction take place, eventually leading to appropriate interventions.     

The Affective Temperaments and Well-Being: Swedish and Iranian Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being

The aim was to investigate the role of the affective temperament model (AFTs) in distinguishing variations in well-being among adolescents from Sweden (n = 222) and Iran (n = 120). Participants self-reported positive (PA) and negative affect (NA), life satisfaction (LS) and psychological well-being (PWB). The model categorizes participants in four different temperaments using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): self-actualizing (high PA and low NA), high affective (high PA and high NA), low affective (low PA and low NA), and self-destructive (low PA and high NA). Across cultures, self-actualizing adolescents reported higher LS and PWB. The PWB sub-scale of self-acceptance was positively related to LS regardless of temperament profile or cultural background. Nevertheless, Iranian adolescents with self-destructive profiles reported higher LS than high affective Iranians. The AFTs model is suggested to offer something unique by taking into account the interaction of PA and NA.     

Religion and Selected Health Behaviors Among Latinos in Texas

Though research has shown that religion provides a protective influence with respect to a number of health-related outcomes, little work has examined its influence on patterns of alcohol (especially binge drinking) and tobacco consumption among Latinos in Texas. Thus, we used a probability sample of Texas adults to test this relationship via logistic regression. Our results revealed that clear distinctions emerge on the basis of both denomination and frequency of attendance. Specifically, Protestants who regularly attend religious services are significantly more likely to be abstainers and to have never smoked, while those with no religious affiliation exhibit relatively unfavorable risk profiles. These findings persist despite a range of socio-demographic controls. Our study supports the assertion that religion may serve as an important protective influence on risky health behaviors.     

Children's Ability to Recognize Emotions From Partial and Complete Facial Expressions

The authors investigated children's ability to recognize emotions from the information available in the lower, middle, or upper face. School-age children were shown partial or complete facial expressions and asked to say whether they corresponded to a given emotion (anger, fear, surprise, or disgust). The results indicate that 5-year-olds were able to recognize fear, anger, and surprise from partial facial expressions. Fear was better recognized from the information located in the upper face than those located in the lower face. A similar pattern of results was found for anger, but only in girls. Recognition improved between 5 and 10 years old for surprise and anger, but not for fear and disgust.     

Genetic and adoptive motherhood: Stress,marital relationship,and child care support

In this paper we characterize adoptive and genetic motherhood with or without stress indicators. Participants were 86 mothers (36 adoptive, 50 genetic) with children from 0 to 12 years old. They answered questions about focal child and mother profile, marital relationship, child care support and the Lipp's Stress Symptoms Inventory for Adults. Results showed that mothers in both groups reported child care support, but there was more participation of nonrelatives in the care of adoptive children and relatives in the care of genetic children. There was greater marital stability and less conflict with the arrival of the child in the adoptive families and predominance of stress indicators in genetic mothers. We concluded that, although there are differences between adoptive and genetic motherhood, these do not imply advantages for one versus the other. Moreover, marital stability related to the adoption process and sociodemographic characteristics of adoptive mothers may have contributed to lower prevalence of stress.