The Satisfaction With Life Scale: Measurement invariance across immigrant groups

The current study examined measurement invariance of the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) across three immigrant groups, namely, immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel, Turkish-Bulgarians, and Turkish-Germans. The results demonstrate measurement invariance of the SWLS across groups. The findings that Turkish-Bulgarian and FSU immigrants in Israel scored significantly lower on the SWLS compared to Turkish-Germans can be explained by assimilative policies in Israel and Bulgaria. In conclusion, our results suggest the SWLS is feasible for cross-cultural comparisons of immigrants of various age groups. Future investigation of measurement invariance over time is needed to use the SWLS in a developmental perspective.     

The Need for Recovery scale: Adaptation to the Italian context

IntroductionNeed for Recovery scale is one of the main scales used to assess work-induced fatigue and quality of workers’ recovery time. In fact, need for recovery is considered relevant as a precursor of prolonged fatigue or psychological distress, an indicator of work stress, and a mediating or moderating characteristic in the etiology of work-related health problems, sick leave and work disability.ObjectiveThe purpose of the present study is to translate the Need for Recovery scale into Italian, and to adapt it to Italian culture; until now there has been no comparable valid instrument made for the Italian language that measures the need for recovery of employees. The stability and internal consistency of the scale will be assessed among Italian workers.MethodFor cross-cultural adaptation, a translation/back-translation method integrated with expert committee review and pre-testing was applied. Three hundred and seventy-eight Italian workers filled out the scale.ResultsThe psychometric properties proved to be good, both in terms of scale homogeneity and internal consistency, for the total sample and for subgroups of Italian employees in terms of gender, age and educational level. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a single factor solution with 44% of the variance explained.ConclusionsResults are encouraging for the possibility of using the Need for Recovery scale as a quick and adequate scale to measure early symptoms of work-induced fatigue and quality of Italian workers’ recovery time.     

The paradox of power sharing: Participative charismatic leaders have subordinates with more instead of less need for leadership

Although charismatic and participative leaders have been noted for their positive effects on criteria such as performance, job satisfaction, and commitment, few studies have looked at the relations with subordinates' leadership needs. In this study, the relations between charismatic and participative leadership, team outcomes, and a team's need for leadership were investigated. The sample consisted of South Pacific CEOs and their top-level management teams from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. Results showed that charismatic leadership was related to both group-level need for leadership and positive team outcomes. However, team outcomes did not mediate the relations between leadership and a team's need for leadership. Additionally, a moderator effect was found between participative leadership and charismatic leadership in explaining a team's need for leadership, implying that teams of subordinates with participative charismatic leaders need more instead of less leadership from their CEOs.     

The Reliability of the Dyadic Satisfaction (DS) Subscale in a Low-income Semi-rural South African Community

This study investigated the reliability of the Dyadic Satisfaction (DS) subscale of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) in a South African setting. One-hundred heterosexual, coloured, low-income, semi-rural couples with a mean age of 43.59 years and limited formal education participated in the study. To estimate validity, the DS subscale was correlated with the Index of Marital Satisfaction (IMS) and the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS). There appears to be a particularly strong relationship between the DS subscale and the IMS. The DS subscale can be used reliably as a measure of relationship satisfaction in the South African community studied.     

Formation par alternance : expérience scolaire et rapport à l’apprendre chez des apprentis de niveau V et leurs maîtres d’apprentissage

This qualitative research in line with a socio-constructivist approach of the relation to knowledge aims at studying the conditions of efficiency of apprenticeship (training centre/working place) for wage-earning apprentices with a level V. The thematic analysis of 38 interviews (19 apprentices and 19 apprenticeship masters) reveals that apprentices and apprenticeship masters develop some similar schooling experience and relations to learning based on a massive rejection for any schooling form of transmission. We thus show that an apprenticeship based on work and study can offer young people the opportunity to reinvest their relation to learning but only under the conditions of finding ways to escape the circle of school condemnation. These young people must also be able to find in this system the necessary conditions which will give a meaning to their experience of apprentices.     

Psychometric properties and construct validity of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale among Hungarian men

Limited studies have evaluated the psychometric properties of the Muscle Appearance Satisfaction Scale (MASS), a measure of muscle dysmorphia, in different cultures and languages. The aims were to examine the psychometric properties of the Hungarian version of the MASS (MASS-HU), and to investigate its relationship with self-esteem and exercise-related variables. Two independent samples of male weight lifters (ns = 289 and 43), and a sample of undergraduates (n = 240) completed the MASS, Eating Disorder Inventory, and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Exploratory factor analysis supported the original five-factor structure of the MASS only in the weight lifter sample. The MASS-HU had excellent scale score reliability and good test-retest reliability. The construct validity of the MASS-HU was tested with multivariate regression analyses which indicated an inverse relationship between self-esteem and muscle dysmorphia. The 18-item MASS-HU was found to be a useful measure for the assessment of muscle dysmorphia among male weight lifters.     

Le débat sociologique autour du « modèle de la compétence »

This paper aims to pointing out, through a survey of the French sociological literature about this topic, that this discipline, unlike managers or business science, rarely speaks of a “competency model”. Beyond the denunciation of its actual or supposed damages, the competencies management is in fact more a development or an hybrid of the previously prevailing “qualification model”. In order to be efficient and relevant, it also has to adjust to the contingencies that rule the firms where it is implemented: this certainly weakens the very idea of a consistent “model”, but means neither the failure, nor the end of any competencies management.     

Goal conflict and facilitation as predictors of work–family satisfaction and engagement

In a study of working adults (N = 131; Mean age = 43.52 yrs; 62 males) in Germany and Finland, the mean level of goal facilitation was found to be significantly higher than that of goal interference. Hence, many individuals seem to be rather successful in constructing a personal goal system that is functional in terms of supportive links. As hypothesized, goal conflict and facilitation were associated with work-related outcomes, especially with work satisfaction. The associations with family-related outcomes were less pronounced when the focus was exclusively on either supportive or interfering goal relationships. However, when the intraindividual relation between goal conflict and goal support was taken into account, we found that the relative dominance of facilitation was clearly positively associated with both work-related and family-related indicators of positive functioning.