Perception of threat and safety at work among employees in the Norwegian ministries after the 2011 Oslo bombing

Background and objectives: Terrorism can heighten fears and undermine the feeling of safety. Little is known, however, about the factors that influence threat and safety perception after terrorism. The aim of the present study was to explore how proximity to terror and posttraumatic stress reactions are associated with perceived threat and safety after a workplace terrorist attack. Design and methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered to employees in 14 of 17 Norwegian ministries 9–10 months after the 2011 bombing of the government headquarters in Oslo (n = 3520). Results: About 198 of 1881 employees completing the survey were at work when the bomb exploded. Regression analysis showed that this high-exposed group had elevated perceived threat (β = 0.36; 95% CI = 0.19 to 0.53) and reduced perceived safety (β = ?0.42; 95% CI = ?0.62 to ?0.23) compared to a reference group of employees not at work. After adjusting for posttraumatic stress reactions, however, proximity to the explosion no longer mattered, whereas posttraumatic stress was associated with both high perceived threat (β = 0.55; 95% CI = 0.48 to 0.63) and low perceived safety (β = ?0.71; 95% CI, ?0.80 to ?0.63). Conclusion: Terror-exposed employees feel more threatened and less safe after a workplace terrorist attack, and this is closely linked to elevated levels of posttraumatic stress reactions.     

In search of a surrogate for touch: The effect of haptic imagery on perceived ownership

Previous research has shown that individuals value objects more highly if they own them, a finding commonly known as the endowment effect. In fact, simply touching an object can create a perception of ownership that produces the endowment effect. In this paper, we extend this line of research in several ways. First, we show that haptic imagery, or imagining touching an object, can have the same effect on perceived ownership as physical touch. We then demonstrate that haptic imagery can lead to perceptions of physical control, which in turn increase feelings of ownership. Moreover, the more vivid the haptic imagery, the greater the perception of control and the feeling of ownership. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Social Services Workers and Workplace Violence

Researchers and workplace violence experts have cited risk factors that theoretically increase the likelihood that individuals will experience workplace violence. Those include working alone, contact with the public, traveling to dangerous areas, as well as other factors. By the very nature of what social services workers do, many encounter these risk factors on a regular basis. Using national data, trends in workplace violence experienced by social services workers are examined, and comparisons are made between the rates of workplace violence among similar workgroups. Results suggest that social services workers are nearly six times more likely than other workers to experience workplace violence. In the discussion, attention is given to strategies to prevent violence against social services workers.     

The influence of visual short-term memory on size perception

We show that perceived size of visual stimuli can be altered by matches between the contents of visual short-term memory and stimuli in the scene. Observers were presented with a colour cue (to hold in working memory or to merely identify) and subsequently had to indicate which of the two different-coloured objects presented simultaneously on the screen appeared bigger (or smaller). One of the two objects for size judgements had the same colour as the cue (matching stimulus) and the other did not (mismatching stimulus). Perceived object size was decreased by the reappearance of the recently seen cue, as there were more size judgement errors on trials where the matching stimulus was physically bigger (relative to the mismatching stimulus) than on trials where the matching stimulus was physically smaller. The effect occurred regardless of whether the visual cue was actively maintained in working memory or was merely identified. The effect was unlikely generated by the allocation of attention, because shifting attention to a visual stimulus actually increased its perceived size. The findings suggest that visual short-term memory, whether explicit or implicit, can decrease the perceived size of subsequent visual stimuli.     

Dynamic models of well-being: implications of affective events theory for expanding current views on personality and climate

Research investigations into employee well-being (EWB) have tended to take a between-individual approach, which highlights differences among people. This traditional paradigm has been complemented by examinations of intraindividual EWB, which explores within-person variation over periods of time. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), we further elaborate the implications of intraindividual EWB for two reasonably stable sets of constructs—personality traits and affective climates. We argue that the intraindividual paradigm challenges scholars to rethink what they mean by stability, concluding that stability can be conceptualized in two ways—as reasonably consistent levels of affect and predictable patterns of affective change.     

Perceived job autonomy and turnover intention: The moderating role of perceived supervisor support

Perceived job autonomy has been recognized as a central tenet of work design, leading to a range of positive outcomes. Still, scholars have rightfully questioned its predictive role for several outcomes, including turnover intention as the two have been found to be virtually unrelated. In line with calls for more complex research on the predictive role of perceived job autonomy on employee outcomes, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relationship between perceived job autonomy and turnover intention may be prone to contextual influences. Two cross-sectional surveys among 680 Norwegian employees from different public service organizations showed that the relationship between perceived job autonomy and turnover intention was moderated by perceived supervisor support. In support of our hypothesis, the form of the moderations revealed that perceived job autonomy was negatively related to turnover intention only for employees reporting high levels of perceived supervisor support. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Building commitment to change: The role of perceived supervisor support and competence

Commitment to change is considered the glue that binds people and change goals. Still, few studies have explored how employees develop their commitment to organizational change. The present study examined the relationship between supervisor competence and support, and employee's commitment to change. Participants were 210 full-time employees from two public organizations that had recently faced major change interventions resulting from governmental directives. As predicted, perceived supervisor support fully mediated the positive relationship between competence and affective and normative commitment to change. On the other hand, supervisor competence was negatively related to continuance commitment to change. These findings illustrate how supervisors can shape employees' reactions to change.     

Positivity bias in employees' self-ratings of performance relative to supervisor ratings: The roles of performance type,performance-approach goal orientation,and perceived influence

As hypothesized, data from two field studies among employees and their supervisors showed that employees are more likely to positively bias their self-ratings relative to supervisor ratings when creative performance rather than inrole performance is being evaluated. In addition, employees' performance-approach goal orientation and perceived influence were found to enhance positivity bias in self-ratings of creative performance. Moreover, performance-approach goal orientation and perceived influence appeared to combine and interact in their effects, such that the impact of perceived influence on positivity bias in self-ratings was larger when performance-approach goal orientation was weaker rather than stronger.     

An experience-sampling measure of job satisfaction and its relationships with affectivity,mood at work,job beliefs,and general job satisfaction

In this article, we proposed an experience-sampling method of measuring job satisfaction, assessed the contributions of average levels of mood at work and job beliefs to the prediction of job satisfaction, and examined the role of mood in mediating the relationship between affectivity and job satisfaction. The study involved a three-phase multisource longitudinal design that included experience-sampling surveys in the second phase of the study. Results suggested that average levels of experience-sampled job satisfaction indicate the general attitudinal construct of job satisfaction. As expected, pleasant mood at work and beliefs about the job made independent contributions to the prediction of job satisfaction (as measured with an overall evaluation and with an experience-sampling measure). In support of our mediation hypotheses, pleasant mood mediated the affectivity?–?job satisfaction relationship and the mediating effect was much stronger when job satisfaction was assessed with the experience-sampling method.     

Procedural and interpersonal fairness moderate the relationship between outcome fairness and acceptance of merit pay

An organizational field study (N = 257) investigated employees' acceptance of a new merit pay system as involving an assessment of whether merit pay can make their earnings more fair, compared to their earnings in the current, seniority-based pay system. We expected that improvement of unfair earnings, and consequently acceptance of merit pay, is considered likely when existing procedures that produce these earnings are unfair, because merit pay improves such procedures. We also expected improvement of unfair earnings, and increased merit pay acceptance, to be likely when employees anticipate fair performance evaluation in a new system, as indicated by fair interpersonal treatment by their supervisor. Results showed that procedural and interpersonal fairness in the existing pay system indeed moderated the relationship between fairness of current outcomes and merit pay acceptance as predicted. Implications for the introduction of merit pay in organizations and for our understanding of the different roles of procedural and interpersonal fairness in outcome evaluations are discussed.