What good leaders actually do: micro-level leadership behaviour,leader evaluations,and team decision quality

We supplement broad definitions of leadership behaviour with the concept of micro-level leadership behaviour, leaders’ verbal and non-verbal visible conduct and interaction. For the context of team decision-making, we identify two potentially beneficial micro-level leadership behaviours, question asking and behavioural mimicry. Specifically, we propose that under conditions of informational complexity and unshared information, participative leadership is most appropriate for team decision-making, that its effects are mediated by inquiring and empathy, and that question asking and mimicry are the behavioural micro-level manifestations of inquiring and empathy. We thus hypothesize that the effect of participative leadership on team decision quality and leader evaluation is mediated by question asking and mimicry. We conduct a laboratory experiment with student teams working on a hidden profile decision-making task and measure question asking through behavioural coding and mimicry with motion sensors. Results show that the effect of participative leadership on decision quality is mediated by question asking, and that the effect of participative leadership on leader evaluation as transformational is mediated by leaders’ behavioural mimicry and question asking. Under control of these micro-level behaviours, team decision quality and leader evaluations were unrelated.     

How differences in perceptions of own and team performance impact trust and job satisfaction in virtual teams

Employees frequently engage in social comparison processes and tend to perceive their own performance as superior compared to that of their peers. We expect this to be particularly salient in virtual teams where employees receive few cues upon which the comparison with other members of their team can be based. With reliance on social comparison and social exchange theory, we propose that such “perceived overperformance” has negative effects on job satisfaction, which is mediated by trust in the team. We confirm this with a sample of field-service employees (n = 753) using structural equation modeling with bootstrapping. We corroborated our findings in focus groups, which suggest the need for performance indicators that are easily communicated to and comprehended by employees to maintain trust and satisfaction.     

Schmerz ist nicht gleich Schmerz

Pain is an emotional state that is inextricably linked to the mental state and sociocultural background of the person experiencing the pain. The basis of our current understanding of the pain are the bio-psycho-social model and knowledge regarding complex physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms. Nociceptive pain is caused by a painful stimulus; upon activation of peripheral nociceptors, signals are sent to the brain for processing. It has a protective function because it leads to reflexes or behavior-based reactions to minimize damage to tissue. Neuropathic pain is—apart from a few exceptions—a chronic, non-malignant pain condition that is caused by diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. In contrast to acute pain, the causes of chronic pain are usually not known and remain even when no tissue damage is present.     

Begutachtung der posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung

There is a high prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in community-based samples; therefore psychiatric assessment and expert opinion is often required. Professional standards of psychiatric expert opinion in the assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder are outlined. The significance of symptom validity tests is critically discussed. Test results have to be considered carefully in the medicolegal context and require thorough clinical assessment.     

Qualitätssicherung bei der betreuungsrechtlichen Begutachtung

Quality assurance in the field of medico-legal assessment for civil courts has not developed as far as in other legal fields, especially in criminal law. This also applies to assessments in cases of guardianship and custody even though assessments for these cases are much more frequent than in other areas of law. Efforts to achieve quality assurance should rely on quality standards which have been developed both in criminal law and in social law. A large proportion of these standards are suitable for all expert assessments. In addition to the specific statutory requirements in the law on the procedure in family cases and in matters of voluntary jurisdiction (FamFG), the specifications of the particular jurisdiction and especially the needs of those assessed and the courts concerned with them have to be observed. Building on the already published proposals this article attempts to systematize procedures, drafting of the assessment and the written report so that the quality of the work of the expert can be checked by those concerned.