Performance-Enhancing Drugs,Sport, and the Ideal of Natural Athletic Performance

The use of certain performance-enhancing drugs (PED) is banned in sport. I discuss critically standard justifications of the ban based on arguments from two widely used criteria: fairness and harms to health. I argue that these arguments on their own are inadequate, and only make sense within a normative understanding of athletic performance and the value of sport. In the discourse over PED, the distinction between “natural” and “artificial” performance has exerted significant impact. I examine whether the distinction makes sense from a moral point of view. I propose an understanding of “natural” athletic performance by combining biological knowledge of training with an interpretation of the normative structure of sport. I conclude that this understanding can serve as moral justification of the PED ban and enable critical and analytically based line drawing between acceptable and nonacceptable performance-enhancing means in sport.     

The propagation of everyday prosociality in the workplace

Prosocial behaviors typically benefit those who perform them but can create mixed emotions in recipients. Yet, how does prosociality affect the well-being of those who merely observe it? The current study aimed to answer this question by experimentally prompting employees to perform prosocial acts at work (Givers), be the recipient of such acts (Receivers), or to do neither (Observers). Our focus was on everyday prosociality, which involves kind acts directed at those in one’s social circle, rather than at individuals in need. Social proximity to Givers, but not Receivers, positively predicted boosts in well-being. Indeed, social proximity to Receivers was associated with a nonsignificant trend toward decreased well-being. However, both social proximity to Givers and social proximity to Receivers predicted increases in prosocial behavior among Observers. These results suggest that prosocial behavior and its emotional benefits propagate through social networks, particularly for those in close social proximity to prosocial actors.     

The Prevalence and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence Intrusion in the Workplace

This study examines the prevalence and consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the workplace. Surveys were completed by 1,390 employees in 32 different companies representing different organization types. Over half of the women and almost a quarter of the males reported that they had been an IPV victim at some point in their lives with 16% reporting victimization in the previous 12 months. Younger workers and workers who witnessed IPV frequently as a child were more likely to be current IPV victims. Further, 41% of lifetime victims reported significant workplace consequences, such as missed days of work, tardiness, and perpetrator intrusion. Younger workers, a history of IPV physical injury, more frequent IPV events over longer periods of time, and a history of stalking were associated with a greater number of IPV work consequences. The cumulative effects of IPV as well as active victimization contribute to negative workplace consequences. With significant numbers of employees experiencing IPV and reporting workplace consequences, the present research underscores the need for employers to develop a more precise means of understanding cost and response.     

Do sport modes cause behavioral adaptation?

A key question in transportation research is whether drivers show behavioral adaptation, that is, slower or faster driving, when new technology is introduced into the vehicle. This study investigates behavioral adaptation in response to the sport mode, a technology that alters the vehicle’s auditory, throttle-mapping, power-steering, and chassis settings. Based on the literature, it can be hypothesized that the sport mode increases perceived sportiness and encourages faster driving. Oppositely, the sport mode may increase drivers’ perceived danger, homeostatically causing them to drive more slowly. These hypotheses were tested using an instrumented vehicle on a test track. Thirty-one drivers were asked to drive as they normally would with different sport mode settings: Baseline, Modified Throttle Mapping (MTM), Artificial Engine Sound enhancement (AESe), MTM and AESe combined (MTM-AESe), and MTM, AESe combined with four-wheel steering, increased damping, and decreased power steering (MTM-AESe-4WS). Post-trial questionnaires showed increased perceived sportiness but no differences in perceived danger for the three MTM conditions compared to Baseline. Furthermore, compared to Baseline, MTM led to higher vehicle accelerations and, with a smaller effect size, a higher time-percentage of driving above the 110 km/h speed limit, but not higher cornering speeds. The AESe condition did not significantly affect perceived sportiness, perceived danger, and driving speed compared to Baseline. These findings suggest that behavioral adaptation is a functional and opportunistic phenomenon rather than mediated by perceived sportiness or perceived danger.     

Revisiting the level-of-service framework for pedestrian comfortability: Velocity depicts more accurate perceived congestion than local density

The evaluation of pedestrian comfortability is important for the construction and management of walkable spaces. Pedestrian level-of-service (LOS), which is mostly categorized by density, has been widely applied and is believed to be capable of indicating the comfortability of the crowd. However, there is a lack of evidence that physically measured LOS reflects psychological comfortability, let alone the comparison between the performances of different candidate indicators, including the velocity and different local densities. Here, we show that walking velocity depicts pedestrian perceived congestion more accurately than density. In our experiments on pedestrians in a room-egress scenario with an inner obstacle, we obtained objective physical trajectory data from video analysis as well as subjective perception data from a questionnaire survey. The performance of the velocity and four types of local densities in reproducing pedestrian perceptions were numerically evaluated. We found that the velocity outperformed the local density. The lower performance of local densities was mainly caused by the pedestrians located at the back of the crowd, who walked at lower velocities and perceived higher congestion, despite their lower local densities that would correspond to less crowdedness from a physical viewpoint. Besides, the perceived congestion of pedestrians was shown to be affected by the initial pedestrian positions at the crowd, the obstacle layout, and the pedestrians’ age and gender. Furthermore, we suggest that the larger the gap between the desired and actual velocities, the larger the extent of the perceived congestion. We expect that our findings will contribute to a more accurate evaluation of pedestrian comfortability, which could help improve the walkable spaces of various infrastructures.     

Are organisational politics responsible for turnover intention in French Firefighters?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of different facets of perceived organisational politics and workplace attitudes onto turnover intention in the French Fire and Rescue service.MethodologyAn electronic survey was administered to fire department employees (n = 255) to investigate the effects of different forms of perceived organisational politics (POP) onto turnover intention, and test for mediation by affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction with structural equation modelling (Lisrel 8.80).FindingsBoth pay-and-promotion and general perceived organisational politics indirectly predicted turnover intention in French firefighters, although the total effect of pay-and-promotion politics was greater than general politics. Affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction mediated the effect of perceived organisational politics onto turnover intention.Practical implicationsPublic organisations, which have recently undergone reorganisations, should monitor perceptions of organisational politics to better understand the association with attitudes (such as affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction), as well as to predict turnover intention.Originality/valueThe study goes expands on the identification of various turnover intention's antecedents to contribute to consider understanding of its reasons, such as perceived organisational politics, where pay-and-promotion politics appears to be more salient factor than general politics. Affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction mediate the effects of POP onto turnover intention with nuanced effects. We also generated support for the order of factors in the model, where job satisfaction is a first-order predictor of turnover intention and organisational commitment second-order one. The POP Scale (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991) was validated in French.     

Le rôle modérateur du harcèlement environnemental au travail dans la relation entre l’attachement au lieu de travail et le soutien organisationnel perçu. Étude auprès d’un échantillon féminin

This article examines the effect of environmental harassment at work in the relationship between attachment to the workplace and perceived organizational support. A survey was conducted via a questionnaire with 304 employees in different professional sectors (commerce, healthcare, teaching, administration) in the public or private sector. Analyses show that (a) attachment to the workplace and environmental harassment at work are strongly associated with perceived organizational support, the former positively and the latter negatively, and (b) two dimensions of environmental harassment at work, namely manipulation of the work environment and manipulation of the personal space, moderate the relationship between attachment to place and perceived organizational support, reducing the effect of this relationship. The practical implications of the research are discussed.     

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。     

群体情境下儿童的分配公平性

群体情境下儿童的资源分配决策受到群体身份、群体地位和群体规范的影响。在群体因素与公平分配之间, 儿童或坚持公平正义, 或偏向群体利益。这三种群体因素对儿童的分配公平性均造成了影响; 个体因素也会影响群体情境下儿童的分配决策。未来研究应对群体因素多加关注, 通过操控分配情境中的群体信息, 尝试探讨三种群体因素之间的相互作用, 以进一步了解复杂的群体情境下儿童的分配公平性。群体情境下影响分配公平性的个体因素也是需要未来研究逐一验证和讨论的问题。     

A longitudinal analysis of reciprocal relationships between actual and perceived motor competencies and physical self-concept in primary-school age children

Physical self-concept (PSC) and motor competencies are important factors in view of the development of a physically active lifestyle. There are research gaps regarding longitudinal studies of these relationships. This article presents findings of a longitudinal study (n = 200; 58% girls, M = 8.84 ± 0.63 years) at three primary schools. The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between actual motor competencies (AMC) and perceived motor competencies (PMC) and PSC. Therefore, manifest path models in cross-lagged design were performed. Results show that correlations between PMC and AMC increased over time and were stronger in object control than in locomotor. Effects of AMC on PSC were more strongly mediated by PMC in object control than in locomotor. To promote physical activity, developing strategies should be aimed at the acquisition of AMC, particularly in object control, and PMC, especially in locomotor, during childhood.