Predicting the job and life satisfaction of Italian teachers: Test of a social cognitive model

This study tested a social cognitive model of work and life satisfaction (Lent & Brown, 2006, 2008) in a sample of 235 Italian school teachers. The model offered good overall fit to the data, though not all individual path coefficients were significant. Three of five predictors (favorable work conditions, efficacy-relevant supports, and positive affectivity) produced significant, direct paths to job satisfaction. Job satisfaction, progress at personal work goals, and positive affectivity were predictive of teachers' life satisfaction. Task self-efficacy was related indirectly both to job satisfaction (via work conditions) and life satisfaction (via goal progress). Implications of the findings for future research and efforts to promote teachers' job satisfaction are discussed.     

Social strategies during university studies predict early career work burnout and engagement: 18-year longitudinal study

This longitudinal study spanning 18 years examined the role of social strategies in early career adaptation. The aim was to find out whether individuals' social strategies measured during their university studies had an impact on work burnout and work engagement measured 10–18 years later. A sample of 292 university students completed the SAQ questionnaire three times while at university and the work burnout inventory three times and the work engagement inventory twice during their early career. According to the results, the higher the initial level of social optimism and the more it increased during university studies, and the lower the initial levels of social withdrawal and social handicapping and the more they decreased, the lower was the level of work burnout and the higher the level of work engagement in the early career. The effects of the level of social strategies were stronger on the professional efficacy subscale of burnout.     

Evidence of construct validity for work values

Despite the importance of work values in the process of career adjustment (Dawis, 2002), little empirical research has focused on articulating the domains represented within the construct of work values and the examination of evidence of validity for the construct has been limited. Furthermore, the larger number of work values measures has made it difficult to determine the key domains that constitute the construct. The current study sought to examine multiple measures of work values to understand domains represented within the construct of work values and to establish evidence of validity for these domains. Principal Components Analysis utilizing scores on the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire (Rounds, Henley, Dawis, Lofquist, & Weiss, 1981), the revised edition of Super's Work Values Inventory (SWVI-R; Zytowski, 2006), and Manhardt's Work Values Inventory (Manhardt, 1972) found that six components best explained the data. These components reflected the importance of: the working environment, having challenging work, opportunities for status and income, autonomy, organizational support, and relationships. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Integrating work and basic values into the Spherical Model of Interests

Two prominent models of values, one in work and the other in life, were examined as they each related to the dimensions underlying the Spherical Model of Interests (Tracey & Rounds, 1996) as measured by the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI; Tracey, 2002). The technique of external property vector fitting was utilized to plot the value constructs onto two- and three-dimensional interest structures in a sample of 206 college students. Results, when compared across both theoretical and empirical definitions of interest space, indicated that all work values and fewer basic values related to two dimensions, but that only the work value of Achievement and the life value of Power related to the Prestige dimension. Implications for research and for assessment that involves integrating the results of values and interest inventories are discussed.     

The effect of in-vehicle warning systems on speed compliance in work zones

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of augmented in-vehicle speed warnings on driver behavior in work zones. The influence of three device configurations were examined as the drivers entered a work zone which was presented in a simulated driving environment. The first configuration was a control condition which used only traditional signage. The second condition had the addition of a visual in-vehicle warning while the final condition had the addition of an auditory in-vehicle warning. Results indicated that adding in-vehicle warnings did affect driver compliance to the work zone speed limit. Participants in the audio warning condition responded more quickly to the warning than those in the visual condition. Both augmented warning configurations differed significantly and were each respectively different from the drivers in the control condition. Based on these results we suggest a combination of in-vehicle warnings. Upon entry of the work zone we suggest a combined audio and visual warning message. However, after the initial entry phase, a visual warning message shows greater promise for the on-going modulation of driver speed transit.     

Toward a better understanding of the effects of hindrance and challenge stressors on work behavior

This study investigated the processes whereby hindrance and challenge stressors may affect work behavior. Three mechanisms were examined to explain the differential effects these stressors have demonstrated: job satisfaction, strains, and work self-efficacy. A model is proposed in which both types of stressors will result in increases in strains, but that job satisfaction is primarily involved in the relationship between hindrance stressors and citizenship behavior, and efficacy is involved in the relationship between challenge stressors and job performance. Although the results generally supported the dual-stressor framework showing meaningful relationships to the work outcomes through the proposed processes, the link between work self-efficacy and job performance was not significant. This model was analyzed using multi-source data collected from 143 employees from a variety of organizational settings. Implications for the conceptualization of stressors and the development of interventions are discussed.     

Work engagement accumulation of task, social, personal resources: A three-wave structural equation model

Drawing on Conservation of Resources Theory and previous research on work engagement, the present study investigates gain spirals between employees' engagement and their task, social, and personal resources. It focuses on the key resources of job control, positive work relationships, and active coping behavior. In a three-wave design, work engagement (T2) is suggested to function both as an outcome and antecedent of these resources, so that engagement mediates indirect longitudinal effects of initial (T1) on subsequent (T3) resources. Item-level structural equation modeling supported our hypotheses in a three-wave panel (N = 416) of hospital physicians with measurement intervals of 14 and 19 months. Connections between engagement research and other evolving perspectives in organizational research are highlighted. Unique contributions of the present study and their implications for further research and practice are discussed.     

Remuneration differences in the emerging economies of China and India

Emerging economies by definition tend to be less dependent on expatriate skills and labour than lower-income countries, yet remuneration (pay plus benefits) differences between expatriate and local workers persist in them to some degree. According to relative deprivation theory, economic development paradoxically elevates the salience of relatively small gaps in remuneration. We therefore expected workers to report injustice and demotivation regarding relative remuneration, despite the closing of remuneration gaps between expatriate and local workers due to the economic development of recent years. To explore that possibility, 482 skilled professionals from a variety of sectors and organizations in two emerging economies, India (n = 233, response rate = 54%) and China (n = 249, response rate = 58%), participated in the research. International salaries were greater than local salaries by a factor of 2.73:1 in India and 1.90:1 in China; these mean ratios bordered on intolerable in the India sample and were largely tolerable among the sample from China. In both countries, differently remunerated workers differed in their justice cognitions and their demotivation, with lowered motivation and fewer justice cognitions in the locally salaried, local workers. These differences were however more statistically significant between people working in India than in China. Insofar as the motivational and justice gaps persisted, the findings support relative deprivation theory. Insofar as the same gaps appear to be sharper in the country with the higher-not lower-mean remuneration differential, they do not. An in-country workshop with local experts who interpreted the findings (in India), and content analysis of the participants' recommendations (in China) jointly recommended linking remuneration to (i) workplace performance instead of (ii) economy-of-origin, to help promote (iii) fairness.     

Effects of parental job insecurity and parenting behaviors on youth’s self-efficacy and work attitudes

Drawing on the spillover mechanism, the relationships among parental job insecurity, authoritarian parenting behaviors, youth’s self-efficacy, and work attitudes were examined. Specifically, parental job insecurity was hypothesized to be positively associated with (1) authoritarian parenting behaviors, and (2) youth’s perception of parental job insecurity. In turn, we hypothesized that both authoritarian parenting behaviors and youth’s perceptions of parental job insecurity were negatively associated with youth’s self efficacy. Finally, self-efficacy was predicted to be positively associated with youth’s work attitudes. Data were collected from 178 management undergraduates and their parents. Structural equation modeling results suggested that paternal job insecurity was positively associated with authoritarian parenting behaviors while maternal job insecurity was negatively associated with authoritarian parenting behaviors. Additionally, while the relationship between mothers’ authoritarian parenting behaviors and youth’s self-efficacy was supported, the relationship between fathers’ authoritarian parenting behaviors and youth’s self-efficacy was not. Youth’s self efficacy was positively associated with their work attitudes. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relationship between politics perceptions and work outcomes

The present study investigates the mediating potential of perceived organizational support (POS) on politics perceptions-work outcomes relationships. Consistent with previous research, individuals were able to discriminate political activity at more than one level (i.e., at the highest level in the organization, one level up from one’s current level, and at one’s current level). Further, politics perceived at one level up from one’s current level and politics at the highest levels in the organization were negatively related to perceived organizational support. In addition, POS was related to job satisfaction, performance, affective commitment and job-induced tension providing support for mediation. Implications of these findings, strengths and limitations, and potential avenues for future research are provided.