Processes of change in psychological flexibility in an interdisciplinary group-based treatment for chronic pain based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

There are now numerous studies of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for chronic pain. These studies provide growing support for the efficacy and effectiveness of ACT in this context as well as for the role of ACT-specific therapeutic processes, particularly those underlying psychological flexibility. The purpose of the present study was to continue to build on this work with a broader focus on these processes, including acceptance of pain, general psychological acceptance, mindfulness, and values-based action. Participants included 168 patients who completed an ACT-based treatment for chronic pain and a three-month follow-up. Following treatment and at follow-up, participants reported significantly reduced levels of depression, pain-related anxiety, physical and psychosocial disability, medical visits, and pain intensity in comparison to the start of treatment. They also showed significant increases in each of the processes of psychological flexibility. Most uncontrolled effect sizes were medium or large at the follow-up. In correlation analyses changes in the four processes measures generally were significantly related to changes in the measures of depression, anxiety, and disability. In regression analyses the combined processes were related to changes in outcomes above and beyond change in pain intensity. Although in some ways preliminary, these results specifically support the unique role of general psychological acceptance in relation to improvements achieved by treatment participants. The current study clarifies potential processes of change in treatment for chronic pain, particularly those aiming to enhance psychological flexibility.     

Career adaptability, turnover and loyalty during organizational downsizing

During organizational restructuring and downsizing, employees often worry about being redundant, actually are redundant, and/or feel unsatisfied with their jobs. Employees, in turn, often react with poor loyalty to and high voluntary exit from the organization. The current study addresses this process from a careers' perspective, showing that career adaptability in the form of employees' career exploration and planning can account for at least some of these relationships. Redundancy fostered employees' career adaptive behaviors while job insecurity inhibited their career planning. Career planning, in turn, positively predicted employees' loyalty to the organization five months later while career exploration negatively predicted employees' loyalty, and positively predicted employees' exit reactions in the form of turnover intentions, job-search behaviors, and actual turnover. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Socialization preferences and intentions: Does one size fit all?

The purpose of this study was to investigate student preferences for socialization tactics and their intentions to be proactive when they begin a new job. We examined the relationship between the Five Factor Model of personality and proactive personality with socialization tactics preferences and proactive behavior intentions in a sample of 243 undergraduate university students enrolled in a cooperative management program. The results indicate that personality predicts preferences for socialization tactics and intentions to be proactive. In particular, individuals high on agreeableness prefer institutionalized socialization tactics and individuals high on extraversion and proactive personality report higher intentions to be proactive when they begin a new job. These results suggest that one size does not fit all newcomers when it comes to socialization. The implications for research and practice before and after organizational entry are discussed.     

Affective organizational commitment and citizenship behavior: Linear and non-linear moderating effects of organizational tenure

Utilizing a meta-analytical approach for testing moderating effects, the current study investigated organizational tenure as a moderator in the relation between affective organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We observed that, across 40 studies (N = 11,416 respondents), the effect size for the relation between affective organizational commitment and non-self measures of OCB was .23. However, we also found that organizational tenure moderated the relation in a non-linear way. Before 10 years of tenure, the strength of the commitment–OCB relation increased as organizational tenure increased; after that point, the strength of the commitment–OCB relation decreased as organizational tenure increased. In short, the moderating effect of tenure follows a curvilinear pattern.     

Effects of scheduling perceptions on attitudes and mobility in different part-time employee types

Recent research supports the existence of a typology of part-time employees with demographic and behavioral differences. This research suggests that part-timers should not be viewed as one homogenous group and that certain part-time employee groups have fixed external role attachments, while others have more flexible attachments. Applying the part-time typology and the classification of fixed versus flexible attachments from previous research, the current study examines differences in the relationships among scheduling perceptions, job attitudes, and employment mobility for part-timers. Consistent with Partial Inclusion Theory, we found that part-time workers classified as having more fixed outside role attachments have lower organizational commitment, job satisfaction, employment mobility, work status congruence, scheduling control, and scheduling satisfaction than those classified as having more flexible outside role attachments. Additionally, the flexibility of external role attachments moderates the relationship between scheduling variables and job attitudes and employment mobility. Implications for management and research are discussed.     

Sensitive but not sentimental: Emotionally intelligent people can put their emotions aside when necessary

Are emotionally intelligent people sentimental? Does their greater sensitivity handicap them or are they able, as theory would expect, to experience and regulate emotions flexibly, depending on their goals? We examined this issue in organizational settings. Good managers are indeed expected to be both attuned to feelings (theirs as well as their subordinates’) and able to put them aside when needed to take tough (but necessary) decisions. Our results show that emotionally intelligent managers do make better managers, as reflected by greater managerial competencies, higher team efficiency and less stressed subordinates. Moreover, and most importantly, emotionally intelligent managers are not just nicer managers. As our results show, emotional intelligence has nothing to do with sentimentality. Actually, it is managers with low EI who have the greatest difficulties to put their emotions aside and not let them interfere when inappropriate.     

授权赋能领导行为对员工内部人身份感知的影响:基于组织的自尊的调节作用

从组织投资的视角,研究授权赋能领导行为、内部人身份感知与组织公民行为之间的关系.通过问卷调查,搜集了一家企业146名主管和下属的配对数据.研究结果表明,领导授权赋能行为对员工内部人身份感知有积极的影响作用,同时,内部人身份感知在授权赋能领导行为和员工组织公民行为之间起到完全中介作用,同时,员工基于组织的自尊对内部人身份感知的中介效应起到调节作用.最后还讨论了未来的研究方向和实际应用的意义等内容.     

Commitment to a developing preference and predecisional distortion of information

People tend to distort their evaluation of decision-relevant information in favor of the currently preferred alternative. We test whether this predecisional distortion of information is amplified by increased commitment to that current preference. We manipulated commitment, without changing the preferred option’s content, by requiring participants to indicate their preference either by circling or by darkening a sizable box (cf. feature-positive effect). Experiment 1 revealed that the effort to darken substantially increased predecisional distortion. Experiment 2 ruled out elaboration as an explanation for the effect of darkening. Experiment 3 showed that, among participants who attributed the darkening effort to an external source, predecisional distortion decreased when the source was believed to summon effort. These findings suggest that the developing commitment to a tentatively preferred alternative is one driver of predecisional distortion.     

Does taking the good with the bad make things worse? How abusive supervision and leader–member exchange interact to impact need satisfaction and organizational deviance

We integrate and extend past work on self-determination theory and mixed relationships, or relationships characterized by both conflict and support, to address the question of how abusive supervision promotes subordinate organizational deviance. In so doing, we propose a mediated moderation model wherein abusive supervision and leader–member exchange interact to predict organizational deviance, with psychological need satisfaction mediating the effect of the interaction on organizational deviance. This hypothesized model was supported with multi-wave data collected from 260 employees. Notably, our model was supported after controlling for justice perceptions and organizational social exchange as alternative mediators. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Le climat d’entropie et le stress dans les organismes de sant

In recent years, many research and reporting of findings highlight the deteriorating work conditions in our hospitals, describing a climate of disorder in the arrangement of this system components (Masclet 2010). The study presented here examines the relationship between the entropy climate and stress of health personnel. The study was conducted in two hospitals in the Picardie region using a self-administered questionnaire answered by 161 workers in six trades. A transactional perspective has been used to clarify the role of organizational stressors through the mediation of psychological stress. The results confirm the mediating effect of psychological stress among the organizational social climate and perceived stress.