New Directions in Capacity Building: Incorporating Cultural Competence into the Interactive Systems Framework

The UMBC Psychology Department's Center for Community Collaboration (CCC) provides training and support for capacity building to promote substance abuse and mental health treatment as well as adherence improvement in community agencies funded through the Ryan White Act serving persons living with HIV/AIDS. This article describes an approach to dissemination of Evidence Based Practices (EBPs) for these services that uses the Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) and incorporates a collaborative process involving trainer cultural competence, along with a comprehensive assessment of organizational needs, culture, and climate that culminates in tailored training and ongoing collaboration. This article provides: (1) an overview of the CCC's expanded ISF for the effective dissemination of two EBPs—motivational interviewing and the stages of change perspective; (2) an examination of the role of trainer cultural competence within the ISF framework, particularly attending to organizational culture and climate; and (3) case examples to demonstrate this approach for both general and innovation‐specific capacity building in two community based organizations. Special Issue: Advances in Bridging Research and Practice Using the Interactive System Framework for Dissemination and Implementation; Guest Editors: Abraham Wandersman, Paul Flaspohler, Catherine A. Lesesne, Richard Puddy; Action Editor: Emilie Phillips Smith     

A self-regulation approach to understanding citizenship behavior in organizations

Researchers have generally taken a between-person, cross-sectional approach to understand why employees engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). However, in light of recent work indicating that motivated behavior in organizations is often better understood using a within-person, longitudinal approach, we conceptualize citizenship performance as a dynamic cycle that varies over time. Specifically, we use self-regulation theory to explain how employees seek to fulfill goals through their OCBs, make plans to achieve those goals, engage in OCBs, and process feedback regarding their citizenship behavior. In doing so, we highlight the role played by chronic and working self-concept orientations. We also explore the way affective states influence self-regulation and citizenship, discuss unconscious or habitual acts of citizenship, and address the ways in which self-regulation and citizenship may vary over time.     

Effects of personality on driving behaviors among professional truck drivers: The mediating effect of safety climate

Introduction: The number of traffic accidents involving truck drivers remains high, and strategies to eliminate the probability of such accidents have been proposed, among which enhancing the safety climate has attracted much interest. The main purpose of the current study was to validate the Chinese version of the safety climate scale for truck drivers and apply it to investigate the mediating effect of safety climate between truck driver personality and driving behavior. Method: A total of 389 male truck drivers completed the Big Five Inventory, the Chinese version of the trucking safety climate scale, the driver behavior questionnaire and the positive driver behavior scale. Results: The reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the organization-level safety climate scale and the group-level safety climate scale were confirmed through factor analysis. More importantly, a path analysis revealed that the organization-level safety climate mediated the effects of agreeableness and neuroticism on aggressive violations, ordinary violations and lapses, while the group-level safety climate mediated the influences of agreeableness, neuroticism and openness on positive behavior and all four kinds of aberrant driving behaviors. Conclusions: This study introduced the trucking safety climate scale into China and stressed the significance of improving both the organizational and the group levels of safety climate to reduce accidents involving professional truck drivers. Practical Applications: First, the adapted safety climate scale for Chinese truck drivers contributes to further investigating the role that safety climate plays in the safety problem of truck drivers in China. Moreover, the critical impacts of both levels of the trucking safety climate serve as reminders for relevant companies to not only pay attention to establishing an organization-level safety climate but also invest more effort into promoting the group-level safety climate.     

Leadership laissez-faire,menace identitaire et engagement organisationnel

Research on the impact of supervisors’ laissez-faire leadership, a frequent form of passive leadership, is still in its infancy. In the present study, we explore the possibility that laissez-faire leadership by supervisors engenders a feeling of threat among employees regarding their organizational identity. In other words, the lack of attention given to employees by supervisors would create the feeling among employees that their identity as members of the organization is devalued. This perceived identity threat would result in reduced affective, normative, and continuance commitment. We examined these hypotheses in a study using three measurement times, with a time interval of three months. Based on a final sample of 300 participants and latent variable structural equation modeling analyses, the results indicate that supervisors’ laissez-faire leadership engenders a perceived identity threat among employees, which then contributes to reduce affective, normative, and continuance commitment. Finally, laissez-faire leadership was also directly and negatively related to continuance commitment. We discuss how these findings contribute to enhance our understanding of the effects of laissez-faire practices by supervisors.     

The relative importance of proactive behaviors and outcomes for predicting newcomer learning,well-being,and work engagement

New employees can accelerate and optimize their socialization by behaving proactively, although the key behaviors vary across studies. Recent research suggests that newcomer proactive behaviors influence socialization through the mediating effect of corresponding proactive outcomes. This may partly explain differences across studies, along with possible variations in the relative importance of specific proactive behaviors. This study investigates further the mediating role of proactive outcomes, and the relative importance of different proactive behaviors and proactive outcomes in predicting newcomer learning, well-being, and work engagement. Based on a sample of 176 temporary agency workers, support for the mediating role of proactive outcomes was found, although some proactive behaviors were effective in their own right. Relative importance analyses revealed that different proactive behaviors were important for different socialization criteria. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Person–organization fit effects on organizational attraction: A test of an expectations-based model

This study investigates the mechanisms that explain why person–organization (PO) fit impacts organizational attraction. Adopting Edwards and Cable’s (2009) approach, an integrative model is developed around the idea that experiencing value congruence during the recruitment process perpetuates certain expectations about future work environments and employer relationships. These expectations in turn have a positive impact on organizational attraction. Evidence from a longitudinal study on a sample of job seekers suggests that expected opportunities for value expression and need fulfillment offered the most viable explanations of value congruence effects. The implications of important observed differences in the experience of PO fit between job seekers and full-time employees are discussed.     

Legitimating the legitimate: A grounded theory study of legitimacy work among Ethics and Compliance Officers

Organizations have responded to ethical scandals in part by creating the Ethics and Compliance Officer (ECO) role to help insure employee ethical and legal behavior. Because ECO work is so fundamental to behavioral ethics in organizations and we know very little about it, we conducted a grounded theory study to learn more. We learned that, although most ECOs were hired to help their organizations respond to external legitimacy challenges, ECOs face major legitimacy challenges inside their organizations. Facilitating conditions may reduce these challenges and help ECOs reach internal legitimacy. But, we also found that ECOs engage in what we term legitimacy work that relies on a number of tactics to help them gain legitimacy in the eyes of their constituents. We tie our findings to the broader legitimacy literature and draw implications for the behavioral ethics literature.     

高校教师组织承诺问卷的编制

本研究采用访谈法和问卷调查法对高校教师的组织承诺进行研究,并编制了符合我国高校实际情况的高校教师组织承诺问卷。探索性因素分析的结果表明,高校教师组织承诺是一个四因素的结构,具体包括:情感承诺、规范承诺、价值承诺和投入承诺。内部一致性分析及验证性因素分析的结果表明,高校教师组织承诺问卷具有较好的信度与效度。     

The influence of sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of organizational justice on victim responses to sexual harassment

Organizational justice theory was used to understand the conditions that influence how women respond when sexually harassed. Specifically, this study examined whether sexual harassment frequency interacts with perceptions of four types of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational) to predict two types of victim responses (confrontation and reporting). With data collected from 257 female employees, it was found that the interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of distributive justice and the interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of procedural justice predicted reporting, whereas the interaction between sexual frequency and perceptions of distributive justice predicted confrontation. The interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of informational justice predicted both confrontation and reporting. Implications for organizations are discussed.     

From mental strain to burnout

This study examines the relationships between burnout and short-term consequences of mental strain within and outside human services professions, at the same time contributing to the understanding of the development of burnout as a long-term effect of impairing work and job design. A total of 294 German employees working in human services (N=149) and industrial production (N=145) completed the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and four scales measuring short-term consequences of mental strain. Results of factor analyses confirmed that the elements of the OLBI's two-factor structure-exhaustion and disengagement-are distinct from a range of impairing short-term consequences of mental strain. In addition, structural equation modelling showed that each burnout dimension is differentially related to specific short-term consequences of strain: Exhaustion is primarily related to mental fatigue, whereas disengagement is primarily related to satiation and the experience of monotony. The findings did not differ substantially for the two occupational groups. Burnout, as a long-term consequence of impairing mental strain, is distinct from and presumably temporally-causally related to specific impairing short-term consequences of mental strain, which, in turn, can be attributed to inadequate job design.