Emotional intelligence as a predictor of employees' career adaptability

Emotional intelligence and career adaptability are crucial psychosocial meta-capacities for successful adaptation in various spheres of life, including the realm of careers. However, little is known about the relationship between emotional intelligence and Savickas's (2005) notion of career adaptability. The current research examines the relation of emotional intelligence to career adaptability. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 409 early career black call center agents (Mean age = 32) employed in three of the largest outsourced financial call centers in Africa. Canonical correlation analysis and structural equation modeling confirmed the predictive validity of emotional intelligence in relation to career adaptability. The results showed that managing one's own emotions contributes the most in explaining overall emotional intelligence a n d the variance in overall career adaptability with its four domains of career concern, career control, career confidence and career curiosity. The results of the study highlight the importance of developing individuals' emotional intelligence in order to strengthen their career adaptability. The research contributed new and valuable insights that may inform career development interventions for call center agents.     

Does the two-chair dialogue intervention facilitate processing of emotions more efficiently than basic Rogerian conditions?

Processing difficult emotions is assumed to be of importance in therapeutic change. In this study, we examine whether a two-chair dialogue in Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) is associated with a change in emotional processing, measured as changes in emotional arousal and emotional experiencing. In a multiple baseline design, 20 clients in treatment for depression or anxiety first received five, seven or nine weekly sessions of baseline treatment providing Rogerian conditions and affect attunement. In the second phase, two-chair intervention was added for the five consecutive sessions. All sessions were subdivided into 2 min segments which were rated using the Client Emotional Arousal Scale III and the Experiencing Scale. Analyses indicated a significantly higher number of high-arousal segment in the latter phase. Individual clients’ change trajectories were not significantly steeper in the second phase. Experiencing increased throughout both phases of treatment. However, after introducing the two-chair dialogue the Experiencing change trajectory was not significantly steeper than in the baseline phase. Findings suggest that both the two-chair dialogue and the Rogerian conditions with affect attunement focus are effective in facilitating emotional processing. Results are consistent with previous research, suggesting that the two-chair dialogue is an emotionally evocative intervention. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

L’affectivité positive et négative : des facteurs de protection ou de vulnérabilité à l’engagement au travail

This study examines the effects of work engagement on altruistic performance and emotional exhaustion as well as the moderating effect of the positive and negative affectivity traits. Data were collected through questionnaires among a sample of 279 employees working in a variety of industries. Results indicate that positive and negative affectivity exert distinct moderating influences on the effects of the dimensions of work engagement. Positive affectivity accentuates the positive effect of physical engagement on altruistic performance and the negative effect of emotional engagement on exhaustion. Negative affectivity acts as a moderator in the relationship between emotional engagement and exhaustion such that emotional engagement considerably reduces the risk of exhaustion among individuals with high levels of negative affectivity.     

Self-prospection and energization: The joint influence of time distance and consideration of future consequences

The way people envision their future (self-prospection) plays a key role in the energization required to pursue desired goals. We proposed that energization is determined by time distance from the imagined future-self and the individual’s consideration of future consequences (CFC). We hypothesized that, when imagining their distant (vs. near) future-self, individuals higher on CFC (i.e., those who construe a stronger link between present and future selves), would report greater energization. Participants completed the CFC scale, imagined their distant or near future-self, and reported their energy level. Imagining distant (vs. near) future-self fostered energy among participants higher on CFC (Experiments 1–2), an effect mediated by vividness of self-representations (Experiment 2). Self-prospection has implications for current states, and specifically for felt energy.     

Taxonomy of Psychological and Social Disturbances in Survivors of Group Psychological Abuse

The purpose of this study was to delimit the psychological and social disturbances that individuals who have suffered psychological abuse within a social group on an ongoing basis can experience. A comprehensive classification of these disturbances was developed based on a review of the scientific literature. Its content was revised by an international panel of 38 experts on the topic. Experts also judged the frequency and intensity with which each disturbance is commonly experienced by survivors of abusive groups. The taxonomy, which includes 20 components classified into four main categories, showed adequate content validity. The components considered the most frequent and intense were related to emotional difficulties, followed by those associated with relational and social integration difficulties, cognitive difficulties, and, finally, other specific problematic behaviors. Operationalizing and classifying the specific psychological and social disturbances commonly experienced by survivors of abusive groups contributes to a better delimitation of the phenomenon. Likewise, it contributes to the understanding of the long-term effects of psychological abuse, which is useful in both the academic and clinical settings.     

The behavioral origins of phylogenic responses and ontogenic habits

An examination of innate behavior and its possible origins suggests parallels with the formation of habitual behavior. Inflexible but adaptive responses—innate reflexive behavior, Pavlovian conditioned responses, and operant habits—may have evolved from variable behavior in phylogeny and ontogeny. This form of “plasticity-first” scientific narrative was unpopular post-Darwin but has recently gained credibility in evolutionary biology. The present article seeks to identify originating events and contingencies contributing to such inflexible but adaptive behavior at both phylogenic and ontogenic levels of selection. In ontogeny, the development of inflexible performance (i.e., habit) from variable operant behavior is reminiscent of the genetic accommodation of initially variable phylogenic traits. The effects characteristic of habit (e.g., unresponsiveness to reinforcer devaluation) are explicable as the result of a conflict between behaviors at distinct levels of selection. The present interpretation validates the practice of seeking hard analogies between evolutionary biology and operant behavior. Finding such parallels implies the validity of a claim that organismal behavior, both innate and learned, is a product of selection by consequences. A complete and coherent account of organismal behavior may ultimately focus on functional selective histories in much the same way evolutionary biology does with its subject matter.     

When does commitment backfire: Linking employee continuance commitment to silence behavior

IntroductionExtant studies on organizational commitment emphasize affective organizational commitment and consequently ignore the unique role of continuance organizational commitment. To determine whether high continuance commitment is beneficial, we employed conservation of resources theory to explore how continuance commitment leads to emotional exhaustion and silent behavior.ObjectiveThis study examines the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between continuance commitment and silence behavior, and the moderating role of age.MethodWe recruited 157 employees in China to complete a three-wave survey measuring continuance commitment, emotional exhaustion and silence behavior, respectively.ResultsOur results show that continuance commitment is positively related to emotional exhaustion and, in turn, triggers more silent behavior, especially for those old employees; the indirect effect is more significant.ConclusionAlthough employers intend to keep human resources, this study indicates that continuance commitment may bring negative consequences. Moreover, old age will magnify the effect of continuance commitment on emotional exhaustion and further strengthen silence behavior.     

中国情境下公共服务动机的理论构建与绩效转换机制

准确把握基层公职人员的公共服务动机是提升工作绩效、完善人力资源管理的重要前提。现有公共服务动机研究忽略了中国情景的特殊性, 对公共服务动机的微观激发机制及其消极绩效影响也关注不足。本研究从中国情景下公共服务动机的概念、核心构成要素、激发机制以及绩效结果入手, 从三个方面系统地构建适合中国场景的公共服务动机理论：第一, 将公共服务动机视为混合动机概念, 基于扎根理论的定性方式识别基层公务员公共服务动机的构成要素与核心内涵, 并据此开发本土化、多维度的公共服务动机量表; 第二, 从微观激发机制出发, 探讨受益人接触、自我倡议、观念反思等机制对个体公共服务动机的激发作用; 第三, 从积极影响和消极影响两个方面探讨公共服务动机与个体公务员行为间的关联及其机理。本研究既响应了国内公共管理学界长期以来发展本土理论的呼声, 亦为政府部门完善公共人事政策提供切实思路和实证依据。     

An investigation of the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and emotional task performance

This study examined the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (EI) and tasks involving the recognition of facial expressions of emotion. Two facial expression recognition tasks using the inspection time (IT) paradigm assessed speed of emotional information processing. An unspeeded emotion recognition task was also included, and a symbol IT task was used to assess speed of processing of non-emotional information. It was found that scores on all three emotion-related tasks were strongly intercorrelated, as were scores on the three IT tasks. The two emotional IT scores remained significantly correlated when symbol IT performance was partialled out. This finding, together with the associations between the speeded (IT) and unspeeded face tasks suggests that the association between the emotional IT tasks is not entirely accounted for by general processing speed, and that a general emotion-processing ability also contributes to performance on these tasks. An EI subscale assessing Appraisal of Emotions was significantly correlated with performance on the emotional IT tasks, suggesting that self-reports of emotional perception ability do relate to performance measures.     

Vigilance for threat: effects of anxiety and defensiveness

Eysenck’s (1997) theory that attentional biases for threat vary as an interactive function of trait anxiety and defensiveness was tested using a visual probe task. Two stimulus exposure conditions were used to explore a secondary issue concerning attentional allocation over time. Results indicated that, among high trait anxious participants, only those with low levels of defensiveness showed vigilance for threatening faces presented for 500 ms. They also showed an attentional preference for neutral faces, relative to happy faces, irrespective of exposure condition. This pattern was reversed in high trait anxious participants with high levels of defensiveness, who showed an attentional bias towards happy faces (relative to neutral faces) under both exposure conditions. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for (a) the significance of measures of defensiveness for the conceptualization of high trait anxious individuals, and (b) the status of anxiety-related biases at different stages of information processing.