Empowering Community Settings: Agents of Individual Development, Community Betterment, and Positive Social Change

The pathways and processes through which empowering community settings influence their members, the surrounding community and the larger society are examined. To generate the proposed pathways and processes, a broad range of studies of community settings were reviewed, in the domains of adult well-being, positive youth development, locality development, and social change. A set of organizational characteristics and associated processes leading to member empowerment across domains were identified, as well as three pathways through which empowering settings in each domain contribute to community betterment and positive social change. The paper concludes with an examination of the ways that community psychology and allied disciplines can help increase the number and range of empowering settings, and enhance the community and societal impact of existing ones. Based on SCRA Distinguished Contribution to Theory and Research Award Address: Pasadena, CA, June 8, 2007.     

How Do Organizations and Social Policies ‘Acculturate’ to Immigrants? Accommodating Skilled Immigrants in Canada

While the idea of acculturation (Berry 1997) was originally proposed as the mutual change of both parties (e.g., immigrants and the host society), the change processes of host societies are neglected in research. A grounded theory study explored the efforts of human service organizations to 'acculturate' to an increasingly diverse immigrant population, through interviews conducted with service providers serving Mainland Chinese immigrants. Acculturation efforts of human service organizations (mezzo-level acculturation) were often needs-driven and affected by the political will and resultant funding programs (macro-level forces). Even with limitations, human service organizations commonly focused on hiring Mainland Chinese immigrants to reflect the changing demographics of their clientele and creating new programs to meet the language and cultural backgrounds of the clients. To contextualize these organizational efforts, an analysis of how policy changes (macro-level acculturation) interact with organizational practice is presented. Finally, the meaning of acculturation for the host society is discussed.     

L’effet d’une procédure engageante par étapes sur la sensibilisation des salariés au projet d’amélioration continue

The purpose of this research was to study the impact of committing procedures aiming at encouraging the involvement in an organisational continuous improvement project. With a research with two steps, some experimental groups of employees were integrated in a committing system. The number of committing procedures used was different between the groups. Attitudinal and behavioural measures showing the commitment in the project were used as dependent variables. The findings show that the involvement of employees in the project is influenced by the level of commitment used. It was noted that the level of commitment impacts the behaviours but no effect on attitudes was noticed. What is at stake in the applications of this psychosocial theory in organisational projects is questioned.     

Job demands and job resources as predictors of absence duration and frequency

This study among 214 nutrition production employees uses the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to predict future company registered absenteeism. According to this model, job demands are primarily responsible for health impairment, whereas job resources lead primarily to increased motivation and attachment to work and the organization. Consistent with hypotheses derived from the JD-R model and the absenteeism literature, results of structural equation modeling analyses show that job demands are unique predictors of burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and indirectly of absence duration, whereas job resources are unique predictors of organizational commitment, and indirectly of absence spells. These findings have implications for individual and organizational interventions aimed at reducing absenteeism.     

The validity of the three-component model of organizational commitment in a Chinese context

This study examined the construct validity of Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-component model of organizational commitment in a Chinese context and compared levels of OC between the Chinese sample and previously published data from Canada and South Korea. In a study of 226 Chinese employees in six foreign-invested companies, a five-factor oblique model, which included both substantive and method factors, fit the data best. However, the three-component model had a reasonably good fit. The proposed antecedents of each of the three principal OC dimensions tended to associate most strongly with their respective scales. Affective commitment and normative commitment significantly predicted job satisfaction and all three components predicted turnover intention, although associations between continuance commitment and these outcomes were moderated by normative commitment. Finally, we found that normative and affective commitment were significantly higher in the Chinese sample than in previously published samples from Canada and South Korea. Continuance commitment in the Chinese sample was lower than the Canadian and Korean samples. Implications of these findings are discussed in more detail.     

Enhancing precision in the prediction of voluntary turnover and retirement

The present research examines the differential validity of the facets of organizational commitment and job embeddedness to predict who will reenlist or retire from a branch of the armed services. We tested hypotheses with survey data from 1839 enlisted personnel in the U.S. Air Force. For personnel facing the decision to reenlist or separate, continuance commitment and organizational job embeddedness predicted reenlistment. For those eligible to retire, affective and normative commitment as well as organizational job embeddedness predicted who would reenlist rather than retire. However, unlike previous studies, for both criteria (reenlistment and retirement), people who were more embedded in their communities were more likely to voluntarily leave. This finding identifies an important boundary condition for job embeddedness theory.     

Work–family conflict, perceived supervisor support and organizational commitment among Brazilian professionals

The current study examines a variety of relationships pertaining to work–family conflict among a sample of Brazilian professionals, in order to shed light on work–family issues in this cultural context. Drawing from the cultural values of Brazil and social identity theory, we examine the relationships of two directions of work–family conflict (work interference with family and family interference with work), perceived supervisor support, and sex with affective and continuance organizational commitment. Work interference with family was related to higher continuance commitment and perceived supervisor support was related to higher affective commitment. An interaction between family interference with work and perceived supervisor support predicting continuance commitment revealed a reverse buffering effect such that the relationship was stronger under conditions of high support. Results are discussed within the Brazilian context.     

Justice organisationnelle et croyance en un monde juste : perceptions et réactions des dirigeants d’entreprise vis-à-vis de leurs managers (in)justes

Introduction and objectivesFew studies analyzed the reactions of a company head according to the degree of organizational justice adopted by his managers towards their subordinates. Similarly, the links between organizational justice and belief in a just world have rarely been studied. The aim of this research is to examine whether the three dimensions of organizational justice implemented by a manager have role of supervisor who had to value a manager who adopted, on each of the three dimensions of organizational justice, a just vs. unjust conduct. Participants were also asked about their belief in a just world an impact on the perceptions and reactions of the supervisor of the manager, and if the degree of belief in a just world mediates these perceptions and reactions.MethodIn terms of method, 410 men and women with a professional activity held the role of supervisor who had to value a manager who adopted, on each of the three dimensions of organizational justice, a just vs. unjust conduct. Participants were also asked about their belief in a just world, with a differentiation between personal belief in a just world versus belief in a just world to others.ResultsThe results show main effects and interaction effects between the three forms of justice on the manager's perception score, intends to award him a bonus, and the amount of assigned bonus. The results also indicate an influence of the degree of personal just world belief on the evaluation of the manager, but without interaction between just world belief and the dimensions of organizational justice.ConclusionsThe conclusion summarizes the main findings, examines their limits and deals with their theoretical and practical implications.     

Mesurer le risque social en entreprise. Le modèle de la réluctance socio-organisationnelle

This research aims at highlighting the existence of a generic concept, which could measure the social risk in company: the socio-organizational reluctance. First, we will define this concept, which comes from the electromagnetic field, where reluctance deals with the concept of resistance between two fields. Then, we will identify and define the concepts that are useful to measure social risk: social climate, organizational commitment, personal involvement and subjective congruence. Finally, we will test their links and their structure in a multivariate perspective, using structural equations modeling. The adjustment between the empirical data and the model confirms the existence of a global concept of reluctance. We also can see that organizational commitment and involvement have particular links to each other, which need more investigations.     

Prévention des risques psychosociaux au sein d’établissements publics d’enseignement agricole : quand le diagnostic organisationnel participe d’une amélioration de la qualité de vie au travail

The aim of this article is to show that a diagnosis of psychosocial risks based on a mixed and participative methodology contributes to improving the quality of life at work. It is based on a “Quality of life at work” approach set up within a public educational institution for agricultural studies. The quantitative part includes the Job Content Questionnaire by Karasek, Siegrist's Effort/Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Negative Acts Questionnaire (revised) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale from Zigmond and Snaith. The qualitative part is based on focus group discussions. Results have brought to light the groups of employees which are most exposed to risks, especially those in the “school life” sector. They also show that lack of recognition, support and communication are problems experienced by all the staff members of the school. In order to enhance employees’ quality of life within the working environment, a multitude of co-constructed “tailor-made” ways and means of improvement have been suggested. The study shows how the selected methodology contributes to the quality of the diagnosis.