Supporting the spiritual needs of people with dementia in residential aged care

ABSTRACT

Objective: To describe how an Australian age care provider, BaptistCare NSW & ACT, has embraced the National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care for people with dementia.

Method: A 12-month study was conducted in 19 Baptistcare residential homes, including 14 dementia units. Data were obtained from selected items of the Person-Centred Environment and Care Assessment Tool using interviews, observation, and document review.

Results: The person-centred approach was instituted in adhering to the Guidelines for people with dementia. Conclusion: The person-centred approach assists in actioning the Guidelines for people with dementia.     

Hospital restructuring, work-family conflict and psychological burnout among nursing staff

Abstract This study examined work-family conflict, family-work conflict and psychological burnout among nursing staff during a time of hospital restructuring and downsizing. Data were collected from 686 hospital-based nurses, the vast majority women. Nurses reported significantly greater work-family conflict than family-work conflict. Personal demographics but not downsizing and restructuring stressors predicted family-work conflict; downsizing and restructuring stressors but not personal demographics predicted work-family conflict. Restructuring stressors and both work-family conflict and family-work conflict were associated with higher levels of psychological burnout.     

The dimensional effects of missing information on choice processing

This paper demonstrates that choice processing may be different in missing information situations than in full information situations depending on whether inferences are used to fill in missing values and the overlap of the missing information itself. It is shown that when individuals do not form inferences to fill in missing values, fewer full attribute-based processes and more processes which accommodate for missing attribute values, alternative-based or given-dimension attribute-based, are used. It is also shown that when a processing shift due to missing information does occur, the overlap of the missing values will affect the type of shift that takes place. If overlap is high, a shift to given-dimension attribute-based processing is more likely, and when overlap is low, a shift to alternative-based processing is more likely. When individuals do form inferences to fill in missing values, processing is more similar to that in full information situations. Finally, it is shown that individuals will often partially fill in missing information, thus moderating the proposed effects.     

Judging approachability on the face of it: the influence of face and body expressions on the perception of approachability

The aim of the current study was to examine how emotional expressions displayed by the face and body influence the decision to approach or avoid another individual. In Experiment 1, we examined approachability judgments provided to faces and bodies presented in isolation that were displaying angry, happy, and neutral expressions. Results revealed that angry expressions were associated with the most negative approachability ratings, for both faces and bodies. The effect of happy expressions was shown to differ for faces and bodies, with happy faces judged more approachable than neutral faces, whereas neutral bodies were considered more approachable than happy bodies. In Experiment 2, we sought to examine how we integrate emotional expressions depicted in the face and body when judging the approachability of face-body composite images. Our results revealed that approachability judgments given to face-body composites were driven largely by the facial expression. In Experiment 3, we then aimed to determine how the categorization of body expression is affected by facial expressions. This experiment revealed that body expressions were less accurately recognized when the accompanying facial expression was incongruent than when neutral. These findings suggest that the meaning extracted from a body expression is critically dependent on the valence of the associated facial expression.     

Work Passion Through the Lens of Culture: Harmonious Work Passion,Obsessive Work Passion,and Work Outcomes in Russia and China

Purpose

This cross-cultural study with employee–supervisor dyads in Russia and China examines links between harmonious and obsessive work passion and four job- and organization-focused outcomes (job satisfaction, intentions to quit, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors) and two career-focused outcomes (career satisfaction and occupational commitment).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected from employee–supervisor dyads in Russia (N = 223) and China (N = 193). We undertook a series of hierarchical regressions to examine the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

We found considerable support for the harmonious passion–work outcome relationships and less support for the obsessive passion–work outcome relationships. In both Russia and China, harmonious passion predicted all six hypothesized outcomes. However, obsessive work passion predicted job satisfaction and occupational commitment in Russia, but was unrelated to any of the hypothesized outcomes in China. We also identified several culture-specific work passion–outcome relationships.

Implications

Our research extends the duality of the work passion construct to non-Western cultures. The examination of a variety of work passion outcomes provides a finer-grained approach to how two types of passion uniquely link to different work consequences. Several culture-specific findings refute the traditionally held assumption that harmonious passion relates to solely positive outcomes, whereas obsessive passion relates to solely negative outcomes. Collectively, the results augment the nomological framework of the passion construct. The study informs managerial practices by suggesting when work passion needs to be encouraged or tamed.

Originality/Value

This is the first study that examines a variety of job-, organization-, and career-focused outcomes of work passion in non-Western organizations.